138 Waturc'0 



faintly. He was inclined to be somewhat 

 superstitious and grew very nervous; finally, 

 on looking around, he located the sound in his 

 relay, but this did not help matters with him. 

 With superstitious awe he listened to the in- 

 strument for a few moments while it gave out 

 the solemn tones of "Old Hundred," then it, 

 suddenly jumped into a hilarious rendering of 

 " Yankee Doodle." This was too much for our 

 nervous friend, and hastily putting on his 

 overcoat, he left the office for the night. 



On another occasion, when I was giving a 

 lecture in one of the cities outside of Chicago, 

 where exhibitions of music transmitted from 

 Chicago were given, one of the operators 

 along the line was very much astonished by 

 his switchboard suddejily becoming musical. 

 Orders had been given for the instruments in 

 all the local offices to be cut out of the par- 

 ticular line that I was using. Hence the in- 

 strument in this particular office was not in 

 the circuit through which the tunes wen br- 

 ing transmitted. The wire, however, ran 

 through his switchboard, and owing probably 

 to a loose connection, or an induced effect, 

 there was a spark that leaped across a short 

 space at each electrical pulsation that passed 

 through the line, thus reproducing the notes 

 of the various tunes played. 



You will remember in one of the chapters 

 on sound (Volume II.), it is stated that a 



