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APPENDIX B. 



Notes to Chapter XVIII. 



The telephone, when first introduced into this country, was 

 regarded rather as a scientific toy than an instrument of great 

 practical value. 



It was certainly a wonderful apparatus, but imperfect. The 

 best method of arranging a workmg circuit was not well 

 understood, or, if understood, not at first generally adopted. 

 Sounds — humming, clattering, confusmg noises — imparted by 

 induction to the private-wire circuit, interfered with the popu- 

 larity of the new telegraph, even when cost was of secondary 

 importance. 



Improvements in the apparatus, secured by patent rights, 

 made the telephone relatively an expensive luxury ; but when 

 the patents exphed, prices fell, and the novel invention and its 

 eccentricities having now become well understood and perfectly 

 within control, the powers of the telephone are being gradually 

 but surely appreciated. 



Most forms of telegraph — even Wheatstone's simple 'ABC' 

 — cannot be put into the hands of an absolute novice : all requke 

 some degree of training on the part of the operator. The tele- 

 phone, however, in its manipulation is simplicity itself. When 

 about to put it in action, we lift the hearing-tubes to the ears. 

 In sending a message we speak to the aperture, m receiving one 

 we listen at the tubes. That is the whole process. Even an 

 ordinary house speaking-pipe is not quite so simple to manage. 



Unlike the telegraph, which, once fixed and adjusted, cannot 

 be readily removed to another spot, the telephone may be taken 

 about the house as easily as a chair. Left for day use in the 



