THE TELEPHONE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1761, 28 May 1913, Page 8

THE TELEPHONE.

AN UNRECOGNISED INVENTOR.

It appears from tho French press that tho inventor of tho telephone has just died, Prof. A. Graham Bell was alive and well at last accounts, but his claims arc not recognised by the French writers. Charles Bourseul, who passed away at iSuint-Cere, France, in iN'ovember last, aged 82 years, is tho real holder of tho title, they say. For the last ten years of his life, we arc told by Francis Marro in "Lo Correspondant" (Paris), he received fiom the French Government a..yearly pension of ,€l2O, in recognition of his services to scicnee, which sum enabled him to "cultivate his garden" in peace and quiet. Says Mr. Jlarrc:

"While Graham Bell did not take out his celebrated patent until 1876, BoUrsayl, then employed at tho telegraph office of tho Bourse, at Paris, wrote on August 20, 1851, in "1/lllustration," the following lines:

" 'Sounds are formed by vibrations and brought to the car by these samo vibrations, reproduced in intermediate media, But the intensity of these vibrations diminishes rapidly with tho distance; so that there nro limits, even with speaking tubes or trumpets 1 , that may not bo exceeded. Suppose that wo speak near a plate so flexible that it preserves all tho vibrations of tho voice, and that this ploto successively makes and breaks communication with a battery. At a distance, havo another plate which will execute'tha same vibrations at the samo time. . . .'

"This is exactly tho principle' of tho modern telephone. Bourseul added: '"I havo begun experiments; they aro quite delicate and require thno and patience; but the approximations already obtained give very favourablo results.' "These experiments were doubtless frowned upon by tho Administration, for it requested Bourseul to give thein up and occupy himself moro seriously. Ho obeyed and became a model omployoe, retiring with the title of inspector and tho red ribbon awarded for long and faithful service. It is tho eternal and dolorous story of Frenchmen of genius, of whoso discoveries wo arc reminded when foreigners aro enriched by them—the story of Lebon, of Papin, of a hundred others. In 18G0, Daniel Drawbaugh, of Pennsylvania, invented tho device that brought ioy to our childhood—two receivers closed at one end by a mcmbrnno and joined br a thread. In ISfil Reiss, of Frcderiksdorf, no|r Hamburg, made a telephone that transmitted sound by means of electricity. On February 14, IS7G, almost at tho eaiuo hour, two men who did not know each other, Graham Bell aud Elisha Gray, asked for patents at the American Patent Office. In IS9O, Jules Roche, Minister for Public Works, proclaimed nt the International Telegraphic Congress tho titles ot' Charles Bourseul, the real inventor of tho modern telephone, and named as officer of tho Legion of Honour the man who has just died poor.