5 68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that they may be left unnoticed ; and we proceed now to describe one 

 of a different character, designed to test the telephone itself. At a 

 distance of about half a mile, access was obtained to a Morse instru- 

 ment in private use, and joined to the office by 'overhouse' wire. 

 Dividing our party and arranging a programme of operations, two 

 remained with a telephone in the office, while other two, of whom the 

 writer was one, proceeded with the second telephone to the distant 

 instrument. By an arrangement which a practical telegraphist will 

 understand, the key of the Morse was kept in circuit, so that signals 

 could be exchanged in that way. It may be noticed, however, that 

 this was hardly necessary, as the diaphragm of the telephone can be 

 used as a key, with the linger or a blunt point, so that dot and 

 dash signals are interchangeable, should the voice fail to be heard. 

 As the wire in this instance traveled almost alone over part of its 

 course, we were in hopes that induced currents would be conspicuous 

 by their absence. In this we were, however, disappointed, for the 

 pot was boiling away, rather more faintly, but with the 'plop-plop- 

 plop' distinctly audible, and once more a sharp masterful Morse 

 click was heard coming in now and again. The deadly ABC was, 

 however, absent, so that our experiment proved highly successful. 

 For some reason or another probably an imperfect condition of the 

 wire, or the effects of 'induction' over and above what made itself 

 audible to us the spoken sounds were deficient in distinctness ; but 

 songs sung at either end were very beautifully heard, and, indeed, the 

 sustained note of sung words had always a better carrying-power than 

 rapidly-spoken words. Every syllable and every turn of melody of 

 such a song as ' My Mother bids me bind my Hair,' sung by a lady at 

 one end, or ' When the Heart of a Man,' sung at the other, could be 

 distinctly heard, but with the effect before noticed, that the voice was 

 muffled or shut in, as if the singer were in a cellar, while it was not 

 always possible to say at once whether the voice was that of a man or 

 a woman. 



" In the course of some domestic experiments it was remarked that, 

 in playing the scale downward from C in alt. on the piano, the result 

 to the listener was a 'tit' only for the four upper notes, although all 

 below that had a clear 'ting,' and the octaves below were mostly dis- 

 tinct, although at the low notes of the piano the sound was again lost. 

 The ringing notes of a musical-box were not so successful, but, with 

 close attention, its rapid execution of ' Tommy Dodd ' could be well 

 enough made out. An endeavor was made to catch the ticking of a 

 watch, but this was not successful, and the experiment is not recom- 

 mended, as the near presence of a watch to a magnet is not desirable ; 

 and the watch exposed to it in this instance was, it is thought, affected 

 for a short time thereafter, although it received no permanent damage. 



"The observations made in the course of these experiments con- 

 vinced those present that the telephone presents facilities for the 



