Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1885-11-07
A TlRELEss INVENT OR.
Prof. Bells Latest Production "T t3enius
His Great Mental Energy.

Prof. Bell, it might b. thought, utter
having given to the woriu the tele.
phone. would be content with his
scientific conqucsts, but he is still &C
lively at work upon problems of sound
and electricity in a way that promise:
an invention Of far greater Importance.
scientifically and practically. than the
telephone itself. His laboratory is IN
old-tashioncd two-slory house on Con.
necticut avenue, near n street, in the
neighborhood of the British Legation,
Stanley Mathews house, and the resi-.
dence of Mrs. John Davis He also
has a private land secret laboratory
over in Georgetown, where at present
he has q most skillful workman en-
gagged upon the forthcoming instru.
ment. What it is is known only to
Prot. Bell and the man who is working
at the idea. The great inventor has
said to his friends that if he succeeds
his new idea will yield him greater TO
turns than the telephone has. Ii is
suspected. however. by those who have
given some attention to the course OF
Prot. Bells thought upon the subject,
that it is the photophone. or the use OF
electricity to reproduce W. the wires
the image of the person speaking before
the instrument
Prot. Bell is q man of prodigious
mental energy, and he is constantly
developing new ideas and new appli.
cations OF electrical force for tine pro.
duction of useful machines. He throws
them off as easily and carelessly as you
a fancy. For instance, he made not
long ago an instrument called the au.
diometer. Perhaps not u dozen of them
have been made. 1t. consists OF mag
other. These cylinders will indicate
by measurement how much sound it is
possible tor a deaf person to hear and
II they al hear at all. Although it is
an important instrument Prot. Bell
allows any one who wants to get one
of his matchmaker, and himself asks NO
return for it. Prof. Bell mas also de.
vised an instrument which might be
called the submarine telephone. by
which can be- ascertained from the
echo from a stone dropped upon the
bottom of the bay or river in which
the craft may be floating just what
depth is at that point.
Prot. Bell is gradually growing out OF
all business pursuits and ievoling him-
self to the improvement of The deaf.
He is constantly giving more and more
time to his little school on Sixteenth
street. where he has perhaps a score OF
pupils, mos all of them wholly deaf,
to whom he is teaching the art vi sight
language. He is training these little
children SO that they can distinguish
from the lips and face of the person
speaking what they say, and teaching
them 10 initiate the proper arrange.
meht of the lips, teeth, and tongue SO
that they may a%rticulate sounds. A
gentleman calling upon Prot. Bell the
other evening tells me that while he
was there one Of his warkmen came in
for instructions. The man sat there
for four hours, while Prof. Bell applied
himself unnterrupiedly to other mat.
ters which he had in hand. At the END
of that time he wheeled about ia
his chair aud began to talk to the
SO in my life. Every sentence had the
-, compact result Of hard thinking
aud carried to the mind of the
listener q complete scientific idea. In
halt an hour he had indicated to the
man a new and great invention, and
the workman said ii we had known this
two months ago We might have saved
two months labor. 1t demonstrated
to nc the wonderful versatility of the
nan who, in his far-advanced studies
on the subject Of sound and hearing,
could pass to utterly diverse subject;
instantly and with perfect mastery o,
each" 1t is understood also that Prof,
Bell is at work upon the problem of re.
solving heat at once into electricity, .
result, if it q be obtained. that viii
greatly simplify and cheapen all use:
Of electricity. q Washington Cor. Pits
burg C1n,nercid -GazeHe.