2510 - Friedrichsdorf, Hesse, Germany

A new World Postcard Day Card from Ralf. Ralf lives in Friedrichsdorf, a town of 25 500 people located in the Taunus (mountain range in Hesse).

Johann Philipp Reis (1834-1874) is Friedrichsdorf's most famous citizen. He is the inventor of the electric transmission of speech (telephone)... This was news to me as
we are taught it was Alexander Graham Bell. It turns out that Reis first described his idea in a paper entitled, On the Radiation of Electricity, which was rejected by a Professor Poggendorff for publication in the Annalen der Physik.

In 1860, Reis built the first prototype of a telephone which covered a distance of 100 metres. He tried to interest Professor Poggendorff in 1862 but was again rejected. People in Germany was uninterested in the telefon, especially Wilhelm von Legat, inspector of the Royal Prussian Telegraph Corps. Instead a Professor Vanderwyde took the prototype to the United States where it seemed to gain interest.

Alexander Graham Bell took the invention and improved upon it.

In 1947, the Reis telefon was tested by Standard Telephones and Cables in the United Kingdom and proved it could faintly transmit and receive speech. However Standard's chairman, Sir Frank Gill, decided to cover up the results as it was negotiating a contract with Alexander Bell's company American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) and feared losing the contract. Bell continued to be generally accepted as the inventor of the telephone.

Friedrichsdorf has a museum dedicated to Reis. There is also a school, Philipp-Reis-Schule, is named for him.

3227 - Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Mölln is a small city of about 20 000 located in northern Germany. The Elbe-Lübeck Canal flows through the town, and there are eight small lakes that surround the city. It was founded in the 12th century and was a part of the Old Salt Route. Salt that was produced in the salt mines of Lower-Saxony was shipped to the Baltic Sea. Till Eulenspiegel, a legendary trickster known for exposing vices and provoking thought, is said to have lived in Mölln the last year of his life. He apparently died of the plague in 1350, but his existence has never been proven. Mölln has several monuments dedicated to him.

3322 - Hamburg, Germany

Happy birthday to me! What a lovely handmade card from the sender. Beautiful penmanship. Am Rothenbaum is the site of the main court of the German Open Tennis Championships. The International German Open has been played at the Rothernbaum since 1892, making it Germany's longest running tennis tournament. The current stadium was built in 1999 and can hold 13 200 people.

3232 - Manitowoc, Wisconsin, United States of America

The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal North Pierhead Light was built in 1882. There were nine keepers of the light until 1897. It was redesigned in 1903 and is 12 meters high. The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal was started in 1872 and wasn't opened for large-scale watercraft until 1890. The canal is 2.1 kilometers long that goes from Sturgeon Bay in Lake Michigan to Green Bay. There are no locks on this canal. The canal was sold to the United States government in 1893 and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains the canal.

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