Joseph John O'Connell
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Joseph John O'Connell (1861 – 1959), 1st, was an electrical engineer and inventor. He worked for the Chicago Telephone Company (which began as the Chicago Bell Telephone, Co. in 1878 [1]) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He had many inventions including the circuit breaker and the coin return. He also created the "invisible wire" which was the first time more than one telephone conversation could occur on the same wire. Reference to some additional inventions are mentioned in Angus Hibbard's autobiography, Hello- Goodbye [2] including an electric lamp as a signal in a burglar-alarm operated by the telephone company in 1886. He was of Irish ancestry.[3]