Self-described as a "practical farmer, fruit grower and electrician",[2] he received widespread attention in early 1902 when he gave a series of public demonstrations of a battery-operated wireless telephone, which could be transported to different locations and used on mobile platforms such as boats.

However, Stubblefield may have been the first to simultaneously transmit audio wirelessly to multiple receivers, albeit over relatively short distances, while predicting the eventual development of broadcasting on a national scale.

Stubblefield grew up in Murray, Kentucky, and his education included tutoring by a governess, followed by attendance at a boarding school in nearby Farmington called the "Male and Female Institute".

The seventh, Oliver (RayJack), married Priscilla Alden, who gave birth to two daughters and Nathan's only grandson, Keith Stubblefield, who would become a television and recording personality under the professional name Troy Cory.

[5] In 1898, Stubblefield was issued U.S. patent 600,457 for an "electric battery", which was an electrolytic coil of iron and insulated copper wire that was immersed in liquid or buried in the ground.

But, based on contemporary descriptions, it appears that they initially employed induction, similar to a wireless telephone developed by Amos Dolbear, which was issued U.S. patent 350,299 in 1886.

Following a decade of research and testing, he felt that his wireless telephone had now been perfected to the point that it was ready for commercialization, and began a series of demonstrations to publicize his work and attract investment.

[8] A detailed, and positive, account appeared in the newspaper, which quoted an optimistic Stubblefield as saying that, in addition to point-to-point private communication, his system was "capable of sending simultaneous messages from a central distributing station over a very wide territory.

Although he exuberantly declared: "The possibilities of the invention seem to be practically unlimited, and it will be no more than a matter of time when conversation over long distances between the great cities at the country will be carried on daily without wires",[2] he also admitted: "I have as yet devised no method whereby it can be used with privacy.

On March 20, 1902, he demonstrated his system in Washington, D.C., where voice and music transmissions were made over a third of a mile (535 meters) from the steamer Bartholdi, anchored in the Potomac River, to shore.

This particular test was reported in prestigious scientific publications, including Scientific American, which claimed that Stubblefield's invention would be installed by the "Gordon Telephone Company, of Charleston, S. C., for the establishment of telephonic communication between the city of Charleston and the sea islands lying off the coast of South Carolina",[11] and Nature, which noted: "The system used is an earth-conduction one, and is, therefore, similar in principle to, though doubtless differing in detail from, many other wireless telephony systems which are being tried in various countries.

[14] With travel expenses financed by Fennel, Stubblefield made additional successful demonstrations in Philadelphia from May 30 to June 7, 1902, spanning a distance of around a mile (1600 meters).

Tests followed in New York City beginning on June 11, 1902, which were less successful, with the explanation for the difficulties encountered including the rocky soil in Battery Park, and electrical interference from local alternating current power distribution.

Stubblefield returned to Murray, where he faced considerable skepticism—a March 1903 review of his "earth battery" and wireless telephony endeavors stated: "...the people in this section of the country are yet wondering whether he is simply a crank or will yet emerge some day from his obscurity to astonish the whole civilized world with a great discovery".

[17] Later that same year, he posted a Public Notice in the Murray Ledger stating that the Wireless Telephone Company of America had "gone out of existence", and "My inventions have reverted back to me."

Despite receiving a patent and some financial backing from Murray residents, and the assertion that "while messages have been sent for distances less than ten miles, he is confident that with his machine he can talk across the Atlantic",[19] Stubblefield made no headway in commercializing his latest invention.

Stubblefield later lived in self-imposed isolation in a crude shelter near Almo, Kentucky and died around March 28, 1928, although his body, "gnawed by rats", was not discovered until a couple days later.

Although Stubblefield's inventions did not lead directly to the development of radio technology, the public demonstrations in 1902 and the extensive press coverage may have helped spur interest in the possibilities of wireless transmission of voice and music, as most prior inventors had merely sought to provide point-to-point communication, to compete with telephone and telegraph companies.

Loren J. Hortin, Journalism Professor at Murray State, organized his students to investigate Stubblefield's work, leading to the dedication of a monument on the campus in 1930.