On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted U.S. Patent No. 174,465 for the speaking telegraph, or telephone, one of the most valuable patents in history. Attorneys for Bell and Elisha Gray had submitted their respective ideas for the telephone to the U.S. Patent Office three weeks earlier, incredibly, on the same day, “Valentine’s Day, February 14.” (The year 1876 should be assumed hereafter unless otherwise designated.) Gray was a successful inventor and cofounder of Western Electric Manufacturing Company, whereas Bell was a part-time inventor, a part-time private speech teacher for the deaf, and a teacher of elocution at Boston University. Bell’s submission was a full patent application, however Gray’s was a caveat, a document designed to protect an idea for one year, with a full application required within that time. If filed before a competing patent application, a caveat could lead to an expensive and prolonged Patent Office interference hearing to determine which inventor conceived of the idea first. Although both submissions contained similar descriptions of a liquid telephone transmitter (an early microphone), the Patent Office ruled that Bell’s attorneys had filed a few hours before Gray’s on February 14, and hence the patent was granted to Bell.

中文翻译：

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贝尔与格雷电话纠纷：解决 144 年的争议

1876 年 3 月 7 日，Alexander Graham Bell 获得了美国专利第 174,465 号，用于电报或电话，这是历史上最有价值的专利之一。Bell 和 Elisha Gray 的律师在三周前向美国专利局提交了他们各自关于电话的想法，令人难以置信的是，就在同一天，即“2 月 14 日情人节”。（除非另有说明，此后应假定为 1876 年。）格雷是西方电气制造公司的成功发明家和联合创始人，而贝尔是兼职发明家、聋哑人兼职私人演讲老师和语文老师。在波士顿大学演讲。贝尔提交的是一份完整的专利申请，但格雷提交的是一个警告，一份旨在保护一个想法一年的文件，在此期间需要完整的申请。如果在竞争专利申请之前提交，警告可能会导致专利局进行昂贵且冗长的干扰听证会，以确定哪个发明人首先想到了这个想法。尽管两份提交的文件都包含对液体电话发射器（早期麦克风）的类似描述，但专利局裁定贝尔的律师在 2 月 14 日比格雷的律师早几个小时提交了申请，因此该专利被授予贝尔。