Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-08
READS LIKE FICTION
Story Of Prof. Bells Invention of
the Telephone.
EARLY HARDSHIPS AND OBSTACLES
How He Finally Came to Exhibit at
the Centennial.
DIES ERVED HIS SUCCESS

Written for The Evening Star by James Mc1lhauy
Thomson.
The iron, steel and copper wire used by
one great telephone company in the United
States of America alone is of more than
sufficient length to loop the earth to the
moon. In fact, Were it possible to make the
connections and to support the 1888 miles
of wire which this company reports as
being used throughout it's various circuits
on January /. 1899, three different wires
could be stretched between our planet and
her lunar satellite.
America is the birthplace of the tele-
phone Its discovery was made generally
known in Philadelphia during june, 1SI6-
one hundred years after the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, and at the
centennial exposition which commence
rated that event. The story of the inven-
ton of the telephone is in many respects
the most marvellous and interesting part of
this one of the worlds wonders.
Alexander Graham Bell, the genius who
gave it scientific birth, was born in Edin-
burgh, Scotland, in 1917. His father, Alex
ander Melville Bell, the inventor of
what is known as visible speech "a SyS-
tenn of teaching deaf mutes how to speak
by indicating to them through visible char
acters the combinations of the vocal chords
necessary to produce articulate sounds TO
the life-work of his father young Ben de-
cided to devote himself. After a prepara-
tory training he entered London UniVer-
sity in 1867, but his health failed him ana
he left shortly afterward. In 1870, IN com
pany with his parents, he went to Canana
Realizing that the u tied States onereo
a broader field for the work that he had IN
view, young Bell, IN 1872, came to the
United States and settled in Boston, where
he introduced his fathers system OF VS.
ible speech for the education of deaf mutes
He supported himself at first with private
classes.
First Electrical Work.
Meanwhile and even before he left Eng
land, young Bell had commenced expert
ments in that branch of physics and cleo
tricity which embraces sound. To the task
of an inventor in this line he brought a
lifelong training for the profession OF "a
teacher of vocal physiology-a profession in
volvins knowledge of how to produce and
perceive articulate sounds The ground
work of the system which he taught con-
sisted in instructing deaf mutes to recog-
nize by sight the motions of the organs
which produce speech, and from TINS 10
understand the meaning of spoken words.
He became an expert in sound, which en-
braces among it's other branches that of
harmonics. Some time before he left Eng
land Bell, following the natural bent OF
his genius, commenced experimenting IN
harmo lics. The art of biography then af-
forded an alluring field for research, and
about the time he came to this country he
conceived the IDEA tndl d system ol
tiple teiegraphy might be evolved from the
principle that the various chords of mu-
steal instrument are sensitive to SOUNDS OF
different pitch. While in Canada he work
ed out system of multiple telegraphy on
this basis, and upon locating in Boston he
| interested Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas
Sanders, two gentlemen Of wealth, In mis-
experiments.
and the three entered a partnership, it
| being agreed that Messrs. Hubbard and
| Sanders should defray the expenses of the
experiments necessary to complete Bells
system of telegraphy, and for taking out
| the necessary patents on it.
Teaching was absolutely his only means
of support. He spent all day in the class
| room, and when night came devoted his
| time to study and experiment.
Transmission of Sound.
| AS the young scientist proceeded with his
work he noted with ever increasing wonder
! the adaptabilty of the electric current to
the transmission of sound. Some time in
| 1874 there occurred to him the idea that
| possibly the human voice itself might be
| transmitted and reproduced by means of
| the electric current.
| There are many persons now who remem-
| Der with what incredulty they read the
| first press accou its of Bells discovery of
| the telephone Some people even refused
| to believe after they had heard spoken
| words issue from the receiver of the teIe-
| phone, preferring rather to THINK that their
| senses cheated them, or that they were the
! victims of some clever and ingenious hoax.
| But the idea of the telephone had been
born in the brain of young Bell, and, come
| veal or woe, he was determined that it
| should be carried through to an exhaustive
| experimental conclusion. In the fall of 1874
| he communicated his elementary idea for a
| speaking telephone to his friend. DR.. Clar-
| ence J. Blake, an eminent physician in Bos-
| ton and an authority on acoustics.
Bell received from him some encourage
| ment for the further prosecution of this
| original idea. His partners, Messrs. Hub
bard and Sanders, preferred, however, that
the young man should devote himself to
/ the completion of his system of multiple
| telegraphy and rather discouraged his
| seemingly impracticabie idea for the trans
| mission of speech by the electric current.
Prof. Henry's Advice.
| The year of 1915 dawned dark and gloomy
| enough on the struggling young inventor
| to have discouraged almost any one other
| than Bell. After he had completed his sys-
| tenn of multiple telegraphy and applied for
his patent he was thrown into consterna-
| ton by finding that his title to an original
| invention was contested by the distinguish
| ed scientist, Elisha Gray of Philadelphia.
He went to Washington to look after his
interests, and while there called on the
| veteran physicist and electrician, Prof. Jo-
seph Henry, the secretary of the Smith
tsonian Institute.
In the course of his interview with Prof.
| Henry he explained his ideas for the con-
struction of the telephone. He then wrote
to his father and mother in Canada, telling