The Washington times., 1902-01-19
Prof. A. Graham Bell Says It
Is Nothing New.
EXPEREMENTED MANY YEARS AGO
Telegraph Waves n Mystery-System
in Service in England When the
Cable Was Ont of Ordcr-Expresses
All Faith in Marconi's Brilliant
Accomplishments.

telephony is nothing new. He made ex.
periments in it twenty five years ago al
Cambridge at the home of his father-i in
law, Gardiner G. Hubbard.
In making some telephone experi-
ments.' said Prof. Bell. Il constructed a
short line which l grounded with two
pokers. Putting one of the instruments
to the ear I was surprised to hear a sound
| which vas quickly identified as the signal
| from the Cambridge clock, which gives the
| time to large number of clocks in Bos-
| ton. This clock was connected with Bos-
ton by direct wire. and the wire did not
run anywhere near Mr.. Hubbard's place.
| That was the most surprising gpart of it..
After some consideration it dawned ON nv
mind that this was the explanation of il. ="
Mr.. Bell drew paper toward him from
pile that lay on the table in front of the
| couch where he was half sitting. half re-
| clining.
Tells of Cambridge Clock.
Suppose that is the clock at Cam
| bridge he said. as he made a dot on the
| paper. Here'-making another dot, some
distance away-'is Boston. There is
ground at each point Suppose the poten-
tiality at the one point to be plus ten; at
the other point it is minus ten.
NO" let us draw circles aroung the first
point Along the first circle the poten-
TALLY is plus nine; along the next II Is
plus eight. and SO it continues to dimin
ish in regular ratio.
around the other point. If we draw
circles the potentiality becomes minus
nine. min1s eight, etc
Now here, at point some distance from
the Can bridge dot, and not on line
between Cambridge and Boston" Prof.
Bell made third dot at point
Off the straight line drawn between the
irst two pcints-''you see my location
happens to fail on the circle in which
the potentially is plus four Now here
is another point making a fourth dot,
which falls on the line of potential
ity. which has been shown to be plus
fv..
THE telephone line has been stretch
ed between the third and fourth points
We have indicated. Now if the potential
ity of the current from the first point is
plus five at one end of my telephone cir
cult, and plus four at the other, when
there is break in the circuit and it
is closed again, lit is as though there was
a potentially Of plus one-half created
at one end cf the telephone wire, and
minus one-half at the other.
Signals Are the Result
1.-THE result will be signal over that
Cambridge. That must have been in
1874; it was fully quarter of century
ago. anyway
"And you made nc practical use OF
the knowledge?" was asked.
"Yes. / experimental afterward on the
Potomac at Washington. ! had two boats
there. Oae was anchored at the Long
Bridge, and one went up the river as far
as the Wash ngton Monument. They were
not in sight OF one another. At the first
boat was ground in the water. and a
wire stretched from that to another
ground. There was an interrupter on the
boat. and man to work 1t.
Then l went on the other boat up the
river. We had a ground at the boat and
a trailer behind, which gave us second
ground. Signals were received with this
apparatus one and one-quarter miles
away"
why did you not develop this discovery
to practical point"
Prof Bell shrugged his shoulders. "One
might as well ask man of a thousand
things why he does not do one and leave
any of the other 999 undone.
System Often Used.
There was practical application made
of it, however. The system was used in
England to telegraph between the Isle of
Wight and Southampton. when the cable
was out of order. There. of course, they
had miles of wire shore at each end.
There was also practical exemplilcation
of the system on the Island OF ST. Pierre,
where the end OF the French cable is.
THE manager of the French Cable
Company once said that he had tried the
experiment of making double ground,
and that with a telephone instrument he
could get the signals going over the tele-
graph wire at any point. The entire island
was charged with them.
Not an Electrician.
But am not an electrician" said Prof.
Bell. Il would never have invented the
telephone If l had been. No electrician
could have done It. He would have thought
1t useless. In fact, with little knowl-
edge of electricity, acquired in expert
ments and books, | thought 1t was out CT
the question. 1t was tried however, and
the telephone was the result. | was in
terested in the nature of sound and cot in
electricity
Prof Bell was asked If he had started
out to devise an apparatus for the trans
mission of speech or II he had ,een led
in that direction accidentally
Il was trying to make magnetc-tele-
phone for the transmission OF sound"
said Prof. Bell, "and in theory and
constructed the practical telephone long
before | thought II would work pracu-
cally. Before tried | felt that 18th my
apparatus | could reproduce at the other
end of the wire exactly the w&-,s which
were produced by the human voice OF this
end. But l did not believe t3sy would
be strong enough to be heard. thought
that ii would be like the m:f'te repro
duCtion of picture.
Eye Can See But Ift-'c-
"All the eye can see Is s,..all point
You feel assured that tie v.iole of the
picture is there. but therN Il no way in
which you can see it un.1aG you use
powerful microscope. tflieved that |
would get sound .-lc2 Jut not audible
sound waves
y was working 'r fn' some means of
magnifying tka n.soV SO that it would he
r., ~, D = b