"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (05/26/91)
From time to time, debates surface over who really "invented"
several of the core technologies of telecommunications. "Inventors"
earlier than Morse, Bell, or Marconi and other early workers can be
found in nations around the globe.
Among examples of these are a Russian named Popov, claimed to
have preceded Marconi with radio, several English and German inventors
who in fact operated telegraph systems before Morse and England's
equivalent borad-ranging inventor to Thomas Edison, Joepsh Wilson
Swan.
In addition to numerous developments in chemical technology such as
bromide printing paper for photography, cellular lead plates for
batteries and artificial nitrocellulose, Swan publicly demonstrated an
electric light bulb ten months before Thomas Edison's claimed success.
In fact, a bitter dispute arose in England between Swan and Edison,
but was resolved by a merger of their English companies in 1881.
Current news includes announcement of the claim of yet another
American early "inventor of radio," one Nathan B. Stubblefield. In an
AP dispatch printed March 24, Stubblefield's claim, accompanied by a
photo from about 1892 says:
"SINGER CAMPAIGNS TO PROVE GRANDFATHER INVENTED RADIO
"By Allen G. Breed
"Associated Press Writer
"Pikeville, Ky. -- The history books say Italian physicist
Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraph -- the forerunner of
radio." <Yet another example of the technological ignorance of our
press. Since when was wireless telegraphy any less radio than was
wireless telephony? Continuing the quote:> "But a pop singer is out
to prove his grandfather developed the concept first.
"So far, however, few people are tuning in to the arguments of
Keith Stubblefield that Nathan B. Stubblefield is radio's true inventor.
"A Smithsonian Institution expert dismisses Stubblefield's
contributions, and even in Kentucky, the elder Stubblefield's home
state, the broadcasting association has refused to recognize him as
radio's inventor.
"Marconi is credited with developing wireless telegraphy in
1896." < Marconi's first transmission was in 1895. He obtained a
British patent in 1896. Continuing again:>
"In 1892, Stubbleield amazed onlookers in Murray, his eastern
Kentucky hometown, when he transmitted the human voice using what he
called "wireless telephony," says Stubblefield's grandson, who uses
the name Troy Cory in his singing career.
"Stubblefield never got a patent for the device, although he
did patent improvements to wireless telephone equipment in 1908. He
died a pauper in 1928.
"Now, almost 100 years later, Cory, 47, says he is nearly
obsessed with having his grandfather recognized.
"`We want to educate the public, we want to educate the people
to show them how he did it,' Cory said. `The children are being
educated that the wrong person invented the radio, and they don't know
that it was an American ... They've been defrauded by some teacher, by
some book.'
"To change that, Cory has designed a poster honoring
Stubblefield, and his Television International Magazine is editing a
history of radio that cites Stubblefield as its inventor.
"Cory has some supporters. Kentucky Gov. Wallace Wilkinson
signed a resolution last month declaring Stubblefield the inventor of
radio.
"But at a meeting here Thursday, the Kentucky Broadcasters
Association amended the resolution so that it only recognized
Stubblefield's `contribution to the early development of wireless
transmissions.'
"Cory was furious. Outside the meeting, he confronted Francis
Nash, who was commissioned by the group to write a history of Kentucky
broadcasting and who urged that the resolution be amended.
"Stubblefield's invention used amplitude modulation, the basis
of AM radio, Cory told Nash.
"`Now if that's not radio, I'll eat my hat,' Cory told Nash.
"Nash, a 25-year broadcasting veteran, said there was no
evidence that Stubblefield's device used modulation.
"`He was using methods other people had already abandoned,'
Nash said. `It wasn't really radio.'
"Elliot Sivowitch, a specialist in radio and television
history with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said there
were dozens of experiments similar to Stubblefield's between 1865 and
1900.
"But Cory called Nash a `psuedo-intellect,' accused him of
fraud for altering the resolution and vowed to sue.
"`It's not a joke, this is serious to me,' he said.
"He said he also may sue the National Association of Broadcasters,
which failed to recognize his grandfather at its convention in Las
Vegas last month." <end of quotation from AP>
...The photo accompanying the article does show two pairs of
rods in its foreground, perhaps driven into the earth. If in fact,
these were the transmitting connections of Stubblefield's apparatus,
it could in fact be one of the many forms of "grouwd transmission"
used at least into WW I by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, in which the
"antenna" consisted of a pair of rods separated by a distance
approximating a wavelength at both the transmitter and the receiver.
The Army Signal Corps "Radio Communication Pamphlet No. 40,"
titled "The Principles Underlying Radio Communication," dated May 24,
1921, in fact states, "It has been found by Kiebitz and many other
observers that signals can be effectively received on an antenna
consisting of a single long wire on or a short distance under the
surface of the earth. This is called a ground antenna." Later:
"Ground antennas have been used in some experiments for transmitting,
but there is apparently no advantage in their use for this purpose."
The book, "Radio Theory and Operating," by Mary Texanna
Loomis, with dates of 1925 through 1928, shows a Dr. Rogers obtaining
a patent in 1919, "...which he gave to his country during the World
War." It also mentions a priority claim proved by two naval officers,
Willoughby and Lowell, as well as claiming that Loomis' grandfather
had transmitted signals using submerged wire of different length in
1865. The text says Dr. Rogers was successful at communicating with
Europe in 1925 on "extremely high frequencies," which in that time
would be what our "short wave" is today.
So there's the story. Was Stubblefield's transmission radio
or not? Were there indeed many others? The press story is so weak on
the details of technology that we can't really tell.
Perhaps some other reader of the Digest can help clarify the
matter.