The Telephone Gambit

Well, I just finished my second leisure book since graduating (one on a list of many; the first was The Thief--thanks, Pyles!). It's called The Telephone Gambit, by Seth Shulman (2008). I picked it up on a run to the Provo Library where I stumbled across it in the electronics non-fiction section. It's a quick read and very interesting, more of a detective's journal than a research paper, so I highly recommend it, especially if you are like me and watch shows like Modern Marvel on History channel or How It's Made on Discovery. The history and controversy about the telephone, a device we all take for granted, is very interesting and well-presented in this book.

I'll spare you the review and just cut to the chase--Shulman shows evidence that it is highly likely and probable that Alexander Graham Bell infringed on Elisha Gray's claim to inventing the telephone! I never knew this, but apparently Bell was suspected of stealing the idea pretty much from the time he "invented" it and there are hundreds of legal cases about it; however, no one could prove it, and thus, Bell is remembered as the inventor of the telephone. That could also be due to the capitalist society we live in and certain "financial" steps that were taken to keep Bell in the textbooks, all by a small company you may have heard of, American Telephone & Telegraph, which is the direct descendant of Bell Telepone Company. Anyways, the key piece of evidence is Bell's lab notebook and a little, benign sketch. His notebook was kept secret in the Bell family until 1976, when it was donated to the Library of Congress, yet it has still remained largely unused and uncited. It is also all available on the Library's website. Shulman stumbles across the sketch in question almost by accident, but he is able to make the subtle yet alarming connection immediately.

That's all I'm going to say. I hope I intrigued you enough to at least read into it.