On March 7, 1876, the U.S. Patent Office issued to a young inventor named Alexander Graham Bell what is arguably the most valuable patent ever: entitled "improvements in telegraphy," in truth it secured for Bell the basic principles involved in a telephone. On the same day that Bell filed his patent application, a caveat (a preliminary patent document) was filed by Elisha Gray. This coincidence sparked the first of many debates over whether Bell was the true inventor of the telephone. In the early 1860s Johann Phillipp Reis developed a version of the instrument, but his claims against Bell were hampered by the bungling of his lawyers in demonstrating his instrument in court. This work is a first look at the many men who developed the telephone and an examination of their claims against Bell's patent. A lay description of the phone is also provided, as well as a history of the development of the telephone system.

". . . rarely have inventor and invention been better served than in this book." – New York Times Book Review Here, Edwin Grosvenor, American Heritage's publisher and Bell's great-grandson, tells the dramatic story of the race to invent the telephone and how Bell's patent for it would become the most valuable ever issued. He also writes of Bell's other extraordinary inventions: the first transmission of sound over light waves, metal detector, first practical phonograph, and early airplanes, including the first to fly in Canada. And he examines Bell's humanitarian efforts, including support for women's suffrage, civil rights, and speeches about what he warned would be a "greenhouse effect" of pollution causing global warming.

Fernsprechtechnik, Telefonie (Technik).

This visual history, complete with 200 color and black-and-white illustrations, is a one-of-a-kind tribute to the most influential of modern inventions--the telephone. With an emphasis on the days before 800 numbers and FAX machines, this book is a spirited, nostalgic exploration.

The invention of the telephone is a subject of great controversy, central is which is the patent issued to Alexander Graham Bell on March 7, 1876. Many problems and questions surround this patent, not the least of which was its collision in the Patent Office with a strangely similar invention by archrival Elisha Gray. A flood of lawsuits followed the patent's issue; at one point the government attempted to annul Bell's patent and launched an investigation into how it was granted. From court testimony, contemporary accounts, government documents, and the participants' correspondence, a fascinating story emerges. More than just a tale of rivalry between two inventors, it is the story of how a small group of men made Bell's patent the cornerstone for an emerging telephone monopoly. This book recounts the little-known story in full, relying on original documents (most never before published) to preserve the flavor of the debate and provide an authentic account. Among the several appendices is the "lost copy" of Bell's original patent, the document that precipitated the charge of fraud against the Bell Telephone Company.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone during the years of the Industrial Age in Europe and America. It was the day and age for new innovations and new devices that exploded in the field of manufacturing. While many of those instruments were suited for large companies and the wealthy, why not invent devices that everyone could use? This is the story of Alexander Graham Bell, of his telephone and of all the other inventions that sprung from his fruitful mind. Although he worked with the deaf, he never lived in a world of silence, and neither did his hearing-impaired family and friends. Inside you'll read about Budding Inventor A Lovely Wife: A Loving Life Mixing Business with Pleasure And much more!Alexander Graham Bell was a precious young man, and it didn't dismay him that many others, who were older and more experienced than he, were scrambling to build the world's first telephone. There was a stampede to the patent office toward the latter half of the 19th Century. Patent attorneys were shown anything from rough pencil drawings to scribbled out explanations of how these devices were sure to work. Many, many of the applicants presented verbal ideas. Others, though, designed carefully engineered diagrams and prototypes. Only Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, James Watson, had demonstrated it in front of influential scientists and notable statesmen at a University.