MEDFORD, Mass. -- A Tufts University student researching a physics professor who once sued Alexander Graham Bell has uncovered the teacher's own invention -- believed to be among the oldest working telephone equipment in existence.
Andrew Hyman, a sophomore archaeology major from North Tarrytown, N.Y., said Tuesday he examined 50 to 60 remnants of telephones designed by Amos Emerson Dolbear and stored in the university archives.
With help from a physics professor, Hyman got some of the pieces working and has operated them in two demonstrations.
Archivists at Tufts knew the equipment was in storage but had few requests for it and said Hyman was the first to research the machinery and put it into operation.
'He is the first one to actually do anything with it -- getting it to work,' said Robert Johnson-Lally, an assistant archivist.
Dolbear, who taught physics and astronomy at Tufts from 1875 to 1905, invented a telephone that could transmit uniform tones, such as music, but could not clearly reproduce human voices.
Hyman said it is unclear exactly when Dolbear came up with his device, but said it is believed he was working on his invention at about the same time Bell produced his telephone.
Although his invention was inferior in design to the Bell telephone of 1876, Dolbear sued Bell over rights to the telephone invention. He lost his case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
'When Bell announced the telephone, Dolbear went to visit him,' said Hyman, who researched Dolbear in his studies. 'He was very impressed and he later wrote a letter to Alexander Graham Bell praising him for this marvelous new invention.
'Six months later, Dolbear came out and said he was the inventor of the telephone. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and the letter he had written to Bell came up during testimony. It probably lost the case for him.'
The fact that Dolbear's telephone could not transmit the human voice also worked against him during a courtroom demonstration, Hyman said.
Among the telephone equipment in the university archives are 33 pieces of phone receivers in 'good condition,' said Hyman, who has managed to operate 15 of the pieces for two campus demonstrations.
'One piece I know for certain is from 1877, which is very, very early. It's a giant horn with magnets and it's about 2 feet long,' Hyman said. 'The other pieces are pretty much from 1885 or before. I was able to date them because they were wrapped in newspaper from 1885.'
The telephones were stored in the university archives in the same wooden box Dolbear carried them in while demonstrating his equipment at the 1893 World's Fair, Hyman said.
