Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-04
The Telephone Decision

In the United States Circuit Court at Bos- ton, last week, Judge Lowell gave decision in the suit brought by the American Bell Telephone Company against Albert Spencer, an agent of the Eaton Telephone Company.
 The judge decided in favor of the Bell Tele- phone Company, holding that the Refs tele- phone is not speaking telephone, and did not anticipate Mr. Bells invention; that Mir. Bells patent for the speaking telephone is valid, and that the class of telephones which have come into notice since MT. Bells patent such as the carbon telephone and the mi crophone-are infringements on that patent and must be enjoined, because they employ Mir. Bells undulatory current. The follow ing is the most important part of the opln- ion:
 The bill alleges an infringement of two patents granted to Alexander Graham Bell
 The defendants admit that they have infringed some valid claims of the second patent but the plaintiffs are not content with this admls- sion; they rely besides upon the fifth claim of the first patent, which is much more con- prehensive in it's scope. Patent No. 174,- 4G5, issued to Bell dated March ', 1876, is entitled, Improvement in Telegraphy," " and
 is said in the specification to consist in "the employ yment of vibratory or undulatory current of electricity in contradistinction to a merely intermittent pulsatory current and of method of and apparatus for pro- ducing electrical undulations upon the line wire.' The patentee mentions several ad- vantages which may be derived by the use of this undulatory current, instead of the inter mittent current, which continually makes and breaks contact, in it's application to multiple telegraphy, that is, sending several messages or strains of music at once over the same wire; and the possibility of conveying sounds other than musical notes. This latter appli- cation is not the most prominent in the spec ifcation though, as often happens, it has proved to be of surpassing value. This part of the invention is shown in figure of the drawings, and is thus described in the text
 s'The armature, C, Fig ', is fastened loose ly by one extremity to the uncovered leg, q, of the electro magnet, 5, and it's other tremity is attached to the center of a stretch ed membrane, 0. cone, A, is used to con- vey sound vibrations upon the membrane.
 When sound is uttered in the cone, the membrane, c, is set in vibration, the arma- ture, c, is forced to partake of the motion, and thus electrical undulations are created
 upon the circuit E, D, c, 4 2. These undula- tions are similar in form to the air vibrations
 caused by the sound that is, they are repre-
 sented graphically by similar curves. The
 undulatory current passing through the cleo
 tro-magnet, J, influences it's armature, h, to copy the motions of the armature, c. A sim
 liar sound to that uttered in A is then heard to proceed from l."
 With the figure before us, this descrip- tion is readily understood. cone of paste board, or other suitable material has mem- brane stretched over it's smaller end; at 8 ht- tie distance is piece of iron magnetized by coil through which is passing current of electricity When sounds are made at the mouth of cone, A, the membrane v1brates
 like the drum of human ear; and the arma-
 ture, which is directly in the magnet, vii
 brates with the membrane, and it's move ments cause pulsations of electricity like
 those of the air which excited the membrane, to pass over the wire; and the wire stretches to another similar magnet and cone with it's l membrane and armature. The second arma- ture and membrane take up the vibrations and make them audible by repeating them into the condensing cone, l., which translates them into vibrations of the air. The defend ants insist that the instrument represented | in figure will not transmit articulate speech; that this great result has been reached by MT. Bell entirely through the improvements described in l his second patent, such as the substitution of | a metal plate for the stretched membrane, | and some others The importance of the l point is that if Bell, who is admitted in this l case to be the original and first inventor of l any mode of transmitting speech, had not 1 completed his method and put it into a l working form when he took his first patent, he may lose the benefit of his invention be- l cause, in his second patent, he makes no l broad claim to the method or process, but l only to the improvements upon process as-
 stunned to have been sufficiently described in
 his first patent There is some evidencs that 1 Bells experiment. ssith the instrument, de-
 scribed in figure T before he took out his | patent, were not entirely successful; but | this is now immaterial; for it is proved that
 the instrument will do the work, whether | the inventor knew it or not, and in the mode | pointed out by the specification. The fifth l claim of the patent is for
 | The method and apparatus for transmitting vocal
 sounds telsgraphicaily by causing electrical
 unculztiona similar In form to the vibrations of tho | air accompanying the said vocal or other sounds. l substantially as Aet forth. ..
 l The defendants use a method and appara- l tus for transmitting vocal sounds which re- ] semble those of the plaintiffs in producing
 electrical nndulations copied from the vibra-
 tions of diaphragm and sending them aicng
 a wire to Q similar receiver at the other end.
 The specific method Of producing the cleo
 trisal undulations is different !. is made cs' i siis I5Tiii1ipie of tile micropnone, which has \ been very much improved eince the date O: the first Bell patent. If the Bell patent were for mere arrangement, or combination o,