Which came first, Coca-Cola or the telephone?
the telephone came first, by 10 years. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.
Side by side
| Coca-Cola | the telephone | |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1886 | 1876 |
| Date | 1886-05-08 | 1876-03-07 |
| Category | company | invention |
| What happened | John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta. | Bell was granted US patent 174,465. |
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola went on sale in May 1886 as a patent medicine, selling about nine glasses a day in its first year. Pemberton sold the rights for a few thousand dollars and died in 1888 without seeing any of it. Pepsi followed in 1893 under the name Brad's Drink, renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898 — so Coke is seven years older, and both are older than the Ford Motor Company.
the telephone
Bell's patent was granted on 7 March 1876 and he made the famous call to Watson three days later. Elisha Gray filed a caveat for a similar device on the same day in February that Bell filed his application, and the priority dispute has never entirely gone away. Antonio Meucci had demonstrated a working voice telegraph in New York in 1860 but could not afford to renew his caveat.
Common questions
- Which came first, Coca-Cola or the telephone?
- the telephone, by 10 years — 1876 against 1886.
- When did Coca-Cola start?
- 1886. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta.
- When did the telephone start?
- 1876. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.
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Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution