The San Francisco call., 1899-07-09

the construction of the telephone. He
then wrote to his father and mother in
Canada, telling them of his talk with Pro-
IT felt" said he, 80 much encouraged
from his professor Henry's) interest, that
/ determined to ask his advice about the
mission of the human voice by telegraph
l explained the idea, and said:
What would you advise me to do
publish it and let others work it out, or
attempt to solve the problem MYSELF
He said he thought it was the germ Of
a great invention, and advised me to work
II out myself instead of publishing.
Il said l recognized that there were
mechanical difficulties in the way that
rendered the plan impracticable al the
present time added that | felt that /
had not the electrical knowledge neces-
sary TO overcome the difficulties. His
laconic N. answer was;
The letter was written after Bells return
to Boston. and he started in on his expert
taxed his resources, financial and physi-
cal, to the limit. and then he resolved on
bold step. on March is he wrote to his
father ard mother:
II have put, of. my pupils and all my
classes until the first OF April. Flesh and
blood could not stand much longer the
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. Meanwhile
the situation had become complicated
In the course of his association with his
partner. Mr.. Hubbard, he had met the
charming young daughter Of that distin-
guished philanthropist then Miss Mabel
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 exag
gerated in young Bell. The expense OF
his actual experiments In multiple tele-
graphy had been betrayed by his part
in hA ant RIJt n ha
telephone experiments fell entirely on
him, and his slender purse was taxed to
the utmost TO meet the calls upon IT.. He
was unwilling to go to the father of his
f1ancee and ask q loan to help him defray
his living expenses, and those incident to
the purchase and construction OF expen-
sive apparatus. Neither was he willing
to turn to his parents for aid and with
his sole source of revenue cut off by the
reduced to the verge OF actual want At
this juucture a friend came forward and
loaned him a 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 2, 1878. On that day
Bell was standing by one of his harmonic
instruments, when his assistant accident
with his hand. The slight noise proceed
ing from the nearby receiver would have
escaped the attention of a less skilled OBJ
server than Bell. To him it sounded as
distinct as the crack of a pistol. Again
and again the excited young scientist
made his assistant repeat the tapping
with his finger on the connected har-
rnonic Instrument, while he stood with
his ear to the receiving instrument, list
ening delghtedly to the sounds that is
sued from it. Within the hour he gave
orders for the construction Of exactly
such a telephone as in the preceding fall
he had described to DR.. Blake. The cleo
trio speaking telephone was then prac-
one hour after the application was filed