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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
243
The
success
of
the
Hughes
type-printer
may
be
said
to
have
covered
its
author
with
titles
and
scientific
honours,
and
placed
him
above
the
necessity
of
regular
employment.
He
left
America,
and
travelled
from
place
to
place.
For
many
years
past,
however,
he
has
resided
privately
in
London,
an
eminent
example
of
that
modesty
and
simplicity
which
is
generally
said
to
accompany
true
genius.
Mechanical
invention
is
influenced
to
a
very
high
degree
by
external
circumstances.
It
may
sound
sensational,
but
it
is
nevertheless
true,
that
we
owe
the
microphone
to
an
attack
of
bronchitis.
During
the
thick
foggy
weather
of
November
1877,
Professor
Hughes
was
confined
to
his
home
by
a
severe
cold,
and
in
order
to
divert
his
thoughts
he
began
to
amuse
himself
with
a
speaking
telephone.
Then
it
occurred
to
him
that
there
might
be
some
means
found
of
making
the
wire
of
the
telephone
circuit
speak
of
itself
without
the
need
of
telephones
at
all,
or
at
least
without
the
need
of
one
telephone,
namely,
that
used
in
transmitting
the
sounds.
The
distinguished
physicist
Sir
William
Thomson,
had
lately
discovered
the
peculiar
fact
that
when
a
current
of
electricity
is
passed
through
a
wire,
the
current
augments
when
the
wire
is
extended,
and
diminishes
when
the
wire
is
compressed,
because
in
the
former
case
the
resistance
of
the
material
of
the
wire
to
the
passage
of
the
current
is
lessened,
and
in
the
latter
case
it
becomes
greater.
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