The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-09

! In the course of his interview with Pro-
/ fesSor Henry he explained his ideas for
| the construction of the telephone. He then
] wrote to his father and mother in Canada,
/ telling them of his talk with Professor
] Henry, which, il will be seen. had vital
} bearing on the future of Bells ideas for
/ the telephone.
Il felt" said he so much encouraged
from his professor Henrys) interest,
that 1 determined TO ask his advice about
the apparatus l have designed for the
transmission of the human voice by tele-
graph. / explained the idea. and said:
q" What would you advise me 10 do,
publish il and let others work il out,
I or attempt 10 solve the problem my
self?
He said he thought it was the germ of
a great invention. and advised me TO work
ii out myself instead of publishing il.
Il said l recognized that there We're me-
chanical difficulties in the way that reu-
dered the plan impracticable at the pres
ent time. 1 added that l felt that l had
not he electrical knowledge necessary TO
overcome the difficulties. His laconic an
swer was:
- Get it
81 cannot tell you how much those two
words encouraged me. l live too much in
an atmosphere of encouragement for sci
entific pursuits. Such chimer1cal idea
as telegraphing vocal sounds seem scarce
ly feasible enough TO spend time IN work
ing over. l believe, however. that IL Is
feasible. and | have got the cue to the So
luton of the problem.
to Boston, and ne started in on his eXper-
mental work with renewed energy He
tried TO accomplish with limited resources
and under conditions the most trying an
amount of work which would have stag
gered the strongest of men. He taxed MS
resources financial and physical, TO the
limit and then he resolved on a bold step:
On March IS he wrote 10 his father and
mother:
i have put off my pupils and all my
classes until The LIST of April. Flesh and
81 longer
strain | have had upon me. professional
work is all in confusion. and the only way
is TO cut the Gordian knot and throw up
everything until the end is achieved
Bell worked on now day and night,
studying and experimenting. Meanwmle
the situation had become complicated,
and even, perhaps, a little more difficult
for the young man. In the course of his
association with mis- partner Mr.. Hub
bard he had met he charming young
daughter of that distinguished phllanthro-
mist then Miss Ma bel Hubbard. They
had fallen in love with one another. The
pride of the Scotch gentleman of small
means which has been so charmingly
characterized in the novels of Sir Walter
Scott was exaggerated i'll young Bell.
The expense of his actual experiments IN
multiple biography had been betrayed by
his partners in the enterprise. But that
part of the telephone experiments fell
entirely upon him. and his slender purse
was taxed to the utmost TO meet the calls
upon ii. He was unwilling 10 go TO the
father of his fiancee and ask loan TO
help him defray his living expenses and
those incident to the purchase ana con-
struction of expensive apparatus. Neither
was he willing to turn TO his parents for
aid: and with his sole source Of revenue
cut off by the dismissal of his classes. he
found himself reduced 10 the verge of ac-
tual want. At this juncture friend came
forward and loaned him small sum OF
money on the security of his prospective
earnings from teaching during the coming
winter.
With this he struggled on. The date of
the real discovery of the telephone might
be said to be June , 1875. On that day
Bell was standing by one of his harmonic |
instruments when his assistant accident |
ally tapped the connecting instrument /
with his hand. The slight noise proceed !
ing from the nearby receiver would have |
escaped the attention of less skilled OBJ |
server than Bell. To him il sounded as |
distinct as the crack of pistol. Again /
and again the excited young scientist |
made his assistant repeat the tapping |
with his finger on the connected harmonic |
instrument. while he stood with his ear to
the receiving instrument listening delight |
edlv TO the sounds that issued from IL. He |
the experiments until he had sat |
isfied himself that the sound which he |
heard from the one instrument was due to
electric impulses generated by the sonor-
Gus vibrations of the other. Within the
hour he gave orders for the construction
of exactly such telephone as in the pre-
ceding fall he had described TO DR.. Blake.