THE TELEPHONE AND HOW IT WORKS. 



5 6 3 



Fig. 6 represents a section of Bell's telephone. E E is the dia- 

 phragm, F the tube, B the silk-covered wire wound upon the spool, 

 extending C, to the binding-screws D D, where they are con- 

 nected with the line-wires. The magnet A has its distance from the 

 diaphragm adjusted by the screw at the opposite end. Fig. 1 repre- 

 sents the form and aspect of the instrument as used. It is about five 

 or six inches long and two and a half inches broad at its widest 

 part. In sending a message, the instrument is held to the mouth, 



Fig. 6. 



and the words distinctly spoken in ordinary tones or even a whis- 

 per. The instrument is then held to the ear to receive the answer. 

 Instead of this, two telephones connected may be used at each station, 

 so that one may be held to the ear all the time, while the other is used 

 for telephoning, as illustrated in Fig. 8 ; and this one, too, in hearing 

 a long message, or in a noisy room, may be held to the other ear, and 

 so shut out all other sounds. This also gives two persons a chance to 

 hear at the same time, by giving a telephone to each. 



Several telephones may be connected together in one office, so that 

 any number of persons, by having one each, may hear the game message. 

 In singing, each singer has a telephone. At the late fair of the Ameri- 

 can Institute, we were one evening listening to a quartet of college- 

 boys, uproariously singing "Upidee i-dee-i-da," in the Tribune Build- 

 ing, through six miles of wire, when suddenly all was still. " Hello !" 

 we shouted. "Hello you!" was answered back. "What's the mat- 

 ter?" "Big fire in Leonard Street. The fire is " "Never mind 

 the fire ; go on with the singing," we rejoined, and the singing went 

 on with " The Red, White, and Blue." The impression produced by 

 listening to a communication through this instrument has been aptly 

 described as follows: "The voice, whether in speaking or singing, 

 has a w r eird, curious sound in the telephone. It is in a measure ven- 

 triloqual in character; and, with the telephone held an inch or two 

 from the ear, it has the effect as if some one were singing far off in 

 the building, or the sound were coming up from a vaulted cellar or 

 through a massive stone-wall." The singing or speaking is heard 

 microscopically, as it were, or rather microphonically, but wonderful- 

 ly distinct and clear in character. The enchantment of distance is 

 there, and one listens as to sounds from fairy-land. 



