Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-04

one weak link Bell had left between
his own apparatus and the finished
telephone.
In Bells apparatus the voice waves
themselves produced a weak electric
current Berliner used them TO trans
form an already existing current in
waves corresponding to sound waves
with all their minute characteristics.
The young inventor had done what
electricians had declared impossible.
Bells telephone" says Vile, was
simply good receiver. 1t was very
poor tranSmitter, even for short dis
tances. You talked into it and you
listened to a reply from the same sort
of instrument. 1t was far from GER
tain that what went into it as talk
would come out as talk at the other
end of the line. That which emerged
was more often a tumble of sounds.
At best it was necessary to shout the
message, and even then it was gam
BILE whether the spoken words would
be articulate."
Berliner's Principle Yet Unchanged.
Berliner's principle, he continues,
has never been changed or super
seeded. Out of the humble lodging
house back room in Washington was
about to come the magical little thing
destined to link not only cities but
countries, and not only countries but
continents, and not only continents
but span the inhabited world.
The original instrument, completed
early in April, 1877, was contained in
soap box, now at the United States
National Museum. Fully realizing the
value of his discovery, he filed his own
'caveat" application with the Patent
Off1ce-largely because he did not
have the money to hire patent at
torney. Almost simultaneously an
other brilliant genius still unknown,
Thomas A. Edison, had been working
on the same idea. He filed his caveat
two weeks later
Shortly thereafter romance and
science mingled in Beliner's life. In
his experiments, he had stretched wires
to the house of neighbor across the
the neighbours daughter, Cora Adler,
whom he afterward married. In
1873 his interests were taken over on
royalty basis by the Bell Telephone
Co., and his first struggle toward
fame was over. But his constant labor
against encouragement for two years
brought on a nervous breakdown,
which kept him for six weeks in Provi-
dence Hospital. He came out of the
hospital to find himself famous.
Starts on Photograph.
Then came the great telephone war,
starting in 1879, between the Bell
Telephone Co. and the Western Union.
It was already brewing when the Bell
Co. had purchased Berliner's rights.
The telegraph company had acquired
the invention Of Edison and several
other pioneer experimenters and
long legal fight followed. The Bell
Co. won through the priority Of Ber-
liners application at the Patent ONCE.
Berliner now was one Of the great
inventors of the day, and he set his
mind on other fields to conquer.
In 1857 a Frenchman named Leon
Scott had invented the "phonauto-
graph" an instrument for recording,
but not reproducing, the vibrations of
the human voice; There is one OF these
old instruments In the National Muse
UNI, used by Prof. Joseph Henry In his
studies Of voice vibrations. This at
tracted the attention of Berliner and he
spent many hours at the Museum
studying the crude device. Meanwhile
he had married and settled with his
family in a new house on Columbia
Heights, then on the outskirts OF Wash
ington. Thomas A. Edison was inter-
CSUSQ III LIlG Idlkul6 "ulhCILuAC pAu1Cl-
pie at the same time. The two men
seemed destined always to be in oppo-
sition. Berliner patented his talking
machine" named the Gramophone, in
1888, and six months later the first
| public exhibition was given before the
Franklin Institute at Philadelphia.
With these two triumphs to his credit,
the man who had come to America as
a German immigrant boy stood forth
as one Of the greatest inventors Of all
time.
Turns Genius to Life Fight.
In 1900 his energies were turned to
another field. Summers were fatal to
| babies in Washington. His daughter,
Alice, was q puny child In her first
year. When she was months old she
| weighed q pound less than at birth.
The foremost specialists In washington
were called to treat the child, but she
did not respond to their efforts. Little
hope was held out for her. At months
weighed only 81a pounds.
Then, with the child slowly wasting
away into the grave, Berliner turned
| the genius with which he had devised
| the Yoicrophone and the talking ma
chine to the study Of babies. He dis
missed the doctors and took charge OF
| the case himself, with the result that
| the child recovered from the obscure
| intestinal ailment and when year old
| tipped the scales at % pounds.
Prom that time his work for the rest
i Of his life was laid out for him. He be-
| lieved that the baby had suffered from
Il raw milk and that there would have
been no difnculty Il she had been led
on pasteuyized mix The naetenzaza-