REPAIRING THE DAMAGE DONE BY SNOW 

 AND SLEET 



I happened, to think that there might be 

 another telegraph instrument connected 

 in the circuit in some other part of the 

 factory that I was in. 



The janitor had been standing there 

 looking at me as if he thought I was 

 crazy, shouting into the end of the wire 

 and expecting somebody in Boston to 

 hear me. I asked him to show me where 

 the wire entered the building and he did 

 so. I traced it through the building and 

 found another telegraph relay in the same 

 circuit. My heart gave another jump, for 

 I realized that there was another chance. 

 I got it out, rushed back to the telephone, 

 and listened. 



That was the sole cause of the trouble ; 

 far louder and more distinct than I ever 



heard it before, Dr. Bell's voice was com- 

 ing out of that instrument, and he was 

 saying: "Watson, are you there? Are 

 you listening? What is the matter?" I 

 shouted back, and then ensued the first 

 conversation that ever has been held over 

 a real telegraph wire. 



Some of Dr. Bell's pessimistic friends 

 had been objecting and saying that the 

 telephone would never compete with the 

 telegraph business even if he did get it to 

 talk over an outdoor wire ; so he made an 

 arrangement with me and 1 went to Cam- 

 bridge, and everything I heard him say 

 through the telephone I wrote down, and 

 what I said to him he would write down 

 at his end of the wire, so that the record 

 could be put side by side to prove to the 

 croakers that the telephone could really 

 transmit intelligence accurately. That 

 was done ; so that first conversation was 

 preserved, word for word. 



After he finished making the record, 

 which perhaps took a couple of hours, we 

 were so fascinated with the joy of talking 

 over a real telegraph line that we kept up 

 our conversation, without recording it, 

 until the small hours of the morning, and 

 I can assure you, ladies and gentlemen, 

 it was a very happy boy who wended his 

 way back to Boston early the next morn- 

 ing with a telephone under his arm, 

 wrapped up in a newspaper. 



A LANDLADY WHO COULD NOT APPRECIATE 

 SCIENCE 



Dr. Bell was not at the laboratory when 

 I got there, for he had gone to the news- 

 paper office to tell them about the won- 

 derful occurrence of the evening; but 

 when he came in, so enthused and jubi- 

 lant, we really danced a war - dance. 

 When Dr. Bell used to celebrate he would 

 do so with a war-dance, and I really got 

 so that I could war-dance nearly as well 

 as he. That night we had a jubilee and a 

 war-dance that lasted for some time, and 

 when our landlady met me the next 

 morning on the stairs she made the re- 

 mark that if we did not stop making so 

 much noise in the rooms of nights we 

 would have to vacate. Our landlady was 

 not at all scientific in her tastes, and I 

 think I remember we were a little behind 

 in our rent. 



That was the beginning of this stu- 

 pendous thing we call the Bell system to- 

 day, and it almost takes my breath away 



3 is 



