Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-01
'GR0WTH0F THE PHONE
Dr.. Bell Recalls Early History of
Invention.
PROF. HENRY WAS ADVISER
Dangers Of Publicity Shown by a
Hoax.
THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE
Earth and An as Electrical Conductors
News and Music by Wire
Locating Garfeld's Bullet.
THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE
Copyright, 1905, BY Frank G. carpenter.)

Copyright, 1905, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
It was STILL small voice that reached
my ears the other night. when I called up
DR.. Alexander Graham Bell and asked him
for a chat about some Of his recent scien-
tf1c experiments. The voice was that Of
DR.. Bell himself. As it came over the wire
1t was not louder than q whisper, but its
every syllable was articulate and distinct
and could hear 1t as plainly as though
stood before the famous inventor face to
face. AS listened my mind went back to
the time when that same voice made its
first successful communication Of this kind
and my heart thrilled at the thought Of
what its owner has given the human race.
1t Is scarcely generation since DR.. Bell
invented the means. of sending articulate
sounds over a wire, and today by that in
vention the voices of all the world pass to
and fro without regard to distance. Last
year on the Bell telephone lines alone there
were more than $500. OO0, 600 conversations,
or enough to give three talks to every man,
woman and child upon earth and leave
some to spare. Those conversations took
place in the United States and 1t is fair to
presume that an equal number. were ut
tered in Europe, Asia, South America and
Australia.
Our Big Telephone Business.
have before me the last report Of the
American Telephone and Telegraph Com
pany. 1t gives no statistics outside its
own business. and it practically includes
only the progress Of the Bell lines in the
United States. The figures are astound-
ing and they should be multiplied by two
or more to give an adequate idea of the
telephoning of the world. The total mile
age of the Bell lines is now more IMAM
100000 It has in use enough wire to
reach 24O times around the earth; more
than enough to bind two girdles around the
sun and still leave plenty over for waist
bands for Mars and our little sister CONT
nent, the moon. Indeed, if wire could be
stretched through space the Bell wires
alone are enough to make twenty private
lines to the moon and leave a million
odd miles to spare. The wires which were
year would go fifty-four times around the
earth, and they use SO much copper to
make them that some of our greatest mines
are kept busy furnishing 1t. 1t would take
big forest to supply the 100000 poles to
which those lines are hung, and the under
ground conduits in which they lie are so
many that If placed end to end they would
gfrdle the world.
phone business its amount is inconceivable.
The Bell companies alone have a capital
ization of more than $500, 100000; and the
capitalization of the Independent companies
here and of the other companies belonging
to governments and individuals in Europe
and the rest of the world is probably much
greater.
These figures give some idea of what that
STILL small voice meant when 1t first sent
arttculate sounds over the wires and there
by began the conversations which have so
| revolutionized the world Of society, busi-
ness and trade.
A Midnight Chat.
1t required but a few words to arrange
the interview. The time fixed was mid
night, for the inventor of the telephone is
night worker. He has always done the
greater part of his experimenting and think
ing after dark, finding that his mind works
more clearly as the world grows quiet, and
that 1t IL at it's best between IL and in the
morning. During the summer months he
seldom goes to sleep before dawn. and his
usual hours for rest are from until IL a. m.
DR.. Bells afternoons are devoted to BUSH
ness and social engagements and his nights
to reading and scientific experiments
During our talk asked him whether his ar
health. He replied that he had not found
1t so, and that he far preferred it to that
of other men who work by day. Indeed,
night and day are much the same to him,
and when he is especially interested in some
Of his experiments goes many hours with
out sleep, working on far into the day, and
then sleeping for hours at a stretch
to make up. 1t is by this means that he
does an enormous amount of work, carrying
on studies and experiments along many
lines, and, at the same time, keeping him
self thoroughly abreast of the scientific
world. He is now within a year or SO of
the age at which DR.. Osler said the working
man should be chloroformed but his eye is
as bright, his step as firm and his mind
active as when he made his great discovery
as to the telephone thirty odd years ago.
He tells me that he never felt better than
he does now, and I doubt whether he has
ever enjoyed his life or work more.
Joseph Henry and the Telephone.
Our conversation covered wide range.
In response to my questions 1t was at times
personal now drifting into "reminiscences
connected with his many inventions, and
now scientific as asked him as to the pos
stbilities Of new discoveries along certain
lines in the future A part of the talk I
have already published in an article about
DR.. Bells recent experiments in the evolu-
ton of sheep, and as to his present work
on his flying machine. Another part 1 give
you today in the conversation which fol-
lows.
We had been talking about the Smith
sonian Institution. of which DR.. Bell is one
of the regents, and of its late secretary,
DR.: s. P: Langley, who was one Of DR..
Bells intimate friends, when 1 asked him
whether he had known Joseph Henry, the
first secretary~and director of that institu-
ton. DR.. Bell replied:
IT became acquainted with Prof Henry
when was. still working on the telephone
and he was kind to me. 1t was a year or
so before my patent was granted. when I
called upon him at the Smithsonian Institu-
ton and explained my ideas as to the con-
struction of an instrument which would
carry vocal sounds. 1 was then interested
also in multiplex telegraphy, and we talked
about that. Prof. Henry was a man of re-
markable ability along the very lines upon
which I was working. He had made many
discoveries in electricity and in electro dy-
namics having constructed an electro-mag-
netic telegraph long before the invention
of Prof. Morse. He appeared much inter-
ested in my experiments, and determined
to ask his advice about the apparatus
which I had designed for the transmission
of the human voice by means of an electric
wire. After I had explained the idea 1
asked him to advise me whether had bet
ter publish my discoveries and let others go
to work along the same lines, or whether
should keep at it and attempt to solve the
problem myself.
'.Her replied that he thought 1 had the
germ of great invention, and that would
do much better to keep the matter secret
and work along by myself"
But said ], I feel that my mechani-
cal knowledge is weak. There are many
difficulties to be overcome and fear I
have not the knowledge. Of electricity re-
CURED =
We'll then you had better get It, said
Professor Henry.
"Those words spurred me to action I
cannot tell you how much they encouraged
me. I did go to work again and it was
the result Of that work which enabled me
to bring about my final success. My pat