DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SERVICE 433 



The line extended from one part of the building to another, and the trans- 

 mitting and receiving ends were sufficiently far apart to prevent the possibility 

 of the speaker's voice being directly heard at the receiving end through the air. 



Only the membrane magneto transmitter and the iron box receiver, 



were used. In recounting the enthusiasm that was aroused, Professor 



Barker said: 



I was greatly astonished and delighted to hear for the first time the trans- 

 mission of articulate speech electrically. The mode of operation of the instru- 

 ment was obvious at once, as soon as it was exhibited: it was one of those 

 marvelously simple inventions that causes one to wonder, on seeing it for the 

 first time, that it had not been invented long before. 



At the close of the inspection Sir William Thomson expressed his 

 regret that his wife had not been present to participate in such a 

 marvelous experiment as the electrical transmission of speech, and 

 asked Graham Bell if similar experiments could be enjoyed the follow- 

 ing evening. Graham Bell replied that the apparatus was at the dis- 

 posal of the judges and that they might experiment to their heart's 

 content; but that he must be in Boston Monday morning in order to 

 take care of the class examinations. To him, his school was of far 

 more importance at that moment than ' the scientific toy ' he had been 

 chaffed about for many months. He left for Boston that evening and 

 never returned to the Centennial. 



That same evening the eminent English scientist, T. Sterry Hunt, 

 wrote to Graham Bell : 



I am informed that you leave to-night for Boston, so I take this way of 

 congratulating you on your success to-day. I returned to my hotel with Sir 

 William Thomson, and dined with him. He speaks with much enthusiasm of 

 your achievement. What yesterday he would have declared impossible he has 

 to-day seen realized, and he declares it the most wonderful thing he has seen in 

 America. You speak of it as an embryo invention, but to him it seems already 

 complete: and he declares that, before long, friends will whisper their secrets 

 over the electric wire. Your undulating current he declares a great and happy 

 conception. 



On the following day the telephones were removed to the judges' 

 pavilion, and on that Monday evening many experiments were carried 

 on. Wires were first run from a table in the private room of the 

 special jury on instruments of precision to a table placed in the hall- 

 way near the main entrance. Owing to the thinness of the partitions, 

 and the possibility of the loud-spoken words being heard over so short 

 a distance, the wires were extended and the transmitter and table were 

 carried some distance out-of-doors. Sir William Thomson and Lady 

 Thomson were present and conversed with each other. Sentences were 

 read from the New York Tribune, such as 'the American residents in 

 London have decided to celebrate the Fourth of July/ and as each sen- 

 tence was received Sir William Thomson would write it down in his 

 note book and then go to the transmitting end of the line and compare 

 what he had heard with what had been read. Most of the routine 

 transmitting was done by Professor Watson, of Ann Arbor, whose voice 



VOL. LXIX. — 28. 



