TAFT, ALPHONZO. 



TELEPHONE, THE. 



to Bern, together with the Federal Commis- 

 sioner Bavier, where an amicable agreement 

 was finally arrived at. 



The Federal Assembly, which was in session 

 at the beginning of 1876, adjourned on March 

 25th, and assembled again on June 5th. The 

 Standerath; or State Council, elected for its 

 president Paul Nagel, of Thurgau, and the 

 National Assembly, Arnold Aepli, of St. Gall. 

 On July 3d the Federal Assembly passed a law 

 regulating the acquisition and renunciation of 

 Swiss citizenship a matter which had been 

 previously regulated only by cantonal laws. 

 On December 4th the Federal Assembly met 

 for its regular winter session, and adjourned 

 on December 23d until March 5, 1877. 



An International Postal Congress was held in 

 Bern from January 17th to 27th. The princi- 

 pal questions under discussion were the admis- 

 sion of French and English colonies, and the 

 rates of postage to be charged on letters sent 

 there. 



An international congress respecting the ob- 

 servance of the Sabbath was held at Geneva, 

 beginning September 5th. M. Alexander Lom- 

 bard was chosen president. Accounts were 

 given by delegates from Spain, Italy, Austria, 

 France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzer- 

 land, Germany, Great Britain, and the United 

 States, of the manner in which the Sabbath 

 was observed in their respective countries, and 

 of the movements in progress in them to secure 

 a greater regard for its sanctity. An Interna- 

 tional League was formed, and declared to rest 

 upon " a Biblical basis," for the promotion and 

 encouragement of the Sabbath, the definite 

 constitution of which it was provided should 

 be completed at a future meeting to be held 

 after two years. The congress considered the 

 question respecting the most suitable day of 

 the week on which to pay workmen. It de- 

 cided to recommend Friday as the pay-day, 

 and Thursday as the day for closing the weekly 

 accounts. 



T 



TAFT, ALPHONZO, was born in Townsend, 

 Vt., November 5, 1810. He graduated at Yale 

 College in 1833, and two years later became a 

 tutor in that institution. In 1840 he began the 

 practice of law in Cincinnati, Ohio, where, after 

 a highly- successful career of twenty-six years 

 at the bar, he was chosen Judge of the Superior 

 Court of Cincinnati. To this position he was 

 twice reflected. He has been a warm supporter 

 of the Republican party since its organization, 

 was defeated as a candidate for Congress by 

 George H. Pendleton, was for three years a 

 member of the City Council of Cincinnati, and 

 for twenty-five years a member of the Board 

 of Education. He has been a member of the 

 Board of Trustees of the University of Cin- 

 cinnati since its foundation, and is a Trustee of 

 Yale College, from which he received in 1867 

 the degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1875 his 

 name was prominently brought forward as a 

 candidate for Governor of Ohio. Just before 

 the assembling of the convention, ex-Governor 

 R. B. Hayes telegraphed to a delegate : " I 

 cannot allow my name to be used against Judge 

 Taft. He is an able and pure man, and a sound 

 Republican. I would not accept a nomination 

 in contest with him." Considerable opposition 

 had been developed against Judge Taft in con- 

 sequence of an opinion which he had delivered 

 on the school question ; and after he had re- 

 ceived 186 votes in the convention, his name 

 was withdrawn. After the resignation of Gen- 

 eral Belknap, in March, 1876, Judge Taft was 

 made Secretary of War, and in May following 

 he became Attorney-General. 



TELEPHONE, THE. The invention of a 

 method of transmitting sounds, and even artic- 

 ulate language, by the telegraph, for long dis- 

 tances, opens up new and great possibilities in 



the art of telegraphy. Mr. E. P. Gray, of 

 Chicago, a gentleman who has originated other 

 important improvements in telegraphic pro- 

 cesses, is the undoubted author of the inven- 

 tion, although La Cour, of Copenhagen, had 

 conceived its possibility almost simultaneously, 

 and was engaged in the construction of the 

 apparatus independently; and Prof. Graham 

 Bell, of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology, who claims to have demonstrated the 

 possibility of conveying sounds of different 

 pitch by telegraph, in 1873, has the merit of 

 having wrought very important improvements 

 in the apparatus. An instrument on a similar 

 principle to the musical telephone was also 

 constructed by a German inventor about fif- 

 teen years ago. The possibility of telegraph- 

 ing audible speech, it would seem, was not 

 suspected before it was practically accom- 

 plished by Prof. Bell, in the early part of 1876. 

 Prof. Bell has experimented with fifty or more 

 different kinds of apparatus, and in the later 

 improvements the distinctness of the vocal 

 sounds transmitted has increased remarkably. 

 The instrument used in his first success, by 

 which a conversation was carried on between 

 two separate houses, is described as consist- 

 ing of two single-pole electro-magnets with a 

 resistance of 10 ohms each, arranged in circuits 

 with a battery of 5 carbon elements, the total 

 resistance being 25 ohms, and 2 drumheads of 

 goldbeater's skin of 2| inches diameter, with a 

 circular piece of clock-spring glued to the 

 centre of each membrane. One of the earliest 

 experiments made by Prof. Bell was to trans- 

 mit the tones of a reed-organ. A membrane 

 was stretched between the electro-magnet and 

 its armature, and the reeds of the organ were 

 so arranged as to open and close the circuit aa 



