Cyrille Duquet

Cyrille Duquet
Born 31 March 1841 Edit this on Wikidata
Quebec City Edit this on Wikidata
Died 1 December 1922 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 81)
Quebec City Edit this on Wikidata
Occupation Inventor, politician, flautist, clockmaker, jeweller, goldsmith, collecting, scientist edit this on wikidata

Cyrille Duquet (31 March 1841—1 December 1922) was a Canadian goldsmith, flutist, and inventor in Quebec. Originally working in the field of clocks and watches, he was also a passionate jewelry collector.

On 1 February 1878, he was granted a Canadian patent[1] for a telephone receiver, than may have been used in early types of handsets.[2] This patent was for a new transmitter based on a cluster of permanent magnets that improved signal clarity, and a new mouthpiece design.[3] Later, Duquet worked on combining transmitter and receiver in one unit, arranged both on each end of a board.[3] The first telephone installed in Montréal was one Duquet designed, and he followed with installing phones and phone lines in the area.[3]

At about the same time as Alexander Graham Bell, he developed a telephone connecting his home and shop. Bell's father, Melville Bell, responsible for the Canadian interests of Graham Bell, who had recently moved to Boston, offered Duquet to sell him the rights to the telephone on Canadian soil, for the sum of 20,000 dollars. Unable to raise this colossal sum, Duquet abandons all interests to the Canadian Telephone Company in 1882.[4]

Fleetford Charles Sise, vice-president of the Canadian Telephone Company, gives notice because he believes Cyrille Duquet plagiarized Bell. Mr. Duquet is sued for $5000 but gets away with damages of about $10 ; he sold his invention for the sum of $2,100 provided to waive any project in the world of telephony. However, it is left to him the undisputed paternity - and recognized - the handset in use worldwide. A photo of his phone is available in the collections of Libraries and Archives Canada[5] and the original phone is currently stored at Bell Canada. An exact replica of the apparatus manufactured and marketed by Cyrille Duquet in 1878 was made by Bell Canada as a gift to Duquet's granddaughter.[6][7][8]

The main clock of the National Assembly of Quebec bear his signature. That of Saint-Jean-Baptiste library is also his creation. A government building, located on Boulevard Charest in Quebec City, was named in his honor, and Quebec Street bears his name. He fabricated in 1883 the black rod,[9] symbol of authority, today preserved at the National Assembly in Québec city.

Excellent flutist, Cyrille Duquet was a member of the Septet Haydn, virtuoso ensemble of Quebec, some of whom have joined the Société symphonique de Québec (now Quebec Symphony Orchestra ) in 1903 .

He was a municipal councilor in Quebec François Langelier and Simon-Napoléon Parent between 1883 and 1890 and from 1900 to 1908. He died at Quebec, on 1 December 1922 at the age of 81 years. He was buried in Notre-Dame-de-Belmont.

Bibliography

  • "Cyrille Duquet". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.
  • Jean-Guy Rens; Käthe Roth (2001). The Invisible Empire: A History of the Telecommunications Industry in Canada. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 58–60. ISBN 978-0-7735-2052-3.
  • "Patent no. 8371. Filing year 1878. "Improvements on Telephones," Cyrille Duquet". www.collectionscanada.gc.ca. Libraries and Archives Canada. 2006-05-11. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
  • "Cyrille Duquet, Inventeur". vitrine-technologique.gouv.qc.ca. Gouvernement du Québec, Centre de services partagés. 2003. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
  • "Duquette phone replica (photo)". vitrine-technologique.gouv.qc.ca. Gouvernement du Québec, Centre de services partagés. 2003. Retrieved 2018-04-22. Replica (wood, metal and fabric) made by Bell Canada who, on May 4, 1979, donated it to Denise Lamonde of Sainte-Foy, whose grandfather was Cyrille Duquet.
  • Alyne LeBel (1989). "Le magicien de la rue Saint-Jean : L'inventeur Cyrille Duquet". Figures de proue d'hier et d'aujourd'hui (in French). Les Éditions Cap-aux-Diamants inc. pp. 45–48. ISSN 0829-7983.
  • "Hommage à Cyrille Duquet". Le Soleil de Québec. page 10. 1979-05-23. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
  • "Patent 8371 Summary, IMPROVEMENTS ON TELEPHONES". Canadian Intellectual Property Office. 1878-02-01.
  • Bell Canada fonds. (2018-04-23). "Telephone invented by M. Cyrille Duquet in 1878". Credit: Bell Canada / Library and Archives Canada / PA-095417.

References

  1. ↑ Canadian Patent 1878
  2. ↑ Rens & Roth 2001
  3. 1 2 3 (Canada 2006)
  4. ↑ (LeBel 1989)
  5. ↑ Libraries and Archives Canada 2018
  6. ↑ Québec Vitrine Technologique 2003, Téléphone Duquet, 1878
  7. ↑ Québec Vitrine Technologique 2003, photo
  8. ↑ Soleil de Québec 1979
  9. ↑ http://www.assnat.qc.ca/fr/patrimoine/lexique/verge-noire.html
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