Who invented the telephone? I'm pretty sure this is before any of AGB's demonstrations. I'm not sure he even got it to work before 1876. THE TELEPHONE. PLAYING TUNES AT A DISTANCE OF A MILE—PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE DISCOVERY—TWENTY-TWO MESSAGES SENT SIMULTANEOUSLY OVER ONE WIRE. About the middle of last July, the Tribune published an account of an invention of Mr Elisha Gray, superintendent of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, called by him the telephone, whose aid he was enabled, as the article showed, to transmit sounds from one end of the telegraph wire to the other, or to any point or points along the same. At that time the invention was sufficiently advanced to give promise of practical results of uncommon value, which later developments have fully confirmed. In England, as will be seen further on, the idea attracted the favorable attention of the very highest scientific authorities, and it will thus easily be understood that when, yesterday morning, the inventor gave an exhibition of the new field he had discovered in electric science, he did so with a confidence he may not have possessed six months ago. The exhibition of the telephone took place in General Stager’s room, in the Union Building, and was attended by Mr. Gray, the inventor, Gen. Stager, Prof. Swing, the Rev. Messrs. Hurd and Mitchell, Messrs. S. Barker, J. Hasskell, C. R. Field, G. Sturges, Herbert Ayer, W. H. Smith, Stephen F. Gale, Obadiah Jackson and others. It is perhaps, more proper to say that the exhibition was of the powers of the telephone, rather than of the instrument itself, which was performing its part of the work at the office of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company; but as the results of the grand transmitting process are made audible at the office of Gen. Stager, of course this was the best place to gather an idea of what the new feature in telegraphy really was. It must be understood, then, that on Keuzie street, just east of State, street, in obedience to instructions from the Union Building office, spent an hour or two about noon in playing upon the telephone a number of popular airs, such as “Yankee Doodle,” “Robin Adair,” “Auld Lang Syne,” “Coming thro’ the Rye,” etc., and the musical performance, the gentlemen were invited to General Stager’s room in the Union Building. As soon as they arrived and had been introduced to the inventor, he briefly explained to them the nature of the exhibition, showing that the sound-producing instrument was about a mile distant, and calling attention to the receiving instruments, by means of which he proposed to bring the far-off music within the hearing of all in the room. There were two in number, one, a sounding-box, made in wood, perforated on one side, about sixteen inches in length and four inches in height and breadth, with an electric magnet placed upon its upper surface—the other an ordinary violin with a metallic plate stretched across it on a bridge, in place of the four strings. The first exhibition made was with the sounding-board. The wire leading into the room from the electric works on Keuzie street was connected with the electro-magnet on the sounding-box, and instrumentalist at the works to begin playing. In a few seconds the sounding-box began to evoke sweetly and very sonorously the tune of Yankee Doodle, followed in a minute by Robin Adair. The effect upon the audience—all of them were fully capable of appreciating whatever of the beautiful, or wonderful, or useful, or all combined, there is in air or nature—was instantaneous. They looked from one to the other with a that’s-a-big-thing sort of an expression which was quite amusing, and when the note of Robin Adair died away they made quite a number of pertinent inquiries of the inventor, who explained to them the sound was produced at the other end of the line by an instrument fitted with keys, which, under the action of electric current, underwent a certain number of vibrations, which, according to the number of each key achieved, provided its note, the number of vibrations of the higher keys being, of course, much greater than those of the lower. The number of vibrations per second achieved by the key in the telephone was reproduced in the electric coil on top of the sounding-box, which, systematically vibrating, sounded the note. The inventor then called attention to the fact that with the introduction of living animal tissue into the circuit the sound could be produced without agency of the electro-magnet. In proof of this, he placed himself in the circuit, and, taking the violin above described in his hands, he rubbed the surface of its metallic plate with a bow composed of a small piece of wood with a piece of a pig’s tail dexterously inserted therein, and evoked as loud correct music as had been provided by the sounding-box. Having shown the gentlemen present how to do it, they all in turn took the violin in hand, and although none of them had ever played a note in their lives before with the aid of the piece of pig’s tail they produced just as good music as Mr. Gray, every bit. The inventor then, to show that the principle applied to everything that is sonorous in its nature, sent for a letter-pan, from which he, placing himself in circuit, brought forth the music, less clearly of course, than from the violin or sounding-box, but still quite audible to all in the room. He then took an ordinary letter box, and placing a sheet of tissue paper across it instructed a gentleman to put the paper side of the box to his ear. The gentleman did so, and announced the tune at once. Several other gentlemen played upon the dust-pan and held the letter-box to their ears with equally satisfactory results, and what was more remarkable was that while the song was pealing forth from the violin, the sounding-box was playing the same tune not a whit less loudly than before. Such are the different exhibitions made by the inventor of his newly-discovered feature in electric science, and, before leaving, the gentlemen present all expressed their admiration and wonder at the results produced, and a conviction that, practically applied, the invention would become of great commercial importance. It was reserved, however, for the Tribune reporter, who was present at the exhibition, to look deeper into the new idea than had been permitted those who had enjoyed what is perhaps the most amusing, but certainly by no means the really important, point of the invention. As soon as the inventor and he were left alone they repaired together to the Western Electric Manufacturing Company’s works, in order to have a talk about the practical application of the new idea. Having examined the telephone, the reporter found that it was an exceedingly simple instrument, consisting of twenty-two musical keys, arranged to be worked electrically. The following conversation then ensued: Reporter.—The exhibition you gave this morning was a wonderful affair; but then the transmission of even operas and oratorios through absolute enormous distances cannot ever prove of much advantage to the human race. Now, what is the practical application of your invention? Mr. Gray.—The practical feature of the invention lies in the fact that with my instrument, I can transmit all the common chords of a seven-octave piano along a single wire at the same time, and in the further fact that these harmonic sounds can be analyses at the receiving end on instruments, each of which selects its own peculiar note, and rejects all others. Thus one wire can easily be employed by at least twenty-two different sending and twenty-two different receiving operators. Reporter—Can you not send more than twenty-two messages in an opposite direction at the same time? Mr. Gray—That is a point I do not know about yet! Reporter— You say “at least twenty-two.” Is there then a prospect of sending there more messages in the same direction? Mr. Gray—That remains to be seen. If I can transmit and receive discords as well as harmonies, of course the number of messages will be largely augmented, but I have my doubts about being able to do so. Reporter—Well, twenty-two messages at once is a good number. How will it work? Mr. Gray—We will see that in a minute. Reporter—Does the length of line make any difference? Mr. Gray—Of course the longer the wire, the larger the battery required, but the sound carried over any length of wire which is electrified from a sufficiently strong battery. In England I made experiments on what they call there an artificial cable, representing the conditions of an actual ocean cable. The experiments were as thoroughly successful as those you witnessed this morning. At a future day we intend to make experiments with the cable proper.—Chicago Tribune. Publication: Salt Lake City Deseret News Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States Of America Issue Date: February 3, 1875