by Seth Shulman
particularly caught Bell’s eye: Bell recounts this and other exhibits in his letter to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.
Frédéric Bartholdi’s dramatic: See “Colossal hand and torch ‘Liberty,’” photograph in the collection of LOC, digital file reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-02957. The official history of the Statue of Liberty is available online from the U.S. National Park Service at http://www.nps.gov/stli/.
the world’s first steam-driven monorail: See John Allwood, The Great Exhibitions (London: Studio Vista, 1977), p. 57.
newfangled elevator: Ibid.
Corliss Steam Engine: See Post, ed., 1876, p. 31.
“loftily in the center”: W. D. Howells, “A Sennight of the Centennial,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. 38, no. 225 (July 1876), p. 96. Available online in the “Making of America” collection at Cornell University Library, http://cdl.library.cornell.edu.
Edison brought his newly designed: U.S. Centennial Commission, International Exhibition 1876: Official Catalogue (Philadelphia: John R. Nagle & Co., 1876), p. 331.
Rudolph Koenig: U.S. Centennial Commission, International Exhibition, 1876: Reports and Awards. Vol. VII, ed. Francis A. Walker (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880), p. 12.
Bausch & Lomb: Ibid.
brand-new material called asbestos: International Exhibition 1876: Official Catalogue, p. 104.
new tomato condiment: According to the official history of the H. J. Heinz Co., ketchup was introduced in 1876, adding to the company’s existing line, which included pickles, horseradish, and sauerkraut.
“I shall be glad”: AGB to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.
First, Bell missed the application deadline: Bruce, Bell, p. 190. See also MacKenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 119.
As Bell’s daughter Elsie recounted: Elsie Grosvenor, “Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell—A Reminiscence,” Volta Review, vol. 59 (1957), pp. 209–305. See also Gray, Reluctant Genius, p. 134.
Bell explains in a letter to his mother: AGB to Eliza Bell, June 18, 1876.
“My darling May”: AGB to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.
“It was very hard”: Mabel Hubbard to AGB, June 19, 1876.
an inconvenient time: See, e.g., Waite, Make a Joyful Sound, p. 131.
“Mr. Hubbard assured him”: MacKenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 119.
“I must say I don’t like this”: AGB to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.
“very hopeless”: Ibid.
The judges had chosen: AGB to his parents, June 22, 1876.
swelteringly hot: See Hounshell, “Bell and Gray,” Proceedings of the IEEE, p. 1305.
rotund Dom Pedro II: Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 72.
gave an impressive demonstration: Hounshell, though Bell was dismissive. See AGB to his parents, June 27, 1876.
Professor George F. Barker: AGB to his parents, June 27, 1876.
“Home, Sweet Home”: Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 72.
the emperor now greeted him warmly: AGB to his parents, June 27, 1876. See also Bruce, Bell, p. 194.
the remote East Gallery: Bruce, Bell, p. 195.
“I then explained”: AGB to his parents, June 27, 1876.
a membrane transmitter: Bruce, Bell, pp. 196–98.
“Where is Mr. Bell?”: As recounted in AGB to his parents, June 27, 1876.
“I hear, I hear!”: Ibid.
“The Emperor had just”: Gray testimony in Dowd 108, p. 138.
“At the Centennial Mr. Bell exhibited”: Quoted in Horace Coon, American Tel & Tel: The Story of a Great Monopoly (New York: Longmans, Green, 1939), p. 54.
“a scientific toy”: Elisha Gray to W. D. Baldwin, November 1, 1876, Elisha Gray Collection, Archive Center, National Museum of American History, cited in Hounshell, “Bell and Gray,” Proceedings of the IEEE, p. 1312.
“Bell has talked so much”: Elisha Gray to A. L. Hayes, August 15, 1876, Elisha Gray Collection, Archive Center, National Museum of American History, cited in Hounshell, “Elisha Gray and the Telephone,” Technology and Culture, p. 157.
explained to the New York Times: See ibid., p. 145. New York Times, July 10, 1874, quoted Western Union official Albert Brown Chandler.
“Recently, and long since”: See letter from Elisha Gray, published in Electrical World and Engineer, February 2, 1901, p. 199.
“A list of the scientists”: Thomas A. Watson, “The Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone: An Address Delivered Before the Third Annual Convention of the Telephone Pioneers of America, Chicago, October 17, 1913,” p. 22.
The Boston Advertiser: “Telephony: Audible Speech Conveyed Two Miles by Telegraph,” Boston Advertiser, October 9, 1876. The article lists the “Boston Record” of the conversation, as transcribed by Watson, beside the “Cambridgeport Record” as transcribed by Bell. An excerpt is reprinted in Boettinger, The Telephone Book, p. 89.
quietly approached Western Union: According to Watson, “Birth and Babyhood,” p. 23. See also W. Bernard Carlson and Michael E. Gorman “A Cognitive Framework to Understand Technological Creativity: Bell, Edison, and the Telephone,” in Robert Weber and David Perkins, eds., Inventive Minds: Creativity in Technology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 64.
Lyceum Hall: “The Telephone: More Interesting Experiments Between Boston and Salem,” New York Times (from the Boston Transcript, Feb. 24), February 27, 1877, p. 5.
Gertrude Hubbard protested: As recounted by Mabel Hubbard in a letter to AGB, April 6, 1877.
that evening’s proceeds: Speech by AGB, November 2, 1911.
a silver brooch: A photograph of the brooch can be seen in Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 78.
It was a modest wedding: Bruce, Bell, p. 233.
As a wedding present: Ibid.
16 : CONFERENCE CALL
used to explore the ocean floor: Claire Calcagno, “Edgerton’s Work on Underwater Archaeology,” Dibner Institute Colloquium, MIT, November 2, 2004.
My title: Seth Shulman, “Did Bell Steal the Telephone?,” Dibner Institute Colloquium, MIT, February 15, 2004.
an extended fifteen-month trip: The newlyweds sailed from New York on the Anchoria on August 4, 1877, and returned to Quebec, Ontario, on November 10, 1878—Mabel Hubbard Bell to Mrs. Alexander Melville Bell, August 4, 1877; see also Bruce, Bell, p. 235.
more dignified without the “k”: Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 66.
Rhode Island–based entrepreneur: Bruce, Bell, p. 231.
“Of one thing I am quite determined”: AGB to Mabel Hubbard Bell, September 9, 1878.
claiming the legal cover: Bruce, Bell, pp. 262–63.
The legal rules of the day: Gardiner Hubbard to AGB, November 2, 1878.
threatened with having to forfeit: Watson, Exploring Life, pp. 151–52.
wrote Bell’s father for help: Gardiner Hubbard to Alexander Melville Bell, November 2, 1878.
Hubbard even dispatched Watson: Watson, Exploring Life, p. 152.
“I found Bell even more dissatisfied”: Ibid.
“run the risk of losing him”: Ibid.
“Oh, if I could only”: Mabel Hubbard to Gertrude Hubbard, November 1878, quoted in Toward, Mabel Bell, p. 59.
reprise his role in court: Bruce, Bell, p. 270.
to Queen Victoria: See “The Telephone at Court,” The Times (London), January 16, 1878.
50,000-franc Volta Prize: See “The Volta Prize of the French Academy Awarded to Prof. Alexander Graham Bell,” Daily Evening Traveler (Boston), September 1, 1880. The article concludes that, on the basis of the prize, “The rival claims as to priority of invention may now be regarded as disposed of once and for all….”
a lavish retreat: For a history of the Bell’s estate, see Mabel Hubbard Bell, “The Beinn Bhreagh Estate,” typewritten history in Beinn Bhreagh Recorder, February 14, 1914, pp. 125–38.
“his life has been shipwrecked”: Quoted in Wesson and Grosvenor, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 113.
“a
ll through [Bell’s] life”: American Telephone and Telegraph Co., Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor of the Telephone (New York: American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 1947), p. 6.
“Why should it matter”: AGB to Mabel Hubbard Bell, August 21, 1878.
“I became convinced”: Letter from Elisha Gray, published in Electrical World and Engineer, February 2, 1901, p. 199.
“Gray, you invented”: Ibid.
“The history of the telephone”: Note found by Lloyd W. Taylor, in Lloyd W. and Ester B. Taylor Papers, Oberlin College Archives.
rules of discovery: In 1938, civil procedure, including the legal rules of discovery, was reformed with the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. For more, see Charles Alan Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., 1969).
the Bell family papers: Author’s interview with Leonard Bruno, curator at the U.S. Library of Congress, November 2006.
“Though independently attested records”: Bruce, Foreword, Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 6.
Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison: Emile Berliner, “Improvement in Telephones,” U.S. Patent 199,141, issued January 15, 1878, and Thomas A. Edison, “Improvement in Speaking-Telegraphs,” U.S. Patent 203,015, issued April 30, 1878. For a discussion, see John Brooks, Telephone: The First Hundred Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), pp. 70–71.
built flying machines: See Bell, Beinn Bhreagh Recorder, an ongoing record Bell kept of his work while at his estate in Canada. Aviation and sheep breeding are both mentioned, e.g., in the volume of the Recorder dated July 24, 1909, to October 19, 1909.
the Mohawk tribe: AGB, Laboratory Notebook, “From undated to April 23, 1903,” LOC (Subject File Folder: The Deaf, Visible Speech, Mohawk Language, 1870–1903).
“a sort of greenhouse effect”: Quoted in Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 274.
CREDITS
Unless otherwise listed, all illustrations are from the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection of Photographs of the Alexander Graham Bell Family. Library of Congress (LC) negative serial numbers are listed.
From The Bell Telephone: The Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell in the Suit Brought by the United States to Annul the Bell Patents (Boston: American Bell Telephone Co., 1908) (cited hereafter as Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell).
Library of Congress (LC), Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers (cited hereafter as AGBFP), Laboratory Notebook, 1875–1876.
LC-G9-Z1-14931-A.
LC-USZ62-53877.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
LC, AGBFP, Laboratory Notebook, 1875–1876.
(top) Gray Caveat, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (cited hereafter as USPTO).
(bottom) Amalgam (made by the author).
LC-G9-Z1-131,487-A.
LC-G9-Z1-131489-A.
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell.
LC-G9-Z2-4429-B-3.
Courtesy of AT&T Photo Archive.
LC-USZ62-112820.
Courtesy of the photo archive at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site (cited hereafter as AGBNHS), Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
Courtesy of AT&T Photo Archive.
LC-USZ62-105888.
From Daniel Davis, Jr., Davis’ Manual of Magnetism (Boston: Daniel Davis, Jr., 1847).
LC-G9-Z1-14358-A.
USPTO.
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell.
Courtesy of AT&T Photo Archive.
Courtesy of Oberlin College Archive.
LC, AGBFP.
Courtesy of Philadelphia Free Library.
LC-USZ62-57385.
LC-USZ62-96109.
LC-G9-Z4-68813-T.
AGBNHS Photo Archive.
(left) LC-G9-Z1-144,963-A; (right) LC-G9-Z1-156,508-A.
LC-G9-149066-A.