Early Electric Telephony

Abstract

IN 1861 the first successful attempt at the construction of an electric telephone was made by Philip Reis, a teacher in a school at Friedrichsdorf, near Homburg. On October 26, 1861, Reis showed his instrument, which he termed a “telephone,” to the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-the-Main; and on that occasion he succeeded in electrically transmitting various melodies, which were distinctly heard throughout the room. In the paper he read before this Physical Society, published in the annual report of the Society for 1861, Reis states:—“Melodies were sung, not loudly, into the transmitting apparatus placed in a hospital some 300 feet away from the audience, care being taken that no sound could be heard, by direct transmission, or by conduction along the wires. The sounds of various musical instruments were clearly reproduced, as the clarionet, horn, organ pipe, and even harmonium and pianoforte when the transmitter was placed on their sound-boards, provided the tones were within the compass of f to F″. Articulation was not reproduced equally well. Consonants, however, were in general pretty clearly heard, but not the vowels.” In this report, which is entitled “Telephony by Means of Electric Currents,” Reis shows how he was led to the construction of his instrument by a study of the mechanism of the organ of hearing, and of the manner whereby sounds are perceived by the human ear, and he gives a series of diagrams representing the resultant curves that would be produced by the combination of various concords and discords. Thus, he was led to perceive that “if it were possible to create, in any manner, a mode of vibration whose curve resembles that of any tone or chord, then a sensation would be produced similar to that given by the tone or chord itself.” This principle, he affirms, guided him onwards.