Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-10-07
THE BABYH00D
OF A GIANT.

,,..soual Recollections of Or. A. 8. Condor,
~ ogden, Utah, formerly of Hancock coun.
~, In The Mountain states Monnor.l
The biography of wizard is mighty
,,,eresting story. The narrative Of an
.,om grown to be a Cyclops in less than
,wo score years should be told only in
rr,opia. Mythical epics were recited be-
,o,s dawn of our civilization, but the
characters were pigments of the imagina-
,ion. Their great magician was an Ajax
ubo defied the lightning. He blazed the
cav for belated Don Quixote who fought
windmill.
put the nineteenth century produced
-ssl Ajax and he tanned the lightning and
made it plaything. Other inspired men
ot our day, catching whisper from the
real Ajax, have harnessed the lightning,
snd II obeys like willing servant.
1t was in the early sos that newspapers
and jabberwocks in cities along the At
lsptic border were specializing about
talking machine that one Edison, tele-
graph operator, was trying to develop.
People laughed at his vagsries and pity
iugly tapped their foreheads.
But the diseoverer of the transmission
ola voice through wire charged with
electricity stood their banter amiably but
did not dream Of its ultimate utility. II
his eyes ever sought to penetrate the
narrow horizon that circumscribed his
interesting experiments, they saw be-
yond only nebulous path that led to the
contamination Of his hopes; he must feel
the uncertain road like blind man, for
no one had ever passed that way before.
Everybody knows that even the scratch
of q nail on the distal end OF short log
may be heard by the ear closely pressed to
III; we have all experimental that way
when we were children. When older and
wiser grown we discovered that the atoms
composing a denser material, such as
iron or copper, are a vastly more sonorous
medium for the transmission OF sound,
and that the application OF electricity
sugments molecular continuity. This
discovery, though simple enough and
automatic now, was then little less than
miraculous. This controlling law and its
comprehension evolved the telephone SO
useful in our time.
In Ogden, Utah, was made The first rudi-
mentary attempt ives; OF New York to
construct talking machine, then with
out name. Subsequently in Ogden was
the first company organized to construct a
telephone line for practical use. have
said this to answer anticipated questions
that some might ask how this writer
happens to be informed regarding the
babyhood OF the consummated telephone,
now fading into the shadowy past.
At the time OF which write J. A. Patti
graph Co., and Ogden was the relaying
point between the east and west coasts.
J. n. Keller was railroad agent at this
place. They two were chums and early
became Interested In all that was written
or said regarding what has since become
known as the telephone, but, as before
said il was at that time pameless.
They wrote good many letters to per-
sons in New York and elsew here whose
addresses were had from newspapers; in
fact, they wrote to everybody whom they
had reason to suspect was experimenting
or interested with the plaything.
They received little satisfaction from
any source because their correspondents
knew less than nothing about the thing
and good naturally said so. Finally, Mr..
Pattison concluded to go to New York
and find out for himself what all the
hullabaIoo was about. He arrived on the
scene in time to witness the curtain rails
ing on the telephone stage.
After skirmishing around in New York
for month, Pattison came back loaded
with the queerest sort OF nonsense about a
strange contraption where, he said, people
were talking with each other over wire,
some distance from one another. He was
strangely obsessed with ideas about some
thing that he couldn't understand or ex-
plain. Sympathetic friends advised put
ting him to bed, thought he had gone
DAFT OF the heat, or something.
SO Mr.. Keller concluded to go East and
Try to discover the cause Of his comrades
peculiar madness. Keller came back in
worse condition than did Pattison! They |
disturbed their households with their |
chatter; in their sleep they talked OF discs |
and vibrations and that sort of stuff un- |
I'll the whole community for season sur
missed 1t had two crazy men on its hands. |
When person has Authorizations that |
threaten mental disaster the proper thing |
10 do is to encourage the Imagination un-
I'll the obsession is exhausted with paint
ing impossible pictures.
With this object in view q telegraph |
wire was strung between Mr.. Pattison's
residence and KeIler's office and the |
electric juice was furnished by the
Weston Union. With astonishing pre-
science they negotiated discarded oyster
cans for purpose of receivers at either end.
Inc whole neighborhood was by this time
In state of expectant excitement.
The wonder grew that SO strange a
maIady could possess such level-headed