Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
209
The
Edison
telephone,
when
at
its
best,
could
transmit
all
kinds
of
noises,
gentle
or
harsh;
it
could
lift
up
its
voice
and
cry
aloud,
or
sink
it
to
a
confidential
whisper.
There
was
a
slight
Punchinellian
twang
about
its
utterances,
which,
if
it
did
not
altogether
disguise
the
individuality
of
the
distant
speaker,
gave
it
the
comicality
of
a
clever
parody,
and
to
hear
it
singing
a
song,
and
quavering
jauntily
on
the
high
notes,
was
irresistibly
funny.
Instrumental
notes
were
given
in
all
their
purity,
and,
after
the
phonograph,
there
was
nothing
more
magical
in
the
whole
range
of
science
than
to
hear
that
fragment
of
common
chalk
distilling
to
the
air
the
liquid
melody
of
sweet
bells
jingling
in
tune.
It
brought
to
mind
that
wonderful
stone
of
Memnon,
which
responded
to
the
rays
of
sunrise.
It
seemed
to
the
listener
that
if
the
age
of
miracles
was
past
that
of
marvels
had
arrived,
and
considering
the
simplicity
of
the
materials,
and
the
obscurity
of
its
action,
the
loud-speaking
telephone
was
one
of
the
most
astonishing
of
recent
inventions.
After
Professor
Hughes
had
published
his
discovery
of
the
microphone,
Edison,
recognising,
perhaps,
that
it
and
the
carbon
transmitter
were
based
on
the
same
principle,
and
having
learnt
his
knowledge
of
the
world
in
the
hard
school
of
adversity,
hastily
claimed
the
microphone
as
a
variety
of
his
invention,
but
imprudently
charged
Professor
Hughes
and
his
friend,
Mr.
W.
H.
Preece,
who
had
visited
Edison
at
Menlo
Park,
with
having
'stolen
his
thunder.'
The
imputation
was
indignantly
denied,
and
it
was
obvious
to
all
impartial
electricians
that
Professor
Hughes
had
arrived
at
his
results
by
a
path
quite
independent
of
the
carbon
transmitter,
and
discovered
a
great
deal
more
than
Edison
had
done.
For
one
thing,
Edison
believed
the
action
of
his
transmitter
as
due
to
a
property
of
certain
poor
or
'semi-conductors,'
whereby
their
electric
resistance
varied
under
pressure.
Hughes
taught
us
to
understand
that
it
was
owing
to
a
property
of
loose
electrical
contact
between
any
two
conductors.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
