| Nathan Stubblefield |
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| 1860 births | |
| stubblefield, nathan b. | |
| 1928 deaths | |
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BIOGRAPHY Nathan B. Stubblefield (11/22/1860-3/28/1928) was the third of four sons of a lawyer, William "Capt. Billy" Stubblefield (1830-1874), and Victoria Bowman Stubblefield (died 1869). Stubblefield lived in Murray, Kentucky . He was orphaned in 1874. Stubblefield was tutored by a governess and later attended a boarding school called the "Male and Female Institute" in Farmington, until his father died. He also educated himself by reading whatever publications were available in Murray, such as The Scientific American and Electrical World. He married Ada Mae Buchannan in 1881. They had nine children, three of whom died in infancy. His son Bernard was his primary assistant in the wireless telephone experiments. From 1907 to 1911, Stubblefield operated a home school called "The Nathan Stubblefield Industrial School," or "Teléph-on-délgreen" on land that is now the campus of Murray State University.(Lochte) INVENTIONS According to Murray State University Professor Ray Mofield, Stubblefield invented the wireless telephone, or radio. Stubblefield experimented with electricity in the 1880's, and caused distinct vibration tremors of a Compass needle using an Earth Battery of his invention, patented in 1898. By 1890, Stubblefield discovered there were several methods by which articulate speech could be transmitted between two given points without connecting wires, or wireless telephony, as it is was popularly termed at the time.Among the methods Stubblefield used in his operating device were certainly: # electro-magnetic induction # electric earth conduction # and perhaps other methods In 1885, Stubblefield reportedly succeeded in sending voice between two parallel Antenna s by utilizing the same principles Ward and Loomis developed in sending damped signals but via a low-frequency undamped electric wave dispersion system. It was limited in distance, but wireless(needs supporting citation). By 1890, Stubblefield reportedly was using these methods to transmit and receive understandable human voice. He was reportedly the first to use a Loudspeaker with his wireless (needs citation). Lochte has argued that when Stubblefield spoke of "wireless" telephony in the 1880's he merely meant his acoustic telephone, which could operate with string. However, in the 1880's Scientific American had already carried articles describing attempts at wireless telephony and telegraphy experiments by induction systems of Trowbridge, Preece, Phelps, and Edison, not using high frequency radio waves, so Stubblefield was likely familiar with all the principles needed to operate wireless telepnony by induction as well as by conduction in the 1880s. He made private demonstrations of wireless telephony in 1892. Rainey T. Wells was one of the first persons to hear Stubblefield's wireless voice transmissions, in that year. Wireless telegraphy using damped high frequency radio waves was demonstrated in 1894 by Sir Oliver Lodge, but that system could carry voice messages or music(see Radio article). In 1898, Stubblefield was issued a patent for an "Electric Battery " (, which comprised an electrolytic coil). He made public demonstrations of voice and music transmission to five receiving locations on the courthouse square in Murray January 1, 1902, witnessed by at least 1,000 persons, apparently using voice frequency transmission through earth conduction, to a radius of one-half mile. Later he demonstrated wireless telephony in Washington, D.C. on March 20, 1902, where voice and music transmissions were made over a third of a mile from the steamer Bartholdi to shore. He demonstrated wireless telephony as well in Philadelphia on May 30, 1902 to a distance of a half mile. Tests in New York City in June, 1902 were less successful because of electrical interference from alternating current power in widespread use there. He joined wireless inventor Archie Frederick Collins and stock promoters in the Wireless Telephone Company of America, but resigned in disgust in June, 1902 (Lochte). Back home in Murray, he continued to experiment with wireless telephony, using large circular conduction coils to transmit voice frequencies to receiving stations. In 1903, he could transmit 375 feet without earth connections, using induction. In 1904, he could transmit 423 yards. The total wire required for the transmitting and receiving coils was of a greater length than what would be required to simply interconnect the transmitter and receiver, but the invention would allow mobility. By 1907, with a 60 foot transmitting coil, he could work 1/4 mile or 1320 feet "nicely." He received patent 887,357 for his Wireless Telephone, using the voice frequency induction system, on May 12, 1908. He said in the patent that it would be useful for "securing telephonic communications between moving vehicles and way stations." The diagram shows wireless telephony from trains, boats, and wagons. In foreign patents he showed wireless telephony with cars. But there is no indication he was using voice modulated continuous high frequency waves, as are used for radio today(Lochte). Reginald Fessenden had already made a widely heard radio voice broadcast, using rotary spark gap transmitter, on December 24, 1906. His technique was in fact voice modulated high frequency radio transmission. Regular news broadcasts using vacuum tube technology became common by 1920 (Wikipedia article on Radio). Stubblefield's inventions did not lead directly to radio as the technology works today, but the public demonstrations in 1902 and the press coverage in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Enquirer, the Washington Post, the Louisville Courier Journal, Scientific American, and elsewhere may have helped to spur public interest in the possibilities of wireless transmission of voice and music. Most other inventors of the era sought to provide point-to point messaging, to compete with the telephone and telegraph companies. Stubblefield in the 1902 was in a sense the "Father of Broadcasting, in that he said to the St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter in 1902, "..it is capable of sending simultaneous messages from a central distributing station over a very wide territory. For instance, anyone having a receiving instrument, which would consist merely of a telephone receiver and a signalling gong, could, upon being signalled by a transmitting station in Washington, or nearer, if advisable, be informed of weather news. My apparatus is capable of sending out a gong signal, as well as voice messages. Eventually, it will be used for the general transmission of news of every description." From 1885 to 1913, Stubblefield invented, developed, manufactured and sold, both his wired mechanical telephone, and his wireless telephone systems through his own companies, partnerships or corporations he owned shares of stock in. The companies he was involved in were the NBS Enterprises, The Wireless Telephone Company of America, The Gehring-Fennell-Stubblefield Group, The Continental Wireless Tel.& Tel Company, The Collins Wireless Telephone Company, and Teléph-on-délgreen(citation needed). Stubblefield's business partners ultimately irreparably damaged his developments and left him bankrupt. Stubblefield later lived in a self-imposed isolation in a crude shelter near Almo, Kentucky and eventually, starved to death. Stubblefield destroyed every prototype he made. He was buried in the Bowman Cemetery in Murray, Kentucky (Calloway County). Since his death, various individuals and groups in Murray, Kentucky have publicized Murray as the Birthplace of Radio, a claim which is not widely recognized, and Stubblefield as the Father of Broadcasting, a claim which has more merit. Loren J. Hortin, Journalism Professor at Murray State, organized his students to investigate Stubblefield's work, leading to the dedication of a monument on campus. Hortin later said "Radio is a device that transmits and receives voice over considerable distance without connecting wires. Stubblefield invented, manufactured, and demonstrated such a device and did so before anyone else on the planet." The radio station in Murray, WNBS, used Stubblefield's initials in its call letters. (Lochte) TIMELINE : 1882 - Transmitted audio frequency electromagnetic signals : 1885 - Transmitted the human voice, using his induction coil transmitter : 1892 - First to broadcast human voice, using his wireless telephone attached to a land antenna : 1898 - May 8 : patented "electric battery" (wireless telephone transmission coil) : 1902 - First Ship-to-shore wireless telephone broadcast, using wires dropped in the water from the steamer ''Bartholdi'' : 1908 - Patented the all-in-one Wireless Telephone for auto/ship/train: . BOOK
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