George Sweigert

George H. Sweigert (1920–1999) is credited as the first inventor to patent the cordless telephone. Born in Akron, Ohio, Sweigert served five years in the US Army as a radio operator in World War II in Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Fiji and New Georgia assigned to the 145th Headquarters Company under the 37th Infantry Division (United States). Following the war, Sweigert attended Bowling Green State University near Toledo, Ohio. Sweigert credited his military experience for invention of the cordless telephone, citing experimentation with various antennas, signal frequencies, and types of radios. With the patent application submitted on May 2, 1966 to the US Patent and Trademark Office, Sweigert submitted a working model of the phone in addition to the required description. A Cleveland Plain Dealer article, published shortly after the patent was filed, documented the first public demonstration of the cordless phone with a picture of the device and the inventor. The Plain Dealer reported that Sweigert used a part from his washing machine for the invention - the solenoid used to lift the phone's receiver when a current was sensed in the induction coil. Sweigert, who suffered severe back pain from a war injury, saw the device primarily helping handicapped and elderly people. The US Patent and Trademark Office issued on June 10, 1969. The New York Times reported the patent in the June 14th, 1969 edition. (page 52, column 6) In the article, Sweigert gives the first description of how the "remote phone" might be used as a remote office or around the home, foreshadowing the way cell phones are used today. Sweigert held two amateur radio licenses: W8ZIS (Ohio) and N9LC (Indiana). He held the amateur radio extra class license, the highest class license. He also held a First Class Radiotelephone license issued by the Federal Communications Commission. Sweigert's heroes included Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Lee DeForest, Edwin Armstrong, Albert Einstein, and Philo Taylor Farnsworth.