Aprominent American inventor, doctor and scientist, David Alter was born in Westmoreland county of Pennsylvania on 3 December, 1807. He did his graduation from the Reformed Medical School in New York City and started his carrier as a physician and scientist in Elderton, Pennsylvania, in the 1830s. He had German and Swiss ancestry. He invented the electric telegraph, one year before the popular Morse telegraph was invented. David rigged the telegraph between his house and his barn.
During great Pittsburgh Fire of 1845, he found a slice of melted glass that gave him the idea of the light spectrum. In 1845, he invented and patented a method of manufacturing Bromine from salt wells that was highly helpful in the iron industry and was put on display in the world’s fair. Dr. Alter resided in Freeport until his death in 1881.
