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Alexander
Graham Bell (18471922)
Present Form of Multiple Telegraph
1878
Bell Family Papers, box 291, folder 272
00112
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Alexander
Graham Bell's precursor to the telephone
1878
Alexander
Graham Bell is known throughout the world for
inventing the telephone. His motivation for improving
communications came from his daily life. From
his earliest days Bell knew the world of silencehis
mother was nearly deaf, and young Alec served
as her interpreter. He was also well-acquainted
with speech, as the Bell family had been recognised
for two generations as leading authorities in
elocution and speech correction.
Bell's
work on a 'multiple telegraph' led him to the
experiments that produced electrical transmission
of speech, and thus the telephone. Thomas Watson
assisted Bell with the mechanical realisation
of the idea. Their combined invention of the first
telegraph that could transmit intelligible speech
became the subject of ongoing patent infringement
cases (this drawing was the complainants' exhibit
number 37). The United States Supreme Court held
that Bell and Watson were the first to conceive
and apply the undulatory currentthe technique
that succeeded in transmitting speechwhere
other inventions had failed. Bell noted: 'First
attempt to transmit the human voice. The varying
pitch of the voice could be discriminated but
not the quality. A sort of muttering effect was
perceived at the receiving end when a person talked
very loudly at the other end'. This experiment
led to Bell's invention of the photophone, which
was founded on the same principle as today's laser
and fibre optic communication systems.
The
clear handwriting of the description displayed
here is that of Bell's wife Mabel, who often transcribed
his sometimes untidy notebooks; Bell himself added
the drawing. As we can see from his sketch of
the telegraph, which became the telephone, Bell
was not a skilled draftsman. He was, however,
a man of great vision, with many innovations in
a variety of fields to his credit.
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