The 19th century was the time to achieve the transmit of the human voice

The evolution of the telephone starts somewhere in the middle of the 19th century, in 1849, to be more precise.

We all may have learned in school that the telephone was discovered by one inventor called Alexander Graham Bell. However, there was more to the story than that. And it played out like it was following a screenplay of a gripping drama.

Three men in America and Telephone Invention

History recognizes Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant who was developing a talking telegraph design in 1849. Twenty-one years forward, he filed a caveat, which is a term for an announcement of an invention. The writings suggest that he failed to renew his caveat or patent his discovery due to insufficient funds.

A telegraph was a forerunner of the telephone, while the talking telegraph was the other name for the telephone.

Elisha Gray was the other contestant, more notable and known to the public at that time and in the years to come. Both Gray and Bell developed speech transmitters independently.

Elisha Gray has patented his electrical telegraph for transmitting musical tones in 1875. He is considered to be the father of the synthesizer.

The narrative was that the Bell reached the patent office exactly two hours before Gray. This played a part in winning the grand battle over the telephone’s invention. But Gray didn’t surrender without a fight. Upon finding out that Bell had access to Gray’s caveat and modifying his patent’s documentation to information he acquired from the caveat, Gray tried to win in court.

The word was that Zenas Wilber, the patent examiner and alcoholic in debt to Bell’s lawyer, admitted that he helped them get a pick on Gray’s caveat. Even though Wilber revealed that he showed Bell Gray’s caveat for $100, Gray ultimately lost the battle.

Bell got himself into possession of the patent for his voice transmitter on March 7th, 1876.

Worldwide discoveries that shook our knowledge

Apart from Meucci and Gray, the light was shined on other inventors of voice-transmission tech as well, a German inventor Johann Philipp Reis and Charles Bourseul, of French origin, who were in the telephone mix as well, and had been there 15 to 20 something years before Bell’s patent.

Why didn’t history recognize them as real inventors then? According to records, Johann Philipp Reis had invented a phone based on Charles Bourseul’s theory that wasn’t accepted in court even though Reis could demonstrate that the telephone actually worked. Bourseul never stepped forward to own that theory, though, but he was seen as the author of it. History narrates that Reis’s telephone wouldn’t work at a satisfactory level.

There is still a skepticism revolved around whether Bell should be credited for the telephone invention or not. He was the one to profit from it, but history says that he may be the last to be credited for this invention. Or at least share the limelight with others.