The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret

by Seth Shulman

Overview

"A stellar example of historical investigation at its probing best."—Chuck Leddy, Boston Globe

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. Delving further into Bell's life, Shulman unearthed the surprising story behind the telephone, a tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393333688
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/07/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Seth Shulman is an author, editor, and journalist specializing in issues in science, technology, and the environment. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

"Starred Review. Rewrites history even as it immediately lures readers with scandal and iconoclasm."

Booklist

"A great tale of historic detection."

New Scientist

"A portrait of the thrilling era of innovation in which Bell lived....Succeeds splendidly as an edge-of-your seat historical tale."

Christian Science Monitor - Marjorie Kehe

Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
"Mr. Watson, come here!" These words, spoken by Bell to his assistant, are among the most celebrated in scientific lore because, as the story goes, they signaled the birth of the telephone, a device that would forever change the world. But the words are also a clue to a dark and convoluted tale, as Shulman discovered while researching Bell's invention at MIT. U.S. Patent #174465 is the most valuable ever issued; unfortunately, it was likely issued to the wrong man. Documents only recently made public provide irrefutable evidence that corruption and chicanery secured the honor for Bell rather than for electrician Elisha Gray, who filed competing patent paperwork the very same day. That Gray and Bell had rival claims is nothing new. What Shulman found, however, is the smoking gun -- or rather a gallery of many small smoking guns -- proving that Gray, not Bell, developed the components needed to transmit the voice, and that Bell stole the key information, passing it off as his own.

By all accounts, Bell was an honest man who preferred to work with the deaf rather than chase the fabulous wealth new inventions could bring. Why then, would he dishonor himself by not only pirating the work of another inventor but participating in a long, demoralizing campaign to keep the secret? The key to unlocking the mystery lies in his call to Watson on that fateful day. (Spring 2008 Selection)

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.
—The Washington Post

Henry Petroski