Coining the term "telephone"

REIS, Johann Philipp.

Ueber Telephonie durch den galvanischen Strom. In: Jahres-Bericht des physikalischen Vereins zu Frankfurt am Main für das Rechnungsjahr 1860-1861, pp. 57-64.

Frankfurt am Main: G. Naumann's Druckerei, 1861.

1st Edition. Soft cover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Near Fine. Item #003517

8vo (218 x 142 mm). Whole volume, 80 pp., illustrations in text and 6 folding plates (the last printed in black, red and blue). Pink wrapper to spine as issued. Housed in custom-made cassette of brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Pages crisp and clean with just very minor age toning, small waterstain to lower blank margin of final 3 text leaves, folding plates slightly sunned at foot. Provenance: Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. Fine copy of the rare milestone paper. ----

Darmstaedter 612. Wheeler Gift 1532 (detailed with ills.); see also DSB I, 582 and PMM 365 (for Ball). - THE RARE FIRST EDITION of Reis's paper on the invention of the telephone as presented in a lecture before the Physical Society of Frankfurt on 26 October 1861. Reis was the second man after Bourseul to think of transmitting speech electrically. It was Reis who coined the term "telephone" and he was the first, in 1860, to produce a functioning device that could transmit musical notes, indistinct speech, and occasionally distinct speech by means of electric signals. Practically, Reis's telephones had varying success; some worked well and others produced only static. Nevertheless, they were displayed all over Europe and one was on show in Scotland when Bell was there visiting his father.
Erstdruck von Reis' Vortrag vor dem physikalischen Verein in Frankfurt, in dem er den von ihm entwickelten Apparat zur Reproduktion von Tönen über beliebige Entfernungen durch den elektrischen Strom vorstellt. Seine Erfindung geriet, nicht zuletzt durch die Gegnerschaft Poggendorffs, in Vergessenheit. Erst mit Graham Ball, der 1876 ein verbessertes Gerät als eigene Erfindung zum Patent anmeldete, begann der Siegeszug des Telephons. - Enthält noch 11 weitere Artikel, darunter vier von R. C. Böttger (vgl. DSB II, 340). - Visit our website to see more images!

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