Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/149

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. . . We very much doubt if it could now be purchased for $25,000,000. It is probably by far the most valuable single patent which has ever been issued.

During the winter of 1876 and the spring of 1877, there appeared in the daily papers a number of references to Graham Bell's statements concerning the general use of the telephone, the central telephone exchange system, aerial and underground cables, the long-distance service, etc. Lack of space prevents the citation of all, but the general tenor of his remarks are shown in the following excerpts.

The Boston Sunday Herald, of October 22, 1876, declared that the future possibilities of the telephone can scarcely be overestimated. The economic and other advantages thus opened to the contemplation of the thoughtful are too self-evident to be descanted upon.

On February 13, 1877, the Boston Globe in reporting Graham Bell's lecture before the Essex Institute, at Salem, said:

We have the pleasure of presenting to our readers this morning, the first despatch ever sent to a newspaper by the newly invented telephone. . . . Professor Bell closed his lecture by briefly stating the practical uses to which he was confident the telephone could be applied.

On Wednesday evening, April 25, 1877, Graham Bell delivered a lecture in Huntington Hall, Lowell, and the next day's Lowell Citizen contained a report of the lecture reading in part as follows:

At about half-past nine o'clock Prof. Bell spoke of the possibilities of the future regarding the telephone. He predicted that private houses would be connected with stores and offices and shops, and orders for the day's dinner as well as important business of every kind could be transmitted without leaving the room. In the future merchants would be enabled to order goods from Xew York, Boston or other cities by word of mouth, instead of telegraphing or taking a long journey.

That the editor of the Citizen was impressed with Alexander Graham Bell's enthusiastic presentation of his subject, and realized that this uplifting faith in the future of his invention must be based on an accurate knowledge of what it might accomplish once its function was fully comprehended, is evident in the leading editorial. And this editorial is remarkable in that it is the first of all editorial references to 'a central telephone office,' and the first of all favorable comments on the probable success of exchange telephone service. In part the editorial reads:

Professor Bell believes that in the near future a central telephone office will be established in all our cities, with which the police, the fire department, most business houses and many private residences will have connections. When this is done any person having the connection can call the police, report a fire, order a dinner or chat with a neighbor without leaving the room.

Graham Bell also lectured in New Haven on April 27, in Manchester on May 8, in Springfield on May 12, and then he went to New York and delivered three lectures in Chickering Hall. The third lecture was delivered on Saturday evening. May 19, 1877. Therein he referred to the convenience that long-distance service between Boston and New York would be to the business man, touched upon the use of