Dolbear << DOHL beer >>, Amos E. (1837-1910), an American inventor and physicist, was one of several people who claimed to have invented the telephone before Alexander Graham Bell did. In 1878, two years after Bell received his patent, Dolbear sold the rights to his own work on the telephone to the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1883, after a long court fight, Dolbear’s claims were denied and Bell’s were upheld.
Dolbear was born on Nov. 10, 1837, in Norwich, Connecticut. He taught physics at Tufts College (now Tufts University) from 1874 until his death on Feb. 23, 1910.
