The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret (Hardcover)

by Seth Shulman (Author)
Key Phrases: telephone gambit, liquid transmitter, multiple telegraph, Patent Office, Elisha Gray, Alexander Graham Bell (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, January 2008: Seth Shulman closely examines the race to build the first telephone and uncovers potential bombshells with The Telephone Gambit. Although Alexander Graham Bell is widely accepted as the father of the telephone (despite the fact that rival inventor Elisha Gray submitted a similar claim the same day Bell filed his patent), Schulman provides intriguing evidence questioning if the scales were deliberately tipped in Alexander's favor. Was the venerable inventor party to theft from Gray's own research? Or are such accusations merely sour grapes from a bitterly contested legal battle? Fraught with controversy, conspiracy, and possible chicanery, Shulman spins real-life Da Vinci Code drama around one of the most influential inventions of the modern era. --Dave Callanan

From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Henry Petroski

Does the right person always get credit for a great invention? Was Thomas Edison or the Englishman Joseph Swan responsible for the light bulb? Did Al Gore or some other geek invent the Internet? Did Alexander Graham Bell steal from Elisha Gray a key idea behind the telephone? Such questions can fuel debates between historians of technology and champions of neglected genius.

Science journalist Seth Shulman did not set out to tackle the Bell-Gray controversy, but a chance discovery made the challenge irresistible. While reading Bell's 1875-76 notebook, which the Library of Congress has made available in high-resolution digital form on the World Wide Web, Shulman noticed a curious leap of inspiration after a 12-day hiatus in entries, a gap that coincided with an apparently sudden trip to Washington, D.C.

Bell's seminal patent application for the telephone was filed just a week or so before his trip and was granted on the day he returned. That was a remarkably short processing time, especially since there was some question about whether confidential patent papers filed with the patent office almost simultaneously by the telegraph-equipment manufacturer Gray should have prevented Bell's patent from being granted. Based on startlingly similar drawings in Gray's papers and Bell's notebook, Shulman hypothesized that Bell had somehow seen a specific idea in his rival's work and claimed it as his own.

Shulman was the first science writer-in-residence to have been invited to spend time at MIT's Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology (which has since been relocated to the Huntington Library, in San Marino, Calif.), and he was keenly aware that he was a journalist among historians. When he tentatively related his hypothesis to some of his new colleagues, he was cautioned about the pitfalls of interpreting the past out of its context. If Shulman had indeed uncovered a clue that Bell had stolen a key idea from Gray, incontrovertible evidence would have to be produced.

In The Telephone Gambit, Shulman tells several interrelated stories, all of which dovetail nicely to relate his quest to discover a "smoking gun." He leads us along his own research trail, recounting the daringness of setting out to challenge "generations of trained and respected historians," who have credited Bell with the invention of the telephone, and "confronting the failings of the U.S. legal system," which repeatedly ruled in favor of Bell and the monopoly that grew out of his patent.

Interleaved with his own story, Shulman tells that of Bell and, to a lesser extent, Gray. We learn of the Bell family's systematic approach to teaching elocution, and of Alexander Graham Bell's tutoring of deaf Mabel Hubbard, daughter of the enormously successful and influential attorney and entrepreneur Gardiner Greene Hubbard, to whom Bell revealed his early insights into a means for transmitting multiple telegraph messages along a single wire. This brought Bell and Hubbard into a partnership that led to the formation of the Bell Telephone Company, which eventually became AT&T.

Shulman also tells the story of how Bell got to see Gray's confidential filing in the Patent Office, and how it came to be that Bell and not Gray was awarded the patent. Of the several narrative threads running through The Telephone Gambit, this is the most intriguing. It is also the one that should be left for the reader to experience from the book itself.

In barely 200 pages of text, Shulman has presented a highly complicated web of tales clearly, succinctly, sympathetically and almost seamlessly. He has done such a masterful job that we're not even sorry to see the book, pleasurable though it is, come to an end. He has let his wholly integrated tales and his writing style dictate its pace and length. Its story never flags, nor does it leave any significant business unfinished.

If there is anything to fault in The Telephone Gambit, it is someone's decision to reproduce on less than half of one book page an image of the two pages of Bell's notebook on which Shulman based his captivating hypothesis. This is a quibble, though, for the reader can easily call up the entire notebook on the Web, thereby experiencing what sparked an intrepid journalist-turned-historian's quest for the true story of the invention of the telephone.

Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 1 edition (January 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393062066
• ISBN-13: 978-0393062069
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #225,676 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why did I buy into the "beat by an hour" story about Elisha Gray, January 7, 2008

By	Jeffrey M. Musser - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have just finished reading "The Telephone Gambit" by Seth Schulman. This is the first book that I have sat down and read in one day since my September vacation. I know nothing about Seth's other books and can't comment on the caustic review by zzoott (River Styx, OH, USA)

I was drawn to this book by the review in the Boston Globe on New Year's Day. http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2008/01/02/hang_on_a_minute/

I previously worked for the "other" telephone company. I worked at GTE Labs in Waltham, MA (what remains is now Verizon Labs). In the summer time in the late `80s we usually had summer students join us, and I often gave a presentation on the history of the Telephone. . In fact one of my vugraphs (we didn't have PowerPoint then) is the same photo shown by Seth on page 61, the tangle of telegraph wires in 1870.

I bought in to the story that "Elisha Gray was an hour late filing his patent; that Bell got there first. It now is embarrassing to say that I bought in. This was a research lab and we all used scientific principals and investigative techniques to do our work. So how could I buy in to a difference in filing time being the reason? We all knew that the American patent system is "the first to discover" not "the first to file" as is most of Europe. After all, that is why we all kept Lab notebooks detailing our work, notebooks that were signed, dated and witnessed every day to prove when we had discovered.

As a result I found Seth Schulman's detailed account of the Bell patent extremely exciting. He meticulously lays out all the circumstantial evidence indicating something really smells about the process that granted the Bell patent over the Gray patent. And he presents a very convincing smoking gun that indicates there had to have been a payoff at the patent office or something like the Watergate burglers at that time.

Skeptics might say "how could 132 years go by without anyone noticing all of this?" Well the smoking gun was protected by the Bell family until 1976, and only made available to the general public in 1999. No one unrelated ever saw Bell's lab notebook until then

Some who read this of course won't be convinced; saying the evidence doesn't fit so you must acquit. But I encourage anyone who has worked with the Telephone or other means of communication, read it for yourself and make up your own mind.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and iconoclastic, November 1, 2008

By	Solomon (Colorado) - See all my reviews

Those familiar with the history of the telephone are well aware that the key patent for the telephone was filed at the US patent office independently by Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell on the same day in 1877. The conventional interpretation of this remarkable coincidence is that it was indeed a remarkable coincidence, or that somehow Gray tried to steal Bell's idea. The thesis of this book is that Bell (or one of his backers) was the likely thief and that Bell's patent was awarded through what may have been the greatest patent fraud in history. These are strong charges, but as the author shows, they are not new. In the years that followed this remarkable dual filing there were ten years of litigation and a congressional investigation aimed at sorting out who had the rightful claim as the father of the telephone. The author cites several other books that claim that Gray, not Bell was the inventor of the telephone. The author's key original contribution to this investigation was an analysis of Bell's laboratory notebook (long hidden from public view by the Bell family). This notebook contains a sketch of the telephone that is very similar to the one used by Gray in his filing, but it appears in Bell's notebook only AFTER Gray's and Bell's filings. Furthermore, there is no evidence that Bell was experimenting with the successful technique described by Gray prior to a trip that Bell took to Washington, during which time both he and Gray made their filings. Now as in the 19th century, the priority of an invention under US patent law (I hold 15 US patents so this is an area with which I have some knowledge) is based on the date that the idea was conceived, not the date at which a patent is applied for. This is why patent notebooks are kept and Bell's notebook does not support the case that he developed the telephone before Gray. On the contrary, Bell's notebook points to his involvement in a monumental fraud. The author cites a clear motive for fraud and many other curious occurrences that lay behind Bell's filing, including a deposition by the patent examiner in charge of the case that states that, in violation of the law, he showed Bell Gray's filing. I will not cite the many other factors that led the author to the conclusion that Bell, not Gray was guilty of fraud (some are covered in previous reviews), but suffices to say I think that the case against Bell is rather strong, strong enough to raise real questions concerning the accepted history of the development of the telephone.

Shulman is a journalist, not a historian, and the book reflects this. Rather than just being a chronological examination of the history, the book is written from the standpoint of the author's quest to understand who, if anyone, stole what from whom. Thus, about half the book is concerned with the process by which Shulman came to his conclusions and his learning how a professional historian should approach his subject. Interspersed with this is his evocation of Bell's life, Bell's work with the deaf, Bell's scientific investigations of the telegraph and telephone, and finally the possible motivation that may have led to his involvement in a blatant fraud.

I would have given the book 5 stars instead of only 4 were it not for a curious omission. The key court case (the Dowd patent case) is mentioned in several places, but is never (in my opinion at least) sufficiently presented. Bell prevailed over Gray's backers (Western Electric Co.) and as part of the settlement Western Electric was required to publicly state that Bell was the inventor of the telephone. Why, if the evidence against Bell was strong (even without the patent notebook, which was then not available) did Western Electric agree to make such a strong statement of Bell's priority over Gray and what if anything did Western Electric get from the settlement? This statement forms the bedrock of the Bell version of history. Without a clear discussion of why this statement was given, I got the impression that I was hearing from only one side of the case.

This book will be of interest to those interested in the history of technology, 19th century history and to the life and times of Alexander Graham Bell. The writing is clear and the book is a quick read. It may, however, raise the ire of Bell partisans (see some of the one star reviews), but even they will learn something if they approach this subject with an open mind.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scientific Mystery Story, January 12, 2008

By	Acute Observer (N. Jersey Shore) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The story of Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the "speaking telegraph" is well known. The author is a journalist who specializes in science and technology. He spent a year at MIT doing research on Bell and Thomas Alva Edison. Edison's 1,093 patents set a record that still stands for an individual (p.8). Bell wanted to invent a telegraph that would transmit tones for multiple telegraphy over one wire. Shulman noted a new idea for March 8, 1877 in Bell's journal (p.23). How did this happen? Was it connected to Bell's trip to Washington (p.25)? The Patent Office found "interference" from overlapping inventions (p.29). Why did the Patent Office swiftly grant the telephone patent to Bell (p.31)? Bell's telephone transmitter was a copy of Elisha Gray's device (p.35)! Thomas Edison's carbon button transmitter perfected the telephone (p.176).

Chapter 6 tells of Bell's association with a wealthy and politically powerful patron Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Hubbard had tried to "nationalize" the Western Union monopoly to reduce high prices (pp.67-68). A new patent would allow a more efficient competitor to Western Union. Improved municipal services created wealth in real estate (p.70). Shulman explains why Gray's patent was logged in after Bell's patent: first in, last out (pp.104-105). The date of the claim was irrelevant, it was who was first to invent. Chapter 11 explains why Elisha Gray was the first inventor of the telephone (p.137). Testimony by the Patent Office Examiner is in Chapter 12. Chapter 13 has the strongest argument that Bell's mention of variable resistance was derived from Gray's patent (p.155). Chapter 14 tells how the historical record was revised and whitewashed (pp.164-165). Science textbooks are not all reliable (pp.166-167). The story about Bell calling Watson was not told by Bell or any contemporary (p.171). It was created many years later (p.172). [It sneaks in the use of battery acid.]

Bell's telephone was demonstrated at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and was a success. The telephone patent was the most lucrative. Shulman presented his findings at a Dibner Institute seminar. He explains Bell's disinterest in further technical development (p.202) or the lawsuit (p.203). The judgment in the Dowd case might have been different if Bell's notebooks had been introduced as evidence (p.208). "History is messy" (p.212). The 'Acknowledgments' thank the many who helped him.