February 14, 2021 • 10 mins
On this day in 1876, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both filed patent documents for their telephone designs, starting a years-long controversy. / On this day in 1949, miners in Quebec led a strike for better working conditions and wages.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all were rerunning two episodes today in Troy, the
show Hi, I'm Eves and Welcome to This Day in
History Class, a show that on covers history one day
at a time. The day was February seventy six. Alexander
(00:26):
Graham Bale's lawyer, Marcelis Bailey, filed a patent application titled
Improvement in Telegraphy at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Bell,
a scientist and inventor, had been working on creating a
device that could transmit speech electrically for a while, but
(00:47):
other inventors have been trying their hands at creating a
telephone too, Particularly engineer Elisha Gray. Gray, a co founder
of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, had his attorney file
a patent caveat for a telephone the same day. A
patent caveat is a preliminary patent application where an inventor
(01:09):
basically says, Hey, I've got an invention, but I'm not
quite ready to send in a full application for it yet.
Then the inventor gets ninety days to file a normal
patent application, and a caveat also puts the patent applications
of any similar inventions on hold. For ninety days while
the caveat holder gets a chance to file a regular application.
(01:33):
Both Gray and Bail had already used the harmonic telegraph
to try to transmit speech electrically, but the controversy extends
beyond which of them actually invented the telephone first. Many
people were in line for that seat on the throne.
Whether one inventor stole the other's ideas for the telephone
(01:54):
is the real mystery of the hour. As the story goes,
Gray's lawyer filed the caveat called Instruments for Transmitting and
Receiving Vocal Sounds, a few hours after Bailey filed Bill's
telephone patent. Bell's patent was the fifth of the day,
while Gray's was the thirty ninth, so Bill's paperwork went
(02:16):
through first. But at the time, the Patent office didn't
record the time of day when inventors filed their patents
or caveats, and by Gray's account, Gray actually got to
the office earlier than Bill. But while Gray's caveat went
to the bottom of the basket and stayed there until
it was sent to the examiner the next day, Bill's
(02:39):
filing fee was documented immediately and his application was fast
tracked to the examiner. Because Bill and Gray's patents were
so similar, the patent office put Bill's application on hold.
The office was set to wait until Gray turned in
his full patent application to start investigating any interferences between
(03:02):
the two applications and to determine who had invented the
telephone first. But Gray abandoned his caveat at his lawyer's suggestion,
so that priority of conception went to Bill, and on
March three, Bill was granted patent number one and seventy
four thousand, four hundred and sixty five for his telephone,
(03:25):
and the patent was officially published on March seven. Three
days later, Bill successfully used the telephone model he created,
telling his assistant Thomas Watson, quote, Mr Watson, come here,
I want to see you. Bill had won the patent
to the telephone itself and the concept of a telephone system,
(03:47):
but that's not where the story ended. Over the next decade,
a number of conspiracy theories popped up. There were suspicions
that Gray had stolen Bill's ideas for the telephone, and
that Bill might have known about Gray's confidential caveat. The
trustworthiness of the patent examiner that looked over both inventors
(04:07):
patents was called into question, and Bell's lawyers were accused
of fraud and that they had stolen the concept of
variable resistance from Gray's caveat and put it on Bell's
patent application. A federal government lawsuit was brought against Bill
on the request of the Pan Electric Telephone Company, which
(04:29):
had sold shares of its stock to government officials, and
from there the Pan Electric Telephone Company an Attorney General
Augustus Garland became embroiled in a scandal. The bail companies
had to defend their patents in hundreds of cases, but
Bill never lost. The American Bail Telephone Company was doing
(04:50):
well and people began to despise the Bill Company's monopoly,
but it only grew more successful. While Elisha Gray was alive,
many believed him to be the true inventor of the telephone,
and some people still maintain that he is, though his
contributions to the development of the telephone have been totally
(05:11):
overshadowed by Alexander Graham Bale's presence. I'm Eve step Coote
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. We'll see you here in the
same place tomorrow. Hello everybody, I'm Eaves and you're tuned
(05:40):
into this day in History Class, a show where we
travel back in time, one day at a time. The
day was February nineteen forty nine. Miners in and near
the town of Asbestos, Quebec in Canada and on strike.
(06:01):
The strike helped lead to the Quiet Revolution, a time
of political and social turbulence in the province of Quebec
during the nineteen sixties. Asbestos is a silicate mineral used
in fabrics, in fire resistant and insulating materials. Now asbestos
is known to cause cancer and other serious health issues,
(06:22):
but in nineteen forty nine, people around the world used
asbestos in common products like home installation, packing materials, brake pads,
and electrical wiring, and Quebec supplied most of the world's asbestos.
Asbestos was a mining town in Quebec's eastern townships. The
miners there were demanding higher wages, paid holidays, union participation
(06:47):
and management of the minds of pension, and company action
to protect workers against illness caused by asbestos exposure. But
the negotiations that took place between December of nineteen and
February of nineteen forty nine went nowhere. Both parties were
required to go to arbitration, but because the government favored
(07:08):
pro business arbitrators, the miners were sure that arbitration would
not turn out well for them, so at a general
assembly of miners on February, the miners decided to go
on a strike. Early on February fourteenth, the strike began.
Workers from that fort Mines Quebec also joined the strike.
(07:29):
The miners were represented by the Canadian Catholic Confederation of Labor,
a group of unions that the Catholic Church established in
nine to counter the anti clerical and socialist influence of
international unions. But Marie Duplessy, the premier of Quebec, and
the conservative Union Nationale party that he led, supported imperialist
(07:51):
interests and undermined unions. The government declared the strike illegal
and sent provincial police to Asbestos. A Catholic Church largely
supported the strikers, which was significant because it usually sided
with Duplessy's government. Joseph Charbonneau, the Archbishop of Montreal, gave
a speech in which he said that quote the working
(08:14):
class is the victim of a conspiracy aimed at crushing
them and when there is a conspiracy to crush the
working class, it's the church's duty to intervene. He even
called for people to donate to the striker's families, but
Duplessi pushed the church to get the archbishop to resign,
and Charbonneau ended up becoming a chaplain in Victoria, British Columbia.
(08:37):
But the John's Manville Company, which owned the mind many
of the workers were employed at hired replacement workers. The
strikers set up roadblocks to keep the workers from getting
to the Minds, and the strike became violent. Police attempting
to break the picket lines attacked strikers with tear gas,
and strikers beat and disarmed police. More heavily armed lease
(09:00):
were sent into Asbestos and on May six, they arrested
around two hundred people, though most were soon released. Just
over a week later, the union leaders were arrested on
conspiracy charges. The violence that erupted as part of the
strike's barnered media attention. Archbishop Maurice Roy of Quebec City
(09:20):
mediated the strike as it dragged on. On July one,
the strike finally ended when the two sides reached an agreement.
Miners got a wage increase of five cents per hour
rather than the fifteen cents that they wanted, but their
health and safety demands were not addressed and many of
them did not get their jobs back. Labor unionists Jean Marshaun,
(09:43):
journalists j Rard Peltier, and union activist Pierre Trudeau all
played significant roles in the strike. They eventually transitioned into
political careers and became known as the Three Wise Men.
The strike marked a turning point in Quebec's his three
and set the stage for the Quiet Revolution, a time
(10:03):
of rapid change in the province. I'm each deaf code
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to follow us
on social media, you can do so at T D
I h C Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If
you prefer something a little bit more formal, then you
(10:25):
can write us at this Day at I heart media
dot com. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll be
back tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all were rerunning two episodes today in Troy, the
show Hi, I'm Eves and Welcome to This Day in
History Class, a show that on covers history one day
at a time. The day was February seventy six. Alexander
(00:26):
Graham Bale's lawyer, Marcelis Bailey, filed a patent application titled
Improvement in Telegraphy at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Bell,
a scientist and inventor, had been working on creating a
device that could transmit speech electrically for a while, but
(00:47):
other inventors have been trying their hands at creating a
telephone too, Particularly engineer Elisha Gray. Gray, a co founder
of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, had his attorney file
a patent caveat for a telephone the same day. A
patent caveat is a preliminary patent application where an inventor
(01:09):
basically says, Hey, I've got an invention, but I'm not
quite ready to send in a full application for it yet.
Then the inventor gets ninety days to file a normal
patent application, and a caveat also puts the patent applications
of any similar inventions on hold. For ninety days while
the caveat holder gets a chance to file a regular application.
(01:33):
Both Gray and Bail had already used the harmonic telegraph
to try to transmit speech electrically, but the controversy extends
beyond which of them actually invented the telephone first. Many
people were in line for that seat on the throne.
Whether one inventor stole the other's ideas for the telephone
(01:54):
is the real mystery of the hour. As the story goes,
Gray's lawyer filed the caveat called Instruments for Transmitting and
Receiving Vocal Sounds, a few hours after Bailey filed Bill's
telephone patent. Bell's patent was the fifth of the day,
while Gray's was the thirty ninth, so Bill's paperwork went
(02:16):
through first. But at the time, the Patent office didn't
record the time of day when inventors filed their patents
or caveats, and by Gray's account, Gray actually got to
the office earlier than Bill. But while Gray's caveat went
to the bottom of the basket and stayed there until
it was sent to the examiner the next day, Bill's
(02:39):
filing fee was documented immediately and his application was fast
tracked to the examiner. Because Bill and Gray's patents were
so similar, the patent office put Bill's application on hold.
The office was set to wait until Gray turned in
his full patent application to start investigating any interferences between
(03:02):
the two applications and to determine who had invented the
telephone first. But Gray abandoned his caveat at his lawyer's suggestion,
so that priority of conception went to Bill, and on
March three, Bill was granted patent number one and seventy
four thousand, four hundred and sixty five for his telephone,
(03:25):
and the patent was officially published on March seven. Three
days later, Bill successfully used the telephone model he created,
telling his assistant Thomas Watson, quote, Mr Watson, come here,
I want to see you. Bill had won the patent
to the telephone itself and the concept of a telephone system,
(03:47):
but that's not where the story ended. Over the next decade,
a number of conspiracy theories popped up. There were suspicions
that Gray had stolen Bill's ideas for the telephone, and
that Bill might have known about Gray's confidential caveat. The
trustworthiness of the patent examiner that looked over both inventors
(04:07):
patents was called into question, and Bell's lawyers were accused
of fraud and that they had stolen the concept of
variable resistance from Gray's caveat and put it on Bell's
patent application. A federal government lawsuit was brought against Bill
on the request of the Pan Electric Telephone Company, which
(04:29):
had sold shares of its stock to government officials, and
from there the Pan Electric Telephone Company an Attorney General
Augustus Garland became embroiled in a scandal. The bail companies
had to defend their patents in hundreds of cases, but
Bill never lost. The American Bail Telephone Company was doing
(04:50):
well and people began to despise the Bill Company's monopoly,
but it only grew more successful. While Elisha Gray was alive,
many believed him to be the true inventor of the telephone,
and some people still maintain that he is, though his
contributions to the development of the telephone have been totally
(05:11):
overshadowed by Alexander Graham Bale's presence. I'm Eve step Coote
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. We'll see you here in the
same place tomorrow. Hello everybody, I'm Eaves and you're tuned
(05:40):
into this day in History Class, a show where we
travel back in time, one day at a time. The
day was February nineteen forty nine. Miners in and near
the town of Asbestos, Quebec in Canada and on strike.
(06:01):
The strike helped lead to the Quiet Revolution, a time
of political and social turbulence in the province of Quebec
during the nineteen sixties. Asbestos is a silicate mineral used
in fabrics, in fire resistant and insulating materials. Now asbestos
is known to cause cancer and other serious health issues,
(06:22):
but in nineteen forty nine, people around the world used
asbestos in common products like home installation, packing materials, brake pads,
and electrical wiring, and Quebec supplied most of the world's asbestos.
Asbestos was a mining town in Quebec's eastern townships. The
miners there were demanding higher wages, paid holidays, union participation
(06:47):
and management of the minds of pension, and company action
to protect workers against illness caused by asbestos exposure. But
the negotiations that took place between December of nineteen and
February of nineteen forty nine went nowhere. Both parties were
required to go to arbitration, but because the government favored
(07:08):
pro business arbitrators, the miners were sure that arbitration would
not turn out well for them, so at a general
assembly of miners on February, the miners decided to go
on a strike. Early on February fourteenth, the strike began.
Workers from that fort Mines Quebec also joined the strike.
(07:29):
The miners were represented by the Canadian Catholic Confederation of Labor,
a group of unions that the Catholic Church established in
nine to counter the anti clerical and socialist influence of
international unions. But Marie Duplessy, the premier of Quebec, and
the conservative Union Nationale party that he led, supported imperialist
(07:51):
interests and undermined unions. The government declared the strike illegal
and sent provincial police to Asbestos. A Catholic Church largely
supported the strikers, which was significant because it usually sided
with Duplessy's government. Joseph Charbonneau, the Archbishop of Montreal, gave
a speech in which he said that quote the working
(08:14):
class is the victim of a conspiracy aimed at crushing
them and when there is a conspiracy to crush the
working class, it's the church's duty to intervene. He even
called for people to donate to the striker's families, but
Duplessi pushed the church to get the archbishop to resign,
and Charbonneau ended up becoming a chaplain in Victoria, British Columbia.
(08:37):
But the John's Manville Company, which owned the mind many
of the workers were employed at hired replacement workers. The
strikers set up roadblocks to keep the workers from getting
to the Minds, and the strike became violent. Police attempting
to break the picket lines attacked strikers with tear gas,
and strikers beat and disarmed police. More heavily armed lease
(09:00):
were sent into Asbestos and on May six, they arrested
around two hundred people, though most were soon released. Just
over a week later, the union leaders were arrested on
conspiracy charges. The violence that erupted as part of the
strike's barnered media attention. Archbishop Maurice Roy of Quebec City
(09:20):
mediated the strike as it dragged on. On July one,
the strike finally ended when the two sides reached an agreement.
Miners got a wage increase of five cents per hour
rather than the fifteen cents that they wanted, but their
health and safety demands were not addressed and many of
them did not get their jobs back. Labor unionists Jean Marshaun,
(09:43):
journalists j Rard Peltier, and union activist Pierre Trudeau all
played significant roles in the strike. They eventually transitioned into
political careers and became known as the Three Wise Men.
The strike marked a turning point in Quebec's his three
and set the stage for the Quiet Revolution, a time
(10:03):
of rapid change in the province. I'm each deaf code
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to follow us
on social media, you can do so at T D
I h C Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If
you prefer something a little bit more formal, then you
(10:25):
can write us at this Day at I heart media
dot com. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll be
back tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
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