"Yes," shouted the usually soft-speaking Storrow; "he WAS my witness, but now he is YOUR LIAR." The efficiency of these two men was greatly increased by a third--Thomas D.Lockwood, who was chosen by Vail in 1879 to establish a Patent Department.

Two years before, Lockwood had heard Bell lecture in Chickering Hall, New York, and was a "doubting Thomas." But a closer study of the telephone transformed him into an enthusiast.

Having a memory like a filing system, and a knack for invention, Lockwood was well fitted to create such a department.

He was a man born for the place.

And he has seen the number of electrical patents grow from a few hundred in 1878 to eighty thousand in 1910.
These three men were the defenders of the Bell patents.