492 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The terms for leasing two telephones for social purposes connecting a 

 dwelling-house with any other building will be $20 a year, for business pur- 



Fig. 5. Wood Hand Telephone of May, 1877. 



poses $40 a year, payable semiannually in advance, with the cost of expressage 

 from Boston, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, or San Francisco. The 

 instruments will be kept in good working order by the lessors, free of expense, 

 except from injuries resulting from great carelessness. 



Several telephones can be placed on the same line at an additional rental of 

 $10 for each instrument; but the use of more than two on the same line where 

 privacy is required is not advised. Any person within ordinary hearing dis- 

 tance can hear the voice calling through the telephone. If a louder call is 

 required one can be furnished for $5. 



Telegraph lines will be constructed by the proprietors if desired. The price 

 will vary from $100 to $150 a mile; any good mechanic can construct a line; 

 No. 9 wire costs 8£ cents a pound, 320 pounds to the mile; 34 insulators at 

 25 cents each; the price of poles and setting varies in every locality; stringing 

 wire $5 per mile; sundries $10 per mile. 



Parties leasing the telephone incur no expense beyond the annual rental 

 and the repair of the line wire. On the following pages are extracts from the 

 press and other sources relating to the telephone. 



Cambridge, Mass., May, 1877. Gabdineb G. Hubbard. 



For further information and orders adress 



Thomas A. Watson, 109 Court St., Boston. 



The work of supplying to customers the hand telephones, referred to 

 in the foregoing circular, was entrusted to Graham Bell's assistant, 

 Mr. Thomas A. Watson, who had entered the employ of the proprietors 

 of the telephone about April 1, 1876. He occupied a small amount 

 of desk room and much bench room in the small factory of Charles 

 Williams, at 109 Court Street, Boston. Here Mr. Watson made up 

 and assembled the parts, as the telephones were called for. Naturally, 

 improvements were the order of the day, and soon a smaller and more 

 attractive mahogany handle magneto-telephone was adopted. 



How rapidly 'Bell's toy* began to win its way into public favor 

 is indicated by the statement that on July 31, 1877, or less than four 

 months from the day the first circular was sent out by Mr. Hubbard, 

 778 telephones had been leased, while in all probability an equal num- 

 ber of experimental telephones had been made by mechanics and scien- 

 tists who thought that it would be an easy matter to improve upon 

 Bell's method. When the year 1877 closed, there were 5,491 Bell 

 telephones in use. 



