The International Telegraph Union
By 1862, 150,000 miles of telegraph cable cover the world. With 48,000 miles in the USA and15,000 Miles in Great Britain, the international community calls for an international body to regulate communications standards. In an answer to this request, the International Telegraph Union (ITU) is founded and twenty countries agree to cooperate in setting international standards ensuring that countries will be able to communicate with each other.

Stephen Mitchell Yeates
Perfects Reis's Invention

Stephen Mitchell Yeates (4) ran his family's business, "Instrument Makers and Opticians" which billed itself as "instrument makers to the University" and claimed to (6) specialize in scientific and educational instruments. The shop was directly across the street from Trinity College at 2 Grafton St., Dublin, Ireland. It was the business from Trinity College, which sustained the firm for so many years. Some of the scientific instruments made by Yeates and Son still exist today in Trinity College.

In 1865 Yeates purchased a Reis phone from a Mr. W. Ladd of London.
Mr. W. Ladd (1) was himself a well-known instrument maker in London.
Ladd brought one of Reis's Das Phone's from J.W. Albert and Son of Frankfort, Germany in July of 1863. Reis learned that Ladd was going to present the phone at a meeting of the British Association. Reis was concerned that Ladd had not seen the device work first hand and decided to send Ladd a letter explaining how the device worked. It is the only known document written in English by Philipp Reis:

Institut Garnier,
" Friedrichsdorf.

DEAR SIR!

"I am very sorry not to have been in Franefort when you were there at Mr. Albert's, by whom I have been informed that you have purchased one of my newly-invented instruments (Telephons). Though I will do all in my power to give you the most ample explanations on the subject, I am sure that personal communication would have been preferable; specially as I was told, that you will show the apparatus at your next sientifical meeting and thus introduce the apparatus in your country.

Tunes* and sounds of any kind are only brought to our conception by the condensations and rarefactions of air or any other medium in which we may find ourselves. By every condensation the tympanum of our ear is pressed inwards, by every rarefaction it is pressed outward and thus the tympanum performs oscillations like a pendulum. The smaller or greater number of the oscillations made in a second gives us by help of the small bones in our ear and the auditory nerve the idea of a higher or lower tune.

It was no hard labour, either to imagine that any other membrane besides that of our ear, could be brought to make similar oscillations, if spanned in a proper manner and if taken in good proportions, or to make use of these oscillations for the interruption of a galvanic current.

However these were the principles wich (sic) guided me in my invention. They were sufficient to induce me to try the reproduction of tunes at any distance. It would be long to relate all the fruitless attempts, I made, until I found out the proportions of the instrument and the necessary tension of the membrane. The apparatus you have bought ' - is now, what may be found most
simple, and works without failling when arranged carefully in the following manner.

"The apparatus consists of two separated parts ; one for the singing station A, and the other for the hearing station B. "The apparatus A. a square box of wood, the cover of which shows the membrane (c) on the outside, under glass. In the middle of the latter is fixed a small platina plate to which a flattened copper wire is soldered on purpose to conduct the galvanic current. Within the cerele you will further remark two screws. One of them is terminated by a little pit in which you put a little drop of quiksilver; the other is pointed. The angle, which you find lying on the membrane, is to be placed according to the letters, with the little whole [hole] (a) on the point (a) the little platina foot (b) into the quicksilver screw, the other platina foot will then come on the platina plate in the middle of the membrane.

"The galvanic current coming from the battery (which I compose generally of three or four good elements) is introduced at the conducting screw near (b) wherefrom. it proceeds to the quicksilver, the movable angle, the platina plate and the complementary telegraph to the conducting screw (s). From here it goes through the conducter to the other station B and there it returns to the battery.

"The apparatus B, a sonorous box on the cover of which is placed the wire-spiral with the steel axis, wich will be magnetic when the current goes through the spiral. A second little box is fixed on the first one, and laid down on the steel axis to increase the intensity of the reproduced sounds. On the small side of the lower box you will find the correspondent part of the complementary telegraph.

"If a person sing at the station A, in the tube (x) the vibrations of air will pass into the box and move the membrane above; thereby the platina foot (c) of the movable angle will be lifted up and will thus open the stream at every condensation of air in the box. The stream will be re-established at every rarefaction. For this manner the steel axis at station B will be magnetic once for every full vibration; and as magnetism never enters nor leaves a metal without disturbing the equilibrium of the atoms, the steel-axis at station 11 must repeat the vibrations at station A and thus reproduce the sounds which caused them.
"Any * sound will be reproduced, if strong enough to set the membrane in motion.
"The little telegraph, which you will find on the side of the apparatus is very usefull and agreable for to give signals between both of the correspondents. At every opening of the stream and next following shutting the station A will hear a little clap produced by the attraction of the steel spring. Another little clap will be heard at station (B) in the wire-spiral. By multiplying the claps and producing them in different measures you will be able as well as I am to get understood by your correspondent.

I am to end, Sir, and I hope, that what I said will be sufficient to have a first try; afterward you will get on quite alone.

"I am, Sir,
"Your Most obedient Servant,
"PH. Reis.
"Friedrichsdorf, 13/7, 63."

Ladd never shared this letter with Yeates. Ladd gave Yeates the box with a simple verbal explanation of how the device was intended to work. It was now up to Yeates to make it work or make it capable of transmitting clearly articulate speech.

After examining the instrument carefully, Stephen rejected the knitting needle receiver and redesigned a completely new sounding box to replace it. His electro-magnetic receiver had an armature, a strip of iron, which was attached at one end by a very stiff steel string to a pine wood sounding board over a hollow wooden box, from the base of which rose a metal pillar which supported the electro-magnet. This receiver also contains all the elements of a successful receiver, the armature being of material capable of inductive action, and the sound box provided adequate surface to communicate the vibrations of air. This improved the quality of the articulation of human speech the phone. Reis constructed an electro magnetic receiver in the third version of "Das Phone" but seemed to dismiss it fairly quickly moving back to the knitting needle receiver, which resembled Reis's first and second form of receiver. When we compare the two devices as seen here we can see that the Yeates device was truly a brilliant complement to the Reis transmitter because it not only encompassed a sounding board but also a sounding box. Yeates’s device consisted of an electromagnet mounted above a sounding box, having a vibrating armature furnished with an adjusting screw to regulate its distance from the poles of the electromagnet. This instrument worked, even when the armature was in absolute contact with both poles of the electromagnet, and as the magnet did not during the experiments lose its hold on the armature, it was clear that the effects were due to alterations in the intensity of the magnetism of the magnet. (5). It is important to note that Yeates's electro magnet solution comes to us a solid 10 years before Edison's, Gray's or A.G. Bell's Electro magnets. It is this which sets Yeates apart from the well-known inventors and moves him to the forefront as a true pioneering inventor in the history of the telephone. It is Stephen Mitchell Yeates of Dublin who created the first high functioning articulating telephone.

The three public demonstrations on record of the Yeates receiver in combination with the Reis transmitter are:

1) March 14th of 1865 Trinity College in Dublin., (3) The Dublin Philosophical Society

2) October 5th on Nassau St at the residence of Horatio Yeates brother of Stephen Mitchell Yeates.
3) November of 1865 at Trinity College in Dublin., The Dublin Philosophical Society

Yeates conducted a public demonstration of the device for the Dublin Philosophical Society on March 14th of 1865. The meeting was held in Trinity College. The meeting of the Philosophical Society was recorded on a paper as being about Tennyson's earlier poems. Mr. Yeates also addressed the meeting. It was not until the end of the meeting that Yeates demonstrated his device. Edmound Armstrong was the president of the Dublin Philosophical Society at the time of Yeates’s demonstration. We know that this sounding box greatly improved the articulation of the device from the testimonies and documentation provided by "The London Times" reporter S.P. Thompson (2) in his book on the telephone and its inventors:

"Dear Sir
"There are several residing at present in Dublin who were present at my telephonic experiments in 1865; three of them, namely, Dr. W. Frazer, Mr. A.M. Vereker, and Mr. E.C. Tuke, took an active part in the experiments, and remember all the circumstances connected with them. The voice of each was instantly recognized in the receiver; in fact, this point attracted special attention at the time.
"I had no knowledge at the time that Reis had used an electromagnetic receiver, nor did I know that Reis was the inventor of the instrument which I got from Mr. Ladd.
'The original instrument made by me is, I believe, still in the Museum at Colognes Wood College. The President kindly lent it to me some time ago, and I returned it to him again after showing it to Professor Barrett. I have a cut of this receiver, which I will send to you if it will be of any use to you.

"Yours truly,
S.M. Yeates"

"William Frazer, Esq., M.D.,
20 Harcourt St, Dublin,
March 13, 1883

"Dear Sir,
"I have a distinct recollection of the telephone. We had a small private club meeting once each month for scientific purposes. On referring to my notebooks, I find that there was a meeting on Thursday evening, October 5th, 1865. It was held in Nassau Street, at the residence Mr. Horatio Yeates, Now in Australia, and brother of Mr. Stephen Yeates. The telephone was upstairs, in the third story of the house, and the voice heard in the hall. Mr. Vereker, of the Bank of Ireland, Mr. John Rigby, of rifle celebrity, the two Mr. Yeates, and, I think, Mr. Tuke, were present with myself.
There were some others, whom I cannot now recollect, but our club was small.

"Rigby sang "Patrick's Day" and God Save the Queen" and various questions were asked and answered. The separate words were most distinct, the singing less so; but there was no difficulty in recognizing the individual who spoke by his voice.
"Being much interested in the subject, I got Mr. Yeates allow the apparatus to be shewn at a Conversazione (Presbyterian Young men's) at the Rotunda on October 12, at 8 P.M.
His assistant, Mr. Tuke, took charge of it that night. It was placed in a side room off the main round room of the buildings.
"I exhibited at the October 5th meeting of our club a specimen termed "locust gum," probably derived from some Robinia, but really can tell you nothing more about it. There is merely a brief note of it in my Private memoranda.

"Yours, Dear Sir,
Believe me very truly,
William Frazer,
Fellow and Examiner, Royal College of Surgeons,
Ireland, Member of Council, Royal Irish
Academy, &c."
Silvanus P. Thompson, Esq., University College, Bristol."

Despite their brilliant efforts neither Yeates nor Reis received the credit which they should have for their roles as the first inventors of the telephone. This brings into light the following question: who should receive credit for the invention of the telephone? The person who actually invented the first functioning telephone or the person who brought the telephone into popular culture? I would hope that we would still respect the rights and intellectual property of the original inventors.

The Secret of Joseph Henry
1866 Alexander Graham Bell incorrectly assumes that sound travels through wires. That same summer Bell had discovered Herman Von Helmholtz’s instrument through his friend Alexander Ellis. While Bell was looking at the illustration of the instrument, Ellis translated parts of the German text for Bell. After asking Ellis many questions, Bell came away with absolutely the wrong concept about how the device worked. Helmholtz’s device generated vowel sounds, but Bell concluded that the device transmitted the vowel sounds over a wire, which of course it did not. This was partly because neither Bell nor Ellis understood the basics of electricity and partly due to the misunderstandings of translation from German to English.

It would be another eight years before A.G.Bell would learn about the already successful phone constructed by Philipp Reis in Germany and then further perfected by Yeates in Ireland. After hearing the news of the Reis phone the year Reis died in 1874, A.G. Bell almost collapsed with disappointment. We learn in a letter from A.G. Bells wife to her sister that the following year Bell called on Joseph Henry at the Smithsonian to further inquire about the Reis phone. In the meeting Bell asked Henry if he knew about the device invented by Reis of Germany. Henry told Bell not only did he know about the Das Phone but that he had one right here in the room! Henry pulled out the phone and showed A.G. Bell the device. Bell them asked if he would show the Reis invention at the up coming Centennial in Philadelphia. Henry laughed and said told Bell "Not to worry". The Ries phone is much too difficult to work; besides your phone works so much better! I will not bring the Reis phone to Philadelphia. You will do fine there, don't forget that I will head up the judging committee at the Centennial.

*(1) S. P. Thompson,"Phillip Reis Inventor of the Telephone" 1883, E. & F. Spon,
Pg 80-84
*(2) S. P. Thompson,"Phillip Reis Inventor of the Telephone" 1883, E. & F. Spon,
Pg 128-130
*(3) March 14th of 1865 Trinity College in Dublin., The Dublin Philosophical Society
The Dublin Philosophical Society registers; log book with minutes of the meeting (found in the Trinity College the Dublin Philosophical Society records department upstairs across from the computer on the shelves behind the ash tray)
Note* The Dublin Philosophical Society was later changed to the Elizabethan Society
*(4) Dublin Historical Record pg. 6-7 1943-1946
Published quartile by the old Dublin Society Vol. VI No. 4 Sept-Nov 1944
by Thos H. Mason, M.R.I.A. Dublin Opticians and Instrument Makers
*(5) S. P. Thompson,"Phillip Reis Inventor of the Telephone" 1883, E. & F. Spon,
Pg 47
*(6) Vulagar and Mechanick-J.E. Burnett A.D. Morrison-Low pg. 42,45,46, 139

Speical thanks to Dr. Mollan Black Rock Dublin, Ireland
Note*Device last seen at Clongowes Wood College
A.G. Bell's letter to Judge in Maryland-(re -Joseph Henry)