Aquapac
Aquapac is a registered trademark and brand name of a UK-based manufacturing company, Aquapac International Limited, specializing in waterproof cases and bags. The privately owned company was formed in 1983 and holds patents worldwide on systems for sealing bags and cases. The range commenced with a waterproof case for the original Sony Walkman known as the ‘Aquaman’, followed by cases for handheld VHF radios. Following Motorola’s invention of the first cellphone Aquapac launched the world’s first waterproof cellphone case. Nokia was an important customer for these cases during the 1990s, as were cellphone operators such as Deutsche Telekom and NTT DoCoMo. Aquapac went on to launch waterproof cases for other handheld electronics such as cameras and eReaders. The company operates out of factories in London, England.
Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy
The theory that Alexander Graham Bell stole the idea of the telephone rests on the similarity between drawings of liquid transmitters in his lab notebook of March 1876 to those of Gray's patent caveat of the previous month. However, there is extensive evidence that Bell had been using liquid transmitters in various experiments for over three years before that time. In 1875, Bell filed a patent application for a primitive fax machine which included drawings of multiple liquid transmitters and the Patent Office granted his application as Patent No. 161739 in April, 1875—ten months before Gray filed his telephone caveat. Experiments by Bell going back to his youth in Scotland show a steady, logical progression towards development of the telephone. Much of the documentation detailing these experiments includes drawings of liquid transmitters remarkably similar to the design which Bell is alleged to have stolen from Gray in 1876.