Famous Days in the Century of Invention. M. Grace Fickett
at the other end of the wire and his exact words had been reproduced. The Emperor's excitement was contagious. Everybody forgot how hot and hungry he was. One after another of the judges listened at the magic box to hear Mr. Hubbard or another of their number speak into the instrument at the other end.
"Oh, Uncle, do you suppose I can listen too after a while?" inquired Arthur, when he could no longer keep still.
Just then Mr. Bell himself interposed.
"Now it must be the little boy's turn."
The grateful little boy was not slow in stooping over to the receiver.
"What does he say, Arthur?" asked his uncle.
"Why, he says, 'To be or not to be,' whatever that means."
"You don't know your Hamlet very well yet, little boy."
"But I have heard a speaking telegraph, and that is better," replied Arthur.
By this time Mr. Hubbard was returning with the apparatus he had been using at the other end. It was time to see how the marvel had been wrought.
"Now tell us how it works, Mr. Bell," commanded Dom Pedro.
"It is very simple," Mr. Bell explained. "You know, of course, that for some years it has been possible to transmit articulate speech through India rubber tubes and stringed instruments for short distances; but I worked, as you see, to transmit spoken words by electric current through a telegraph wire.
"Here on the table before you is the instrument I call the transmitter, into which Mr. Hubbard spoke. This projecting part is only a mouth-piece. Inside is a piece of thin iron attached to a membrane, and this piece of iron vibrates whenever one speaks into the transmitter. For you know, gentlemen, that if you hold a piece of paper in front of your mouth and then sing or talk, the paper will vibrate as many times as the air does.
"Now, of course, if I could reproduce those sound or air waves at a distance, a person listening would hear the same sounds that caused the first vibration. I have accomplished that by making and breaking an electric current between two pieces of sheet iron. My assistant spoke into the cone-shaped mouth-piece. At the end of it, as you could see if I took off the cover, is the first thin plate of sheet iron. Near that iron, but not touching it, is a magnetized piece of iron wound around with a coil of wire.
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