Mr Gott's and Professor Bell's Explanation of the Action of the Telephone

Extract

Professor Jenkin called attention to experiments made by Mr Gott in St Pierre, and published in the Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers. Mr Gott converted two siphon recorders into a telephonic system by mechanically connecting the suspended coils with diaphragms. In this experiment the only conceivable mode of action was analogous to that suggested by Professor Graham Bell as the explanation of his telephone. This explanation, if not complete, was not, in Professor Jenkin's opinion, erroneous. Professor Jenkin announced that he had, with Mr J. A. Ewing's assistance, constructed one of Mr Edison's phonographs, and that this instrument, like the telephone, gave a nasal intonation to the words spoken by it.