Who really invented the phone: scientists told new details

It’s hard for us to imagine a world without phones. Loud desktop devices have evolved to compact multifunctional smartphones, and we can instantly talk to a person who is located on another part of the globe, but a little more than a century ago, information could go to the addressee for weeks, or even months.

We are accustomed to believe that the inventor of the telephone is Alexander Bell, a scientist and entrepreneur from the United States. Is this really so, the publication Live Science understood.

First phone call

On March 10, 1876, an event of a global scale took place that forever changed the idea of ​​​​humanity about the world and communication. It turned out that there is a way to instantly transmit information over long distances. It was on March 10, almost 147 years ago, that Alexander Bell made the first telephone call.

The phrase, said by Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson, became winged: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” With these words, the era of the telephone began.

Was Bell the first

Ivan Morus, a British scientist, emphasized that great inventions are almost never the result of the work of one person.

The 19th century is a period of scientific and technological revolution and a massive “boom” of discoveries. One discovery became the basis for another. Various scientists claimed to be the discoverer of this or that invention.

“For example, let’s take telegraphs. The owners of the electromagnetic telegraph patent could not share the glory and decide which of them invented it. The same can be said about the invention of the light bulb and many other devices,” said Morus.

So Bell was not the only one who claimed the invention of the telephone. Christopher Beauchamp, a member of the Brooklyn Law School, pointed out that back in the 19th century, many scholars believed that Bell simply appropriated someone else’s idea.

Who are Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis and Elisha Gray

Now among researchers, the position is popular, according to which the telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci, a scientist from Italy. It was he, as the adherents of this theory note, back in 1860, that is, long before Bell’s first call, who understood the principle of converting sound vibrations into electrical impulses, thus transmitting voice over a distance.

Another learned electrical engineer, Elisha Gray, even took the case to court. The court considered Gray’s evidence insufficient and ruled that Bell was the inventor of the telephone.

In 1861, in Germany, the physicist Johann Philipp Reis developed the design of the world’s first electric telephone, so he also has the right to claim the title of discoverer. There was only one important disadvantage – it was impossible to continuously talk on Rice’s phone. Bell’s apparatus, created 15 years later, of course, was more advanced, but Reis’s merits should not be underestimated either.

Why is Bell called the inventor of the telephone?

Bell was a businessman and was well versed in legal intricacies. He immediately turned to lawyers for help and received patents.

“The main reason that Bell is now called the discoverer of the telephone is that he, with the help of lawyers, was able to prove this fact in court arguments,” said Beauchamp.

Gray and Bell applied for the patent at almost the same time. Moreover, Gray’s application came earlier. But Bell had more money, so his lawyers were able to pay the filing fee for the patent before Gray did. Not much time passed, and Bell’s Bell Telephone Company became the absolute monopoly of communications in the United States.

And yet it must be admitted that Bell’s phone was technically better than the inventions of its predecessors and competitors.

Earlier, GLOBAL HAPPENINGS talked about the top 10 inventions of mankind that forever changed the world.