THE STORY OF THE FIRST TELEPHONE
"I am going down to Freeman's Falls this afternoon to get some rubber
tape," Ted remarked to Laurie, as the two boys and the tutor were
eating a picnic lunch in Ted's cabin one Saturday.
"Oh, make somebody else do your errand and stay here," Laurie begged.
"Anybody can buy that stuff. Some of the men must be going to the
Falls. Ask Wharton to make them do your shopping."
"Perhaps Ted had other things to attend to," ventured Mr. Hazen.
"No, I hadn't," was the prompt reply.
"In that case I am sure any of the men would be glad to get whatever
you please," the tutor declared.
"Save your energy, old man," put in Laurie. "Electrical supplies are
easy enough to buy when you know what you want."
"They are now," Mr. Hazen remarked, with a quiet smile, "but they have
not always been. In fact, it was not so very long ago that it was
almost impossible to purchase either books on electricity or electrical
stuff of any sort. People's knowledge of such matters was so scanty
that little was written about them; and as for shops of this type--why,
they were practically unknown."
"Where did persons get what they wanted?" asked Ted with surprise.
"Nobody wanted electrical materials," laughed Mr. Hazen. "There was no
call for them. Even had the shops supplied them, nobody would have
known what to do with them."
"But there must have been some who would," the boy persisted. "Where,
for example, did Mr. Bell get his things?"
"Practically all Mr. Bell's work was done at a little shop on Court
Street, Boston," answered Mr. Hazen. "This shop, however, was nothing
like the electrical supply shops we have now. Had Alexander Graham Bell
entered its doors and asked, for instance, for a telephone transmitter,
he would have found no such thing in stock. On the contrary, the shop
consisted of a number of benches where men or boys experimented or made
crude electrical contrivances that had previously been ordered by
customers. The shop was owned by Charles Williams, a clever mechanical
man, who was deeply interested in electrical problems of all sorts. In
a tiny showcase in the front part of the store were displayed what few
textbooks on electricity he had been able to gather together and these
he allowed the men in his employ to read at lunch time and to use
freely in connection with their work. He was a person greatly beloved
by those associated with him and he had the rare wisdom to leave every
man he employed unhampered, thereby making individual initiative the
law of his business."
The tutor paused, then noticing that both the boys were listening
intently, he continued:
"If a man had an idea that had been carefully thought out, he was given
free rein to execute it. Tom Watson, one of the boys at the shop,
constructed a miniature electric engine, and although the feat took
both time and material, there was no quarrel because of that. The place
was literally a workshop, and so long as there were no drones in it and
the men toiled intelligently, Mr. Williams had no fault to find. You
can imagine what valuable training such a practical environment
furnished. Nobody nagged at the men, nobody drove them on. Each of the
thirty or forty employees pegged away at his particular task, either
doing work for a specific customer or trying to perfect some notion of
his own. If you were a person of ideas, it was an ideal conservatory in
which to foster them."
"Gee! I'd have liked the chance to work in a place like that!" Ted
sighed.
"It would not have been a bad starter, I assure you," agreed Mr. Hazen.
"At that time there were, as I told you, few such shops in the country;
and this one, simple and crude as it was, was one of the largest. There
was another in Chicago which was bigger and perhaps more perfectly
organized; but Williams's shop was about as good as any and certainly
gave its men an excellent all-round education in electrical matters.
Many of them went out later and became leaders in the rapidly growing
world of science and these few historic little shops thus became the
ancestors of our vast electrical plants."
"It seems funny to think it all started from such small beginnings,
doesn't it," mused Laurie thoughtfully.
"It certainly is interesting," Mr. Hazen replied. "And if it interests
us in this far-away time, think what it must have meant to the pioneers
to witness the marvels half a century brought forth and look back over
the trail they had blazed. For it was a golden era of discovery, that
period when the new-born power of electricity made its appearance; and
because Williams's shop was known to be a nursery for ideas, into it
flocked every variety of dreamer. There were those who dreamed
epoch-making dreams and eventually made them come true; and there were
those who merely saw visions too impractical ever to become realities.
To work amid this mecca of minds must have been not only an education
in science but in human nature as well. Every sort of crank who had
gathered a wild notion out of the blue meandered into Williams's shop
in the hope that somebody could be found there who would provide either
the money or the labor to further his particular scheme.
"Now in this shop," went on Mr. Hazen, "there was, as I told you, a
young neophyte by the name of Thomas Watson. Tom had not found his
niche in life. He had tried being a clerk, a bookkeeper, and a
carpenter and none of these several occupations had seemed to fit him.
Then one fortunate day he happened in at Williams's shop and
immediately he knew this was the place where he belonged. He was a boy
of mechanical tastes who had a real genius for tools and machinery. He
was given a chance to turn castings by hand at five dollars a week and
he took the job eagerly."
"Think how a boy would howl at working for that now," Laurie exclaimed.
"No doubt there were boys who would have howled then," answered Mr.
Hazen, "although in those days young fellows expected to work hard and
receive little pay until they had learned their trade. Perhaps the
youthful Mr. Watson had the common sense to cherish this creed; at any
rate, there was not a lazy bone in his body, and as there were no such
things to be had as automatic screw machines, he went vigorously to
work making the castings by hand, trying as he did so not to blind his
eyes with the flying splinters of metal."
"Then what happened?" demanded Laurie.
"Well, Watson stuck at his job and in the meantime gleaned right and
left such scraps of practical knowledge as a boy would pick up in such
a place. By the end of his second year he had had his finger in many
pies and had worked on about every sort of electrical contrivance then
known: call bells, annunciators, galvanometers; telegraph keys,
sounders, relays, registers, and printing telegraph instruments. Think
what a rich experience his two years of apprenticeship had given him!"
"You bet!" ejaculated Ted appreciatively.
"Now as Tom Watson was not only clever but was willing to take infinite
pains with whatever he set his hand to, never stinting nor measuring
his time or strength, he became a great favorite with those who came to
the shop to have different kinds of experimental apparatus made. Many
of the ideas brought to him to be worked out came from visionaries who
had succeeded in capturing the financial backing of an unwary believer
and convinced themselves and him that here was an idea that was to stir
the universe. But too many of these schemes, alas, proved worthless and
as their common fate was the rubbish heap, it is strange that the
indefatigable Thomas Watson did not have his faith in pioneer work
entirely destroyed. But youth is buoyed up by perpetual hope; and
paradoxical as it may seem, his enthusiasm never lagged. Each time he
felt, with the inventor, that they might be standing on the brink of
gigantic unfoldings and he toiled with energy to bring something
practical out of the chaos. And when at length it became evident beyond
all question that the idea was never to unfold into anything practical,
he would, with the same zealous spirit, attack another seer's problem."
"Didn't he ever meet any successful inventors?" questioned Ted.
"Yes, indeed," the tutor answered. "Scattered among the cranks and
castle builders were several brilliant, solid-headed men. There was
Moses G. Farmer, for example, one of the foremost electricians of that
time, who had many an excellent and workable idea and who taught young
Watson no end of valuable lessons. Then one day into the workshop came
Alexander Graham Bell. In his hand he carried a mechanical contrivance
Watson had previously made for him and on espying Tom in the distance
he made a direct line for the workman's bench. After explaining that
the device did not do the thing he was desirous it should, he told
Watson that it was the receiver and transmitter of his Harmonic
Telegraph."
"And that was the beginning of Mr. Watson's work with Mr. Bell?" asked
Ted breathlessly.
"Yes, that was the real beginning."
"Think of working with a man like that!" the boy cried with sparkling
eyes. "It must have been tremendously interesting."
"It was interesting," responded Mr. Hazen, "but nevertheless much of
the time it must have been inexpressibly tedious work. A young man less
patient and persistent than Watson would probably have tired of the
task. Just why he did not lose his courage through the six years of
struggle that followed I do not understand. For how was he to know but
that this idea would eventually prove as hopeless and unprofitable as
had so many others to which he had devoted his energy? Beyond Mr.
Bell's own magnetic personality there was only slender foundation for
his faith for in spite of the efforts of both men the harmonic
telegraph failed to take form. Instead, like a tantalizing sprite, it
danced before them, always beckoning, never materializing. In theory it
was perfectly consistent but in practise it could not be coaxed into
behaving as it logically should. Had it but been possible for those
working on it to realize that beyond their temporary failure lay a
success glorious past all belief, think what the knowledge would have
meant. But to always be following the gleam and never overtaking it,
ah, that might well have discouraged prophets of stouter heart!"
"Were these transmitters and receivers made from electromagnets and
strips of flat steel, as you told us the other day?" asked Ted.
"Yes, their essential parts comprised just those elements--an
electromagnet and a scrap of flattened clock spring which, as I have
explained, was clamped by one end to the pole of the magnet and left
free at the other to vibrate over the opposite pole. In addition the
transmitter had make-and-break points such as an ordinary telephone
bell has, and when these came in contact with the current, the springs
inside continually gave out a sort of wail keyed to correspond with the
pitch of the spring. As Mr. Bell had six of these instruments tuned to
as many different pitches--and six receivers to answer them--you may
picture to yourself the hideousness of the sounds amid which the
experimenters labored."
"I suppose when each transmitter sent out its particular whine its own
similarly tuned receiver spring would wriggle in response," Laurie
said.
"Exactly so."
"There must have been lovely music when all six of them began to sing!"
laughed Ted.
"Mr. Watson wrote once that it was as if all the miseries of the world
were concentrated in that workroom, and I can imagine it being true,"
answered the tutor. "Well, young Watson certainly did all he could to
make the harmonic telegraph a reality. He made the receivers and
transmitters exactly as Mr. Bell requested; but on testing them out,
great was the surprise of the inventor to find that his idea, so
feasible in theory, refused to work. Nevertheless, his faith was not
shaken. He insisted on trying to discover the flaw in his logic and
correct it, and as Watson had now completed some work that he had been
doing for Moses Farmer, the two began a series of experiments that
lasted all winter."
"Jove!" ejaculated Laurie.
"Marvels of science are not born in a moment," answered Mr. Hazen. "Yet
I do not wonder that you gasp, for think of what it must have meant to
toil for weeks and months at those wailing instruments! It is a miracle
the men did not go mad. They were not always able to work together for
Mr. Bell had his living to earn and therefore was compelled to devote a
good measure of his time to his college classes and his deaf pupils. In
consequence, he did a portion of his experimental work at Salem while
Watson carried on his at the shop, fitting it in with other odd jobs
that came his way. Frequently Mr. Bell remained in Boston in the
evening and the two worked at the Williams's shop until late into the
night."
"Wasn't it lucky there were no labor unions in those days?" put in Ted
mischievously.
"Indeed it was!" responded Mr. Hazen. "The shop would then have been
barred and bolted at five o'clock, I suppose, and Alexander Graham Bell
might have had a million bright ideas for all the good they would have
done him. But at that golden period of our history, if an ambitious
fellow like Watson wished to put in extra hours of work, the more
slothful ones had no authority to stand over him with a club and say he
shouldn't. Therefore the young apprentice toiled on with Mr. Bell,
unmolested; and Charles Williams, the proprietor of the shop, was
perfectly willing he should. One evening, when the two were alone, Mr.
Bell remarked, 'If I could make a current of electricity vary in
intensity precisely as the air varies in density during the production
of sound, I should be able to transmit speech telegraphically.' This
was his first allusion to the telephone but that the idea of such an
instrument had been for some time in his mind was evident by the fact
that he sketched in for Watson the kind of apparatus he thought
necessary for such a device and they speculated concerning its
construction. The project never went any farther, however, because Mr.
Thomas Saunders and Mr. Gardiner Hubbard, who were financing Mr. Bell's
experiments, felt the chances of this contrivance working
satisfactorily were too uncertain. Already much time and money had been
spent on the harmonic telegraph and they argued this scheme should be
completed before a new venture was tried."
"I suppose that point of view was quite justifiable," mused Ted. "But
wasn't it a pity?"
"Yes, it was," agreed Mr. Hazen. "Yet here again we realize how man
moves inch by inch, never knowing what is just around the turn of the
road. He can only go it blindly and do the best he knows at the time.
Naturally neither Mr. Hubbard nor Mr. Saunders wanted to swamp any more
money until they had received results for what they had spent already;
and those results, alas, were not forthcoming. Over and over again poor
Watson blamed himself lest some imperceptible defect in his part of the
work was responsible for Mr. Bell's lack of success. The spring of 1875
came and still no light glimmered on the horizon. The harmonic
telegraph seemed as far away from completion as ever. Patiently the men
plodded on. Then on a June day, a day that began even less auspiciously
than had other days, the heavens suddenly opened and Alexander Graham
Bell had his vision!"
"What was it?"
"Tell us about it!" cried both boys in a breath.
"It was a warm, close afternoon in the loft over the Williams's shop
and the transmitters and receivers were whining there more dolefully
than usual. Several of them, sensitive to the weather, were out of
tune, and as Mr. Bell had trained his ear to sounds until it was
abnormally acute, he was tuning the springs of the receivers to the
pitch of the transmitters, a service he always preferred to perform
himself. To do this he placed the receiver against his ear and called
to Watson, who was in the adjoining room, to start the current through
the electromagnet of the corresponding transmitter. When this was done,
Mr. Bell was able to turn a screw and adjust the instrument to the
pitch desired. Watson admits in a book he has himself written that he
was out of spirits that day and feeling irritable and impatient. The
whiners had got on his nerves, I fancy. One of the springs that he was
trying to start appeared to stick and in order to force it to vibrate
he gave it a quick snap with his finger. Still it would not go and he
snapped it sharply several times. Immediately there was a cry from Mr.
Bell who rushed into the hall, exclaiming, 'What did you do then? Don't
change anything. Let me see.'
"Watson was alarmed. Had he knocked out the entire circuit or what had
he done in his fit of temper? Well, there was no escape from confession
now; no pretending he had not vented his nervousness on the mechanism
before him. With honesty he told the truth and even illustrated his
hasty action. The thing was simple enough. In some way the
make-and-break points of the transmitter spring had become welded
together so that even when Watson snapped the instrument the circuit
had remained unbroken, while by means of the piece of magnetized steel
vibrating over the pole of the magnet an electric current was
generated, the type of current that did exactly what Mr. Bell had
dreamed of a current doing--a current of electricity that varied in
intensity precisely as the air within the radius of that particular
spring was varying in density. And not only did that undulatory current
pass through the wire to the receiver Mr. Bell was holding, but as good
luck would have it the mechanism was such that it transformed that
current back into a faint but unmistakable echo of the sound issuing
from the vibrating spring that generated it. But a fact more fortunate
than all this was that the one man to whom the incident carried
significance had the instrument at his ear at that particular moment.
That was pure chance--a Heaven-sent, miraculous coincidence! But that
Mr. Bell recognized the value and importance of that whispered echo
that reached him over the wire and knew, when he heard it, that it was
the embodiment of the idea that had been haunting him--that was not
chance; it was genius!"
The room had been tensely still and now both boys drew a sigh of
relief.
"How strange!" murmured Ted in an awed tone.
"Yes, it was like magic, was it not?" replied the tutor. "For the
speaking telephone was born at that moment. Whatever practical work was
necessary to make the invention perfect (and there were many, many
details to be solved) was done afterward. But on June 2, 1875, the
telephone as Bell had dreamed it came into the world. That single
demonstration on that hot morning in Williams's shop proved myriad
facts to the inventor. One was that if a mechanism could transmit the
many complex vibrations of one sound it could do the same for any
sound, even human speech. He saw now that the intricate paraphernalia
he had supposed necessary to achieve his long-imagined result was not
to be needed, for did not the simple contrivance in his hand do the
trick? The two men in the stuffy little loft could scarcely contain
their delight. For hours they went on repeating the experiment in order
to make sure they were really awake. They verified their discovery
beyond all shadow of doubt. One spring and then another was tried and
always the same great law acted with invariable precision. Heat,
fatigue, even the dingy garret itself was forgotten in the flight of
those busy, exultant hours. Before they separated that night, Alexander
Graham Bell had given to Thomas Watson directions for making the first
electric speaking telephone in the world!"