Cbe JElectric aelefltapb. 91 



first telegraph line between Baltimore and 

 Washington. Great credit is due to such men 

 as Morse and Cyrus W. Field neither of them 

 inventors, but promoters of great systems of 

 communication that are of unspeakable benefit 

 to mankind. Henry pointed out the way, and 

 Morse carried it into effect. Morse has had 

 no more credit than was due him, but has 

 Henry had as much as is due him? No 

 great invention was ever yet the work, wholly, 

 of one man. We Americans are too apt to for- 

 get this. 



I shall always remember Henry as a most 

 unassuming, kindly, genial man, and I shall 

 never forget his kindness to me. In 1874 I 

 began my researches in telephony, having ap- 

 plied for a patent for an apparatus for trans- 

 mit ting musical tones telegraphically. This 

 consisted of a means of transmitting musical 

 tones through a wire and reproducing them on 

 a metal plate (stretched on the body of a violin 

 to give it resonance) by rubbing the plate with 

 the hand the latter being a part of the cir- 

 cuit. The examiner refused the application at 

 first on the ground that the inventor or 

 operator could not be a part of his machine. 

 I took my apparatus and went to Washington, 

 first calling upon Professor Henry, never hav- 

 Miet him In-fore. lie received me most 

 kindly, and allowed me to string wins from 

 room to room in tin- institute, and when he 



