Nathan Stubblefield
From Free net encyclopedia
Blainster (Talk | contribs)
/* External links and references */ chg to standard section title
Next diff →
Current revision
Nathan B. Stubblefield (November 22, 1860 - March 28, 1928) was an American inventor and Kentucky melon farmer. It has been claimed that Stubblefield invented the radio before either Nikola Tesla or Guglielmo Marconi, but his device seems to have worked by induction transmission rather than that of electrical conduction for radio transmission (and his general contributions were after Tesla's initial public demonstrations.) Because Marconi's contemporaneous experiments focused on CW or Morse code transmission, Stubblefield remained a claimant for the invention of wireless telephony, or wireless transmission of the human voice. The physics club of Murray State University is named in his honor.
Contents |
Biography
Nathan B. Stubblefield was the son of a lawyer, Capt Billy Stubblefield, and he was an educator. Stubblefield lived in Murray, Kentucky. He was orphaned in 1874. Stubblefield was unschooled (or self-schooled). He married in 1881. In the 1890s, Stubblefield operated the "Nathan B. Stubblefield's Wireless Industrial School, or "Teléph-on-délgreen" on land that is now the campus of Murray State University (according to Murray State Professor Larry Joseph Hortin). Stubblefield named the campus "Teléph-on-délgreen" because of his perception of the nature of the land's ability to emit electromagnetic energy from the ground.
According to Murray State University Professor Ray Mofield, Stubblefield invented the wireless telephone, or radio. According to Edward Freeman, he made his first demonstration in Murray in 1882. Stubblefield caused distinct vibration tremors of a compass needle using an earth battery. In 1885, Stubblefield reportedly succeeded in sending voice between two parallel antennas by utilizing the same principles Ward and Loomis developed in sending damped signals but via a low-frequency undamped electric wave dispersion system. It was limited in distance, but wireless.
Among the methods Stubblefield used in his operating device were:
- electro-magnetic induction
- electric current dispersion (wired)
- electro-static induction
- electro-magnetic waves
- Combination of previous methods
The first and fourth methods were demonstrated by Stubblefield. By 1890, Stubblefield reportedly was using all these methods to transmit and receive understandable human voice. He was reportedly the first to use a loudspeaker with his wireless.
By 1890, Stubblefield discovered there were several methods by which articulate speech could be transmitted between two given points without connecting wires, or wireless telephony, as it is was popularly termed at the time. Stubblefield's reportedly first public wireless telephone demonstration was given in the town square of Murray, Kentucky, a radius of about one half mile. Rainey T. Wells was one of the first persons to hear Stubblefield's wireless voice transmissions, in 1892.
From 1885 to 1913, Stubblefield invented, developed, manufactured and sold, both his wired mechanical telephone, and his wireless telephone systems through his own companies, partnerships or corporations he owned shares of stock in. The companies he was involved in were the NBS Enterprises, The Wireless Telephone Company of America, The Gehring-Fennell-Stubblefield Group, The Continental Wireless Tel.& Tel Company, The Collins Wireless Telephone Company, and Teléph-on-délgreen. In 1898, Stubblefield was issued a patent for an "Electric battery" (Template:US patent, which comprised an electrolytic coil).
Stubblefield's business partners ultimately irreparably damaged his developments and left him bankrupt. Stubblefield later lived in a self-imposed isolation in a crude shelter and, eventually, starved himself to death. Stubblefield destroyed every prototype he made. He was buried in the Stubblefield Cemetery in Murray, Kentucky (Calloway County). The cemetery is located in the back yard of the house where he lived.
Timeline
- 1882 - Transmitted audio frequency electromagnetic signals
- 1885 - Transmitted the human voice, using his induction coil transmitter
- 1892 - First to broadcast human voice, using his wireless telephone attached to a land antenna
- 1898 - May 8: patented "electric battery" (wireless telephone transmission coil)
- 1902 - First Ship-to-shore wireless telephone broadcast, using wires dropped in the water from the steamer Bartholdi
- 1908 - Patented the all-in-one Wireless Telephone for auto/ship/train: Template:US patent.
Book
- Troy Cory-Stubblefield and Josie Cory, Disappointments Are Great! Follow the Money... Smart Daaf Boys, The Inventors of Radio & Television and the Life Style of Stubblefield, Marconi, Ambrose Fleming, Reginald Fessenden, Tesla, ... DeForest, Armstrong, Alexanderson and Farnsworth, 2003, Library of Congress Catalog Card #93-060451, ISBN 1883644348, (SMART denotes Stubblefield, Marconi, Ambrose Fleming, Reginald Fessenden and Tesla, and DAAF denotes, DeForest, Armstrong, Alexanderson and Farnsworth) This is a bibliography of manuscripts of these inventors.
External links
Patents
- Template:US patent Patent - "Lighting device" - November 3, 1885.
- Template:US patent Patent - "Electric battery" - May 8, 1898.
- Template:US patent Patent - "Wireless telephone" - May 12, 1908.
Other links
- Naughton, Russell, "Nathan Stubblefield : 1858 - 1928". Adventures in Cybersound.
- "Nathan B. Stubblefield". Wfmu.org. 1996.
- "Nathan Stubblefield". All About Wireless. 2001.
- "Stubblefield Radio Trust". SMART90.com.
- "Did Nathan B. Stubblefield, really invent the wireless telephone?". The TeleKey Group.
- Haslam, Garth, "Stubblefield's Wireless". Anomalies, Mysteries, or Curiosities.
- "Nathan Stubblefield". Find A Grave
- " Stubblefield Cell". Icehouse.net.
- Raw Deal summation