Biography. The last days of the Flight

Reis was born in Gelnhausen, Germany. There is still controversy about its origin. Philip's mother died when he was still an infant, and his paternal grandmother, a well-read, intelligent, religious woman, was involved in raising the child. At the age of six, Philip was sent to study at the Kassel School. Here his abilities attracted the attention of teachers, and Philip's father was advised to send his son to college. The father died when the child was not even ten years old, but Reis's grandmother, with the help of his guardians, managed to place Philip at the Garnier Institute in Friedrichsdorf, where he showed an interest in foreign languages and soon mastered English and French.

At the age of 14, Reis entered the Hassel Institute in Frankfurt am Main, where he also mastered Latin and Italian. Philip showed an increasing interest in science, and his guardians were advised to send the teenager to the Karlsruhe Polytechnic; however, one of them, Philip's uncle, wanted him to become a merchant, and on March 1, 1850, Reis, against his will, was assigned as an apprentice to the firm selling paints of J.F. Beuerbach. Philip promised his uncle to do the business chosen for him, but at the same time he did not give up his studies in science.

Through hard work, Philip won the respect of Beuerbach, and in his free time he took private lessons in mathematics and physics and attended lectures on mechanics by Professor R. Bottger at the School of Commerce. When Reis' practice in the commercial craft ended, he began his studies at the Dr. Poppé Institute in Frankfurt. Subjects such as history and geography were not taught here, so some students taught the basics of these sciences to each other; so, Reis began to teach geography, considering it his vocation. It was also during this time that he became a member of the Society of Physicists in Frankfurt.

In 1855, Reis completed his military service in Kassel and returned to Frankfurt, where he began teaching mathematics and other sciences, giving private lessons and giving public lectures. Reis wanted to go to the University of Heidelberg, but in 1858 his old friend and teacher Gofrad Garnier offered him a post at the Garnier Institute.

On September 14, 1859, Reis married and soon moved to Friedrichsdorf to start his teaching career here anew.

Reis believed that electricity spreads over a distance, like light, without material conductors, and made several experiments on his theory. The results of the experiments were described by Reis in the article "In the Rays of Energy", which in 1859 was sent to Professor Poggendorff for inclusion in the famous journal "Annalen der Physik". Much to Reis' dismay, the manuscript was rejected.

The idea of transmitting sound with the help of electricity was born when Reis studied the organs of hearing, and it was pondered by him for several years. In 1860, Reis constructed the first prototype of a telephone capable of transmitting sound over distances of up to 100 meters. In 1862, Philip wrote to Poggendorff again - this time with a request to publish a report on the apparatus he had invented, but this report was also rejected. Professor Poggendorff denied the possibility of transmitting voice at a distance as a pipe dream, but Reis believed that his articles were rejected simply because he was a simple school teacher.

The invention was demonstrated to many people, including Wilhelm von Legat, inspector of the Royal Corps of the Prussian Telegraph, but Reis was not very interested. In 1872, the apparatus was introduced to the United States by Professor Vanderweed, where it aroused much greater interest. Those who saw the first phone included Thomas Edison, Bell and Western Union representatives. The Reis apparatus became the starting point for further developments by Bell, Edison and Berliner in this area.

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Reis stopped giving lessons and began studying scientific problems, but his state of health soon became a serious obstacle; however, Reis did not give up his studies. The disease struck Reis' lungs, and he began to lose his voice, in the summer of 1873 he had to leave his studies for several weeks. In the fall, Philip's condition improved slightly, and he returned to teaching, but not for long. In September, Reis was supposed to present a new gravitational machine at the congress of German natural scientists in Wiesbaden, but was unable to due to illness. In December, he finally went to bed and, after a long and painful illness, died in January 1874, at five o'clock in the evening.

Reis wrote:

“Looking back on the past years, I must admit that they passed in 'labor and sorrow,' as the Holy Scriptures say. But I am grateful to God for his good deeds: for my calling and my family, and also for the fact that he gave me more happiness than I demanded. God has helped me before and will help me in the future "

Philip Reis was buried in the Friedrichsdorf cemetery, and in 1878, after the invention of the telephone, members of the Physicists' Society of Frankfurt installed a red sandstone obelisk with his portrait on his grave.

07 January 1834 - 14 January 1874

German physicist and inventor, who was the first in 1860 to construct an electric telephone, which is now called Reis telephone in his honor

Childhood and youth

On September 14, 1859, Reis married and soon moved to Friedrichsdorf to start his teaching career here anew.

The invention of the telephone

The last days of the Flight

Reis wrote:

How it all started

It all started when Reis, growing up without a mother, showed an interest in science at the age of fourteen. The guardian relatives wanted to make him a merchant. However, he was interested in lectures on mechanics, physics and mathematics at the Frankfurt Institute. The young man learned a lot, mastered a lot and entered the local Physical Society.

After military service, in the late 50s of the 19th century, Philip Reis became interested in the theoretical foundations of energy transmission and put forward the assumption that electricity is the same light, only invisible. Therefore, like light, it can freely spread in space.

Confused with electromagnetic radiation, with whom it does not happen. There were more than forty years left before the appearance of the first radio transmitter of Nikola Tesla, so the mistake is forgivable.

So Reis wrote an article on the subject and submitted it to the Annalen der Physik magazine, to Professor Poggendorff. But he was refused. Like, we have a solid publication, we will not publish any nonsense.

What came of it all

Then Philip Reis decided to prove that he was not going to talk nonsense. I mean, it will transmit something over a distance. What exactly? Well, for example, sound. With the help of all the same electricity.

It was based on the concept of the French telegraph operator Charles Bursel, published in 1854. Sound waves fall on a metal plate, it trembles in resonance with them and transfers vibrations to an electrical circuit by interrupting it. At the other end, an inductor causes the other plate to shake, which converts the pulses back into sound.

Reis writes another article for the same magazine. The same professor replies that the transmission of sound over a distance is absurd. Like, young man, leave us alone in the end.

The designer had no choice but to make a functioning apparatus named by the creator - what do you think? - "telephone" ! (I mean, "Telephon". Although the word was first used by Charles Bursel.)

The device was demonstrated in Frankfurt in front of the Physical Society in 1860. The sound was really transmitted, even if only 100 meters away.

How did it all end

Despite a more or less successful demonstration, neither the members of the Physical Society in Frankfurt am Main, nor the entrepreneurs, nor government agencies... Nobody at all.

Reis himself did not bother to beat the thresholds of various offices, proposing to introduce the device. The designer was diagnosed with a pulmonary disease. Because of him, he died at the age of forty and was buried in hometown, having received only a modest monument on the grave (and even then not immediately).

Why did it all work out like this?

Reis's apparatus, as already mentioned above, worked according to the "telegraphic" principle of Charles Bursel - it opened an electrical circuit at the speed of vibration of a metal plate at a sound frequency. Naturally, the result was rattling, illegible. And there was no one nearby who would want to take on the improvement of the device.

In 1876, Alexander Bell, in a not entirely honest way, received a patent for a telephone instead of Antonio Meucci. And in 1877, carbon microphones arrived, which turned out to be very useful. Emil Berliner, David Hughes, Anthony White worked on their development and improvement. The powder modification (which is still common today) was invented by the well-known Thomas Edison. So progress moved on, and everyone forgot about Philip Reis.

Although, some people remembered. In 1878, when everything was ready for the installation of telephones on the planet, and newspapers were vying with each other to shower Bell with laurels, members of the Physical Society from Frankfurt caught on and decided to shed tears for crocodiles on the rejected Flight - they erected the above-mentioned modest monument on his grave.

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Last edit: 2013-01-28 16:50:12

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According to legend, the first words transmitted over the phone were a phrase in German: Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat ("The horse doesn't eat cucumber salad"). On October 26, 1861, it was pronounced by the German physicist and inventor, the son of a baker from Gelnhausen, Johann Philip, who was one of the first to construct an electric telephone, which is now called Reis' telephone in his honor.

Johann Philip Reis was born in 1834 in the German city of Gelnhausen. In infancy, he lost his mother, so he was brought up under the tutelage of his grandmother. Philip was 6 years old when his abilities attracted the attention of teachers at the Kassel School. At the age of 10, he was assigned to the Garnier Institute in Friedrichsdorf, where he mastered English and French... And at the age of 14, Reis became a student at the Hassel Institute in Frankfurt am Main, where he also mastered Latin and Italian. But Philip showed the greatest interest in science. And despite the fact that, at the insistence of relatives, he was assigned as a student to a paint sales company, he did not leave his favorite business. In his free time he took lessons in mathematics and physics, attended lectures on mechanics. Then, leaving work, he began to study at the Frankfurt Institute, entered the Physical Society in Frankfurt.

Returning from military service in 1855, Reis began teaching mathematics and other sciences, giving private lessons and giving public lectures. In 1858 he took up a post at the Garnier Institute. In 1959, having married, Reis moved to Friedrichsdorf.

Johann Philip went to his invention for several years. Carried away by the theoretical foundations of energy transfer, he put forward the assumption that electricity is the same light, only invisible. Therefore, like light, it can freely, without material conductors, spread in space. The researcher described the results of his experiments in the article "In the Rays of Energy", which in 1859 he sent for publication to the journal Annalen der Physik, to Professor Poggendorff. The manuscript was rejected. But Reis was not going to retreat.

The idea of transmitting sound using electricity came to Johann Philip in the process of studying the organs of hearing, he pondered it for several years. It was based on the concept of the French telegraph operator Charles Bursel, published in 1854.

In 1860, Reis constructed an apparatus capable of transmitting sound over a distance of up to 100 meters. In 1862, Philip again turned to the editorial office of the journal - with a request to publish a report on the invention, but this time he was refused. Reis linked this attitude to discovery with his status as a simple school teacher. In fact, Professor Poggendorff did not even admit the thought of the possibility of voice transmission over a distance.

Telephon, as Reis called his invention, was demonstrated to various audiences, but did not arouse much interest in anyone. Reis's apparatus worked according to Charles Bursel's "telegraphic" principle: it opened an electrical circuit at the speed of vibration of a metal plate at a sound frequency. The result was imperfect: the device reproduced the tone satisfactorily, but significantly distorted the timbre of the sound. At that time, there was no one nearby who would take up the improvement of the device. However, it was Reis' apparatus that was adopted as the basis for further developments of Bell, Edison and Berliner in the field of telephony.

Johann Philip Reis died in January 1874, at the age of 40, after a painful illness. He was buried in the Friedrichsdorf cemetery. After the invention of the telephone, in 1878, members of the Physical Society of Frankfurt erected a monument on his grave.