Book: Alexander Graham Bell Stole Telephone Idea

Book: Alexander Graham Bell Stole Telephone Idea

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A new book claims to have definitive evidence of a long-suspected technological crime — that Alexander Graham Bell stole ideas for the telephone from a rival, Elisha Gray.

In "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret," journalist Seth Shulman argues that Bell — aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner — got an improper peek at patent documents Gray had filed, and that Bell was erroneously credited with filing first.

Shulman believes the smoking gun is Bell's lab notebook, which was restricted by Bell's family until 1976, then digitized and made widely available in 1999.

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We've heard a lot about who stole what from whom but here is a new one about Bell stealing the transmitter from Elisha Gray.
This book makes it sound like Bell stole some of Gray's idea for producing audible voice but that Bell was the first to demonstrate the idea. Gray was working more on how to transmit multiple messages on one (telegraph) line. And of course there was the German guy Phillip Reis that really had beaten them both using a different principle!

Is there ever any real justice in this world? Well, no, of course as long as we all get to talk on our (cell) phones!

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I have no doubt that people get ideas from other people, then build on them or mix them with other ideas from other people. If Gray had gotten the patent on the telephone then this book would be about how he stole the idea from Bell. The same things have been said about the Wrights, Darwin, and most any other famous scientist.