By the other mode, the undulations are produced by the inductive effect of an armature attached to the membrane spoken against, and placed near to the poles of an electro-magnet. In both cases the undulations impart the vibrations, which caused them, to another diaphragm at a distance (called the receiver), by means of an electro-magnet in the circuit placed near an armature affixed to such diaphragm. These vibrations, thus reproduced, are detected by the ear, and the spoken words are heard."

The dissenting opinion goes on to state that the three judges were satisfied by a great preponderance of the evidence that Drawbaugh transmitted speech by the first method in 1869 and by the second in 1871, and that upon the "questions of time and result is such a cloud of witnesses in both cases that it seems impossible not to give credence to them. . . . Drawbaugh certainly had the principle and accomplished the result."

The explanation of Drawbaugh's long silence and lack of activity in pushing the invention lies in the simple fact that he failed to appreciate the importance of the work he had done. He was a plain mechanic who looked upon his great invention as a mere curiosity and not as a matter of any financial, scientific or commercial importance. He worked at his invention with a view to producing speech that could be heard by a room full of people, like the voice of a person speaking in an ordinary tone. The dissenting opinion seeks to do Mr. Bell full credit and to say nothing depreciatory of him, but says, near its close: "Yet the proof amounts to a demonstration, from the testimony of Mr. Bell himself and his assistant, Mr. Watson, that he never transmitted an intelligible word through an electrical instrument, nor produced any such instrument that would transmit an intelligible word, until his patent was issued; while, for years before, Drawbaugh had talked through his, so that words and sentences had again and again been distinctly heard. Drawbaugh invented the telephone without appreciating the importance and completeness of his invention. Bell subsequently projected it on the basis of scientific inference, and took out a patent for it. But, as our

laws do not award a patent to one who was not the first to make an invention, we think that Bell's patent is void by anticipation of Drawbaugh."

And thus, with no disagreement upon any question of law, but only by diametrically opposed views upon what facts had been proved by the evidence, by the narrow margin of one vote, Drawbaugh lost the honor of inventing the telephone and the enormous fortune which would have been his if one more justice had viewed his case favorably.

Poor Drawbaugh! Born to hardship and toil such as few men ever know. Living in grinding poverty and continued disappointments, a poor village mechanic with a genius for invention, working at electrical clocks, water motors, measuring faucets, telephones and other devices, out of all of which he never made money enough to provide his family with the common necessities of life. Yet always cheerfully at work, brim full of hope, enthusiastic and dreaming of success "the next time."

To understand the decision of the court upon the next objection made to Bell's patent, it will be necessary to give a brief description of the work of Elisha Gray and of Bell before the application for a patent was filed. Both Gray and Bell had been at work for some years upon the perfecting of the telephone. Bell's work was incidental to his chief quest, which was the perfection of the harmonic or multiple telegraph, an apparatus by means of which he expected to send several messages by telegraph over one line. Gardiner G. Hubbard, Bell's father-in-law, was a man of large means and was supporting Bell in this work, and was devoting time and money to experiments that might lead to making one telegraph line do the work of half a dozen, but he would furnish no money for experimenting on "such a chimerical idea as telegraphing vocal sounds." It was while working on the multiple telegraph that the fortunate accident occurred which gave to Bell the idea which he afterwards developed into the telephone. Bell and his assistant, Watson, were experimenting with two slender blades of steel placed

before an electro-magnet. They were working on the multiple telegraph upon the theory that two currents of electricity of different intensity could be sent over the same wire and by separate receiving instruments each current could carry a message without interfering with the other. Watson accidentally struck one of the blades with his hand and it began to vibrate in a way similar to a tuning fork. The vibration, by the movement of the air, aided by the weak current of electricity, was at once reproduced in the other steel blade and both continued the vibratory movement with a faint musical tone. The experiment was repeated over and over, each vibration of either of the blades producing an immediate response in the other. This was the very principle necessary for the transmission of sound by electricity, and Bell recognized it at once. It was the reproduction of vibrations by electricity exactly as made.

This was on June 2nd, 1875, which has been referred to in the decision of the court. He went to work upon the new idea, built a telephone which failed to talk, but he persevered. His father-in-law declined to help him, and he was poor, even had to pawn his watch to continue his work. On February 14th, 1876, he filed his application for a patent. There was not then a Bell telephone that would talk, but the patent was granted. His application embodied both the magneto or induction method and the variable resistance method, which have been described. In the case under discussion it was earnestly urged that the patent was improperly granted, because he had patented a principle or a theory and not a device for its application, but the court held that he was entitled to his patent because he had discovered the process.

One of Bell's attorneys admitted in his argument that Bell instruments had never yielded an intelligible word, but "so firmly was the inventor impressed with the soundness of his theory, that he determined to run the risk of taking out a patent on the process." Here was another link in the chain of circumstances which led Bell to fame and fortune.

Had he waited until he perfected his instrument, or even another day, he would have lost his patent and his worldwide fame as the inventor of the telephone, for, on the very same day, Elisha Gray filed a caveat in the patent office, covering the telephone as fully as Bell's application. A caveat is an instrument giving public notice that the applicant is at work on an invention which he has not yet perfected. The caveat was at that time, under the law, fully as protective as a patent for a period of six months, during which time the invention must have been completed.

Gray's caveat declared: "It is the object of my invention to transmit the tones of the human voice through a telegraphic circuit, and reproduce them at the receiving end of the line, so that actual conversations can be carried on by persons at long distances apart. To attain the objects of my invention, I have devised an instrument capable of vibrating responsively to all tones of the human voice, and by which they are rendered audible." Then followed drawings and details describing Gray's apparatus.

Here was the same thing as Bell's, though the form was different and better in that it was more specific and spoke of "actual conversations." Bell's application, in Claim No. 5, described his invention as an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically, as herein described by causing electrical undulations similar in form to the vibrations of air accompanying the said vocal or other sounds."

This claim of Bell's was afterwards to become famous for its brevity and completeness throughout the world. It was sustained in the courts, which invariably held that it covered every form of speech transmission by electricity.

Marcellus Baily, the most adroit patent lawyer of his time, is reported to have received a $5,000 fee for preparing this claim. However that may be, and no matter who drew the claim, the filing of the Bell application and the Gray caveat precipitated a conflict as to priority, which has never been settled by any court.

After Bell's patent was secured, Gardiner G. Hubbard gave up his multiple telegraph, was won over by Bell's confidence and enthusiasm, and at the head of the Bell Telephone Company, began to expand the telephone business. The Western Union Telegraph Company, alarmed by the growth of the telephone commercially, decided to go into the telephone business. It bought up Gray's claims for $100,000; another $100,000 was paid to Edison, who had invented a carbon transmitter, and the patents and claims of Page, Blake and other inventors were purchased until $500,000 had been invested. The Western Union started in to give the Bell Company a fight. Exchanges were built in a number of large cities, rates were cut in half, competition by a company with immense financial resources threatened the Bell in every locality and its stockholders saw their golden visions of enormous profits fading from sight. Infringement suits were instituted against the Western Union which never faltered, but continued the building of competitive telephone plants with a vigor and fearlessness which brought loss and fear to the Bell people.

The Western Union based its rights upon the claims of Gray to the original invention and patents upon the improvements they had purchased from Blake, Edison and others. The Bell Company stood upon the Bell patent and the right to a transmitter, for which an application for a patent had been filed by Emil Berliner, the most wonderful perfecter of other men's patented devices known in this country.

Thousands of pages of evidence were taken and thousands of dollars were spent in this litigation, which never reached a final decision. The case was compromised. The Bell Company became the owner of all rights and patents owned by the Western Union; the competing exchanges were consolidated and turned over to the Bell. The Western Union received forty per cent of the total capital stock of the New York and Chicago companies and was given a contract by the terms of which it was to receive twenty per