The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-12
Copyrighted, 1904. by Frank q. Car.


WASHINGTON, D. c.
Call upon me at my house at any
Fine tomorrow night. between 10 and
o'clock in the morning, and the later
the better"
These were the words of DIR. Alexan-
Der Graham Bell. had asked him
when we could best meet for a good
long chat about the telephone and his
recent experiments in the field OF aerial
navigation, and this was the answer.
Dc Bells favorite working time is at
night, and his mind is at it's brightest
from midnight on. He is then free from
Interruption, and can give up his soul
to the scientific experiments and in
ventiors which form his life work. lie
rever goes to bed until after a. m.
his usual sleeping hours being. from
until IL. The afternoon is devoted
TO social and business engagements,
and the night alone to reading and
work.
DIR. Bell in 1904.
These have been the habits of life
time, and they are excellent ones IL
DR. Bells health may be considered a
test. He is now 81 years of age and Is
In his physical and intellectual prime
Tall and well formed, with a great
head fastened by a strong neck to
broad, full shoulders. he is one of the
finest looking as well as one Of the
most active men who are doing great
things in the world today. The telc-
phone was first patented in 1875. Since
then he has made many other import
ant inventions, and has done 80 much
for science that he has been granted
the highest honors by the chief scien-
tific societies of Europe. including the
Volta prize of $4,000 francs. given by
the French Government to the few
whose inventions are deemed of the
greatest good to humanity. 1t takes
tyr.a rriv fr inv M all f,a
this faculty to a remarkable degree.
His vision, based upon his great sci
entific knowledge, Is wider than that of
the ordinary thinker, and his creative
mind is always searching out and sug-
costing new things. This was evident
throughout our conversation, of which
l can repeat only a part.
The talk covered a wide range. now
personal, now scientific, and now al
NEST prophetic as-to the possibilities
of the future. It jumped from Japan
to Nova Scotia and from Washington
to London; from the use of a dead
mans ear in telephone experiments to
oratorical and musical exhibitions over
the telephone and graphophone; and
from electricity to helium and radium
and the navigation of the air.
Electricity and the Telephone.
In our conversation about electricity
] asked DR.. Bell whether his scientific
knowledge of that force had not aided
him in the invention of the telephone.
Not at ALL" he replied. when be-
gan my experiments upon the tele-
phone had no scientific knowledge of
electricity. 1 knew practically nothing
about it; and had 1t been otherwise
could never have made the discoveries
which eliminated in my success. 1 don't
believe any electrician could have In
vented the telephone"
'Why not?" l asked.
Because the elements which we now
think essential to the telephone trans
mission of sound are such that the
electrician of that day would not have
believed in their practical application.
The ideas which brought forth the
telephone would not have come to me,
and had they done so would have at
once discarded them as foolish ana i'm
practical"
but did not electricity have much
TO do with the first telephone?"
mot a great deal,"~ was the reply
''Wa had two electromagnetic, one al
each end of the wire. These were all
that were used in the first instruments
and we transmitted sound with them
almost as well as we do now. The bat
teries and other electrical machinery
have been the outgrowth of other nec-
essities in the practical working of the
invention rather imam lH the pure
mission of the human voice. That part
of the instrument, which you now put
to your ears, was at first used to speak
into. and the diaphram, as it is, was
made for speaking. not for hearing
A piece of iron or steel would do just
as well for the purpose for which 1t is
now used. We had at first two such
mouthpieces, one held at the ear and
the other to speak into. While listen
ing the receiver often puts one OF
these at each ear to better the trans
mission. The batteries were necessitat-
ed for calling the subscribers. We had
to have call bells, which were origi-
nally rung with crank, as is done In
some of the old phones to-day. These
bells necessitated an electric battery
for every instrument, and other things
have added electrical machinery which
was entirely unknown at the start"
The Autobiography of the Telephone
Cannot you give me the autobiogra-
ply of the telephone, DIR. BeIl?"
asked.
II will give you some of 1t at least,
was the reply. THE invention was
born I may say. in my long study OF
sound in connection with the human