Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
177
This
later
form
was
publicly
exhibited
on
May
4,
1877
at
a
lecture
given
by
Professor
Bell
in
the
Boston
Music
Hall.
'Going
to
the
small
telephone
box
with
its
slender
wire
attachments,'
says
a
report,
'Mr.
Bell
coolly
asked,
as
though
addressing
some
one
in
an
adjoining
room,
"Mr.
Watson,
are
you
ready!"
Mr.
Watson,
five
miles
away
in
Somerville,
promptly
answered
in
the
affirmative,
and
soon
was
heard
a
voice
singing
"America."....Going
to
another
instrument,
connected
by
wire
with
Providence,
forty-three
miles
distant,
Mr.
Bell
listened
a
moment,
and
said,
"Signor
Brignolli,
who
is
assisting
at
a
concert
in
Providence
Music
Hall,
will
now
sing
for
us."
In
a
moment
the
cadence
of
the
tenor's
voice
rose
and
fell,
the
sound
being
faint,
sometimes
lost,
and
then
again
audible.
Later,
a
cornet
solo
played
in
Somerville
was
very
distinctly
heard.
Still
later,
a
three-part
song
floated
over
the
wire
from
the
Somerville
terminus,
and
Mr.
Bell
amused
his
audience
exceedingly
by
exclaiming,
"I
will
switch
off
the
song
from
one
part
of
the
room
to
another,
so
that
all
can
hear."
At
a
subsequent
lecture
in
Salem,
Massachusetts,
communication
was
established
with
Boston,
eighteen
miles
distant,
and
Mr.
Watson
at
the
latter
place
sang
"Auld
Lang
Syne,"
the
National
Anthem,
and
"Hail
Columbia,"
while
the
audience
at
Salem
joined
in
the
chorus.'
Bell
had
overcome
the
difficulty
which
baffled
Reis,
and
succeeded
in
making
the
undulations
of
the
current
fit
the
vibrations
of
the
voice
as
a
glove
will
fit
the
hand.
But
the
articulation,
though
distinct,
was
feeble,
and
it
remained
for
Edison,
by
inventing
the
carbon
transmitter,
and
Hughes,
by
discovering
the
microphone,
to
render
the
telephone
the
useful
and
widespread
apparatus
which
we
see
it
now.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
