The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret (v5) (26 page)

George Brown’s copy:
George Brown’s copy of AGB’s Patent Application of 1876 resurfaced as a key issue in telephone patent litigation that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is available at U.S. Reports 126US 88, October term, 1887. It is also reprinted in full in Evenson,
The Telephone Patent Conspiracy
, pp. 245–52, and in Baker,
The Gray Matter
, pp. A60–A63.

Bell and his legal team argued:
Evenson,
The Telephone Patent Conspiracy
, p.180.

“I sailed for Liverpool”:
George Brown to AGB, November 12, 1878.

Brown never did succeed:
See John Gordon Brown to AGB, February 27, 1876, in which he breaks the news that his brother had learned from “thoroughly competent parties” in Britain that Bell’s patent application would not be viable there. See also AGB to his parents, March 10, 1876. As Bell explained: “George Brown has thrown up telegraphy as it cannot be made a commercial success in England—telegraphy being there a government concern.” MacKenzie,
Alexander Graham Bell
, p. 111, notes that “Bell never forgot and never forgave” Brown for failing to pursue his patent in Britain.

“Whatever the reason”:
Bruce,
Bell,
p. 164.

swore to before a notary public:
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell,
Int. 102, p. 82. As Bell states, “The American application was sworn to in Boston, on the 20th of January, 1876 and was sent to Washington and placed in the hands of my solicitors there…”

Baker went to great lengths:
See Baker,
The Gray Matter
, pp. 117–22.

“It is my firm conclusion”:
Ibid., p. 132.

“I have read somewhere”:
AGB to Gardiner Hubbard, May 4, 1875.

so-called spark arrester:
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell,
Int. 103, pp. 83–88.

“For instance,
let mercury or some other liquid
”:
AGB, U.S. Patent 174,465.

“This application of the spark-arrester principle”:
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell,
Int. 103, p. 87.

no drawing or model would be necessary:
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell,
Cross-Int. 410, p. 265. As Bell notes in his testimony, Zenas Wilber had made the following notation on the file wrapper of his application: “The dwg. And Specn in this case are sufficient for the examination.”

“How did you come”:
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell,
Int. 266, p. 195.

“I do not know what it was”:
Ibid.

“On this gossamer thread”:
Taylor, unpublished manuscript, chap. 7.

14
: C
ALL
W
AITING

“all the Speaking Telephones…Mr. Gray’s”:
Prescott,
The Speaking Telegraph, Talking Phonograph and Other Novelties
, p. 34.

the terms of the settlement:
According to Evenson,
The Telephone Patent Conspiracy
, p. 198.

165
“all the Speaking Telephones…Mr. Bell’s”:
George B. Prescott,
Bell’s Electric Speaking Telephone: Its Invention, Construction, Application, Modification and History
(New York: D. Appleton, 1884), p. 34. This version is, with several noteworthy deletions and changes, the same as his earlier work,
The Speaking Telegraph
. (Much more widely distributed than its predecessor, it was most recently available in an edition by the Arno Press, formerly a subsidiary of the New York Times Co., 1972.)

“From the reading of the text”:
Prescott,
The Speaking Telegraph,
p. 73, note 1.

even the title of his book:
Prescott,
Bell’s Electric Speaking Telephone.

“struck him a smart blow”:
See Isaac d’Israeli,
Curiosities of Literature
(Paris: 1835), p. 24. For more on the apple myth, see also James Gleick,
Isaac Newton
(New York: Pantheon Books, 2003), pp. 54–57. Gleick calls it “the single most enduring legend in the annals of scientific discovery.”

“The apple myth”:
George Smith, “Myth versus Reality in the History of Science,” unpublished proposal, February 2005, quoted courtesy of the author.

Irving Fang’s textbook:
Irving Fang,
A History of Mass Communications: Six Information Revolutions
(Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 1997), p. 84.

The Nobel Book of Answers
:
Gerd Binning, “How Does the Telephone Work?,” in Bettina Steikel, ed.,
The Nobel Book of Answers: The Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, and Other Nobel Prize Winners Answer Some of Life’s Most Intriguing Questions for Young People
(Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2003), p. 121.

“On 7 March 1876”
:
Ian McNeil, ed.,
The Encyclopaedia of the History of Technology
(London: Routledge, 1996), p. 719.

Famous Americans
:
Famous Americans: 22 Short Plays for the Classroom
(New York: Scholastic Books, 1995), p. 93.

Herbert Casson:
Casson,
The History of the Telephone
(Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910), p. 10.

Understanding Telephone Electronics
:
Joseph Carr, Steve Winder, and Stephen Bigelow,
Understanding Telephone Electronics
(Woburn, MA: Newnes, 2001), p. 1.

“A pile of tools”:
Victoria Sherrow and Elaine Verstraete,
Alexander Graham Bell (On My Own Biographies)
(Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 2001), p. 43.

Bell made no mention of his first:
Baker,
The Gray Matter
, p. 62, citing congressional hearings, 1886.

Bell does touch upon the story:
Taylor, unpublished manuscript, chap. 2.

in August 1882:
Ibid.

“Watson dashed down the hall”:
MacKenzie,
Alexander Graham Bell,
p. 115.

Bell’s first public speech about the telephone:
Bell, “Researches in Telephony,”
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, May 10, 1876.

Scholars normally describe:
See, e.g., Karl L. Wildes and Nilo A. Lindren,
A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882–1982
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985), p. 25.

a far more primitive apparatus:
AGB to his parents, May 12, 1876.

“The meeting at the Academy”:
Ibid.

“I do not know that I can recall them”:
Deposition of Alexander Graham Bell,
Int. 118, p. 85.

Instead, he switched his focus:
AGB, Laboratory Notebook, 1875–1876, pp. 81–83.

a “magneto-electric” transmitter:
Bruce,
Bell,
p. 185.

Bernard Finn:
See Bernard Finn, “Alexander Graham Bell’s Experiments with the Variable-Resistance Transmitter,”
Smithsonian Journal of History,
vol. 1, no. 4 (1966), pp. 1–16.

Bell notes that it is difficult to hear:
AGB, Laboratory Notebook, 1875–1876, pp. 12–13.

including most notably Thomas Edison:
See Thomas A. Edison, “Improvement in Speaking-Telegraphs,” U.S. Patent 203,015, filed August 28, 1877; issued April 30, 1878. It is one of the great ironies of the history of the telephone that Bell’s rival, Thomas Edison, with his invention of the carbon-button transmitter, finally perfected a commercially viable telephone design. This fact would play a large role in the final settlement of the
Dowd
suit between Bell Telephone and Western Union in November 1879.

“Upon the variable-resistance transmitter”:
Bruce,
Bell,
p. 185.

MIT Archives:
Minutes of the May 25, 1876, meeting at MIT, “The 197th meeting of the Society of Arts,” available courtesy of the MIT Archives, Cambridge, MA.

the
Boston Transcript
:
Boston Transcript,
May 31, 1876, courtesy of the MIT Archives, Cambridge, MA.

“at last found the solution”:
AGB to Alexander Melville Bell, March 10, 1876.

15
: P
ARTY
L
INE

Grand Villa Hotel:
AGB to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.

More than 30, 000 exhibitors:
For a concise overview of the exhibit, see, e.g., “Progress Made Visible: The Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876,” Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library. Available online at http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/cent.htm.

“I really wish you could be here”:
AGB to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.

Some thirty-seven nations:
An in-depth review is available in Robert C. Post, ed.,
1876: A Centennial Exhibition
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1976).

particularly caught Bell’s eye:
Bell recounts this and other exhibits in his letter to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.

Frédéric Bartholdi’s dramatic:
See “Colossal hand and torch ‘Liberty,’” photograph in the collection of LOC, digital file reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-02957. The official history of the Statue of Liberty is available online from the U.S. National Park Service at http://www.nps.gov/stli/.

the world’s first steam-driven monorail:
See John Allwood,
The Great Exhibitions
(London: Studio Vista, 1977), p. 57.

newfangled elevator:
Ibid.

Corliss Steam Engine:
See Post, ed.,
1876,
p. 31.

“loftily in the center”:
W. D. Howells, “A Sennight of the Centennial,”
Atlantic Monthly,
vol. 38, no. 225 (July 1876), p. 96. Available online in the “Making of America” collection at Cornell University Library, http://cdl.library.cornell.edu.

Edison brought his newly designed:
U.S. Centennial Commission,
International Exhibition 1876: Official Catalogue
(Philadelphia: John R. Nagle & Co., 1876), p. 331.

Rudolph Koenig:
U.S. Centennial Commission,
International Exhibition, 1876: Reports and Awards.
Vol. VII, ed. Francis A. Walker (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880), p. 12.

Bausch & Lomb:
Ibid.

brand-new material called asbestos:
International Exhibition 1876: Official Catalogue,
p. 104.

new tomato condiment:
According to the official history of the H. J. Heinz Co., ketchup was introduced in 1876, adding to the company’s existing line, which included pickles, horseradish, and sauerkraut.

“I shall be glad”:
AGB to Mabel Hubbard, June 21, 1876.

First, Bell missed the application deadline:
Bruce,
Bell,
p. 190. See also MacKenzie,
Alexander Graham Bell
, p. 119.

As Bell’s daughter Elsie recounted:
Elsie Grosvenor, “Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell—A Reminiscence,”
Volta Review,
vol. 59 (1957), pp. 209–305. See also Gray,
Reluctant Genius,
p. 134.