THE FIBST TELEPHONE. 
51 
in ]861, and described in the Journal, is somewhat different 
from the “ ear.” The description is taken from the Journal. 
‘‘In a cube of wood there is a conical hole, closed at one 
side by the membrane (made of the lesser intestine of the pig), 
upon the middle of which a little strip of platinum is cemented 
as a conductor of the current. This is united with the binding- 
screw From the binding-screw n there passes likewise a thin 
strip of metal over the middle of the membrane, and terminates 
here in a little platinum Avire Avhich stands at right-angles to 
the length and breadth of the strip. From the binding-screw p 
a conducting wire leads through the battery to a distant station.” 
In the original instrument there is also an adjusting-screw to 
regulate the contact, though this was not shewui in the drawing 
in the Frankfort Journal. 
The receiver used to reproduce the sounds transmitted by 
these Telephones is also described in the memoir of Eeis. It 
consisted of a steel needle surrounded by a coil of wire. This 
w’as at first set up — for the purpose of increasing the sounds by 
resonance — upon the top of a violin, as shewm in fig. 6 ; later it 
Fig. 6. 
was mounted upon a pine-wood box, as in fig, 7 ; to wliich still 
