Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-04-09
THE PARENT TEPHoNE.
ne Principle Disc5fd IN 1891 ny
Hearing the Croah OF frogs IN
swamp L o Miles A.

swamp % Miles ~.
From TEE Ns0'b Times.
rvnrANApoLIs. AT3.-An interview
nth DR. Cusbman Z inventor OF the
sro alarm telegrapbld President of the
American Cushm telephone Company,
oiyos an eresttbontribution to the
literature OF teIenpe discoveries. Mr..
rusbman is one ohe parties in the suit
against the BeV. .e says;
1--WE wrote t. e Hon. Allen G. Thur
man that it seen to us that II myself
md those who uld sustain my oath
sTou'd first OF abe sworn our evidence
would save tnaocessity OF any one
claiming to havayented the telephone
since 1851. II Whyented the telephone
in 1881. as we aim and can prove, we
certainly have pEity. We have no pat
emf our evideB VIII show without the
shadow Of douthat [ used the tele-
nbone in my butess for several months
hi 1851 and the yr following. The mat
Ter Of asking fda parent will depend
mon the termItion Of the suit against
Bell
His story OF e discovery Of the tele-
phone is as follOs;
4
in 1851. IS mlesest OF Racine, Wis.
was engaged inhaking "a telegraph line
from Racine toll lOit, Wis. l undertook
to make a igntag arrester. Ezra Cor
nell and Mr.. sid asked me to get no a
lightning arrest and the one got up is
the father OIL lightning arresters.
While we were 1ting for thunderstorm
We had one aHster with boxes, in
swamp, and thlOther we had put up
where we had cried the line along, Is
miles furthur on That day ! CHANGED To
put my ear to th box and heard those
frogs 10 tbatswaO family, but sufficient
ly clear to recoaze the cTOaking. 9th
ars heard the sac thing. Then we began
experimenting Ter that Is miles Of wire,
A Mr.. White al myself Communicated
By tapping on [, diaphragm in the box
with pencil. e.h answering the Otner in
the same way. SeXt whistle was tried,
and the hsteneht the dia rhragm got that.
TOOK the thb, apart when we went on
with the line.
81 got Mr. Mite to make number Of
ma-nets. brother. William PITT
Cushman, anCB. +. Bl0d gett, both of
Akron, ONO, eTe interested in my eXpe-
riments. FubOXes were made. Two
for each enc othe line, one to talk in
a
wire, and alhd tOeach ohier back and
forth TWO orthre miles apart all one fore
noon. We OF dher men at work with us
TO talk andistm at the boxes. There
were six mn working near by all OF
whom teste The speaking boxes, Tw0of
these men ae sliYe, and | have their aft
daYlts. I9iephOned TO them The words,
as l rememer, 'SJay where you are ana
we Will brig your dinner to you, and tue
answer can back, 'All right, Cushman.
q. h. We re what YOU saw
In 1892 al 1893 these boxes were put
up by hit and other men just for finn,
and we har(slX or seven witnesses who
will swea' to having seen and talked
through then. Probably 200 other per-
sons have Aard these men talk about
these t6ts In 1854 my partner IN the
line buidDg moved to Mount Pleasant,as
it was tea called. l fixed a loop so tnaJ
we cOuAtalk together being at Racine
and be TX miles away-telephOnica
we werelll the time trying to make 1t
work louer. You understand, the Bell
patent ress upon the telephone thai he
made in 49,, and made in 1851, and not
upon the tfnsmitter, which neither of us
made. MrBlodgett is dead. / nave the
affidavit Olhis widow, now living in
South CarOha, and she testiHes that we
used the instrument, crude though IL was,
from place place and family to family.
In 1884 mae a sOpe-Walk at Racine for
making wirerOpe for lightning rods. The
walk was beween 800 and 600 feet long,
and we used telephone boxes for the men
10 converse trough while at work. Here
are aftidavitsfrOm men to that effect.
'My brOthr, Joseph Cushman, said be
would makejoXes that would talk better,
louder and cearer-and he did. Those he
made were lsed all that summer. He
too6 the sane magnets that ! had used in
the other boxes. We tended that il
was the diaphragm that was at fault, and
we made it futed, crooked, full OF holes,
and IN all sOlts OF ways, never dreaming
OF making a shOr circuit. invented the
ire alarm telegraph, and in 1866 and 1861
lectured to the fire departments over the
country. In my fire telegraph pamphlets
you will see / clam talking circuit in
combination with the fire alarm, but the
difficulty was to make them talk loud
enough. l sold my fire alarm patent, and
Gamewell bought it Of the parties to
whom / sold it. You have heard OF
George B. E icks, the inventor Of the first
telegraph repeater. He was boy at
Akron, ohio, where ] taught him teieg-
Iaphy. He sold that invention to the
Western Union for 100000 in stock,
probably worth $500 COO afterwaTd when
the stock was Watered. Hicks tried 10
improve my telephone. but did not sue
coed In carrying It on any further than
aad 1t. or than Mr. Bell had it in 1876.
Bell and Cushman stood alike as TO vol
ume OF voice and eiiiciency-notnIng in
favor of Bell except appearance.
The American Bell Telephone Com
pany sent their attorney TO see me. The
consequence was ! went TO Boston and
dald there four or five weeks az their eX-
pense. made q contract with them on
May II, 1882, for three years. That con-
tract was out last May. Since that time
nave been gathering evidence OF what
nave told YOU, and since that time the
american Cushman Company has been
organized on the evidence have accumu-
.ated.0
Or. Cushman is in the city because Of
ihe possibility that the Central Union
telephone Company will quit business
mere on account OF the Indiana law, but 70
llae present time nothing has been done.
ne proposition that a local syndicate
WIN rake the exchange and instruments
y sun under discussion, and the work of
.euoVlng telephones Is suspended. The
general belief is that they Will not be re-
moved, and that some method VIII be de-
'lsed whereby the business will be con-
unued, and the company will retain its
"ahcnlse and plant untouched.