Johann Philip Reis Invention A Misunderstanding of Translation Testimonies Litigation Published Articles A Comparison of Bell & Reis Bibliography

Invention - Receivers click on links to view receiver animations in a new window The Violin Receiver-1860 Reis took a steel knitting needle which was round with a spiral coil of silk-covered copper-wire. This wire was magnetized in varying degrees by successive currents, and when thus rapidly magnetized and demagnetized, emitted tones depending upon the frequency, strength, etc., of the currents which flowed round it. The Cigar Box Reciver-1861 This reciver was basicly the same except now Reis used a Cigar Box instead of a violin. The coiled needle was placed on top of the box resting on a wooden bridge. The Electro-Magnet Receiver The reciver was constructed on a foot long sounding board. On top of the board lay two electro-magnet coils, six inches long and over an inch thick. The armature, a rod of iorn of elliptical section, was affixed cross-wise at the end of a "light and broad" vertical lever which was seven inches long and constructed of wood. " The apparatus named the "Telephone," constructed by me, affords the possibility of envoking sound-vibrations in every manner that may be desired. Electro-magnetism affords the possibility of calling into life at any given distance vibrations similar to the vibrations that have been produced, and in this way to give out again in one place the tones that have been produced in another place".-Reis Reis did abandoned the Electro-Magnet Reciver in his research and returned to the Needle. Electro-Magnet Reciver is noted here not only because of it progression in Reis work but because of its antisipation of recivers to come from Yeates,Gray and Bell who all like Reis used an Electro-Magnet Reciver to draw an elastically mounted armature backwards and forwards, and so throw it into vibrations corresponding to those imparted to the transmitting apparatus. The Knitting Needle Reciver The needle lie horizontally upon a rectangular sounding box of thin pine wood. The coil of silk covered copper wire is wound upon a light wooden bobbin, instead of being twisted round the needle it self. Two wooden bridges stand upon the sounding-box, and through these pass the protuding ends of the needle, whilst an upper box or lid, hinged to the lower at the back, is added above.