Invention of the telephone Gray's led to the myth that Bell had arrived at the Patent Office earlier. Bell was in Boston on February 14 and did not know this happened until later. Gray later abandoned his caveat and did not contest Bell's priority. That opened the door to Bell being granted US patent 174465 for the telephone on March 7, 1876. In 1906 the citizens of the City of Brantford, Ontario, Canada and its surrounding area formed the Bell Memorial Association to commemorate the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in July 1874 at his parent's home, Melville House, near Brantford.
Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy appointed a special committee to investigate the Pan-Electric matter and Garland's actions. The April 8 affidavit was published in the "Washington Post" on May 22, 1886. Three days later, the Post published a sworn denial from Bell, which was also reprinted in "The Electrical World". Bell swore that he never gave any money to Wilbur, and that "Mr. Wilbur did not show me Gray's caveat of the drawing of it or any portion of either." The theory that Alexander Graham Bell stole the idea of the telephone rests on the similarity between drawings of liquid transmitters in his lab notebook