•
NBS100
FTC STUDY - THE Red Flags
Rule top top • • • top • top •
Murray's First Telephone Company, By:
Robert H. Lochte. • 109 /
Education •
See Warner Bros Mag - 1972 Google
KudoAds
Dear
Editor LookRadio • 120
PIXELS 3 columns 01.
Feature
/ Continued -
Although Nathan Stubblefield is best known
as a melon farmer who experimented with
wireless telephony, he initially became
famous around Murray, Ky., when he
established its first wired telephone
service. An examination of the records of
that business provides an interesting case
study in entrepreneurial behavior within
an industry based on emerging
telecommunications technology. 02
/ 28
Journal of Business and Public Affairs
interest in wireless telephony by 1885. In
fact, he stated that his wireless efforts
began around 1890 (Stubblefield,
1902). • • • ByLine
/ Source
of Study •••
• References • Messages by Water
/ The Collins System More
Articles • Converging
News 392006 / TeleCom BuyOuts, Spinoffs
and Asset Seizure Boom --
CLICK FOR MORE ByLine
STORIES02 http://www.icehouse.net/john1/stubblefield.html Etching:
Shortly after the publishing of the
Daily Herald, Delphos, Ohio articcle, and
after the March, 1902, NBS Philadelphia
Demonstration, Nathan Stubblefield's
Wireless Company signed a deal with Prof.
A. Frederick Collins to market the NBS
Wireless Telephony system.
See Photo of Collins with Nathan in the
Philadephia, Washington DC.
Photos.
/ MORE
ABOUT THE COLLINS / STUBBLEFIELD DEAL -
SOULFIND.COM •
"ID
Theft Prevention" - for the WiTEL®™©
Industry"
top
ˆ
Movies
CLICK
S90
Google
IMAGES
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
ˆ
ˆ
•
•
ˆ
ˆ
Smart
Daaf Boys -
Products
The
inventors that put the Pizzazz in Radio
Wave.(Get free copies of NBS - U.S.
Wireless Telephone®™©
Patent. See first Mobil Radio Stations for
Vehicles, Trains and Ship to
Shore).
•
Nathan B. Stubblefield -
(November 22, 1860 - March 28)
MORE
/ PHOTO IMAGES
Lochte
is a professor in the Department of
Journalism and Mass Communications at
Murray State University..
•••
• Nathan Stubblefield had encountered
a technology that he felt would allow him
to recoup his losses. In the mid-1880s,
Nathan Stubblefield patented and marketed
an acoustic "vibrating" telephone system
in Murray, Ky., and
elsewhere.
•••
Although
technologically inferior to the electric
Bell telephone, this design had better
sound quality, was inexpensive to install
and simple to use, and did not infringe on
any Bell
patents.
•••
Stubblefield
may have planned to install an electric
system in 1893, when the initial Bell
patents expired, but competitors acquired
Bell system franchise and beat him to the
market by four years.
•••
Nevertheless,
Stubblefield established a reputation as a
succesful inventor and turned his
interests to "wireless telephony."
CONTINUED
•
More
About
Grandpa
Nat
and
Tesla
PART
01
PART
02
PART
03
PART
04
•
Page
00
Index
•
Page
01
NBStory
•
Page
02
NBStory
•
Page
03
NBStory
•
Page
04
NBStory
•
Page
05
NBStory
•
See Patents
•
Page
00 -
Home
•
Page
00 -
MAIN
•
Page
01 -
Ship
•
Page
02 -
Auto
•
Page
03 -
Train
•
Page
04 -
T01
•
Page
05 -
T02
•
Page
06 - T03
TODAY'S
PUZZLE?A
AMAZON
BUY - DVDS
•
Smart
Daaf
Boys
•
Troy
Cory
Show
•
CHINA
MOON
Hong
Kong
Triad
/
"Jockey Club"
Follow
The
Money
RadioPlayMusic
•••
By the mid-1880s, telephone service was
diffusing rapidly throughout the cities of
the United States. As many urban
franchises were already granted,
entrepreneurs were beginning to focus
attention on smaller communities. A common
challenge to all telephone ventures was
the near monopoly the Bell system had on
important patents for the electrical
telephone. Setting up a local telephone
system meant either paying a franchise fee
to American Bell Telephone or inventing
proprietary equipment that didn't conflict
with any of its numerous patents.
Otherwise, the venture had to wait until
1893 when the initial Bell patents would
become public property.
••• Telephony always
fascinated Nathan Stubblefield more than
telegraphy. While the telegraph business
was mature, the telephone industry still
had room for innovation and profits
derived therefrom.
••• He could readily learn
about the technical aspects from
periodicals. Stubblefield found that he
not only understood the descriptions and
diagrams but could replicate the equipment
and make it work. He also had time for
experiments, especially in the winter when
his garden didn't demand his attention.
Here was a growth industry into which he
could channel both his inventive energy
and his desire to earn his own fortune.
One easy way to circumvent the Bell
patents was to build a non-electric,
acoustic telephone system. Similar to the
tin cans and string devices kids use at
play, these telephones were actually quite
prevalent in the era. The U.S. patent
office issued dozens of patents for
variations of the technology in the 1880s.
One of those went to Nathan B.
Stubblefield and Samuel C. Holcomb
(Mechanical Telephone, 1888).
••• Stubblefield called it
a vibrating telephone (see page 28). It
consisted of a metal can mounted securely
on a wooden backboard with a small round
hole aligned with the center of the can's
open back. A cloth diaphragm stretched
across the open face of the can. In the
center of this diaphragm was a button
attached to a wire that led through the
hole in the back of the device. The wire
connected each phone to its mate. A coat
of varnish on both sides gave the
diaphragm structural integrity so the
installer could tighten the wire and
stretch the surface, like tuning a drum.
Finally, a small hammer hung from the
device. The caller hit the button with the
hammer to signal the other phone, then
stood close to the diaphragm and
spoke.
••• Because wire was
expensive, Stubblefield tested an early
mechanical telephone connecting the
instruments with waxed string. When he
told Duncan Holt in 1885, "I've been able
to talk without wires … all of 200
yards … and it'll work everywhere,"
(Hortin, 1972).
••• Stubblefield was
talking about his vibrating telephone,
which technically was "wireless."
Subsequently, writers picked up that
anecdotal comment and interpreted it to
mean Stubblefield was already at work on
electrical wireless telephone systems, but
it is unlikely that he had access to key
components or an
• • Wireless telephony is now an
assured fact. Indeed, just at the time
when the whole country is talking of the
wonderful success achieved by inventors
recently in wireless telegraphy, a test of
telephony by the wireless means has been
made with almost equally astounding
results.
.--
CLICK FOR MORE STORY01
••• Soon he abandoned the
string connections in favor of wire that
was more resistant to weather damage. Wind
created particular problems for this type
of phone system. It stimulated resonant
vibrations in the wires. Because the
system was acoustic, these vibrations were
audible, sometimes loud and piercing.
Using more expensive copper wire reduced
but did not eliminate the noise entirely.
Moreover, the distance between telephones
was limited to short lines, not over a
mile, because the connecting wire had to
be stretched taut.
••• But within those
limits, Stubblefield claimed that the
system was "capable of transmitting a
whisper" and voice or music would have
"such clarity as to be heard 100 feet away
from the phone" (Stubblefield's Mechanical
Phone, 1888). He offered a five-year
warranty on both equipment and
installation. Despite its low-tech design,
this was the first telephone system in
Murray, and Stubblefield experienced
enough prosperity from its novelty value
to establish an office on the town square.
He and his partner Samuel Holcomb sold the
first pair to Calloway County Court
Clerk
••• George W. Craig in late
1886. Craig wrote: This is to certify that
I have had in use some months one of the
Stubblefield & Holcomb telephones
which is giving satisfaction. Therefore I
do not hesitate to recommend it (Craig,
1887).
••• His affidavit is one of
several that Stubblefield collected for
promotional use. Early customers attested
that it was the best telephone that they
had ever heard, perhaps because it was the
only one they had ever used. A declaration
from A.H. Wear, druggist and publisher of
the local newspaper, stated: This is to
certify that Messr's Stubblefield and
Holcomb have put up for us one of their
telephones (the distance being about 3/4
of a mile) which works splendidly. When
there is no wind blowing, a whisper can be
heard perfectly distinct. This is to our
knowledge the best vibrating telephone we
have seen (Wear, 1887).
••• Murray druggists Martin
and Dale were also satisfied customers: We
take the pleasure in recommending the
Stubblefield and Holcomb telephone. We
have two of them in our store, one leading
from our store to office above with four
angles, and the other a residence some 450
yards distant. Both work satisfactorily
(Martin, Dale, 1887).
••• Samuel Holcomb's role
in this enterprise remains obscure.
Apparently he was not related to a Holcomb
who was in the acoustic business in
Cincinnati at
• FIGURE 1 Patent
Illustration for Stubblefield's Vibrating
Telephone, 1888 /// 2 Journal of Business
and Public Affairs 29 the same time. He
may have put up the money for the patent
application. Stubblefield sold and
installed the telephones himself around
Murray and nearby West Tennessee. He also
ventured farther south in 1887. One
customer was John Gage, a merchant in
Louisville, Miss. Stubblefield described
him: This man had a hereditary trait of
urbanity in him … a fat belly man,
jolly and clever. When his phone was put
in, it carried such an interest with it up
in his end of town that in order to hear
the wonderful thing talk the people came
in by the score and they came into his
parlor with mud on their feet until they
liked to have ruined a nice carpet
(Stubblefield, 1910a).
••• On the same trip, he
installed a system for the Illinois
Central Railroad at McCool, Miss., where
the railroad agent wrote: Mr. Nathan
Stubblefield of Stubblefield and Holcomb
Murray, Ky., has just completed me a
telephone line which works admirably. Have
tested the line by playing harp or
whispering at one office which can be
distinctively heard and understood at
other office. Anyone needing a line can be
accommodated by Mr. Stubblefield who
guarantees satisfaction and has given it
here (McKinnon, 1887).
••• By January 1888,
Stubblefield and his vibrating telephone
were well known in and around Murray.
Calloway County Judge W.B. Keys, along
with other county officials, signed a
testimonial that stated: This is to
certify that Nathan Stubblefield of this
town has from time to time during the last
14 months put up quite a number of the
Stubblefield telephones in this town and
county which are giving general
satisfaction. ... We cheerfully recommend
them to the public (Keys et al.,
1888).
••• For three months in
that spring, Stubblefield returned to
Mississippi and set up shop in Vaiden "at
the best hotel in town" (Stubblefield,
1910b). Numerous affidavits attest to the
success of this trip. Stubblefield had a
territorial deed for any representative
who wanted to establish a local franchise
elsewhere using his system. One agent from
Tennessee, G.G. Westerbrook, was
successful at selling the "Vibrating
Telephones" as far away as Oklahoma. J.T.
Stubblefield had a franchise in the
Pacific Northwest. The most successful
representative was Ira Prichard of Murray,
who wrote colorful accounts for the Murray
Ledger of his sales trips throughout
Southern Illinois in early 1889 (Prichard,
1889).
••• Installation cost
varied, depending on the length of the
line and the number of poles involved. But
money was not common in the rural United
States of the late 19th century. One
customer, a Post
•
FIGURE
2. Photo: Advertisement and price list
for Stubblefield's Vibrating Telephones,
probably 1888 ///4 - 30 Journal of
Business and Public Affairs Office in
Coffeeville, Miss., came up short on a
seventeen-dollar installation.
Stubblefield had to make special
arrangements: These people liked
[sic] about four dollars paying
for this but it was paid for by public
subscription, Mr. Brown taking
responsibility of collection. So I let him
beg off a little (Stubblefield,
1910c).
••• No accurate count of
the total number of telephones sold
exists, but the income was adequate for
Stubblefield to earn a living from the
enterprise for at least four years.
••• After Stubblefield
received his 1888 patent, he devised an
improved version called the Laryngaphone.
With it, the caller could communicate
without the phone box by stretching a
string tightly around his throat or
clinching it in his teeth while talking (A
New Invention, 1889). It used a hearing
tube attached to the side of the metal can
for better audibility and included an
electric bell for better signaling.
Although this electrical circuit would
increase installation and maintenance
cost, the new network would put
Stubblefield in better position to enter
the electric telephone business in 1893,
when both his five-year warranty and the
initial Bell patents expired. In
preparation, he acquired copies of the
relevant patents, contacted equipment
manufacturers for price lists, and got
legal opinions on the validity of claims
made by the Bell Company and its
subsidiary Western Electric (Stubblefield,
1894).
••• Providing telephone
service to the Murray newspaper
undoubtedly helped Stubblefield get
favorable publicity. One article about his
work read: He is an inventive genius, and
his inclinations are to experiment with
electric appliances, etc. … Mr.
Stubblefield has about reached perfection
in the manufacture of telephones and has
his lines introduced throughout a large
scope of territory. He says he intends
building up a "telephone reputation" over
the name of Nathan Stubblefield (Murray
Ledger, 1890).
••• The editorial support
from the Murray Ledger was welcomed
because Stubblefield now had competition
in the telephone business. In 1889, a
group of Murray doctors and businessmen,
many of them Stubblefield's subscribers,
formed a company to bring the Bell
telephone system to town (Morgan, 1971,
pp. 58-60).
••• With the latest
improvements in sound reproduction
technology, it was now superior in every
respect to Stubblefield's vibrating
telephone. While Stubblefield was
marketing a novelty, his competitors sold
a versatile service that had better
prospects for return on investment.
••• A severe technical
limitation of acoustic telephones was that
they were closed circuit systems &emdash;
one phone connected to one other &emdash;
without provision for central switching or
networking. Customers needed a separate
telephone and line for each location that
they might want to call.
••• Economically, this flaw
limited Stubblefield's income to the
initial sale of equipment and the
low-margin business of maintaining
existing installations. Because he could
not establish local telephone exchanges,
he had no opportunity to earn the
substantial cash flow from monthly billing
for connections to local and, eventually,
long distance networks. Within a year
Stubblefield's telephone business was
finished. Understandably upset at the
prospect of failure just as he was
beginning to show results, he also knew
that he had expertise that was valuable to
his competitors. So he entered into a
contract with them to install Bell
telephones, and a system including five
miles of wire, a switchboard and central
office. But this arrangement proved
unpleasant, and by late 1890 Stubblefield
found himself back on the
••• FIGURE 3. Photo.
Exclusive Franchise Agreement, 1888
Stubblefield had agents as far away as the
west coast under contract to sell his
vibrating, or mechanical, telephones.
• • From a station in the law
office of a friend over a transmitter of
his own invention he gave his friends a
greeting by wireless telephony, and at
seven stations located in different
business houses and offices in the town
the message was simultaneously delivered.
Music, songs, whispered conversations
could be heard with perfect ease.
--
CLICK FOR MORE
STORY02
03
/ ///5
Photo Only
••• ///6 - 32 Journal of
Business and Public Affairs farm, his
independence but little else intact
(Miller, 1971, pp. 34-35).
••• He made a few more
attempts at wired telephony. The first was
a novel telegraph device designed to work
on telephone lines. It was unique in that
users could dial up letters and numbers,
rather than using Morse code, to
communicate with each other. Similar
devices, some with printers, experienced
modest success in Europe but never caught
on in the United States. Like the
Laryngophone, Stubblefield's Bell
Telegraph didn't get beyond the design
stage. Then in 1894, he tried to bring the
Viaduct electric telephone to the area in
competition with the Bell system. For this
he had grand plans, beginning with
replacing the few mechanical phones that
he still maintained in Murray with the new
electric ones. Then he envisioned
franchises in every state and territory
for the Stubblefield Telephone, with
prices ranging from $200 in Arizona and
Montana to $5000 in New York
(Stubblefield, 1894). But his competitors
had already sucked up both capital and
customers. A charter from the city of
Murray was the extent of this enterprise,
and he finally sold that for $50 to pay
off debts.
••• Nathan Stubblefield,
the inventor, perceived a window of
opportunity for a functional, but
simplistic technology to compete with the
rapidly emerging and well-publicized Bell
telephone system. Utilizing this
perception and his own ingenuity, he
established a small business. Its success
was restricted, however, because
Stubblefield, the entrepreneur, failed to
recognize the limitations of his telephone
system. He was also plagued by inadequate
capital and by a business plan that
ignored the prospects that improved
technology offered. Had he chosen to
embrace the Bell telephone technology in
1888, he had the chance to retain his
customer base and possibly convert some of
them into investors.
••• From his experience in
the telephone business, Stubblefield
learned two lessons that would stay with
him for the rest of his life. He began to
think on a grand scale of inventions that
would have a nationwide market. And he
discovered that even people he had known
and trusted all his life would sell him
short in a minute to make a profit. So
when he had any grand ideas, he'd best
keep the details to himself until they
were ripe, like the melons in his garden,
and ready to sell.
••• In the meantime,
Stubblefield had encountered a technology
that he felt would allow him to recoup his
losses. With it he believed that he could
establish a telephone system at
substantially lower cost than any Bell
franchise and provide service to more
customers, even those widely dispersed
throughout rural America. It was a
wireless telephone system, and it would
make Nathan Stubblefield the most famous
person ever to come from Murray,
Ky.
••• • Many of the
sources listed below are documents from
the Nathan B. Stubblefield Papers (NBS
Papers) in the FIGURE 5 - Photo:
Stubblefield's Laryngophone, 1890 Never
patented, this was a variation on the
Stubblefield Vibrating Telephone. ///6 and
Photo
••• • Journal of
Business and Public Affairs 33 Special
Collections at the Pogue Library, Murray
State University, Murray, Ky. In
particular, the records related to the
vibrating telephone business are from a
donation to the archive from the estate of
Vernon Stubblefield Sr.
••• • Craig, George
(1887). Testimonial, February 15. NBS
Papers.
••• • Hortin, L.J.
(1972). Untitled article from the Murray
Ledger and Times, March 28. NBS
Papers.
••• • Keys, W.B.,
George W. Craig, R.F.
••• • Hamlin, and G.
Miller (1888). Testimonial, January 17.
NBS Papers.
••• • McKinnon, J.A.
(1887). Testimonial, June 15. NBS
Papers.
••• • Martin, Dale and
Co. (1887). Testimonial, February 15. NBS
Papers.
••• • Mechanical
Telephone (1888). U.S. Patent 378, 183,
issued to N.B. Stubblefield and S.C.
Holcomb, February 21.
••• • Miller, David
(1971). The Role of the Independent
Inventor in the Early Development of
Electrical Technology. Ed.D. Dissertation,
University of Missouri - Columbia.
••• • Morgan, Thomas
(1971). The Contribution of Nathan B.
Stubblefield to the Invention of Wireless
Voice Communication. Ph.D. Dissertation,
Florida State University.
••• • Murray Ledger
(1890). Clipping, October 3, NBS
Papers.
••• • A New Invention
(1889?). Newspaper clipping. NBS
Papers.
••• • Prichard, Ira
(1899?), Letters to the Editor,
••• • Murray Ledger,
NBS Papers. Stubblefield, Nathan B.
(1894). Folder of telephone patents with
marginal notations.
••• • NBS Papers.
(1902). Statement from the article
"Kentucky Farmer Invents Wireless
Telephone," St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday
magazine, January 12, p. 3. (1910a).
Marginal note to testimonial of John Gage,
June 30, 1887.
••• • NBS
Papers.(1910b). Marginal note to
testimonial of J.H. Peebles, November
24.
••• • NBS
Papers.• (1910c). Marginal note to
testimonial of W.W. Kelly, A.H. Wimberly
and John W. Brown, November 10, 1888.
••• • NBSPapers.
Stubblefield's Mechanical Phone (1888).
Advertisement. NBS Papers.
••• • Wear, A.H.
(1887). Testimonial, April 23.
••• • NBS Papers.
• FIGURE 6 Photo of
Stubblefield's Bell Telegraph, 1890
Designed for home use, this device used
letters of the alphabet rather than Morse
Code. Nathan never applied for a patent on
it. /// end
• • Somewhat different from
Stubblefield's method is the system being
perfected by Prof. A .Frederick Collins, a
nimble- witted Yankee of Philadelphia.
(more story NBS patent assignment to
Collins)
• • To put the case in a
nutshell, it may be stated that he uses
terrestrial currents instead of metallic
currents such as are employed in the
old-fashioned telephone or ether waves
which are utilized by Marconi.
--
CLICK FOR MORE STORY03
Study
of
FCC
Summary
Gov.
Control
Legal
Opinions
Acknowledgments
"Wireless"
Respectfully
Submitted
Josie
Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI
Magazine
Smart
Daaf Boys -
Products
Troy
Cory Show / DVDs VRA
TelePlay
GOOGLE
KudoADS
Television
International Magazine's Jump Bar
-- It Goes Directly To Linked Web
Pages
Return
ˆ
To Top
We
Preserve The Moment
Yes90
tviNews S90 109
Nathan
Stubblefield Owned Murray's First
Telephone Company, 1885. By
Robert H. Lochte From Journal of
Business and Public Affairs 27 -
2000 - Robert H. Lochte. Lochte
is a professor in the Department
of Journalism and Mass
Communications at Murray State
University.
/
Feature Story / •
NewspaperNBS99Lochte.htm
/ Smart90, lookradio, nbs100,
tvimagazine, vratv, xingtv,
Ddiaries, Soulfind,
nbstubblefield, congming90,
chinaexpo, vralogo, Look Radio,
China Expo, Soul Find, s90tv,
wifi90, dv90, nbs 100, Josie
Cory, Publisher, Troy Cory,
ePublisher, Troy
Cory-Stubblefield / Kudoads,
Photo Image665, Movies troy cory
show duration:medium:free - 4 min
- Television With No
Borders
How
Do We Do
Business?
Tel
323 462-1099
SEND
E-MAIL
Return
ˆ
To Top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ
top
ˆ