142 flature'e /Piracies. 



could do in the way of transmitting speech 

 through a wire. I told him I thought it would 

 be very valuable if worked out. He gave me a 

 look that I shall never forget, but he did not 

 say a word. The look conveyed more meaning 

 tluiii all the words he could have said, and I 

 did not dare broach the subject again. 



However, as soon as I found opportunity, 

 without saying a word to anybody except my 

 patent lawyer, I filed a description, accom- 

 panied by drawings, of a speaking telephone 

 which stands in history to-day as the iirst 

 complete description on record of the opera- 

 tion of the speaking telephone. It described 

 an apparatus which, when constructed, worked 

 as described, and it is a matter of history that 

 the first articulate speech electrically trans- 

 mitted in this country was by a transmitter 

 constructed on the principle described, and al- 

 most identically after the drawings in my 

 caveat. While the transmitter described in 

 this caveat was not the best form, it would 

 transmit speech, and it contained the founda- 

 tion principle of all the telephone transmitters 

 in use to-day. 



There are two methods of transmitting 

 speech. One is known as the magneto method 

 and the other that of varying the resistance of 

 the circuit. My first transmitter was devised 

 on the latter principle. 



