Nathan Beverly Stubblefield (November 22, 1860 – March 28, 1928) was an American inventor best known for his wireless telephone work. Self-described as a "practical farmer, fruit grower and electrician","Kentucky Inventor Solves Problem of Wireless Telephony", The Sunny South, March 8, 1902, page 6. he received widespread attention in early 1902 when he gave a series of public demonstrations of a battery-operated wireless telephone, which could be transported to different locations and used on mobile platforms such as boats. While this initial design employed conduction, in 1908 he received a U.S. patent for a wireless telephone system that used magnetic induction. However, he was ultimately unsuccessful in commercializing his inventions. He later went into seclusion, and died alone in 1928.
Disagreement exists whether Stubblefield's communications technology can be classified as radio, and if his 1902 demonstrations could be considered the first "radio broadcasts". Most reviews of his efforts have concluded that they were not radio transmissions, because his devices, although they used a form of "wireless", employed conduction and inductive fields, while the standard definition of radio is the transmission of electromagnetic radiation. However, Stubblefield may have been the first to simultaneously transmit audio wirelessly to multiple receivers, albeit over relatively short distances, while predicting the eventual development of broadcasting on a national scale.
Biography
Early years and family life Stubblefield was the second of seven sons of William "Captain Billy" Jefferson Stubblefield (1830–1874), a Confederate Army veteran and lawyer, and Victoria Bowman (1837–1869), who died of scarlet fever. Stubblefield grew up in Murray, Kentucky, and his education included tutoring by a governess, followed by attendance at a boarding school in nearby Farmington called the "Male and Female Institute". His formal education ended in 1874, at the age of 14, with his father's death, which left Stubblefield an orphan in the care of his step-mother. However, he continued to develop his technical knowledge by reading contemporary scientific publications, such as Scientific American and Electrical World.
In 1881 he married Ada Mae Buchannan, by whom he had nine children, two dying in infancy. Six of Nathan's surviving children left no descendants. The seventh, Oliver (RayJack), married Priscilla Alden, who gave birth to two daughters and Nathan's only grandson, Keith Stubblefield, who would become a television and recording personality under the professional name Troy Cory.profiles4.com – Troy Cory
Initially Stubblefield supported his family by farming. (His farm land later became part of the campus of Murray State University.) From 1907 to 1911, he operated a home school called "The Nathan Stubblefield Industrial School," or "Teléph-on-délgreen Industrial School".Lochte, Bob, Kentucky Farmer Invents Wireless Telephone! But Was It Radio? Facts and Folklore About Nathan Stubblefield, All About Wireless, 2001, , pages 12, 93.
Inventions Despite very limited finances, in his spare time Stubblefield worked on developing a series of inventions. His first patent, , was issued on November 3, 1885, for a tool for lighting coal oil lamps without having to remove the glass chimney.
Acoustic telephone In late 1886, Stubblefield began to sell and install acoustic telephones—an early and somewhat limited form of the telephone, which, instead of using electricity, employed a taut wire to carry sound vibrations directly between two soundboxes which were located at the far ends of the wire. Although most installations were around Murray, he also made sales as far away as Mississippi and Oklahoma. On February 21, 1888, Stubblefield and partner Samuel Holcomb received for their "mechanical telephone" design. However, the establishment of a local Bell Telephone franchise, whose electric telephones were far superior to Stubblefield's offerings, ended most of the acoustic sales by 1890.Lochte, pages 15-22.
Earth battery In 1898, Stubblefield was issued for an "electric battery", which was an electrolytic coil of iron and insulated copper wire that was immersed in liquid or buried in the ground. Stubblefield made the unsubstantiated claim that, combined with normal battery operation, his device also drew additional power from the earth. However, it did successfully serve as both a power source and ground terminal for wireless telephony.
Wireless telephony After the winding-down of his acoustic telephone business, Stubblefield reviewed possible alternatives that would avoid infringing on the Bell telephone patents, and began researching wireless options. Because he never filed for a patent for his early work, the technical details of his experiments are largely unknown. But, based on contemporary descriptions, it appears that they initially employed induction, similar to a wireless telephone developed by Amos Dolbear, which was issued in 1886. Information for this period is very limited, but in 1935 a former neighbor, Rainey T. Wells, reported that in 1892 Stubblefield gave him a telephone receiver, and had Wells walk a short distance away from Stubblefield's shack, after which he was amazed to distinctly hear the words "Hello, Rainey", followed by additional speech from Stubblefield."Omahan Believes Heard First Radio Broadcast" by W. H. Graham, Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald, December 1, 1935, page 12.
Because later references refer to earth connections, it appears that Stubblefield subsequently switched to using ground currents instead of induction. Following a decade of research and testing, he felt that his wireless telephone had now been perfected to the point that it was ready for commercialization, and began a series of demonstrations to publicize his work and attract investment. On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1901, he successfully transmitted to his home, where "A party of children were gathered there and at the receiver obtained messages from Santa Claus", and had local residents sign affidavits attesting to the success of his tests."Here's Wireless Telephone", New York Sun, December 31, 1901, page 10.
A much more ambitious demonstration was given on January 1, 1902. Assisted by his 14-year-old son, Bernard, "hundreds of people" in Murray witnessed a test where "From a station in the law office of a friend over a transmitter of his own invention [Stubblefield] gave his friends a New Year's 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." This in turn attracted the attention of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which sent a reporter to Murray to personally review Stubblefield's wireless telephone.Instead of seven listening sites, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's account of the January 1, 1902 test stated: "Mr. Stubblefield placed his transmitter in the courthouse square, and... established five 'listening' stations in various parts of the town, the furthest six blocks distant from the transmitter." A detailed, and positive, account appeared in the newspaper, which quoted an optimistic Stubblefield as saying that, in addition to point-to-point private communication, his system was "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.""Kentucky Farmer Invents Wireless Telephone", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 12, 1902, Sunday Magazine, page 3.
However, the unrestricted reception of signals from Stubblefield's device meant that there was still a major limitation in its intended use for personal communication. Although he exuberantly declared: "The possibilities of the invention seem to be practically unlimited, and it will be no more than a matter of time when conversation over long distances between the great cities at the country will be carried on daily without wires", he also admitted: "I have as yet devised no method whereby it can be used with privacy. Wherever there is a receiving station the signal and message may be heard simultaneously. Eventually I, or some one, will discover a method of tuning the transmitting and receiving instruments so that each will answer only to its mate.""Telephoning Without Wires", Our Wonderful Progress, Trumbull White (editor), 1902, page 300.
At this point a promoter, Gerald Fennel, traveled to Murray from New York City to enlist Stubblefield in a commercial venture. While negotiating, Stubblefield next embarked on his most publicized promotional trip. On March 20, 1902, he demonstrated his system in Washington, D.C., where voice and music transmissions were made over from the steamer Bartholdi, anchored in the Potomac River, to shore. This particular test was reported in prestigious scientific publications, including Scientific American, which claimed that Stubblefield's invention would be installed by the "Gordon Telephone Company, of Charleston, S. C., for the establishment of telephonic communication between the city of Charleston and the sea islands lying off the coast of South Carolina","The Latest Advance in Wireless Telephony" by Waldon Fawcett, Scientific American, May 24, 1902, p. 363. There is no evidence that the South Carolina link was ever constructed. and Nature, which noted: "The system used is an earth-conduction one, and is, therefore, similar in principle to, though doubtless differing in detail from, many other wireless telephony systems which are being tried in various countries.""Notes", Nature (London), June 12, 1902, page 158.
In early 1902 three New York City residents, J. B. Green, W. B. Whelpley, and Wm. T. Quinn, incorporated, in the Territory of Arizona, the Wireless Telephone Company of America. The firm had a $5,000,000 capitalization, with shares set at a par value of $1 each."Certificate of Incorporation of The Wireless Telephone Company of America" (public notice), Prescott (Arizona) Morning Courier, April 12, 1902, page 3. Gerald Fennel offered Stubblefield 500,000 shares of stock in exchange for the rights to his wireless telephone technology. A June 1902 stock-promotion advertisement for the company, echoing the excessive claims of contemporary wireless telegraph companies, proclaimed: "With the vast savings made in cost and maintenance by the Stubblefield system, it is not unreasonable to expect that the earnings of Bell Telephone will be easily equalled by those of this company. Its stock at 25c. places the subscriber on the same basis as the earliest investors in Bell, whose profits have amounted to over 2,000%". This advertisement also stated that regional sub-companies would be established throughout the United States."Wireless Telephone Company of America" (advertisement), Boston Globe, June 22, 1902, page 32.
With travel expenses financed by Fennel, Stubblefield made additional successful demonstrations in Philadelphia from May 30 to June 7, 1902, spanning a distance of around a mile (1600 meters). Tests followed in New York City beginning on June 11, 1902, which were less successful, with the explanation for the difficulties encountered including the rocky soil in Battery Park, and electrical interference from local alternating current power distribution.