10 World-Changing Inventions That Were Total Rip-Offs
3. Alexander Graham Bell Didn't Come Up With Phones Alone
Open any text book well, the history ones at least, it might not come up in AS Psychology and you'll be told that the modern telephone was the invention of one man and one man only: Alexander Graham Bell. You might even get the cute story of his first phone call, to his assistant, saying Mr Watson come here I want to see you. Sexy, right. The thing is, Bell isn't actually the man who invented the telephone. He definitely invented that particular telephone, the one he then patented and got rich off, even if its unrecognisable compared to the wafer-thin super computers/digital cameras/music boxes we carry around in our pockets and occasionally make calls on today. In fact Bell's first phone call came in the very same year as his rival, Elisha Gray, also nailed his own telephone. But Gray technically patented his first, on February 14, 1876. Bell was still struggling with his, so he bribed a patent officer for the details and stole the key parts he needed from Gray's design. What a guy.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
