Benjamin Franklin Miessner (July 27, 1890 – March 25, 1976) was an American radio engineer and inventor. He is most known for his electronic organ, electronic piano, and other musical instruments. He was the inventor of the

Cat's whisker detector A crystal detector is an obsolete electronic component used in some early 20th century radio receivers that consists of a piece of crystalline mineral which rectifies the alternating current radio signal. It was employed as a detector (dem ...

Early life and career

Miessner was born in Huntingburg, Indiana to Charles and Mary (Reutopohler) Miessner and was the brother of Otto Miessner. He attended school in Huntingburg and graduated from high school in 1908. He then enlisted in the U. S. Navy, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Electrical School in Brooklyn, NY in 1909. He was assigned to a naval radio station in

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to be a radio operator. It was while he was in Washington that he invented the "cat whisker" detector which allowed for receiving

radio waves Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies of 300 gigahertz ( GHz) and below. At 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm (s ...

by crystal sets. He was also promoted to Chief Operator. Electric Dog 1919 photographs

He left the Navy to work with John Hays Hammond Jr. and Frtiz Lowenstein in 1911. The group worked on a wireless control system for torpedoes. While working for Hammond he invented a superheterodyne radio system. The group also invented the Electric Dog, a prop they used to demonstrate how light changes the electrical conduction properties of

selenium Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...

. Miessner and Hammond had a falling out and Miessner left the company in 1912. He studied electrical engineering at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

from 1913 to 1916 where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. He also communicated with

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. They had two daughters, Jane and Mary. That same year he returned to the Navy as an Expert Radio Aid for Aviation where he developed radio systems for airplanes and published his book ''“Radiodynamics, the wireless control of torpedoes and other mechanisms”''. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was stationed in Pensacola, Florida where he was in charge of the radio laboratory of the Navy Aeronautic Station. After World War I, he began working for Emil J. Simon on radio for aircraft and transoceanic receivers in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He moved to

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in the early 1920s where he worked for the

Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Today, Brunswick has more than 13,000 employ ...

where he founded the company's acoustical lab. He moved back east to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in 1926 to be the chief engineer at Garod Corp.

Miessner Inventions, Inc.

In the late 1920s, Miessner sold over fifty of his patents to

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

and received around $750,000 for them. He used this money to begin his own company, Miessner Inventions, Inc in

Millburn, New Jersey Millburn is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the township's population was 20,149, reflecting an increase of 384 (+1.9%) from the 19,765 counted in the 2000 Census, which had ...

. Over the next thirty years he became a leader in the fields of electrical radio receivers, electronic musical instruments and receivers, phonography, radio dynamics, directional microphones for aircraft and submarines, aircraft radio, and other devices. He also developed a new system of sound recording and reproduction and perfected the Wurlitzer organ and electronic piano. In 1929, he published his second book, ''All-electric Radio Receiver Design'' and in 1936 he had fairly long article on electronic music and instruments published in the '' Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers''. In the early 1930s he worked with his brother, Otto, to invent an instrument called a rhythmicon. Unfortunately for them,

Léon Theremin Leon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen rus, Лев Сергеевич Термéн, p=ˈlʲef sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ tɨrˈmʲen; – 3 November 1993) was a Russian and Soviet inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, one o ...

had already developed a similar instrument with the same name. In 1934, one of Miessner's patents was used by the Everett Piano Company in the first large scale production on an electronic organ known as the Orgatron. In 1954, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company used his 1935 design for an amplified conventional piano as the basis for their highly successful

Wurlitzer Electric Piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is concept ...

. In 1937 Miessner designed an

electric violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

and

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

. He was involved in a

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

battle with another company on the violin's design, which he lost. In 1955 he took the U.S. Patent Office to court to recoup a $25.00 filing fee he had to pay make an appeal. A decision was made that day (possibly before he filed the appeal) which made the appeal, and the fee, unnecessary. When the Patent Office would not refund his money he took them to court where the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against him. When Miessner dissolved his company in 1959 he had been granted over two hundred patents and sold about one hundred fifty of them. While most of his patents had to do with electronics, sound, and music, others were variations from that work, such as his inventions to adjust the string tension on a tennis racket and for a non-leaking fountain pen.

Retirement

After closing his company, Miessner kept himself busy with writing and other work. In 1962 he published an article on the bending of parts of a radio beam and another in 1963 on the frustrations in inventing. He was appointed to the ad hoc Patent System Reform panel of the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1963. In 1964, he published his third book ''On the Early History of Radio Guidance''. He was a board member of the Academy of Applied Sciences and president of the Patent Equity Association. He was also a member of the

Acoustical Society of America The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is an international scientific society founded in 1929 dedicated to generating, disseminating and promoting the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications. The Society is primarily a voluntary org ...

, the American Physics Society, the A.A.A.S., and the Veteran Wireless Operators Association. He also kept inventing and filing patents. In 1963, Miessner won the De Forest Audion gold medal for inventive achievement. In 1964 he won the Distinguished Service Award from the Boys Club of America. Miessner died at his home in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miessner, Benjamin Inventors of musical instruments 1890 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American inventors Purdue University College of Engineering alumni United States Navy personnel of World War I