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THE NATIONAL, GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



departments of operation with the de- 

 partments of engineering, experiment, re- 

 search, and development — of the whole 

 Bell system. Research, investigation, ex- 

 periment, comprehensive and thorough, 

 are now necessary to hold any position in 

 any industrial or utility enterprise, and 

 those on a large, comprehensive scale are 

 enormously expensive. 



This centralization has produced a high 

 and most completely developed system ; 

 beyond every point that has been reached 

 there have always been possibilities of 

 something greater, and these possibilities 

 have been the goal of every one connected 

 with the business. 



It is a unique coincidence that the two 

 epoch-making inventions which created 

 the art of electrical transmission of in- 

 telligence were made by men absolutely 

 outside the field of electricity. Professor 

 Morse was an artist. From his reading 

 of Professor Henry's discovery of the 

 magnet and the possibility of controlling 

 its action from a distance, he conceived 

 the idea of transmitting combinations of 

 signals, to be interpreted into figures, let- 

 ters, words, sentences. He had no scien- 

 tific or mechanical education or training 

 and little money. He found in Alfred 

 Vail an assistant, one who had a scientific 

 education, mechanical training, skill, and 

 ingenuity, who bad a father with com- 

 mon-sense enough to believe in the idea, 

 money and courage enough to finance it. 



ONLY ONE MAN ON THE RIGHT TRACK 



There were many working on the mul- 

 tiple telegraph, but from different stand- 

 points and for different purposes — among 

 them Professor Bell. He had in Watson 

 a trained mechanic, and in 1 lubbard and 

 Sanders believers and capitalists. Bell 

 was not an electrician, but was trained in 

 articulation and the science of speech. 

 His powers of observation, and particu- 

 larly of perception and deduction, were 

 great. In his telegraph studies and ex- 

 periments he observed some phenomena 

 from which he evolved the idea of the 

 telephone, and when he recognized in the 

 vibrations of the reed the peculiar timber 

 of vocal speech he knew he had the solu- 

 tion. 



There was no one working: on the 



speaking telephone, except Professor Bell, 

 who could have invented it. They were 

 approaching the subject from the stand- 

 point of electricity without the knowl- 

 edge of acoustics or the requirements of 

 speech production, or the character of 

 vocal vibrations, of which Bell was the 

 master. This knowledge was the key to 

 the invention. 



It was so simple that all wondered at it, 

 and so seemingly impossible that all ridi- 

 culed it ; but so soon as it became of util- 

 ity many claimed, copied, and pirated it. 



There was not and never has there been 

 any telephone made which is not based on 

 Bell's patent, and, with the exception of 

 what Berliner contributed, his invention 

 contained all that is essential in the in- 

 strument in use today ; and yet the only 

 time when Bell was the undisputed in- 

 ventor of the telephone and the Bell Com- 

 pany without opposition was during the 

 year 1876, before its commercial value 

 was recognized, although every one ac- 

 knowledged its scientific importance. 



GEOGRAPHY AND THE HUMAN VOICE 



The Geographic Society has a symbolic 

 picture with the inscription, "The Geo- 

 graphic brings all the world to you." It 

 might be said that the telegraph brings 

 all the world into immediate communi- 

 cation, and the telephone fetches your 

 voice and conversation to the world. 



Geography establishes position and de- 

 termines distances ; discovers the poten- 

 tialities of the world and reveals the paths 

 of intercommunication. 



Geography may be termed the anat- 

 omy, transportation the veinous or arte- 

 rial system, and telephony and telegraphy 

 the nervous system of the world and its 

 economic and social structure. 



Intercommunication of which the tele- 

 phone is the latest exponent, binds this 

 world together, draws its interests closer, 

 and will in time create a condition where- 

 in all interests will be common to all 

 people. 



Common interests, patriotism — the 

 bases of all communities, commonwealths, 

 or nations — can only permanently exist 

 where there is common language. Nat- 

 ural and permanent boundaries of na- 

 tions are so established. 



