Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-31
STORY OF A FAMOUS HOAX
An Invention Attributed to Telephone Bell
that Wa Not Inv nted.
CLAIMANTS CONTEST A FICTITIOUS HONOR
The Undiscovered Means of Convcy
inH n Sensible ImnEc or Impress
sion by TcIcRrnph-An In
tcryiev with Prof. He'll.


Thereby hangs a moral. But first the tale,
1t had been some time since l had any news
of the progress Of Prof. Alexander Graham
Bells endeavor to convey q sensible image
of impression by means of a telegraph wire
and | called to ask the professor as to his
success. l did this, you understand. in all
innocence of heart. l had been reading oil
Prof. Bells experiments along this line and
was curious to know whether or not he would
be able to do for light waves what he had
for sound waves, and transmit the image
of a face just as through his telephone he
now does the sound of the human voice.
Now Prof. Bell, 1t happens, is a Scotch.
man and has one of those healthy, lusty
laughs that sound like a gust blown off the
banks and braes of Bonnie Doom. Very much
to my surprise, my question excited one OF
these. When 1t had subsidized Prof. Bell said
to me: Il will tell you the history of a "a
nous hoax"
With this the famous electrician said: 81
have in my library the full and authentic
details of the whole case. You may read II
or l will tell 1t to you, just as you like" l
suggested the latter, and this s the profess
sor's story:
you know the years along from 80 to $50
were star years in the electrical world. Then
great lHluBS were DelnS uuHe, new ulsSuNtI-
les were being announced almost every day,
ard 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 beginning to supersede
gas, telegraphers had found a way to send
more than a single message over the same
wire simultaneously, 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 unita litpr-
ally in the air.
H ORIGIN OF H HOAX.
at was slight wonder that with all the
marvels and miracles to be seen right under
ones eyes, many attempts to do absurd
things should be made, a great many absurd
announcements put forth. To illustrate this,
a newspaper Photographer invented an item
to the effect that a DR.. H.. E.. Liz of Mauch
Chunk, Pa. or some other prosperous town,
had found a way to see through a wire, and
had been able by this means to convey the
image of a pussy cat and throw the picture
on a screen before the delighted audience.
The paragraph was full of technical electric
terms and of proper names, founded, like
that of the alleged inventor, DR.. H. e. Lix
(heliX), upon electrical words.
1T would seem as though any one with
a CLEAN of humor would have seen the evil
dent satire of the paragraph. But no, it was
taken with perfect seriousness, and was duly
copied from one paper to another as the lat
est wonder in electricity.
Nov it happened just at the time that l
was at work upon a series of Investigations
looking toward the conveyance of sound
by means of rays of light. | had fairly
perfected an instrument for this purpose
when l was compelled to drop my investi-
cations for other work. 1t seemed to me
that l had made a discovery Of some i'm
portance, and. while not wishing to an
nounce II. l wanted to fix the date of my
discovery and / therefore filed a sealed pack
age containing a full description, with illus
t%rations. of my Investigations. in the SIN tn
sonian institute. Just why or how l do not
know, but the fact of my having filed this
package soon came out, and along with the
paragraph concerning the wonderful Or.
H.. e. Liz and his discovery, went another
item concerning the marvellous Prof. Bell
and his discovery, which latter mysterious
affair had been sealed up in a package in
the Smithsonian institute.
EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS CLAIM 1T.
after travelling the rounds of the Ameri-
can papers. big and little. the two items
took their way over to England, and, as q.
happened, made their appearance together,
she one following the other, in an issue Of
the English scientific publication. Nature.
l think that the items must have been
slightly garbled and rendered obscure, else
the mistake which occurred could hardly
have been made. but at any rate in the
very next issue of Nature came an indig-
nant letter from Profs. Ayrton and Perry.
assail:ng me in the most violent manner.
AS they had read the items, 1t was | and
ne. the mythical DR.. H. E. Liz who Vas
claiming the discovery of a means of trans
hitting images by wire. But my glory was
not to last long. Profs. Ayrton and Perry
made haste to LIT from my head my hard
earned laurels and place them on their own.
They. not l.. 1t appeared. were the real dis
coverers of this marvellous process, and "a
them belonged the laurel and the crown.
well, as it took a fortnight or more for
the English journal to reach this country,
/ remained in blissful ignorance both of the
fact that | had claimed to be such a dis
coverer and that l had been thus ruthlessiy
shorn of my prize. Meanwhile the war
| went on. In the very next number of
Nature appeared "a second letter from an
other inventor or scientist, whose name
| do not now recall. claiming that he wac
the true discoverer, the first TO have thought
of the great and valuable principle for the
ansmissi Of images by wire. If Profs.
Ayrton and Perry had been long before me
in the discovery, he, In turn, had been long
in the field before Profs. Ayrton and Perry.
! My memory is a trife indistinct. but II 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 will 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 matter
got out of the scientific journals and into
the public press. The London Globe had q
long article reviewing the case, which was
afterward copied in a Boston paper, with
the result that the matter came to the at
tention of American inventors and with a
like result to that produced in England.
AMERICAN CLAIMANTS WRANGLE.
"In a leading scientific paper In New
York Mr.. Sawyer, now dead, and a very
well known electrician In his day, came
forward to say that upon such and such
a time he made announcements Of the dis
covery OF the principle In question, which
discovery 1t would appear by reference to
the files of some paper was made years be-
fore that of Ayrton and Perry, years be-
fore any claimant who had up to date APP
peared In England.
'This seemed to give a final quietus to the
case. But 1t was not to rest here. Follow
ing Mr.. Sawyer's letter this scientific jour
nal entered the discussion to say that, highly
as 1t esteemed the talent of Mr.. Sawyer, 1t
was its regrettable duty to announce that
several years before the date assigned by the
latter for his discovery, a young man Of
genius had filed with 1t plans, descriptions
and specifications Of exactly how to send an
image through a telegraph wire; and there
with this journal republished in full the ar
ticle to which it made reference. / am not
.,,,a ,ybathar tho diCnnaSinn died down ar