LOVER'S TELEGRAPH

Although it is now an indisputable fact that Alexander Graham Bell was the first person to receive a patent for a telephone instrument, he was not the first to lay claim to this most important invention. 

Many were those who came forward to dispute Mr. Bell's claim. So convincing were some of their arguments that even foreign governments became embroiled in the dispute. One French inventor was so convincing that his government granted him a pension for life as a reward for his service to science. The Russians, of course, also boasted that the first "tele-phone-ski" was a product of their ingenuity. But, alas, leave it to old Ma Bell to come up with the true story of the birth of the telephone. 

A brilliant English physicist, Robert Hooke, recorded that he had experimented with an acoustical devise for the transmission of sound over a wire as far back as 1667.

During the 1830's and '40's, another prominent English physicist, Sir Charles Wheatstone, was deeply involved in the perfection of the telegraph. As a byproduct of that work he further developed Hooke's acoustical concept. By stretching a string between two "voice boxes" he and his assistant were able to talk over distances of several yards. Thus was born the acoustical telephone.

However, at that time the word telephone was known but to a very few. The telegraph, on the other hand, had just been born and had the world's rapt attention, thus the term telegraph was more applicable. The talking device had found a good deal of popularity with young sweethearts which led to the title still used today, LOVER'S TELEGRAPH.

It seems unlikely that our sophisticated society of today could comprehend how important this simple device became. Just as the horse filled an important need before the advent of the automobile, so did the Lover's Telegraph supply an answer to the communication needs of our predecessors. It was widely adopted for commercial and social use in the U.S. just about the time the telephone was being introduced.

Various publications of the period advertised the merits of this simple telephone. The Agriculture Almanac printed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1879, did a story titled, "How to Construct a Farmer's Telephone." They claimed a working range of 1000 feet using a conductor made from "tape such as is used by ladies for their dresses." Where support for the tape was required they recommended to "fasten flatwise to the top of a spiral spring." They further recommended a piece of an old kid glove or stout paper be stretched over the mouth of a kerosene lamp chimney, attaching the conductor tape to the "drum head thus fashioned." The user was to speak into the other end of the chimney. A similar device was to be used at the distant end.

The Sacramento (California) Bee reported two cans and a coil of wire were used in Sacramento between 1879 and 1889 by the late J. Garrison to communicate between his home and business. A pencil was kept handy to tap the end of the cans as a means of signaling the distant can that a call was coming in. Incidentally, Bell's first commercial telephone used a similar method of signaling.

And from our partners out in Galveston, Texas, as reported in a 1905 issue of Telephony a description of how one G. F. Bell (no relation), proposed to make a "home telephone." Make tight wooden boxes 6 x 6 x 14 inches, open on small ends. "For drum (diaphragm) use rawhide 6 inches wide, 12 inches long: Soak in strong solution of ashes and water until hair will slip" then attach rawhide patch over one end of each box. Use #19 smooth wire, copper is best, but iron "will last until you are tired of the telephone." He goes on to tell you how to bore a 1-1/2 inch hold through the wall of house in direction you want the wire to go." For insulators ho recommends cloth strips be nailed to side of house: nothing fancy like spiral springs as used in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

The one thing he failed to tell the readers was how do you explain to the little woman the 1-1/2" holes in the wall to say nothing of those doth strips nailed to the side of the home!

MA