March 7, 1876: start of the modern world

Saturday will mark the 150-year anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell receiving a patent for his invention of the landline telephone.

That was four days after his 29th birthday.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued patent 174,465 for his discovery.

The USPTO issued patent 11,217,118 to me for my invention, the Periodic Table For The Visually Impaired, on January 4, 2022.

I was 60 years old when my application was filed for it in 2018.

I was midway between 63 and 64 when I finally received it.

 

Today, the USPTO held a seminar to honor Bell's invention. 

I registered on February 20th, the day I received the email about the talk, to be part of the ZOOM audience.

They wanted to mark the importance of IP - Intellectual Property - as part of the USA's 250th anniversary.

I wanted to hear the story of how he obtained his patent.

 

Lots of people were there in Alexandria, Virginia, and many more - the count was over 400 shortly after the seminar began - were there virtually.

Some of the speakers were even ZOOMing in to give their talks!

A hundred years ago, the person who received the patent was the one who first demonstrated, in public, whatever they had discovered.

On that 7th of March of 1876, Bell and two cousins sent the sound of their singing down the telegraph line for several miles, to the line tied in and run to the house, and into the house where the excited listeners awaited - wow!

A few days later, he arranged to have use of the telegraph line for another experiment, this time designed to be a 30-minute back and forth conversation between two parties several miles apart.

So many people wanted to be part of the venture that the phone call lasted three hours!!!

That's pretty incredible!

And what had been his purpose for creating this device?

He knew the value of spoken words over written words, as speech allows inflections and tones that simple text does not.

He wanted people to have the option of actually speaking to friends down the road in a neighboring town, without having to rely on the blank tone of a telegraphed message.

Wow.

I can certainly understand why he would want that.

Anyone in this modern world who has ever sent an email or a text message that was misunderstood due to its lack of tone can understand the importance of spoken words and the extra meaning given by voice.

That was a good seminar.

It's time to get my Periodic Table into the hands of those who need it.

Last year was the three-year mark and I had to pay a fee to to the USPTO to extend the patent.

Unfortunately, I didn't find out until late summer when they sent me a letter, as well as the bill for a $300 late penalty tacked onto the fee.

Yes, I need to get this done.

Thanks, USPTO, for this timely talk.