The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-11-27

once. When Edison undertook his cam
paign 70 bring electric illumination INTO
buildings and houses, from out in the
streets where Charles #. Brush had put
Il with his arc light. he laid his phonO-
| graph aside.
Returning from Paris with $4,000 in
cash, given him as a prize. Graham Bell
Equipped laboratory 10 the purpose OF
/ iaventing a machine that would record
and reproduce sounds. 1 suppose music
was in his mind at the time The work
was carried on b. Dr. Chichester Bell
! a relative of Graham Bell-and Charles
Sumner Fainter, mechanical expert. of
WATERFOWL, Mass. 1t was the Bell and
fainter machine that I heard Devine and
other stenographers talking about.
Later. | was invited to the laboratory
and saw the machine in operation.
found that while l had spent years in
learning quickly TO put human speech on
paper by means OF signs that the machine
could beat me easily and do the work bet
ter and more accurately. In my diary,
that night. / wrote that meant 10 get
as large an interest in the invention as
was possible. MY connection with the
subsequent development of tine graphic
phone therefore, was not accidental The
suppnsitiOn was that the machine would
make the dictatiOn OF letters in business
Offices 10 stenOgrapheTs unnecessary. The
musical possibilities of the invention we're
not then apparent / employed it right
or. heing the first stenOgrapher TO do
so in government work. I dictated my
shorthand notes into the machine and
had my typist write them out on paper.
Gone seven Days,
About that time 1t was in the year
1857, ! accompanied the newly created In
terstate Commerce Commission on it's
first trip of investigation. We were gone
seven working days, during which period
made $500 My salary was only sl0O
a month, but l received 10 cents a page
extra for transeribing my stenographic
notes and was permitted to supply all
the persons in interest with full copies
OF the testimony taken at the different
hearings. Well, / put my $500 into the
graphophone business"
Your faith" l remarked was all that
could have been desired on the part OF
Bell and fainter"
I did more than invest my money.
Mr.. Easton replied. Il gave two years
of my time to the company without any
salary. l had been earning $4,000 a year
doned good business in the belief that
the talking machine ultimately would
pay me far better. judgment that was
JUSTIFIED in every respect"
My friend, Arthur Devine, also be-
came an important share owner. James
c. Blaine, William Walter Phelps. of
New Jersey; r. r. HIT of Illinois, long
a member of the House of Representa-
tives and chairman of the Committee ON
Foreign Relations; Senator Allison. of
Iowa. and Senator Morrill,, 81 Vermont.
bought stock. Years afterward Wa Ting
fang the Chinese minister, came into
the company as an investor
while / was yet stenographer I took
one OF our laboratory machines with me
on ali my travels, I would send for the
newspaper reporters when I reached a
city like Chicago and let them hear and
see the very latest wonder in electricity.
Among the sounds l reproduced was the
crying of my own baby. That particular
demonstration was tremendously popular.
The machine, in short, created a big SEN
sation, as was natural under the circum-
stances. Indeed. il is the greatest of all
mechanical inventions. greater than the
telegraph. the telephone or the steam
engine It takes down the voice of man
just as it sounds, recording every word
ana every shade, ana preserves IL or
continues it for ages TO come.
Trying for Century.
Scientists in different parts OF the
world had been trying for more than 100 |
years to catch and hold the sounds of |
human voice" Mr. Easton went on 10
say. THE Imperial Academy of ST. |
Petersburg offered prize In 1873 for an !