Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-30

every day, and others that had been made
some little while before were then coming
into general use. The telephone had been
perfected and was spreading its network
over the country, electric light was begin
ming to supersede gas, telegraphers had
found way TO send more than a single
message over the same wire simultaneous
ly, and people were talking of the day
when the electric motor would run street
cars and railroads and do all sorts of
things Electricity was quite literally in
the air.
The Origin of the Hoax.
at was slight wonder that with all the
n!arvels and miracles to be seen right I'M
der ones eyes, many attempts to do alb
sUrd things should be made, great many
absurd announcements put forth. To IL
lustrate this, a newspaper paragrapher in
vented an item to the effect that Dr. H
Z. Lix of Maunch Chunk, Pa, or some
other prosperous town, had found a way to
see through wire and had been able by
this means to convey the image of a pussy
cat and throw the picture on a screen be-
Tore the delighted audience The paragraph
was full of technical electric terms and of
proper names founded, like that of the al
legged inventor, DIR. H E Lix Chelix), upon
electrical words.
1T would seem as though any one with
a CLEAN of humor would have seen the
evident satire Of the paragraph. But no,
1t was taken with perfect seriousness and
n
ether as the latest wonder in electricity
Now it happened just at the time that 1
was at work upon series of fnyeStiea-
tons looking toward the conveyance of
sound by means Of rays of light / had
1alrly perfected an instrument for this pur-
pose when was compelled to drop INV in
Sesugation for other work. 1t seemed to
me that / had made discovery of some
Importance, and, while not wishing to an
nounce 1t, / wanted to fix the date of nv
discovery and l therefore filed sealed
package containing full description, with
Illustrations, of my Investigations in the
smithsonian Institute. Just why or how
I do not know, but the fact of my having
Med this package soon came out and along
WIn the paragraph concerning the wonder
ful DR. H E. Liz and his discovery went
another item concerning the marvellous
Professor Bell and his discovery, which
latter mysterious affair had been sealed I'D
In package In the Smithsonian Institute.
Claims of European Scientists.
After travelling the rounds of the Ameri-
can papers, big and little. the two items duly
took their way over to England. and. as
1t happened. made their appearance to-
gether, the one following the other. in an
issue Of the English scientific publication.
Nature 1 think that the items must have
poem signify garbled and rendered obscure,
else the mistake which occurred could
hardly have been made. but at any rate in
tho very next issue Of Nature came an in
Gignant letter from Professors Ayrton and
Perry. assailing me in the most violent
manner As they had read the items, II
was and not the mythical Dr. H. E. Liz
VINO was claiming the discovery Of a means
OF transmitting images by wire. But my
glcry was not to last long Professors Ayr
ton ana Perry made haste to lift from NV
mead my hard-earned laurels and place
mem on their own. They, not ], 1t appeared
were tne real discoveries of this marvellous
process, and to them belonged the laurel
ana the crown.
HeH, az II took fortnight or more for
remained In blissful ignorance both of the
Iaet that had claimed to be such a dis
coyerer ana that had been thus ruthlessIy
snorn OF my prize. Meanwhile the war
vent on. In the very next number of
nature appeared second letter from an
otneT inventor or scientist, whose name 7
90 not now recall, claiming that he was
tas true dtscoysrer, the first TO have thought
q the great and valuable principle for
sAs Transmission Of images by wire. II