DR. GRAHAM BELL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 908, 30 August 1910, Page 6

DR. GRAHAM BELL.

INVENTOR OF THE TELEPHONE. ARRIVAL AT THE BLUFF. (By TelefroDli.-Prcss Association.) Invercargill, August 29. Dr. Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, arrived at the Bluff this afternoon by the Aloana, and spent an evening at liiTcrcargill. He is accompanied by Mrs. Bell, and Mr. and Mrs.. l'\ 11. Baldwin, Mr. Baldwin having achieved fame, in aerial circles in America. The party are making the tour of Australia and New Zealand* They go on to-morrow to Queenstown, and thence to Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Rotorua, and Auckland, leaving Wellington agaiu in time to catch the boat sailing from Sydney on October 5 for the Philippines. In an, interview to-night, Dr. Bell explained that the trip is purely a pleasure one, but, in Australia and Tasmania, he had recognised as the penalty of being the.'inventor of tho telephone that it was only right and proper for him to givo advice when asked for it. Ho had therefore, when in Melbourne, given evidence on the telephone system before the Postal Commission. Possibly before leaving New Zealand he would have an opportunity of inspecting tho system in tho Dominion, but time did not permit him to visit the Invercargill exchange. He had been somewhat disappointed in the system in Australia',. but had nothing but praise for that in Tasmania. Ho also stated that Captain Scott, in the Polar expedition, intended to try tho use of the telephone in those regions. Ho proposes to lay along the ice, so as to keep the various sledge parties, in communication with their base.of supplies. That appealed to him, not only in regard to his connection with tho telephone, but owing to the memories which it brought back of the ill-fated Jeanette expedition, under the leadership of his friend, Lieutenant De Long. The lieutenant had pressed him very hard to go with him, but, being married, ho declined. It was the lieutenant's idea to use the telephone in the same manner as proposed by Captain Scutt, anil hu (Dr. Bull) presented him with a complete telephonic outfit, but. tho lieutenant never had a chance of trying it, as the Jeonette went down, crushed by the ice, and only one boat managed to get; away, that one. being under -the command of Engineer (now Admiral) Melville. Lieutenant De Long's opinion was that a good deal of the failures, of expeditions, was due to the men losing courage as they got further afield, but, with telephones, which they would always be ablo to use, they would • not get the deserted feeling. With only ice and snow'around them, Dr. Scott's' sledgo parties would still be able to talk to their comrades, and tho telephone would thus'bevput to a use beyond the dreams of the days gone by. On the question of wireless telephones, Dr. Bell remarked that they were moving in America and, so far, they were able to operate at a distance of 14 miles, although tho system wus only in its experimental stage. Thirty-six years ago tho telephone was unknown. Ho invented it in 187-1, made the first instrument in 1875, which was exhibited in 1876, and the first company was. formed in 1877. : Dr. Bell also remarked that he' was exceedingly..interested in' aerial locomotion, and Mr. Baldwin was the-first man to fly in America. During'.his stay in New Zealand ho intended to make a point of studying the social legislation of the Dominion, which he had been told "sot a pattern to the world," and ho desired.to learn whether that reputation was borne out by facts. ' . 'PHONE." ;"J ROMANCE OF SCIENCE. ' , It was just thirty-five years ago, in June, 1875, that a certain young ScottishAmerican professor . of elocution, after three years of experimental toil, heard an almost inaudible sound—just a taint twang—come from a queer-looking machine of his own construction. He had boen expecting this for months,, but it came at last so suddenly thai 'he was nearly stunned with surprise. That little machine was the new-born telephone, and the professor-inventor was Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. ' Ho was already celebrated as a successful teacher of at, Boston University, and it was largely, owing, to two of 'his pupils that he became a great inventor. The story is told (nioro fully than is possible heru) in h brilliiint ui. tide in "The World's Work", for March, by Mr. Herbert N. Casson. Ono of' these pupils was a little deafmuto tot, live years of age, named Georgio Sanders. Bell, who had agreed to give him a series of .private lessons for seventy pounds a year, went to live with his parents in Salem, and was given permission lo uso tbo cellar ot the houso us his workshop. The second pupil who became a factor —a very considerable factor;—in Bell's career was a fifteen-year-old girl tamed Mabel Hiibbard, who had lost her hearing, and consequently her speech, through an attack of scarlet-fever when a baby. She was a gentle and 'lovable girl, and Bell, in his ardent and headlong way, lost, his heart v to. her completely; and four years. jater he had the happiness of making her his wife. ' . ■ Then, in the early summer of' 187.4, while he was puzzling over this harp apparatus, the dim outline of a new path suddenly glinted in front of him. He had not been forgetful, of '"Visible Speech" all this while, but had been making experiments with two remarkable machines —the phonaulugraph and the nianometric capsule; by moans of which the yibm tions of sound were mado plainly visible. If these could be improved, he.thought, then 'the deaf might be taught.to speak by. "sight"—by learning an alphabet of vibrations. lie mentioned these experiments to a Boston friend—Dr. Clarence J. Blake; and he, being a surgeon and an aurist, naturally said: "Why don't you use a real car?" Such au idea never had,,and probably never could, h'nve occurred to Bull;, but. he accepted it with eagerness. Dr. Blake cut an ear from a dead man's head, together with the car-drum and the associated ,bones. Bell ■ took this fragment of tho skull and arranged it so that a straw touched the ear-drum at one end and ■ a.• piece. of moving smoked-glass -at the other. Thus, when Bell spoke loudly into the ear; the vibrations of the drum mado tiny markings on the glass. , / Later, young Bell'sccured the co-opera-tion of the famous Professor Joseph Henry, then 78 years of age, and the two worked- together over Bell's apparatus, just as Ilenry had worked over the telegraph, before 801 l was born. • "You" are in possession of. a germ of a greiit invention," said Henry, ''and .1 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." , "'■''•■ "Gef it," responded the aged scientist. From this moment, Bell was a man of ono purpose. lie forgot, his musical telegraph, his "Visible Speech," his classes, his poverty. He threw aside a profession in ■» iiich ha was already locally famous. i THe telephone was now in existence, but it', was the youngest and feeblest thing in the nation. It had not yet spoken : a-word, it had to ba taught, developed,, and made iit for the service of the irritable business world. All manner of discs had to be tried, some smaller and thinner-than a djm'e, and others of steel boiler-plate, as heavy as the shield ol Achilles. And. at last came the date when the tiny twang seni 801 l rushing excitedly to Watson's room. But after that for forty weeks—long, exasperating weeks— the telephone could do no more than gasp and make strange, inarticulate noises. Its educators had riot learned how •to manago it. Then, on March 10, 1876, "it talked." It said distinctly—"Mr. Watson, come here, I wont you." -Watson, who was at the lower end of the.wire, in , the basement, dropped the receiver and rushed with wild joy up three flights of stairs to tell the glad tidings to 8011. "I can hear you!" ho shouted, breathlessly, "I can hoar the words." Oil his twenty-ninth birthday, Bell received his patent, No. most valuable single patent ever issued" in any -country. • ' '