Why Johann Philipp Reis? Today we were at Museum for Communication Frankfurt to record an experience of our Catalogue and were amazed about his story. Let´s start with some historical facts. Most people don´t know it, but Phillip Reis is considered to be one of the central pioneers of the telephone technology.

Although the Patent of the telephone was widely disputed and finally given to Bell, in 1878 European scientists declared Reis to be the telephone’s inventor.

But what was Reis invention? In 1861, Reis created a device that captured sound, converted it to electrical impulses which were transmitted via electrical wires to another device that transformed these pulses into recognizable sounds similar to the original acoustical source.

By now, I guess you have already understood where we are going, this is the first coincidence, but here are two additional funny facts about Johann Philipp Reis German scientist and inventor:

• He had Portuguese origins – Reis is indeed a common surname in the Portuguese language and Portuguese families.
• He was born in Friedrichsdorf and spent most of his time in Frankfurt and the region of Hessen;

When you look for people who inspire you, it’s so great to find coincidences.

Almost 160 years after, there is another Portuguese pioneer, based in Frankfurt, trying to work on how to capture not only sounds but all the possible stimuli and stream it to another person in a different location through an app. There you go! That´s Pedro Ferreira.

And this time, a patent has already filed, by the way, by his co-founder Fabrizio Gramuglio. Fabrizio will be presented in a next blog post so you will get to know the team one at a time.

And, if you want to read more About the Telephone invention check this interactive Arts & Culture explanation.