566 Our Surroundings 



ear, obtained from a physician, and finally developed the idea of 

 making the metal disc diaphragm so vital in the modern telephone. 

 While experimenting with Thomas Watson in Boston in 1875 he 

 discovered the secret of sending sound over wire and the tele- 

 phone "talked" for the first time, although the voice was carried 

 only from one floor to another. 



The telephone was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 

 Philadelphia in 1876 but attracted little attention until Don Pedro, 

 Emperor of Brazil, took it up and expressed astonishment at what 

 it did. Immediately the telephone became a feature of the Ex- 

 position, but for a time people generally did not realize its com- 

 mercial importance. Within a year, however, 778 telephones were 

 in use. Then the Bell Telephone Company was formed and the 

 commercial use of the instrument really began. Now there are 

 many millions of telephones in the United States alone, and im- 

 provements in telephone communications have made it possible to 

 talk across the entire country or under the ocean to foreign lands. 

 Bell's telephone patent is considered the most valuable patent ever 

 issued. 



While Alexander Graham Bell's greatest contribution to 

 science and to modern life was the telephone, he made other 

 inventions and showed a wide interest in other fields of science, 

 including geography. In his later years he was deeply inter- 

 ested in the conquest of the air and carried on many experi- 

 ments in that field, including the use of kites. He died in 

 1922. 



Burbank. Luther Burbank was born in Lancaster, Mass., 

 on March 7th, 1849. He was educated in the local schools and 

 then spent a few years working in his uncle's plow factory. From 

 early boyhood, however, ru's real interest was in growing things. 

 For a time he devoted himself to market gardening and during 

 this period he developed a new species of potato, which was given 

 his name and which has added materially to the prosperity of 

 farmers. 



While still a young man Burbank moved to Santa Rosa, 

 California, and there established an experimental farm. He 

 quickly developed remarkable skill in the selection and cross- 



