The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-26
TELEPHONE PATENT RUNNING OUT.
In March, 1898, Anyone May Own a
Phone-More Patents in Reserve.
st. Louis Republic

st. Louis Republic.
Two years from next March the original
patents of the Bell Telephone company on
the art of transmitting the human voice
over wires by electricity will expire. Then
anybody who chooses can make and use
telephone without let or hindrance
Desiring to learn what would probably
be the result Oft the extinction of the Bell
Telephone Company's monopoly, Repub-
lac reporter sought out Mr.. Leo Ehrlich,
noted inventor of St. Louis. Mr.. Enrich
was one of the first inventors of the tele-
phone in this country, and with others
contested in the supreme court of the
United States the Bell Telephone Com
pany's right to exclusive right of the in
vention, but the supreme court decided
against them and they were forced TO aban-
don the use of their inventions. Mr. Ehr-
Itch was found in his busy workshop,
where he constantly employs some twenty
workingmen to carry out the conceptions
of his fertile brain. On learning the mis-
sion of the reporter, he said:
Eyes, the Bell Telephone Company's
original patent on the art of transmitting
the human voice over wires by electricity
expires in March, 1913, and then everybody
can make and use a telephone AS to
what the result will be | would say that as
matters now stand it will affect the price
reason that proper service, such as is now
given by the Bell Telephone Company,
cannot be furnished and pay interest on
the plant for much less than SIS year.
Another reason why we will not have
lower rates is that people will prefer pay
ing $50 or 800 to a service that has large
list of subscribers than pay smaller rates to
company with a small list of subscribers. In
other words, the telephone increases in COM
mercial value to subscribers in proportion to
the number he can communicate with
/ am satisfied, however, that at the expira-
ton of their patent the Bell Telephone
Company Will give us much superior
telephone system to the present, and one
where the slightest whisper, five or ten
feet away from the phone, will be dis
tinctly transmitted for miles. They have
been preparing against the competition
that will spring up at the expiration of
their patent by purchasing at nominal
figures from needy inventors all valuable
improvements that have been made to
the telephone, and they are now the
owners of patents as superior to
the present telephone as it is to
the toy phone. From personal tests
in Boston / know they have practical
instruments that are 100 per cent. better
than those in use now in transmitting
the human voice distinctly They
are keeping these inventions, on which the
patents will yet run for years, in reserve,
ana Will DFlHg LHeHn OUT Al any attempt IL
made in competition. SO the net result,
YOU might say, will be better service at
slightly reduced rate. The Western Union
similarly has a vast number Of telegraph
patents stored away for future use should
competition become more active. There
will be also another result On the expira-
ton of the patent and that is that tele-
phones will become very cheap, and for 81
or 81 80 anyone can purchase efficient
telephone. This will have the effect to
create an extensive use of them, and pri-
vate telephone lines and small exchanges
will become numerous. They will also
generally displace speaking tubes and
push-buttons in buildings, and hotels will
substitute them for annnnciators so that
guests can communicate their wishes to the
Office without the Intervention OF DeIl-
bow"