Re: Tesla's US Patents (invention of wireless)

To: 'Tesla-Submissions' <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Tesla's US Patents (invention of wireless)
From: "Baddeley, Glenn" <GBaddele-at-vitgssw.telecom-dot-com.au>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 96 11:36:00 EST
Cc: DELCOKEVIN <DELCOKEVIN-at-aol-dot-com>

Kevin M. Conkey <DELCOKEVIN-at-aol-dot-com>, on 30 May 1996 you wrote to me:

> Do you know which patent in particular was the one that was in dispute 
with Marconi?

645,576 filed 2 Sep 1897.  It could be proven that Tesla was doing original 
wireless work back as far as 1893, or even 1892.

> I have always heard that Tesla was the original inventor of wireless
> transmission, and that it went to court years later and Tesla won out. Can
> you possibly fill me in on the specifics of all this? I hate to perpetuate
> rumors, and I also like to be able to backup my claims with paper.

The US Supreme court made its ruling on 22 June 1943, just months after 
Tesla's Jan 7 death.

The following information extracted from my choronological database should 
help your understanding.  Page references in the two main Tesla biographies 
and two works by Tesla are given. Read them for more detail  :-)
"MC" is Margaret Cheney "Tesla: Man Out Of Time".
"JO" is J.J. O'Neill "Nikola Tesla: Prodigal Genius".
"NTc" is Nikola Tesla "My Inventions (Moji Pronalasci)".
"NTa" is Nikola Tesla "Nikola Tesla Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900".
I hope the long lines don't screw things up too much....

1888 JO128,MC138 Prof Heinrich Hertz of Bonn, Germany, shows a ring of wire 
with gap produces
a minute spark at close range to an induction coil, and confirms Maxwell's 
theory

24 Feb 1893 JO131,JO133,MC293,NTc52 Tesla lectures before the Franklin 
Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "On light and other high frequency 
phenomema", making a public demonstration of wireless communication for the 
first time, over a distance of 30 feet

1894 JO134,MC69,MC99 Sir Oliver Lodge, the English scientist, demonstrates a 
directional Hertz
transmitter and receiver over a distance of 150 yards

1895 JO135,MC69 Marchese Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian-Irish experimenter, 
begins his studies of wireless

22 April 1896 Tesla files patents 568,176 thru 568,180 on the generation of 
high frequency current

1896 JO135,MC69 Marconi demonstrates a wireless system using a ground 
connection and antenna

2 Sep 1897 MC110,MC160,MC178,NTc107,JO322 Tesla files patent 645,576 "System 
Of Transmission Of Electrical Energy"

1897 MC146 Marconi sends a wireless signal across the 8 mile Bristol Channel

1899 MC146 Marconi sends a wireless signal across the 22 mile wide English 
Channel

1900 MC178 Marconi's files his original wireless patent, and is rejected on 
a prior patent of Sir Oliver Lodge

12 Dec 1901 MC160,MC161,NTc108 Marconi succeeds in signalling the letter "S" 
across the Atlantic Ocean, from Signal Hill in St. John, Newfoundland to 
Poldhu, Cornwall

28 June 1904 NTa15 US Patent 763,772 patented to Marconi "Wireless devices"

1909 JO229,MC174 Guglielmo Marconi receives the Nobel prize for Physics, 
jointly with Carl Ferdinand Braun of Germany, for their work on wireless 
telegraphy, which disappoints Tesla

Aug 1915 MC181 Tesla finally sues Marconi for patent infringments

21 June 1943 NTa15,MC176 U.S. Supreme Court invalidates Marconi's 763,772 US 
patent as containing nothing already in earlier patents of Lodge, Stone or 
Tesla

These documented histories certainly heavily favour Tesla.  MC176-184 
presents comments from others (J.S. Stone, Prof Pupin, E.H. Armstrong, L.I. 
Anderson & others), generally praising Tesla and arguing for Tesla as the 
person who should be credited with the invention of wireless.  Make of it 
what you wish.

Regards,
Glenn Baddeley <gbaddele-at-vitgssw.telecom-dot-com.au>
National Vice President,
Australian Nikola Tesla Society (ANTS),
BH +61 3 9253 8072 (time-zone Z+10)
Victoria, Australia

PS: No one has yet contacted me to volunteer the references in Ratzlaff 
"Complete Patents".