BEGINNINGS OF THE TELEPHONE 175 



ear the effect of a musical note when the current is inter- 

 rupted a sufficient number of times per second. . . . 



The discovery of ''galvanic music" by C. G. Page in 

 1837 led inquirers in different parts of the world almost 

 simultaneously to enter into the field of telephonic research; 

 and the acoustical effects produced by demagnetization were 

 studied by Marrian, Beatson, Gassiot, De la Rive, Matteucci, 

 and many other eminent scientists. Gore obtained loud 

 musical notes from mercury, accompanied by singularly 

 beautiful crispations of the surface during the course of 

 experiments in electrolysis. Sullivan discovered that a 

 current of electricity is generated by the vibration of a wire 

 composed partly of one metal and partly of another. The 

 current was produced so long as the wire emitted the musical 

 note, but stopped immediately upon the cessation of the 

 sound. 



It was found by practical experiment that it was difficult, 

 if not impossible, to transmit the number of musical tones 

 that theory showed to be feasible. The difficulty, showai 

 after a time, lay in the nature of the electric current employed, 

 and finally was obviated by the invention of the undulatory 

 current. 



It is a strange fact that important inventions often are 

 made almost simultaneously in different parts of the world, 

 and the idea of multiple telegraphy as developed above, 

 seems to have occurred independently to no less than four 

 other inventors in America and Europe. Even the details of 

 the arrangements upon circuit are extremely similar in the 

 plans proposed by Cromwell Varley of London, Elisha Gray 

 of Chicago, Paul La Cour of Copenhagen, and Thomas Edison 

 of New^ark, N. J. Into the question of priority of invention, 

 I shall not go at present. 



For several years my attention was almost exclusively 

 directed to the production of an instrument for making and 

 breaking a voltaic circuit with extreme rapidit}^, to take the 

 place of the transmitting tuning fork used in Helmholtz's 

 researches. The great defects of this plan of multiple teleg- 

 raphy were found to consist, first, in the fact that the receiv- 

 ing operators were required to possess a good musical ear 



