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account of its being the place of his residence and Avhere 

 he had conducted his experiments for some years, but 

 because it was here that the science of Telephony had its 

 rise. The first attempt to produce musical sounds by 

 electric currents was by Prof. C. G. Page,^ a Salem man, 

 who discovered, in 1837, that whenever a magnet was 

 affected by an intermittent current a sound was trans- 

 mitted. This led observers in all parts of the world to 

 take up the subject. The discovery was also made by 

 Prof. Page that whenever a current is passed through a 

 coil a sound is emitted by the iron surrounded by the coil. 

 It had been imagined that a molecule of iron had changed 

 its place. Prof. Page reasoned in this way: — if we can 

 make this sound rapidly we shall have a musical note ; 

 and this can be done by making and breaking the circuit. 

 These suggestions excited a great deal of attention al)road. 

 Keis constructed a telephone by which a musical note 

 was produced, by making and breaking circuit, in an iron 

 core surrounded by a coil. By singing into a transmit- 

 ting instrument a membrane is made to vibrate, thereby 

 producing the musical sound by intermittent contact with 

 the vil)rating medium. Pels' telephone has never been 

 brought into practical use. It is a very beautiful instru- 

 ment theoretically, but it gives merely the pitch and 

 nothiuir more. 



1 Charles Grafton Page, son of Capt. Jere. L. & Lucy D. (Lang) Page, born in 

 Salem, Mass.. Jan. 25, 1812, preiiared for college in the Grammar School, Salem, 

 under tlie charge of Theodore Eanies, entered Harvard College in 1S2S, graduating 

 in 1832, studied medicine with Dr. A. L. Peirson of Salem, and the Harvard Medi- 

 cal School, receiving the degree of M. D. in 1836. In 183S he went to Virginia and 

 practised his profession two years. In 1840 he was called to a position in the U. 8. 

 Patent Office and was one of the Examiners from that time until his death, which 

 occurred at Washington on Tuesday, May 5, 18G8. 



In early youth he developed a tnste for the study of electricity and the kindred 

 sciences, and continued tlirough life a diligent and successful student in these 

 fields of observation and enquiry. He was a frequent contributor to "Silliinan'a 

 Journal of Science," and was tlie author of several treatises on tlie subject of elec- 

 trical science and discovery. In 1839-40 he was Professor of Chemistry in Colum- 

 bia College, D. C. 



