[jdege]

Yes, there were a number of people researching in the area - one, IIRC, filed his patent application only hours after Bell did.

In any case, what Bell did that mattered wasn't that he invented the telephone, but that he invented the telephone company.

There were other inventors, but it was Bell who created something that worked, and put it in everyone's home.

[Mr. Mojo]

[Lizavetta]

Betcha they discover that the true inventor of the telephone was gay......or black......or a woman.

But we all know it was Gore.

[PoorMuttly]

It DOES explain the secret messages Muttly has been receiving from his Ballpark Hot Dogs, though.

Another mystery laid to rest.

[arthurus]

Christopher Columbus was not the first to find America. The Vikings were here a thousand years ago. The Chinese beat him by 70 years. The Portuguese were in Puerto Rico in 1431, v.v. CC was the one who marketed it, who opened America up.

It does not matter that a German professor actually made a working instrument before AGB. Bell marketed his telephone. It is because Bell was a salesman and entrepreneur that the telephone became indispensible. The German professor had no impact on the world. Mr. Bell did.

[Nick Danger]

[Verginius Rufus]

I'd be more willing to believe a report that Herr Reis invented the Reissverschluss.*

*German for "zipper."

[PoorMuttly]

I eagerly await the day they do the same to Marconi.

(even though I knew his Grand-daughter...a nice lady)

[camas]

does it matter????

[Enlightiator]

Also in the letter, it was noted that the first words uttered by phone were "Can you hear me now?"

[DustyMoment]

I'm always suspicious of these "facts" that emerge from the depths of secrecy after all of the principals are dead. No one is around to debate or defend the truth.

This particular chestnut has been around for decades - and it isn't true. I've been in the telephony industry for about 30 years and the fact is . . . AGB invented the phone.