- Robert Weitbrecht
Robert Haig Weitbrecht was born in
Orange, California in 1920. cite web | author=Weitbrecht Communications| title=Birth | date=N/A | work=Dr. Robert Weitbrecht Inventor of the TTY | url=http://www.weitbrecht.com/about-wci.phtml| accessdate=2007-02-04 ] . He was born deaf and his education was mainstream for the most part with the exception of acquiring some signing and lip-reading skills from a deaf school early on. He went on to earn a B.S. in Astronomy from theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1942 and finished his formal education with a M.S. in Astronomy from theUniversity of Chicago in 1957. The title of doctor was bestowed on Robert Weitbrect in 1974 byGallaudet College . Weitbrecht was a contributing engineer to theManhattan Project .Inventions
Even in his high school days, Weitbrech was interested in amateur radio and used radiotelegraph to communicate with fellow radio operators around the country. In 1964, this love for communication came together with the need to interact with a colleague who could not operate an amateur radio. To solve this problem, Weitbrecht created a device that used the public telephone system to achieve communication: the
Teletypewriter (TTY).cite web | author=Weitbrecht Communications| title=Why? | date=N/A | work=Dr. Robert Weitbrecht Inventor of the TTY | url=http://www.weitbrecht.com/about-wci.phtml| accessdate=2007-02-04 ] . Today, this type of device is known as aTelecommunications Device for the Deaf .Dr. Weitbrecht died after being involved in an automobile accident in 1983.cite web | author=Weitbrecht Communications| title=Death | date=
N/A | work=Dr. Robert Weitbrecht Inventor of the TTY | url=http://www.weitbrecht.com/about-wci.phtml| accessdate=2007-02-04 ] .External links
* [http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/excerpts/POOOone.html "A Phone Of Our Own"] -- a history of Weitbrecht's innovations with developing a modern TTY system from the
Gallaudet University websiteReferences
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
