History of Oppenheim, (Fulton County) New York United States of America

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Mahlon Loomis, inventor, was born in Oppenheim, N.Y., July 21, 1826; son of Nathan and Waitie J. (Barber) Loomis; grandson of the Rev. Josiah and Susannah (Howes) Loomis, and a descendant through Dyer and Nathaniel from Jonathan Loomis. He was graduated from the Penn Medical Institute, Philadelphia, Pa., M.D. and D.D.S. after studying under Dr. Joseph Pancoast . He invented a combination of teeth and plate in one solid piece and all of the same material, which he patented in the United States and Europe. He practised dentistry first in western New York and then in Proctor county, Va. In 1865 he perfected plans for telegraphing without wires between distant points, and called his discovery or invention the A?rial Telegraph. In 1868 he successfully demonstrated the practicability of wireless telegraphy by establishing communication between the peaks of two prominent mountains in the Blue Ridge, Va., eighteen miles apart. He then made efforts to raise a sum of money sufficient to demonstrate his plan in the Rocky Mountains between Mount Hood and Mount Shasta, one hundred miles apart, but in this he was not successful. He lectured on his discovery in Washington and other cities and with the means thus procured visited Chicago where he was promised the necessary capital when the fire of 1871 impoverished his patrons. He returned to Washington and experimented on telegraphing between vessels in the Chesapeake bay, two miles apart by connecting the telegraphic instruments with the water by wire submerged to different depths so as to secure a circuit through strata of relative degrees of temperature. He also succeeded in telegraphing between moving trains of cars. He applied to congress for an appropriation of $50,000, but the bill which was introduced by Senator Sumner in January, 1869, reposed in the committee on patents and was indefinitely postponed. He obtained letters patent for his invention, July 30, 1872, and a bill was passed by both houses to incorporate the Loomis A?rial Telegraph company in 1873. From this time until his death Dr. Loomis struggled in vain and single-handed to win recognition for his invention. He died at Terra Alta, Preston county, W.Va., in 1884.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Oppenheim, (Fulton County) New York

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