You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Wesley Levisa from the History of the Second World War podcast.

Join me on a journey through the most destructive conflict in human history.

A journey that will take us not just through the famous campaigns and cataclysmic battles,

but also to the lesser well-known corners of the war that touched millions all over the

world as we try and answer not just the questions of what and where, but how and why.

You can find History of the Second World War on all major podcast platforms or at History

of the Second World War dot com.

What's that saying?

A success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration and it's attributed to Thomas Edison, although

it's actually a woman in the 1890s who coins the phrase, they didn't even say it.

In the case of what happened to Alexander Graham Bell and his rival to the telephone

patent, the commenter later said, it was a case of 1% inspiration and 99% tracing paper.

And I'm not sure if many people know it that actually Alexander Graham Bell had to fight

for his patent to the telephone in a lot of it had to do with undue influence in Congress,

due to members of Congress owning stock in a particular telephone company.

We're going to talk about that because the concept of Congress people trading stocks has

come up and it's something where history can inform maybe in a way that people maybe

in a way that people don't want to hear.

Because the American Revolution, a merchant revolution, no, it wasn't, but merchants, those

who made their living trading goods, usually in the port cities of America, the big population

...