But matters soon began to straighten out—the clouds gradually cleared
away. The Western Union tornado ceased to rage, and David found to his
delight that he had hit Goliath squarely in the forehead with a rock
labelled Patent No. 174465. Then for the first time stock in the Bell
Company began to be worth something on the stock market.
[Illustration: _Wooden Hand Telephone Used Commercially in 1877. It
Resembles the Present Desk Telephone Receiver_]
Something else happened about that time fully as important. The Company
awoke to the fact that the Watson generator was overloaded, and that it
ought to get a new dynamo. Watson could still hold up the engineering
end perhaps, but we must have a business manager. President Hubbard said
he knew just the man for us—a thousand horsepower steam engine wasting
his abilities in the United States Railway Mail Service, and he sent me
down to Washington to investigate and report.
I must have been impressed, for I telegraphed to Mr. Hubbard to hire the
man if he could raise money enough to pay his salary. He did so. This
was one of the best things I ever helped to do. When the new manager
came to work a short time later, he said to me: “Watson, I want my desk
alongside of yours for a few months until I learn the ropes.” But the
balance of the conceit that previous two years had not knocked out of me
vanished, when in about a fortnight, I found he knew all I had learned,
and that at the end of a month I was toddling along in the rear trying
to catch up, which I never did. He has still quite an important position
in the business. His name is Theodore N. Vail. May his light never dim
for many and many a year!
(_Editor’s Note: Mr. Vail died Apr. 16, 1920._)