21 



REGULAR MEETING, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1877. 



MEETING this evening. The PRESIDENT in the chair. 

 Records read. 



P. P. Bielby and George A. Purbeck, both of Salem, 

 were elected resident members. 



J. W. Powell of Washington, D. C., G. W. Levette 

 of Indianapolis, Ind., and Benjamin J. Lang of Boston, 

 were elected corresponding members. 



MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 12, 1877. .-^ 



LECTURE OX THE TELEPHONE. 



THE evening was devoted to a lecture on the telephone 

 by Prof. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, being one of the 

 Institute course of lectures. The meeting was held at 

 the Lyceum Hall for the purpose of more easy connection 

 with telegraphic lines. It was the first public exhibition 

 of the telephone invented by Prof. Bell, and the experi- 

 ments were eminently successful, and were greeted with 

 enthusiastic applause by an audience which completely 

 filled the hall. A wire of the Atlantic and Pacific Tele- 

 graph Co. was placed at the disposal of Prof. Bell, and 

 was connected with the Lyceum Hall in Salem, and with 

 the oifice in Exeter Place, Boston, where were present 

 Mr. Thomas A. Watson of Salem, the Professor's assis- 

 tant, and Messrs. B. Bridden, the electrician, Prof. E. 

 B. Warman, and A. B. Fletcher of the "Boston Globe." 



The President, Dr. WHEATLAND, introduced Prof. Bell, 

 who opened his lecture with an allusion to the pleasure it 

 gave him to exhibit the Telephone for the first time 

 before a public audience, here at Salem ; not only on 



