A Phone of Our Own: The Deaf Insurrection Against Ma Bell

2. Up the Mountainside

2 L UP THE MOUNTAINSIDE After numerous conversations with Marsters and Saks, Weitbrecht evaluated the general obstacles he faced in developing a telephone device that deaf people could use- one based on visual communication . He believed that an acoustic coupler used with the TTY was probably the best idea to pursue, but first he had to review other available equipment. Second, he would have to work with Marsters and Saks to develop strategies to connect deaf people to some sort of network once the equipment became available. This would not be an easy task. For one thing, voice telephone technology was improving rapidly. Therefore, a constant effort would be needed to keep abreast of new advances so that the equipment for deaf people would not become obsolete too quickly. Third, Weitbrecht needed to find a solution to the problem ofcalling hearing people who did not have a visual telephone device. Some kind of service would be necessary to link hearing and deaf telephone callers who used different equipment. Without an intermediary to "relay" voiced and teletyped messages, the network of deaf people would be rather limited. Unfortunately, the ninety-year wait for a visual form of the telephone for deaf people had not been necessary. Accessible telephone technology for deaf people was available earlier. On February 14, 1876, both Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray filed for a patent on the voice telephone. Bell filed his claim two hours earlier than did Gray, and he successfully defended his patent against lawsuits that followed. There is a double irony to this story. The first is that Bell's primary interest was teaching deaf children. Supported by Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Greene Hubbard, whose deaf children he had been instructing , Bell labored long hours with manometric gas flames and 21 22 I UP THE MOUNTAINSIDE other instrumentation to "render visible to the eye ofthe deaf the vibrations of the air that affect our ears as sounds."l At the same time, he was experimenting with the harmonic telegraph, which distinguished musical notes and made it possible to transmit several messages over one wire simultaneously. His interest in acoustics and telegraphy eventually led him to the idea of the telephone, an invention that was useless to deaf people. The second irony was that Elisha Gray, the man who lost the patent to Bell, was the first person to develop a telephone device that deaf people could use. Although not intended specifically for deaf people, Gray's "Telautograph," introduced at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago , met the needs of deaf people. Messages handwritten at one end ofa wire with a pen-lifting mechanism were reproduced automatically on the other end through the use of a stylus and a wide sheet ofpaper. The Telautograph created a sensation in deaf communities in several countries. "Itseems to us," wrote the editor ofa magazine for deafpeople in Derby, England, "that not only will this new invention be a success, but it will be an especial boon to the deaf. ... a deaf person can use the instrument with the same advantage as a hearing person."2 But hearing people controlled the telephone industry, and they had grown accustomed to the voice telephone. As the American deaf community's periodical, The Silent Worker, commented in April 1900: "Gray's telautograph would be the very thing for the deaf if used in connection with the telephone.... When first brought out a test ofthe system was made ... but while it worked all right it was found that business men disliked the bother ofwriting.... Its failure to 'take' with the public is cause for regret to the deaf to whose needs it is so well adapted."3 Long before Weitbrecht, several other deaf inventors tried to develop other visual telephone devices. William E. Shaw of Lynn, Massachusetts , was one of the most prolific deaf inventors, credited with at least fifty inventions specifically for deaf people. His "Talkless Telephone ," also called the "Deaf-Mutes' Telephone," was a light board with thirty-six incandescent lamps that had letters and figures painted on the head of the bulbs. Each deaf person on the telephone had a The TeLautograph, a teLephone device created by Elisha Gray, was first demonstrated at the WorLd's Fair in Chicago, 1893. Courtesy of Danka/Omnifax. UP THE MOUNTAINSIDE I 23 keyboard connected to these rows of electric lights that transmitted and received messages, letter by letter. In...