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Watch America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1
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Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish immigrant working in Boston, patented the telephone in 1876 and transmitted the first intelligible speech over a wire to his assistant Thomas Watson, with the message 'Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.' The device worked by converting sound waves into electrical impulses and then back into sound. Before publishing, Bell consulted physicist Joseph Henry, who advised him to complete and publish the full idea rather than a partial version, a lesson Henry drew from the earlier telegraph patent dispute between himself and Samuel Morse.

  1. 01

    Henry had done much of the underlying physics for the telegraph, while Morse built and patented the working device, leaving credit for the invention disputed between them.

  2. 02

    Henry's advice to Bell, to finish and publish the complete idea rather than a partial one, was meant to help Bell avoid a similar credit dispute and secure clear ownership of the telephone.

Transcript

323 words · auto-generated from the episode video

16:01part comes from this. So this this was a huge deal and this is why every single state has at least one university that is at the world stage in terms of publications in nature, publications in science and all the top journals. one of the biggest enabling layers to everything downstream. And if you're an Aggie, you can thank uh the moral land grants acts. Uh moving to 1876, invention of the telephone. Yeah, this was Alexander Graanbell. He was Scottish, but he came to the United States and he patented the tele patented the telephone in Boston, Massachusetts. transmitted the first intelligible human speech over to a wire to his assistant

16:42um Thomas Watson. The famous message is Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you. That's I'm I'm emulating uh who's that Scottish uh James Bond guy. Anyways, that that you know he's converting sound waves into electrical impulses and then back into sound waves. Very big deal. Um funny story with this. So, um, Alexander Graanbell met with Joseph Henry, who we previously talked about, and he said, "Look, I've got this I've got this idea and I've got parts of the physics figured out, but I'm I'm thinking of publishing the partial thing." And Joseph Henry said, "No, get the knowledge and publish the whole

17:24thing." Why? Because Joseph Henry and Samuel Morris, who was the guy who invented the telegraph, they hate each other because there's a dispute about who gets the patent for the telegraph. Obviously, Henry did all of the physics work and then Morris was like, "Well, I'm just going to actually like do the thing. >> It's nebulous. Who should who should take credit for it?" Um, and so Henry was like, "You don't want that. Just just do the whole thing >> and then it's all yours." And that's what he did. >> Hate inspired Instagram in the past and present.

From the episode
  1. EP 46

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

    Part one of our America 250 special traces the inventions, institutions, and scientific breakthroughs — from Franklin to Sputnik — that helped build the United States into a global scientific power.

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1

America 250History of Science