Elisha Gray missed phone patent by two hours

http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/aug2.html 1835 Elisha Gray (d. January 21, 1901), American electrician who invented the telephone in his laboratory in Highland Park, Illinois, independently of and at around the same time as Alexander Graham Bell.

Gray was a charter member of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church and gave the first public demonstration of his invention in its sanctuary in 1874. On February 14, 1876, he submitted an announcement to the patent office, but it turned out to be just two hours after Bell did.

Although Bell did not have a working prototype, and the device described in his patent did not work, after two years of litigation he was awarded rights to the invention, and thus is usually credited as the inventor ...



Categories: invention, biography, history, technology