The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-03-13
A GIGANTIC MONOPOLY
WHEN THE ORIGINAL TELEPHONE
PATENT WAS ISSUED.
Devices by which the Company
Controls the MISUNDERSTANDING
All Competitors.

lderful invention without INFRINGEMENT
| of the Bell Telephone company's pat
snts? These are questions many peo-
pie are asking. Let us examine the
matter little. On March T. 1876, the
original and fundamental Bell patent
was issued. This was intended and ex-
pected to be so broad as to secure a
complete monopoly of this then new
discovery. At the same time that
Alexander Graham Bell secured this
patent there were other inventors, both
in this country and in Europe, who
claimed right to the same discovery.
In this country Elisha Gray of Chicago
and IN Europe Emile Berliner attempt
/ ed to control 1t. In fact, by the evil
ldence, in the opinion of the older cleo
! tricians of the United Staes the en-
| tire credit of the original discovery of
the telephone by right belongs to
Elisha Gray, who in 1874 began I. sel1e.,
of experiments in multiple telegraphy
| by means of the transmission of musi-
cal tones by electricity over a telegraph
Wire. The principal of these expert
ments rested upon the fact that the
| pitch of any musical tone is deter
mined by the number of vibrations per
second made by the substance from
which the sound proceeds. TT is clear"
wrote Gray in a communication to the
Journal of the American Electrical So
| ciety, in March 1875, that if these cleo
trical waves can be converted into
audible vibrations at the distant end
! of the line, whether it be one mile or
500 miles from the player, the note
| produced will be of the same pitch as
that of the sending reed" Upon this
identical principal depends the repro
duction of articulate vocal sounds by
of hn fol- nd
| up this idea, at various times during
| 1874 and 1874, Gray developed this fact,
and in February, 1876, filed a caveat in
| the patent Office of the United States
describing his invention.
GRAY AND BELL.
While Gray, a practical electrician,
was pursuing at Chicago his investi
cations in the legitimate line leading
| to the discovery Of the principal of the
telephone Bell was studying at Boston
| vocal physiology and the mechanism of
human speech from the standpoint of
la psychologist. The publication in
March. 1875, Of Gray's paper on his ex-
detrimental researches on the transmits
sion of musical tones Geographically
undoubtedly served as pointer both
| to Berliner and to Bell, and the filing of
Gray's caveat in February, 1876, was
| followed in March by Bells claim in the
patent ONCE 10 the ISnL W EVERY pidC-
teal method of transmitting articulate
speech by electricity. This was the
principal of Bells fundamental patent
secured March Z, 1876. It is not neceS-
sary to consider here by what means
Bell obtained his advantage over
Gray in the patent Office. 1t is suffi
cient for the purposes of this article to
know that he did it, and that by the
same shrewdness, or by whatever
other name it may be designated, he
has been able to maintain his monopo-
ly for eighteen years, and now hopes
to maintain it nutil the year 1908, and,
if possible, as he evidently imagines,
until a much later date, perhaps until
the year 1926, by means of patents
which the Bell company still control.
The seventeen years life of the fun
damental Bell patent expired March Z,
1898. This was supposed to release to
the public the hand or receiving tele-
phone in its general principles, though
not in certain special forms of con-
struction. But the hand telephone, in
itself. is now d very antiquated in
strument to apply to use as d trans
mitter or speaking telephone. And
without the principles of the induction
coil and microphone, or carbon trans
mitter, it is almost useless for all bust
ness purposes. The latter is founded
upon the discovery that sounds trans
mitted by means of electricity through
vibrating carbon points of contact are
enormously increased in volume, so
that the transmitting telephone is al
most beyond estimate, the vital por-
ton Of all telephone systems. Imme-
diately upon the expiration of the fun
damenta1 telephone patent, March 7,
1893 the Bell company advertised that
it still owned patents the scope of
which the Supreme Court Of the United
L, la, - ~ -s.~I,+
the mechanical structure of an electric
telephone, to be used to produce the
electrical action on which the first pa
tent rests" That is, it owned still the
diaphragm of iron or steel. cor of other
material capable of electrical induc-
tive action the permanent magnet
with a coil on the end or ends nearest
the diaphragm; the speaking tube, the
sounding box, the hearing tube and
the permanent magnet and plate COM
bined. By means of these since March
| Z $685. it has promptly secured injunc-
| tons against all persons attempting to
make use of the principle upon which
| the fundamental and expired patent
was held. This shows that the death
of the first patent Gid not release even
the hand, or receiving telephone until
the expiration of the second patent
covering its mechanical structure, as
! explained above. This second patent
was granted January so, 1877, and ex-
pired January 80, 1894 So that now
the hand telephone is at last public
property. But not so the transmitter.
WHY is IT HELD BACK.
1 have spoken above of the Berliner
claim to the telephone. Gray having
been disposed of in some mysterious
patents, Emile Berliner filed his appli-
cation for a patent in the United
States, June 4, 1877; and the Western
Union Telegraph company, with which
Gray was then intimately connected,
and which at once entered the tele-
phone field as a competitor of the Bell
company and as a. supporter of Gray,
put Edison to work on this line, he be-
ing under contract at that time with
the Western Union company and they
controlling all of his electrical inven-
TONS The result of this move was that
Edison, too, in 1877, filed applications
| for patents on telephone inventions.
The Berliner and Edison appli-
| cations were of very similar
matter as it existed after the Ber-
! liner application and asking patents
| for improvements In 1879 the Bell
company entered into a contract with
| the Western Union company by which
these rivals practically consolidated
and the Edison patents were turned
over to the former. This contract will
| not expire until 1896. These patents
cover the principle of the Blake trans
lmitter, upon which Blake at once
made application for his four patents.
as soon as the above contract was en-
tered into, and which were granted
November %, 1881. and would therefore
extend until 1898. He also applied for
another patent January 8, 1879. which
has never been issued and which many
persons believe is being held back by