10) The Telephone Alexander Graham Bell is largely credited
for inventing the telephone, after he secured the patent in 1876. But in 2002 the US Congress
declared that the real inventor was actually the poor Italian inventor Antonio Meucci.
[Me oo chie] Sixteen years before Bell’s patent, Meucci
had successfully demonstrated his ‘teletrófono’ for the Italian American press in New York. Meucci sent his invention to the Western Union
telegraph company in 1872 in an attempt to bring his telephone to market. But, when no
action was taken and he asked for his prototype back two years later, Western Union claimed
to have lost it. Bell, who had shared a laboratory with Meucci,
filed a patent for a telephone and made a lucrative deal with Western Union. Meucci sued Bell for fraud and appeared to
be winning the case, but then he died, bringing an end to court proceedings. Source: BBC, Guardian 9) Radio Guglielmo [Gwil gel mo] Marconi won the Nobel
Prize for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmissions. However, he did so by
infringing on numerous patents held by inventor Nikola Tesla. In England, Marconi used Tesla’s technology
to demonstrate long-distance radio transmissions. Over the following three years, Marconi applied
for radio patents in America, but was repeatedly rejected, as they were too similar to more
than 17 that were already held by Tesla. However, as Marconi continued to improve his
demonstrations, he received financial backing from powerful investors in the United States.
In 1904 the US patent office reversed their previous decision and gave Marconi a patent
for the invention of radio. It was not until 1943, a few months after
Tesla’s death, that the Supreme Court ruled to uphold Tesla’s radio patent. Source: PBS 8) Lasers Gordon Gould [goo-ld] is widely credited for
the invention of the laser, but it took a thirty year patent war for him to secure that
title. As a graduate student at Columbia University,
Gould discussed his idea of how to build a laser with physics professor Charles H. Townes. Coining the term ‘laser’, Gould wrote
down his ideas in a notebook, which he legally protected. Meanwhile, two years later in 1959, Townes
successfully patented the laser, leading to Gould suing. Gould was locked in legal battles for 30 years,
securing and defending laser patents. But in 1988 he finally won his last court
battle and was able to receive royalties from anyone making lasers, a settlement worth millions. Source: American Institute of Physics, NY
Times 7) Anywayup Cup Amateur inventor Mandy Haberman came up with
a new type of cup with a slit valve that prevented spills, after seeing a toddler pour juice
over a carpet. Haberman patented the valve and showed her
cup to big brands in an attempt to sell her product to them. Seeing her invention, children’s company
Jackel International stole the invention and bought out her cup under the global Tommy
Tippee brand. Haberman was forced to take the manufacturing
giant Jackel International to court and sue for patent infringement. She eventually won the case including damages,
and is now selling 10 million Anywayup Cups a year. Source: BBC, CNN 6) The Telescope The telescope was Galileo’s most famous
invention, even though he didn’t actually invent it. The first person to apply for a patent for
the telescope was Dutch eyeglass maker, Hans Lippershey, in 1608. But the patent was never
granted, as the invention was deemed too easy to reproduce. A year later, news of the ‘Dutch perspective
glasses’ had spread to Italy, leading to Galileo engineering his own copy. He improved the magnification of Lippershey’s
version and was the first to use a telescope to methodically plot the movement of Venus.
He disproved the dominant theory at the time that the Earth was at the center of the universe. Sources: The Galileo Project, Universe Today,
Space 5) Quick Release Socket Wrench Peter Roberts was 18 years old and working
at department store Sears when he invented and patented the quick release socket wrench. Sears bought the patent from Roberts for just
$10,000, telling him that his invention wouldn’t sell well. It wasn’t until Roberts saw his wrench in
a Sears catalogue that he learned that his invention was an enormous success, and that
Sears had sold 26 million of his wrenches for a profit of $44 million within just a
year. Roberts spent 25 years locked in legal battles
with Sears, suing them for cheating him out of his rightful royalties. He eventually settled
for $8.2 million. Source: NY Times, The Register Guard 4) Monopoly Charles Darrow became the first game designer
to become a millionaire, when he sold the board game Monopoly to toy company the Parker
Brothers in 1935. But in reality the famous board game was first
patented in 1904 by Lizzie Magie, [Ma gie] under the title the ‘Landlord’s Game’. Versions of her game were played for 30 years,
before Darrow took his own version to the Parker Brothers. The Parker Brothers paid Magie just $500 to
buy the patent to the Landlord’s Game, while Darrow went on to be hailed as an American
innovator. Source: NY Times, The Guardian 3) Intermittent Windshield Wipers Robert Kearns lost his job, marriage, and
even his mental health, when his invention was stolen by the big three auto makers. His
mechanism allowed windshield wipers to pause in-between swipes. Kearns showed his invention to Ford, General
Motors, and Chrysler [crai-slur], in an unsuccessful attempt to license his new technology with
them. But, despite having more than 30 patents for
his invention, all three car manufactures began to install his mechanism into their
cars without his knowledge. Kearns spent 20 years battling car makers
in court for patent infringement, eventually winning tens of millions of dollars from Ford
and Chrysler. However, he was unable to reclaim his invention, which by this point had been
adopted by car manufacturers the world over. Source: NY Times, Washington Post 2) Brown Paper Bag Machine Margaret Knight was one of the most famous
female inventors of the 19th century and one of the first to secure a patent. While working in a paper bag plant, Knight
had the revolutionary idea that paper bags would pack more in if they had a flat bottom.
So she set about creating a machine to automatically produce them. Initially she created a working wooden model
of her invention. But while developing her metal prototype, machinist Charles Anan stole
Knight’s design and patented the device himself. Knight sued and was ultimately able to prove
that she was the real inventor. Her machine had a huge impact on the paper industry, and
the principles behind it are still used to this day. Source: Women Inventors, amse.org 1) Light bulb Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and
particularly famous for inventing a light bulb suitable for indoor use. To do this, Edison attempted to improve on
British inventor’s Joseph Swan’s version of the light bulb. He secured an American
patent for his improvements, and to sell the bulbs he began a marketing campaign, which
stated that he was the real inventor. However, in England, Swan had already improved
the light bulb a year earlier. To avoid a possible court battle with Swan, Edison reached
out and formed a joint light bulb manufacturing company to release the invention in Britain. Swan allowed Edison to sell the bulbs in America
and retain his reputation as the inventor of the light bulb that we still use today. Source: American History
