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Here´s why you´ve never heard of
the other person who invented the telephone...
Newspaper Connection for Students: 1. Search through the News-Journal over the past week to find stories about other people who were “a day late and a dollar short.” 2. Write a 1-page paper explaining what Elisha Gray could have done to get his patent to the patent office before Bell arrived with his patent application. 3. Review the past 5 issues of your newspaper to find at least 3 stories about patents, and write the names of the products that those patents apply to. 4. In your opinion, how would Elisha Gray´s life have turned out differently if he would have been granted the patent for the telephone? Invention Games: Games and Trivia -- Do you know who invented the dishwasher, or which came first - radar or sonar? Learn more about invention with our interactive games and monthly Trivia Challenge. Invention at Play -- When asked what inspired them to become inventors, many adults tell stories about playing as children. In our virtual playhouse, you can set your own inventive thinking in motion. Inventive Kids -- Play, learn and have fun! |  On the Web: Alexander Graham Bell and His Telephone Elisha Gray, 1878 United States Patent and Trademark Office The Lemelson Center |
 | Did you know: But for the lack of witnessed notebooks describing his device, the man known as the inventor of the telephone would have been a talented mechanic named Daniel Drawbaugh. Although Drawbaugh was able to testify that he had talked over a crude telephone long before Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent application in 1875, Drawbaugh had not a scrap of paper dating and describing the invention. The Supreme Court rejected Drawbaugh´s claim of prior inventorship in 1888 by a narrow margin of four votes to three. Similar disputes have raged over who invented the automobile, the electric light and the laser and, in all of them, records or the lack thereof played a deciding role. Keep good records! |
Serial Story: INVENTION MYSTERIES
This story is part of the Invention Mysteries series by author Paul Niemann. The Invention Mysteries book reveals the little-known stories behind 47 well-known inventions.