THE TELEPHONE.
A LECTURE
ENTITLED
RESEARCHES IN ELECTRIC TELEPHONY,
BY
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL,
DELIVERED BEFORE
The Society of Telegraph Engineers,
October 31st, 1877.
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY,
AND EDITED BY
LIEUT.-COL. FRANK BOLTON, C.E., Hon. Secretary,
AND
WILLIAM EDWARD LANGDON, Acting Secretary.
London:
E. and F. N. SPON, 46, CHARING CROSS.
New York:
446, BROOME STREET.
1878.
Price One Shilling and Sixpence.
The right of translation and reproduction is reserved
Special General Meeting, held at 25, Great George Street, Westminster,
on Wednesday, the 31st October, 1877.
Professor Abel, C.B., F.R.S., President, in the Chair.
The President: Gentlemen, the Council of the Society ofTelegraph Engineers felt that they were sure of doing what the memberswould consider right in summoning a special meeting for the two-foldpurpose of giving a welcome to Professor Bell to this country andaffording the Members an opportunity of hearing from him an account,which he has been so good as to promise to give us, of the nature,history, and development of, what may well be called, one of the mostinteresting discoveries of our age. Our time is very precious thisevening. We all desire to hear everything Professor Bell can tell uson this subject, and many gentlemen will probably desire afterwards toask questions or discuss the subject, for I see present a great numberof eminent scientific men. I will not waste another moment, but at oncecall upon Professor Bell to commence his discourse on the Electric Telephone.
RESEARCHES IN ELECTRIC TELEPHONY.
By Professor Alexander Graham Bell.
Professor Bell: Mr. President andGentlemen of the Society of Telegraph Engineers. It is to-night mypleasure, as well as duty, to give you some account of the telephonic[Pg 2]researches in which I have been so long engaged. Many years ago myattention was directed to the mechanism of speech by my father,Alexander Melville Bell, of Edinburgh, who has made a life-long studyof the subject. Many of those present may recollect the inventionby my father of a means of representing, in a wonderfully accuratemanner, the positions of the vocal organs in forming sounds. Togetherwe carried on quite a number of experiments, seeking to discoverthe correct mechanism of English and foreign elements of speech,and I remember especially an investigation in which we were engagedconcerning the musical relations of vowel sounds. When vowel sounds arewhispered, each vowel seems to possess a particular pitch of its own,and by whispering certain vowels in succession a musical scale can bedistinctly perceived. Our aim was to determine the natural