Joseph Barker Stearns

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Joseph Barker Stearns (born February 28, 1831 in Weld , Maine , USA ; † July 4, 1895 in Camden , Maine) invented the duplex system for telegraphy .

Life

Stearns was born to Edward Ray Stearns and Eliza Tyler Barker in Weld, Maine . His father went to Searsmont , he himself to Newburyport , where he initially worked in a cotton mill . He worked in telegraphy in Newburyport, Massachusetts and ran a telegraph office there. At the age of 24 he became superintendent of the Fire Alarm Telegraph Company in Boston.

In 1868, Stearns made several inventions relating to the fire alarm telegraph. In 1868 he patented the duplex system of telegraphy. From 1869 to 1871, Stearns was President of the Franklin Telegraph Company . During these years he applied his system, which was subsequently used on the French, English and Belgian lines. This system was later applied to the Atlantic cables.

Eventually he sold his patent rights to the Western Union Telegraph and Cable Company and other cable companies that had to pay a usage fee. Governments such as England, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Russia as well as India and several submarine cable companies became familiar with this system in this way. From 1879 to 1880, Stearns worked as an engineer for the Mexican Telegraph Company, working on the manufacture, laying and commissioning of the lines between Galveston , Texas and Veracruz , Mexico .

In 1881 there was a new assignment in Central and South America for the companies there. For example, the line from the isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico to Callao , Peru , was extended. He eventually retired in 1885, aged only 54, which he spent in Camden , Maine . There he dealt with the collection of books for his extensive library. He also collected pottery of Chiriquí , in the Smithsonian Institute , DC issued by Washington.

Private life

Joseph Barker Stearns had eight children. He married in 1853. His first wife was Lois M. Brooks from Putney , Vermont (June 4, 1827, † July 29, 1861). In his second marriage he was with Frances Amanda Edmonds (born January 16, 1838) from Portsmouth , New Hampshire . The wedding took place on June 6, 1866.

Awards

Stearns received the American Institute of New York's Medal of Honor in 1872 for inventing the telegraph duplex.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Stearns, Joseph Barker . In: Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography , 1900, accessed May 6, 2014.
  2. Jump up ↑ Maine History News: Joseph B Stearns of Camden , accessed May 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b Ancestry.com: Joseph Barker Stearns , accessed May 6, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Stearns, Joseph Barker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American inventor and developer of a telegraphy system
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Weld , Maine , USA
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1895
Place of death Camden , Maine , USA