Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell were rivals. They had similar ideas for the telephone, but both knew that this would be the device to replace the long withstanding telegraph. Both men submitted their patents through lawyers. Bell’s lawyer got to the patent office a few hours earlier than Elisha Gray and submitted his idea first. Even though Elisha Gray’s design was more practical, the fact remained that Bell had gotten there first; therefore, he won the patent. When the public found out about the patents, the people erupted. No one could believe it - two people having the same patents without working together? It just simply wasn’t possible. People made connections between the two designs arguing that Bell’s design bore an uncanny resemblance to Gray’s. His design even used technology Gray had invented himself. (I.e, the liquid transmitter) People even claimed that Bell had gone to a science conference to look at Gray’s device. In 1877, an unreliable witness stated that Bell had bribed him with one hundred dollars just to have a look at Elisha Gray’s ideas. (This was taken during the very conspicuous legal battle that was a result of this incident) In 1877, Gray was going to lecture in Chicago. He wrote a letter to Bell querying if he could present his technology to close out the lecture. Bell accused Gray of trying to damage his reputation, which Gray assured him he wasn’t. Inadvertently or not, Bell then led Gray into a trap which prompted him to basically admit that Alexander Graham Bell had invented the telephone. To the court, this meant next to nothing; to the public, on the other hand, this was pure gold. So the legal battle ended with Alexander Graham Bell having won both the court and the public over.
Click to see video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CTfX8-1RSg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CTfX8-1RSg