Elisha Gray — American Inventor born on August 02, 1835, died on January 21, 1901

Elisha Gray was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. Some recent authors have argued that Gray should be considered the true inventor of the telephone because Alexander Graham Bell stole the idea of the liquid transmitter from him, although Bell supposedly states he had been using liquid transmitters in his telephone experiments for more than two years previously. Bell's telephone patent was held up in numerous court decisions, due to unfair trial... (wikipedia)

As to Bell's talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles... its commercial values will be limited.
Some may claim that is it unscientific to speak of the operations of nature as miracles. But the point of the title lies in the paradox of finding so many wonderful things subservient to the rule of law.