2 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



slniment working and he sat at a table for a long time with the empty 

 coil of wire against his ear listening to the sound. I felt so much 

 encouraged by his interest that I determined to ask his advice about 

 the apparatus I have designed for the transmission of the human 

 voice by telegraph. I explained the idea and said, 'What would 

 you advise me to do, publish it and let others work it out, or attempt 

 to solve the problem myself?' He said he thought it was 'the germ 

 of a great invention,' and advised me to work at it myself instead of 

 publishing. I said that I recognized the fact that there were mechan- 

 ical difficulties in the way that rendered the plan impracticable at 

 the present time. I added that I felt that I had not the electrical 

 knowledge necessary to overcome the difficulties. His laconic answer 

 was, 'GET IT.' 



"I cannot tell you how much these two words have encouraged 

 me. Such a chimerical idea as telegraphing vocal sounds would 

 indeed to most minds seem scarcely feasible enough to spend time in 

 working over. I believe, however, that it is feasible, and that I 

 have got the cue to the solution of the problem. 



"Professor Henry seemed to be much interested in what I told 

 him, and cross-questioned me about my past life, and specially wanted 

 to know W'here I had studied physics . . . . " 



Joseph Henry was born in Albany, New York, in 1799, and coming 

 to full maturity of mind at the beginning of a century which will 

 probably ne\er be surpassed for fruitful research in the field of elec- 

 tricity, he demonstrated, at the very outset of his career, his right 

 to stand for all time with the foremost investigators in this depart- 

 ment of natural science. Henry was, moreover, a many-sided man. 

 His distinguished career leads into many fields and before reviewing 

 his researches on electro-magnetism we may note briefly the \'ery 

 diversified and yet important character of his other work. 



During the latter half of his life, official duties as the director of 

 the Smithsonian Institution consumed an ever increasing portion of 

 his time, but he still found opportunity to prosecute many original 

 inquiries, — for example, into the application of acoustics to building, 

 into the best construction and arrangement of lecture rooms, and into 

 the strength of various building materials. As one of his first ad- 

 ministrative acts, he organized a widespread corps of observers for 

 simultaneous weather and meteorological reports by means of the 

 telegraph which was yet in its infancy. He was the first to have the 

 daily atmospheric conditions indicated upon a map of the country 

 and to utilize this information in making weather forecasts. 



