When was Mahlon Loomis born?
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Mahlon Loomis (21 July 1826 – 13 October 1886) was an American dentist and inventor. He is best known for promoting the idea that the Earth's upper atmosphere was divided into discrete concentric layers, and these layers could be tapped by metallic conductors on hills and mountain tops, in order to provide long-distance wireless telegraph and telephone communication, as well as draw electricity down to the Earth's surface.
Mahlon Loomis
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Mahlon Loomis was born in Oppenheim, New York, the third of eight children born to Nathan and Waitie J. (Berber) Loomis. The family later moved to Springvale, Virginia. On May 28, 1856 he married Achsah Ashley; they had a daughter, Catherine Ashley, on August 5, 1860. In September 1848 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and studied dentistry under a Dr. Wright, and he began practicing dentistry in Ohio before moving back to Virginia, later residing in Earlville, New York, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before moving to Washington, D.C. In 1860-1862 he was listed as a "master mason" within the Free and Accepted Masons fraternal organization, attending the Dawson Lodge.
Mahlon Loomis
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With the approach of the centennial of his reported October 1866 demonstration, a group of supporters worked to commemorate Loomis. A short article by Otis B. Young of Southern Illinois University, "The Real Beginning of Radio: the Neglected Story of Mahlon Loomis", appeared in the March 7, 1964 issue of "Saturday Review". Young produced a longer review in 1967, whose open sentence asserted that "Mahlon Loomis was beyond reasonable doubt the discoverer and inventor of wireless communication in the world." Congressional acknowledgement of Loomis was proposed through Senate Joint Resolution 111, submitted September 20, 1965 by Senator Robert Byrd, and House Joint Resolution 685, submitted October 7, 1965 by Representative Howard W. Smith, both of Virginia, which sought to recognize Loomis as being "the first person to invent and demonstrate a system of wireless communication". However, neither resolution was passed.
Mahlon Loomis
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For the "Telegraphy" entry in the 1903 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, contributor John Ambrose Fleming wrote that: "Many other more or less imperfect devices—such as those of Mahlon Loomis, put forward in 1872 and 1877, and Kitsee in 1895—for wireless telegraphy were not within the region of practically realizable schemes." In 1904, A. T. Story surveyed the available information, and felt the need to include the qualifier "if we are to believe the reports", before stating that then "the attempt to communicate between the two summits was successful". In 1907 Lucien Poincaré authored a comprehensive overview of "modern physics" which flatly dismissed Loomis' self-reported successes as not even being worthy of review, and the English translation of this book added the pejorative description of Loomis as "an American quack".
Mahlon Loomis
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Skepticism about Loomis' ideas date back to his earliest work. In 1869, the year he petitioned the U.S. Congress for financial support, and from 1870 to 1873, when he was endeavoring to receive the charter for the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company, newspaper commentary was often very negative. An editorial comment in the January 15, 1869 "Paterson Daily Gardian" stated "We incline to think that Mr. Summer is both sound and safe in saying of Mahon Loomis, M. D.'s new mode of 'telegraphing without the use of wires,' that it is "either" a great case of moonshine or else it marks an epoch in the progress of invention.' But before that 'appropriation of $50,000' is passed, it may be well to find out "which"."
Mahlon Loomis
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On May 20, 1872, representative Bingham submitted "An Act to incorporate the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company" for a third time, again stressing that there would be no monetary appropriation. At the time the bill was submitted, Bingham stated: "I have introduced the bill at the instance of the gentleman (Mr. Loomis) whose name it bears. My acquaintance with this gentleman is very limited." "He entertains a dream, and it may be only a dream, a wild dream, that when his proposition comes to be fully applied, it may light and warm your houses, that it may furnish all the heat needful for all the uses of human life, and to propel your machinery upon the land and upon the sea." This time the bill was passed by the House of Representatives, and on January 16, 1873 the U.S. Senate also gave its approved. President Grant signed the bill five days later.
Mahlon Loomis
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Loomis eventually became estranged from his wife, and by 1878 was working as a mineralogist for the Mount Athos company in Lynchburg, Virginia. On May 10, 1881, he was issued for a "convertible valise", and on November 29, 1881 was issued for a "cuff or collar fastening". This device consisted of "a strip of metal bent at each end in opposite directions to form spring hooks, having the inner surfaces roughened or serrated and the curved portions corrugated." He moved to his brother George's home in Parkersburg, West Virginia, then in 1884 moved to Terra Alta, West Virginia, where he set up a dental practice. On March 16, 1886, he was issued , for a type of electrical thermostat. Loomis died at Terra Alta on October 13, 1886 at the age of 60, and was buried in a local cemetery.
Mahlon Loomis
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Another electrical phenomenon that greatly influenced Loomis' theories was the "aurora borealis" or "Northern Lights". As early as 1839 the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss had correctly speculated that its luminescence was originating in an electrically conducting region of the upper atmosphere, which later became known as ionosphere. Loomis was familiar with the solar storm of 1859, which in addition to a major aurora display produced widespread surging electrical currents which disrupted telegraph lines. However, at this time the exact height of the phenomenon was uncertain. Although it is now known to be located hundreds of kilometers above sea level, Loomis believed it was actually only a few kilometers above the Earth's surface, thus well within the range of the highest mountain summits.
Mahlon Loomis
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Loomis now held a patent, and the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company had a federal charter, but there appears to have been liitle corporate activity beyond an organizational meeting. Ernest Newton Boog placed much of the blame on the inactivity on the Panic of 1873, which occurred in September of that year, and "ruined most of the very capitalists who had agreed to back him".
However, in late 1877 it was reported that Loomis was now conducting successful experiments in West Virginia, and also had the financing needed to test a bold plan to connect the western United States with Switzerland. According to this report, carried in numerous papers: "Information has reached here recently that Professor Loomis, who has been in the mountainous regions of West Virginia for some months conducting a series of experiments with his proposed aerial telegraphy, has demonstrated finally that telegraphing without wires is practical." Furthermore, "Professor Loomis has a scheme now on foot for a series of experiments from a point on one of the highest peaks on the Alps, in Switzerland, to a similarly situated place in the Rocky Mountains, on this side of the world. If this succeeds, of course, the invention will rank in importance with that of the electric telegraph itself, and be even greater than that of the telephone. All of the money necessary to carry on the experiments has already been promised, and it will not be many years, if it turns out to be a success, before ocean cables will be one of the lost arts, as having played its part, it will be laid aside. The cost of aerial telegraphy will not be over one cent when the other is $1,000."
Mahlon Loomis
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Loomis was born January 28, 1859 in Westfield, Massachusetts to Dr. John Loomis and Clarissa Loomis née Robinson. Just before the American Civil War, Dr. John Loomis moved with his family to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where they stayed until about 1910, when they moved to Louisville.
Arthur Loomis