Anthony Pollok
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Anthony Pollok (1829 – July 4, 1898) was an American patent attorney who, with
Marcellus Bailey Marcellus Bailey (1840 – January 16, 1921) was an American patent attorney who, with Anthony Pollok, helped prepare Alexander Graham Bell's patents for the telephone and related inventions. Biography The son of abolitionist and ''National Er ...
, helped prepare
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...
's
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s for the
telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
and related inventions.


Biography

Anthony Pollock was born in
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
about 1828-1829 He graduated from the Ecole Centrale of Paris and was Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France.pages 273-274 Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, December 5, 1899
/ref> Pollok immigrated to the United States about 1884 where he built a successful law practice and enjoyed the opulent lifestyle of a prosperous Washington, D.C. lawyer. Pollok's office was a half block from the Patent Office. He was vice-president of the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and testified twice before the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...
. When Alexander Graham Bell began work on the telephone, Pollok was a partner with patent lawyer Marcellus Bailey in the law firm of Pollok & Bailey. Bell's patron and future father-in-law
Gardiner Hubbard Gardiner Greene Hubbard (August 25, 1822 – December 11, 1897) was an American lawyer, financier, and community leader. He was a founder and first president of the National Geographic Society; a founder and the first president of the Bell Telep ...
paid Pollok and Bailey to work on Bell's patent applications and patents. The well-connected Anthony Pollok was also one of Hubbard's associates in promoting the "U.S. Postal Telegraph Bill" that would have bought all the telegraph lines from
Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
to make the telegraph industry a government monopoly, similar to the telegraph monopolies employed by several European countries. The proposed
bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...
(law) did not pass its vote. After Bell's patent application for the telephone was approved on February 29, 1876, Pollok invited Bell to his home to celebrate. Bell wrote to his father:
''"Mr. Pollok has the most palatial residence of any that I have ever seen. It is certainly the finest and best appointed of any in Washington. None of the rooms are less than fifteen feet high. The
portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
is also about fifteen feet high - supported by massive polished Aberdeen-granite pillars. Mr. Pollok has been introducing me to some of the elite of Washington. Yesterday we called upon Mrs. Bancroft (wife of the historian)... Today we called on Prof. Henry of the Smithsonian - and on Saturday Mr. Pollok gives a party in my honor - and I expect to meet Sir Edward Thornton and members of the other foreign Embassies.''
The Alexander Graham Bell Papers collection at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
contains letters from Bell to Pollok and Bailey regarding Bell's patents for the telephone. Pollok and his wife Marie (born about 1840) were passengers on the steamship '' SS La Bourgogne'' when it sank after collision with the ship ''Cromartyshire'' on July 4, 1898., After their death, his heirs established the "Anthony Pollok Memorial Prize" that was offered for the best device for saving lives in case of disaster at sea.New York Times, September 13, 1899


See also

*
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...
* Bell Telephone Memorial *
Marcellus Bailey Marcellus Bailey (1840 – January 16, 1921) was an American patent attorney who, with Anthony Pollok, helped prepare Alexander Graham Bell's patents for the telephone and related inventions. Biography The son of abolitionist and ''National Er ...
*
Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy The Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell controversy concerns the question of whether Gray and Bell invented the telephone independently. This issue is narrower than the question of who deserves credit for inventing the telephone, for which ther ...


References

* Evenson, A. Edward. ''The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876: The Elisha Gray - Alexander Bell Controversy''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing, 2000. .


Some patents that Pollok & Bailey prosecuted

* issued May 17, 1887, basic patent for arc welding, inventors Benardos & Olszewski * ''Improvement in Transmitters and Receivers for Electric Telegraphs'', Bell patent filed March 6, 1875, issued April 1875 (multiplexing signals on a single wire) * ''Improvement in Telegraphy'', Bell patent filed February 14, 1876, issued March 7, 1876 (Bell's first telephone patent) * ''Improvement in Telephonic Telegraph Receivers'', Bell patent filed April 1876, issued June 1876 * ''Improvement in Generating Electric Currents'' Bell patent filed August 1876, issued August 1876 * ''Electric Telegraphy'' Bell patent filed January 15, 1877, issued January 30, 1877 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollok, Anthony American lawyers Alexander Graham Bell 1898 deaths 1829 births Discovery and invention controversies American patent attorneys