Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Berliner, Emile

BERLINER, Emile, inventor, b. in Hanover, Germany, 20 May, 1851. He was graduated atSamson college, Wolfenbüttel, in 1865. He came to this country in 1870 and settled in Washington, D. C., in 1882. From 1879 to 1882 he was chief instrument inspector of the Bell telephone company. He discovered early in 1877 the loose contact principle of the modern telephone transmitter, independently made known by Hughes in England in the autumn of that year. He also introduced the use of induction-coils in telephone transmitters and is the patentee of other inventions.