What if...? How often have we contemplated certain
occurrences in the light of what has or hasn't happened?
With the recent introduction
of a cell phone with a Leica lens by Panasonic a while ago, the question has
certainly come up if we will ever see a Leica cell phone. This reminded me of a book by W. Erb about
the Leitz (Leica) company. It contains a
short paragraph with a transcript from a newspapaer article that translates as
follows:
Panasonic cell phone with Leica lens
“On September 1864, the 39th
meeting of the German Naturalists and Physicians took place in Giessen.
(Giessen is a town very close to Wetzlar)
Particular efforts were made to remain competitive during the subsequent
exhibition of microscopes. For the young
mechanic (Ernst Leitz) there was a special task. Phillip Reis planned to demonstrate his
invention, the telephone, since his first try in Frankfurt on October 16, 1861,
had failed. Ernst Leitz successfully
completed the preliminary work with the help of his technical knowledge, so
that on September 21, 1864, the final recognition was not denied the inventor.”
Phillip Reis
Reis' Telephone
Ernst Leitz
Photograph by Oskar Barnack
After reading that short
paragraph one has to wonder: What if Ernst Leitz had become interested in
telephones? Could there have been a
Leitel (Leitz Telephone)? Considering
the fact that Ernst Leitz did not start his work at the Wetzlar Optical
Institute until 1865, this seems to be a possibility.
It is also interesting to
note that Alexander Graham Bell did not show his invention of the telephone
until 1876, twelve years later, yet he is generally credited with the invention
of the telephone. The above account
very much proves that this is not at all the case.
Alexander Graham Bell
Besides Reis and Bell, many
others claimed to have invented the telephone. The result was the Gray-Bell
telephone controversy, one of the United States' longest running patent
interference cases, involving Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Elisha Gray, Emil
Berliner, Amos Dolbear, J. W. McDonagh, G. B. Richmond, W. L. Voeker, J. H.
Irwin, and Francis Blake Jr. The case started in 1878 and was not finalized
until February 27, 1901. However,
regardless of the claims by Bell and others, nobody demonstrated a working
telephone prior to Phillip Reis.
For more on the Panasonic
phone go
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