The nation was just then stretching herself across to the Pacific. The commercial importance of California was growing rapidly. By 1857 stage-coaches were crossing the plains and the pony-express riders were carrying the mail. The pioneers of the telegraph felt that a line should span the continent. This was then a tremendous undertaking, and when Mr. Sibley proposed that the Western Union should undertake the construction of such a line he was met with the strongest opposition. The explorations of Fremont were not far in the past, and the vast extent of country west of the Mississippi was regarded as a wilderness peopled with savages and almost impossible of development. But Sibley had faith; he was possessed of Morse's vision and Morse's courage. The Western Union refusing to undertake the enterprise, he began it himself. The Government, realizing the military and administrative value of a telegraph line to California, subsidized the work. Additional funds were raised and a route selected was through Omaha and Salt Lake City to San Francisco.

The undertaking proved less formidable than had been anticipated, for, instead of two years, less than five months were occupied in completing the line. Sibley's tact and ability did much to avoid opposition by the Indians. He made the red men his friends and impressed upon them the wonder of the telegraph. When the line was in operation between Fort Kearney and Fort Laramie he invited the chief of the Arapahoes at Fort Kearney to communicate by telegraph with his friend the chief of the Sioux at Fort Laramie. The two chiefs exchanged telegrams and were deeply impressed. They were told that the telegraph was the voice of the Manitou or Great Spirit. To convince them it was suggested that they meet half-way and compare their experiences. Though they were five hundred miles apart, they started out on horseback, and on meeting each other found that the line had carried their words truly. The story spread among the tribes, and so the telegraph line became almost sacred to the Indians. They might raid the stations and kill the operators, but they seldom molested the wires.

Among many ignorant peoples the establishment of the telegraph has been attained with no small difficulty. The Chinese showed a dread of the telegraph, frequently breaking down the early lines because they believed that they would take away the good luck of their district. The Arabs, on the other hand, did not oppose the telegraph. This is partly because the name is one which they can understand, tel meaning wire to them, and araph, to know. Thus in Arabic tele-agraph means to know by wire.

Just as the Indians of our own plains had difficulty in understanding the telegraph, so the primitive peoples in other parts of the world could scarce believe it possible. A story is told of the construction of an early line in British India. The natives inquired the purpose of the wire from the head man.

"The wire is to carry messages to Calcutta," he replied.

"But how can words run along a wire?" they asked.

The head man puzzled for a moment.

"If there were a dog," he replied, "with a tail long enough to reach from here to Calcutta, and you pinched his tail here, wouldn't he howl in Calcutta?"

Once Sibley and the other American telegraph pioneers had spanned the continent, they began plans for spanning the globe. Their idea was to unite America and Europe by a line stretched through British Columbia, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and Siberia. Siberia had been connected with European Russia, and thus practically the entire line could be stretched on land, only short submarine cables being necessary. It was then seriously doubted that cables long enough to cross the Atlantic were practicable. The expedition started in 1865, a fleet of thirty vessels carrying the men and supplies. Tremendous difficulties had been overcome and a considerable part of the work accomplished when the successful completion of the Atlantic cable made the work useless. Nearly three million dollars had been expended by the Western Union in this attempt. Yet, despite this loss, its affairs were so generally successful and the need for the telegraph so real that it continued to thrive until it reached its present remarkable development.

While the line-builders were busy stretching telegraph wires into almost every city and town in the nation, others were perfecting the apparatus. Alfred Vail was a leading figure in this work. Already he had played a large part in designing and constructing the apparatus to carry out Morse's ideas, and he continued to improve and perfect until practically nothing remained of Morse's original apparatus. The original Morse transmitter had consisted of a porte-rule and movable type. This was cumbersome, and Vail substituted a simple key to make and break the circuit. Vail had also constructed the apparatus to emboss the message upon the moving strip of paper, but this he now improved upon. The receiving apparatus was simplified and the pen was replaced by a disk smeared with ink which marked the dots and dashes upon the paper.

As we have noticed, Morse took particular pride in the fact that the receiving apparatus in his telegraph was self-recording, and considered this as one of the most important parts of his system. But when the telegraph began to come into commercial use the operators at the receiving end noticed that they could read the messages from the long and short periods between the clicks of the receiving mechanism. Thus they were taking the message by ear and the recording mechanism was superfluous. Rules and fines failed to break them of the habit, and Vail, recognizing the utility of the development, constructed a receiver which had no recording device, but from which the messages were read by listening to the clicks as the armature struck against the frame in which it was set. Thus the telegraph returned in its elements to the form of Professor Henry's original bell telegraph.

With his bell telegraph and his relay Henry had the elements of a successful system. He failed, however, to develop them practically or to introduce them to the attention of the public. He was the man of science rather than the practical inventor. Alfred Vail, joining with Morse after the latter had conceived the telegraph, but before his apparatus was in practical form, was a tireless and invaluable mechanical assistant. His inventions of apparatus were of the utmost practical value, and he played a very large part in bringing the telegraph to a form where it could serve man effectively. After success had been won Morse did not extend to Vail the credit which it seems was his due.

Yet, though Morse made free use of the ideas and assistance of others, he was richly deserving of a major portion of the fame and the rewards that came to him as inventor of the telegraph. Morse was the directing genius; he contributed the idea and the leadership, and bore the brunt of the burdens when all was most discouraging.

Honors were heaped upon Morse both at home and abroad as his telegraph established itself in all parts of the world. Orders of knighthood, medals, and decorations were conferred upon him. Though he had failed to secure foreign patents, many of the foreign governments recognized the value of his invention, and France, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and some smaller nations joined in paying him a testimonial of four hundred thousand francs. It is to be noticed that Great Britain did not join in this testimonial, though Morse's system had been adopted there in preference to the one developed by Wheatstone.

In 1871 a statue of Morse was erected in Central Park, New York City. It was in the spring of the next year that another statue was unveiled, this time one of Benjamin Franklin, and Morse presided at the ceremonies. The venerable man received a tremendous ovation on this occasion, but the cold of the day proved too great a strain upon him. He contracted a cold which eventually resulted in his death on April 2, 1872.

While extended consideration cannot be given here to the telegraphic inventions of Thomas A. Edison, no discussion of the telegraph should close without at least some mention of his work in this field. Edison started his career as a telegrapher, and his first inventions were improvements in the telegraph. His more recent and more wonderful inventions have thrown his telegraphic inventions into the shadow. On the telegraph as invented by Morse but one message could be sent over a single wire at one time. It was later discovered that two messages' could be sent over the single wire in opposite directions at the same time. This was called duplex telegraphy. Edison invented duplex telegraphy by which two messages could be sent over the same wire in the same direction at the same time. Later he succeeded in combining the two, which resulted in the quadruplex, by which four messages may be sent over one wire at one time. Though Edison received comparatively little for this invention, its commercial value may be estimated from the statement by the president of the Western Union that it saved that company half a million dollars in a single year. Edison's quadruplex system was also adopted by the British lines.

Before this he had perfected an automatic telegraph, work on which had been begun by George Little, an Englishman. Little could make the apparatus effective only over a short line and attained no very great speed. Edison improved the apparatus until it transmitted thirty-five hundred words a minute between New York and Philadelphia. Such is the perfection to which Morse's marvel has been brought in the hands of the most able of modern inventors.



VIII

TELEGRAPHING BENEATH THE SEA

Early Efforts at Underwater Telegraphy—Cable Construction and Experimentation—The First Cables—The Atlantic Cable Projected—Cyrus W. Field Becomes Interested—Organizes Atlantic Telegraph Company—Professor Thomson as Scientific Adviser—His Early Life and Attainments.

The idea of laying telegraph wires beneath the sea was discussed long before a practical telegraph for use on land had been attained. It is recorded that a Spaniard suggested submarine telegraphy in 1795. Experiments were conducted early in the nineteenth century with various materials in an effort to find a covering for the wires which would be both a non-conductor of electricity and impervious to water. An employee of the East India Company made an effort to lay a cable across the river Hugli as early as 1838. His method was to coat the wire with pitch inclose it in split rattan, and then wrap the whole with tarred yarn. Wheatstone discussed a Calais-Dover cable in 1840, but it remained for Morse to actually lay an experimental cable. We have already heard of his experiments in New York Harbor in 1842. His insulation was tarred hemp and India rubber. Wheatstone performed a similar experiment in the Bay of Swansea a few months later.

Perhaps the first practical submarine cable was laid by Ezra Cornell, one of Morse's associates, in 1845. He laid twelve miles of cable in the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee with New York City. The cable consisted of two cotton-covered wires inclosed in rubber, and the whole incased in a lead pipe. This cable was in use for several months until it was carried away by the ice in the winter of 1846.

These early experimenters found the greatest difficulty in incasing their wires in rubber, practical methods of working that substance being then unknown. The discovery of gutta-percha by a Scotch surveyor of the East India Company in 1842, and the invention of a machine for applying it to a wire, by Dr. Werner Siemens, proved a great aid to the cable-makers. These gutta-percha-covered wires were used for underground telegraphy both in England and on the Continent. Tests were made with such a cable for submarine work off Dover in 1849, and, proving successful, the first cable across the English Channel was laid the next year by John Watkins Brett. The cable was weighted with pieces of lead fastened on every hundred yards. A few incoherent signals were exchanged and the communication ceased. A Boulogne fisherman had caught the new cable in his trawl, and, raising it, had cut a section away. This he had borne to port as a great treasure, believing the copper to be gold in some new form of deposit. This experience taught the need of greater protection for a cable, and the next year another was laid across the Channel, which was protected by hemp and wire wrappings. This proved successful. In 1852 England and Ireland were joined by cable, and the next year a cable was laid across the North Sea to Holland. The success of these short cables might have promised success in an attempt to cross the Atlantic had not failures in the deep water of the Mediterranean made it seem an impossibility.

We have noted that Morse suggested the possibility of uniting Europe and America by cable. The same thought had occurred to others, but the undertaking was so vast and the problems so little understood that for many years none were bold enough to undertake the project. A telegraph from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, was planned, however, which was to lessen the time of communication between the continents. News brought by boats from England could be landed at St. John's and telegraphed to New York, thus saving two days. F.N. Gisborne secured the concession for such a line in 1852, and began the construction. Cables were required to connect Newfoundland with the continent, and to cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but the rest of the line was to be strung through the forests.

Before much had been accomplished, Gisborne had run out of funds, and work was suspended. In 1854 Gisborne met Cyrus West Field, of New York, a retired merchant of means. Field became interested in Gisborne's project, and as he examined the globe in his library the thought occurred to him that the line to St. John's was but a start on the way to England. The idea aroused his enthusiasm, and he determined to embark upon the gigantic enterprise. He knew nothing of telegraph cables or of the sea-bottom, and so sought expert information on the subject.

One important question was as to the condition of the sea-bottom on which the cable must rest. Lieutenant Berryman of the United States Navy had taken a series of soundings and stated that the sea-bottom between Newfoundland and Ireland was a comparatively level plateau covered with soft ooze, and at a depth of about two thousand fathoms. This seemed to the investigators to have been provided for the especial purpose of receiving a submarine cable, so admirably was it suited to this purpose. Morse was consulted, and assured Field that the project was entirely feasible, and that a submarine cable once laid between the continents could be operated successfully.

Field thereupon adopted the plans of Gisborne as the first step in the larger undertaking. In 1855 an attempt was made to lay a cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but a storm arose, and the cable had to be cut to save the ship from which it was being laid. Another attempt was made the following summer with better equipment, and the cable was successfully completed. Other parts of the line had been finished, the telegraph now stretched a thousand miles toward England, and New York was connected with St. John's.

Desiring more detailed information of the ocean-bed along the proposed route, Field secured the assistance of the United States and British governments. Lieutenant Berryman, U.S.N., in the Arctic, and Lieutenant Dayman, R.N., in the Cyclops, made a careful survey. Their soundings revealed a ridge near the Irish coast, but the slope was gradual and the general conditions seemed especially favorable.

The preliminary work had been done by an American company with Field at the head and Morse as electrician. Now Field went to England to secure capital sufficient for the larger enterprise. With the assistance of Mr. J.W. Brett he organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company, Field himself supplying a quarter of the capital. Associated with Field and Brett in the leadership of the enterprise was Charles Tiltson Bright, a young Englishman who became engineer for the new company.

Besides the enormous engineering difficulties of producing a cable long enough and strong enough, and laying it at the bottom of the Atlantic, there were electrical problems involved far greater than Morse seems to have realized. It had been discovered that the passage of a current through a submarine cable is seriously retarded. The retarding of the current as it passes through the water is a difficulty that does not exist with the land telegraph stretched on poles. Faraday had demonstrated that this retarding was caused by induction between the electricity in the wire and the water about the cable. The passage of the current through the wire induces currents in the water, and these moving in the opposite direction act as a drag on the passage of the message through the wire. What the effect of this phenomenon would be on a cable long enough to cross the Atlantic wan a serious problem that required deep study by the company's engineers. It seemed entirely possible that the messages would move so slowly that the operation of the cable, once it was laid, would not pay.

Faraday failed to give any definite information on the subject, but Professor William Thomson worked out the law of retardation accurately and furnished to the cable-builders the accurate information which was required. Doctor Whitehouse, electrician for the Atlantic Company, conducted some experiments of his own and questioned the accuracy of Thomson's statements. Thomson maintained his position so ably, and proved himself so thoroughly a master of the subject that Field and his associates decided to enlist him in the enterprise. This addition to the forces was one of the utmost importance. William Thomson, later to become Lord Kelvin, was probably the ablest scientist of his generation, and was destined to prove his great abilities in his early work with the Atlantic cable.

William Thomson was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1824. His father was a teacher and took an especially keen interest in the affairs of his boys because their mother had died while William was very young. When William was eight years of age his father removed to Glasgow, Scotland, where he had secured the chair of mathematics in Glasgow University. His early education he secured from his father, and this training, coupled with his natural brilliancy, enabled him to develop genuine precocity. At the age of eight he attended his father's university lectures as a visitor, and it is reported that on one occasion he answered his father's questions when all of the class had failed. At the age of ten he entered the university, together with his brother James, who was but two years older. The brothers displayed marked interest in science and invention, eagerly pursued their studies in these branches, and performed many electrical experiments together.



James took the degrees B.A. and M.A. in successive years. Though William also passed the examinations, he did not take the degrees, because he had decided to go to Cambridge, and it was thought best that he take all his degrees from that great school. In writing to his older brother at this time, William was accustomed to sign himself "B.A.T.A.I.A.P.," which signified "B.A. to all intents and purposes." After finishing their work at Glasgow the boys traveled extensively on the Continent.

At seventeen William entered St. Peter's College, Cambridge University, taking courses in advanced mathematics and continuing to distinguish himself. He took an active part in the life of the university, making something of a record us an athlete, winning the silver sculls, and rowing on a 'varsity crew which took the measure of Oxford in the great annual boat-race. He also interested himself in literature and music, but his real passion was science. Already he had written many learned essays on mathematical electricity and was accomplishing valuable research work. On the completion of his work at Cambridge he secured a fellowship which brought him an income of a thousand dollars a year and enabled him to pursue his studies in Paris.

When he was but twenty-two years of age he was made professor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Though young, he proved entirely successful, and wan immensely popular with his students. At that time the university had no experimental laboratory, and Professor Thomson and his pupils performed their experiments in the professor's room and in an abandoned coal-cellar, slowly developing a laboratory for themselves. His development continued until, when at the age of thirty-three he was called upon to assist with the work of laying an Atlantic cable, he was possessed of scientific attainments which made him invaluable among the cable pioneers.



IX

THE PIONEER ATLANTIC CABLE

Making the Cable—The First Attempt at Laying—Another Effort Checked by Storm—The Cable Laid at Last—Messages Cross the Ocean—The Cable Fails—Professor Thomson's Inventions and Discoveries—Their Part in Designing and Constructing an Improved Cable and Apparatus.

Field and his business associates were extremely anxious that the cable be laid with all possible speed, and little time was allowed the engineers and electricians for experimentation. The work of building the cable was begun early in 1857 by two English firms. It consisted of seven copper wires covered with gutta-percha and wound with tarred hemp. Over this were wound heavy iron wires to give protection and added strength. The whole weighed about a ton to the mile, and was both strong and flexible. The distance from the west coast of Ireland to Newfoundland being 1,640 nautical miles, it was decided to supply 2,500 miles of cable, an extra length being, of course, necessary to allow for the inequalities at the bottom of the sea, and the possibility of accident.

The British and American governments had already provided subsidies, and they now supplied war-ships for use in the work of laying the cable. The Agamemnon, one of the largest of England's war-ships, and the Niagara, giant of the United States Navy, were to do the actual work of cable-laying, the cable being divided between them. They were accompanied by the United States frigate Susquehanna and the British war-ships Leopard and Cyclops. In August of 1857 the fleet assembled on the Irish coast for the start, and the American sailors landed the end of the cable amid great ceremony.

The work of cable-laying was begun by the Niagara, which steamed slowly away, accompanied by the fleet. The great cable payed out smoothly as the Irish coast was left behind and the frigate increased her speed. The submarine hill with its dangerous slopes was safely passed, and it was felt that the greatest danger was past. The paying-out machinery seemed to be working perfectly. Telegraphic communication was constantly maintained with the shore end. For six days all went well and nearly four hundred miles of cable had been laid.

With the cable dropping to the bottom two miles down it was found that it was flowing out at the rate of six miles an hour while the Niagara was steaming but four. It was evident that the cable was being wasted, and to prevent its running out too fast at this great depth the brake controlling the flow of the cable was tightened. The stern of the vessel rising suddenly on a wave, the strain proved too great and the cable parted and was lost. Instant grief swept over the ship and squadron, for the heart of every one was in the great enterprise. It was felt that it would be useless to attempt to grapple the cable at this great depth, and there seemed nothing to do but abandon it and return.

The loss of the cable and of a year's time—since another attempt could not be made until the next season—resulted in a total loss to the company of half a million dollars. Public realization of the magnitude of the task had been awakened by the failure of the first expedition and Field found it far from easy to raise additional capital. It was finally accomplished, however, and a new supply of cable was constructed.

Professor Thomson had been studying the problems of submarine telegraphy with growing enthusiasm, and had now arrived at the conclusion that the conductivity of the cable depended very largely upon the purity of the copper employed. He accordingly saw to it that in the construction of the new section all the wires were carefully tested and such as did not prove perfect were discarded. In the mean time the engineers were busy improving the paying-out machinery. They designed an automatic brake which would release the cable instantly upon the strain becoming too great. It was thus hoped to avoid a recurrence of the former accident. Chief-Engineer Bright also arranged a trial trip for the purpose of drilling the staff in their various duties.

The same vessels were provided to lay the cable on the second attempt and the fleet sailed in June of 1858, this time without celebration or public ceremony. On this occasion the recommendation of Chief-Engineer Bright was followed, and it was arranged that the Niagara and Agamemnon should meet in mid-ocean, there splice the cable together and proceed in opposite directions, laying the cable simultaneously. On this expedition Professor Thomson was to assume the real scientific leadership, Professor Morse, though he retained his position with the company, taking no active part.

The ships had not proceeded any great distance before they ran into a terrible gale. The Agamemnon had an especially difficult time of it, her great load of cable overbalancing the ship and threatening to break loose again and again and carry the great vessel and her precious cargo to the bottom. The storm continued for over a week, and when at last it had blown itself out the Agamemnon resembled a wreck and many of her crew had been seriously injured. But the cable had been saved and the expedition was enabled to proceed to the rendezvous. The Niagara, a larger ship, had weathered the storm without mishap.

The splice was effected on Saturday, the 26th, but before three miles had been laid the cable caught in the paying-out machinery on the Niagara and was broken off. Another splice was made that evening and the ships started again. The two vessels kept in communication with each other by telegraph as they proceeded, and anxious inquiries and many tests marked the progress of the work. When fifty miles were out, the cable parted again at some point between the vessels and they again sought the rendezvous in mid-Atlantic. Sufficient cable still remained and a third start was made. For a few days all went well and some four hundred miles of cable had been laid with success as the messages passing from ship to ship clearly demonstrated. Field, Thomson, and Bright began to believe that their great enterprise was to be crowned with success when the cable broke again, this time about twenty feet astern of the Agamemnon. This time there was no apparent reason for the mishap, the cable having parted without warning when under no unusual strain.

The vessels returned to Queenstown, and Field and Thomson went to London, where the directors of the company were assembled. Many were in favor of abandoning the enterprise, selling the remaining cable for what it would bring, and saving as much of their investment as possible. But Field and Thomson were not of the sort who are easily discouraged, and they managed to rouse fresh courage in their associates. Yet another attempt was decided upon, and with replenished stores the Agamemnon and Niagara once again proceeded to the rendezvous.

The fourth start was made on the 29th of July. On several occasions as the work progressed communication failed, and Professor Thomson on the Agamemnon and the other electricians on the Niagara spent many anxious moments fearing that the line had again been severed. On each occasion, however, the current resumed. It was afterward determined that the difficulties were because of faulty batteries rather than leaks in the cable. On both ships bad spots were found in the cable as it was uncoiled and some quick work was necessary to repair them before they dropped into the sea, since it was practically impossible to stop the flow of the cable without breaking it. The Niagara had some narrow escapes from icebergs, and the Agamemnon had difficulties with ships which passed too close and a whale which swam close to the ship and grazed the precious cable. But this time there was no break and the ships approached their respective destinations with the cable still carrying messages between them. The Niagara reached the Newfoundland coast on August 4th, and early the next morning landed the cable in the cable-house at Trinity Bay. The Agamemnon reached the Irish coast but a few hours later, and her end of the cable was landed on the afternoon of the same day.

The public, because of the repeated failures, had come to look upon the cable project as a sort of gigantic wild-goose chase. The news that a cable had at last been laid across the ocean was received with incredulity. Becoming convinced at last, there was great rejoicing in England and America. Queen Victoria sent to President Buchanan a congratulatory message in which she expressed the hope "that the electric cable which now connects Great Britain with the United States will prove an additional link between the two nations, whose friendship is founded upon their mutual interest and reciprocal esteem." The President responded in similar vein, and expressed the hope that the neutrality of the cable might be established.

Honors were showered upon the leaders in the enterprise. Charles Bright, the chief engineer, was knighted, though he was then but twenty-six years of age. Banquet after banquet was held in England at which Bright and Thomson were the guests of honor. New York celebrated in similar fashion. A grand salute of one hundred guns was fired, the streets were decorated, and the city was illuminated at night. The festivities rose to the highest pitch in September with Field receiving the plaudits of all New York. Special services were held in Trinity Church, and a great celebration was held in Crystal Palace. The mayor presented to Field a golden casket, and the ceremony was followed by a torchlight parade. That very day the last message went over the wire.

The shock to the public was tremendous. Many insisted that the cable had never been operated and that the entire affair was a hoax. This was quickly disproved. Aside from the messages between Queen and President many news messages had gone over the cable and it had proved of great value to the British Government. The Indian mutiny had been in progress and regiments in Canada had received orders by mail to sail for India. News reached England that the mutiny was at an end, and the cable enabled the Government to countermand the orders, thus saving a quarter of a million dollars that would have been expended in transporting the troops.

The engineers to whom the operations of the cable had been intrusted had decided that very high voltages were necessary to its successful operation. They had accordingly installed huge induction coils and sent currents of two thousand volts over the line. Even this voltage had failed to operate the Morse instruments, the drag by induction proving too great. The strain of this high voltage had a very serious effect upon the insulation. Abandoning the Morse instruments and the high voltage, recourse was then had to Professor Thomson's instruments, which proved entirely effective with ordinary battery current.

Because of the effect of induction the current is much delayed in traveling through a long submarine cable and arrives in waves. Professor Thomson devised his mirror galvanometer to meet this difficulty. This device consists of a large coil of very fine wire, in the center of which, in a small air-chamber, is a tiny mirror. Mounted on the back of the mirror are very small magnets. The mirror is suspended by a fiber of the finest silk. Thus the weakest of currents coming in over the wire serve to deflect the mirror, and a beam of light being directed upon the mirror and reflected by it upon a screen, the slightest movement of the mirror is made visible. If the mirror swings too far its action is deadened by compressing the air in the chamber. The instrument is one of the greatest delicacy. Such was the greatest contribution of Professor Thomson to submarine telegraphy. Without it the cable could not have been operated even for a short period. Had it been used from the first the line would not have been ruined and might have been used for a considerable period.

Professor Thomson together with Engineer Bright made a careful investigation of the causes of failure. The professor pointed out that had the mirror galvanometer been used with a moderate current the cable could have been continued in successful operation. Ha continued to improve this apparatus and at the same time busied himself with a recording instrument to be used for cable work. Both Thomson and Bright had recommended a larger and stronger cable, and other failures in cable-laying in the Red Sea and elsewhere in the next few years bore out their contentions. But with each failure new experience was gained and methods were perfected. Professor Thomson continued his work with the utmost diligence and continued to add to the fund of scientific knowledge on the subject. So it was that he was prepared to take his place as scientific leader of the next great effort.



X

A SUCCESSFUL CABLE ATTAINED

Field Raises New Capital—The Great Eastern Secured and Equipped—Staff Organized with Professor Thomson as Scientific Director—Cable Parts and is Lost—Field Perseveres—The Cable Recovered—The Continents Linked at Last—A Commercial Success—Public Jubilation—Modern Cables.

The early 'sixties were trying years for the cable pioneers. It required all of Field's splendid genius and energy to keep the project alive. In the face of repeated failures, and doubt as to whether messages could be sent rapidly enough to make any cable a commercial success, it was extremely difficult to raise fresh capital. America continued to evince interest in the cable, but with, the Civil War in progress it was not easy to raise funds. But no discouragement could deter Field. Though he suffered severely from seasickness, he crossed the Atlantic sixty-four times in behalf of the great enterprise which he had begun.

It was necessary to raise three million dollars to provide a cable of the improved type decided upon and to install it properly. The English firm of Glass, Eliot & Company, which was to manufacture the cable, took a very large part of the stock. The new cable was designed in accordance with the principles enunciated by Professor Thomson. The conductor consisted of seven wires of pure copper, weighing three hundred pounds to the mile. This copper core was covered with Chatterton's compound, which served as water-proofing. This was surrounded by four layers of gutta-percha, cemented together by the compound, and about this hemp was wound. The outer layer consisted of eighteen steel wires wound spirally, each being covered with a wrapping of hemp impregnated with a preservative solution. The new cable was twice as heavy as the old and more than twice as strong, a great advance having been made in the methods of manufacturing steel wire.

It was decided that the cable should, be laid by one vessel, instead of endeavoring to work from two as in the past. Happily, a boat was available which was fitted to carry this enormous burden. This was the Great Eastern, a mammoth vessel far in advance of her time. This great ship of 22,500 tons had been completed in 1857, but had not proved a commercial success. The docks of that day were not adequate, the harbors were not deep enough, and the cargoes were insufficient. She had long lain idle when she was secured by the cable company and fitted out for the purpose of laying the cable, which was the first useful work which had been found for the great ship. The 2,300 miles of heavy cable was coiled into the hull and paying-out machinery was installed upon the decks. Huge quantities of coal and other supplies were added.

Capt. James Anderson of the Cunard Line was placed in command of the ship for the expedition, with Captain Moriarty, R.N., as navigating officer. Professor Thomson and Mr. C.F. Varley represented the Atlantic Telegraph Company as electricians and scientific advisers. Mr. Samuel Canning was engineer in charge for the contractors. Mr. Field was also on board.

It was on July 23, 1865, that the expedition started from the Irish coast, where the eastern end of the cable had been landed. Less than a hundred miles of cable had been laid when the electricians discovered a fault in the cable. The Great Eastern was stopped, the course was retraced, and the cable picked up until the fault was reached. It was found that a piece of iron wire had in some way pierced the cable so that the insulation was ruined. This was repaired and the work of laying was again commenced. Five days later, when some seven hundred miles of cable had been laid, communication was again interrupted, and once again they turned back, laboriously lifting the heavy cable from the depths, searching for the break. Again a wire was found thrust through the cable, and this occasioned no little worry, as it was feared that this was being done maliciously.

It was on August 2d that the next fault was discovered. Nearly two-thirds of the cable was now in place and the depth was here over one mile. Raising the cable was particularly difficult, and just at this juncture the Great Eastern's machinery broke down, leaving her without power and at the mercy of the waves. Subjected to an enormous strain, the precious cable parted and was lost. Despite the great depth, efforts were made to grapple the lost cable. Twice the cable was hooked, but on both occasions the rope parted and after days of tedious work the supply of rope was exhausted and it was necessary to return to England. Still another cable expedition had ended in failure.

Field, the indomitable, began all over again, raising additional funds for a new start. The Great Eastern had proved entirely satisfactory, and it was hoped that with improvements in the grappling-gear the cable might be recovered. The old company gave way before a new organization known as the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. It was decided to lay an entirely new cable, and then to endeavor to complete the one partially laid in 1865.

With no services other than private prayers at the station on the Irish shore, the Great Eastern steamed away for the new effort on July 13, 1866. This time the principal difficulties arose within the ship. Twice the cable became tangled in the tanks and it was necessary to stop the ship while the mass was straightened out. Most of the time the "coffee-mill," as the seamen called the paying-out machinery, ground steadily away and the cable sank into the sea. As the work progressed Field and Thomson, who had suffered so many failures in their great enterprise, watched with increasing anxiety. They were almost afraid to hope that the good fortune would continue.

Just two weeks after the Irish coast had been left behind the Great Eastern approached Newfoundland just as the shadows of night were added to those of a thick fog. On the next morning, July 28th, she steamed into Trinity Bay, where flags were flying in the little town in honor of the great accomplishment. Amid salutes and cheers the cable was landed and communication between the continents was established. Almost the first news that came over the wire was that of the signing of the treaty of peace which ended the war between Prussia and Austria.

Early in August the Great Eastern again steamed away to search for the cable broken the year before. Arriving on the spot, the grapples were thrown out and the tedious work of dragging the sea-bottom was begun. After many efforts the cable was finally secured and raised to the surface. A new section was spliced on and the ship again turned toward America. On September 7th the second cable was successfully landed, and two wires were now in operation between the continents. Thus was the great task doubly fulfilled. Once again there were public celebrations in England and America. Field received the deserved plaudits of his countrymen and Thomson was knighted in recognition of his achievements.



The new cables proved a success and were kept in operation for many years. Thomson's mirror receiver had been improved until it displayed remarkable sensitiveness. Using the current from a battery placed in a lady's thimble, a message was sent across the Atlantic through one cable and back through the other. Professor Thomson was to give to submarine telegraphy an even more remarkable instrument. The mirror instrument did not give a permanent record of the messages. The problem of devising a means of recording the messages delicate enough so that it could be operated with rapidity by the faint currents coming over a long cable was extremely difficult. But Thomson solved it with his siphon recorder. In this a small coil is suspended between the poles of a large magnet; the coil being free to turn upon its axis. When the current from the cable passes through the coil it moves, and so varies the position of the ink-siphon which is attached to it. The friction of a pen on paper would have proved too great a drag on so delicate an instrument, and so a tiny jet of ink from the siphon was substituted. The ink is made to pass through the siphon with sufficient force to mark down the message by a delightfully ingenious method. Thomson simply arranged to electrify the ink, and it rushes through the tiny opening on to the paper just as lightning leaps from cloud to earth.

Professor, now Sir, Thomson continued to take an active part in the work of designing and laying new cables. Not only did he contribute the apparatus and the scientific information which made cables possible, but he attained renown as a physicist and a scientist in many other fields. In 1892 he was given the title of Lord Kelvin, and it was by this name that he was known as the leading physicist of his day. He survived until 1907.

To Cyrus W. Field must be assigned a very large share of the credit for the establishment of telegraphic communication between the continents. He gave his fortune and all of his tremendous energy and ability to the enterprise and kept it alive through failure after failure. He was a promoter of the highest type, the business man who recognized a great human need and a great opportunity for service. Without his efforts the scientific discoveries of Thomson could scarcely have been put to practical use.

The success of the first cable inspired others. In 1869 a cable from France to the United States was laid from the Great Eastern. In 1875 the Direct United States Cable Company laid another cable to England, which was followed by another cable to France. One cable after another was laid until there are now a score. This second great development in communication served to bring the two continents much closer together in business and in thought and has proved of untold benefit.



XI

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, THE YOUTH

The Family's Interest in Speech Improvement—Early Life-Influence of Sir Charles Wheatstone—He Comes to America—Visible Speech and the Mohawks—The Boston School for Deaf Mutes—The Personality of Bell.

The men of the Bell family, for three generations, have interested themselves in human speech. The grandfather, the father, and the uncle of Alexander Graham Bell were all elocutionists of note. The grandfather achieved fame in London; the uncle, in Dublin; and the father, in Edinburgh. The father applied himself particularly to devising means of instructing the deaf in speech. His book on Visible Speech explained his method of instructing deaf mutes in speech by the aid of their sight, and of teaching them to understand the speech of others by watching their lips as the words are spoken.

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh in 1847, and received his early education in the schools of that city. He later studied at Warzburg, Germany, where he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He followed very naturally in the footsteps of his father, taking an early interest in the study of speech. He was especially anxious to aid his mother, who was deaf.

As a boy he exhibited a genius for invention, as well as for acoustics. Much of this was duo to the wise encouragement of his father. He himself has told of a boyhood invention.

My father once asked my brother Melville and myself to try to make a speaking-machine, I don't suppose he thought we could produce anything of value, in itself. But he knew we could not even experiment and manufacture anything which even tried to speak, without learning something of the voice and the throat; and the mouth—all that wonderful mechanism of sound production in which he was so interested.

So my brother and I went to work. We divided the task—he was to make the lungs and the vocal cords, I was to make the mouth and the tongue. He made a bellows for the lungs and a very good vocal apparatus out of rubber. I procured a skull and molded a tongue with rubber stuffed with cotton wool, and supplied the soft parts of the throat with the same material Then I arranged joints, so the jaw and the tongue could move. It was a great day for us when we fitted the two parts of the device together. Did it speak? It squeaked and squawked a good deal, but it made a very passable imitation of "Mam-ma—Mam-ma." It sounded very much like a baby. My father wanted us to go on and try to get other sounds, but we were so interested in what we had done we wanted to try it out. So we proceeded to use it to make people think there was a baby in the house, and when we made it cry "Mam-ma," and heard doors opening and people coming, we were quite happy. What has become of It? Well, that was across the ocean, in Scotland, but I believe the mouth and tongue part that I made is in Georgetown somewhere; I saw it not long ago.

The inventor tells of another boyhood invention that, though it had no connection with sound or speech, shows his native ingenuity. Again we will tell it in his own words.

I remember my first invention very well. There were several of us boys, and we were fond of playing around a mill where they ground wheat into flour. The miller's son was one of the boys, and I am afraid he showed us how to be a good deal of a nuisance to his father. One day the miller called us into the mill and said, "Why don't you do something useful instead of just playing all the time?" I wasn't afraid of the miller as much as his son was, so I said, "Well, what can we do that is useful?" He took up a handful of wheat, ran it over in his hand and said: "Look at that! If you could manage to get the husks off that wheat, that would be doing something useful!"

So I took some wheat home with me and experimented. I found the husks came off without much difficulty. I tried brushing them off and they came off beautifully. Then it occurred to me that brushing was nothing but applying friction to them. If I could brush the husks off, why couldn't the husks be rubbed off?

There was in the mill a machine—I don't know what it was for—but it whirled its contents, whatever it was, around in a drum. I thought, "Why wouldn't the husks come off if the raw wheat was whirled around in that drum?" So back I went to the miller and suggested the idea to him.

"Why," he said, "that's a good idea." So he called his foreman and they tried it, and the husks came off beautifully, and they've been taking husks off that way ever since. That was my very first invention, and it led me to thinking for myself, and really had quite an influence on my way and methods of thought.

Up to his sixteenth year young Bell's reading consisted largely of novels, poetry, and romantic tales of Scotch heroes. But in addition he was picking up some knowledge of anatomy, music, electricity, and telegraphy. When he was but sixteen years of age his father secured for him a position as teacher of elocution and this necessarily turned his thought into more serious channels. He now spent his leisure studying sound. During this period he made several discoveries in sound which were of some small importance.

When he was twenty-one years of age he went to London and there had the good fortune to come to the attention of Charles Wheatstone and Alex J. Ellis. Ellis was at that time president of the London Philological Society, and had translated Helmholtz's The Sensation of Tone into English. He had made no little progress with sound, and demonstrated to Bell the methods by which German scientists had caused tuning-forks to vibrate by means of electro-magnets and had combined the tones of several tuning-forks in an effort to reproduce the sound of the human voice. Helmholtz had performed this experiment simply to demonstrate the physical basis of sound, and seems to have had no idea of its possible use in telephony.

That an electro-magnet could vibrate a tuning-fork and so produce sound was an entirely new and fascinating idea to the youth. It appealed to his imagination, quickened by his knowledge of speech. "Why not an electrical telegraph?" he asked himself. His idea seems to have been that the electric current could carry different notes over the wire and reproduce them by means of the electro-magnet. Although Bell did not know it, many others were struggling with the same problem, the answer to which proved most elusive. It gave Bell a starting-point, and the search for the telephone began.

Sir Charles Wheatstone was then England's leading man of science, and so Bell sought his counsel. Wheatstone received the young man and listened to his statement of his ideas and ambitions and gave him every encouragement. He showed him a talking-machine which had recently been invented by Baron de Kempelin, and gave him the opportunity to study it closely. Thus Bell, the eager student, the unknown youth of twenty-two, came under the influence of Wheatstone, the famous scientist and inventor of sixty-seven. This influence played a great part in shaping Bell's career, arousing as it did his passion for science. This decided him to devote himself to the problem of reproducing sounds by mechanical means. Thus a new improvement in the means of human communication was being sought and another pioneer of science was at work.

The death of the two brothers of the young scientist from tuberculosis, and the physician's report that he himself was threatened by the dread malady, forced a change in his plans and withdrew him from an atmosphere which was so favorable to the development of his great ideas. He was told that he must seek a new climate and lead a more vigorous life in the open. Accompanied by his father, he removed to America and at the age of twenty-six took up the struggle for health in the little Canadian town of Brantford.

He occupied himself by teaching his father's system of visible speech among the Mohawk Indians. In this work he met with no little success. At the same time he was gaining in bodily vigor and throwing off the tendency to consumption which had threatened his life. He did not forget the great idea which filled his imagination and eagerly sought the telephone with such crude means as were at hand. He succeeded in designing a piano which, with the aid of the electric current, could transmit its music over a wire and reproduce it.

While lecturing in Boston on his system of teaching visible speech, the elder Bell received a request to locate in that city and take up his work in its schools. He declined the offer, but recommended his son as one entirely competent for the position. Alexander Graham Bell received the offer, which he accepted, and he was soon at work teaching the deaf mutes in the school which Boston had opened for those thus afflicted. He met with the greatest success in his work, and ere long achieved a national reputation. During the first year of his work, 1871, he was the sensation of the educational world. Boston University offered him a professorship, in which position he taught others his system of teaching, with increased success.

The demand for his services led him to open a School of Vocal Physiology. He had made some improvements in his father's system for teaching the deaf and dumb to speak and to understand spoken words, and displayed great ability as a teacher. His experiments with telegraphy and telephony had been laid aside, and there seemed little chance that he would turn from the work in which he was accomplishing so much for so many sufferers, and which was bringing a comfortable financial return, and again undertake the tedious work in search for a telephone.

Fortunately, Bell was to establish close relationships with those who understood and appreciated his abilities and gave him encouragement in his search for a new means of communication. Thomas Sanders, a resident of Salem, had a five-year-old son named Georgie who was a deaf mute. Mr. Sanders sought Bell's tutelage for his son, and it was agreed that Bell should give Georgie private lessons for the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars a year. It was also arranged that Bell was to reside at the Sanders home in Salem. He made arrangements to conduct his future experiments there.

Another pupil who came to him about this time was Mabel Hubbard, a fifteen-year-old girl who had lost her hearing and consequently her powers of speech, through an attack of scarlet fever when an infant. She was a gentle and lovable girl, and Bell fell completely in love with his pupil. Four years later he was to marry her and she was to prove a large influence in helping him to success. She took the liveliest interest in all of his experiments and encouraged him to new endeavor after each failure. She kept his records and notes and wrote his letters. Through her Bell secured the support of her father, Gardiner G. Hubbard, who was widely known as one of Boston's ablest lawyers. He was destined to become Bell's chief spokesman and defender.

Hubbard first became aware of Bell's inventive genius when the latter was calling one evening at the Hubbard home in Cambridge. Bell was illustrating some mysteries of acoustics with the aid of the piano. "Do you know," he remarked, "that if I sing the note G close to the strings of the piano, the G string will answer me?"

This did not impress the lawyer, who asked its significance.

"It is a fact of tremendous importance," answered Bell. "It is evidence that we may some day have a musical telegraph which will enable us to send as many messages simultaneously over one wire as there are notes on that piano."

From that time forward Hubbard took every occasion to encourage Bell to carry forward his experiments in musical telegraphy.

As a young man Bell was tall and slender, with jet-black eyes and hair, the latter being pushed back into a curly tangle. He was sensitive and high-strung, very much the artist and the man of science. His enthusiasms were intense, and, once his mind was filled with an idea, he followed it devotedly. He was very little the practical business man and paid scant attention to the small, practical details of life. He was so interested in visible speech, and so keenly alert to the pathos of the lives of the deaf mutes, that he many times seriously considered giving over all experiments with the musical telegraph and devoting his entire life and energies to the amelioration of their condition.



XII

THE BIRTH OF THE TELEPHONE

The Cellar at Sanderses'—Experimental Beginnings—Magic Revived in Salem Town—The Dead Man's Ear—The Right Path—Trouble and Discouragement—The Trip to Washington—Professor Joseph Henry—The Boston Workshop—The First Faint Twang of the Telephone—Early Development.

Alexander Graham Bell had not resided at the Sanderses' home very long before he had fitted the basement up as a workshop. For three years he haunted it, spending all of his leisure time in his experiments. Here he had his apparatus, and the basement was littered with a curious combination of electrical and acoustical devices—magnets, batteries, coils of wire, tuning-forks, speaking-trumpets, etc. Bell had a great horror that his ideas might be stolen and was very nervous over any possible intrusion into his precious workshop. Only the members of the Sanders family were allowed to enter the basement. He was equally cautious in purchasing supplies and equipment lest his very purchases reveal the nature of his experiments. He would go to a half-dozen different stores for as many articles. He usually selected the night for his experiments, and pounded and scraped away indefatigably, oblivious of the fact that the family, as well as himself, was sorely in need of rest.

"Bell would often awaken me in the middle of the night," says Mr. Sanders, "his black eyes blazing with excitement. Leaving me to go down to the cellar, he would rush wildly to the barn and begin to send me signals along his experimental wires. If I noticed any improvement in his apparatus he would be delighted. He would leap and whirl around in one of his 'war-dances,' and then go contentedly to bed. But if the experiment was a failure he would go back to his work-bench to try some different plan."

In common with other experimenters who were searching for the telephone, Bell was experimenting with a sort of musical telegraph. Eagerly and persistently he sought the means that would replace the telegraph with its cumbersome signals by a new device which would enable the human voice itself to be transmitted. The longer he worked the greater did the difficulties appear. His work with the deaf and dumb was alluring, and on many occasions he seriously considered giving over his other experiments and devoting himself entirely to the instruction of the deaf and dumb and to the development of his system of making speech visible by making the sound-vibrations visible to the eye. But as he mused over the difficulties in enabling a deaf mute to achieve speech nothing else seemed impossible. "If I can make a deaf mute talk," said Bell, "I can make iron talk."

One of his early ideas was to install a harp at one end of the wire and a speaking-trumpet at the other. His plan was to transmit the vibrations over the wire and have the voice reproduced by the vibrations of the strings of the harp. By attaching a light pencil or marker to a cord or membrane and causing the latter to vibrate by talking against it, he could secure tracings of the sound-vibrations. Different tracings were secured from different sounds. He thus sought to teach the deaf to speak by sight.

At this time Bell enjoyed the friendship of Dr. Clarence J. Blake, an eminent Boston aurist, who suggested that the experiments be conducted with a human ear instead of with a mechanical apparatus in imitation of the ear. Bell eagerly accepted the idea, and Doctor Blake provided him with an ear and connecting organs cut from a dead man's head. Bell soon had the ghastly specimen set up in his workshop. He moistened the drum with glycerine and water and, substituting a stylus of hay for the stapes bone, he obtained a wonderful series of curves which showed the vibrations of the human voice as recorded by the ear. One can scarce imagine a stranger picture than Bell must have presented in the conduct of those experiments. We can almost see him with his face the paler in contrast with his black hair and flashing black eyes as he shouted and whispered by turns into the ghastly ear. Surely he must have looked the madman, and it is perhaps fortunate that he was not observed by impressionable members of the public else they would have been convinced that the witches had again visited old Salem town to ply their magic anew. But it was a new and very real and practical sort of magic which was being worked there.

His experiments with the dead man's ear brought to Bell at least one important idea. He noted that, though the ear-drum was thin and light, it was capable of sending vibrations through the heavy bones that lay back of it. And so he thought of using iron disks or membranes to serve the purpose of the drum in the ear and arrange them so that they would vibrate an iron rod. He thought of connecting two such instruments with an electrified wire, one of which would receive the sound-vibrations and the other of which would reproduce them after they had been transmitted along the wire. At last the experimenter was on the right track, with a conception of a practicable method of transmitting sound. He now possessed a theoretical knowledge of what the telephone he sought should be, but there yet remained before him the enormous task of devising and constructing the apparatus which would carry out the idea, and find the best way of utilizing the electrical current for this work.

Bell was now at a critical point in his career and was confronted by the same difficulty which assails so many inventors. In his constant efforts to achieve a telephone he had entirely neglected his school of vocal physiology, which was now abandoned. Georgie Sanders and Mabel Hubbard were his only pupils. Though Sanders and Hubbard were genuinely interested in Bell and his work, they felt that he was impractical, and were especially convinced that his experiments with the ear and its imitations were entirely useless. They believed that the electrical telegraph alone presented possibilities, and they told Bell that unless he would devote himself entirely to the improvement of this instrument and cease wasting time and money over ear toys that had no commercial value they would no longer give him financial support. Hubbard went even further, and insisted that if Bell did not abandon his foolish notions he could not marry his daughter.

Bell was almost without funds, his closest friends now seemed to turn upon him, and altogether he was in a sorry plight. Of course Sanders and Hubbard meant the best, yet in reality they were seeking to drive their protege in exactly the wrong direction. As far back as 1860 a German scientist named Philipp Reis produced a musical telephone that even transmitted a few imperfect words. But it would not talk successfully. Others had followed in his footsteps, using the musical telephone to transmit messages with the Morse code by means of long and short hums. Elisha Gray, of Chicago, also experimented with the musical telegraph. At the transmitting end a vibrating steel tongue served to interrupt the electric current which passed over the wire in waves, and, passing through the coils of an electro-magnet at the receiving end, caused another strip of steel located near the magnet to vibrate and so produce a tone which varied with the current.

All of these developments depended upon the interruption of the current by some kind of a vibrating contact. The limitations which Sanders and Hubbard sought to impose upon Bell, had they been obeyed to the letter, must have prevented his ultimate success. In a letter to his mother at this time, he said:

I am now beginning to realize the cares and anxieties of being an inventor. I have had to put off all pupils and classes, for flesh and blood could not stand much longer such a strain as I have had upon me.

But good fortune was destined to come to Bell along with the bad. On an enforced trip to Washington to consult his patent attorney—a trip he could scarce raise funds to make—Bell met Prof. Joseph Henry. We have seen the part which this eminent scientist had played in the development of the telegraph. Now he was destined to aid Bell, as he had aided Morse a generation earlier. The two men spent a day over the apparatus which Bell had with him. Though Professor Henry was fifty years his senior and the leading scientist in America, the youth was able to demonstrate that he had made a real discovery.

"You are in possession of the germ of a great invention," said Henry, "and I would advise you to work at it until you have made it complete."

"But," replied Bell, "I have not got the electrical knowledge that is necessary."

"Get it," was Henry's reply.

This proved just the stimulus Bell needed, and he returned to Boston with a new determination to perfect his great idea.

Bell was no longer experimenting in the Sanderses' cellar, having rented a room in Boston in which to carry on his work. He had also secured the services of an assistant, one Thomas Watson, who received nine dollars a week for his services in Bell's behalf. The funds for this work were supplied by Sanders and Hubbard jointly, but they insisted that Bell should continue his experiments with the musical telegraph. Though he was convinced that the opportunities lay in the field of telephony, Bell labored faithfully for regular periods with the devices in which his patrons were interested. The remainder of his time and energy he put upon the telephone. The basis of his telephone was still the disk or diaphragm which would vibrate when the sound-waves of the voice were thrown against it. Behind this were mounted various kinds of electro-magnets in series with the electrified wire over which the inventor hoped to send his messages. For three years they labored with this apparatus, trying every conceivable sort of disk. It is easy to pass over those three years, filled as they were with unceasing toil and patient effort, because they were drab years when little of interest occurred. But these were the years when Bell and Watson were "going to school," learning how to apply electricity to this new use, striving to make their apparatus talk. How dreary and trying these years must have been for the experimenters we may well imagine. It requires no slight force of will to hold oneself to such a task in the face of failure after failure.

By June of 1875 Bell had completed a new Instrument. In this the diaphragm was a piece of gold-beater's skin, which Bell had selected as most closely resembling the drum in the human ear. This was stretched tight to form a sort of drum, and an armature of magnetized iron was fastened to its middle. Thus the bit of iron was free to vibrate, and opposite it was an electro-magnet through which flowed the current that passed over the line. This acted as the receiver. At the other end of the wire was a sort of crude harmonica with a clock spring, reed, and magnet. Bell and Watson had been working upon their crude apparatus for months, and finally, on June 2d, sounds were actually transmitted. Bell was afire with enthusiasm; the first great step had been taken. The electric current had carried sound-vibrations along the wire and had reproduced them. If this could be done a telephone which would reproduce whole words and sentences could be attained.



So great was Bell's enthusiasm over this achievement that he succeeded in convincing Sanders and Hubbard that his idea was practical, and they at last agreed to finance him in his further experiments with the telephone. A second membrane receiver was constructed, and for many more weeks the experiments continued. It was found that sounds were carried from instrument to instrument, but as a telephone they were still far from perfection. It was not until March of 1876 that Bell, speaking into the instrument in the workroom, was heard and understood by Watson at the other instrument in the basement. The telephone had carried and delivered an intelligible message.

The telephone which Bell had invented, and on which he received a patent on his twenty-ninth birthday, consisted of two instruments similar in principle to what we would now call receivers. If you will experiment with the receiver of a modern telephone you will find that it will transmit as well as receive sound. The heart of the transmitter was an electro-magnet in front of which was a drum-like membrane with a piece of iron cemented to its center opposite the magnet. A mouthpiece was arranged to throw the sounds of the voice against the diaphragm, and as the membrane vibrated the bit of iron upon it—acting as an armature—induced currents corresponding to the sound-waves, in the coils of the electro-magnet.

Passing over the line the current entered the coils of the tubular electro-magnet in the receiver. A thin disk of soft iron was fastened at the end of this. When the current-waves passed through the coils of the magnet the iron disk was thrown into vibration, thus producing sound. As it vibrated with the current produced by the iron on the vibrating membrane in the transmitter acting as an armature, transmitter and receiver vibrated in unison and so the same sound was given off by the receiver and made audible to the human ear as was thrown against the membrane of the transmitter by the voice.

The patent issued to Bell has been described as "the most valuable single patent ever issued." Certainly it was destined to be of tremendous service to civilization. It was so entirely new and original that Bell found difficulty in finding terms in which to describe his invention to the patent officials. He called it "an improvement on the telegraph," in order that it might be identified as an improvement in transmitting intelligence by electricity. In reality the telephone was very far from being a telegraph or anything in the nature of a telegraph.

As Bell himself stated, his success was in large part due to the fact that he had approached the problem from the viewpoint of an expert in sound rather than as an electrician. "Had I known more about electricity and less about sound," he said, "I would never have invented the telephone." As we have seen, those electricians who worked from the viewpoint of the telegraph never got beyond the limitations of the instrument and found that with it they could transmit signals but not sounds. Bell, with his knowledge of the laws of speech and sound, started with the principles of the transmission of sound as a basis and set electricity to carrying the sound-vibrations.



XIII

THE TELEPHONE AT THE CENTENNIAL

Boll's Impromptu Trip to the Exposition—The Table Under the Stairs—Indifference of the Judges—Enter Don Pedro, Emperor of Brazil—Attention and Amazement—Skepticism of the Public—The Aid of Gardiner Hubbard—Publicity Campaign.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition—America's first great exposition—opened within a month after the completion of the first telephone. The public knew nothing of the telephone, and before it could be made a commercial success and placed in general service the interest of investors and possible users had to be aroused. The Centennial seemed to offer an unusual opportunity to place the telephone before the public. But Bell, like Morse, had no money with which to push his invention. Hubbard was one of the commissioners of the exposition, and exerted his influence sufficiently so that a small table was placed in an odd corner in the Department of Education for the exhibition of the apparatus. The space assigned was a narrow strip between the stairway and the wall.

But no provision was made to allow Bell himself to be present. The young inventor was almost entirely without funds. Sanders and Hubbard had paid nothing but his room rent and the cost of his experiments. He had devoted himself to his inventions so entirely that he had lost all of his professional income. So it was that he was forced to face the prospect of staying in Boston and allowing this opportunity of opportunities to pass unimproved. His fiancee, Miss Hubbard, expected to attend the exposition, and had heard nothing of Bell's inability to go. He went with her to the station, and as the train was leaving she learned for the first time that he was not to accompany her. She burst into tears at the disappointment. Seeing this, Bell dashed madly after the train and succeeded in boarding it. Without money or baggage, he nevertheless succeeded in arriving in Philadelphia.

Bell arrived at the exposition but a few days before the judges were to make their tour of inspection. With considerable difficulty Hubbard had secured their promise that they would stop and examine the telephone. They seemed to regard it as a toy not worth their attention, and the public generally had displayed no interest in the device. When the day for the inspection arrived Bell waited eagerly. As the day passed his hope began to fall, as there seemed little possibility that the judges would reach his exhibit. The Western Union's exhibit of recording telegraphs, the self-binding harvester, the first electric light, Gray's musical telegraph, and other prominently displayed wonders had occupied the attention of the scientists. It was well past supper-time when they came to Bell's table behind the stairs, and most of the judges were tired out and loudly announced their intention of quitting then and there.

At this critical moment, while they were fingering Bell's apparatus indifferently and preparing for their departure, a strange and fortunate thing occurred. Followed by a group of brilliantly attired courtiers, the Emperor of Brazil appeared. He rushed up to Bell and greeted him with a warmth of affection that electrified the indifferent judges. They watched the scene in astonishment, wondering who this young Bell was that he could attract the attention and the friendship of the Emperor. The Emperor had attended Bell's school for deaf mutes in Boston when it was at the height of its success, and had conceived a warm admiration for the young man and taken a deep interest in his work. The Emperor was ready to examine Bell's invention, though the judges were not. Bell showed him how to place his ear to the receiver, and he then went to the transmitter which had been placed at the other end of the wire strung along the room. The Emperor waited expectantly, the judges watched curiously. Bell, at a distance, spoke into the transmitter. In utter wonderment the Emperor raised his head from the receiver. "My God," he cried, "it talks!"

Skepticism and indifference were at an end among the judges, and they eagerly followed the example of the Emperor. Joseph Henry, the most venerable savant of them all, took his place at the receiver. Though his previous talk with Bell, when the telephone was no more than an idea, should perhaps have prepared him, he showed equal astonishment, and instantly expressed his admiration. Next followed Sir William Thomson, the hero of the cable and England's greatest scientist. After his return to England Thomson described his sensations.

"I heard," he said, "'To be or not to be ... there's the rub,' through an electric wire; but, scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave me passages from the New York newspapers. All this my own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then circular-disk armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this I hold in my hand."

Thomson pronounced Bell's telephone "the most wonderful thing he had seen in America." The judges had forgotten that they were hungry and tired, and remained grouped about the telephone, talking and listening in turn until far into the evening. With the coming of the next morning Bell's exhibit was moved from its obscure corner and given the most prominent place that could be found. From that time forward it was the wonder of the Centennial.



Yet but a small part of the public could attend the exposition and actually test the telephone for themselves. Many of these believed that it was a hoax, and general skepticism still prevailed. Business men, though they were convinced that the telephone would carry spoken messages, nevertheless insisted that it presented no business possibilities. Hubbard, however, had faith in the invention, and as Bell was not a business man, he took upon himself the work of promotion—the necessary, valuable work which must be accomplished before any big idea or invention may be put at the service of the public. Hubbard's first move was to plan a publicity campaign which should bring the new invention favorably to the attention of all, prove its claims, and silence the skeptics. They were too poor to set up an experimental line of their own, and so telegraph lines were borrowed for short periods wherever possible, demonstrations were given and tests made. The assistance of the newspapers was invoked and news stories of the tests did much to popularize the new idea.

An opportunity then came to Bell to lecture and demonstrate the telephone before a scientific body in Essex. He secured the use of a telegraph line and connected the hall with the laboratory in Boston. The equipment consisted of old-fashioned box 'phones over a foot long and eight inches square, built about an immense horseshoe magnet. Watson was stationed in the Boston laboratory. Bell started his lecture, with Watson constantly listening over the telephone. Bell would stop from time to time and ask that the ability of the telephone to transmit certain kinds of sounds be illustrated. Musical instruments were played in Boston and heard in Essex; then Watson talked, and finally he was instructed to sing. He insisted that he was not a singer, but the voices of others less experienced in speaking over the crude instruments often failed to carry sufficiently well for demonstration purposes. So Watson sang, as best he could, "Yankee Doodle," "Auld Lang Syne," and other favorites. After the lecture had been completed members of the audience were invited to talk over the telephone. A few of them mustered confidence to talk with Watson in Boston, and the newspaper reporters carefully noted down all the details of the conversation.

The lecture aroused so much interest that others were arranged. The first one had been free, but admission was charged for the later lectures and this income was the first revenue Bell had received for his invention. The arrangements were generally the same for each of the lectures about Boston. The names of Longfellow, of Holmes, and of other famous American men of letters are found among the patrons of some of the lectures in Boston. Bell desired to give lectures in New York City, but was not certain that his apparatus would operate at that distance over the lines available. The laboratory was on the third floor of a rooming-house, and Watson shouted so loud in his efforts to make his voice carry that the roomers complained. So he took blankets and erected a sort of tent over the instruments to muffle the sound. When the signal came from Bell that he was ready for the test, Watson crawled into the tent and began his shoutings. The day was a hot one, and by the time that the test had been completed Watson was completely wilted. But the complaints of the roomers had been avoided. For one of the New York demonstrations the services of a negro singer with a rich barytone voice had been secured. Watson had no little difficulty in rehearsing him for the part, as he objected to placing his lips close to the transmitter. When the time for the test arrived he persisted in backing away from the mouthpiece when he sang, and, though Watson endeavored to hold the transmitter closer to him, his efforts were of no avail. Finally Bell told Watson that as the negro could not be heard he would have to sing himself. The girl operator in the laboratory had assembled a number of her girl friends to watch the test, and Watson, who did not consider himself a vocalist, did not fancy the prospect. But there was no one else to sing, the demonstration must proceed, and finally Watson struck up "Yankee Doodle" in a quavering voice.

The negro looked on in disgust. "Is that what you wanted me to do, boss?"

"Yes," replied the embarrassed Watson.

"Well, boss, I couldn't sing like that."

The telegraph wires which were borrowed to demonstrate the utility of the telephone proved far from perfect for the work at hand. Many of the wires were rusted and the insulation was poor. The stations along the line were likely to cut in their relays when the test was in progress, and Bell's instruments were not arranged to overcome this retardation. However, the lectures were a success from the popular viewpoint. The public flocked to them and the fame of the telephone grew. So many cities desired the lecture that it finally became necessary for Bell to employ an assistant to give the lecture for him. Frederick Gower, a Providence newspaper man, was selected for this task, and soon mastered Bell's lecture. It was then possible to give two lectures on the same evening, Bell delivering one, Gower the other, and Watson handling the laboratory end for both.

Gower secured a contract for the exclusive use of the telephone in New England, but failed to demonstrate much ability in establishing the new device on a business basis. How little the possibilities of the telephone were then appreciated we may understand from the fact that Gower exchanged his immensely valuable New England rights for the exclusive right to lecture on the telephone throughout the country.

The success of these lectures made it possible for Bell to marry, and he started for England on a wedding-trip. The lectures also aroused the necessary interest and made it possible to secure capital for the establishment of telephone lines. It also determined Hubbard in his plan of leasing the telephones instead of selling them. This was especially important, as it made possible the uniformity of the efficient Bell system of the present day.



XIV

IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION

The First Telephone Exchange—The Bell Telephone Association—Theodore N. Vail—The Fight with the Western Union—Edison and Blake Invent Transmitters—Last Effort of the Western Union—Mushroom Companies and Would-be Inventors—The Controversy with Gray—Dolbear's Claims—The Drawbaugh Case—On a Firm Footing.

Through public interest had been aroused in the telephone, it was still very far from being at the service of the nation. The telephone increases in usefulness just in proportion to the number of your acquaintances and business associates who have telephones in their homes or offices. Instruments had to be manufactured on a commercial scale, telephone systems had to be built up. While the struggles of the inventor who seeks to apply a new idea are often romantic, the efforts of the business executives who place the invention, once it is achieved, at the service of people everywhere, are not less praiseworthy and interesting.

A very few telephones had been leased to those who desired to establish private lines, but it was not until May of 1877 that the first telephone system was established with an exchange by means of which those having telephones might talk with one another. There was a burglar-alarm system in Boston which had wires running from six banks to a central station. The owner of this suggested that telephones be installed in the banks using the burglar-alarm wires. Hubbard gladly loaned the instruments for the purpose. Instruments were installed in the banks without saying anything to the bankers, or making any charge for the service. One banker demanded that his telephone be removed, insisting that it was a foolish toy. But even with the crude little exchange the first system proved its worth. Others were established in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities on a commercial basis. A man from Michigan appeared and secured the perpetual rights for his State, and for his foresight and enterprise he was later to be rewarded by the sale of these rights for a quarter of a million dollars. The free service to the Boston bankers was withdrawn and a commercial system installed there.

But these exchanges served but a few people, and were poorly equipped. There was, of course, no provision for communication between cities. With the telephone over a year old, less than a thousand instruments were in use. But Hubbard, who was directing the destinies of the enterprise during Bell's absence in Europe, decided that the time had come to organize. Accordingly the Bell Telephone Association was formed, with Bell, Hubbard, Sanders, and Watson as the shareholders. Sanders was the only one of the four with any considerable sum of money, and his resources were limited. He staked his entire credit in the enterprise, and managed to furnish funds with which the fight for existence could be carried on. But a business depression was upon the land and it was not easy to secure support for the telephone.

The entrance of the Western Union Telegraph Company into the telephone field brought the affairs of the Bell company to a crisis. As we have seen, the telegraph company had developed into a great and powerful corporation with wires stretching across the length and breadth of the land and agents and offices established in every city and town of importance. Once the telephone began to be used as a substitute for the telegraph in conveying messages, the telegraph officials awoke to the fact that here, possibly, was a dangerous rival, and dropped the viewpoint that Bell's telephone was a mere plaything. They acquired the inventions of Edison, Gray, and Dolbear, and entered the telephone field, announcing that they were prepared to furnish the very best in telephonic communication. This sudden assault by the most powerful corporation in America, while it served to arouse public confidence in the telephone, made it necessary for Hubbard to reorganize his forces and find a general capable of doing battle against such a foe.

Hubbard's political activities had brought to him a Presidential appointment as head of a commission on mail transportation. In the course of the work for the Government he had come much in contact with a young man named Theodore N. Vail, who was head of the Government mail service. He had been impressed by Vail's ability and had in turn introduced Vail to the telephone and aroused his enthusiasm in its possibilities. This Vail was a cousin of the Alfred Vail who was Morse's co-worker, and who played so prominent a part in the development of the telegraph. His experience in the Post-office Department had given him an understanding of the problems of communication in the United States, and had developed his executive ability. Realizing the possibilities of the telephone, he relinquished his governmental post and cast his fortunes with the telephone pioneers, becoming general manager of the Bell company.

The Western Union strengthened its position by the introduction of a new and improved transmitter. This was the work of Thomas Edison, and was so much better than Bell's transmitter that it enabled the Western Union to offer much better telephonic equipment. As we have seen, Bell's transmitter and receiver were very similar, being about the same as the receiver now in common use. In his transmitter Edison placed tiny bits of carbon in contact with the diaphragm. As the diaphragm vibrated under the sound-impulses the pressure upon the carbon granules was varied. An electric current was passed through the carbon particles, whose electrical resistance was varied by the changing pressure from the diaphragm. Thus the current was thrown into undulations corresponding to the sound-waves, and passed over the line and produced corresponding sounds in the receiver. Much stronger currents could be utilized than those generated by Bell's instrument, and thus the transmitter was much more effective for longer distances.

Bell returned from Europe to find the affairs of his company in a sorry plight. Only the courage and generalship of Vail kept it in the field at all. Bell was penniless, having failed to establish the telephone abroad, even as Morse before him had failed to secure foreign revenue from his invention. Bell's health failed him, and as he lay helpless in the hospital his affairs were indeed at a low ebb. At this juncture Francis Blake, of Boston, came forward with an improved transmitter which he offered to the Bell company in exchange for stock. The instrument proved a success and was gladly adopted, proving just what was needed to make possible successful competition with the Western Union.

Prolonged patent litigation followed, and after a bitter legal struggle the Western Union officials became convinced of two things: one, that the Bell company, under Vail's leadership, would not surrender; second, that Bell was the original inventor of the telephone and that his patent was valid. The Western Union, however, seemed to have strong basis for its claim that the new transmitter of the Bell people was an infringement of Edison's patent. A compromise was arranged between the contestants by which the two companies divided the business of furnishing communication by wire in the United States. This agreement proved of the greatest benefit to both organizations, and did much to make possible the present development and universal service of both the telephone and telegraph. By the terms of the agreement the Western Union recognized Bell's patent and agreed to withdraw from the telephone business. The Bell company agreed not to engage in the telegraph business and to take over the Western Union telephone system and apparatus, paying a royalty on all telephone rentals. Experience has demonstrated that the two businesses are not competitive, but supplement each other. It is therefore proper that they should work side by side with mutual understanding.

Success had come at last to the telephone pioneers. Other battles were still to be fought before their position was to be made secure, but from the moment when the Western Union admitted defeat the Bell company was the leader. The stock of the company advanced to a point where Bell, Hubbard, Sanders, and Watson found themselves in the possession of wealth as a reward for their pioneering.

The Western Union had no sooner withdrawn as a competitor of the Bell organization than scores of small, local companies sprang up, all ready to pirate the Bell patent and push the claims of some rival inventor. A very few of them really tried to establish telephone systems, but the majority were organized simply to sell stock to a gullible public. They stirred up a continuous turmoil, and made much trouble for the larger company, though their patent claims were persistently defeated in the courts.

Most of the rival claimants who sprang up, once the telephone had become an established fact and had proved its value, were men of neither prominence nor scientific attainments. Of a very different type was Elisha Gray, whose work we have before noticed, and who now came forward with the claim that he had invented a telephone in advance of Bell. Gray was a practical man of real scientific attainments, but, as we have noticed, his efforts in search of a telephone were from the viewpoint of a musical telegraph and so destined to failure. It has frequently been stated that Gray filed his application for a patent on a telephone of his invention but a few minutes after Bell, and so Bell wrested the honor from him by the scantiest of margins. A careful reading of the testimony brought out in Gray's suit against Bell does not support such a statement. While Bell filed an application for a patent on a completed, invention, Gray filed, a few moments later, a caveat. This was a document, stating that he hoped to invent a telephone of a certain kind therein stated, and would serve to protect his rights until he should have time to perfect it. Thus Gray did not have a completed invention, and he later failed to perfect a telephone along the lines described in his caveat. The decision of the court supported Bell's claims in full.

Another of the Western Union's telephone experts, Professor Dolbear, of Tufts College, also sought to make capital of his knowledge of the telephone. He based his claims upon an improvement of the Reis musical telegraph, which had formed the starting-point for so many experimenters. The case fell flat, however, for when the apparatus was brought into court no one could make it talk.

None of the attacks upon Bell's claim to be the original inventor of the telephone aroused more popular interest at the time than the famous Drawbaugh case. Daniel Drawbaugh was a country mechanic with a habit of reading of the new inventions in the scientific journals. He would work out models of many of these for himself, and, showing them very proudly, often claim them as his own devices. Drawbaugh was now put forward by the opponents of the Bell organization as having invented a telephone before Bell. It was claimed that he had been too poor to secure a patent or to bring his invention to popular notice. Much sympathy was thus aroused for him and the legal battle was waged to interminable length, with the usual result. Bell's patent was again sustained, and Drawbaugh's claims were pronounced without merit.