In 1876 a telegraph company dismissed Bell's telephone patent as 'of no value'
Yamapama · x · 2026-11-09
A classic tech-history blunder resurfaced: in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell tried to sell his telephone patent to a telegraph company for $100,000 and was told the idea of installing 'telephones' in every city was idiotic — the device had too many shortcomings to be seriously considered and was 'inherently of no value to us.'
Widely shared as a cautionary tale about dismissing paradigm-shifting technology, in the context of today's AI wave.
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