Charles Bourseul

Charles Bourseul ( born April 28, 1829 in Brussels, † November 23, 1912 in Saint -Cere, France) was a French telegraph engineer and inventor.

Life

Bourseul came to France when his father, a soldier, was transferred to France. After his apprenticeship, he was employed as a telegraph mechanic in the telegraph office in Paris. There he was able to work on improving the telegraph by Samuel FB Morse, and Louis François Clément Breguet.

From 1848 Bourseul served in the French army in Algiers and drew attention to himself by successfully issued teaching mathematics to children of other soldiers. When in 1849 his military service ended, he moved to Paris and worked again as a telegraph clerk. A previously planned studies at the École polytechnique, he could not compete due to health reasons.

Bourseul worked in Paris at the electrical transmission of the human voice, and published in 1854 in the magazine L' Illustration de Paris the article " Téléphonie électrique " in which he was the first described the idea of the phone. According to him, a movable plate should alternately open and close a circuit. However Bourseul was neither taken seriously nor did he receive support. So Bourseul gave up his plans for the implementation of the idea, and his proposal fell into oblivion for a long time.

He was in the postal administration career and was at his retirement " Directeur des Postes et Télégraphes ". In 1882, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison referred to him as a " source of inspiration ". 1907 requested Bourseul recalling its preparatory work for the development of the telephone, an increase of his pension, whereupon the then French Postmaster General Mougeot was investigate. As Bourseuls details were confirmed, there was a substantial increase in his pension.