What difference can two hours make?

SHIN BOK-RYONG
The author is an emeritus professor of history at Konkuk University.

When I was a professor at a university, I excused absences but did not forgive lateness. It is my belief that tardiness is worse than absence. In life, one or two hours may only be a short moment. But there are countless cases where the difference of a few hours changes the fate completely.

On February 14, 1876, a young man in his 30s came into the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with a strange machine and applied for a patent. The officer in charge asked how the machine worked, and the young man responded that it let you talk to someone over distance. The officer accepted the documents and the machine, and asked for his identity. His name was Alexander Bell (1847-1922).

Strangely, on the same day, another officer at the U.S. Patent Office received a patent application for a telephone. The officer accepted the documents and machine and asked for the identity of the man in his 40s. It was Elisha Gray (1835-1901). Gray, who was twelve years older than Bell, pioneered knowledge in this field for a long time. Upon applying for a patent, Gray began to rush mass production of telephones.

But a few days later, Gray was informed that his application had been rejected. He inquired what happened and was told that Bell had applied for a patent on the same day. Grey argued that he should share the patent with Bell and brought the case to the court. The Supreme Court reviewed the patent application process and ruled against Grey, as Bell had applied two hours earlier.

Thanks to the two-hour difference, Bell earned the honor of being renowned as the inventor of the telephone and became a billionaire. However, because of the two-hour gap, Grey’s fortune and efforts were wasted. In life, anyone may fail. But most of the failures come from lost opportunities, just like the current Korean government.