(Bell, Alexander G.) The Scientific American, 1876 (the entire volume, sumptuously illustrated with all manner of technical objects, in two parts (bound in one volume)), 414+414pp each. Very fresh copy, bound in black library cloth. Very good copy. $950
Besides it being the Centennial year, 1876 saw a number of major games in the history of human thinking. Sometimes the announcements or earliest public appearances of these breakthroughs didn’t get all that much attention. As one of the major means of transferring technical and applied science info to the general public, it is interesting to see how Scientific American reacted to such innovations. For the thick, heavy volume for 1876, amid patent announcements and articles on telegraphic fire alarms, electro-harmonic multiplex telegraphs, recording telegraphs, electro-magnetic telegraph railroad car signals, signal box telegraphs, underground telegraphs, telegraph keys and armature, acoustic telegraphs and the l;ike (though there weren’t that many reported, not really, just on the order of dozens), we find one of the most important of them all, patent # 174,465, by Alexander Graham Bell, appearing 8 April 1876. It would be a rude resumption of being here in the future of this event to call the coverage short-sighted
In an earlier article in the 4 March 1876 issue of SA, there appeared “The Invention of the Telephone”, by P.H. Vander Weyde, in which there is yet any mention of Mr. Bell. There is an illustration of one of his precursors in the field, the Reuss telephone, with ample description. (This was actually Philipp Reis and his telephone really wouldn’t work to transmit the human voice, though did so work for music to some degree.) Bell’s patent would be at the Patent Office in March, and would appear as a one-line notice (among a hundred others), the patent stating it was “the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically … by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound”. (The first image above is a detail; the second image a longer version, which is really only less than half of what the real-life version looks like in the tall listing.)
Weeks later, Elisha Gray’s (on 13 May) telegraphic telephone patent (175071) appears in the Scientific American, and later, on 9 September, on page 163, there is the article “The Human Voice Transmitted by Telegraph”, on the successful transmission by Graham Bell.
Admittedly there were a number of developments in the production of the speaking telephone at this time, though in general there seems to have been no great attention paid them in the pages of the Scientific American than pipe cutting machine improvements or improved gravel separators. Obviously the great impact of the invention was yet to be appreciated, even in any sort of fictional way.
[Bell & Early Telephone] (Well, not-Bell) “Telephones and Other Applications of Electricity”, a fine review article in Nature, August 24, 1876, p. 353-355, and with five illustration, offered in the weekly issue of pp345-364. This review is issued just months after the Bell patent–Bell and his work are not mentioned in this article. Very good condition, $200
[BELL, Alexander Graham.] “Talking by Telegraph”, in The Popular Science Monthly, February 1877, vol 58, pp 507-8 in the issue of pp 385-512. Offered in the original wrappers, removed from larger volume, which means that there is no spine cover for the wrappers. Attractive Library of Congress exlibris on front cover, along with an old faded rubberstamp of the Library of Congress Copyright Office at the top of the front wrapper. Nice copy. This is a very early report on the Bell telephone demonstration of November 1876. $150
[Bell & the Early Telephone] Bell, Alexander Graham. “The Telephone”. London: Nature, 1877. November 15, 1877 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Very good condition. This is an early appearance of the Bell telephone in Nature magazine, occupying pp 48-49 (in the issue of pp 41-56), in three densely packed columns of about 1500 words. This issue is removed from a larger, bound collection, but includes its original printed wrappers front cover and ads. The article describes Bell’s October 31 1877 lecture before the British Society of Telegraph Engineers. $350.00
[Bell & the Early Telephone] Lockyer, J. Norman. “Telephones and Other Applications of Electricity”. London, Nature, August 24, 1876. Pp 353-355 of the weekly issue. Offered in the original printed wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume. Nice condition. $150
Lockyer, the editor of Nature, foresees the possibility (as with the earlier work by Munro, above) of having a dance party and being entertained remotely by a paid musician, somewhere, the music transmitted via telephone. He steps firmly into 2013 when he slyly laments that the children of 1876 may better understand the apparatus than the adults, ending his review saying “Perhaps our children may find the thing simple enough”.
[Bell & the Early Telephone] Munro, J. “On the Telephone, an Instrument for Transmitting Musical Notes by Means of Electricity”.London, Nature: May 11, 1876. Pp 30-32, with 3 woodcut diagrams in the text. Offered with the original printed wrappers, removed from a larger volume. Addressed the Elisha Gray machine. $150
[Bell & Early Telephone] Munro, J. “Telephones and other Applications of Electricity”, London: Nature, 1876. 1st edition. Nature, an Illustrated Weekly…, 24 August 1876 Royal 8vo. Original printed wrappers. We offer the entire weekly issue complete with its scarce outer wrappers, cleanly removed from a larger bound volume. $150
Munro (who would go on to write an early and authoritative work on the history of the telephone (Heroes of the Telegraph) reviews the advancements made in the invention–still, as earlier, not mentioning Bell at all, and still championing the priority of Elisha Gray. It was at about this very time in the autumn of 1876 that William Thomson first presents the telephone to European ears. Munro waxes a bit about the use of the telephone, still identifying it as a musical device, not discussing its possibilities as a speaking instrument–this is precisely what Thomson does, and forcibly so, after hearing it function in the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, referring to the telephone as the perfect advancement of the telegraph (and also referring to it as a “speaking telegraph”.) But Munro continues on with the telephone’s musical virtuosity. “There is a possibility here, we must admit, of a curious use of electricity. When we are going to a dancing party there will be no need to provide a musician”, as the dancers will be able to pay their electrician for the privilege of getting their piano via wire.
[Bell & the Early Telephone] Barrett, William. “Early Electric Telephony”. London: Nature, 1878. 1st edition. Nature, vol 17, # 443, April 25, 1878 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Very good condition. By Nature standards Barrett contributes a long (5-column, 5-illustration) look at Philip Reis’ electric telephone of 1861.Occupies pp 510-512 in the issue of pp 501-520. Offered with the original front wrapper and 5pp ads; removed from larger bound collection. $150
[Bell & the Early Telephone] Sabine, Robert. “The Telephone.” London: Nature, 1878. 1st edition. Nature, vol 17, # 437, Mar 14, 1878 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Very good condition. Two dense columns of letters to the editor viz the telephone, including one by Sabine (above) and two by Herbert Tomlinson and Aurel de Ratti Offered with the original front wrapper and 5pp ads; removed from larger bound collection. $125.00
[Bell & the Early Telephone] Romanis, James M.. “New Form of Telephone”. 1st edition. Nature, Jan 10, 1878, vol 17 #428 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Very good condition. Two-column (and illustrated) article, (pp. 200-201) in this weekly issue of pp 197-216. Includes article on Jules Verne plus contributions by George Romanes and William Crookes. Offered with the original front wrapper and 5pp ads; removed from larger bound collection. $150
[Bell & the Early Telephone] Page, F.J.M.. “Demonstrations of Currents Originated by the Voice in Bell’s Telephone”. 1st edition. Nature, Feb 7, 1878, vol 17 #432 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Very good condition. Page’s article occupies pp 283-4 of this issue of 277-296pp. Also included in a three page continuation of J. Clerk Maxwell’s review of a work (by his friend) P.G. Tait. Offered with the original front wrapper and 5pp ads; removed from larger bound collection. $150
[Bell & Telephone] Thompson, Sylvanus P. “Graham Bell’s Experiments in Binaural Audition”, in Nature, Ovtober 21,1880, pp 586-587, with illustration. Nice copy in wrappers, extracted from larger bound volume. $85
BELL, Alexander Graham. The Photophone: 5 articles from the journal Nature, 1880.
London: 1880-1881, Nature: September 23, 1880, Nov 4 & 18, 1880; February 10, 1881 Original printed wrappers, the weekly issues removed from larger bound volumes. Fine condition. Four papers, $400, as follows:
Offered are the following three issues of Nature covering the initial announcements of Bell’s future-provoking invention of the PHOTOPHONE:
- THOMPSON, Sylvanus P. “The Photophone”, in Nature, volume 22, 23 September 1880, page 481, the lead article of the issue, one+ full-column, about 500 words, announcing the Bell photophone. Wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume.
- BELL, Alexander Graham. “Selenium and the Photophone”, 23 September 1880, pp 500-503, with wrappers, extracted from larger bound volume.
- “Bell’s Photophone”, pp 15-19, with illustrations of the apparatus, running approximately 3000 words.
- BIDWELL, Shelford. “Bell’s Photophone”, in 18 November 1880, pp 58-9, approximately 1750 words.
- “Photophone Experiments”, in 10 February 1881, page 354, approximately 400 words, two illustrations.
Alexander Graham Bell was already mega-famous by the time he unveiled what he considered to be one of his greatest inventions. Working at his L Street lab as well as from his home (which was just a few blocks away from my store in Georgetown, which was at the 34th & Volta Place, also just a few doors away from Alger Hiss’ old place, and a few doors the other way from Warren Christopher’s house where he slipped and fell on his last day in DC on the snowy steps and sidewalk that he never shoveled, and so on) he developed the photophone. In the day, in 1880, when it was completed he considered the work so substantial and filled with so much potential that he left his plans on deposit in a sealed something-or-other until he announced the results for real, which came at a public lecture on August 27, 1880. (This perhaps for the big taste of legal trouble he got into with his telephone–troubles and contentiousness that would continue for years. Also there was something in the air about this, so to speak, with an article in Nature attesting to rivals of the ingenious invention coming in the 23 May issue of the same year.) In any event, he found this invention to surpass his telephone and phonograph–except that few people today recall the instrument, much less what it did1.
It was a fantastic thing, an elegant device utilizing his discovery of the photoacoustic effect–basically, transmitting wireless telephone conversations, transmitting speech on light rays, a feat that would not be utilized until the last two decades of the 20th century, a precursor to fibre-optic communication–it was just decades away from practical application.
In his article in Nature of September 23, 1880, electrical pioneer Sylvanus Thompson writes (opening that weekly issue) that “sounds can be transmitted from one station to another wherever a beam of light can be flashed; …we may expect the slow spelling out of words in flashing signals of the heliograph to be superceded by the more expeditious whispers of the photophone” (page 481). Actually it seems that this paper beat the sponsor organization of Bell’s August address into general print, though The Electrician seems to have bested them both with an article on September 18.
Bell was happy. According to Ben Richmond (at Motherboard) Bell wrote a lovely note to his father on his success:
“I have heard articulate speech by sunlight! I have heard a ray of the sun laugh and cough and sing! …I have been able to hear a shadow and I have even perceived by ear the passage of a cloud across the sun’s disk.”
Notes:
1. Wiki quotes Donald J.C. Phillipson and Neilson, Laura, entry on Bell in the Canadian Encyclopedia online. “Of the 18 patents granted in Bell’s name alone, and the 12 he shared with his collaborators, four were for the photophone, which Bell referred to as his ‘greatest achievement’, telling a reporter shortly before his death that the photophone was “the greatest invention [I have] ever made, greater than the telephone.” Wiki and Philipson/Neilson.
These are among the earliest articles on Bell’s fantastic invention utilizing his discovery of the photoacoustic effect–basically, transmitting wireless telephone conversations, a feat that would not be utilized until the last two decades of the 10th century. /// We offer the three issues in their original wrappers, cleanly removed from a larger bound volume with only trace elements of the removal visible at their spines. Nice copies.
Bell believed that the photophone–developed most fully in his Volta Street lab, which was just three blocks away from where my store stood for nine years–as a machine that transmitted speech on light rays, was by far his most important invention.
BELL, Alexander Graham. “Experiments in Mechanical Flight”. London: Nature Magazine, May 28, 1896, 1896. From: Nature, vol 54, May 28, 1896 Pp 73-96 Royal 8vo. Printed wrappers, removed cleanly from a larger bound volume. Very good copy. (On Samuel P. Langley’s aerodrome.) $135
