At the time the instruments were first exhibited in public the results obtained with permanent magnets were not nearly so striking as when a voltaic battery was employed, wherefore we thought it best to exhibit only the latter form of instrument.
The interest excited by the first published accounts of the operation of the telephone led many persons to investigate the subject, and I doubt not that numbers of experimenters have independently discovered that permanent magnets might be employed instead of voltaic batteries. Indeed one gentleman, Professor Dolbear, of Tufts College, not only claims to have discovered the magneto-electric telephone, but I understand charges me with having obtained the idea from him through the medium of a mutual friend.
A still more powerful form of apparatus was constructed by using a powerful compound horse-shoe magnet in place of the straight rod which had been previously used (see fig. 28). Indeed the sounds produced by means of this instrument were of sufficient loudness to be faintly audible to a large audience, and in this condition the instrument was exhibited in the Essex Institute, in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 12th Feb. 1877, on which occasion a short speech shouted into a similar telephone in Boston, sixteen miles away, was heard by the audience in Salem. The tones of the speaker’s voice were distinctly audible to an audience of 600 people, but the articulation was only distinct at a distance of about 6 feet. On the same occasion, also, a report of the lecture was transmitted by word of mouth from Salem to Boston, and published in the papers the next morning.
From the form of telephone shown in fig. 27 to the present form of the instrument (fig. 29) is but a step. It is in fact the arrangement of fig. 27 in a portable form, the magnet F H being placed inside the handle and a more convenient form of mouthpiece provided. The arrangement of these instruments upon a telegraphic circuit is shown in fig. 30.
And here I wish to express my indebtedness to several scientific friends in America for their co-operation and assistance. I would specially mention Professor Peirce and Professor Blake, of Brown University, Dr. Channing, Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Jones. In Providence, Rhode Island, these gentlemen have been carrying on together experiments seeking to perfect the form of apparatus required, and I am happy to record the fact that they communicated to me each new discovery as it was made, and every new step in their investigations. It was, of course, almost inevitable that these gentlemen should retrace much of the ground that had been gone over by me, and so it has happened that many of their discoveries had been anticipated by my own researches; still, the very honourable way in which they from time to time placed before me the results of their discoveries entitles them to my warmest thanks and to my highest esteem. It was always my belief that a certain ratio would be found between the several parts of a telephone, and that the size of the instrument was immaterial; but Professor Peirce was the first to demonstrate the extreme smallness of the magnets which might be employed. And here, in order to show the parallel lines in which we were working, I may mention the fact that two or three days after I had constructed a telephone of the portable form (fig. 29), containing the magnet inside the handle, Dr. Channing was kind enough to send me a pair of telephones of a similar pattern, which had been invented by the Providence experimenters. The convenient form of mouthpiece shown in fig. 29, now adopted by me, was invented solely by my friend Professor Peirce. I must also express my obligations to my friend and associate, Mr. Thomas A. Watson, of Salem, Massachusetts, who has for two years past given me his personal assistance in carrying on my researches.