Bell won his patent for the telephone by filing his claim hours ahead of Elisha Gray

One of the interesting facts about Alexander Graham Bell that you may not know, Bell won his patent for the telephone by filing his claim hours ahead of Elisha Gray.

On February 14, 1876, Bell submitted his patent for his take on the telephone. Later that day, a legal representative for Elisha Gray filed a caveat-a formal announcement of an invention on his behalf for the telephone. Bell had been aware of his rival's efforts and felt tremendous pressure to complete his own design, as he noted in a letter to his parents in 1874. According to Charlotte Gray's Reluctant Genius: "It is a neck and neck race between Mr. Gray and myself who shall complete our apparatus first."

Bell was granted the patent for the telephone in March 1876. The following year, he established the Bell Telephone Company alongside his father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, his employee Thomas Watson, and Thomas Sanders. Gray was among the inventors that Western Union, a rival, hired to create their own phone system. This sparked a legal dispute between the two companies. In numerous other court cases over the years, Bell vehemently defended his telephone patent.