"i should think," commented laurie one day, when ted and mr. hazen were sitting in his room, "that mr. bell's landlady would have fussed no end to have his telephone ringing all the time."
"my dear boy, you do not for an instant suppose that the telephones of that period had bells, do you?" replied mr. hazen with amusement. "no, indeed! there was no method for signaling. unless two persons agreed to talk at a specified hour of the day or night and timed their conversation by the clock, or else had recourse to the morse code, there was no satisfactory way they could call one another. this did not greatly matter when you recollect how few telephones there were in existence. mr. williams used to summon a listener by tapping on the metal diaphragm of the instrument with his pencil, a practice none too beneficial to the transmitter; nor was the resulting sound powerful enough to reach any one who was not close at hand. furthermore, persons could not stand and hold their telephones and wait until they could arouse the party at the other end of the line for a telephone weighed almost ten pounds and——"
"ten pounds!" repeated ted in consternation.
mr. hazen nodded.
"yes," answered he, "the early telephones were heavy, cumbersome objects and not at all like the trim, compact instruments we have to-day. in fact, they were quite similar to the top of a sewing-machine box, only, perhaps, they were a trifle smaller. you can understand that one would not care to carry on a very long conversation if he must in the meantime stand and hold in his arms a ten-pound object about ten inches long, six inches wide, and six inches high."
"i should say not!" laurie returned. "it must have acted as a fine check, though, on people who just wanted to gabble."
both ted and the tutor laughed.
"of course telephone owners could not go on that way," ted said, after the merriment had subsided. "what did mr. bell do about it?"
"the initial step for betterment was not taken by mr. bell but by mr. watson," mr. hazen responded. "he rigged a little hammer inside the box and afterwards put a button on the outside. this thumper was the first calling device ever in use. later on, however, the assistant felt he could improve on this method and he adapted the buzzer of the harmonic telegraph to the telephone; this proved to be a distinct advance over the more primitive thumper but nevertheless he was not satisfied with it as a signaling apparatus. so he searched farther still, and with the aid of one of the shabby little books on electricity that he had purchased for a quarter from williams's tiny showcase, he evolved the magneto-electric call bell such as we use to-day. this answered every purpose and nothing has ever been found that has supplanted it. it is something of a pity that watson did not think to affix his name to this invention; but he was too deeply interested in what he was doing and probably too busy to consider its value. his one idea was to help mr. bell to improve the telephone in every way possible and measuring what he was going to get out of it was apparently very far from his thought. of course, the first of these call bells were not perfect, any more than were the first telephones; by and by, however, their defects were remedied until they became entirely satisfactory."
"so they now had telephones, transmitters, and call bells," reflected ted. "i should say they were pretty well ready for business."
"you forget the switchboard," was mr. hazen's retort. "a one-party line was a luxury and a thing practically beyond the reach of the public. at best there were very few of them. no, some method for connecting parties who wished to speak to one another had to be found and it is at this juncture of the telephone's career that a new contributor to the invention's success comes upon the scene.
"doing business at number 342 washington street was a young new yorker by the name of edwin t. holmes, who had charge of his father's burglar-alarm office. as all the electrical equipment he used was made at williams's shop, he used frequently to go there and one day, when he entered, he came upon charles williams, the proprietor of the store, standing before a little box that rested on a shelf and shouting into it. hearing mr. holmes's step, he glanced over his shoulder, met his visitor's astonished gaze, and laughed.
"'for heaven's sake, williams, what have you got in that box?' demanded mr. holmes.
"'oh, this is what that fellow out there by watson's bench, mr. bell, calls a telephone,' replied mr. williams.
"'so that's the thing i have seen squibs in the paper about!' observed the burglar-alarm man with curiosity.
"'yes, he and watson have been working at it for some time.'
"now mr. holmes knew tom watson well for the young electrician had done a great deal of work for him in the past; moreover, the new york man was a person who kept well abreast of the times and was always alert for novel ideas. therefore quite naturally he became interested in the embryo enterprise and dropped into williams's shop almost every day to see how the infant invention was progressing. in this way he met both mr. gardiner hubbard and mr. thomas saunders, who were mr. bell's financial sponsors. after mr. holmes had been a spectator of the telephone for some time, he remarked to mr. hubbard:
"'if you succeed in getting two or three of those things to work and will lend them to me, i will show them to boston.'
"'show them to boston,' repeated mr. hubbard. 'how will you do that?'
"'well,' said mr. holmes, 'i have a central office down at number 342 washington street from which i have individual wires running to most of the banks, many jeweler's shops, and other stores. i can ring a bell in a bank from my office and the bank can ring one to me in return. by using switches and giving a prearranged signal to the exchange bank, both of us could throw a switch which would put the telephones in circuit and we could talk together.'
"after looking at mr. holmes for a moment with great surprise, mr. hubbard slapped him on the back and said, 'i will do it! get your switches and other things ready.'
"of course mr. holmes was greatly elated to be the first one to show on his wires this wonderful new instrument and connect two or more parties through a central office. he immediately had a switchboard made (its actual size was five by thirty-six inches) through which he ran a few of his burglar-alarm circuits and by means of plugs he arranged so that he could throw the circuit from the burglar-alarm instruments to the telephone. he also had a shelf made to rest the telephones on and had others like it built at the exchange national and the hide and leather banks. in a few days the telephones, numbered 6, 7, and 8, arrived and were quickly installed, and the marvellous exhibition opened. soon two more instruments were added, one of which was placed in the banking house of brewster, bassett and company and the other in the shoe and leather bank. when the williams shop was connected, it gave mr. holmes a working exchange of five connections, the first telephone exchange in history."
"i'll bet they had some queer times with it," asserted ted.
"they did, indeed!" smiled mr. hazen. "the papers announced the event, although in very retiring type, and persons of every walk in life flocked to the holmes office to see the wonder with their own eyes. so many came that mr. holmes had a long bench made so that visitors could sit down and watch the show. one day a cornetist played from the holmes building so that the members of the boston stock exchange, assembled at the office of brewster, bassett and company, could hear the performance. considering the innovation a great boon, the new york man secured another instrument and after meditating some time on whom he would bestow it he decided to install it in the revere bank, thinking the bank people would be delighted to be recipients of the favor. his burglar-alarm department had pass-keys to all the banks and therefore, when banking hours were over, he and one of his men obtained entrance and put the telephone in place. the following morning he had word that the president of the bank wished to see him and expecting to receive thanks for the happy little surprise he had given the official, he hurried to the bank. instead of expressing gratitude, however, the president of the institution said in an injured tone:
"'mr. holmes, what is that play toy you have taken the liberty of putting up out there in the banking room?'
"'why, that is what they are going to call a telephone,' explained mr. holmes.
"'a telephone! what's a telephone?' inquired the president.
"with enthusiasm the new yorker carefully sketched in the new invention and told what could be done with it.
"after he had finished he was greatly astonished to have the head of the bank reply with scorn:
"'mr. holmes, you take that plaything out of my bank and don't ever take such liberties again.'
"you may be sure the plaything was quickly removed and the revere bank went on record as having the first telephone disconnection in the country.
"having exhibited the telephones for a couple of weeks, mr. holmes went to mr. hubbard and suggested that he would like to continue to carry on the exchange but he should like it put on a business basis.
"'have you any money?' asked mr. hubbard.
"'mighty little,' was the frank answer.
"'well, that's more than we have got,' mr. hubbard responded. 'however, if you have got enough money to do the business and build the exchange, we will rent you the telephones.'
"by august, 1877, when bell's patent was sixteen months' old, casson's history tells us there were seven hundred and seventy-eight telephones in use and the bell telephone association was formed. the organization was held together by an extremely simple agreement which gave bell, hubbard, and saunders a three-tenths' interest apiece in the patents and watson one-tenth. the business possessed no capital, as there was none to be had; and these four men at that time had an absolute monopoly of the telephone business,—and everybody else was quite willing they should have.
"in addition to these four associates was charles williams, who had from the first been a believer in the venture, and mr. holmes who built the first telephone exchange with his own money, and had about seven hundred of the seven hundred and seventy-eight instruments on his wires. mr. robert w. devonshire joined the others in august, 1877, as bookkeeper and general secretary and has since become an official in the american telephone and telegraph company.
"mr. holmes rented the telephones for ten dollars a year and through his exchange was the first practical man who had the temerity to offer telephone service for sale. it was the arrival of a new idea in the business world.
"now the business world is not a tranquil place and as soon as the new invention began to prosper, every sort of difficulty beset its path.
"there were those who denied that mr. bell had been first in the field with the telephone idea, and they began to contest his right to the patents. other telephone companies sprang up and began to compete with the rugged-hearted pioneers who had launched the industry. lawsuits followed and for years mr. bell's days were one continual fight to maintain his claims and keep others from wresting his hard-earned prosperity from him. but in time smoother waters were reached and now alexander graham bell has been universally conceded to be the inventor of this marvel without which we of the present should scarcely know how to get on."
"i don't believe we could live without telephones now, do you?" remarked laurie thoughtfully.
"oh, i suppose we could keep alive," laughed mr. hazen, "but i am afraid our present order of civilization would have to be changed a good deal. we scarcely realize what a part the telephone plays in almost everything we attempt to do. certainly the invention helps to speed up our existence; and, convenient as it is, i sometimes am ungrateful enough to wonder whether we should not be a less highly strung and nervous nation without it. however that may be, the telephone is here, and here to stay, and you now have a pretty clear idea of its early history. how from these slender beginnings the industry spread until it spanned continents and circled the globe, you can easily read elsewhere. yet mighty as this factor has become in the business world, it is not from this angle of its greatness that i like best to view it. i would rather think of the lives it has saved; the good news it has often borne; the misunderstandings it has prevented; the better unity it has promoted among all peoples. just as the railroad was a gigantic agent in bringing north, south, east, and west closer together, so the telephone has helped to make our vast country, with its many diverse elements, 'one nation, indivisible.'"
