Insulators Home > Book Reference Info > Timeline of Related Developments
This information comes from two books:
The 'Acknowledgements' of the first book states:
This book is the accumulation of gleanings from literally hundreds of books, magazines, papers, and reports from many sources. I spent hours in the libraries of the University of Tennessee, Bryan College, Florida Institute of Technology, the city libraries of Melbourne and Orlando, Florida, and of Chattanooga and Dayton, Tennessee. Much of my information came from the libraries of the places I worked, particularly the David W. Taylor Model Basin and the Patrick Air Force Base. [...] I also want to acknowledge the aid of the Antique Wireless Association for clearing up some questionable points, and for their "Old Timers Bulletin", from which I gathered many tidbits of information.
And of the second:
[...] Unfortunately, many embassies and organizations did not reply to my inquiries, but my thanks go to those that did. Very informative replies were received from the Allen Bradley Company, Atomic Energy Commission, Bell Telephone Laboratories, British Information Services, Bureau of Standards, Denver Aerospace, Canadian Marconi Co., General Electric Co., German Embassy, Hughes Aircraft Co., Northrop Corporation, and the Zenith Radio Corporation. The following broadcast stations also responded: KCBS, WGY, WHA, WLAW, and WWJ. [...]
These books included many items not related to the overhead lines insulators were used on (such as wireless transmission, underground and submarine cables, etc), which do not pertain to what I am focusing on and thus were intentionally not included. All information which follows is excerpted from those two books.
Undoubtedly the most familiar form of electricity known to the ancients was lightning-- that terrifying flash of fire from the heavens which can kill animals and men, splinter trees, and start fires. The accompanying noise was impossible for man to duplicate. It could only be an indication of anger of the gods.
The first fifteen centuries following the birth of Christ comprised a period more of re-discovery than of discovery. Experiments were repeated but they largely verified what was already known. Few if any major breakthroughs were made. Development in the field of electricity was negligible. The period did see magnetism come to a practical use in the form of the mariner's compass.
Although the sixteenth century may be considered one of scientific awakening, the early years of the century produced little in the field of electricity. It was, however, the century of progress in the field of magnetism, due primarily to the researches of Dr. Gilbert. This century also marked the beginning of the use of instruments in the investigation of electrical and magnetic problems.
It was an age when the importance of experimental investigations into the causes of electrical, magnetic, and other phenomena became evident. Men were beginning to realize that complete information on any phenomenon was not obtained solely by mental concentration and pure reasoning. [William] Gilbert had pointed out that many of the ideas of the early philosophers were not only completely erroneous, but the errors had been propagated for hundreds of years only because no one had methodically set up experiments and carefully observed the results. When this was done, much of the 'magic' and superstitions associated with electricity and magnetism were recognized as nothing but the consistent response to a given stimulus.
1600
Dr. William Gilbert published in Latin his great work About the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and About the Great Magnet, The Earth in 1600. This book earned him the title of "The Father of Scientific Investigation". In this book, he coined the word "electrica" for the effect produced when amber or other bodies were rubbed. [...] Gilbert also noted that some material can be electrified and some cannot. He coined the term 'electric' for any material that could be charged by rubbing, and the term 'non-electric' for materials that could not be charged. These terms were used until the time of Benjamin Franklin.
1602
The year before Dr. Gilbert died, a baby was born who was eventually to make the next major step forward in the field of electricity. This was Otto von Guericke. Born in Magdeburg, Prussian Saxony, on November 20, 1602, to a wealthy family, he had the advantage of a good education. [...] Guericke's contribution in the field of electricity was the invention of the first machine for generating electricity. This was the event that marked the start of the electrical revolution, and was the first major breakthrough in the field in sixty years. [...] Guericke died in Hamburg, Germany, in 1686 on May 11.
1605
Sir Thomas Brown (Browne) was born in London, England, on November 19, 1605. [...] On September 28, 1671, he was knighed by Charles II. [...] Sir Thomas was the first person to use the word 'electricity'.
1618
William Barlowe, Archdeacon of Salisbury, first used the term 'electrical', developed from the word 'electrica' used by William Gilbert. Barlowe studied magnetism and devised improved methods of mounting and magnetizing compass needles. He wrote one of the first books on magnetism, entitled Magneticall Advertisements. He is also the first person to use the word 'magnetism'.
1646
Sir Thomas Brown used the term 'electricity' in his book Pseudoxia Epidemica. This is considered the first use of the term in English.
1663
Otto von Guericke invented the first frictional electrical machine. [...] The electrical machine greatly advanced the study of electricity, and generated it in such quantity that its action could be more clearly observed. The development of electrical machines continued for the next two hundred or more years.
1667
Stephen Gray was born about this year. Few details of his early life have come down to the present day. He is remembered for his studies of electrical phenomena. Gray is reported to have noted the resemblance of lightning to electricity, and predicted that a way would be found to store it (capacitors). In 1729, he discovered electrical conduction and transmitted electrical charges over strings hundreds of feet in length. He was a member of the Royal Society. Gray died February 18, 1739.
1683
Jean Thiophile Desaguliers was born this year. He was the man who, in continuing the work of Gray, applied the term 'conductor' to those substances that would carry electricity. He also pointed out that 'electrics' were non-conductors and that 'non-electrics' were conductors. He died in 1744.
The eighteenth century was the age of Franklin, Cavendish, Coulomb, Galvani, and Volta. The science of electrical measurements came into being. Scientists were beginning to understand some of the characteristics of electrical force. The laws of electrical and magnetic forces were discovered, and the relationship between them was studied. Lightning was found to be electricity, and the means of protecting buildings from lightning became a reality. [...] Practical uses for electricity were being considered. The idea of using the tremendous speed of electricity for the transmission of intelligence became a passion of many electricians. Telegraph messages were transmitted over relatively short distances.
1747
Dr. William Watson, Bishop of Landaff, and some of his friends in the Royal Society, ran a wire on insulators across Westminster Bridge over the Thames River in July of 1747. The wire ran to a point across the river over 12,000 feet away. Using a ground return through the river, the return of the charge was sufficiently intense after passing through three people to ignite spirits of wine. The delay in transmission over the 24,000-foot path was not detectable. Watson was probably the first man to use ground conduction of electricity.
1748
Benjamin Franklin stretched a wire across the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia and ignited alcohol across the river by the discharge of a Leyden jar using ground returns.
1750
The earliest known reference to lightning rods is found in a paper by Franklin called 'Opinions and Conjectures', dated July 29, 1750, which he sent to his London correspondent, Collison. Franklin pointed out that possibly points could be used to protect houses, churches, ships, etc., from lightning.
1753
The idea of utilizing the high speed of electricity for the transmisson of messages appears to have arisen again about this time. The Scotsman's Magazine of Edinburgh, in Volume XV for February 17, 1753, contained an anonymous letter under the heading 'An Expiditious Method of Conveying Intelligence'. The letter was signed 'C. M.'. In the letter, C. M. made the first proposal for the electrical telegraph. The proposed system required one wire for each letter of the alphabet. A small ball was to be attached to the end of each wire at the receiving end. A charge applied at one end of the wire would attract small pieces of paper at the other end. By watching the order in which the paper jumped to the ball, the message could be decoded. This idea with variations was the basis of a number of experiments by many investigators. The letter signed 'C. M.' is generally considered to have been written by Charles Morrison, a surgeon in Greenock who was also an amateur electrician. C. M. also proposed a system that would result in the transmission of ringing bells in different tones at the receiving end, and the insulation of the conductor by jewelers' cement to prevent loss of energy.
Benjamin Franklin this year publicly proposed the use of pointed rods as a means of protecting buildings from lightning. The suggestion appeared in Poor Richard's Almanac.
1767
Joseph Bozolus, an Italian Jesuit at the College of Rome, suggested the use of long and short sparks in a code for a more efficient telegraph. He did not develop the code, however.
1774
Georges Lois LeSage, a Frenchman living in Geneva, Switzerland, constructed what is considered the first serious attempt at making an electrical telegraph. The system required 24 lines and used a pithball detector at the end of each line. The wires were said to be insulated by glass tubes buried in the earth. Intelligible signals were transmitted over a short distance.
1777
Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss was born in Braunschweig, Germany on April 30, 1777. He was regarded as a child prodigy and developed into one of the great mathematicians of history. In 1833, Gauss opened his observatory in the study of terrestrial magnetism. In 1833 or 1834, he made a practical electrical telegraph between his laboratory and observatory. He died on February 23, 1855, in Gottingen, Hannover. Before his death, he had received recognition as the greatest mathematician of the 18th and 19th centuries.
1784
R. Kirwan, in Philosophical Transactions of this year, mentioned the reddening of litmus paper by the application of an electric spark. This idea was later considered for telegraph recorders by Morse, Davy, Bain, and others. Recorders were built using this principle.
1787
The Frenchman Lomond used a single wire to send messages this year. This is considered the first attempt at a single wire system, but details of the methods used were not given. Lomond's detector was a pith ball.
1790
Claude Chappe, of later Semaphore fame, conceived the idea of a telegraph using synchronized clocks with the hands pointing to letters. The instant to read was indicated by hitting a stew pan. The idea did not work because of the delay in sound transmission. He tried the discharge of a Leyden jar to indicate reading time, but because of electrical leakage with distance, he abandoned the idea in favor of the opto-mechanical idea.
1791
Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the man who developed the telegraph into a practical instrument of communication, was the son of Jedidiah and Elizabeth Breese Morse. He was born on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Morse developed an interest in art early in life, and continued his art studies at Yale. He graduated from the institution in 1810, and the next year went to London to continue his studies. He returned to the United States in 1815, and lived by painting and lecturing. In 1829, he again went to Europe to paint. It was on his return to the United States in 1832, on the ship Sully, that he was given the idea of using the electromagnet in his telegraph. In 1843, Morse induced the United States government to appropriate $30,000 for an experimental telegraph from Baltimore to Washington. The line was completed the following year. In 1857 and 1858 he worked for Cyrus W. Field on the Atlantic Cable. Morse died in New York City on April 2, 1872.
1792
Claude Chappe invented the Chappe Semaphore system in 1792. Although purely a mechanical system, it demonstrated the value of high speed communication.
1794
It was about this time that the word 'telegraph' was coined as applied to the Chappe Communication System.
1797
Joseph Henry was born near Albany, New York on December 9 (some say 17), 1797. [...] His first claim to fame was for his improvement on Sturgeon's Magnet and his determination of the relation between coil size and battery voltage to obtain the maximum magnetic effects. By 1831, he had demonstrated the first electromagnetic telegraph over a mile distance. In 1832 he joined the faculty of Princeton University. [...] Henry died on May 13, 1878.
1799
M. de F. Salva this year is said to have transmitted telegraph messages from Madrid to Aranjuez, a distance of 26 miles. If this is true, it is an achievement of note, considering that this was before the battery had been invented and that Salva's was evidently an electrostatic system.
The nineteenth century opened with the invention of the battery by Volta, and developments in all branches of the electrical technology came so fast that nearly every year great advances were made. The chemical battery opened the possibility of new means of telegraphic communications. In this century the communication industry sprang up from a few relatively short-range telegraph line experiments to commercial lines spanning the continent. Telephone communication became a reality with the automatic dial system which was in use in some places. Even wireless telegrams were being accepted commercially. From the discovery of electrical rotation in a crude form, electrically driven machinery, streetcars, and automobiles were developed. From the motor developed the DC and AC generators. The AC generators and the invention of the transformers made high voltage power transmission a possibility. [...] The twentieth century dawned with some people believing that everything had been invented and no more major developments were likely.
1800
The first [telegraph] line in the United States built on the principle of the Chappe Semaphore was built from Martha's Vineyard to Boston.
Don Francisco Salvei, at a metting of the Academy of Sciences of Barcelona on May 14, 1800, read a paper titled, "Galvanism and Its Application to Telegraphy". In this paper, he notes the atmospheric electricity interference, and attributes it to the wires being uncovered. Salvei is considered the first person to apply electricity dynamically for the purpose of telegraphy. He used frog legs for detectors in his experiments.
1802
Charles Wheatstone, considered by many to be the founder of modern telgraphy, was born February 6, 1802, in Glouchester, England, the son of a musical instrument maker and a teacher. He received the degree of DCL from Oxford. In 1834, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at King's College, where his experiments on the velocity of electricity stimulated his interest in the telegraph, leading to the first patent in England for the telegraph (jointly with W. F. Cooke). Wheatstone was knighted in 1868 after completing the automatic telegraph. He is remembered primarily because of the Wheatstone Bridge, an instrument for electric measurement, which however had been invented by Samuel Hunter Christie, and not Sir Charles. On October 19, 1875, Sir Charles Wheatstone died in Paris, France.
1804
William Edward Weber was born at Wittenburg, Germany, on October 24, 1804. He obtained his doctorate in 1826 from the University of Halle, and is primarily remembered for originating a system of practical electrical units and for his work in terrestrial magnetism. As early as 1833, he had devised a system of electromagnetic telgraphy. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1840, and was also a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Weber died in Gottingen on June 23, 1891.
1811
Johann s. C. Schweigger recommended reducing the number of telegraph wires to two and the use of two voltages to send letters and numbers. He did not attempt to develop his idea into a practical system.
1814
Royal Earl House, inventor of the first telegraph printer, was born on September 9, 1814, in Rockland, Vermont. [...] Around 1840, he went to Buffalo, New York to live with relatives and attend law school in that town. However, he read a work on electricity which so inspired him that he decided to give up law, and study and experiment with electricity. His first major invention was the House Telegraph Printer, which printed the message rather than copying it in dots and dashed. The printer could copy and print out up to 2,000 words per hour. Royal House died in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the age of eighty on February 25, 1895.
1816
Ernst Werner Von Siemens was born on December 13, 1816, in Lenthe, Hannover, Germany. After being educated in Berlin, he entered the Prussian army (1834). Siemens is sometimes considered the discoverer of gold plating. He allegedly discovered this process during a term in prison. He also discovered the excellent insulating properties of gutta-percha, which was extensively used for insulating the Atlantic cable and other electrical cables. In 1847, Seimens joined in the forming of the organization of Siemens and Halske. In 1869, he constructed the first telegraph line from Prussia to Persia. He also invented one of the first electric dynamos, and built one of the first electric railways (1879). He died on December 6, 1892, in Berlin.
On the grounds of his home in Hammersmith, England, Francis Ronalds set up a continuous line of over eight miles of iron wire insulated by silk loops. The line terminated on the end with an electrometer to determine the transmission delay in the line. He could measure no transmission delay. Ronalds also developed a single wire telegraph system, utilizing two synchronized clocks. At a given signal, the two clocks were started. Letters were visible in a slot and appeared sequentially and simultaneously at each end. When the desired letter appeared, a charge was applied to the line. At the receiving end, a pith ball moved, indicating that the letter should be read. The system was offered to the British Admiralty, but rejected because, "telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary". The system was never commercially feasible.
Dr. J. R. Coxe in Philadelphia proposed the use of galvanism as a possible means of establishing telegraphic communication "with much rapidity". The suggestion was published in Thompson Annals of Philosophy in February of 1816. His system was electromechanical.
1819
Sir Charles Wheatstone invented the 'Magic Lyre', which he also called a 'telephone'. This was the first use of the term 'telephone', although it was not applied to a talking instrument.
1820
A. M. Ampère suggested using magnetic needle deflection for a telegraph, but never tried to put the system into practice.
1823
Francis Ronalds published his book Description of an Electric Telegraph and Some Other Electrical Apparatus. In this book, he described his work in telegraphy which he had done around 1816. This book was the first work on the telegraph published in England. Ronalds also noted the possibility of transmission delays and problems on long lines due to capacity. This was a serious problem in the Atlantic cable some fifty years later.
1825
Baron Paul Schilling, in Russia, invented the electromagnetic telegraph, shortly after Sturgeon had come up with the iron core electromagnet. However, the Czar considered such a device subversive, and would not permit any mention of Schilling's work along these lines in the press.
In the Mechanics Magazine for June 11, 1825, a letter proposed the use of the human body as the receiver for a telegraph system. "By a series of gradations in the strength and number of shocks, and the intervals between each, every variety of signal may be made quite intelligible."
1828
Harrison G. Dyar used several miles of wire around a race track on Long Island and made a crude form of telegraph using litmus paper to detect the dots and dashes.
1831
David Edward Hughes was born May 16, 1831, in London, and came to the United States when about seven years old. He became a professor of music at the college in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1850, and later the professor of natural philosophy there. He left Bardstown in 1854 and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to develop and manufacture a printing telegraph instrument which was patented in 1855. The device was an immediate success in the United States and later in Europe. [...] Hughes died in London on January 22, 1900.
In an article published in Stillman's Journal, Joseph Henry disclosed his method of winding 'intensity magnets'. He used insulated wire rather than an insulated core and many turns of wire. This led to the possibility of the telegraph which he demonstrated to his class over a mile of wire. He also stated that by using relays, he could extend his telegraph to any distance. By March of this year, he had produced magnets capable of lifting 2500 pounds.
1832
In October, Samuel F. B. Morse was returning to the United States from a three-year stay in Europe via the ship Sully. On October 19, Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston was talking on the science of electricity, with demonstrations. His demonstration of the electromagnet and the speed of electricity in a conductor gave Morse the idea of the telegraph and of using a pencil attached to a magnetic clapper to copy the signals. The idea of the dot and dash code was also developed in this year. Before the ship docked in New York, Morse had drawn up an idea for his telegraphy and began work on it almost immediately after arriving home.
1833
K. F. Gauss and W. E. Weber used a two-wire telegraph line for communications betwen the observatory and the laboratory at the University of Gottingen. The line was about 8,000 feet long. This was probably the first use of the binary code in telegraphy. Signals were detected by the movement of a magnetic needle. The telegraph was in operation for about five years. Weber realized the future value of the telegraph when he wrote: "When the globe is covered with a net of railroads and telegraph wires, this net will render service comparable to those of the nervous system of the human body."
1834
Samuel Morse received permission from the B&O Railroad to string four wires along the tracks from Washington to Baltimore. The terminals were to be located in the Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol, and in the Pratt Street Depot in Baltimore.
1835
Elisha Gray was born in Barnesville, Ohio on August 2, 1835, to David and Christina Gray. [...] Among his inventions are the automatic self-adjusting telegraph relay, a telegraph line printer, and a telegraph repeated. His partnership with Enos Barten and General Anson Slager was later incorporated to form the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray developed a system of voice transmission, and filed a caveat in the patent office only a few hours after Bell filed for his application for a patent on the telephone. Gray obtained over 100 patents. His most important invention was the telautograph, a deviced used as a form of facsimile. Gray died January 21, 1901 in Newtonville, Mass.
1836
William Cooke saw a demonstration of electric telegraphy put on by a Processor C. W. Muncke of Germany. This aroused his interest and stimulated him into developing his own system.
Edward Davy conceived and described a system of telegraphy which he improved over the next three years to the point at which it could have been put into practical operation. He also conceived the idea of the renewer (the relay), which would let the system be extended to any length. The system of Davy might have been adopted over that of Wheatstone and Cooke, had he not migrated to Australia.
About the end of 1836, Karl August von Steinheil had improved, at the request of Gauss, the Guass-Weber telegraph to a more practical arrangement. This system required only two wires running to the distant station. Steinheil also indicated that one of these wires could be eliminated and a ground return used.
1837
Amos Emerson Dolbear, a physicist and wireless pioneer, was born November 10, 1837, the son of Samuel and Eliza Dolbear of Norwich, Connecticut. [...] In 1853 he invented the string telephone, and in 1864 the electric writing telegraph. By 1876 he had devised a telephone operating on the same principle as Bell's. He died February 23, 1910, in Medford, Massachusetts.
Michael Farady studies and defined the facts of specific inductive capacity of insulators. Cavendish had previously worked in this line, but did not publish his work. For this reason, Faraday has been honored by having the unit of capacitance named after him.
Samuel F. B. Morse completed his first operable telegraph system, and exhibited it in Washington on September 2, 1837. He filed a caveat for a patent and petitioned Congress for an appropriation to build an experimental line from Washington to Baltimore. The session of Congress closed before the request was brought to a vote.
Sir Charles Wheatstone and W. F. Cooke took out a patent for the first electric telegraph in Britain. The patent was granted on June 12, 1837. It was the first patent covering any electrical means of communication.
William Alexander demonstrated a telegraph system utilizing 30 wires. In this system, a moving needle uncovered the corresponding letter.
1838
Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke developed the ideas of Gauss and Weber, and installed the first practical needle telegraph in England, on the London and Blackwall Railway.
Joseph Henry, on November 2, 1838, delivered a paper to the Philosophical Society which described transformer action and how to achieve voltage step up or step down.
1839
Almon Strowger, the inventor of the dial telephone, was born October 19, 1839, in Penfield, New York. The story is told that his invention of the automatic telephone was the result of a phone call that he did not receive because the operator told the party that the line was busy. The line was not busy at the time, but a competitor got the business the call concerned. Strowger then decided to make an automatic telephone. Eventually he obtained a patent for the first 'Automatic Telephone Exchange'. This was demonstrated on November 31, 1892, when the first Automatic Exchange was put into service at LaPorte, Indiana. Strowger died in St. Petersburg, Florida, on May 26, 1902.
1840
On June 20, Samuel F. B. Morse was issued Patent #1647 for the telegraph.
William Sturgeon published a description of an electromagnetic telegraph in Annals of Electricity. The system used six wires and six keys, and produced a visual indication of letters and numbers.
1843
Alexander Bain, of Aberdeen, Scotland, devised the first 'copying telegraph', or 'facsimile'. This is probably the first system for the transmission of pictures over wire. Although Bain is sometimes considered to be the 'Father of Facsimile', it was not a practical device because of the many wires required. The pictures were received on a chemically treated paper.
Morse persuaded Congress to appropriate money for an experimental telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. This year, Congress appropriated $30,000 for construction of the line. It was run along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks.
R. S. Smith of Blackford, Scotland, experimented with a telegraph system which was recorded by an electric stylus, writing on chemically treated paper. Operation was demonstrated over approximately a mile of wires.
Charles Wheatstone demonstrated telegraph operation between Camdentown and Euston Station in Southern England.
1844
A line for commercial telegraphy began operation in England between the towns of Paddington and Slough. This was a five-wire line, each terminating with a magnetic needle. The code was developed from the needle positions. Within a year, the line was responsible for the capture of a suspected murderer who attempted to escape on the train. This incident publicized the value of the telegraph, and stimulated the interest in telegraph lines.
The first telegraph line in France was constructed this year between Paris and Rouen.
On May 24, Samuel F. B. Morse was ready to test the telegraph between Baltimore and Washington. The Washington terminal of the line was in the Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol. With Morse was Miss Annie Ellsworth, the daughter of the Commisioner of Patents, and the girl who had brought Morse the news that Congress had appropriated money for the line. He had promised her that she should be the first to send a message over the line. At the Mount Clare Depot in Baltimore, the recording instrument wrote: "What hath God wrought!" The message was then repeated by his friend and supporter Alfred Vail and sent back to Washington. The speed was about 30 letters per minute. The telegraph had at last become a practical communication system. The original telegraph magnets weighed about 300 pounds. By this year, the weight had been reduced to about 185 pounds. It was about fifteen years before the weight was reduced to only a few pounds. On May 27, three days after the line was put into operation, the news was telegraphed to Washington that James K. Polk had been nominated for the presidency by the Baltimore Democratic Convention. An evening paper published the message. It was not until the train from Baltimore arrived in Washington the next morning that the news was verified. This sealed the acceptance of the telegraph as a high speed communications system.
1845
On New Year's Day, 1845, the telegraph received its greatest publicity with the case of John Tawell, a Londoner who had poisoned a woman in Slough. Attempting to escape, the murderer took the train to London. By telegraph, a description of Tawell was sent to Paddington. Tawell was arrested the following morning. He was tried and hanged. This achievement awakened the world to the value and possibilities of the telegraph. The incident stimulated developmnet of the electrical telegraph in other countries of the world.
In May, Morse and his associates formed the Magnetic Telegraph Co.
The Electric Telegraph Company was formed by W. F. Cooke, Charles Wheatstone, and J. L. Richards in England. The company bought the early patents of Cooke and Wheatstone. Alexander Bain later joined the company.
In April of this year, Royal E. House patented his printing telegraph. This was the first machine to print words rather than just copying the code. The device could print up to 2,00 words in an hour. Because of economics, the system was eventually replaced by the sounder and operator.
1847
Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Alexander Melville Bell, was a speech teacher of international reputation. His grandfather was also a speech expert. His mother was the daughter of a surgeon in the Royal Navy. Bell attented the Royal High School and later was educated in London University, where he received his L.L.D. and Ph.D. He, too, became a speech teacher, and through his work met Mabel Hubbard, a student who later became his wife. Although working and teaching during the day, he was experimenting at night on a 'harmonic telegraph' line, a means of sending several messages over a telegraph line simultaneously. This work eventually led to his discovery of the telephone on which he applied for a patent on February 14, 1876. In 1882, Bell became an American citizen. He died on August 2, 1922, and his gravestone said, "Born in Edinburgh-- died a citizen of the USA."
Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most versatile inventors of all time, was born to Samuel and Nancy Elliot Edison on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He did not do well in school, so his mother tutored him until he was twelve. This education gave him a love for books and a thirst for knowledge, which continued throughout his life. Edison's knowledge of telegraphy was the result of training received as a reward for saving a small boy from death. At seventeen, he became a commercial operator. His purchace of Faraday's Experimental Research in Electricity stimulated his interest and knowledge of electricity, and started him on his career as an inventor. Around 1876, he moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and set up a home and laboratory where where made his greatest invention, the incandescent lamp. His Edison General Electric Company was later combined with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form the present General Electric Company. During his lifetime, Edison was granted over 1,000 patents, which included the motion picture camera, phonograph, flourescent lamp, and many other devices presently valuable for modern-day comfort. He died on October 18, 1931, at the age of 84, in West Orange, New Jersey.
Frederick Collier Bakewell transmitted facsimile over a single telegraph line. This was a more practical system than had previously been devised. The writing was prepared on a conducting sheet in insulating ink. This was placed in a drum and rotated, while a stylus moved slowly parallel to the axis of the drum. This principle was used in many future models.
1848
On March 8, 1848, Harrison Dyar wrote a letter to Dr. Bell of Charlestown in the United States, claiming to have experimented on the telegraph during the years 1826 and 1827. Dyar claimed that his system was superior to that of Morse. His was an electrostatic system that recorded on chemically treated paper. He intended to run a line to Philadelphia from Long Island, but legal problems made him stop his experiments.
1849
In May of this year, the ballet "Electra" introduced the arc light to the public in London. The ballet was performed in Her Majesty's Theatre.
1850
Alexander Bain of England extended his telegraph system from London to Liverpool, a distance of 187 miles.
1851
In April of 1951, the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraphy Company was organized. The company used the House Telegraph Printer. In 1856, the Company became the Western Union Telegraph Co.
1852
Color coding for cables came into use this year.
1853
Elihu Thomson was born in Manchester, England in 1853, and was brought to America in 1858. As a young man, he taught in the Philadelphia High School. In 1870, he received his doctorate from Tufts College. During his career, he was awarded over seven-hundred patents. Thomson built the first three-phase dynamos. Among his inventions are electric welding, and the magnetic blow-out of circuit breakers. He also introduced the idea of grounding the secondary line of power transformers, as a safety device should the high tension lines come in contact with the secondary lines. His integrating watt/hour meter won a 10,000 franc prize at a Paris meter competition, and became a standard of accuracy for later meters. He and a partner (Professor Houston) founded the Thomson and Houston firm, which later became the General Electric Company.
Amos Emerson Dolbear invented the string telephone this year. This device was never patented, and apparently re-invented about 25 years later, patented, and used commercially in Murray, Kentucky.
1854
Charles Bourseul, a Frenchman, suggested the term 'telephone' for the transmission of the human voice, and published a paper suggesting the transmission fo voice and a method for doing it. His idea was to use contacts to open and close at the frequency of the source of the sound. The idea was never practical. This method is sometimes attributed to Reis, who produced such a transmitter in 1861.
1855
David Edward Hughes patented an improved type of printing telegraph.
1856
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Croatia (now Yugoslavia). His father was a clergyman of the Greek Church. Tesla, too, was to have been educated for the church, but because of his interest in science and mechanics, he was allowed to attend the Gratz Polytechnic School. Tesla traveled to France, and became an admirer of Edison, eventually coming to New York where he found employment in the Edison Works. He later worked with Westinghouse. His patents $382279 and #382280 were granted in 1888. These patents cover the principles of the rotating field obtained from three-phase alternating current sources applied to the induction motor. This invention simplified motor design and improved efficiency. He is considered by some well-informed sources to have been the world's greatest inventor. Although his inventions cover a broad range of electrical technology, he is perhaps best known for the high voltage coil that bears his name, although his greatest contribution has been in the alternating current field. Tesla was one of the first to promote alternating current power distribution, and built the first high voltage transmission line in the country. His discovery of the principle of the rotating field has made possible the huge motors used in modern industry. Tesla died on January 1, 1943.
The New York and Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company was reorganized as the Western Union Telegraph Company, under the direction of Hiram Sibley. The organization had been in operation since 1851.
1858
Michael Idvorsky Pupin was born October 4, 1858, in Idvor, Hungary. He is remembered as the inventor of the Pupin Coil, which improved and extended telephone service to long distances. [...] He was a charter member of the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Science, the National Research Council, and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He died in New York on March 13, 1935.
Charles Wheatstone, in England, obtained patent #1239 on an automatic high-speed printing instrument for telegraphy. The device permitted telegraph messages to be sent at rates up to 150 words per minute.
1859
Nathan B. Stubblefield was born this year, although some sources say it was in 1860. His parents were William Jefferson and Victoria Bouman Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky. He attented the county schools, after which he became largely self-educated in the scientific fields, concentrating particularly on the theories of Maxwell and the work of Hertz. After reading the work of Bell, Stubblefield built his own telephone, said to be much superior to Bell's. With this, he developed a wireless telephone that was patented in 1908. After being swindled out of his patents and left bankrupt by dishonest promoters, he destroyed his notes and equipment, refusing help from neighbors and friends. He died of starvation on March 25, 1928.
1861
Transcontinental telegraphy became a reality this year as the Western Union Telegraph Company completed construction of its line to the West Coast. The first use of the telegraph in war occorued on June 3 when it was used by General McClellan in Virginia.
J. Phillip Reis produced in Germany a telephone transmitter based on the idea of opening and closing contacts at the frequency of the sound waves. The idea had been used some years before (though probably unknown to Reis) by the French electrician Charles Bourseul, who had made no attempt to commercialize it. The Reis transmitter was used to some extent, but it was never perfected for commercial use, although it could send a constant tone reasonably well. Reis used the skin of a sausage as a diaphragm to which was attached a piece of platinum to act as a contact which was opened and closed as the diaphragm [was] vibrated by the sound. His receiver was a knitting needle with a coil around it in solenoid fashion, attached to a sounding board. Current in the needle caused it to vibrate and the sounding board to produce a similar sound. In Germany, Reis is considered to be the inventor of the telephone. Both Reis and Sir Charles Wheatstone have been credited with coining the word 'telephone'.
1862
Abbé Giovanni Caselli of France, reading in Becquerel's work on light-giving chemicals, invented a crude system of photo-telegraphy. He could transmit drawings over telegraph lines. It never became practical, however. Caselli used a crude form of mechanical scanning, but was only partially successful.
1864
Ten years after the death of [Georg S.] Ohm, the British Association for the Advancement of Science adopted the Ohm as the unit of measurement for electrical resistance. The standard Ohm was defined as the resistance of a mercury column one square millimeter in cross-section and 104.8 cm long. This corresponds to about 0.986 present-day ohms. For electromotive force, they chose 10^8 CGS electromagnetic units for the volt, which was approximately equal to the voltage of the Daniell Cell.
Professor Amos E. Dolbear invented a 'talking machine'. The model was lost and the device forgotten. It was said to be basically the same as the Bell telephone exhibited in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.
1866
Samuel A. Varley noted that finely powdered metal presented high resistance to passage of current, but became a good conductor as the voltage increased. He built lightning arrestors using this discovery.
1867
J. C. Stearns of Boston devised a duplex telegraph system. Two messages could be sent over the same wire at the same time, but only in opposite directions.
1868
Charles Wheatstone was knighted this year, for his invention of the automatic telegraph permitting messages to be sent at rates of up to 500 words per minute.
1869
A partnership was formed between Enos Barton and Elisha Gray, who founded a company in Cleveland, Ohio, which was incorporated in 1872 as the Western Electric Manufacturing Company.
What is believed to have been the first electrical engineering service in the United States was announced this year. The firm of Pope, Edison, and Company was formed in October 1869.
Thomas Alva Edison applied fo a patent on his stock ticker, on January 25, 1869. This was an improved version of the ticker invented by E. A. Callahan of Boston. Edison's device required no operator at the receiving end.
Telegraph lines were installed between the Naval Observatory and the Navy Department, so that Western Union could send over the correct time. This was the forerunner of the Navy's time broadcasts.
Ernst Werner von Siemens constructed the first telegraph line from Germany to Prussia.
A telegraph line between Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan began operation this year.
1870
Arthur Korn was born May 20, 1870, in Breslau, Germany. He is remembered as a pioneer of electrical picture transmission.
1872
Samuel F. B. Morse died in New York City on April 2, 1872, when [he was] 80 years old.
1873
Elisha Gray of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company began development of the harmonic telegraph about the end of this year. The transmitters were metal reeds that vibrated at their resonant frequency, interrupting the current at the frequency of the reed. He used two types of receivers-- one was a resonant device, [and] the other was based on friction developed between two surfaces to change the resistance of the circuit with current. Edison later used this idea for his telephone.
Alexander Graham Bell became interested in developing a means of sending several messages over telegraph lines simultaneously. The idea was to use the resonant frequency of the reeds to separate the different messages. He was never able to develop a satisfactory system. However, while on this project, he conceived the possibility of speech transmission. While his assistant Thomas A. Watson was working to get one of the reeds vibrating, the sound was heard by Bell. The magnetic reaction between the reed and the electric magnet had transmitted the effect to the other magnet, which reproduced the sound on its reed. Bell realized this was what he had been looking for. After several years of experimenting, he had developed a transmitter and receiver that would transmit speech fairly well.
1874
Alexander Graham Bell invented the electric harp this year. This device was an early attempt at a telephone. A number of metal reeds were arranged along the common core of an electromagnet. The idea was that a sound spoken near the device would set certain reeds in vibration; a similar device on the other end of the line would start corresponding reeds to vibrating and reproduce the original sound. This was not, however, a satisfactory speaking device.
Western Union first used the quadruplex system of telegraphy, as devised by Edison, permitting simultaneous operation with two messages in either direction.
1875
Alexander Bell received U. S. Patent #161739 on April 6 for the harmonic telegraph. He demonstrated the device to Western Union in March, and showed that two simultaneous messages could be sent.
Elisha Gray realized that if he could send multiple tones simultaneously over a wire, he could also send the human voice.
1876
Thomas A. Edison established his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory this year, which became the world's first research laboratory.
A. Appes built a form of Ruhmkorff Coil having a coil of about 140,000 turns of wire. The coil developed sparks about 40 inches long.
The year of 1876 was the year of the centennial in Philadelphia. It was on the 25th day of June that the judges would make the awards. At the insistence of his wife, Alexander Graham Bell had set up his telephone exhibit between two stations on opposite sides of the hall. Among the judges was Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, who had met Bell earlier. Listening to the telephone while Bell's assistant talked, the emperor suddenly smiled incredulously. "Good Heavens, it talks," he said. The other judges listened in amazement. "It is the most remarkable thing in America. You have made an invention that will change the way people live all over the world," commented the emperor as he departed. The basic telephone patent (#174465) was granted to Bell in 1876. This is said to have been the most valuable patent ever issued.
Professor Amos E. Dolbear of Tufts College began experiments on the speaking telephone in August of this year. By autumn, he had come up with the idea of using a permanent magnet in the receiver. The same instrument could be used for sending or receiving. Although it was somewhat like Bell's first telephone, it required no battery.
1877
The Bell Telephone Association was organized July 9 with four shareholders: Hubbard, Sanders, Watson, and Bell. Around October, the first Bell Telephone Company in Germany began operation between Berlin and Schoneberg.
Western Union Telegraph Company formed the American Speaking Telephone Company using patents of Gray and Dolbear.
On February 13 of this year, The Boston Globe printed the first news received over telephone lines. Also, the first long distance message was telephoned between Salem and Boston.
The first commercial telephone line was set up in April in Somerville, Massachusetts, between the home and shop of Charles Wilson, a distance of about three miles. By June, there were 250 more telephones in use. By September, the number of customers had risen to 1,300.
1878
Alfred Niaudet, a French electrician, published a book on batteries, in which he described over 100 different kinds.
The telephone came to New Haven, Connecticut when commercial service began on January 28 with twenty-two subscribers. The operator was George Willard Coy.
The first telephone exchanges were set up in England this year in Manchester and Liverpool.
1879
The California Electric Light Company was incorporated in San Francisco, California. This company claims to be the first in the world to produce and sell electric service to the public. It supplised power for arc lights from its central station.
Elihu Thomson made the first three-phase dynamo this year.
On December 20, the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company was incorporated under the laws of New York. Operation started the following year.
1880
The French government awarded the Volta prize of 50,000 francs to Alexander Graham Bell, for the invention of the telephone.
The standard types of telephones were designed this year. The type #1 was for wall mounting, and type #2 was the desk model. These instruments were standard for many years.
Operation of the Southern Bell Telephone System was started in January of this year with 1246 telephones in operation in eleven cities.
Edison set up an electric railroad at Menlo Park. Speeds of up to forty miles per hour were attained. He never attempted to commercialize the system.
1881
The Western Electric Company was purchased by the American Bell Telephone Company this year.
The first International Electric Congress convened in Paris this year. It was at this Congress that the international terms for electrical units were adopted. The unit of electromotive force was called the 'volt' in honor of Alessandro Volta. The unit of resistance became the 'ohm', named for Georg Simon Ohm. The unit of current, the ampere, was named in honor of André Marie Ampère. The Congress also specified the manner in which the units were to be measured. Up to this time there were at least twelve different units of electromotive force, ten different units of current, and fifteen different units of resistance.
1882
M. Deprez, in Germany, experimented in the transmission of direct current power over long distances. He attempted to send power from Miesbach to Munich, a distance of 35 miles, over iron wire 0.18" in diameter, at 1,500 volts. The test was not a success, but did demonstrate that high voltage was necessary for long distance transmission.
John Hopkinson, professor of electrical engineering at King's College, London, patented the three-wire system of power distribution of direct current. This system saved over 50 percent of the coper in the conductor.
The first power station in England for commercial use began operation at Holborn Viaduct, London, on January 12 (some sources say March). This plant utilized an Edison dynamo driven by a steam engine. Power was sufficient for about 3,000 incandescent lamps.
Thomas Edison opened his station at 257 Pearl St., New York City, on September 4. The station had six large DC generators (about 900 horsepower) driven by Porter and Allen steam engines. The station burned on January 2, 1890. When opened, the station was serving 230 customers and over 5,000 lamps. At the time it burned, it was supplying about 20,000 lamps.
1883
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was organized with the purpose of building a network of long distance telephone lines between major cities.
The first telephone service between New York and Chicago was put into operation on March 24, 1883.
The first Electric Street Railroad (streetcar) was started in the United States, at Baltimore, Maryland. Streetcar service in Britain also started this year, on August 3.
M. Deprez again attempted to transmit DC power over long distances. His second attempt this year was made in France from Grenoble to Vizille, a distance of 8.75 miles. The wire was bronze, 0.079" in diameter. The loss was 62 percent over the range. The voltage was 3,000. He eventuall transmitted 52 horsepower [for] 35 miles over a conductor 0.2" thick. The tests showed that for successful transmission, high voltage and alternating current must be used.
Lucien Gaulard proposed the use of high voltage alternating current distribution lines with transformers to reduce the voltage at the receiving end of the line. The proposal was accepted and pushed by George Westinghouse.
Lucien Gaulard and John Gibbe had been issued a patent in England for a system of alternating current power distribution using transformers. These patents were later purchased by Westinghouse for $50,000.
The Edison three-wire system of power distribution was patented this year. Up to 60 percent saving in copper was claimed. The system was tried out this year (July 4) in Sunbury, Pennsylvania using overhead lines.
1884
The first lead-covered cables for telephone use were manufactured by the Western Electric Company in Philadelphia.
Horace H. Eldred was awarded a patent on a 'Clearing Indicator' to indicate when a telephone conversation had been completed.
John Henry Poynting (1852-1914), in an article in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, showed that the transmission of electrical energy could be generally expressed in terms of electric and magnetic fields outside of the wire. He concluded that power flow is proportional to the vector product of the electric and magnetic fields.
1886
The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was founded this year.
John Joseph Carty invented the 'phantom circuit' for telephones this year. This permitted three conversations to take place over two pairs of wires.
The first American city to be lighted by alternating current power was Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This happened on March 23, 1886. The project was under the direction of Mr. William Stanley, who used the AC system of Westinghouse. The system consisted of one alternator providing 500 volts at 12 amperes.
1887
Thomas Edison put his idea of communicating with moving trains inductively into practice on the Lake Valley Railroad. The demand for communication with trains did not appear sufficient for continuance of this service.
Nathan Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky had a commerical telephone system in operation using acoustic telephones, an improved form of the string telephone.
Alternating current generators began to come into general use for AC distribution for commercial application.
The first electric power station in Japan was built this year.
1888
Nikola Tesla patented the three-phase motor and a method of three-phase power transmission. He described his two-phase motor and dynamo in a paper to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
1889
This year, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company absorbed the American Bell Company and became the headquarters of the various Bell systems it had combined.
Almon Brown Strowger filed for a patent on an Automatic Telephone Exchange. The patent was issued after two years, on March 10, 1891.
1890
After much consideration by the New York Prison Authorities, the first person to die in the electric chair was William Kemmler, who was electrocuted on August 6, 1890.
Noah Steiner Amstutz, in the United States, sent a half-tone picture over a 25-mile length of wire. This was probably the first really successful picture transmission by wire. THe process required eight minutes of transmission time.
Dr. Elihu Thomson patented his idea of cooling transformers by immersion in oil. This was patent #428648.
1891
Dr. George Johnstone Stoney suggested the name 'electron' for the negative charges produced by the Crookes tube. He introduced the work in his paper "On the Cause of Double Lines and of Equidistant Satellites in the Spectra of Gases". This was apparently the first time that 'electron' was used in its modern sense, although the term had been used in 1858 in a poetic version of the History of Electricity. Before Stoney's suggestion, the term had not specifically referred to a unit of negative electricity.
A long distance alternating current transmission line was built from Lauffen to Frankfurt in Germany for the electrotechnical exposition. This line was 109 miles long and operated at 30 kV. One hundred kilowatts of power was transmitted over the line. Three-phase alternators were exhibited.
In the United States, the first long distance high voltage demonstration line was built by Nikola Tesla in Colorado. The line was run from Ames to the Gold King Mine near Telluride, Colorado.
1892
The General Electric Company was formed by the merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company. By acquiring the business of Rudolf Eickemeyer, they obtained the services of Charles Steinmetz.
About this year, synchronous rectifiers came into use for converting AC to DC. The rectifiers were basically commutators which reversed the output connections with each change of polarity of the input voltage, giving a continuous current output.
The first dial telephone automatic exchange was opened for the public in LaPorte, Indiana on November 3 by Almon B. Storwger.
Long distance telephone service between New York and Chicago (900 miles) started this year over a new long distance line.
Large common batteries were installed in telephone exchanges, eliminating the need for batteries at each telephone as previously required.
1893
The possibility of electrical cooking was brought out by Westinghouse at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, in order to popularize the use of alternating current for general distribution. The Exposition was lighted by 93,000 incandescent lamps. Power was distributed using Tesla's polyphase system. The largest generators in the world were required to furnish the power.
The Fourth International Electrical Congress meeting in Chicago defined the ohm, volt, and ampere in terms of the other standards, as well as in the CGS electromagnetic units. The oh was defined as the resistance of a column of mercury 106.3 cm long, 14.4521 grams in mass, at the temperature of melting ice.
The 'henry' (after Joseph Henry) was proposed by Professor Eleuthère Elie Nicholas Mascart of France, for the international unit of inductance. This proposal was accepted by unanimous consent.
1896
Power from Niagara Falls was transmitted to Buffalo, New York. The line was 22 miles long and was designed for 11,000 volts, three-phase.
1899
- Michael I. Pupin disclosed his invention for making possible long distance telephony by presenting a paper before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. The paper, on the propagation of long electric waves, described a series of inductance coils distributed along the line. The system was patented and in 1901 the patent was sold to the Bell Telephone Company.
The twentieth century came in with an explosion of knowledge in nearly all technical fields. This was particularly true of those fields related to electricity. At the opening of the decade, dry cells and batteries were coming into use. [...] Also by the turn of the century, the demand for power was so great in all parts of the country that new sources of power were required, and the demand for larger generators and alternators was increasing. The problem of which type of current was best, alternating or direct, had not been resolved, and the debate continued for some years, but hydroelectric plants with alternating current generators were now being installed where water sources were available. Steam turbine plants were being built with alternating outputs up to five million watts.
The installation of these high capacity plants led naturally to the problem of wider distribution to more customers. The distance to which the power could be distributed was limited for several reasons, primarily copper losses in the conductor. This could be solved by using higher voltages. But here again was a problem. High voltage transmission meant the voltages must be transformed at the power plant up to the transmission voltage, and from the high voltage to the voltage required for distribution at the other end of the line. This resulted in high losses that brought in no revenue. Again science came to the rescue, with the development of more efficient transformers with the use of silicon steel laminations for the transformer core. Again the distance of transmission could be increased. By increasing the voltage, still further distances could be covered, but this too was limited by the insulation on the poles or towers. This problem was solved by improving the types of insulators for the high voltage lines. [...]
As the demand for the telephone increased, more and more wires were put on poles with increased maintenance expense to the telephone companies. Again an advance was made, with the suggestion of the party line system. Although lacking the privacy of individual lines, the party line put the phones on farms and in city houses where it could not otherwise have been afforded. The multiplying costs of poles, insulators, and maintenance, particularly in the winter, brought the idea of underground lines into practice. The first underground long distance line was installed between New York City and Jersey City. Cables came into use rather than open wire lines, and a cable was run from Seattle, Washington to Sitka, Alaska. Almost as soon as the telegraph and telephone came into use, the idea of sending pictures by wire and wireless became the main interest of inventors in various parts of the world. By the end of the decade, pictures, although crude by today's standards, had been sent over appreciable distances.
1900
By this date, the United States had one telephone for every 60 people. Sweden was second, with an estimated one for every 190 people.
The term 'television' was coined by the Frenchman M. Perskyi. Previous to this, picture transmission was referred to by such terms as 'electrical telescope', 'telectroscope', or 'teleoscope'.
1901
To bring order out of the chaos existing in the field of measurements, Carl Hering, President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, sent a telegram to the House of Representatives urging action be taken. To him it was a "National humiliation" that U. S. instruments must be sent to Germany for calibraton. As a result, the Bureau of Standards was established.
J. J. Carty devised the method of putting four houses on one telephone line with a different ring for each house. This idea made the party line practicable.
The Teletype Code such as is presently used was developed by Donald Murray to be used with a three-row keyboard machine.
1903
The Signal Corps Cable from Sitka, Alaska to Seattle, Washington was started in the fall of 1903. This was the longest cable manufactured in the United States up to thtat time (1070 miles). It was manufactured by the Safety Insulated Wire and Cable Co. in Bayonne, New Jersey. The installation was completed by August 1904.
Electrification of the New York Central lines in and around New York City was made necessary by the New York State Legislature which passed an ordinance forbidding the use of steam locomotives south of the Harlem River after 1908.
1904
The International Telephone and Telegraph Construction Company was formed this year by Harry Shoemaker and John Firth.
1906
The telephone line between Jacksonville, Florida and Valdosta, Georgia was built this year by the Bell System and was used until 1974, when it was replaced by a cable system.
1907
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Western Electric Company combined their engineering departments at the Western Electric Company combined their engineering department at 304 West Street in New York City. The group was known as the Bell Telephone Laboratory. It was not a formal organization until 1925.
The Erie Railroad is believed to be the first company to utilize single phase alternating current in changing from steam to electric power on part of its Rochester division. This was a passenger service. Freight was still handled by steam engines.
1909
An automatic key was developed by the Hulitt Company. The key produced automatic dots and manual dashes. Occasional winding was required. The key was on the market for a time, before the company was taken over by the Vibroplex Company.
The second decade of the century was much like the first, with advances made in nearly all brances of the electrical field. A major development was the invention of the Watt hour meter. With this instrument, a power customer could be charged for the electrical power he used, rather than by the number of rooms in the house or the number of lights in the building. Prior to this, there was little incentive to turn off lights, since it did not affect the light bill. The meters soon became part of every electrical installation. [...] The trend in power transmission to the high voltage continued, with lines operating up to at least 7,000 volts and possibly higher. [...] The telephone networs continued to expand, with many independent companies becoming established. The means of getting more service from the lines already installed became important to the numerous telephone companies, and the phantom circuit was developed, followed soon by the use of carrier current, to multiply the use of the existing lines. [...] By the use of amplifiers, the telephone lines were extended to the West Coast. Development in vacuum tubes continued, and by the middle of the decade, the Bell system was using tubes with life expectancies of over 4,000 hours.
1910
The Bakelite Corporation was founded by Leo H. Baekland to market his insulating material known as Bakelite.
The phantom circuit, long used on open wire lines to increase the number of communication channels, had problems when used with cables. The problems had been overcome and the system was put in operation on the cable between Neponset and Boston, Massachusetts.
1911
Direct telephone service between Denver, Colorado and New York City was inaugurated by the Bell System. This greatly reduced the time required to complete the initial connections and improved the service generally.
1912
Frederick Lowenstein submitted a sealed box to the AT&T Co. for tests to determine its suitability for use as a repeater. This 'Ion Controller', as it was called, was an improvement over the existing De Forest tube operation, but still not satisfactory for telephone use. Later it was disclosed that the box contained a De Forest audion with a negative grid bias. The patent obtained by Lowenstein was known at the "C--bias patent".
The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (AT&T) was planning a transcontinental telephone line and needed an amplifier to boost its signals along the line. On October 30, John Stone and De Forest took their amplifier for AT&T to consider. It was a three-tube device which had been tested at the Bureau of Standards, and showed a gain of 120 times. The circuit gave linear amplification at low signal levels, but was not satisfactory at the higher levels because of ionization of the gas in the tube. Dr. Harold Arnold of AT&T recognized the problem, and thought it could be improved by a harder vacuum, which was later proved correct. Irving Langmuir of General Electric Co. and Harold Arnold of AT&T both developed tubes superior to those of De Forest. AT&T later bought rights to the audion tube for $50,000.
The first public automatic telephone exchange was opened in Epsom, England.
1914
- Thomas A. Edison invented the 'telescribe', a device capable of recording both sides of the telephone conversation.
1915
Power transmission had developed to the point where 4,000 to 7,000 volts could be sent efficiently about 70 miles.
The first transcontinental telephone line was opened for service January 15, which a conversation among President Woodrow Wilson in Washington D. C., Alexander Graham Bell, in New York City, Thomas Watson in San Francisco, and Theodore N. Vail at Jekyll Island, Florida. This was made possible by vacuum tube amplifiers and Pupin coils. Type 'M' tubes were used in the repeaters. Bell in New York said to Watson in San Francisco, "Mr. Watson, please come here. I want you." Watson answered, "It would take me a week now."
1916
- For his work in developing lightning arrestors at the General Electric Company, Steinmetz built what was probably the largest electrostatic generator up to that time. The discharges of this device were used to simulate lightning and permit evaluation of the effectiveness of the arrestors.
1917
The first electronic tube repeater in France was installed by the telephone company on the Paris-Marseilles Telephone line this year. It utilized two stages of amplification, using the French TM tubes.
1918
Carrier current telphony was introduced commercially in the United States. This development greatly increased the capacity of the existing telephone lines. The first five-channel carrier was installed this year, starting a trend which grew for many years.
1919
- The phenomenon of 'whistlers' was first reported by H. Barkhausen. He heard them while listening to allied telephone conversations during World War I. It is said that whistlers had been noticed as far back as 1888 in Austria on long distance telephone lines.
During this period, alternating current had largely displaced direct current power, except for cities where DC had originally been installed, primarily for lighting purposes. [...] At the start of the decade, transmission lines were operating at or in the neighborhood of 150,000 volts. A few years later, this had been increased to 220,000 volts. Steam and hydroelectric plants were being built all over the country. The efficiency of the power plant alternators was improved by the use of hydrogen gas cooling, since hydrogen has greater heat conductivity and less drag on the rotating armature, than air. The idea of taking electricity to the farm brought a movement of farm cooperatives to bring power to those farms wanting it. [...] In the line of fixed capacitors, a major breakthrough was made with the development of the electrolytic capacitors. The paper capacitors required for filtering in B battery eliminators or in sets operating off the power line, were in general as big or bigger than the power transformers. With the development of the electrolytic capacitor, the size for a given capacity and voltage rating of the filter capacitors could be reduced on the order of 30 times.
1920
A new machine capable of making twenty to thirty thousand glass bulbs per day was put in operation by the Corning Glass Works. This was a major step in reducing the price of light bulbs and vacuum tubes.
The International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) was founded by the brothers Sosthenes and Hernand Behn to run a telephone and telegraph system in Puerto Rico and Cuba.
By 1920, high voltage transmission lines had become rather common, with some lines operating at 150 kV.
1921
The first trollibus installation in the United States was tried in Richmond, Virginia. This was a demonstration project, to show that the electrically powered vehicle could easily maneuver in traffic in spite of the two overhead trolly wires. The test would also permit cost studies comparing it with streetcards and conventional buses.
1923
The Vibroplex #6 Key (the 'Lightning Bug'), manufactured by the Vibroplex Company, came on the market. This key was widely used by operators on ships and shore. Many of these keys are still operating today.
Herbert Ives of AT&T invented a means of sending pictures by wire, known as telephotography.
C. F. Jenkins sent pictures by wire from Washington, D. C. to Philadelphia. Among them was a picture of President Warren G. Harding.
Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania began a movement advocating the necessity of farm electrification, by means of rural cooperatives if necessary. Prior to this time, there were about 31 cooperatives (incorporated in nine states) which supplied power to the farms.
1924
Bakelite base 201A [vacuum] tubes were brought out, with ruggedized elements, higher gm (mutual conductance), [and] reduced plate impedance.
Ernest Humphrey Scott organized his first laboratory in Chicago this year, called the Scott Transformer Company. By 1925, the company had grown to encompass a three-story building, with about 45 employees.
1925
The Pennsylvania-New York Central and other railroads had been using the amateur [radio] stations for assistance in the case of emergencies along the tracks, using the signal QRR. The signal QRR was later adopted to include all emergencies on land.
Commercial facsimile began in this country, initially with eight cities linked by the Bell System.
The Engineering Department of the Western Electric Co. and the research organization of the Bell System merged as the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. Frank B. Jewett became the first president.
The first oscillograph recordings of lightning surges on a transmission line were made at Uppsala University in Sweden, by Professor Harold Norinder.
1926
The business of the Western Electric Manufacturing Co. had grown to such volume that a separate company was set up for the distribution of its products. This company was named after Elisha Gray and Enos Barton, and is known as Graybar Electric Co.
A new era of power control at high voltages was begun by the publication of a paper by Sorensen and Mendenhall of the California Institute of Technology. In experiments with vacuum switches, they could successfully break 926-ampere rms at 41,500 volts.
1927
The idea of negative feedback for telephone use was conceived by Harold S. Black of the Bell Laboratories. He had been working for several years on developing a low-distortion amplifier. The idea of negative feedback occurred to him while going to work, August 2, 1927.
The use of vacuum gaps for lightning arresters developed about this time for use on power lines. They were triggered by the voltage developed on power lines by the lightning stroke.
The Holburn Exchange, the first automatic telephone exchange in London, England, began operating in November 1927.
By this time, the electric lights, telephones, telegraphs, and radios had become accepted parts of society. [...] The middle of the decade gave birth to the 'computer age'. [...] Television, soon to become a major industry, grew from a mechanical system at the start of the decade, to an electronic system with reasonable resolution by the end of the decade. [...] In the power area, the President signed an order creating the Rural Electrification Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority. With the organization of farmers requesting service, power was brought to millions of farms all across the country. Where suitable locations were found, dams were being constructed for both power generation and flood control. Also, the high voltage lines from Boulder Dam to Los Angeles was energized at 287,000 watts. Electric locomotives utilizing AC series motors came into use. [...] The telephone systems were still rapidly expanding, and the coaxial cable was being developed for both multi-channels, telephone, television, and the ikonophone-- a telephone system with the speaker at either end able to see the other.
1930
In April, AT&T demonstrated two-way telephone with two-way television transmission. The system was called the ikonophone.
1932
Work started on the replacement of the cable originally laid in 1903-04 from Washington State to Alaska. The new cable used gutta-percha insulation, as it was more stable with a longer life than the rubber originally used.
Carrier current control was used in Springfield, Massachusetts for turning on and off the street lights.
The Dnieper Dam was completed in the Ukraine. The power plant can provide about 800,000 horsepower. Engineering was under the directions of Hugh L. Cooper.
The first edition of the National Electrical Code Handbook was published this year, authored by Arthur L. Abbott. The National Electrical Safety Code was necessary because of the many disastrous fires resulting from improper wiring when electric lighting first came into general use.
1933
The Tennessee Valley Authority was created by an act of Congress May 18, 1933, and signed by President Roosevelt. Besides providing flood control and power generation, it also provided improved river navigation on the Tennessee River and its tributaries in seven states. The first power plant was to be at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The first administrator was Morris L. Cooke.
1934
Barium titanate was developed as a capacitor dielectric. The dielectric constant of the material was initially 1500; by 1969, it had been increased by ten times, making very small capacitors of high capacitance possible.
Western Telegraph Co. absorbed Postal Telegraph this year.
The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. combined its Research and Development department with those of the Bell Telephone Co., [in an addition to] the Bell Telephone Laboratories.
The power required for the construction of Hoover Dam (generally known as Boulder Dam) was brought to the dam site from San Bernadino at 287,000 volts. This line was energized in 1934.
Tupelo, Mississippi is reputed to be the first town to use TVA power. Service started February 7, 1934.
1935
The Associated Press began facsimile operation (Wirephoto) over telephone lines among twenty-four offices.
Engineers of the General Electric Co., in their study of lightning discharges, set up equipment to study the effect of a lightning discharge to the Empire State Building in New York City, then the highest building in the world. The lightning rod was connected to the steel framework of the building, which carried the charge to earth. Recorders and cameras were used to determine time duration, current, and other characteristics of the discharge.
1936
It was about this time that the automatic door opener by photocell control came in rather general use.
The German Post Office started videophone service between Berlin, Nurnberg, and Leipzig.
1937
Joseph Sola devised the Constant-Voltage Transformer.
The Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in Oregon was built with the idea of navigation on the river, with power as a byproduct. The ten-generator plant can provide roughly 500,000 kilowatts of power. The design was coordinated by Henry J. Kaiser.
1938
The type 'J' carrier system for telephones was installed this year. This carrier system provided 12 channels operating on open lines. Different frequencies were used for opposite direction of transmission.
1939
This year, the Bakelite Corporation, founded in 1916, was taken over by the Union Carbide Company.
The Rural Electrification Administration came under the Department of Agriculture on July 1, 1939, under the terms of a plan submitted to Congress by President Roosevelt.
An experimental coaxial cable system was demonstrated between New York and Philadelphia by the Bell Telephone Co.
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