Inventor of telephone answering machine dies

[Stalemate]

Inventor of telephone answering machine dies in Milwaukee at age 92
Canadian Press


Tuesday, April 06, 2004

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Joseph James Zimmermann Jr., who invented the telephone answering machine in 1948 and patented it a year later, has died at the age of 92.
Zimmermann died March 31. He said in a 1949 interview with the Milwaukee Journal that he got the idea for the device as the owner of an air-conditioning and heating company when he could not afford to hire a secretary to take calls when he was out of the office.

The first machine, the Electronic Secretary Model R1, was made up of a box that lifted the telephone receiver from its cradle when the phone rang, a box containing a control panel with a 78 rpm record player inside that played a recorded greeting and a wire recorder on top of the second box for recording a series of 30-second messages.

Zimmermann teamed up with businessman and fellow engineer George W. Danner to start Waukesha-based Electronic Secretary Industries. More than 6,000 answering machines were in use in 1957 when the pair sold the company, and the patent rights, to General Telephone Corp., which later became GTE.

"It's hard to imagine life without it," John Lundstrom, curator of American and military history at the Milwaukee Public Museum, said of the answering machine.

"He was an inventive genius, no doubt about it. He was one of the most important people in Milwaukee's history, and one who certainly affected the lives of people worldwide."

Zimmermann was born in Milwaukee in 1912, and graduated from Marquette University in 1935 with a degree in electrical engineering.

Besides the answering machine, Zimmermann owned dozens of other patents, covering such inventions as the security device that automatically dials a phone number and conveys information from one location to another in case of an emergency, a magnetic recorder used to monitor heart patients and a system used by airports to send out landing information to planes 24 hours a day.

Most of his ideas were developed in the basement of his homes in Milwaukee and later in Elm Grove, his wife said.

"He always kept to himself, working in the basement, trying to solve certain things," his wife, Helen, said Sunday.

He is also survived by a son and two grandchildren.

© Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press

[Escape_Driver]

Thank you for coming to my funeral please move away from the casket at the sound of the beep............................BEEP

[techs]

"You've reached Joseph James Zimmermann Jr. I am sorry I am unable to take your call at the moment. I happen to be dead. Your call is important to me. Please leave your name and a brief description of your beliefs in afterlife. I will try and find you there. Thank you and have a nice life."

[Spork]

Well, that's a bummer.

Wait a second, I should be in the :butt: thread. Why am I wasting my time here?

[silencio]

He lived to be 92 because he eliminated a huge stressor and stopped answering the phone.