BELL'S TELEPHONIC RESEARCHES 



[From "Bell's Electric Speaking Telephones," by George 

 B. Prescott, copyright by D Appleton & Co., New York, 1884 



IN a lecture delivered before the Society of 

 Telegraph Engineers, in London, October 31, 

 1877, Prof. A. G. Bell gave a history of his re- 

 searches in telephony, together with the experi- 

 ments that he was led to undertake in his en- 

 deavours to produce a practical system of mul- 

 tiple telegraphy, and to realize also the trans- 

 mission of articulate speech. After the usual 

 introduction, Professor Bell said in part: 



"It is to-night my pleasure, as well as duty, 

 to give you some account of the telephonic re- 

 searches in which I have been so long engaged. 

 Many years ago my attention was directed to 

 the mechanism of speech by my father, Alexan- 

 der Melville Bell, of Edinburgh, who has made a 

 life-long study of the subject. Many of those 

 present may recollect the invention by my father 

 of a means of representing, in a wonderfully 

 accurate manner, the positions of the vocal 

 organs in forming sounds. Together we carried 

 on quite a number of experiments, seeking to 

 discover the correct mechanism of English and 

 foreign elements of speech, and I remember 

 especially an investigation in which we were 

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