David Alter - Biography

Biography

Dr. David Alter (1807-1881) was a doctor, scientist, and famous American inventor, son of John Alter and Eleanor Sheetz. "David began as a physician and scientist in Elderton, Pennsylvania in the 1830s. David Alter married (1st) Laura Rowley, and they settled in Elderton."

In 1836 Elderton, David Alter invented the electric telegraph, one year before the popular Morse telegraph was invented. David rigged the telegraph between his house and his barn. He was interviewed about the discovery going unobserved by other inventors and said: "I may say that there is no connection at all between the telegraph of Morse and others and that of myself...Professor Morse most probably never heard of me or my Elderton telegraph."

David Alter obtained medical schooling at the Reformed Medical College in New York City (debated on the dates), and at the Cincinnati Medical School (1841-1842).

David Alter settled in Freeport, Pennsylvania about 1837. David’s first wife Laura died in 1842, and several years later he married her sister, Amanda Rowley. He had a total of thirteen (13) children. He manufactured bromine near his home, manned a weather station, worked as a physician, and was one of the first daguerreotype photographers of the town of Freeport.

Inventions while in Freeport: "In the great Pittsburgh Fire of 1845, he found a shard of melted glass that gave him the idea of the light spectrum. He went on to discover Spectral Analysis in 1853. He also invented and patented a method of manufacturing Bromine from salt wells in 1845, that was highly useful in the iron industry and was put on display in the World's fair." Dr. Alter resided in Freeport until his death in 1881.