REIS, Johann Philipp (1834-74). Heber Telephonie durch den galvanishen Strom.en

REIS, Johann Philipp (1834-74).  Heber Telephonie durch den galvanischen Strom. [In: Jahres-Bricht des physikalischen Bereins zu Frankfurt am Main für das Rechnungsjahr 1860-1861]. [Frankfurt: G. Naumann's Druckerei, 1861]. 8vo ((204 x 139mm). 6 folding plates, the last printed in red, blue and black. Pink paper-backed original printed wrappers, in modern protective cloth book box. Provenance: from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. FIRST EDITION. Reis's article, announcing, de facto, the theoretical invention of the telephone, starts on p. 57 of this scientific periodical. Darmstaedter 612; Wheeler Gift 1532; cf. PMM 365 (citing Alexander Graham Bell's Researches in Telephony of 1877): "Telephones were already in existence. Philip Reis perfected the first of them in 1861, but it remained little more than a toy. He failed, in fact, in the primary object, which was to produce intelligible speech at the receiving end. This seems to have been due to his use of an interrupted transmission current which seriously affected the quality of reception."