Patrick Bernard Delany (28 January 1845 – 19 October 1924) was an Irish-American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and inventor. Newspaper feature coverage in 1909 called him "the world's greatest telegraph expert and inventor."

Biography

He was born in

King's County, Ireland County Offaly (; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in honour of Philip II of ...

(now Offaly). He came to the U.S. at the age of 10 and learned

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. Gradually he worked up from office boy to be superintendent of lines. In 1872 he and

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

worked together as engineers for the Automatic Telegraph Company. His first patent, related to telegraph relays, was granted in 1873. In 1877 Delaney left the industry entirely, to work as a newspaper correspondent, editor, and writer, until the discovery in 1880 that his patent could be used as an alternative technology to challenge the

Western Union Telegraph Company The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company ch ...

's monopoly on telegraph relays. Delaney's later inventions included more than 150 patents registered in the U.S. through 1922. Almost all relate to telegraphy in some way: they cover anti-induction cables which were "extensively manufactured at Pittsburg, Penn" as of 1895, synchronous multiplex telegraphy to send six messages simultaneously over one wire, and rapid-machine telegraphy for

land line A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

s. His automatic telegraph system was capable of transmitting and recording 3000 words a minute over a single wire. In the 1890s he was experimenting at the

Heart's Content Cable Station Heart's Content Cable Station is a former cable landing station located in Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador. It served as the western terminus of the first permanent trans-oceanic submarine telegraph cable, while a sister cable statio ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

to improve the through-put of the

transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is a largely obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and dat ...

. Delany was awarded gold medals at the

International Inventions Exhibition The International Inventions Exhibition was a world's fair held in South Kensington in 1885. As with the earlier exhibitions in a series of fairs in South Kensington following the Great Exhibition, Queen Victoria was patron and her son Albert Edw ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

(1885), at the

Pan-American Exposition The Pan-American Exposition was a world's fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park–Front Park System, Delaware Park, extending ...

(1901), and at the St. Louis Exposition (1904), and the

John Scott Medal John Scott Award, created in 1816 as the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium, is presented to men and women whose inventions improved the "comfort, welfare, and happiness of human kind" in a significant way. "...the John Scott Medal Fund, establish ...

of the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

. Delany was a two-time recipient of the

Elliott Cresson Medal The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848. Th ...

awarded by the

, one in 1886 for "Synchronous Telegraphy" and another in 1896 for "Telegraphy, High speed system". A copy of Delany's Telegraph Relay is in the permanent collection of the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...

of the Smithsonian Institution. From 1893 to 1895 he was a vice president of the

American Institute of Electrical Engineers The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States–based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Inst ...

External links

References

1845 births 1924 deaths 19th-century American inventors 20th-century American inventors Irish emigrants to the United States Telegraph engineers and inventors {{US-inventor-stub