nm

[Storm Bay]

Kinda sounds more like a two way radio than a phone--unless I'm missing something?

 

You'd have to look that up, but it was a telephone. One of the reasons Fessenden got interested in radio was because when he heard about the telephone he wondered why you couldn't do that without wires. The biography I read specifically said telephone. Here's just one of many online articles about him, since the biography may be harder to find (but there is one in our library network) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14793699 this blurb mentions the first wireless phone

 

http://profiles.incredible-people.com/reginald-aubrey-fessenden/

 

It was a radio telephone, to be sure, but it still was a wireless phone--how else could it have been done before cellular technology? I highly doubt it was small enough to be held up to the ear like that!!!:D

 

At any rate, this is simply a fun thread and I wanted to point out the invention of a man who was not given his dues (one of those ripped off by RCA, for eg) or credit (most books say that Marconi invented the radio, but he ended up using Fessenden's work). One could argue that a wireless radio phone isn't very portable, of course, which I did mention at first ;).

[lionfamily1999]

....and where did she park the DeLorean? :D

 

astrid

:lol:

[DarlaS]

It was a radio telephone, to be sure, but it still was a wireless phone--how else could it have been done before cellular technology? I highly doubt it was small enough to be held up to the ear like that!!!:D

 

At any rate, this is simply a fun thread and I wanted to point out the invention of a man who was not given his dues (one of those ripped off by RCA, for eg) or credit (most books say that Marconi invented the radio, but he ended up using Fessenden's work). One could argue that a wireless radio phone isn't very portable, of course, which I did mention at first ;).

 

Fascinating.

 

I wonder, is there a book of inventors who didn't get their due out there somewhere? I buy books for Christmas, and my kids (and I!) would LOVE something like that.

[Storm Bay]

Fascinating.

 

I wonder, is there a book of inventors who didn't get their due out there somewhere? I buy books for Christmas, and my kids (and I!) would LOVE something like that.

I don't know of one; I learned of Fessenden in some book on Canadian inventors.

 

Also, Fessenden was homeschooled until he was 9.

[stripe]

I wonder, is there a book of inventors who didn't get their due out there somewhere? I buy books for Christmas, and my kids (and I!) would LOVE something like that.

 

The Boy Who Invented TV : The Story Of Philo Farnsworth by Krull is a great book. He's long dead but apparently it's his widow who's led the campaign to get him recognition. Another interesting book is The Kid Who Named Pluto: And the Stories of Other Extraordinary Young People in Science. (It also includes info on Farnsworth.)