Joseph Zimmermann Jr; invented Voicemail
Hyfler/Rosner
City native invented voice mail
By DAN BENSON
dbe...@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 4, 2004
Millions of people around the world will begin their day
today by checking for voice mail messages. Each one owes a
debt of gratitude to Milwaukee native Joseph James
Zimmermann Jr., who invented the answering machine in 1948.
Zimmermann died Wednesday at age 92.
"It's hard to imagine life without it," said John Lundstrom,
curator of American and military history at the Milwaukee
Public Museum.
"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,"
Lundstrom said.
Here's how a Milwaukee Journal reporter described the first
answering machine - called the "Electronic Secretary" - in
an article published in 1949, when Zimmermann patented the
device:
"This willing worker is never late or absent, never
complains about working all hours of the day or night, never
talks about anything except business. If the boss holds this
secretary on his lap, no one will ever give it a second
thought."
The year after that article was written, 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., later GTE.
Danner died in February, at the age of 84. Danner's son,
Dean W. Danner, is president of Electronic
Tele-Communications Inc., a corporate progeny of the company
started by Danner and Zimmermann.
Cost-saving idea
Zimmermann was born in Milwaukee in 1912 to Joseph and Anna
Zimmermann. He graduated from Marquette University in 1935
with a degree in electrical engineering and soon afterward
came up with the idea of his landmark invention.
In his 1949 interview, Zimmermann said he got the idea as
the owner of an air conditioning and heating company when he
couldn't afford to hire a secretary to take calls when he
was out of the office.
He tinkered with the idea for nearly 10 years, with the
primary hurdle being that the only way to record the
messages was on 78-rpm vinyl discs.
"It would have been necessary to change discs after each
message," he said. But it wasn't until the invention of the
wire recorder during World War II that technology caught up
to him.
Wire recorders recorded sound on a single strand of steel
wire, contained on a spool. Used widely during the war, wire
recorders were eventually replaced in the marketplace by
magnetic tape, which is used today in audio cassettes.
The Milwaukee Public Museum owns two examples of
Zimmermann's machine, one each from the first two years of
production.
The first machine, the Electronic Secretary Model R1,
weighed about 80 pounds and was made up of three components:
a box that lifted the telephone receiver from its cradle
when the telephone 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.
During World War II, Zimmermann served in the U.S. Army
Signal Corps and was among the first soldiers to land on
Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, as part of the D-Day
invasion.
Although his landing boat sank, Zimmermann made his way onto
the beach and called in target coordinates by radio to ships
offshore bombarding German positions.
"He stayed on that beach for two days," said his son, Joseph
James Zimmermann III.
A prolific inventor
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; a "dial-a-lecture" system for accessing
prerecorded lectures to earn college credit; 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 home
in Elm Grove and, before that, in Milwaukee, his wife and
son said.
"He always kept to himself, working in the basement, trying
to solve certain things," his wife, Helen, said Sunday. "He
always had something going."
His son, who now lives in Montreal, said he remembered one
particular project, in 1966, when the son was 8 years old,
in which he helped out.
His father "had been working on making a cordless telephone
for quite a while, using FM transmitters and receivers,"
said Zimmermann. "He would call me when I was upstairs and
walking around the house outside. It was very exciting."
His son said he has always "felt funny" telling people that
his father invented the answering machine.
"It's such a common device that people believe the person
who invented it would be really well-known and famous, like
Thomas Edison," he said.
In addition to his wife and son, Zimmermann is survived by
two grandchildren, Melissa Zimmermann and Michael
Berardi-Zimmermann. He was preceded in death by his sisters,
Josephine, Catherine, Marguerite and Ann, and brothers
Godfrey, Valentine and Frederick.
Visitation is Monday at 9:30 a.m. at St. Mary's Church in
Elm Grove, followed at 11 a.m. by a mass of Christian Burial
and graveside Services at St. Mary's Cemetery, Elm Grove. In
lieu of flowers, memorials to Marquette University would be
appreciated.
Robert Feigel (aka Bob)
wrote:
>Zimmermann answered the call
>City native invented voice mail
>By DAN BENSON
>dbe...@journalsentinel.com
>Posted: April 4, 2004
>Millions of people around the world will begin their day
>today by checking for voice mail messages. Each one owes a
>debt of gratitude to Milwaukee native Joseph James
>Zimmermann Jr., who invented the answering machine in 1948.
>
>Zimmermann died Wednesday at age 92.
>
>"It's hard to imagine life without it," said John Lundstrom,
>curator of American and military history at the Milwaukee
>Public Museum.
I sure would like a chance to try. b
"Hi - Satan here. I'm not in my office at the moment. Please leave me
a message after the beep tone or press 'zero' now to speak to St Peter
... or press the hash button for more options. Have a nice day ..."
"When weaving nets, all threads count." - Charlie Chan
********
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
Brian Watson
"Robert Feigel (aka Bob)" <aka...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote in message
news:aft170pqv7vvq43bp...@4ax.com...
> >"It's hard to imagine life without it," said John Lundstrom,
> >curator of American and military history at the Milwaukee
> >Public Museum.
>
> I sure would like a chance to try. b
Press One to speak to Her Majesty.
Press a number 2 to speak to the john.
Press 3 to speak to The Father, The Son or The Holy Ghost.
Press fore to be connected to the Golf Department.
Press 5ive to be connected to yet another boy band with a ridiculous name.
Press Number Six for Patrick McGoohan...
(this one could run and run)
--
Brian
"Let's be grateful for our Fridays and face our Mondays with good humour."
Bob Flaminio
> Zimmermann answered the call
> City native invented voice mail
Rot in Hell, bastard.
--
Bob
The Kentucky Wizard
> Zimmermann answered the call
> City native invented voice mail
> By DAN BENSON
> dbe...@journalsentinel.com
> Posted: April 4, 2004
> Millions of people around the world will begin their day
> today by checking for voice mail messages. Each one owes a
> debt of gratitude to Milwaukee native Joseph James
> Zimmermann Jr., who invented the answering machine in 1948.
>
I hope he ends up in a special hell, where he has to listen to
every_stupid_freaking_greeting that has ever been recorded over
and over and over for eternity.
--
© The Wiz ®
«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»
Robert Feigel (aka Bob)
<t_del...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 18:07:40 GMT, "The Kentucky Asshole"
><Kentuck...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>I hope he ends up in a special hell, where he has to listen to
>>every_stupid_freaking_greeting that has ever been recorded over
>>and over and over for eternity.
>
>I hope voice mail haters wind up in a special hell where they can
>never get their own work done because they keep having to answer their
>fucking absent co-workers' phones.
>
I'd rather think we'll go straight to heaven where there *are* no
phones! ;-)b
The Kentucky Wizard
> On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 19:35:08 -0700, Terry del Fuego
> <t_del...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 18:07:40 GMT, "The Kentucky Asshole"
>> <Kentuck...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I hope he ends up in a special hell, where he has to listen
to
>>> every_stupid_freaking_greeting that has ever been recorded
over
>>> and over and over for eternity.
>>
>> I hope voice mail haters wind up in a special hell where they
can
>> never get their own work done because they keep having to
answer their
>> fucking absent co-workers' phones.
>>
>
> I'd rather think we'll go straight to heaven where there *are*
no
> phones! ;-)b
>
>
That's because you and I will get there, Bob.
Tooth de Fairy, on the other hand, well............ *
--
© The Wiz ®
«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»
Bill Schenley
> > *are* no phones! ;-)b
> That's because you and I will get there, Bob.
> Tooth de Fairy, on the other hand, well............ *
Ahhhhhh ... I see your invisible friends have now put *you*
in charge of who gets into their funhouse ... Cool.
Terrymelin
different thing.
Terry Ellsworth
Hyfler/Rosner
"Terrymelin" <terry...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040406145347...@mb-m10.aol.com...
The obituaries in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal and the AP
use the term voicemail.
Terrymelin
>use the term voicemail.
>
I think they are mistaken. He invented a machine that is akin to today's
answering machine.
Voicemail is an automated service and has nothing to do with the answering
machine you have in your home.
Both NPR and CBS News reported it this way.
Terry Ellsworth
Waterlou4
Which tells us something about the ages of the obitz writers, doncha think?
(Whatever channel I heard it on, the newscaster said "answering machine.")
DGH
AKA: Joseph J. Zimmermann Jr.