The "Fraud" that Changed the World
Like most inventions which changed the course of human history, Telephone had its fair share of opposition. More than a hundred years ago, Alexander Graham Bell went to the owner of Western Telegraph Company and offered to sell him the patent of the telephone. He was told, "We already have a communication system. We don't need to talk over wires. It's just a toy; it has no practical use."
But more revealing is the news item which appeared in one of the Boston newspapers in 1894. It reported:
"A man about 46 years of age, giving the name of Joshua Coppersmith, has been arrested in New York for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people by exhibiting a device which he says will convey the human voice any distance over metallic wires, so that it will be heard to the listener at the other end. He calls the instrument a 'telephone', which is obviously intended to imitate the word 'telegraph' and win the confidence of those who know of the success of the latter instrument without understanding the principles on which it is based. Well informed people know that it is impossible to transmit human voice over the wires."
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