The Bell Versus Gray Telephone Dispute: Resolving a 144-Year-Old Controversy [Scanning Our Past]

On February 14, 1876, attorneys for Alexander Graham Bell, speech teacher for the deaf, and Elisha Gray, professional inventor, submitted their clients' similar talking telegraph, or telephone, ideas to the U.S. Patent Office. The Patent Office ruled that Bell's application had arrived first and the telephone patent, one of the most valuable patents in history, was issued to Bell on March 7. On March 10, shortly after Bell had visited Washington, D. C., he demonstrated the first working telephone, based on a liquid transmitter similar to that described in Gray's confidential patent caveat, which Bell could have illicitly seen during his trip. Did Bell and his attorneys plagiarize Gray and commit fraud with others as several have claimed? This article centers on the controversy between Bell and Gray, and the persistent claim that Gray conceived of the first working telephone before Bell. Three independent sets of evidence - correspondence, notes from a Bell associate, and engineering details - show that Bell and his attorneys did not plagiarize Gray. This resolves a 144-year-old controversy and re-establish Bell's reputation.