I'm still teaching myself about 1930s telephones, in order to understand why this was such a big deal. (I didn't think old telephones even had tubes.) In the meantime, check out this article. Then maybe you can enlighten me.
“Many people say just because I live out here in the country and operate a roadside stand, that I know nothing about the science of wireless telephone and telegraph.”DOYLESTOWN MAN INVENTED A WIRELESS-TUBELESS TELEPHONE
Walter Beans Carried on Conversation In Presence of Two Witnesses For 30 Minutes at His Home on Lackawanna Trail Opposite Doylestown Flying Field
What the inventor believes to be the first wireless telephone communication without tubes in transmission and reception, took place in Buckingham township this week, it was revealed today, when Walter Beans, forty, proprietor of a roadside restaurant along the Lackawanna Trail opposite the Doylestown Flying Field, north of Doylestown, invited a news service representative to his home.
Beans was formerly a mail carrier in Doylestown, who worked on extra duty, but for the past five years he has been burning the midnight oil studying wireless telephone and telegraphic science in all its details.
“I may get nothing out of this discovery, but I believe it can he developed to such an extent that it will be a great never to the world in general,” Beans told his interviewer.
Beans also stated that he believed that he could show science the cause of the fluctuation of the magnetic needle as a result of extensive experiments which were successfully terminated on March 9, this year, at his home, a discovery which led up to the wireless telephone communication without tubes on Thursday of this week.
“The conversation was just as plain as if both persons were talking in the same room,” Mr. Beans declared. “It is exactly the same invention on which Marconi has been working for some time with some degree of success.”
Mr. Beans says that he is confident that the wireless telephone without tubes can be developed so that it can be used internationally.
“It is simply a matter of finance, of getting money sufficient to build larger apparatus to do the same work” he said. “I do not have the means to build a larger layout but I might be able to attract the attention of engineers or research departments of engineering companies for expansion.”
Beans’ set was operated Thursday on a six-volt battery. Practically all of the parts were made by the inventor, who has spent night after night experimenting.
“This is not the result of luck, but the result of long and extensive study, research and experimentation,” he declared.
To avoid any infraction on his discoveries, Beans immediately dismantled the most intricate parts of the mechanism after the experiment had been successfully carried out in the presence of witnesses.
Beans is of the opinion that the time is here when wireless, tubeless telephone system can be installed with a central exchange operated in the same manner as at the present time, but without wires and tubes. Development and establishment of this science will save an enormous operating cost, Mr. Beans declares.
“My greatest trouble has been to make people really believe that I have successfully completed experiments and inventions that are really worth-while,” Mr. Beans declared. “Many people say just because I live out here in the country and operate a roadside stand, that I know nothing about the science of wireless telephone and telegraph.”
Mr. Beans has several inventions, upon which he has been working for some time. Although the nature of the new ideas were not made public, he says that he is certain that he has something that will benefit the chemical field, the textile industry and the Army and Navy.
Ooo, and as a bonus, check out this great 1930s "How to dial a telephone" ad I found online:
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