92 nature's flbtraclea. 



had witnessed the experiments he seemed as 

 delighted as a child. I now brought the pat- 

 ent office official over to the Smithsonian and 

 soon convinced him that the inventor could be 

 a part of his own machine. 



The same year I went abroad, and Henry 

 gave me a letter to Tyndall. It was very for- 

 tunate for me that he did, for Tyndall was 

 very shy at first, and it was only Henry's 

 letter that gave me a hearing for a moment. 

 The history of the few days that followed this 

 first interview with Tyndall at the Royal In- 

 stitution would make very interesting reading, 

 if I felt at liberty to publish it. Suffice it to say 

 that he was convinced in a few minutes after 

 he had reached the experimental stage that not 

 all my work had been anticipated by Wheat- 

 stone, as he asserted before seeing the experi- 

 ments. Wheatstone had transmitted the tones 

 of a piano, mechanically, from one room to 

 another by a wooden rod placed upon the 

 sound-board and terminating in another room 

 in contact with another sound-board. But 

 this was very different from transmitting 

 musical tones and melodies from one city to 

 another through a wire, as I could do with my 

 electrotelephonic apparatus. 



It is a curious fact that the world is divided 

 into two great classes, leaders and followers. 

 Or we might say, originators and copyists ; the 

 former division being very small, while the 



