Philipp Reis (Deutsch/ English/ Español (Sentanka)
Philipp Reis (Deutsch/ English/ Español (Sentanka)
Übertragung von Sprache
Mit den einfachsten Mitteln
Über große Entfernung
Versagt blieb ihm der Erfolg
Viel zu früh kam sein Tod
Transmission of voice
By using the simplest means
Over long distances
Success was denied to him
His death came far too early
Transmisión de voz
Utilizando medios más simples
Por grandes distancias
Se impedió el éxito
Su muerte llegó demasiado pronto
Johann Philipp Reis (1834, Gelnhausen, Hesse, Germany – 1874, Friedrichsdorf, Hesse,
Germany) was a German-Jewish physicist and inventor. He is known as the inventor of the
telephone and he developed an apparatus for 'transmission of sounds by means of electric
cables'. He also invented a contact microphone and named his appliances 'Telephon'. This
name was later internationally adopted. Another of his inventions were 'roller skates',
the forerunner of modern inline skates.
As a teacher he taught French, physics, mathematics and chemistry in Friedrichsdort,
Taunus, Hesse. In his spare time he developed also a forerunner of the modern bycicle and
experimented with solar power. To guarantee his pupils pretentious lessons, he constructed
with simple means a reproduction of a human ear which stimulated later his invention of a
telephone and a contact microphone between 1858 and 1863. He also developed three improved
versions of the telephone. In 1861 he presented his prototype of a telephone to members of
the Physical Association in Frankfurt (Main). His lecture was titled: Of the Transmission
of Sounds over large Distance by means of Galvanic Electric Power'. A scientific report
was printed in the annual of the association in 1860/61 with the title: ' Ueber die
Telephonie durch den galvanischen Strom' (On Telephony by means of Galvanic Power). Reis'
last developed prototype of a telephone already disposed a call signal. Unluckily he was
not able to build more and improved telephones as he suffered early from tuberculosis. The
inventor of the first functional telephone died at the age of 40 and was buried at the
cemetary in Friedrichsdorf (Taunus).
Alexander Graham Bell got to know Reis' telephone in 1862 in Edinburgh. Bell's father
promised him and his brothers a prize money for further improvement of Reis' apparatus. In
1875 Bell experimented on a new telephone based on Reis' invention at the Smithonian
Institute in Washington DC. The world wide known scientific magazine Nature reported on
Reis' invention of the telephone as early as in the 1870ies.
Copyright © Gert W. Knop | Year Posted 2010
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