cousin, Chichester Bell, who had been teaching 

 college chemistry in London, agreed to come as the 

 third associate. During his stay in Europe Bell 

 received the 50,000-franc ($10,000) Volta prize, and 

 it was with this money that the Washington project, 

 the Volta Laboratory Association,'' was financed. 

 Tainter's story, in his autobiography, of the estab- 

 lishment of the laboratory, shows its comparati\e sim- 

 plicity: 



Figure 2. — Photographing Sound in 1884. A rare 

 photograph taken at Volta Laboratory, Washington, 

 D. C, by J. Harris Rogers, a friend of Bell and 

 Tainter (Smithsonian photo 44312-jE). 



A description of the procedure used is found on 

 page 67, of Tainter's unpublished autobiography 

 (see footnote i). There, Tainter quotes Chichester 

 Bell as follows: 



"A jet of bichromate of potash solution, viljiated 

 by the voice, was directed against a glass plate im- 

 mediately in front of a slit, on which light was con- 

 centrated by means of a lens. The jet was so ar- 

 rani^ed that the light on its way to the slit had to pass 

 through the nappe and as the thickness of this was 

 constantly changing, the illumination of the slit was 

 also varied. By means of a lens ... an image of 

 this slit was thrown upon a rotating gelatine-bromide 

 plate, on which accordingly a record of the voice 

 vihialioiis was ol)iained."' 



I therefore wound up my business alfairs in (Cambridge, 

 packed up all of my tools and machines, and . . . went to 

 Washington, and after much search, rented a vacant house 

 on L .Street, between 13th and 14th Streets, and fitted it up 

 for our purpose."^ . . . The Smithsonian Institution sent us 

 over a mail sack of scientific books from the library of the 

 Institution, to consult, and primed with all we could 

 learn ... we went to work.° . . . We were like the 

 explorers in an entirely unknown land, where one has to 

 select the path that seems to be most likely to get you to your 

 destination, with no knowledge of what is ahead. 



In conducting our work we had first to design an experi- 

 mental apparatus, then hun tabout, often in Philadelphia 

 and New York, for the materials with which to construct it, 

 which were usually hard to find, and finally build the models 

 we needed, ourselves.' 



* A. G. Bell apparently spent little time in the \olta Labora- 

 tory. The Dr. Bell referred to in Tainter's notebooks is 

 Chichester A. Bell. The basic graphophone patent (U. S. 

 patent 341214) was issued to C. A. Bell and Tainter. The 

 Tainter material reveals A. G. Bell as the man who suggested the 

 basic lines of research (and furnished the money), and then 

 allowed his associates to get the credit for many of the inven- 

 tions that resulted. 



■^ Tainter, op. cit. (footnote 1), p. 3, 



6 Ihid., p. 5. 



■ Ihid.. p. 30. 



72 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF ^ISTOR^■ ANO lEClUNOLOGY 



