It is widely known that the inventor of the telephone was Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell, but a new book calls this fact into question.
And the scientific "Life Science" website asked: Was it really Graham Bell who invented the phone, or did he steal someone else's achievement?
The site says that the phone has become an essential part of daily life for most people, but who is the person who should be referred to as the inventor of this device?
In paraphrasing, Alexander Graham Bell is credited as the inventor of the telephone and the first person to make a telephone call on March 10, 1876, when he said to his assistant Thomas Watson: "Mr. Watson. Come here. I want to see you."
But author Ioan Moros, in his recent book How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon: The Story of the Nineteenth-Century Explorers Who Shaped Our Future?, argues that innovations are rarely the result of one person.
He added, "Much (nearly all) of the electronic inventions of the nineteenth century are disputed, with many inventors claiming credit for solving the main problems first."
As examples, he said, Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cook jointly patented the first electromagnetic telegraph, and then got into a dispute over who was credited with the invention.
Samuel Morris quarreled with almost everyone over his claim to be the inventor of the telegraph.
Similarly, many other than Graham Bell claim to have invented or contributed to the invention of the telephone.
Christopher Beauchamp, a law professor at Brooklyn College of Law, wrote an article years ago in the journal "Technology and Culture" that some say Bell "fraudulently seized the honor of (the invention of the telephone)".
"It is not surprising that Bell's claims are in dispute," says Morris.
"There was a lot of money and fame at stake," he adds.
But Morris, as a historian, is less interested in who actually invented things, and correspondingly more interested in how certain people stand out from a crowd and get the credit.
In this context, he lists some of the names that contributed to the invention of the telephone, including the Italian inventor Anthony Meucci, who was honored by the US House of Representatives years ago for his role in inventing the telephone. The American engineer, Elisha Gray, and the German physicist, Johann Reis, also contributed to the manufacture of the first telephone in 1861, noting that they all contributed to the development of the telephone.