In 1911 George O. Squier patented his pioneering work in carrier-current technology, but then declared that the patents were "dedicated to the public" thus freely available to be used by anyone. In the 1920s, with the development of more efficient vacuum-tube radio transmitters, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company began to use Squier's patents for multiplexed telephone lines. At this point Squier belatedly claimed that his patents could not be used for free for commercial use, and tried to collect royalties from the phone company. However, the courts ruled that he had released his patents into the public domain, so anyone could use them royalty-free.

During World War One, Squier was Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army's Signal Corps. After retiring from the military, he continued to work in audio communications.

 
Proceedings of the American Institute of American Engineers, May, 1911, pages 857-862:

MULTIPLEX  TELEPHONY  AND  TELEGRAPHY  BY  MEANS  OF  ELECTRIC  WAVES  GUIDED  BY  WIRES
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BY  GEORGE  O.  SQUIER
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I.  INTRODUCTION
    Electrical transmission of intelligence, so vital to the progress of civilization, has taken a development at present into telephony and telegraphy over metallic wires; and telegraphy, and, to a limited extent, telephony, through the medium of the ether by means of electric waves.
    During the past twelve years the achievements of wireless telegraphy have been truly marvelous. From an engineering viewpoint, the wonder of it all is, that with the transmitting energy being radiated out over the surface of the earth in all directions, enough of this energy is delivered at a single point on the circumference of a circle, of which the transmitting antenna is approximately the center, to operate successfully suitable receiving devices by which the electromagnetic waves are translated into intelligence.
    The "plant efficiency" for electrical energy in the best types of wireless stations yet produced is so low that there can be no comparison between it and the least efficient transmission of energy by conducting wires.
    The limits of audibility, being a physiological function, are well known to vary considerably, but they may be taken to be in the neighborhood of 16 complete cycles per second as the lower limit and 15,000 to 20,000 cycles per second as the upper limit. If, therefore, there is impressed upon a wire circuit for transmitting intelligence harmonic electromotive forces of frequencies between 0 and 16 cycles per second, or, again, above 15,000 to 20,000 cycles per second it would seem certain that whatever effects such electric wave frequencies produced upon metallic lines, the present apparatus employed in operating them could not translate this effect into audible signals.
    There are, therefore, two possible solutions to the problem of multiplex telephony and telegraphy upon this principle by electric waves, based upon the unalterable characteristic of the human ear, viz., by employing (1), electric waves of infra sound frequencies, and (2) those of ultra-sound frequencies One great difficulty in designing generators of infra-sound frequencies is in securing a pure sine wave, as otherwise any harmonic of the fundamental would appear within the range of audition. Furthermore, the range of frequencies is restricted and the physical dimensions of the tuning elements for such low frequencies would have a tendency to become unwieldy.
    The electromagnetic spectrum at present extends from about four to eight periods per second, such as are employed upon ocean cables, to the shortest waves of ultra-violet light. In this whole range of frequencies there are two distinct intervals which have not as yet been used, viz., frequencies from about 3 X 1012 of the extreme infra-red to 5 X 1010, which are the shortest electric waves yet produced by electrical apparatus, and from about 80,000 to 100,000 cycles per second to about 15,000 to 20,000 cycles per second. The upper limit of this latter interval represents about the lowest frequencies yet employed for long distance wireless telegraphy.
    Within the past few years generators have been developed in the United States giving an output of two kilowatt and more at periods of 100,000 cycles per second, and also capable of being operated satisfactorily at as low a frequency as 20,000 cycles per second. Furthermore, these machines give a practically pure sine wave.
    The necessary condition for telephony by electric waves guided by wires is an uninterrupted source of sustained oscillations, and some form of receiving device which is quantitative in its action. In the experiments described in multiplex telephony and telegraphy it has been necessary and sufficient to combine the present engineering practice of wire telephony and telegraphy with the engineering practice of wireless telephony and telegraphy.
    The frequencies involved in telephony over wires do not exceed 1800 to 2000, and for such frequencies the telephonic currents are fairly well distributed throughout the cross section of the conductor. As the frequency is increased the so-called "skin effect" becomes noticeable, and the energy is more and more transmitted in the ether surrounding the conductor.
    It has been found possible to superimpose, upon the ordinary telephonic wire circuits now commercially used, electric waves of ultra-sound frequencies without producing any harmful effects upon the operation of the existing telephonic service. Fortunately, therefore, the experiments described below are constructive and additive, rather than destructive and supplantive.
    Electric waves of ultra-sound frequencies are guided by means of wires of an existing commercial installation and are made the vehicle for the transmission of additional telephonic and telegraphic messages.

APPARATUS  AND  EQUIPMENT
    Under a special appropriation granted to the Signal Corps by Congress in the Army Appropriation Act of 1909, a small research laboratory has been established at the Bureau of Standards, in the suburbs of the city of Washington. This laboratory is equipped with the latest forms of apparatus now employed in the wireless telephone and telegraph art, and also with the standard types of telephone and telegraph apparatus now used upon wire circuits. The small construction laboratory of the U. S. Signal Corps is located at 1710 Pennsylvania Avenue and is also equipped with the usual types and forms of apparatus used in transmitting intelligence by electrical means. Each of these laboratories is supplied with a wireless telephone and telegraph installation with suitable antennæ. In addition, these two laboratories are connected by a standard telephone cable line about seven miles in length, which was employed in the experiments described below.

THE  100,000-CYCLE  GENERATOR
front view     The high-frequency alternator, which is shown complete with driving motor and power panel in the accompanying illustrations, is a special form of the inductor type designed for a frequency of 100,000 cycles with an output of two kw., making it adapted for use in wireless telephony or telegraphy.
    Driving Motor. The motor is a shunt-wound 10-h.p. machine with a normal speed of 1,250 rev. per min. It is connected by a chain drive to an intermediate shaft which runs at a speed of 2000 rev. per min. The intermediate shaft drives the flexible shaft of the alternator through a De Laval turbine gearing, having a ratio of ten to one. The flexible shaft and inductor thus revolve at a speed of 20,000 rev. per min.
    Field Coils. The field coils, mounted on the stationary iron frame of the alternator, surround the periphery of the inductor. The magnetic flux produced by these coils passes through the laminated armature and armature coils, the air-gap, and the inductor. This flux is periodically decreased by the non-magnetic sections of phosphor-bronze embedded radially in the inductor at its periphery.
    Armature Coils. The armatures or stators are ring-shaped and are made of laminated iron. Six hundred slots are cut on the radial face of each; a quadruple silk-covered copper wire, 0.016 in. (0.4 mm.) in diameter, is wound in a continuous wave up and down the successive slots. The peripheries of the armature frames are threaded to screw into the iron frame of the alternator. By means of a graduated scale on the alternator frame the armatures can be readily adjusted for any desired air-gap. side view
    Inductor. The inductor or rotor has 300 teeth on each side of its periphery, spaced 0.125 in. (0.491 mm.) between centers. The spaces between the teeth are filled with U shaped phosphor bronze wires, securely anchored, so as to withstand the centrifugal force of 80 lb. (36.2 kg.) exerted by each. Since each tooth of the inductor gives a complete cycle, 100,000 cycles per second are developed at 20,000 revolutions per minute. The diameter of the disk being one foot (0.3 m.), the peripheral speed is 1,047 ft. (219 m.) per sec., or 700 miles per hour, at which rate it would roll from the United States to Europe in four hours. By careful design and selection of material, a factor of safety of 6.7 is obtained in the disk, although the centrifugal force at its periphery is 68,000 times the weight of the metal there.
    Bearings. The generator has two sets of bearings, as shown in the illustrations, the outer set being the main bearings which support the weight of the revolving parts. These bearings are self-aligning and are fitted with special sleeves, which are ground to coincide with longitudinal corrugations of the shaft, thus taking up the end thrust. A pump maintains a continuous stream of oil through these bearings, thus allowing the machine to be run continuously at full speed without troublesome heating.
    The middle bearings normally do not touch the shaft, but take up excessive end thrust and prevent excessive radial vibration of the flexible shaft.
    An auxiliary bearing or guide is placed midway between the gear box and the end bearing. Its function is to limit the vibration of that portion of the shaft.
    Critical Periods. In starting the machine, severe vibration occurs at two distinct critical speeds, one at about 1,700 and the other at about 9,000 revolutions per minute. The middle bearings prevent this vibration from becoming dangerous.
    Voltage. With the normal air-gap between the armatures and revolving disk of 0.015 in. (0.059 mm.), the potential developed is 150 volts with the armatures connected in series. It is possible, however, to decrease the air gap to 0.004 in. (0.015 mm.) for short runs, which gives a corresponding increase in voltage up to nearly 300 volts. It is considered inadvisable, however, to run with this small air gap for any considerable length of time.
    The machine is intended to be used with a condenser, the capacity reactance of which balances the armature inductance reactance which is 5.4 ohms at 100,000 cycles. This would require a capacity of about 0.3 microfarad for resonance at this frequency, but in the experiments conducted at 100,000 cycles it was found necessary to decrease this amount on account of the fixed auxiliary inductance of the leads.
pages 866-868:

  figure 1     Having determined the necessary and sufficient conditions for the accomplishment of telegraphy and telephony by means of electric waves guided by wires upon local circuits, the next step was to apply these means and conditions to an actual commercial telephone cable line, the constants of which have been given above.
    The machine was run at a frequency of 100,000 cycles per second with the circuit arrangements as shown in Fig. 1, where one wire of the telephone cable was connected to one terminal of the secondary of an air-core transformer, the other terminal being connected to earth.
    At the receiving end of the line, which was the Signal Corps construction laboratory, at 1710 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C., this wire was connected directly to earth through a "perikon" crystal detector, such as is well known in wireless telegraphy, and a high resistance telephone receiver of about 8,000 ohms was shunted around the crystal. In this preliminary experiment no attempt was made at tuning, either at the transmitting end or at the receiving end of the line.
    In the primary circuit of the generator, arrangements were made by which either an interrupter and telegraph key or a telephone transmitter could be inserted by throwing a switch.
    In the line circuit a hot wire milliammeter was inserted in a convenient position so that the effect of the operation of either the telegraph key or of the human voice upon the transmitter could be observed by watching the fluctuations of the needle of the milliammeter.
    A loose coupling was employed between the two circuits at the transmitting end, and the line circuit adjusted by varying the coupling until the current in the line was twenty to thirty milliamperes. With this arrangement (1) telegraphic signals were sent and easily received, and (2) speech was transmitted and received successfully over this single wire with ground return.
    The ammeter showed marked fluctuations from the human voice and enabled the operator at the transmitting station to be certain that modified electric waves were being transmitted over the line.
pages 902-905:
SUMMARY
    Radio-telegraphy has no competitor as a means of transmitting intelligence between ships at sea and between ships and shore stations, and on land it is also unique in its usefulness in reaching isolated districts and otherwise inaccessible points. To what extent it may be also developed to furnish practical intercommunication, according to the high standard now enjoyed in thickly populated districts, it is not attempted to predict.
    The foregoing experiments indicate that either the existing wire system, or additional wires for the purpose may be utilized for the efficient transmission of telephonic and telegraphic messages, and the former without interfering with the existing telephone traffic on these wires.
    The fact that each of the circuits created by the use of superimposed high-frequency methods is both a telephone and telegraph circuit interchangeably, makes it possible to offer to the public a new type of service, which it is believed, will offer many advantages to the commercial world. This type of circuit should be particularly applicable to press association service, railroad service, and leased wire service of all kinds.
    The experiments described should not be interpreted as in any way indicating limitations to radio-telegraphy and telephony in the future, for their present rapid development gives justification for great prospect for the future. It is rather considered that the whole system of intercommunication, including both wire methods and wireless methods, will grow apace, and as each advance is made in either of these it will create new demands and standards for still further development. We need more wireless telegraphy everywhere, and not less do we need more wire telegraphy and telephony everywhere, and, again, more submarine cables. The number of submarine cables connecting Europe with America could be increased many times and all of them kept fully occupied, provided the traffic were properly classified to enable some of the enormous business which is now carried on by mail to be transferred to the quicker and more efficient cablegram letter. That time will surely come when the methods of electrical inter-communication will have been so developed and multiplied that the people of the different countries of the world may become real neighbors.
    Accustomed to the methods of transmitting energy for power purposes by means of wire, it is a matter of wonder that enough energy can be delivered at a receiving antenna from a transmitting point thousands of miles distant to operate successfully receiving devices. The value of a metallic wire guide for the energy of the electric waves is strikingly shown in the above experiments, and it furnishes an efficient directive wireless system which confines the ether disturbances to closely bounded regions and thus offers a ready solution to the serious problems of interferences between messages which of necessity have to be met in wireless operations through space.
    The distortion of speech, which is an inherent feature of telephony over wires, should be much less, if not practically absent, when we more and more withdraw the phenomena from the metal of the wire and confine them to a longitudinal strip of the ether which forms the region between the two wires of a metallic circuit.
    The ohmic resistance of the wire as shown can be made to play a comparatively unimportant part in the transmission of speech and the more the phenomena are of the ether, instead of that of metallic conduction, the more perfectly will the modified electric waves, which are the vehicle for transmitting the speech, be delivered at the receiving point without distortion.
    It has been shown that the phenomena of resonance, which are met with in so many different branches of physics, exhibit very striking and orderly results when applied to electric waves propagated by means of wires. By utilizing this principle it has been shown that the receiving current at the end of the line may be built up and amplified many times over what it would be with untuned circuits.
    The tuned electrical circuit at the receiving end readily admits electromagnetic waves of a certain definite frequency, and bars from entrance electromagnetic waves of other frequencies. This permits the possibility of utilizing a single circuit for multiplex telephony and telegraphy.