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THE story of Elmer Burlingame is an inspiration to the man who wants to get on in this world, a guiding star to the individual who wants to do things, a stimulus to the person who wants to learn more, earn more, and round out life’s journey in ease and comfort.
In the autumn of 1832, Professor Samuel F. B. Morse first conceived his idea of telegraphy. After experimenting with eIectro-magnets, it occurred to him that it might be possible to send a series of electrical impulses over a wire and, if so, that these impulses might be made to convey a meaning.
Accordingly he acted on this belief and five years later, in 1837, gave a public demonstration of telegraphy, using the same system that is in vogue today, namely, dots and dashes to represent letters, numerals, punctuation marks and characters. All are familiar with what Morse has done for civilization, but few know that in all these seventy odd years since the invention of the telegraphs but little improvement has been made. Practically speaking, the only improvement is the development of multiple telegraphy. A system has been devised by which four messages can be sent at one time, two each way, over a single wire, but the principle as laid
down by Morse is identically the same.
This was the situation that confronted Elmer Burlingame when he took up the study of electricity. He wondered it, when but a boy in his teens. Human effort could not be improved upon; and the mechanical side of telegraphy seemed to have about reached the limit with the present system.
He thought and studied the question from every angle. He had a talent for electrical experiments. When only a boy of fourteen years of age he had successfully installed according to contract, a burglar alarm system in a large flour mill in his home town.
In 1898, while attending high school, he got his idea. Why not devise a means for sending a Roman letter over a wire instead of the usual dots and dashes which represent a letter and which only an expert can interpret? Why could not two ordinary typewriters be connected with a wire so that when the letter “A” was struck on the keyboard of the sending machine, the same letter would strike on the receiving typewriter? Here was his cue.
He was only nineteen and was without funds for experimental purposes. So he waited. A year later, upon graduation, he secured employment from the local telephone company and acted in the capacity of “trouble man”—he who responded to complaints and repaired the offending instrument. He was advanced from time to time during his eight years of telephone work, and upon severing his connection occupied the position of toll line wire chief, and was subsequently the manager of all long distance wires.
Through these years of employment he kept up his experiments, denying himself every entertainment and luxury that he might have money for the necessary electrical supplies for conducting his investigation. Only he knows how he plodded and worked when off duty. And many a night he was in his little home laboratory until the wee hours of the morning.
Perseverance and pluck won. He overcame every obstacle and in 1905 success crowned his efforts. He had not sufficient money to purchase a typewriter, so made a keyboard of wood, crude in the extreme but capable of serving the purpose.
He had become familiar with the principles governing wireless telegraphs, so decided to apply it to his invention. He built a coil by hand that threw an eighteen inch spark, and erected two poles thirty miles apart—one in La Porte, the other in South Bend, Indiana. Upon completion of his apparatus he sent seven letters of the alphabet over this distance and they were recorded exactly on the receiving machine. He had witnesses to note his achievement. Soon the community was apprised of what had occurred.
The La Porte Herald and Indianapolis Star gave many columns to the project and the electrical world was at once astounded. Papers everywhere published the news and Burlingame was started on the road to fame. That concentration of thought, those times of self-denial, those days and nights of study and work, had earned him a reward.
He succeeded in securing a typewriter and though he still used his original wooden keys for sending, he successfully, transmitted over the distance in 1907 several other letters of the alphabet, together with some of the numerals, characters and punctuation marks, just as they are used on the keyboard of all typewriters.
Here was the birth of the Telegraphing Typewriter. Burlingame had taken up the work where Morse left off and offered to the world a new and better system, a system that I needed no human receiver, a system so simple in its operation that any one understanding the A B C’s could send a I message or read one at the receiving end as fast as it came from the machine.
The publicity given the invention, particularly by scientific and technical journals, attracted the attention of a number of San Francisco business men who formed a company and supplied young Burlingame with a complete experimental shop where he could make a few sets of machines.
Recently these machines have been exhibited in San Francisco, Stockton, Los Angeles, and other Pacific Coast cities, where they were put to a test by sonic of the best known electrical experts in the United States. Their opinions were unanimous that Burlingame had reached the goal which has been the dream of inventors for years, opening up new fields which are beyond the achievements possible with any other telegraph machine.
The shop models, or demonstrating machines, of the Burlingame Company are now being exhibited in Middle Western and Eastern cities. Mr. Burlingame has moved his headquarters to Boston, Mass., where the Burlingame Company is now starting the manufacture of the machines. The first factory is now being established at 169 Oliver street, Boston, in the heart of the manufacturing district, and is under the direct supervision of Elmer Burlingame.
He has installed his latest model long distance telegraph machine on a wire (leased from one of the telegraph companies) running from Boston, Mass., to Providence, R. I., and as the BULLETIN goes to press he is about ready to give to New England the same astounding demonstrations that have taken the western part of the country by storm.
What Burlingame has accomplished thus far has made his place secure forever in the fore-front of the world’s greatest inventive geniuses. The achievements of Morse, Bell, Edison, Marconi, and other electrical experts, have justly won world-wide recognition, for they have indeed hastened the progress of civilization to a wonderful degree by their improved methods of communication. But even their victories in the realm of electrical science will seem comparatively small when the epoch-making possibilities of Burlingame's invention are realized.
That this will be witnessed at an early date is evidenced by the excellent progress made thus far and also by the rapid growth of interest in the invention among the foremost scientific experts of the world, who do not hesitate to accord to Elmer Burlingame the fullest measure of praise for his conception that even to the most untutored mind has all theelements of a stupendous attainment.^5,6,7,2

HEART ATTACK FATAL TO FORMER PERU MAN
PERU, Ind., Jan 28. Word has been received her by Mrs. D. M. Butt of the death of Elmer Burlingame, about 50, at his home in San Pedro. Calif. The cause of death was a sudden heart attack suffered Tuesday. Mr. Burlingame was a former resident of here.
Surviving are the widow, Mrs. Bessie (McCall) Burlingame, four daughters and a son, all of who reside in California.
Funeral rites and interment were held in California.²

Mildred Bess Kirby graduated into the Arms of Jesus on April 23, 2018 in Fillmore, California at the age of 101. She was born in Chicago, IL on September 27, 1916. When she was 2, her family traveled to San Pedro in her father's bus and lived in a tent and then a house on Santa Cruz Street, where she grew up. Millie married Wilton (Willie) Kirby in 1937 in her mother's back yard. They lived in San Pedro with their three girls until moving to Woodland Hills in 1950. Later the couple lived in several areas of Southern California: Saugus, Granada Hills, Lake Elsinore, and Murrieta. After Willie's death in 2003, Millie moved to Fillmore where she spent her years at Fillmore Country Club Senior Housing. She was preceded in death by her husband, Wilton, three sisters and one brother. We, her daughter, Judith Rayburn (Thomas) Jeralyn Query (Charles M.) and Donna Held (Joseph), have joyfully put her into the care of our Heavenly Savior. In addition, she is survived by 7 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. The family wishes to thank Dr. Larry Schrock and his staff, the staff at Fillmore Country Club, Santa Clara Hospice staff for their professional and loving care. Services are private.³

Milton Lawrence McCall graduated in medicine from Indiana University and took speciality training in Philadelpia, where he later practiced on the staff of the Jefferson Medical College. He became chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Louisiana State University, where this article was written, in 1954, and 5 years later he moved to the chair at the University of Pittsburgh. His principal academic interest concerned cerebral blood flow in hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, and his early years involved traveling to various Philadelphia hospitals at all hours to record electroencephalographic tracings in eclamptic women. However. it was as a gynecologic surgeon that he made his greatest mark. Robert A. Kimbrough characterized him in a eulogy as "one of the most skilled and meticulous gynecologic surgeons this writer has ever observed". He was the leading US exponent of the radical vaginal operation for carcinoma of the cervix and reported outstanding results with that operation. A promising academic career was cut short at age 52 by his death from lung cancer in 1963.⁸

The Richard King Mellon Foundation of Pittsburgh has given Magee-Womens Hospital a grant of $1 million to establish an endowed chair in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. Underscoring Magee's historical place in women's health... the endowed chair will be named the Milton Lawrence McCall Chair in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, in honor of Milton McCall, MD, the founding chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Magee. McCall was a physician nationally respected for his work in the areas of preeclampsia and cancer of the cervix.
... Dr. McCall's tenure at Magee was cut short by his untimely death in 1963. He had been in Pittsburgh for only four years. His widow, Jane Dill, also has contributed toward the establishment of this chair, and additional funds have been raised from other sources.⁵

Jane French McCall Dill, 82, of Squirrel Hill, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000.
She was the wife of James N. Dill Jr., M.D., and the late L. Milton McCall,
M.D; Arrangements are by H. SAMSON INC., Oakland.⁷

Jane French McCall Dill, 82, of Squirrel Hill, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000. She was the wife of James N. Dill Jr., M.D., and the late L. Milton McCall, M.D; mother of Frances French McCall of Southern Pines, N.C. and the late Lawrence French McCall; and sister of the late Bruce French. Mrs. Dill graduated from the Baldwin School in Ardmore, Pa. and Pine Manor College in Boston, before doing postgraduate work at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. She taught elementary education at Friends School in Philadelphia, was active locally in the Literacy Council and the World Affairs Council; was a member of the Junior League and a board member of the Children's Center at Magee-Womens Hospital. She had been past president of the Twentieth Century Club, a member of the Pittsburgh Golf Club, the Fox Chapel Golf Club, Shadyside Presbyterian Church and its Women's Association. A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday in Shadyside Presbyterian Church, 5121 Westminster Place, where the family will receive friends in the parlor following the service. Interment is private. Memorial contributions may be made to Magee-Womens Hospital or to Shadyside Presbyterian Church. Arrangements are by H. SAMSON INC., Oakland.²

DILL JAMES NEWCOMER, Jr., M.D.
Born on June 14, 1918 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the third child and second son of Flo Edith Mack and James Newcomer Dill, Sr. died on May 21, 2013. Educated in the McKeesport, Pennsylvania secondary schools, and a graduate of the College of William and Mary, Temple University Medical School and the Graduate Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Dill practiced medicine for 45 years in McKeesport, Pennsylvania Hospital, where he served as President of the medical staff and as clinical chief of staff in obstetrics and gynecology. He served in the Medical Corps of the United States Navy at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland and as a Medical Officer aboard a troop transport in the Pacific and at the United States Naval Hospital at Quantico, Virginia, (1944-1946) and (1956-1958). Dr. Dill was preceded in death by his wife, Jane French McCall Dill. He is survived by his daughter, Frances French McCall, of Southern Pines, NC; and his sister, Hallie Jane Dill Tapp of Bronxville, NY; and nieces and nephews. There will be no visitation. A Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday, May 29 in the Chapel of Shadyside Presbyterian Church at 1:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to a charity of one's choice. Arrangements by JOHN A. FREYVOGEL SONS, INC. www.freyvogelfuneralhome.com Send condolences at post-gazette.com/gb.^5,1

Obituary: James Newcomer Dill Jr. / Doctor spent his life giving back to patients, family and friends
June 14, 1918 - May 21, 2013
May 30, 2013 12:00 AM
By Claire Aronson Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
James Newcomer Dill Jr., an obstetrician gynecologist who practiced in McKeesport for 45 years, was known as a dedicated doctor who was devoted to patients and family.
Dr. Dill died May 21. He was 94.
Known as Jim, Dr. Dill was born in Latrobe, but he lived in McKeesport most of his life. He graduated from the College of William and Mary and attended Temple University Medical School.
He served in the Medical Corps of the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, working at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and at the United States Naval Hospital.
He did graduate work at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He served again during the Korean War as medical officer aboard a troop transport from 1956 to 1958.
Dr. Dill worked at Mc-Keesport Hospital, where he was popular with his patients, said stepdaughter Frances French McCall of Southern Pines, N.C. They would bake him cakes and cookies for Christmas and continued to do so after his retirement, she said.
He eventually rose to serve as clinical chief and president of the medical staff at the hospital.
Dr. Dill was a confirmed bachelor when he met Jane French McCall on the dance floor at a wedding, his stepdaughter said.
They both shared a passion for dance and were both great dancers, she said, dancing to everything from big band to waltzes.
When the couple married in 1976, the women at the hospital were crushed, Ms. McCall said.
When he retired at age 72, he was still healthy but did not feel he should be doing surgery anymore, Ms. McCall said.
But he continued serving patients by consulting at a free clinic and volunteering at the Pittsburgh Children's Center, an affiliate of Magee-Womens Hospital, as a reading mentor. Mrs. Dill served on the board of directors at the center for many years. Natalie Kaplan, president and founder of Carriage House Children's Center, which manages the children's center, remembers them as a "very, nice caring couple."
Dr. Dill liked to keep busy. He golfed, played tennis and fished. He also loved going to the symphony, Ms. McCall said.
"He enjoyed just about anything and everything," she said.
He and his wife visited Ms. McCall every Christmas, she said. Dr. Dill enjoyed exploring Ms. McCall's farm. "He would hike around the pond and pick up sticks. That is where I knew him best."
He also loved to eat -- "everything from A to Z" (except endangered species) and especially chocolate, Ms. McCall said.
"He loved good food and did a lot of cooking," Ms. McCall noted.
After Mrs. Dill died in 2000, Ms. McCall began coming to Pittsburgh every year to celebrate his birthday, which was on Flag Day.
The first year he invited 30 friends to the party. The next year he invited 50, and in a couple years there were about 100 friends attending his birthday party.
"I asked him, 'How on Earth do you have so many friends when you say they are all dying?' " Ms. McCall said. "He always would respond that he just meets younger friends."
Dr. Dill called his older sister Hallie Jane Dill Tapp, 99, of Bronxville, N.Y., every day, Ms. McCall said.
"She would come to his birthday every year, and he would make her polish silver," Ms. McCall said, laughing. "They were extremely close."
The funeral was Wednesday at the Chapel of Shadyside Presbyterian Church, 5121 Westminster Place, Pittsburgh. Memorial contributions can be made to a charity of one's choice.⁶