The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-08-07

that straw touched the ear-drum at
one end and a piece of moving smoked
glass at the other. Thus, when Bell
spoke loudly into the ear, the vibrations
of the drum made tiny markings upon
the glass.
1t was one of the most extraordinary
incidents in the whole history of the
telephone. To an uninitiated onlooker,
nothing could have been more CHASTITY
or absurd. How could anyone have in
terpreted the gruesome JOY of this
young professor with the pale face and
the black eyes, who stood earnestly
singing, whispering, and shouting into
dead mans ears What sort of a
wizard must he be, or ghoul, or mad
man2 And in Salem, too, the home of
the witchcraft superstition. Certainly
it would not have gone we'll with Bell
had he lived two centuries earlier and
been caught at such black magic.
What had this dead man ear to do
with the invention of the telephone!
Much. Bell noticed how small and thin
was the eardrum, and yet how effec-
lively il could send thrills and vibra-
tons through heavy bones. eff this
( tiny disc can vibrate a bone,' he
/ thought, 'then- an iron disc might
vibrate an iron rod, or at least, an iron
/ wire In a flash the conception of a
( membrane telephone was pictured in his
mind. He saw in Imagination two iron
/ discs, or ear-drums, far apart and con
nected by an electrified wire, catching
! the vibrations of sound at one end, and
reproducing them at the other. At last
he was on the right path, and had a
! theoretical knowledge of what speak
ing telephone ought to be. What re-
manned to be done was to construct
such a machine and find out how the
electric current could best be brought
into harness.
Then, as though Fortune suddenly
felt that he was winning this stupen-
dous success too easily Bell was flung
back by an avalanche of troubles
Sanders and Hubbard, who had been
paying the cost of his experiments
abruptly announced that they would
paw no more unless he confined his at
tention to the musical telegraph, and
stopped wasting his time on eartovs
that never could be of any financial
value. What these two men asked could
scarcely be denied, as one of them was
his best-paying patron and the other
was the father of the girl whom he
hoped to marry. Of You wish my
daughter said Hubbard, "you must
abandon vorr foolish telephone. .
Bell s F'School Of Vocal Physiology
too, from which he had hoped so much
had come to an inglorious end. He had
been too much absorbed in his expert
ments to sustain it, His professorshir
had been given up and he had no pupils
except George Sanders and Mabel Hub
bard. He was poor, much poorer than
his associates knew. And his mind was
torn and distracted by the contrary
calls Of science, poverty, business, anC
affection. Pouring out his sorrows in {
letter to his mother, he said-''I an
now beginning to realize the cares anc
anxieties of being an inventor. ! have
had to put off all pupils and classes, for
flesh and blood could not stand mucl
longer such a strain as I have had upor
me- -
While stumbling through this Slougl
of Despond. he was called to Washing
ton by his patent LAWYER. Not having
: enough money to pay the cost Of such ;
Journey, he borrowed the price of re
Itnm ticket from Sanders and arranged
to STAY with a friend in Washington
TO save q hotel bin that he could no
afford. AZ that time Professor JOSEPH
, ! Henry, who knew more of the theory
IF electrical science than any othe
, American. was the Grand Old Man o
! Washington: and poor Bell. in his douh
and Gcspera ton. resolved t. "un to hin
! for advice.
Then cane q meeting which deserve
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