Greg Jenner

Electromagnetic yearning at last.

Yuan, given that Bell could easily have just shouted into the next room, it hasn't really proved that this technology is effective over distance.

It's proved that it's effective over 10 metres.

So were people initially bedazzled by this invention or were they a bit like, well, that's just a parlour trick?

WhatsApp voice messages, they're basically mini podcasts now.

I've got friends who leave five-minute messages.

It's like, come on, just send a text.

And he offers his patent to the Western Union Telegraph Company, a very powerful company that have a monopoly on the telegraph.

And he says to them, I will give you my technology for $100,000.

And they say, no, there's no future in this.

which is now studied in business schools as one of the worst decisions in business history.

So Bell had to go on his own, right?

So he hasn't got the big money.

He's got his father-in-law, Gardner Hubbard.

Yes.

So, I mean, they set up a Bell telephone company.

He wants this to go into communities, towns, businesses.

He doesn't want it to be just like an engineering thing.

Oh, he's Elon Musking.

But they can build on the existing telegraph cabling system across America, right?