The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

1901.] THE LOCOMOTIVE. 29
tion of the enormously rapid strides that that progressive nation is making in the arts
of civilization. The Tokyo electric light station, illustrated on page 83, might be situated
in any American town, so far as appearances go ; and the view of the telephone
wires of Tokyo, on page 81, is strikingly suggestive of some of the overhead snarls
that we have seen much nearer home.
Professor Elisha Gray.
A great American inventor has passed away in the person of Professor Elisha Gray.
Born in 1835 at Barnesville, Ohio, he was compelled to shorten his school period in order
to begin the battle of life. As the family was in straitened circumstances, the future
inventor betook himself to the hammer and saw, and for several years earned his liveli-
hood, like Gramme (of dynamo fame), as a carpenter's apprentice. The experience he
acquired in this humble craft was not lost, for it served as an introduction to the refined
handiwork in which he subsequently excelled. After a few years' toiling at the bench,
Gray succeeded in entering Oberlin college, which was not far from his homestead.
Here he spent five years, devoting himself specially to the study of physical science.
We next hear of him in 1865, when he first gave public evidence of his powers for elec-
trical invention by devising an automatic relay, the hotel annunciator, the telegraph
line-printer, and telegraphic repeater. He soon became connected with the "Western
Electric Company, and about the same time established a manufactory of electrical
appliances in Cleveland.
The year 1873 marks an epoch in his life, for it was then that he began to achieve
success with his electro-harmonic system for transmitting sounds over telegraph wires.
The system is based on the discovery that a sound produced near a magnet will cause a
similarly adjusted magnet to respond to it, even when the latter is placed at a consider-
able distance. This is precisely what is known to-day as the electrical transmission of
sound, or electric telephony. The problem was a great one from a theoretical as well
as from a commercial point of view. It opened up new vistas to the scientist and great
possibilities to the capitalist. But as it so often happened in the history of discovery
and invention, others were at work in the self-same field. Dolbear and Graham Bell
were actively developing their telephones, and were not far behind pioneer Gray. In
1876 Gray sought to protect his work by taking out a " caveat" at Washington for the
specific purpose of enabling him to extend and perfect the " art of transmitting vocal
sounds telegraphically." This was on February 14th, and shortly after he learned to his
great surprise that a broad patent for "speaking telephones" was granted to Graham
Bell on March 8th. Keenly resenting the injustice (as he considered it), he entered the
courts and sought to recover his legal rights. Litigation went on briskly at first, and
then more slowly, ending after a period of twenty-five years in a legal recognition of
Bell's claims. It is only fair to add that opinion is still divided on this vexed question,
and there are not wanting noted electricians who dissent from the finding of the courts.
These prolonged troubles worried the inventor and depleted his purse. One of his
benefited the whole human race, made twenty million-
admirers recently wrote : "He
aires, and took boarders to get bread for his family and tools for his workshop."
Despite these vexations, Gray toiled on, encouraged by the hope which springs eternal
in the human breast ; and, as the outcome of his later labors, we have his telautograph,
which electrically transmits handwriting and drawings to a distance. This beautiful
invention failed to elicit the patronage of capitalists, however, so that his pecuniary
expectations were again dashed to the ground.