by Seth Shulman
speculating on wheat: From an undated reminiscence by Mabel Bell in the files of the Cambridge Historical Commission, as detailed in Carlson, “The Telephone as Political Instrument,” p. 34.
“Mr. Thomas Sanders said”: AGB to Alexander Melville Bell, Eliza Symonds Bell, and Carrie Bell, October 23, 1874.
Joseph Adams: Bell, The Multiple Telegraph, p. 14.
the three men formed a team: See Bruce, Bell, p. 129.
Pollok & Bailey: AGB to his parents, February 21, 1875. As Bell wrote of Pollok and Bailey, “They are the most eminent men connected with the Patent Office.”
Hubbard urged Bell: Gardiner Hubbard to AGB, November 18, 1874. Hubbard wrote, “I called…on Mr. Pollok and after discussing the matter with him, became satisfied that it was very unwise to file the Caveat, as it might do you great injury.”
“It is a neck and neck race”: AGB to his parents, November 23, 1874.
as big as an upright piano: Watson, Exploring Life, p. 62.
“perfect his telegraph”: Ibid., p. 63.
would file his first patent: Bell, U.S. Patent 161,739, filed March 6, 1875; issued April 6, 1875.
Bell’s book-length deposition: The Bell Telephone: The Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell in the Suit Brought by the United States to Annul the Bell Patents (cited hereafter as Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell).
“Most of the 149 volumes”: Bruce, Bell, p. 501.
a most extraordinary admission: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Int. 102, p. 82.
Bell worked out a separate agreement: Agreement between George Brown, John Gordon Brown, and AGB, December 29, 1875, AGB Family Papers, LOC (Subject File Folder: The Telephone, Brown, George, 1875–1888).
George Brown had left by ship: South Street Seaport Museum, New York, shipping records for the Russia, Cunard Line, cited in A. Edward Evenson, The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2000), p. 70.
“did not hear from Mr. Brown”: Bell Telephone Co. et al. v. Peter A. Dowd, Circuit Court of the U.S., District of Massachusetts, filed September 12, 1878, p. 435.
“Mr. Hubbard, becoming impatient”: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Int. 102, p. 82.
Hubbard was present: MacKenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 111.
“It is understood”: Agreement between George Brown, John Gordon Brown, and AGB, December 29, 1875.
7 : CLEAR RECEPTION
a newspaper article: “Bell and Helmholtz Meet,” New York Daily Tribune,
Wednesday, October 4, 1893.
“the danger of Whiggism”: For an interesting discussion of the implications of Whiggism on the field of chemistry, see Jan Golinski, “Chemistry,” in Roy Porter, ed. The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 4: Science in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 375–97.
Lord Rayleigh’s classic: John William Strutt, Baron Rayleigh, The Theory of Sound (London: Macmillan & Co., 1877–78).
Manual of Magnetism: Daniel Davis, Jr., et al., Davis’s Manual of Magnetism (Boston: Daniel Davis, Jr., 1842).
Wonders of Electricity: J. Baile, Wonders of Electricity (New York: Scribner Armstrong & Co., 1872). Bell mentions his use of this source in The Multiple Telegraph, p. 7.
“Some years hence”: Bell, The Multiple Telegraph, p. 7. See also Bruce, Bell, pp. 104–05.
“The search for truth”: MacKenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, p. vii.
“No finer influence”: Watson, Exploring Life, p. 57.
from elocution to table manners: Ibid., p. 58. As Watson colorfully puts it, “Up to that time, the knife had been the principal implement for eating in my family and among my acquaintances….”
“We accomplished little”: Ibid., p. 57.
“my faith in the harmonic telegraph”: Ibid., p. 61.
“never would have continued”: AGB to Mabel Hubbard Bell, September 9, 1878.
8 : PERSON-TO-PERSON
84 became a frequent visitor: See, e.g., Gertrude Hubbard to AGB, August 20, 1875, in which she writes: “Shall we see you as usual on Sunday afternoon?”
generous helpings of roast beef: Waite, Make a Joyful Sound, p. 85.
Bell’s feelings for Mabel: For a personal account, see AGB to his parents, June 30, 1875, in which Bell writes, “It is now more than a year ago since I first began to discover that my dear pupil, Mabel Hubbard, was making her way into my heart.”
“did not think him exactly a gentleman”: Mabel Hubbard Diaries, January 1879.
Mabel’s occasional letters: Mabel Hubbard to her mother, Vol. 78, available at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
“insisted on taking me to the streetcar”: Mabel Hubbard to her mother, February 3, 1874. 85 “What do you think”: Ibid.
Mr. Bell said today: Mabel Hubbard to her mother, November 19, 1873.
attended a dance party: See Toward, Mabel Bell, p. 22.
“with the greatest ease”: Gertrude Hubbard to Gardiner Hubbard, February 14, 1874.
started a special journal: A copy of this journal can be found as Journal by AGB and Melville James Bell, from 1867 to August 26, 1875, LOC (Series: Miscellany;
Folder: Miscellaneous Writing and Copies of Correspondence, 1868–1875).
“I do not know how or why”: AGB to Gertrude Hubbard, August 1, 1875 (emphasis in the original).
“I value a gentle loving heart”: Ibid.
a significant breakthrough: AGB to his parents, June 30, 1875. See also Bruce, >Bell, pp. 145–49.
Bell guessed correctly: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Int. 68, p. 59.
As Bell would later contend: Ibid.
“I am like a man in a fog”: AGB to his parents, June 30, 1875.
“I hadn’t been in love”: Watson, Exploring Life, p. 108.
“Pardon me for the liberty”: AGB to Gertrude Hubbard, June 24, 1875.
prompted an immediate meeting: AGB, Journal entry, June 25, 1875.
“Called on Mr. Hubbard”: AGB, Journal entry, June 27, 1875.
On a lovely June evening: AGB to Mabel Hubbard, August 8, 1875.
Bell wrote later: AGB to Mabel Hubbard, August 8, 1875.
Bell went again to Mrs. Hubbard: AGB, Journal entry, August 4, 1875.
she had received a letter from Mabel: AGB, Journal entry, August 3, 1875.
“I think I am old enough”: Mabel Hubbard to her mother, August 2, 1875.
“The letter which was read”: AGB to Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner Hubbard, August 5, 1875.
“regret this new burst of passion”: Gardiner Hubbard to AGB, August 6, 1875.
Ocean House Inn: AGB, Journal entry, August 7, 1875. Bell writes that the island was made impassable by a road washed out by a torrent of water some “forty feet wide and about three and a half inches deep.”
“You did not know, Mabel”: AGB to Mabel Hubbard, August 8, 1875.
93 Cousin Mary informed Bell: AGB, Journal entry, August 9, 1875.
In the greenhouse: AGB, Journal entry, August 26, 1875. Recounting this meeting, Bell calls it “The happiest day of my life.”
“Shall not record any more here”: AGB, Journal entry, August 26, 1875.
“I have been sorry to see”: Gardiner Hubbard to AGB, October 29, 1875.
“You are Mabel’s father”: AGB to Gardiner Hubbard, November 23, 1875.
wanted to marry Mabel: Gardiner Hubbard to AGB, October 29, 1875.
“I shall certainly not relinquish”: AGB to Gardiner Hubbard, November 23, 1875.
to become formally engaged: AGB to his parents, November 25, 1875.
“I know how young”: AGB to Gertrude Hubbard, August 1, 1875.
“Professor Bell had a special trouble”: Watson, Exploring Life, pp. 108–09.
9 : INTERFERENCE
includes 147,000 documents: Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, p. 8.
The Health of the Country: Conevery Bolton Valencius, The Health of the Country: How American Settlers Underst
ood Themselves and Their Land (New York: Basic Books, 2002). The book won the George Perkins Marsh Prize for the best environmental history of 2002.
She offered an example: Conevery Bolton Valencius (with Peter J. Kastor), “Sacagawea’s Cold,” presentation at the Conference on Health and Medicine in the Era of Lewis and Clark, College of Physicians, Philadelphia, November 2004.
A related article is forthcoming from the Bulletin of the History of Medicine (Summer 2008).
The caveat filed by Elisha Gray: Elisha Gray, U.S. Patent Office Caveat, filed February 14, 1876.
U.S. Patent No. 174,465: AGB, U.S. Patent No. 174,465, “Improvements in Telegraphy,” filed February 14, 1876; issued March 7, 1876.
a full-blown congressional investigation: At the direction of the U.S. Congress, the Department of the Interior undertook an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bell’s patent. See Report of the Department of the Interior, December 22, 1885. This report, issued by George Jenks, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, is included in M. B. Philipp, In the United States Patent Office. In the matter of the petition on behalf of Elisha Gray to re-open the interferences between A.G. Bell, Elisha Gray and others, before the Commissioner of Patents. Brief for petitioner. M. B. Philipp, counsel for Gray and the Gray National Telephone Co. (New York: B. Quick Print Co., 1888), p. 67.
“dropped off at the U.S. Patent Office”: Gray, Reluctant Genius, p. 121.
“The caveat was prepared deliberately”: See letter from Elisha Gray, published in Electrical World and Engineer, February 2, 1901, p. 199.
A. Edward Evenson: Evenson, The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876, pp. 73–83.
We know this from correspondence: Part of the so-called file wrapper of AGB U.S. Patent 174,465, now at the U.S. National Archives. Text available in Evenson, ibid., pp. 78–80; facsimiles reprinted in Burton H. Baker, The Gray Matter: The Forgotten Story of the Telephone (St. Joseph, MI: Telepress, 2000), pp. A25–A45.
the U.S. patent system: See U.S. Patent Code, 1839.
Wilber mailed notice: Patent Office memo to Pollok & Bailey, February 19, 1876, file wrapper, U.S. Patent 174,465.
immediately responded: Pollok & Bailey to the Commissioner of Patents, undated, file wrapper, U.S. Patent 174,465.
the Essex case: U.S. Patent Office, “Commissioner’s Decision of February 3, 1876,” Official Gazette, March 14, 1876, p. 497. Reprinted in Baker, The Gray Matter, p. A64.
“There is nothing in the records”: Ibid.
“We respectfully request”: Pollok & Bailey to the Commissioner of Patents, undated, file wrapper, U.S. Patent 174,465.
“The regular practice”: Ibid.
in an unusual governmental report: Report of the Department of the Interior, p. 67.
“If passing through a forest”: Ibid., p. 69.
10 : CALLER I.D.
The Speaking Telegraph: George B. Prescott, The Speaking Telegraph, Talking Phonograph and Other Novelties (New York: D. Appleton, 1879).
Who Invented the Telephone?: William Aitken, Who Invented the Telephone? (London: Blackie & Son, 1939).
The Telephone and Its Several Inventors: Lewis Coe, The Telephone and Its Several Inventors (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1995).
Charles Grafton Page: See, e.g., Aitken, Who Invented the Telephone?, p. 7. For more on Page’s life and times, see Robert C. Post, Physics, Patents, and Politics: The Washington Career of Charles Grafton Page, 1838–1868, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1973.
in Bell’s first public talk: Bell, “Researches in Telephony,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, May 10, 1876, p. 1. Bell’s notes cite the works of many researchers, including Page. See fn p. 1 citing C. G. Page, “The Production of Galvanic Music,” Silliman’s Journal (1837), vol. 32, pp. 396, 354; vol. 33, p. 118.
“carefully studied by Marrian”: Bell, “Researches in Telephony,” pp. 1–2.
Bell disavowed much knowledge: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Cross-Int. 384, p. 256. Bell notes: “I may say that previous to the issuance of my patent of March 7, 1876, I was very ignorant of the literature relating to the production of sound by electrical means.”
an 1854 article: See Charles Bourseul, “Transmission électrique de la parole,” L’Illustration Journal Universel, August 26, 1854.
“I have”: Ibid., p. 139.
two distinct camps: The History of Science Society, with its journal ISIS, was founded in the 1920s. The Society for the History of Technology, with its journal Technology and Culture, was begun in 1958. Each group has its own separate memberships, conferences, and awards.
focusing on Rudolph Koenig: See David Pantalony, “Rudolph Koenig’s Workshop of Sound: Instruments, Theories, and the Debate Over Combination Tones,” Annals of Science, vol. 62, no. 1 (January 2005), pp. 57–82.
very early “needle telegraphs”: For more on Cooke and Wheatstone’s needle telegraphs, see B. Bowers, “Inventors of the Telegraph,” Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 90, no. 3 (March 2002), pp. 436–39. Photographs from the Science Museum’s collection are available at http://www.ingenious.org.uk.
the first transatlantic telegraph cable: For a detailed scholarly account, see Bern Dibner, The Atlantic Cable (Norwalk, CT: Burndy Library, 1959).
the “Osborne telephone”: For a picture and description, see “Ingenious,” exhibit, Science Museum, London, online at: http://www.ingenious.org.uk.
Philipp Reis’s story: See Silvanus P. Thompson, Philipp Reis: Inventor of the Telephone (London: E. & F. N. Spon, 1883). See also John Liffen, “Precursors of the Telephone,” unpublished talk given at the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, November 18, 2003; copy courtesy of the author.
by 1861, he had a telephone prototype: For a timeline of Reis’s developments, see Thompson, Philipp Reis, pp. 11–12.
“went up into the room”: Testimonial of Heinrich Friedrich Peter, a music teacher at the Garnier Institute where Reis worked, quoted in ibid., p. 127.
“I was present at the Assembly”: Testimonial of Georg Quincke, professor of physics at the University of Heidelberg, quoted in ibid., p. 112.
Reis demonstrated the 1863 model: See Basilio Catania, “The Telephon of
Philipp Reis,” Antenna, vol. 17, no. 1 (October 2004), pp. 3–8. Available online at http://www.esanet.it/chez_basilio/reis.htm.
Stephen Yeates: See, e.g., McVeigh, “An Early History of the Telephone 1664–1865.”
Bell’s first public speech: Bell, “Researches in Telephony,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, May 10, 1876.
Wilhelm von Legat: Wilhelm Von Legat, “On the Reproduction of Sounds by means of Galvanic Current,” Zeitschrift des Deutsche-Oesterreichischen Telegraphen Vereins [Journal of the Austro-German Telegraph Union], vol. 9 (1862), p. 125. Dingler’s Polytechnishces Journal, vol. 169 (1863), p. 23, reproduced the article. An English translation appears in the “Deposition of Antonio Meucci,” part III, p. 29, copy in the New York Public Library.
Robert Ferguson: See Robert M. Ferguson, Electricity (London and Edinburgh: William & Robert Chambers, 1867), pp. 257–58.
Charles Cross: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Cross-Int. 327, p. 221.
a well-known Edinburgh shop: The Reis telephone was demonstrated by Mr. Shearer, dealer of “Messrs. Kemp & Co.” of Edinburgh. See “The Telephon of Philipp Reis,” p. 8, notes 23 and 24.
a firsthand demonstration: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Int. 54, p. 50. See also AGB to his parents, March 18, 1875.
“Before March 7, 1876”: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Cross-Int. 843, p. 428.
“Any sound will be reproduced”: Letter from Philipp Reis to William Ladd, July 13, 1863, courtesy of the Science Museum, London, inv. 1953–118.
“I take the ground that”: Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell, Cross-Int. 854, p. 432.
a demonstration in a U.S. courtroom: See Baker, The Gray Matter, pp. 42–43. The issue of Reis came up in many co
urtrooms; but a key failure of the demonstration took place in the so-called second Dolbear case—Dolbear II, 17 Fed. Rep. 604, U.S. Circuit Court, District of Massachusetts, filed October 10, 1881.
Silvanus Thompson argues: See Thompson, Philipp Reis, pp. 165–79.