Benjamin Miessner

Benjamin Franklin Miessner (July 27, 1890 – March 25, 1976) was an American radio engineer and inventor.

It was while he was in Washington that he invented the "cat whisker" detector which allowed for receiving radio waves by crystal sets.

He studied electrical engineering at Purdue University from 1913 to 1916[1] where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity.

[9][11] After World War I, he began working for Emil J. Simon on radio for aircraft and transoceanic receivers in New York City.

He moved back east to New Jersey in 1926 to be the chief engineer at Garod Corp.[6] In the late 1920s, Miessner sold over fifty of his patents to RCA and received around $750,000 for them.

[1][6] He also developed a new system of sound recording and reproduction[5] and perfected the Wurlitzer organ and electronic piano.

[13] In 1934, one of Miessner's patents was used by the Everett Piano Company in the first large scale production on an electronic organ known as the Orgatron.

[16] In 1955 he took the U.S. Patent Office to court to recoup a $25.00 filing fee he had to pay make an appeal.

[1][6] While most of his patents had to do with electronics, sound, and music, others were variations from that work, such as his inventions to adjust the string tension on a tennis racket[18] and for a non-leaking fountain pen.

[22] In 1963, Miessner won the De Forest Audion gold medal for inventive achievement.