Walter L. Shaw, Sr.
December 20, 1916 – July 21, 1996
I had no idea of this man's existence up until a week ago, yet I have used his technology all my life. Obtaining over 39 patents he died penniless. He invented speakerphone, a two-way communications unit, call forwarding, conference calling, the answering machine, and a tone generator that eventually lead to touch tone dialing.
Incredible Right?
It goes on. He started as a lineman for Bell when he was recognized for his aptitude in circuitry. They helped foster his education and he took a shine to calculus. He became a tinkerer and constantly drew his designs on paper. He knew if he could draw it would work. Departing from Bell after 14 years because the executive persistently came after the rights of his event, Walter Shaw soon became effectively shut out of the telecommunications industry. Bell had required a government sanction monopoly that lasted 107 years and refused many of his innovated inventions in order to maintain profit and control. Raising a family and out of work Shaw event linked up a member of organized crime using his invention the "black box". A device for free, untraceable long distance telephone calls enabling bookkeepers to operate without being caught. Eventually, the law caught up with Shaw and he plead guilty to inventing the device. In 1954 President Eisenhower commissioned Shaw to develop the “Red Phone” commonly referred to as the “alert system” from the White House to the Kremlin.
Victim of Corporatism
Shaw used Bell lines four times while testing his tone generator and was found guilty on eight counts of illegal phone usage. Bell never produce the recordings they claimed to have on him. This shows the power of large interests. I can't imagine spending years in prison for such a small offense, but it was because his genius was a threat to him. Shaw spent most his life struggling to get by while a select few gain vast fortunes on his creative genius. If he was able to do all this while he was scrapping to get by, take a moment picture what he could have accomplished if he was supported in his efforts. Steemit would have upvoted this man to the moon.
Food for thought
Here is a little excerpt from the LA times I found while fact checking:
Other people would reverse engineer a version of this to create a similar device called a "blue box." Among the pranksters who created a "blue box" were a couple of guys named Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs."If it hadn’t been for the blue boxes, there wouldn’t have been an Apple," Jobs is quoted as saying in Walter Isaacson's biography. "I’m 100 percent sure of that."
Final Note
Shaw died at the of 79 of prostate cancer after being castrated. He did live to see the dismantling of the Bell monopoly but took 62 years for Shaw to be heard in his plea to have the rights over his inventions. OnJune 6th, 2011, a 7-2 Supreme Court decision was announced pertaining to patents and inventors' right that, "the rights to an invention belong to the inventor."Thank your for your work Mr. Shaw
Sources: Wiki, Genius on Hold, LA Times
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wellcome
Hi, this is just a warning. I have not flagged. This post is not an #introduceyourself. Please try to tag your posts correctly in the future, thank you.
ill remove the tag
thanks
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