I was fortunate that my dear Grandmother did her best to take my mother's place. In her long life she read many, many books, and shared her knowledge with me. She also had a wonderful gift for telling stories, which made learning about the world beyond our little town a most enjoyable and entertaining experience. More than anything else my grandmother wanted to make sure that I was respectful and sensitive in my associations with other people, and that I put my faith in God. I strove never to disappoint her in these respects. Now that we are together again she assures me that she is proud of how I conducted myself in the few years that were given to me to accomplish my life's tasks.

My father was disposed to scientific observation and analysis. I believe I inherited that trait from him. Although I did not seriously pursue scientific studies until many years later, he trained me well for such pursuits. When I was still quite young we often went for walks together. He encouraged me to make precise observations of our physical world and to discuss my observations in the minutest details.

I entered school at the age of six. By then my father and grandmother had already bestowed on me an intellectual training that so impressed my teachers, they were convinced that I must be endowed with special capabilities. They therefore undertook to convince my father that he should plan to send me away to an institution of higher learning. He was quite willing to do so, but alas, he also passed away bef ore I reached the tender age of ten, bless his soul.

Of course I felt the loss of my father most keenly, but I strove to make myself someone of whom he could be proud. Being so familiar with death, I knew well the value of each moment of life, and was therefore industrious during every waking moment given to me by the Grace of God. My dear grandmother arranged for me to continue my primary education at Garnier's Institute located in Friedrichsdorf, a town near Hamburg. It was there that I learn ed to love the study of foriegn languages and become proficient in both English and French. When I was fourteen I moved on to Hassels Instititue at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where I extended my enthusiasm for languages to include Latin and Italian. But I did not limit myself to these pursuits.

Perhaps because I did not enjoy the pleasant distractions of a family life, or perhaps because the seeds my father planted in me were beginning to bloom, I spent much of my leisure time studying math and the natural sciences. My teachers attempted to convince my Uncle that I should attend the Polytechnic School at Karlsruhe. But my Uncle, who was now responsible for me, was not convinced of the practicality of such endeavors, and informed me that I should ap ply myself as an apprentice in his business in order to learn a trade with which I would be able to support myself and become independent.

By now I was accustomed to disciplining myself to learning and so I earnestly set about as an apprentice to my Uncle. He was in the business of colors. At the end of the day, when I was free to go, I took private lessons in mathematics and physics, and attended lectures on Mechanics. I was drawn particuarly to the animated lectures of professor R. Bottger. T he day came when my Uncle expressed his satisfaction with me, and commended me in my accomplishment of his trade. Upon his declaration that I had concluded my apprenticeship, I went immediately to Frankfurt and entered the Insitute of Doktor Poppe.

Several of my comrades in this establishment, young people of sixteen to twenty years old, found it, as I did, a defect that no natural history, history, or geography, was taught. We determined, therefore, to instruct one another in these subjects. I undertook geography, and formed from this first occassion of acting as teacher the conviction that this was my vocation. Dr. Poppe confirmed me in this view and aided me by word and deed.

The very same Professor Bottger, who I had listened to s o attentively during the days of my apprenticeship, also often lectured at the Physical Society of Frankfurt. I went to hear him at the Senkenburg Museum, and discovered that the Society also offered courses there in Chemistry and Physics. I avidly read t heir Annual Reports which contained writings by Professor Faraday, Professor Sturgeon, Professor Wheatstone, and many others. But the events which were my most particular favorites were the Saturday evening lectures. Those were devoted to the exposition o f recent discoveries and inventions.

I began to have many ideas that excited me. I yearned to establish myself in my chosen profession as teacher, so that I might feel somewhat at ease concerning the practical necessity of providing for my shel ter, clothing and feeding. Only then would I be able to travel the path of my own thoughts, a path down which no one else had ever walked. First, however, I was obliged to perform one year of military service in Cassel, which I did. I then set my mind on going to Heidelberg, in order to put the finishing touch to my education as teacher. I wanted to settle down in Frankfurt in this capacity, and undertake instruction in mathematics and science in the various schools.

Then in the spring of 1858, I visted my former master, Hofrath Garnier, in whom I had ever found a fatherly friend. When I disclosed to him my intentions and prospects, he offered me a post in his Institute. Partly gratitude and attachment, and partly the ardent desire to make myse lf right quickly useful, induced me to accept the proffered post. I was doubly blessed, when in September of 1859 I married a sweet and wonderful woman. Thus I found myself in the peaceful surroundings for which I had yearned.

Now I was free to stride along paths which I paved as I travelled. It occurred to me that electrical forces could be propagated across space in the same way as light. After performing many fascinating experiments on just this subject I wrote a paper entitled "On the Ra diation of Electricity". I sent my paper to Professor Poggendorf, the distinguished editor of the highly respected Der Annelen Physic. He did not publish it however, and alas it was not preserved. It seems that I have gained as little esteem si nce my passing, as I garnered during my short life.

But there was something else related to these experiments which filled my waking hours with wonderment and anticipation. I dreamed one night of a giant replica of a human ear, in every way res embling my own ear, but constructed by my own hands. Even the exquisitely delicate eardrum was most perfectly imitated and lovingly constructed.

Every waking hour which I could spare, I strove to create what I had seen so clearly. What better w ork could I possibly set about to imitate than the handiwork of God? If I wanted to create an instrument which could hear, well then let me examine my own ear! I went directly to the corner pub. The gentlemen patronizing that establishment were surpised t o see me there, and had themselves a good laugh when I asked for a barrel without the beer! That beer barrel was my personal treasure.

I took that beer barrel, cut one side of it away and carved a hole, thinking of the hole in my ear leading to my ear drum. That was the next item I needed to create, an ear drum. For an eardrum I went into the kitchen. My dear wife was just then preparing a meal for our darling children. I took a sausage which was just waiting on the table to be cooked, and very carefully peeled off the skin. While marching back to my beer barrel with my second prize, I was thinking that I would place it across the ear hole like the skin of a drum. While I was performing that task to my satisfaction, I was already thinking that I would place one drop of sealing wax on the ear drum so that I could attach a little strip of platinum placed in such a way that it would be sensitive to every exquisite vibration of the ear drum. These things I also accomplished. I then observed that wh en these items were arranged with very close attention to detail, with perfect precision, the platinum strip did indeed send signals to the knitting needle which I borrowed from my wifes' knitting basket. I soon had the joy to see my pains rewarded with s uccess!

With the Grace of God, I succeeded in inventing an apparatus, by which it is possible to make clear and evident the functions of the organs of hearing, but with which one can also reproduce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the galvanic current. I named the instrument 'Telephon.'

I ran wires all the way from my backyard to the little classroom where I instructed my young charges. The boys never knew whether I was listening to them, and so were care ful to be on their best behavior at all times! I was certain that my invention would be welcomed by the world as an instrument which could be of great service and benefit to humanity. I set about again to write a scholarly report on the subject and again sent my work to Professor Poggendorf.

I considered myself blessed to have been the person to stumble upon such a discovery. But Professor Poggendorf regarded my diligent research as if it were a child's fairytale, and once again summarily rejec ted my submission. I'm sure that his judgement was based more upon the fact that I was only a poor school teacher than upon the facts which I had so painstakingly presented in my paper.

I was not prevented from discoursing upon my scientific fi ndings in public however, and this I did with great zeal. Indeed in 1863 I was honored that Dr. Otto Volger, Founder and President of the Free German Institute personally presented a telephone constructed by my own hands to both the Emperor of Austria and King Max of Bavaria upon the occasion of their visiting Frankfurt.

It was not long before the telephone found it's way to many strange and wonderful places which I had never personally visited. Sometimes I liked to close my eyes and imagine my telephones being used by exotic looking people speaking in a language I might learn some day. But right in the town where my own face was certainly familiar, The Physical Society of Frankfurt took no notice of my invention. By the year 1867 they still did not understand how useful it could be to humanity to be able to communicate without the barrier of distance!

By this time I had become ill and felt that I had no spare energy to waste where it was not wanted, and so I resigned my membership. I was given an honorary membership in the Free German Institute of Frankfurt, but they regarded my invention as little more than a toy. Only in Geissen was I welcomed, perhaps because certain individuals were beginning to hear reports from unexpected parts of the globe. Indeed Professor Poggendorf himself finally attended my lecture in Geissen. Unfortunately I was not feeling at all well on that particular day. When I concluded my demonstration he finally offered what I had sought from him years previously , to publish my writing in his precious journal. "Ich danke Ihnen recht sehr, Herr Professor; es ist zu spat. Jetzt will ich nicht ihn schicken. Mein Apparat wird ohne Beschreibung in der Annalen bekannt werden." That was telling him don't you thin k? My dear Grandmother thinks I should have been more humble.

Perhaps she's right. I knew by then, though, that I was dying and I wished sometimes that it would not be so. I gave all my instruments and reports to Herr Garnier. I had showed the world the way to a great invention, which must now be left to others to develop. I continued to teach as best I could until I became too weak. I tried to console my wife even as she tried to console me. As I look back on my life I can indeed say with the Holy Scriptures that it has been 'labour and sorrow.' But I have also to thank the Lord that he has given me His blessing in my calling and in my family, and bestowed more good upon me than I have known how to ask of Him.

Fortunately I have not been entirely forgotten. Certain individuals who had accorded me respect during my life undertook to erect a modest monument to my memory in Friedrichsdorf. A certain Sylvanus P. Thompson set about to collect every bit of information which still existed concerning my work, the documents which I myself left behind, and the testimony of my colleagues. He diligently assembled it all in a little book which he entitled Pilipp Reis: Inventor of the Telephone and published in 1883. It can be found at the New York Public Library, and I suppose a few other places too. It is because of the efforts of this singular man that my story is familiar to the Ocean of Know and is now being transmitted to you over a telephone line.