The Big Fight
On 14 February 1876, Graham Bell filed the patent for his telephone at the United States Patent Office, 2 hours before a similar device developed by Elisha Gray. The two well-known inventors both independently designed devices that could transmit sound along electrical wires.
Elisha’s telephone, dated 1896. Created by Elisha Gray (2nd August 1835 – 21st 1901), American inventor and competitor of Alexander Graham Bell. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)
This caused a legal battle between both parties over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won in the end.