Telephone "voice", together meaning "distant voice". Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed. As with other influential inventions such as radio, television, the light bulb, and the computer, several inventors pioneered experimental work on "voice transmission over a wire" and improved on each other's ideas. New controversies over the issue still arise from time to time. Charles Bourseul, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Alexander Graham Bell, and Elisha Gray, amongst others, have all been credited with the invention of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone by
Necessity is the mother of invention Necessity is the mother of invention "Necessity is the mother of invention" is an English-language proverb. It means, roughly, that the primary driving force for most new inventions is a need. "When the need for something becomes imperative, you are forced to find ways of getting or achieving it." The author of this proverb is unknown. This phrase was familiar in England, but in Latin, not in English. In 1519, the headmaster of Winchester and Eton, William Horman, used the Latin phrase "Mater artium necessitas" in his book "Vulgaria". In 1545 Roger Ascham used a close English version, "Necessitie, the