Did Alexander Bell stell telephone idea from Elisha Gray ?
The Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell controversy:
- In the summer of 1874, Gray developed a harmonic telegraph device using vibrating reeds that could transmit musical tones, but not speech.
- In December 1874 he demonstrated it to the public at Highland Park First Presbyterian Church
- In February 11, 1876, Gray included a diagram for a telephone in his notebook.
- On February 14, Gray's lawyer filed a patent caveat with a similar diagram.
- The same day, Bell's lawyer filed (hand-delivered to the U.S. Patent Office) a patent application on the harmonic telegraph.
- On February 19, the patent office suspended Bell's application for three months to give Gray time to submit a full patent application
- On February 24, 1876, Bell traveled to Washington DC
- Bell's patent was issued on March 7.
- On March 8, Bell recorded an experiment in his lab notebook, with a diagram similar to that of Gray's patent caveat
- Ten years after Bell's patent was issued, patent examiner Zenas Wilber admitted in a sworn affidavit that he had taken a $100 bribe from Bell, had taken a "loan" from Bell's patent attorney, and showed Bell the drawings in Gray's caveat.
- After March 1876, Bell focused on improving the electromagnetic telephone and never used Gray's liquid transmitter in public demonstrations or commercial use.
