"One Percent Inspiration and 99 Percent Tracing Paper": The Pan-Electric Scandal and the Making of a Circuit Court Judge, April-November 1886

Abstract

The Pan-Electric scandal of 1886 grew out of a plot by prominent Southern Democrats to seize control of the fledgling telephone industry by filing suit in federal court to invalidate patents held by Alexander Graham Bell and Bell Telephone. The suit led to President Grover Cleveland's appointment of Tennessee senator Howell Edmunds Jackson to the Sixth Circuit federal court and a ruling by Jackson that led to the final court victory for Bell.