The Telephone Gambit
Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"[A] page-turner…The Telephone Gambit is solid history, and Seth Shulman makes it as much fun to read as an Agatha Christie whodunit." —John Steele Gordon, Wall Street Journal
Throughout his career, Alexander Graham Bell, one of the world’s most famous inventors, was plagued by a secret: he stole the key idea behind the invention of the telephone.
While researching at MIT, science journalist Seth Shulman scrutinized Bell’s journals and within them found the smoking gun, a hint of deeply buried historical deception. Bell furtively—and illegally—copied part of Elisha Gray’s patent caveat in the race to secure what would become the most valuable U.S. patent ever issued. Delving further into Bell’s story, Shulman unearths the surprising truth behind the telephone—and with it, a tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition. The Telephone Gambit challenges the reputation of an icon of invention, rocks the foundation of a corporate behemoth, and offers a probing meditation on how little we know about our own history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Absolutely by accident, I fell through a kind of historical trap door into a vexing intrigue" surrounding the invention of the telephone, writes science journalist Shulman (Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration). The result is a dramatic probe into a shocking intellectual theft. In 2004, studying Alexander Graham Bell's laboratory notebook, he found a 12-day gap followed by a March 7, 1876, note, "Returned from Washington," and a striking shift in Bell's ideas that resulted in his famous "telephone" call to Mr. Watson on March 10. The suspenseful details of "Bell's life-altering visit" emerge as Shulman learns that electrical researcher Elisha Gray had filed a claim on a device to send "vocal sounds telegraphically" on the same day Bell filed his patent application, February 14, nearly a month before Bell's notebook recorded his success. Bell, Shulman realized, had "drawn an almost perfect replica of his competitor's invention in his own notebook." The reader follows Shulman as he contacts curators, explores archives and unravels the mystery, leading to a remarkable re-creation of the 1876 Centennial Exposition, where a nervous Bell attempted to avoid demonstrating his telephone because he knew Elisha Gray would be present. Although much of this book involves comparisons of correspondence, documents and journals, the skillful, polished writing makes century-old events spring to life. 20 illus.
Customer Reviews
The Telephone Gambit
I bought this book because of a review in the Washington Post. I am glad that I did. This story teaches one to treat with skepticism the " accepted" stories of some of the founding fathers of our industrial age. I am convinced after reading this account that Mr. Bell was mostly motivated by the love of a woman to do the things he did.