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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American for the seven days starting January 9th, 2008. I'm Steve Mirsky. Last week, we took a quick look at an 1883 Scientific American article that doubted whether the telephone would ever replace the telegraph. The question was on the table because on March 10th, the 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, made the first telephone call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. But how exactly, did Bell invent the phone? Journalist and author Seth Shulman has written a new book, The Telephone Gambit,in which he puts forth some compelling evidence that Bell stole the idea for one of the basic elements of the telephone. We'll hear about that, plus we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Seth Shulman specializes in science and technology. He's written for the Smithsonian, Tech Review, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone and other publications. The Telephone Gambit is his fifth book. I called him at his home in North Hampton, Massachusetts.

Steve: Hi Seth! How are you today?

Shulman: Good, thanks! How are you Steve?

Steve: Pretty good. Good to talk to you. So, The Telephone Gambit, chasing Alexander Graham Bell's secret. You know, as we turn over all the cards, what's the secret?

Shulman: What happened to me is that I was researching as a fellow at MIT and I was reading Bell's laboratory notebook; and I stumbled on a picture in there that raised alarm bells for me, and it turns out to have been copied almost exactly from a patent filing made by Bell's main rival Elisha Gray and this started me on a whole search to find out, how in the world a picture like that could have gotten into Bell's notebook. Of course, this happened two days before his famous line calling to Watson. So, the secret is it looks like Bell plagiarized the successful design for a telephone from his rival Elisha Gray; and I go to great lengths to unravel what turns out to be quite a twisted tale about how that might have happened.[/quote]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=5F1A8F35-C6A1-6742-6DCB11D92DAE6D09
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