The Telephone Cases The Telephone Cases The Telephone Cases, 126 U.S. 1 (1888), were a series of U.S. court cases in the 1870s and 1880s related to the invention of the telephone, which culminated in the 1888 decision of the United States Supreme Court upholding the priority of the patents belonging to Alexander Graham Bell. Those telephone patents were relied on by the American Bell Telephone Company and the Bell System—although they had also acquired critical microphone patents from Emile Berliner. The objector (or plaintiff) in the notable Supreme Court case was initially the Western Union telegraph company, which was at the time
Leonard Digges (scientist) Leonard Digges (scientist) Leonard Digges (c.1515 – c.1559) was a well-known English mathematician and surveyor, credited with the invention of the theodolite, and a great populariser of science through his writings in English on surveying, cartography, and military engineering. His birth date is variously suggested as c.1515 or c.1520 (but certainly by 1530). Much of his work was expanded on, annotated, and published by his son, Thomas Digges. His son followed in his footsteps and was a pivotal player in the popularisation of Copernicus's book "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium". Notes written by Thomas Digges in the publication of the book