Francis Joseph McCarty

His sister, Mary Eunice McCarthy (who used a different spelling of the family name), reported in a memoir that at the age of thirteen Francis received permission to drop out of school, having found most of the curriculum a distraction to his desire to become an inventor.

[3] Initially financing himself with various jobs including clerking at a dry goods house, by 1903 he reported success in developing a radiotelephone capable of transmitting a distance of 4 miles (6 km).

[8] His brother Henry was appointed as executor of his estate, and in 1907 two U.S. patents originally applied for by Francis were granted, which described "high frequency spark" transmitters capable of making audio transmissions.

However, he became intrigued by the general concept of radiotelephony, and went on to organize a group of investors to license Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen's superior "arc converter" technology, leading to the formation of the Federal Telegraph Company.

[12] From 1910[13] until 1914[14] another brother (who also adopted a modified version of the family name), John P. McCarthy, conducted his own radiotelephone research, but ultimately decided his future was in the movie industry.