Elisha Gray was almost the inventor of the telephone, who learnt the harsh truth that a miss is a good as a mile.
Gray had been working on ideas to create the first telephone and, although it wasn't finished, filed his initial designs for patent on 14th February 1876. Just a few hours earlier Alexander Graham Bell had also applied for a patent for his phone, which was actually finished. Those precious few hours sealed the fate of Bell to be remembered in history and Gray to fade from the picture.
Regardless of this, Gray continued with a successful career and in 1880 became the professor of dynamic electricity at Oberlin College in Ohio. He found a smaller place in history as the accidental creator of the first electronic musical instrument - the 'Musical Telegraph'. However when he died notes were found amongst possessions that expressed his life-long disappointment over his missed opportunity.
