706 



SWITZEKLAND. 



TELEPHONE. 



then adjourned. It met again on June 4th. 

 The Nationalrath elected for its President Herr 

 Marti, of Berne, and for its Vice-President, 

 M. Philippin, of Neufch&tel ; the Stande- 

 rath, for its President, Herr Hofmann, of St. 

 Gall, and for its Vice-President, M. Vesaz, 



of Lausanne. After an unimportant session 

 the Assembly adjourned on June 23d, and as- 

 sembled again on December 3d. On the 13th 

 it elected Dr. Schenck, of Berne, as President 

 of the Confederation for 1878, and Herr Ham- 

 mer, of Soleure, as Vice-President, and ad- 

 journed on the 22d. 



Three new laws were submitted to a popular 



vote on October 21st. The first and second 

 were rejected. The third law was one limit- 

 ing the hours of labor, especially for women 

 and children in factories, and providing that 

 employers are to pay their wages at intervals 

 of not more than a fortnight, and in specie. 

 This law was confirmed 

 by a majority of 157,495 

 to 146,020. 



The Swiss export re- 

 turns for the year 1876 

 show strikingly how the 

 American competition 

 in watchmaking has in- 

 jured the Swiss trade. 

 In 1875 the export of 

 watches to the United 

 States fell off 30 per 

 cent., and in 1876 there 

 was a further falling off 

 of 43 per cent., making 

 a difference of 7,909,000 

 francs between 1874 and 

 1 876. Musical boxes fell 

 off 24 per cent, during 

 the last year, the ex- 

 port being 49 per cent, 

 below the average of 

 1864-'75. 



In June an interna- 

 tional conference was 

 held at Lucerne, on the question of resuming 

 the works in the St. Gothard Tunnel. The 

 commission fixed the sum required to complete 

 the undertaking at 40,000,000 francs, of which 

 they proposed that Germany should contribute 

 10,000,000 francs, Italy 10,000,000 francs, 

 Switzerland 8,000,000 francs, and the company 

 12,000,000 francs. 



T 



TELEPHONE. This is an invention for 

 reproducing the human voice, by the agency of 

 electricity, at long distances from the speaker. 

 Like other great inventions it has been a growth 

 in the application of principles known for many 

 years ; and, as was so often the case before, the 

 result has been attained by several indepen- 

 dent experimenters almost simultaneously. To 

 whom the chief credit actually belongs, is now 

 a matter of dispute, which we need not here 

 undertake to decide; it may be stated, how- 

 ever, that the names most prominently asso- 

 ciated with the invention are those of Mr. 

 Elisha Gray, of Chicago ; Prof. A. Graham 

 Bell, of the Boston University ; Prof. A. C. 

 Dolbear, of Tufts College, Massachusetts; and 

 Mr. Thomas A. Edison, of Menlo Park, New 

 Jersey. 



The principle, mode of working, and con- 

 struction of the telephone may be described as 

 follows : 



If a wire, from a galvanic battery through 



which a current of electricity is passing, be 

 wound around a piece of soft iron, as repre- 

 sented in Fig. 1, the bar will be made mag- 

 netic, and kept in that condition as long as the 

 current continues to pass round it; and its ends 

 will then attract and hold bits of iron, but drop 

 them when the battery is taken away. If the 



FIG. 1. 



bar be of steel, instead of soft iron, it will be 

 magnetized and attract iron just as before ; but, 

 unlike the soft-iron bar, it will keep its magnet- 

 ism and attract the iron even after the battery 

 is removed. Its magnetism will be permanent. 

 Since, however, electricity made the magnet, 

 we can, in turn, make the magnet a source of 

 electricity. Suppose the magnetized steel bar 

 has attracted and is holding on to a piece of 



