THIS KITE ROSE TO A HEIGHT Of HALF A MILE ABOVE GROUND AND WAS STEADY AS A
TAB LIS TOP,-WITH A TREMENDOUS PULU IT IS MAD10 OP TETRAHEDRAXi CELLS, BUT IS
H-81LA.FED. Photo Copyright, 1S03, by Gilbert H. Grosvenor.
(Copyrighted, 1904, by Frank G. Carpenter.),
IASHINGTON, D. C. June .-
w
Special Correspondence to ThS
Bee.) "Call upon me at my housf
1; - I at any time tomorrow night, bee
iTlJ tween 10 and 4 o'clock in tb
moraine and the later the better."
These were the worda of Dr. Alexander!
Graham BelL I had asked him when w
eould beet meet for a good long chat about
the telephone and his recent experiments
In the field of aerial navigation, and this
was the answer. Dr. Bell's favorite work
ng time la at night, and hie mind la at It'
brightest from midnight on. He is then free
from Interruption, and can give up his
soul ' to the scientific experiments and In
ventions which form his life work. He
never goes to bed until after i a. m., his
usual sleeping hours being from 4 until It
The afternoon Is devoted to social and .
business engagements, and the night alone
to reading and work.. , ' ',p ,
These have been the habits of a lifetime
and they are excellent ones If Dr. Bell's
health may be considered a test He It
now 67 years of age and Is In his physical
and Intellectual prime. Tall and well
formed, with a great head fastened by,
strong neck to broad, full shoulders, hf
Is one of the finest looking as well as one
of the most active of the men who are do
lng great things In the world today. The
telephone was first patented In 1870. Since
then he has made many other Important
Inventions, and has done so much for
science that he has been granted the high
est honors by the chief scientific societies
of Europe, Including the Volta prise of 60.
00 francs, given by the French govern
ment to the few whose Inventions are
deemed of the greatest good to humanity.
It takes Imagination to Invent, and Dr.
Bell has this faculty to a remarkable de
gree. His vision, based upon the great
scientific knowledge, Is wider than that of
the ordinary" thinker, and his creative
mind is always searching out and suggest
ing new things. This was evident through
out our conversation, of which I can re
peat only a part.
The talk covered a wide range, now per
sonal, now scientific, and now almost pro
phetic as to the possibilities of the future.
It Jumped from Japan to Nova Scotia and
from Washington. to London; from the use
Of a dead man's ear In telephonlo experi
ments to oratorical and musical exhibi
tions over the telephone and graphophone;
and from electricity to helium and radium
and the navigation of the air.
In our conversation about, electricity X
asked Dr. Bell whether his scientific knowl
edge of that force had not aided him in the
Invention of the telephone.
"Not at all," he replied. "When I ben
my experiments upon the telephone I had
no scientific knowledge of electricity. I
knew practically nothing about It; and had
It been otherwise I could never have made
the discoveries which culminated In my
ucomm. I don't ' believe any electrician
eould have Invented the telephone."
"Why notT- I asked, i-v
"Because the elements which we now.
think essential to. the telephonic, transmls- '
slon of sound are such that the electrician
of that day would not have believed In
their practical application. The Ideas whleh
brought forth the telephone would not have
come to me, and had they done so I would
have at once discarded them as foolish and
Impractical.".
. "But did not electricity have much lo do
.With the first telephone?"
"Not a great deal," was the reply. "We
bad two eloctro-magnets, one at each end
of the wire. These were all that were used
In the first Instruments, and we transmitted
Sound with them almost as well as we do
tiow. The batteries and other electrical
machinery have been the outgrowth of
Other necessities In the practical working
of the Invention rather than n the pure
transmission of tho. human voice. , That
part of the Instrument, which you now
put ' to your. ear. was at first used to
peak Into; and the diaphragm, as it Is,
WIS' made for speaking, not for hearing.
A piece of Iron or steel would do Just as
well for the. purpose for which It la now.
Alexander Graham Bell in 1904
ALEXANDKR GRAHA3A BELL. From a
Recent Photo. ,
used. We had at first two such mouth
pieces, one held at the ear and the other
' to speak Into. While listening the re
ceiver often puts one of these at each ear
to better the' transmission. The batteries
were necessitated for calling the . sub
scribers. We had to have call bells, which
were originally rung with a crank, as Is
done In some of the old 'phones today.
These bells necessitated an electric bat
tery for every Instrument, and " other
things have added electrical . machinery
which was entirely unknown at the-start."
"Cannot you give me the autobiography
' of the telephone, Dr. Bell?" I asked.
"I will give you some of It at least," was
the reply. "The Invention was born, I may
say, in my long study of sound In connec
tion with the human voice. I might per
haps say that Its birthplace dated still
farther back. My father's life was devoted
to the study of vocal sounds. He was an
authority on voice culture, and also the In
ventor of visible speech, an alphabet In
which the actions of the organs of the
mouth in producing speech are symbol
ised. By this Invention the sounds of any
language may be expressed, and by it a
large number of deaf people are taught to
speak. Even back of that, my grandfather
was a student of sound. He was an orator
well versed In elocution and voice culture,
so that If there Is anything In hereditary
the germ of the telephone may have come
from , my grandfather."
"Eleaae carry the autobiography , down
Into your own life," said I.
"As I think of It (n. that way, I can mark
several Interesting stages which now seem
to point to the telephone," said Dr. Bell.
"I have told you, in the past, how father
once offered myself and my brothers prises
If we could Invent any kind of a machine
that would talk. This was after he had
taken us to see a speaking automaton. I
did Invent a mouthpiece of rubber and
other material that would say mamma and
cry like a baby. Another stage might be
marked by my ambition to be a singer and
a musical composer. I had a good Voice,
and. Just before reaching manhood. I was
devoting myself to Its training with that
life work In view. This led me to the
further study of the voice and the trans
mission of sound. That ambition was given
up on account of my health, airt for the
same reason father brought me to Canada,
where we purchased a farm. This migra
tion now seems almost providential In the
life of the invention, for I am sure had I
remained In England I never should have
made It The Intellectual atmosphere of
Qraat Britain U too oold and coasarvaUvs
to Incite great discoveries, whereas that
of this country Is stimulating and friendly
to all new things. Our patent system Is
also- far more encouraging."
"Well, to continue my story," Dr. Bell
Went on, "I found the Canada farm Just
What I needed. The change and the out-of-door
life soon made a new man of me,
and father, in the meantime, having again
taken up his studies of the teaching of the
deaf, I became interested in that and was
made professor of vocal physiology In tho
Boston university.
"All this work, you ' see, was a'.ong the
line of sound and sound transmission. Then
another stage appeared which connected my
Vocal studies with the machinery of the
telephoned 1 became interested In multi
plex telegraphy, and tried to make an 'in
vention by which several messages could be
simultaneously sent on one wire by using
the musical scale with signals of different
'pitch. We employed a series of reeds as.
1 sounding Instruments In these experiments,
connecting them by means of a wire. .Ono
day one of the reeds accidentally struck the
i diaphragm at one end of the wire, and Its
vibration was seen on the diaphragm at
the other enL If that sound could be
transmitted, why not other sounds? The
i though -was one of the . suggestion which
I resulted in the telephone.' Later I had the
wire conducted from one of the top rooms
j of the house, to the electrical workshop In
the basement, and speaking Into the dia
phragm was heard by Mr. Watson, my as
sistant, below. I tried to get him to reply,
but could not hear him. He came In a lit
tle later, much excited, and I asked him
why he did not answer. He said he had
tried to. I then went down and took his
place, but I could not distinguish his words.
I can only explain this by the fact that
my trained voice was more easily heard
than his untrained one, snd that his hear
ing, sharpened by the necessities of a noisy
workshop, was better than mine. This
experiment, however, showed me that the
telephone could be made a succeas, and I
at once applied for niy patents." .
"How did your friends, view the Inven
tion?" . .. i ; ;
"The most of them laughed at It," said
Dr. Bell. "They considered it a toy at best
and, even, after It was proved a success
In the transmission of sound, some told
me I was foolish to devote myself to a
thing that could never be of practical value,
while I had a chance of making a fortune
If I kept at my work in multiplex teleg
raphy." "Did you have much trouble in protect
ing your Invention?"
"Yes," replied Dr. Bell. "As soon as Its
practical advantages were understood,
claims to a prior Invention of the same
thing sprang up on all sides. Half a dosen
electricians- came forth, each announcing
himself as the original Inventor, and claims
and Interferences were filed against my
patent. One newspaper report alleged that
I had paid an examiner of the patent of
fice $100 to Illegally secure my .patent, hav
ing stolen the idea from prior claims, and
a mark was made on the hall floor of the
Interior department, where It was said tho
clerk stood when he made the alleged bar
gain with me. The story seems all the
more ridiculous now when I remember how
scarce flOO bills ware with me In those
day a"
"How could you reply to such attacks V
I asked.
"That was one of the worst features of
the trouble," said Dr. Bell. "I was Instruc
ted by my lawyers not to say anything
about my invention, to bear all such attacks
without comment, and to let the battle of
Its originality be fought out In the courts.
The result Is that I have never told the
story of the telephone and its Invention.
The last time I made any publlo utterance
on the subject was In a lecture I delivered
In London In 1877, now more than twenty
six years ago."
"But will you not write It seme day?" I
asked.
"Possibly I shall,'' said Dr. Bell, "but
not until my life reaches tts reminiscent
Stage. I am now so much occupied with
the present and the posttlbiUUea of the fu
i ... - . 1
1 !J
THIS KITE FLIES WITH A CARRYING POWER OP 60fS
POUNDS. IT COULD EASILY CARRY AN- ENGINE
AND A MAN. IT FLEW 8TBADILY AT A GREAT
HEIGHT, ALTHOUGH THE RAIN WAS POURING.
Photo Copyright, IMS, by Gilbert-H. Grosvenor.
ture that the past seems far behind ma"
"Has the telephone reached Its perfoo
tlon?" i
"By no means," was the' reply. "It Is
still In its Infancy as. an Instrument for the
transmission of sound and in the extent of
Its use. Its business and mechanical ar
rangements are" still clumsy and unwleldly.
The telephone Industry is one of the few
which cost more to handle at wholesale
than at retail. What I mean Is that It now
costs enormously more in proportion to run
a large telephone business than a small
one. ' Suppose you are one of 100 families
connected with a telephone exchange. Yoa
and each of the rest will each have ninety
nine -other families to talk with, and it will
require a certain number of operators to
conduct your conversations.' Now, suppose
the patrons of the exchange be doubled.
Each family will now have, instead of
ninety-nine families, 199 to talk to, and the
possible number of conversations of every,
one In the exchange has been multiplied,
not by two, but by 100; for every one has
100 families more to talk to, This requires
a ' proportionate number of new op
erators, and makes the big business very;
expensive, necessitating the finest ma
chinery at the exchanges. A single switch
board for Instance In the central office of
New York costs 176,000. ;
"In the Improvement of the telephone,"
continued Dr. Bell, "in the telephone of tho
future I look for all this business to bo
done automatically. Instead of a single
wire there will be a little cable of wires
connecting each house with the central ex
change, and it will be ' possible for tea
wires to do the work that-a thousand do
now. There may be a system by which the
subscriber can move certain buttpns and
call up whom he pleases. . The calls will bo
automatic, causing the Idle wires among
those In the cable to automatically come
Into use, and when the conversation is over
the disconnection will be automatically
made." If this can be accomplished It will
do away with the vast army of telephone
operators, and so reduce the expenses that
the poorest man cannot afford to be with
out his telephone."
.."Will sound transmission be also Im
proved r
"Yes; we now have the wire loaded with
several unnecessary processes or attach
ments. These will be gradually eliminated
and each wire will have but one work to
do and it will do its work better."
"How about telephoning without wires?"
"I - think that will come some day," re
plied Dr. Bell. "Indeed, I have done such
telephoning. Through my Invention of tho
photophone I have also been able to send
sounds upon rays of light The sound
carrying medium Is of the same nature as
the electrical medium, and it may be that
we shall some day send sounds through
the air with the rapidity of light trans
mission. You know what la being done la
wireless telegraphy. . Some day we may
have wireless telephony as well."
"Then you evidently think we have mot
come to the end of the Inventive age?"
"No. Indeed, It Is difficult to say how
near we are to Its beginning. We are dis
covering new forces and new principles
every day. We did much In the nineteenth
century, but here, at the dawn of the
twentieth, we have an entirely new field
opened up by the discovery of radium, and
that discovery the work of a woman. We
nave several new foroes-eo new that we
do not yet know what they are nor how
they may change the life and work of the
world. We have radium, helium, thorium
and other wonderful things. By liquid air
we have frosen some of these rays Into 4
liquid, and have, as it were, bottled up tho
rays of the sun and also of these powerful,
and, until now, altogether unknown forces.
Indeed, we are daily more and more sur
prised at how little we know, and we can.
not but think that the greatest treasures
of nature are yet to be discovered."
"How about the air and Its navigation
Dr. Bell?"
"That Is one of the most Interesting field
(Continued on Page BUteenJt