TELEPHONE TECHNOLOGY

On January 25, 1915, a big celebration took place after the following conversation:

Alexander Graham Bell (sitting in New York, speaking into a telephone):  

"Mr Watson, come here.  I want you." 

Mr. Watson (Bell's assistant, listening in on a telephone in San Francisco): 

"It will take me five days to get there now!"

Prior to this history-making call, a trial phone call had already taken place in July, 1914, when Theodore Vail, the president of AT&T, spoke coast to coast with his voice being boosted in Pittsburgh, Omaha, and Salt Lake City. The company had been wanting to link the two coasts via phone, and finally found a device to make that possible - Lee DeForest's "audions," the first vacuum tubes. (pbs.org, "A Transcontinental Telephone Line")

If you have an interest in the technology that made this event possible, we invite you to stop by the Bullis Room and spend some time with these century-plus old books:

The History of the Telephone

by Herbert Newton Casson

published in Chicago by A. C. McClurg, 1911

and

The Telephone: An Account of the Phenomena of

Electricity, Magnetism, and Sound, as Involved in its Action.

With Directions for Making a Speaking Telephone

by A. E. Dolbear

published in Boston by Lee & Shepard, 1877

Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone changed his life, and its modern equivalent has become such a part of our lives, we wonder how we would function without it. So "thank you," Mr. Bell. Many, many thanks.

AMERICAN INVENTORS

Two hundred five years ago today, Robert Fulton's steamboat arrived in Albany, two days after leaving New York.  You can read more about Mr. Fulton's world-changing invention (and many more) in a book in this collection titled Inventors. Philip Gengembre Hubert wrote this book which was published in 1893 by C. Scribner's Sons as part of a Men of Achievement series. Its 299 pages contain illustrations, plates, and interesting information about  these American inventors:

Robert Fulton, Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney, Elias Howe, Samuel F. B. Morse, Charles Goodyear, John Ericsson, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Thomas A. Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell.

To further tempt you to take a look at this Bullis book, here's an excerpt that documents Robert Fulton's account of his voyage:

"My steamboat voyage to Albany and back, has turned out rather more favorable than I had calculated. The distance from New York to Albany is one hundred and fifty miles; I ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down in thirty. I had a light breeze against me the whole way, both going and coming, and the voyage has been performed wholly by the power of the steam engine. I overtook many sloops and schooners beating to windward, and parted with them as if they had been at anchor. The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning I left New York there were not, perhaps, thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat would even move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility; and while we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way in which ignorant men comment what they call philosophers and projectors. Having employed much time, money, and zeal, in accomplishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great pleasure to see it fully answer my expectations. It will give a cheap and quick conveyance to the merchandise on the Mississippi, Missouri, and other great rivers, which are now laying open their treasures to the enterprise of our countrymen; and although the prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the immense advantage that my country will derive from the invention." (pp. 60-61)

This book is on our "to read" list - we suggest you consider putting it on yours.