Telephone

• • “You could put into this room all of the radio telephone apparatus that the country will ever need.” W.W. Dean, president, Dean Telephone Co., 1907
  • “We see no reason to apply for a patent for the laser, on the grounds that such an invention has no possible relevance to the telephone industry….(We) refuse to patent our amplifier or oscillator for optical frequencies because… optical waves have never been of any importance to communications and hence the invention has little bearing on Bell System interests.” Patent lawyers for Bell Labs, 1966.

Previous slide

Next slide

Back to first slide

View graphic version