Heinrich Göbel (April 20, 1818December 4, 1893) was a German-born American precision mechanic and inventor also known by his anglicized name Henry Goebel. In 1848 he immigrated to New York City, where he resided until his death. He received American citizenship in 1865.
In 1893, magazines and newspapers reported that 25 years earlier Göbel had developed incandescent light bulbs comparable to those invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison. Göbel did not apply for a patent for this invention.
In 1893, the Edison Electric Light Company sued three manufacturers of incandescent lamps for infringing Edison's patent. The defense of these companies claimed the Edison patent was void because of the same invention by Göbel 25 years earlier, which came to be known as the Goebel defense.
Judges of four courts raised doubts; there was no clear and convincing proof for the claimed invention. Research work published in 2007 concluded that the Goebel defense was fraudulent. After Göbel's death the legend arose in some countries that he was the true inventor of the practical incandescent light bulb.
Göbel acquired patents for an improvement of sewing machines in 1865, for an improvement of the Geissler pump in 1882, and for a technique to connect carbon threads to metal wires in incandescent lamps in 1882. These three patents have had no influence on further technical developments to date.
Biography
Springe, Germany 1818–1848
On April 20, 1818, Heinrich Göbel was born in Springe near Hanover in Germany. His father, Heinrich Christian Göbel, was a gardener and later a door-to-door salesman for chocolate. The name of his mother was Marie Eleonore née Hüper. At that time Springe was a small village in the Kingdom of Hanover with less than 2000 inhabitants that mostly worked in agriculture.
Heinrich Göbel finished school in 1832 with poor marks. One teacher commented, "He seems to have an inventive mind. The reasons of the poor marks appear to be in his lengthy illness."
In 1834, master locksmith Gerhard Linde of Springe took on Göbel as an apprentice for three years. It is not known whether Göbel finished this apprenticeship. Göbel started to work as a repair mechanic in 1837. Later in the 1850s in New York, he gave 1837 as the foundation date of his business on a business card of his shop.
In 1844, Göbel married Sophie Lübke née Rodewig, stating watchmaker as his profession at that time. There are no sources to confirm training as watchmaker, but Göbel likely learned by doing work comparable to a precision mechanic before he began operating his one-person business repairing and selling clocks. His son Johann Carl was born 1846, and his daughter Marie Sophie in 1848.
At the age of 30, Göbel migrated to New York City with his family, leaving Germany through Bremen in November 1848 on the sailing ship , arriving in New York on 31 January 1849. According to the list of passengers of the ship, he gave mechanic as his profession. The reasons for migration are not known.
New York 1849–1893
In New York City, Göbel opened a shop in Monroe Street called Jewelry, Horology and Optician's Store. To supplement his income, Göbel constructed a telescope. In the 1850s and 1860s he frequently transported his large telescope on a horse wagon to Union Square in the evening, and for a fee people could use his telescope to observe the stars. In litigations of the year 1893 many persons remembered the telescope-man.
On March 23, 1865, he took the oath on the Constitution of the United States and was henceforth an American citizen, signing with Henry Goebel. The anglicisation of his name took place sometime after 1852.
On May 9, 1865, Göbel obtained U.S. Patent No. 47632 (Hemmer for sewing machines). He probably got the idea when thinking about how to make the sewing work of his daughter more easy. However, he was not successful in monetising the patent.
Göbel moved his shop to Grand Street 500 in 1872 and to Grand Street 468 in 1877.Edison Electric Light v. Beacon, affidavit Henry Goebel, January 21, 1893, pg. 22
In 1881, Göbel Goebel worked for the American Electric Light Co. for half a year, where there was a need for precision mechanics for the construction of electric lamps. He also produced carbon filaments in his shop for the company. He then tried to start his own business in the field of incandescent light bulbs with his friend John Kulenkamp. Both were members of a Lodge of Freemasons of German immigrants.
On April 30, 1882, the New York Times reported on an exhibition of incandescent light bulbs in Göbel's shop. According to this report, Göbel claimed the electric light was by no means as new an invention as it was popularly supposed to be, and that he knew this kind of light since his time in Germany. He affirmed he produced electric lights since the 1850s, without giving technical details. The lamps on exhibition were incandescent light bulbs with carbon-filaments of high resistance, made of fibres of reed.
Two patents were granted to Heinrich Göbel in 1882: an improvement of the Geissler system of vacuum pumps, and a solution to connect carbon-filaments and metal-wires in a light bulb.
In 1882, Göbel offered to sell his inventions to the Edison Electric Light Co. for a few thousand dollars, but Edison did not see enough merit in the invention to accept the offer.
In the 1880s, some patent attorneys visited Göbel because of the 1882 story in the New York Times. They were interested in early incandescent light bulbs to put Edison's patent of 1880 into question. Later, they said, there was not much evidence, and Göbel was not able to present old lamps.
In 1887, Göbel's wife Sofie died. They had at least eight more children in the US; seven of whom survived both parents. Göbel retired in the late 1880s, and his son Henry became the owner of the shop.
In 1893, New York patent attorneys Witter & Kenyon became defense counsel in three cases of patent infringement, with Göbel becoming their primary witness and used his 1882 story to create the Göbel defense. Lawsuits using the Göbel defense continued until May 1894.
Heinrich Göbel died on December 4, 1893, from pneumonia. He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery.
The work for the American Electric Light Co. in 1881, the patents from 1882, and the report in the New York Times from April 30, 1882 are the earliest clear sources for work of Heinrich Göbel related to incandescent electric light bulbs. No earlier source is known to prove any kind of relation with incandescent light bulbs, nor indeed any kind of work in the field of electricity.
The claimed Göbel anticipation concerning Edison's incandescent light bulb patents
Litigation using the "Göbel defense" in 1893 and 1894
Decisions in the suits with Goebel-DefenseFeb. 18, 1893 Beacon Vacuum Pump and Electric Company, Boston, preliminary injunction granted (Judge Lebaron B. Colt) Apr. 21, 1893 Columbia Incandescent Lamp Company, St. Louis, preliminary injunction denied (Judge Moses Hallett) Jul. 20, 1893 Electric Manufacturing Company, Oconto, preliminary injunction granted (Court in Milwaukee; Judge William H. Seaman) Jan. 26, 1894 Philadelphia Trust Co., Manufacturers' Club of Philadelphia und Spreckels Sugar-Refining Co., preliminary injunction granted, Philadelphia (Judge Acheson) May 1, 1894 Electric Manufacturing Company, Oconto, preliminary injunction confirmed, appeal, (Court in Chicago; Judge James G. Jenkins) Jan. 11, 1895 Philadelphia Trust Co, Philadelphia, preliminary injunction confirmed, appeal, (Judge Wales) no final hearing Nov. 19, 1894 Expiry date of US Patent 223.898 of the Edison Electric Light Co. (since 1893 General Electric); Patent applied November 30, 1879/ granted January 27, 1880
In 1892, the litigation Edison Electric Light Co. vs. United States Electric Lighting Co. from 1885 came to a final decision. The court confirmed the patents of Thomas Edison related to the incandescent light bulb.
Based on this decision, Edison Electric brought suits to obtain preliminary injunctions to close the productions of incandescent light bulbs of the Beacon Vacuum Pump and Electrical Company, Boston; Columbia Incandescent Lamp Company, St. Louis; and Electric Manufacturing Company, Oconto, Wisconsin.
Patent attorneys Witter & Kenyon became defense counsel in all three cases. They declared Edison's patents void because it was not a novelty in 1880. Their witness, Heinrich Göbel, made a claim he had designed the first practical incandescent electric light bulb in 1854. He said he had used his lamps for personal purpose without applying for a patent. The counsels called this an "overseen invention". Göbel was an unknown person at that time.
Göbel's main evidence was discounted by U.S. patent courts. Göbel himself was the most important witness of the defendant companies. Witter & Kenyon worked out an extensive defense with several hundred pages of affidavits. So-called Original Lamps were presented at court. Witnesses said they existed earlier than 1880. Furthermore, so-called Reproduced Lamps were presented at court. Witnesses said Göbel had produced these lamps himself at Beacon Vacuum Pump and Electrical Company, using his old tools. In 1893, Heinrich Göbel was 75. He said that he had lost a lot of lamps and tools for the production of lamps when he left his shop in New York years ago.
In the case Edison Electric Light Co. vs. Columbia Incandescent Lamp Co., St. Louis 181 persons supported the Goebel-Defense providing affidavits and 142 persons supported the Edison view. The view of the Edison Electric Light Co. was Göbel did not built practical incandescent light bulbs before 1880. The counsels of the Goebel-Defense didn't provide any documentation or convincing proof which could be dated without any doubt to a time earlier than 1880, the year the patent was granted to Thomas Edison.
Many persons providing affidavits in 1893 said that they had seen the electric lamps of Henry Goebel in the 1850s to the 1870s. Henry Goebel used his lamps according to these affidavits for the advertisement of his shop in New York and for the advertisement of his telescope at Union Square, New York. Members of Goebel's family and friends of them affirmed the usage of incandescent lamps in the daily life of the family before the year 1880. The most surprising story for the public was the alleged usage of incandescent lamps for the advertisement of Goebel's telescope in the center of New York for years. It was said, thousands of New Yorkers had seen Goebel's lamps. Approximately 75 witnesses confirmed this in affidavits; approximately the same number of witnesses remembered oil-lamps only.
Goebel claimed his lamp contained a high resistance filament of carbon, platinum lead-in wires in an all-glass envelope, and a high vacuum produced with the Torricellian method using mercury. He tried several materials to produce the carbon filaments and discovered the advantages of bamboo. These solutions were exactly the results of the research work of the Edison Electric Light Co. and the novelties of Edison's patents.
Technical experts of both sides gave their opinion about the Goebel lamps and the claimed way of production in affidavits. Experts of the Edison side contested the quality of the lamps and the possibility to produce lamps using the affirmed procedure. Experts of the Goebel-Defense confirmed the quality of the lamps and the method of production. Witnesses of the Goebel-Defense said, that reproduced lamps burnt 45, 87 and 166 hours. Edison's lamps burnt at time of applying for a patent approximately 40 hours. So-called Goebel Original Lamps were broken in 1893. Experts of the Edison side said that they never burnt.