Johann Philipp Reis: biography. Last days of the Reis
According to legend, the first words transmitted over the telephone were a phrase in German: Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat (“The horse does not eat cucumber salad”). On October 26, 1861, it was pronounced by the German physicist and inventor, the son of a baker from Gelnhausen, Johann Philipp, who was one of the first to construct an electric telephone, which is now called the Reis telephone in his honor.
Johann Philipp Reis was born in 1834 in the German city of Gelnhausen. He lost his mother in infancy, so he was raised under the care of his grandmother. Philip was 6 years old when his abilities attracted the attention of teachers at the Kassel School. At the age of 10 he was sent to the Garnier Institute in Friedrichsdorf, where he mastered English and French languages. And at the age of 14, Reis became a student at the Hassel Institute in Frankfurt am Main, where he also mastered Latin and Italian languages. But Philip showed the greatest interest in science. And despite the fact that, at the insistence of his relatives, he was assigned as an apprentice to a company selling paints, he did not leave his favorite job. In his free time, he took lessons in mathematics and physics, and attended lectures on mechanics. Then, leaving work, he began studying at the Frankfurt Institute and joined the Physical Society in Frankfurt.
In 1855, after returning from military service, Reis began teaching mathematics and other sciences, giving private lessons and public lectures. In 1858 he took up a post at the Garnier Institute. In 1959, after getting married, Reis moved to Friedrichsdorf.
Johann Philipp worked towards his invention for several years. Fascinated by the theoretical foundations of energy transfer, he put forward the assumption that electricity is the same light, only invisible. Therefore, like light, it can spread freely in space without material conductors. The researcher described the results of his experiments in the article “In the Rays of Energy,” which he sent to Professor Poggendorff for publication in the journal Annalen der Physik in 1859. The manuscript was rejected. But Reis was not going to back down.
The idea of transmitting sound using electricity came to Johann Philipp while studying the organs of hearing; he thought about it for several years. The concept of the French telegraphist Charles Bourcel, published in 1854, was taken as the basis.
In 1860, Reis designed a device capable of transmitting sound over a distance of up to 100 meters. In 1862, Philip again appealed to the editors of the magazine with a request to publish a report on the invention, but this time he was refused. Reis associated this attitude towards the discovery with his status as a simple school teacher. In fact, Professor Poggendorff did not even admit the possibility of transmitting voice over a distance.
Telephon, which is what Reis called his invention, was demonstrated to various audiences, but did not arouse much interest in anyone. Reis's apparatus worked on the "telegraph" principle of Charles Boursel: it opened an electrical circuit at the speed of vibration of a metal plate at an audio frequency. The result was not ideal: the device conveyed the tone satisfactorily, but significantly distorted the timbre of the sound. At that time, there was no one nearby who would take up the task of improving the device. However, it was Reis's apparatus that was adopted as the basis for further developments by Bell, Edison and Berliner in the field of telephony.
Johann Philipp Reis died in January 1874, at the age of 40, after a painful illness. He was buried in the Friedrichsdorf cemetery. After the invention of the telephone, in 1878, members of the Frankfurt Physical Society erected a monument on his grave.
Twenty kilometers from Frankfurt is the small town of Friedrichsdorf. There, in 1834, Johann Philipp Reis, a German mathematics teacher, a talented designer, and one of the inventors of telephone communications, was born. Why "one of"? Because Antonio Meucci began work on his “teletrophone” earlier, in 1850, when Reis was still a teenager. However, let's start in order...
How it all started
It all started when Reis, who grew up without a mother, showed an interest in science at the age of fourteen. His relatives and guardians wanted to make him a merchant. However, he was interested in lectures on mechanics, physics and mathematics at the Frankfurt Institute. The young man learned a lot, mastered a lot and joined the local Physical Society.
After military service, in the late 50s of the 19th century, Philip Reis became interested in the theoretical foundations of energy transfer and suggested that electricity is the same light, only invisible. Therefore, like light, it can spread freely in space.
Confused with electromagnetic radiation, which happens to everyone. More than forty years remained before Nikola Tesla's first radio transmitter appeared, so the mistake was forgivable.
In general, Reis wrote an article on this topic and sent it to the journal “Annalen der Physik”, Professor Poggendorff. But he was refused. Like, we have a reputable publication, we won’t publish any nonsense.
What came of all this
Then Philip Reis decided to prove that he was not going to talk nonsense. I mean, it will transmit something over a distance. What exactly? Well, for example, sound. Using the same electricity.
The concept of the French telegraphist Charles Boursel, published in 1854, was taken as the basis. Sound waves hit a metal plate, it trembles in resonance with them and transmits vibrations to an electrical circuit by interrupting it. At the other end, an inductor makes another plate vibrate, which converts the impulses back into sound.
Reis writes another article for the same magazine. The same professor replies that transmitting sound over a distance is absurd. Like, young man, leave us alone in the end.
The designer had no choice but to produce a functioning apparatus, named by the creator - what do you think? - "telephone" ! (That is, “Telephon.” Although the word was first used by Charles Bourcel.)
The device was demonstrated in Frankfurt before the Physical Society in 1860. The sound was indeed transmitted, even if only over 100 meters.
How did it all end?
Despite the more or less successful demonstration, neither members of the Physical Society in Frankfurt am Main, nor entrepreneurs, nor government agencies. No one at all.
Reis himself did not knock on the doorsteps of various offices, proposing to introduce the device. The designer was diagnosed with a pulmonary disease. Because of him, he died at the age of forty and was buried in hometown, receiving only a modest monument at his grave (and even then not right away).
Why did everything turn out this way?
Reis's apparatus, as mentioned above, worked on the “telegraph” principle of Charles Boursel - it opened an electrical circuit at the speed of vibration of a metal plate at an audio frequency. Naturally, the result was rattling and illegible. And there was no one nearby who was willing to take up the task of improving the device.
In 1876, Alexander Bell received a patent for the telephone in a less than honest manner instead of Antonio Meucci. And in 1877, carbon microphones arrived, which turned out to be very useful. Emil Berliner, David Hughes, and Anthony White worked on their development and improvement. The powder modification (often found to this day) was invented by the well-known Thomas Edison. So progress moved on, and everyone forgot about Philip Reis.
Although, someone remembered. In 1878, when everything was ready to install telephones on the planet, and newspapers vying with each other showered Bell with laurels, members of the Physical Society from Frankfurt came to their senses and decided to shed crocodile tears for the Reis they had rejected - they erected the above-mentioned modest monument on his grave.
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Last edit: 2013-01-28 16:50:12
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Reis was born in Gelnhausen, Germany. There is still debate about its origin. Philip's mother died when he was still a baby, and his paternal grandmother, a well-read, intelligent, religious woman, was involved in raising the child. At the age of six, Philip was sent to study at the Kassel school. Here his abilities attracted the attention of teachers, and Philip’s father was advised to send his son to college. The father died when the child was not even ten years old, but Reis's grandmother, with the help of his guardians, managed to place Philip at the Garnier Institute in Friedrichsdorf, where he showed interest in foreign languages and soon mastered English and French.
At the age of 14, Reis entered the Hassel Institute in Frankfurt am Main, where he also mastered Latin and Italian. Philip showed increasing interest in science, and his guardians were advised to send the teenager to the Karlsruhe Polytechnic School; however, one of them, Philip's uncle, wanted him to become a merchant, and on March 1, 1850, Reis, against his wishes, was assigned as an apprentice to the paint sales company of J.F. Beyerbach. Philip promised his uncle to pursue his chosen occupation, but without giving up his studies in science.
Thanks to his hard work, Philip won the respect of Beyerbach, and in his free time he took private lessons in mathematics and physics and attended lectures on mechanics by Professor R. Bottger at the School of Commerce. When Reis' practice as a merchant ended, he began studying at Dr. Poppe's institute in Frankfurt. Subjects such as history and geography were not taught here, so some students taught the basics of these sciences to each other; So, Reis began teaching geography, considering it his calling. Also at this time he became a member of the Society of Physicists in Frankfurt.
In 1855, Reis completed his military service in Kassel and returned to Frankfurt, where he began teaching mathematics and other sciences, giving private lessons and public lectures. Reis wanted to enter the University of Heidelberg, but in 1858 his old friend and teacher Gofrad Garnier offered him a post at the Garnier Institute.
On September 14, 1859, Reis married and soon moved to Friedrichsdorf to restart his teaching career here.
Reis believed that electricity spreads over a distance, like light, without material conductors, and carried out several experiments on his theory. The results of the experiments were described by Reiss in the article “In the Rays of Energy,” which in 1859 was sent to Professor Poggendorff for inclusion in the famous journal Annalen der Physik. Much to Race's disappointment, the manuscript was rejected.
The idea of transmitting sound using electricity was born when Reis was studying the organs of hearing, and he thought about it for several years. In 1860, Reis designed the first prototype telephone, capable of transmitting sound over distances of up to 100 meters. In 1862, Philip wrote to Poggendorff again - this time asking him to publish a report on the apparatus he had invented, but this report was also rejected. Professor Poggendorff dismissed the possibility of voice transmission at a distance as a pipe dream, but Reis believed that his articles were rejected only because he was a simple school teacher.
The invention was demonstrated to many people, including Wilhelm von Legat, inspector of the Royal Prussian Telegraph Corps, but Reis did not meet with much interest. In 1872, the device was introduced to the USA by Professor Vanderweide, where it aroused much greater interest. Among those who saw the first telephone were Thomas Edison, representatives of Bell and Western Union. Reis's apparatus became the starting point for further developments by Bell, Edison and Berliner in this area.
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Reis stopped giving lessons and began studying scientific problems, but his health soon became a serious obstacle; however, Reis did not give up his studies. The disease attacked Race's lungs, and he began to lose his voice; in the summer of 1873 he had to leave his studies for several weeks. In the fall, Philip's condition improved slightly and he returned to teaching, but not for long. In September, Reis was supposed to present a new gravitational machine at the congress of German natural scientists in Wiesbaden, but was unable to due to illness. In December he finally fell ill and, after a long and painful illness, died in January 1874, at five o’clock in the evening.
Reis wrote:
“Looking back on the past years, I must admit that they were spent in “labor and sorrow,” as the Holy Scriptures say. But I am grateful to God for his blessings: for my calling and my family, and also for the fact that he gave me more happiness than I required. God has helped me before and will help me in the future."
Philipp Reis was buried in the Friedrichsdorf cemetery, and in 1878, after the invention of the telephone, members of the Frankfurt Physicists' Society erected a red sandstone obelisk with his portrait on his grave.
07 January 1834 - 14 January 1874
German physicist and inventor who was the first to construct an electric telephone in 1860, which is now called the Reis telephone in his honor
Childhood and youth
Reis was born in Gelnhausen, Germany. There is still debate about its origin. Philip's mother died when he was still a baby, and his paternal grandmother, a well-read, intelligent, religious woman, was involved in raising the child. At the age of six, Philip was sent to study at the Kassel school. Here his abilities attracted the attention of teachers, and Philip’s father was advised to send his son to college. The father died when the child was not even ten years old, but Reis's grandmother, with the help of his guardians, managed to place Philip at the Garnier Institute in Friedrichsdorf, where he showed interest in foreign languages and soon mastered English and French.
At the age of 14, Reis entered the Hassel Institute in Frankfurt am Main, where he also mastered Latin and Italian. Philip showed an increasing interest in science, and his guardians were advised to send the teenager to the Karlsruhe Polytechnic School; however, one of them, Philip's uncle, wanted him to become a merchant, and on March 1, 1850, Reis, against his wishes, was assigned as an apprentice to the paint sales company of J.F. Beyerbach. Philip promised his uncle to pursue his chosen occupation, but without giving up his studies in science.
Thanks to his hard work, Philip won the respect of Beyerbach, and in his free time he took private lessons in mathematics and physics and attended lectures on mechanics by Professor R. Bottger at the School of Commerce. When Reis' practice as a merchant ended, he began studying at Dr. Poppe's institute in Frankfurt. Subjects such as history and geography were not taught here, so some students taught the basics of these sciences to each other; So, Reis began teaching geography, considering it his calling. Also at this time he became a member of the Society of Physicists in Frankfurt.
In 1855, Reis completed his military service in Kassel and returned to Frankfurt, where he began teaching mathematics and other sciences, giving private lessons and public lectures. Reis wanted to enter the University of Heidelberg, but in 1858 his old friend and teacher Gofrad Garnier offered him a post at the Garnier Institute.
On September 14, 1859, Reis married and soon moved to Friedrichsdorf to restart his teaching career here.
Invention of the telephone
Reis believed that electricity spreads over a distance, like light, without material conductors, and carried out several experiments on his theory. The results of the experiments were described by Reiss in the article “In the Rays of Energy,” which in 1859 was sent to Professor Poggendorff for inclusion in the famous journal Annalen der Physik. Much to Race's disappointment, the manuscript was rejected.
The idea of transmitting sound using electricity was born when Reis was studying the organs of hearing, and he thought about it for several years. In 1860, Reis designed the first prototype telephone, capable of transmitting sound over distances of up to 100 meters. In 1862, Philip wrote to Poggendorff again - this time asking him to publish a report on the apparatus he had invented, but this report was also rejected. Professor Poggendorff dismissed the possibility of voice transmission at a distance as a pipe dream, but Reis believed that his articles were rejected only because he was a simple school teacher.
Last days of the Reis
Reis stopped giving lessons and began studying scientific problems, but his health soon became a serious obstacle; however, Reis did not give up his studies. The disease attacked Race's lungs, and he began to lose his voice; in the summer of 1873 he had to leave his studies for several weeks. In the fall, Philip's condition improved slightly and he returned to teaching, but not for long. In September, Reis was supposed to present the new gravitational machine at the congress of German natural scientists in Wiesbaden, but was unable to due to illness. In December he finally fell ill and, after a long and painful illness, died in January 1874, at five o’clock in the evening.
Reis wrote:
Philipp Reis was buried in the Friedrichsdorf cemetery, and in 1878, after the invention of the telephone, members of the Frankfurt Physicists' Society erected a red sandstone obelisk with his portrait on his grave.
