Marcellus Bailey (1840 – January 16, 1921) was an American

patent attorney A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing patent applications and op ...

who, with Anthony Pollok, helped prepare Alexander Graham Bell'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 ...

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

The son of

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and ''

National Era ''The National Era'' was an abolitionist newspaper published weekly in Washington, D.C., from 1847 to 1860. Gamaliel Bailey was its editor in its first year. ''The National Era Prospectus'' stated in 1847: Each number contained four pages of ...

'' editor

Gamaliel Bailey Gamaliel Bailey (December 3, 1807June 5, 1859) was an American physician who left that career to become an abolitionist journalist, editor, and publisher, working primarily in Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C. Anti-abolitionist mobs attacked his ...

, Marcellus Bailey was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

, and was a major in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. After the war he studied law at the Columbian College Law Department (now the George Washington University Law School), and graduated in 1866. Bailey became a patent attorney and continued his patent law practice for almost 55 years until his death. When Alexander Graham Bell began work on the telephone, Bailey was a partner of patent attorney Anthony Pollok in the law firm of Pollok & Bailey. Bell's patron and future father-in-law Gardiner Hubbard paid Pollok and Bailey to work on Bell's patent applications and patents. Bailey was a founding member of the

Metropolitan Club The Metropolitan Club of New York is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1891 for men only, but it was one of the first major clubs in New York to admit women, t ...

, and President of the Alibi Club. The Alexander Graham Bell Papers collection at the Library of Congress contain letters from Bell to Pollok and Bailey regarding Bell's patents for the telephone. Bailey died in Washington, D.C. on January 16, 1921 and is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown.

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

References

George Washington University Law School article on Bailey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Marcellus People of Ohio in the American Civil War Union Army officers Alexander Graham Bell Lawyers from Cincinnati American patent attorneys 1840 births 1921 deaths Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)

Biography

Some patents that Pollok & Bailey prosecuted

See also

References