covert@castor.DEC (John Covert) (03/10/84)
The Meucci story is interesting.
A few years ago, I was visiting friends in Germany, showing slides. One
of the slides was a picture of the U.S. Patent for the telephone (a picture
I had taken inside the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia).
My friend said that he thought Philip Reis had invented the telephone. I
was somewhat surprised.
Upon return home, I was thumbing through a pocket calendar/almanac published
by the Main Post (the Wuerzburg, Germany, local newspaper) and noticed the
following entry:
Fernsprecher 1861 Ph. Reis
-,automatischer 1898 A. B. Strowger
A quick look in the Encyclopaedia Britannica revealed that Philip Reis had
indeed invented a device which he called the telephone which was capable
of transmitting sound. Though there were reports that it had transmitted
voice, if it had operated under the theories that Reis thought it operated
under it would not have been capable of transmitting voice; it was only
capable of producing noise at the distant end as a result of receiving
stimuli at the transmitting end.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica does not mention Meucci, however. Which is
not to say that the story as taught in Italy isn't true.
The Bell System has spent more time in court since 1876 than any other
company, I suspect.
John Covert ...{decvax, allegra, ucbvax}!decwrl!rhea!castor!covert