Stuart Corner
Monday, 07 January 2008 08:20
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Gray immediately renewed his legal challenge to Bell which went to the Supreme Court. Again, he was unsuccessful. In 1888 the court found for Bell, claiming there was insufficient evidence to substantiate Wilbur's confession, according to Brooks.
Gray, Brooks writes, remained bitter unto death and left a note which read: "The history of the telephone will never be fully written. It is partly hidden away in 20 or 30 thousand pages of court testimony and partly lying in the hearts and consciences of a few whose lips are sealed - some in death and others by a golden clasp whose grip is even tighter."
Now, after 120 years author Seth Shulman claims to have unsealed those dead lips to discover the truth, which he has revealed in a new book, published today, 7 January and entitled: "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret".
He says: "while working for a year as a science writing fellow at MIT [I stumbled] upon evidence that reveals a twisted mystery surrounding Bell's role in the invention of the telephone. Working from Bell's laboratory notebooks and his voluminous correspondence...I unearth[ed] a 'smoking gun' that leaves little doubt that Bell furtively - and illegally - plagiarised his initial telephone design from his major competitor, Elisha Gray in his quest to secure what would become the most valuable US patent ever issued."
According to reviews of the book, these notebooks were restricted by Bell's family until 1976 and were digitised and made widely available in 1999,
here .
Brooks, who acknowledges having complete and unprecedented access to the AT&T files, does not appear to have had access to these family papers. However after reviewing Gray's claims and the allegations of plagiarism he concludes that, even if they were proven, the credit for the invention of the telephone still lies with Bell, and not Gray.
