Sava Jacobson, Inventor of the Modern Answering Machine, Dies at Age 87

Sava Jacobson, inventor of the modern answering machine, passed away from heart failure on April 25, 2007 at age 87.

Sherman Oaks, CA (PRWEB) April 29, 2007 -- Sava Jacobson, inventor of the modern answering machine, passed away on April 25, 2007 from heart failure at the age of 87.

Jacobson was born February 22, 1920 in Poland and emigrated to the United States in April of 1929. He attended City College, New York, and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1942. He served in World War II before beginning his Engineering career.

Jacobson is known for his early work on color television, the design of early Fender electric guitars, and the Vox Beatle amplifier. In 1966 he opened an independent electronics consulting business. In the late 1960's he considered modernizing the answering machine. At the time, AT&T held a monopoly on all interior wiring and telephone devices. These early answering devices were audio activated and manually removed the phone from the cradle and placed them onto a tape recorder. After the call was over, the phone was mechanically lifted back to its cradle. These early answering machines cost hundreds of dollars.

Jacobson had the idea to place the answering machine before the phone signal got to the phone, so that it could be activated without the cumbersome mechanics. He also created the idea of using two cassette tapes, one for the outgoing message and the other to record incomming calls. Unfortunately, at the time of its development, the device he created was illegal due to AT&T's monopoly. Jacobson attempted to sell his device to many different companies, and persisted for over two years until Tandy corporation (Radio Shack) agreed to produce his answering machine.

As Jacobson described it, "I designed the machine to sell for $49 and Tandy said we could sell it for $69 and every teenager in the country will want one." Tandy agreed to join the battle against AT&T's monopoly if needed. However, luck intervened.

While the device was in production, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling breaking up AT&T and allowing Jacobson's answering machine to be the first one on the market. The first modern answering machine was marketed under the name "DuoPhone" and this device and its successors held over 80% of the market share for the first decade that answering machines were commercially available. Jacobson's final patent expired in 1996.

Jacobson was lucky in one other way. At age 21 he was engaged to be married, but during this engagement he was drafted into the Army to serve in World War II. He and his fiance drifted apart during his service. He finally married his long time fiance when he was 81 and she was 77, an engagement of 60 years.

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