The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-31

came an indignant letter from Profess
sors Ayrton and Perry, assailing me
in the most violent manner. AS they
had read the items, it was I and not
the mythical DR.. H. E. Liz who was
claiming the discovery of a means of
transmitting images by wire. But my
glory was not to last long. Professors
Ayrton and Perry made haste to lift
from my head my hard earned laurels
and place them on their own. They,
not 1, it appeared, were the real dis
coverers of this marvellous process, and
to them belonged the laurel AMI the
crown.
well. as it took a fortnight or more
for the English journal to reach this
country, 1 remained in blissful ignor-
ance both of the fact that l had claim
ed to be such a discoverer and that
had been thus ruthlessly shorn of my
prize. Meanwhile the war went on. In
the veryf next number of Nature APP
peared second letter from another in
ventor or scientist whose name l do
not now recall, claiming that he was
the true discoverer, the first to have
thought of the great and valuable
principle for the transmission of inn
ages by wire. If Professors Ayrton
and Perry had been long before me in
the discovery, he, in turn, had been
long in the field before Professors Ayr
ton and Perry. My memory is a trifle
indistinct, but if l recall Alright there
were several other men of science who
appeared TO do battle for the credit of
this great discovery, all of whom you
viii understand had hit upon the thing
years and years before the man who
had made the last claim.
well, in the course of time the mat
ter got out of the scientific journals
and into the public press, The London
Globe had long article reviewing the
case, which was afterwards copied in
a Boston paper, with the result that
the matter came to the attention of
American inventors and with a result
alike to that produced in England.
AMERICAN CLAIMANTS WRANGLE
OVER THE ALLEGED DISCOVERY.
In a leading scientific paper in New
York. Mr.. Sawyer, now dead, and a
very we'll known electrician in his day,
came forward to say that upon such
and such a time he had made an
nouncement of the discovery of the
principle in question, which discovery,
it would appear by reference TO the
files of some paper, was made years
before than of Ayrton and Perry, years
before any claimant who had UP to
date appeared in England
This seemed to give a final quietus
to the case. But it was not to rest
here. Following Mr.. Sawyer's letter
this scientific journal entered the dis
cussion to say that. highly as 1T esteem
ed the talent of Mr.. Sawyer, it was its
IL nfa
eral years before the date assigned by
the later for his discovery, a young
man of genius had filed with it plans,
descriptions and specifications of ex-
aotly how to send an image through
telegraph wire; and Herewith this Jour-
nal republished in full the article to
which it made reference. | am not
sure whether The discussion died down
at this time or not. In all probability
it did for it is clear that had it con-
tinued, the actual date of the marvel
lous discovery of a means to transmit
images by wire would have soon retired
to a period before the flood.
THE FACTS IN THE CASE.
''All this you will understand was
about sixteen years ago, and in con-
nection with the matter 1 point you to
the following facts. First: That 1 had
never up to that time. so far as l can
recall, made any experiments whatever
upon the subject in question; second,
that the paragraph announcing that L
was engaged in such a work was the
result of a curious and absurd mistake,
and third and finally, that the discov-
cry of a means to do just this thing-to
transmit images by wire-has not yet
been made. Hundreds upon hundreds
of ingenious inventors and clever inves-
tigators have, I doubt not, been at
work on this problem without. UP TO
the present time, so far as 1 know,
achieving any result whatever.
Nevertheless and in spite of these
facts, regularly and about once year
the announcement is made by news
paper friends that my experiments in
this direction are complete and that I
should soon lay them before the public.
Now, l will not say that / have never
made any such experiments; in point
of fact, l was forced to take up the
subject IN sheer self defense. 1t was
obviously absurd that l should give the
newspapers no justification whatever
for reiterating the imminence of
another great discovery which
was to make in the realms of cleo