822 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rubber, of brass, and of wood. These were all the materials at hand 

 in tubular form, and we have had no opportunity since of extending 

 the observations to other substances. 



I am extremely glad that I have the opportunity of making the 

 first publication of these researches before a scientific society, for it is 

 from scientific men that my work of the last six years has received its 

 earliest and kindest recognition. I gratefully remember the encour- 

 agement which I received from the late Professor Henry at a time 

 when the speaking telephone existed only in theory. Indeed, it is 

 greatly due to the stimulus of his appreciation that the telephone be- 

 came an accomplished fact. I can not state too highly also the advan- 

 tage I received in preliminary experiments on sound vibrations in this 

 building from Professor Cross, and near here from my valued friend 

 Dr. Clarence J. Blake. When the public were incredulous of the pos- 

 sibility of electrical speech, the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences, the Philosophical Society of Washington, and the Essex Institute 

 of Salem recognized the reality of the results, and honored me by 

 their congratulations. The public interest, I think, was first awakened 

 by the judgment of the very eminent scientific men before whom the 

 telephone was exhibited in Philadelphia, and by the address of Sir 

 William Thomson before the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. 



At a later period, when even practical telegraphers considered the 

 telephone as a mere scientific toy, Professor John Peirce, Professor 

 Eli W. Blake, Dr. Channing, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Jones, of Providence, 

 Rhode Island, devoted themselves to a series of experiments for the 

 purpose of assisting me in making the telephone of practical utility ; 

 and they communicated to me, from time to time, the result of their 

 experiments with a kindness and generosity I can never forget. It is 

 not only pleasant to remember these things and to speak of them, but 

 it is a duty to repeat them, as they give a practical refutation to the 

 oft-repeated stories of the blindness of scientific men to unaccredited 

 novelties, and of their jealousy of unknown inventors who dare to 

 enter the charmed circle of science. I trust that the scientific favor 

 which was so readily accorded to the telephone may be extended by 

 you to this new claimant, the photophone. 



