Talk:David E. Hughes
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blah for verifiable sources on the timing and nature of innovations in microphones by David Hughes and Emile Berliner. Bell had invented the electromagnetic transmitter/receiver, and patented electrical speech transmission via "undulatory waves" which convered any subsequent technology, but the patent claims should have been disallowed as too broad. relative to what he had invented, and his phone made a great receiver but too weak of a transmitter. The Hughes original microphone was apparently crude, a nail laid across 2 other nails connected to a battery and a Bell type phone receiver. About the same time Berliner filed a caveat for "loose contact" between a metal diaphragm and a metal screwhead in his crude telephone transmitter, a slight refinement on the early Reis "make or break" contact phone which could convey pitch but not articulate speech. Berliner's transmitter was useless without carbon buttons or granules. Edison from his years of experience with the variable resistance of carbon under pressure, introduced a carbon button in place of the metal screwhead, apparently independent of Berliner and Hughes, which produced the first practical telephone transmitter. Then at some point Hughes changed from nails to carbon rods in loose contact. His "microphone" would pick up very weak sounds like a fly walking on it, but was very erratic and useless for normal telephony. Edison won the long patent litigation around 1892. The interesting thing is the timeline, and any evidence of whether one inventor borrowed from another. Along with this was the legion of tinkerers who had fooled with any aspect of telephony and popped up during the litigation with bogus claims of having invented the telephone. It looks like Bell, Berliner, and Edison have strong claims for, respectively, the undulatory speech currents and electromagnetic receiver, the "loose contact" principle, and the carbon button. Hughes clearly worked along the same path as Berliner and Edison, but in what exact timeline, and did his work influence theirs, was he working purely independently, did he document his work?Edison 20:02, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
8th May 1878 is the date for his first demonstration of his microphone, to the Royal Society, per the websie I added to the references. The first "public demonstration" was later. Now there is a date to compare to those for Berliner and Edison. I added this date to the timeline in the Telephone article. Per the timeline there, Bell patented his electromagnetic phone in Jan 1877, Berliner filed a caveat for the loose contact transmitter in April 1877, and April 1877 Edison applied for a patent for the carbon transmitter complete with induction coil to step up impedance and isolate the battery from the line circuit. So Hughes does not appear to get primacy. He had access to knowledge of the work of Bell, and probably to that of Berliner and Edison.Edison 20:22, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Radio
I removed the following from the article page to here:"Sometime after 1896, Marconi befriended another Preece, both of them were experimenting with transmissions across the Conwy estuary. (This was the site where in 1918 a transmission of Morse signals was sent across the world to Australia.) There is some speculation that Marconi actually adopted some of Hughes ideas which he obtained through Preece." What is meant by "befriended another Preece?" The site of an estuary being used in 1918 is irrelevant to the history of Hughes' work elsewhere in the 1870's. "There is some speculation" is the sort of weasel words we try to avoid, and lacks a source. Marconi used technology that had very little to do with that used by Hughes. This whole section which I removed is speculative, vague, and appears to be original research. There is no evidence I have found that Hughes early work had any more to do with Marconi's that Thomas Edison's "etheric force" experiments of the 1870's or Joseph Henry's transmission of electromagnetic signals from one coil to another in the 1930's. Henry was the first to send an electromagnitic pulse train from a coil in one part of a building to a coil in another part.Edison 15:59, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
The "Radio" Reference (and above comments) are wrong in a number of ways: (1) Hughes clearly was using Electromagnetic Waves (e.g. Radio) and NOT Magnetic Induction. (2) The Transmitter was not Clockwork (it was the means of modulation which was Clockwork). (3) He didn't use Morse-Code, but just keyed the Spark TX (e.g. he received clicks in the earpiece). (4) Marconi's later work exactly followed Hughes, Popov and many others. Marconi himself referred to Prof Hughes work in his speech to the IEE.
References. "A History of Wireless Telegraphy" by Fahie. "The Story of Wireless Telegraphy" by A.T.Story Page 108.
