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Patents Science

Bell Dethroned as Telephone Inventor 75

Posted by michael from the why-invent-when-you-can-steal dept.
On Hold writes "The US Congress has decided that A. G. Bell was not the real inventor of the telephone. According to this article, it was invented by a Florentine immigrant called Meucci. Meucci later worked with Bell in a lab, but couldn't afford the patent fees. It seems like Bell could." Wait until you read the stories giving Shawn Fanning credit for inventing P2P...
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Bell Dethroned as Telephone Inventor More

Bell Dethroned as Telephone Inventor

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  • Internet (Score:1, Funny)

    by rogerl ( 143996 )
    Don't forget, Al Gore invented the Internet...
  • If I remember correctly similar things were true of Edison in that inventions made by those in his lab were patented under his name. Maybe they could have used some IP Lawyers back then :P
    • If I remember correctly similar things were true of Edison in that inventions made by those in his lab were patented under his name.

      Telsa [essortment.com] lost out to Edison. Once again those with money are in a position to screw the rest of us.

  • Now what? (Score:2, Funny)

    by jonerik ( 308303 )
    So does this mean that now we'll be calling Bell Lab "Meucci Lab" instead? Will we be referring to the Baby Bells as "Mini Meuccis?"

  • credit where credit is due (Score:3, Funny)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @08:20AM (#3721387) Homepage Journal
    However, Bell is still recognized for creating a popular character who sold telephones in radio and telegraph ads with the hip catchphrase, "dude, you're gettin' a Bell."

  • Old news (Score:2, Informative)

    by dakkar ( 128056 )
    Here in Italy it's always been well known that Meucci invented telephone!
    Ok, there's also always been the doubt, too, whether it's been him or Bell, but surely nobody thought it was Bell all on his own ;-)

  • Bell (Score:1)

    by dostick ( 69711 )
    It's all about the name !

  • what about elisha gray? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by larry bagina ( 561269 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @08:33AM (#3721441) Journal
    [oberlin.edu]
    On Feb. 14, 1876, Gray filed with the U.S. Patent Office a caveat (an announcement of an invention he expected soon to patent) describing apparatus 'for transmitting vocal sounds telegraphically.' Unknown to Gray, Bell had only two hours earlier applied for an actual patent on an apparatus to accomplish the same end. It was later discovered, however, that the apparatus described in Gray's caveat would have worked, while that in Bell's patent would not have. After years of litigation, Bell was legally named the inventor of the telephone, although to many the question of who should be credited with the invention remained debatable.

    • Re: what about elisha gray? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @09:39AM (#3721821)


      This is one of the main reasons I think patents are, by and large, bogus. There is a marked tendency for multiple people to "invent" something at essentially the same time.

      And that's hardly a surprise, since inventions depend critically on the mass of technology current in society. I conjecture that "little guys" do most of the work, and "inventors" merely skim the cream off the top.

      • And that's hardly a surprise, since inventions depend critically on the mass of technology current in society. I conjecture that "little guys" do most of the work, and "inventors" merely skim the cream off the top.

        In the old days (ie pre 80s, pre software patents, etc), the people doing the inventing weren't the ones that did the patent filing, and when developing some new breakthrough, running to the patent office wasn't the first thing that came to mind (of the engineer, at least).

        The US Patent office has changed their minds 3 times over who invented the microprocessor [digitalcentury.com]. That was the 1968-1971 era, perhaps the biggest invention of the last 50 years, and nobody kept records!

        "[Ted] Hoff stated that Intel's patent filing was somewhat casual and that they put their time into making the 4004 work rather that the patent process." So when there is competition, the person that rushes to the patent office with an idea on paper is better rewarded than the person that takes the time to develop and implement it.

  • Or is that 50% predatation, and 50% liquidation?

  • screams of hoax to me.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jeffy124 ( 453342 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @08:36AM (#3721457) Homepage Journal
    This sounds like a possible hoax to me. Too many odd questions surround this story -- Since when does Congress make rulings on who properly holds a patent/invention? Isn't that something for the court system? Why is it I cannot find this story at other sites? And why is the one with the story an Australian site, why hasnt the US press picked this up? Hence, I think it's a hoax.
    • This seems to be based off the story at The Guardian [guardian.co.uk]. Also, the US Congress has some links [loc.gov] on the issue [loc.gov].

    • Nice try, but it's not. The resolution is in Thomas [loc.gov](the US Congress's online database). Search for "meucci" and you'll find resolution 269.

      That said, it's obviously a silly publicity stunt from some Italian-American congresscritter, not actually worthy of much attention. The courts decided the issue moot over 100 years ago, and so it should (in this writer's opinion) remain.

    • Forgive me if I don't get it exactly right, but I believe that it is the constitution that brings the idea of "intellectual property" into existence, at least in the USA, and gives congress power to administer laws to efect it.

    • I found it. The Constitution of the United States, Article 1, Section 8:




      The Congress shall have power...To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries..."

  • wasn't it..? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by FreakCERS ( 517467 )
    hmm... I always thought Elisha Gray invented it...
    has anyone else heard of her? - or is this just one of those weird memory-lapses I seem to get every one in a while...

    • Eliza Gray (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Eliza Gray invented the simple computer psychologist program. It is named after her.

      Remember Commodore Grace Hopper? When she was 64 years old, she invented a very popular wonder computer in the early 1980s that bears her title and age.
  • Why does it take a Congressional resolution for this? Aren't there professional historians who are supposed to research historical documents to find out what really happened?

  • Alexander Graham Bee-gees. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Whoever it is, I'm glad the inventor of the phone was not Alexander Graham Siren, Alexander Graham Foghorn, or Alexander Graham Bee-Gees. The ringing of a bell to indicate that the phone needs answering is so much better than many of thse alternatives.

  • Must be true. (Score:3, Funny)

    by booch ( 4157 ) <slashdot2010 AT craigbuchek DOT com> on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @09:37AM (#3721800) Homepage
    Well, if Congress says it's true, it *must* be true, eh?

    In my city, a developer signed a contract to renovate a building. After spending a couple million dollars, they gave up. Conveniently, the city passed a resolution determining that the renovation project was "complete". Of course, the building is still sitting there unused.

    I hate it when the government makes things "true" by legislative fiat.
      • This works. Begin OT .... My old mathteacher said that, as long as you declared your assumptions at the beginning of a piece of work, then anything goes... I declared Pi = 3 at the start of an end of term paper, worked everything out to NO decimals, used log tables (remember those?), with workings in the margin, and finished in no time with what amounted to a sheet full of approximations. I passed....
  • First off the first person to ever make a phone, and call it the "telephone" was a German school teacher in the 1800s... also remember the story of how Bell and another man got to the patent office only an hour apart?

    • Re:doh' (Score:2, Informative)

      by T-Punkt ( 90023 )
      I think you mean Phillipp Reis who made a public display of his telephone in october 1861 (BTW, it worked!). He died in the age of 40 two years before Bell filed in his patent and managed to get his prototype working.

      And the other guy you mentioned was Elisha Gray. In the patent fight with Bell Gray used Phillipp Reis' invention for his defence ("prior art") but that hasn't helped him - Bell won.

  • This is standard for almost all inventions (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kroymen ( 242910 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @09:47AM (#3721878)
    The actual innovator of a concept or technology is almost never credited for it. Rather, it's the second-tier opportunist that takes the work and creativity of the innovator and reinvigorates it by repositioning it within the market or refining it in some way.

    Sometimes it's because of the lack of savvy or capital posessed by the true innovator; other times it's that the innovator was operating just outside the realm of either technical practicality or social acceptability.

    The true genius of Microsoft was building a business model around that oft-missed truth.

  • No suprise (Score:2, Informative)

    by uncoveror ( 570620 )
    The real inventors of things often never get credit. Nikola Tesla invented radio before Marconi. Weed Eater was invented by a backyard tinkerer who got nothing. Edison took credit for things invented by others who were working for him, and bashed Nikola Tesla, making most people think he was nuts. It does not suprise me at all that Bell took credit for someone else's work.

  • Elisha Gray (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dimwit ( 36756 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2002 @10:56AM (#3722420)
    This is (sort of) completely off-topic, but I have to toss this in - Elisha Gray is my great, great, great grandfather.

    The supposed story is that Bell was in collusion with the patent clerk (who was, I believe, his brother-in-law or son-in-law). Elisha Gray began the patent filing process earlier than Bell, but was told that without a working model, no patent would be granted.

    While I have no problem with his having to produce a working model, after Elisha Gray turned in his plans for a telephone, the patent clerk (knowing Bell was working on a similar project) gave Bell the plans, and then allowed Bell to apply and receive a patent even without a working model.

    So, dammit, I could've been a billionaire. Stupid patents.

    • Re:Elisha Gray (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Gray founded Western Electric and probably made lots of money. If you didn't inherit it, perhaps you wouldn't have inherited any money if he had founded the phone company either.
    • I wonder if the difficulty coming up with a working model had to do with the 'wife' problem.

      I mean, I read the article:

      Dude is experimenting in Cuba with electric shocks to treat illness.

      Wife becomes paralyzed.

      Wife for some reason sells off machines for $6 to a second hand shop.

      Probably she'd had enough with his electric shocks, etc. Perhaps he couldn't keep a prototype in the home because anytime he went out for a beer it mysteriously disappeared.

    • So, dammit, I could've been a billionaire. Stupid patents.

      Was Gray married before or after this event? I wonder if you would even exist if he had gotten the patent and the wealth, and the debutante wife that he always wanted, instead of the great great grandmother that helped create you!
  • So hopefully the US will recognise that Joseph Swan [maxmon.com] invented the lightbulb next.
  • Joey Zasa: The Meucci Association has elected you, their Italian-American Man of the Year.

    Michael Corleone: Meucci -- Who's Meucci?

    Joey Zasa: He's the Italian-American who invented the telephone. He did it one year before Alexander Graham Bell.

    Well, I'll be. Zasa was right.

  • In Italy we have been always taught it was Meucci who invented the telephone. Bell is barely mentioned as someone the americans think invented the telephone. Personally, I always thought it was some old-time residue nationalism inherited from the fascist era.
  • Who's going to go back and revise all those history books, PBS specials, etc. to tell the truth? The unfortunate truth is that Alexander Graham Bell will likley remain the 'inventor' of the telephone for at least another generation, if not in perpetuity. It's easy enough to 'fix' things going forward, but rewriting the millions of copies of bogus wetware out there is next to impossible. I'll probably have forgetten this fact within the next 24 hours.

    Damn the truth, just give me the facts!

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