The Telephone, Motograph, And Microphone - 3

The Telephone, Motograph, And Microphone - 3

"In 1876 I started again to experiment for the Western Union and Mr. Orton. This time it
was the telephone. Bell invented the first telephone, which consisted of the present
receiver, used both as a transmitter and a receiver (the magneto type). It was attempted to
introduce it commercially, but it failed on account of its faintness and the extraneous
sounds which came in on its wires from various causes. Mr. Orton wanted me to take
hold of it and make it commercial. As I had also been working on a telegraph system
employing tuning-forks, simultaneously with both Bell and Gray, I was pretty familiar
with the subject. I started in, and soon produced the carbon transmitter, which is now
universally used.
"Tests were made between New York and Philadelphia, also between New York and
Washington, using regular Western Union wires. The noises were so great that not a word
could be heard with the Bell receiver when used as a transmitter between New York and
Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Orton and W. K. Vanderbilt and the board of directors
witnessed and took part in the tests. The Western Union then put them on private lines.
Mr. Theodore Puskas, of Budapest, Hungary, was the first man to suggest a telephone
exchange, and soon after exchanges were established. The telephone department was put
in the hands of Hamilton McK. Twombly, Vanderbilt's ablest son-in-law, who made a
success of it. The Bell company, of Boston, also started an exchange, and the fight was
on, the Western Union pirating the Bell receiver, and the Boston company pirating the
Western Union transmitter. About this time I wanted to be taken care of. I threw out hints
of this desire. Then Mr. Orton sent for me. He had learned that inventors didn't do
business by the regular process, and concluded he would close it right up. He asked me
how much I wanted. I had made up my mind it was certainly worth $25,000, if it ever
amounted to anything for central-station work, so that was the sum I had in mind to stick
to and get--obstinately. Still it had been an easy job, and only required a few months, and
I felt a little shaky and uncertain. So I asked him to make me an offer. He promptly said
he would give me $100,000. `All right,' I said. `It is yours on one condition, and that is
that you do not pay it all at once, but pay me at the rate of $6000 per year for seventeen
years'--the life of the patent. He seemed only too pleased to do this, and it was closed. My
ambition was about four times too large for my business capacity, and I knew that I
would soon spend this money experimenting if I got it all at once, so I fixed it that I
couldn't. I saved seventeen years of worry by this stroke."
Thus modestly is told the debut of Edison in the telephone art, to which with his carbon
transmitter he gave the valuable principle of varying the resistance of the transmitting
circuit with changes in the pressure, as well as the vital practice of using the induction
coil as a means of increasing the effective length of the talking circuit. Without these,
modern telephony would not and could not exist.[6] But Edison, in telephonic work, as in
other directions, was remarkably fertile and prolific. His first inventions in the art, made
in 1875-76, continue through many later years, including all kinds of carbon instruments
--the water telephone, electrostatic telephone, condenser telephone, chemical telephone,
various magneto telephones, inertia telephone, mercury telephone, voltaic pile telephone,
musical transmitter, and the electromotograph. All were actually made and tested.
[6] Briefly stated, the essential difference between Bell's telephone and Edison's is this:
With the former the sound vibrations impinge upon a steel diaphragm arranged adjacent
to the pole of a bar electromagnet, whereby the diaphragm acts as an armature, and by its
vibrations induces very weak electric impulses in the magnetic coil. These impulses,
according to Bell's theory, correspond in form to the sound-waves, and passing over the
line energize the magnet coil at the receiving end, and by varying the magnetism cause
the receiving diaphragm to be similarly vibrated to reproduce the sounds. A single
apparatus is therefore used at each end, performing the double function of transmitter and
receiver. With Edison's telephone a closed circuit is used on which is constantly flowing
a battery current, and included in that circuit is a pair of electrodes, one or both of which
is of carbon. These electrodes are always in contact with a certain initial pressure, so that
current will be always flowing over the circuit. One of the electrodes is connected with
the diaphragm on which the sound-waves impinge, and the vibration of this diaphragm
causes the pressure between the electrodes to be correspondingly varied, and thereby
effects a variation in the current, resulting in the production of impulses which actuate the
receiving magnet. In other words, with Bell's telephone the sound-waves themselves
generate the electric impulses, which are hence extremely faint. With the Edison
telephone, the sound-waves actuate an electric valve, so to speak, and permit variations in
a current of any desired strength.
A second distinction between the two telephones is this: With the Bell apparatus the very
weak electric impulses generated by the vibration of the transmitting diaphragm pass over
the entire line to the receiving end, and in consequence the permissible length of line is
limited to a few miles under ideal conditions. With Edison's telephone the battery current
does not flow on the main line, but passes through the primary circuit of an induction
coil, by which corresponding impulses of enormously higher potential are sent out on the
main line to the receiving end. In consequence, the line may be hundreds of miles in
length. No modern telephone system in use to-day lacks these characteristic features--the
varying resistance and the induction coil.
The principle of the electromotograph was utilized by Edison in more ways than one, first
of all in telegraphy at this juncture. The well-known Page patent, which had lingered in
the Patent Office for years, had just been issued, and was considered a formidable
weapon. It related to the use of a retractile spring to withdraw the armature lever from the
magnet of a telegraph or other relay or sounder, and thus controlled the art of telegraphy,
except in simple circuits. "There was no known way," remarks Edison, "whereby this
patent could be evaded, and its possessor would eventually control the use of what is
known as the relay and sounder, and this was vital to telegraphy. Gould was pounding the
Western Union on the Stock Exchange, disturbing its railroad contracts, and, being
advised by his lawyers that this patent was of great value, bought it. The moment Mr.
Orton heard this he sent for me and explained the situation, and wanted me to go to work
immediately and see if I couldn't evade it or discover some other means that could be
used in case Gould sustained the patent. It seemed a pretty hard job, because there was no
known means of moving a lever at the other end of a telegraph wire except by the use of
a magnet. I said I would go at it that night. In experimenting some years previously, I had
discovered a very peculiar phenomenon, and that was that if a piece of metal connected to
a battery was rubbed over a moistened piece of chalk resting on a metal connected to the
other pole, when the current passed the friction was greatly diminished. When the current
was reversed the friction was greatly increased over what it was when no current was
passing. Remembering this, I substituted a piece of chalk rotated by a small electric
motor for the magnet, and connecting a sounder to a metallic finger resting on the chalk,
the combination claim of Page was made worthless. A hitherto unknown means was
introduced in the electric art. Two or three of the devices were made and tested by the
company's expert. Mr. Orton, after he had me sign the patent application and got it in the
Patent Office, wanted to settle for it at once. He asked my price. Again I said: `Make me
an offer.' Again he named $100,000. I accepted, providing he would pay it at the rate of
$6000 a year for seventeen years. This was done, and thus, with the telephone money, I
received $12,000 yearly for that period from the Western Union Telegraph Company."