USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 45
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Indian school in that city. He made a special study of the music of the Indians and from accounts has developed it in a remarkable manner. Amelia Earhart, the noted aviatrix who was lost in the Pacific, lived in Northampton on Bedford Terrace for a year or two while her sister was in college here.
A little to the east, across the Connecticut, we see the old town of Hadley, which during the Colonial period, harbored the regicides, Goffe and Whalley. General Goffe came out of hiding and took
The Old Manse, Deerfield
command of the Colonial soldiers and succeeded in driving away a tribe of Indians who had come to massacre the people at a church service. After the Indians fled, Goffe silently withdrew. The surprised people did not know who he was, where he came from or whither he went, but they were devoutly thankful that a trained officer should appear at that time. Some thought it to be a divine act. Coming down to Civil War days, a prominent Hadley man was Gen. Joseph Hooker. Often referred to as "Fighting Joe Hooker". He was with Sherman when he was "Marching Through Georgia". Bishop Hunt- ington was a son of Hadley. He changed from the Congregational to the Episcopal faith and later became Bishop of the Central New York diocese. Levi Stockbridge, born in Hadley, was for many years president of Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst, now the University of Massachusetts. Charles Lamson, for some years presi- dent of the American Board of Foreign Missions, was a son of
FAMOUS FOLKS OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS 445
Hadley. A citizen of Hadley of whom the town is justly proud is Clarence Hawkes, the blind poet and author, whose books have delighted thousands. Another literary son of Hadley was Clifton Johnson, magazine writer and author of many books. His widow, Mrs. Johnson is a much travelled lady and is often called upon as a public speaker. Their son Capt. Irving Johnson has achieved much fanie as a sailor, having piloted his own craft around the world several times. A little farther to the east lies the town of Amherst. For some years Noah Webster was a resident of this place and did much of his dictionary work here. A monument to his memory stands on the Amherst College campus, of which institution he was one of the founders. Amherst was the birthplace of Emily Dickinson, a poetess of wide fame. The 100th anniversary of her birth was cele- brated in 1930. Eugene Field, the poet spent his boyhood days in this town. Field's poems, Just Before Christmas and The Little Red Drum as well as Little Boy Blue are very popular with most children. Helen Hunt Jackson the author was born in Amherst. Judge Harlan F. Stone of the United States Supreme Court spent a part of his life in this town. Rev. L. Clark Seeyle, the first president of Smith College was a former resident of Amherst and was a professor in that college.
One of the prominent citizens of today is Ray Stannard Baker, friend and biographer of the late President Wilson. Julius Seelve and Osmun Baker, citizens of Amherst were elected to Congress.
On the hills back of Amherst lies the little town of Pelham, at one time the home of Daniel Shays the leader of "Shays' Rebellion". Shays was a former patriot and fought in the Revolution, but rebelled at the taxes and some other restrictions placed upon the people, gathered together a band of misguided followers and they made several raids and attempted to force their ideas upon the government. They made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the United States Arsenal at Springfield.
Still further to the east we see Belchertown, home of the poet J. G. Holland. As a boy Holland lived for a time in Florence, Massa- chusetts.
A little to the north we see the elevated town of Shutesbury, the home of a number of distinguished men among them Raymond, the organizer of the Raymond & Whitcomb excursions, thought to have been the first of its kind in this country. Ithma Conkey, the musician, was born in this town.
Back on this side of the Connecticut and a little nearer at hand, is what was once known as a rich farming town, Hatfield. A place that made much history in Colonial days: Home of Sophia Smith, founder of Smith College, whose birthplace is marked with a bronze tablet. The home also of her uncle Oliver Smith who founded Smith Charities, also the Smith Agricultural School.
A little nearer to our hilltop is Conway, the birthplace of Marshall Field who was destined to become the merchant prince of Chicago. The Field Memorial Library in this town is a beautiful building.
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Another Conway notable was Chester Harding an American portrait painter born in this town in 1792. He painted the portraits of many prominent persons in Western Massachusetts especially in North- ampton and Springfield, as well as many prominent politicians in Washington, Philadelphia and St. Louis. He also did considerable work in London. Another son of Conway was William C. Whitney who went to New York, became wealthy, and prominent in politics and was called to fill a place in the cabinet of Pres. Grover Cleveland.
Still closer in the same general direction we see Ashfield, the town proud to be referred to as the birthplace of Henry C. Payne. As a young man he was clerk in the Post Office in Shelburne Falls, and later a bookkeeper in Northampton. He removed to Milwaukee and became a very successful business man. He was appointed postmaster of that city and subsequently called to be Postmaster General in the cabinet of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. Another Ashfield boy of whom the town is justly proud is G. Stanley Hall, the first president of Clark College of Worcester. Belding Brothers the well known silk manufacturers were Ashfield boys who started their business by buying silk and selling it from house to house. Dr. H. T. Perry for fifty years a missionary in Turkey and a teacher in the American schools there, was a son of Ashfield. Alvan Clark, born in this town became a renowned telescope manufacturer.
Northeast is the town of Buckland, birthplace of Mary Lyon, founder of Mount Holyoke Seminary, now Mount Holyoke College. Mary Lyon was a woman of broad intellect and high ideals; one of the first to believe in the higher education of women. Another citizen of Buckland who became famous was William F. Sherwin the musician. He wrote the music to more than one hundred hymns that are used in our Sunday schools and social religious meetings.
The writer does not claim to have made a complete roster of the famous folks in this area as without doubt some have been overlooked, but if we recapitulate those here recorded we find that there have lived, or are still living in this section of Massachusetts:
2 Presidents of the United States,
2 Vice Presidents.
8 United States Senators,
6 Governors,
4 Lieutenant Governors,
3 Members of Presidents' Cabinets,
11 Founders of Schools and Colleges,
15 College Presidents,
27 Poets and Authors,
9 Soldiers of high rank,
15 Prominent Ministers and Missionaries,
9 Very prominent business men,
4 Editors of wide fame,
3 Inventors of world known products,
9 Congressmen,
6 Musicians of prominence.
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The editor considers this an appropriate place to record one fact relative to another famous personage,-a real American; an Indian chief of Stockbridge and friend of the early settlers. Yocum Pond in Becket was named in his honor.
From 1744 to at least 1758, he was in the confidence of the white people and insofar as he could comprehend it, he became a Christian. In common with all converts to the faith, he was on baptism, given a Biblical name, in this case Jehoiakim, and thereafter was commonly so called by the English. However, the Dutch of the valley had trouble with the English initial "J", pronouncing it quite like the letter "Y". Thus Jehoiakim became Yoakim and as it was carelessly slurred over, it became Yokum. To avoid any misunderstanding, in the many legal documents executed by him in connection with land sales, both names were invariably used. Hence in 1744 he appears as Jocom Yocon and in 1750 as Jehoiakim Yokim.
Actually, the name Yokum applied to the native, was merely the Dutch rendition of the name of a king of Judah as it appeared in the English Bible.
CHAPTER XL Western Massachusetts Considers the Telephone
I N 1876 the nation celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of its birth with a great exposition at Philadelphia, long known as "The Centennial." There was much to show and to see for in that hundred years more mechanical progress had been made than in any earlier period ten times that long. Before the American Revolution mankind had little but windmills and water-wheels to supply motive power. Now the steam engine supplied unlimited power. Where transportation was furnished by animals and wagons, railroads and steamboats now filled the need. In 1832 distance and time were annihilated by the telegraph. In 1836 friction matches replaced flint and steel and fluid chemicals for lighting fires. In 1839 the photo- graphic process was perfected. The year 1842 brought the first bicycle, and four years later Howe perfected the sewing machine. In 1865 the motion picture projector was in actual use, and in 1868 businessmen welcomed the typewriter. In 1870 celluloid, the first of the plastics, came on the market, while five years later the public had its first sight of the new crude telephone.
Western Massachusetts people were much interested in the Cen- tennial Exposition, partly because of the ease and comfort with which the journey could be made. All available steamboats were utilized for the service so that those of the Connecticut Valley could readily embark at Hartford while Berkshire people could go aboard at con- venient Hudson River landings. Hence, instead of cramped, dusty, ill-lighted trains with poor dining service the travelers were offered roomy cabins with ample beds, spacious dining rooms and opportunity for recreation while en route.
One of the most intriguing attractions of the exhibit was the first public showing of Prof. Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. Bell himself must have been one of the world's greatest optimists and spellbinders to have had the presumption and temerity to expect the public to understand and accept such a crude and unfinished creation as he offered. It simply was not taken seriously, being classed as merely an interesting toy for which there could be no practical use whatever. For more than forty years the telegraph had filled every need and in the opinion of the wise it was the last word, and there was no call or room for anything supplemental.
Professor Bell had a faith and enthusiasm that would not be gainsaid. He associated himself with a Providence journalist named
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Frederic A. Gower whose talents were apparently those of a publicity man, some of whose copy and methods were surprisingly akin to those of a modern radio commercialist in technique. While it was apparent that the instrument would operate for a short distance as from room to room of a building, the efforts of both the inventor and the promoter were concentrated on the task of convincing prospective customers that it would operate equally well over a reasonable dis- tance, hence the early adoption of their oft-repeated slogan referring to messages sent "over fifty miles of wire."
Following the closing of the "Centennial," Bell and his assistant returned to their Boston headquarters with ambitious plans for break- ing down sales resistance, operating in one limited area at a time. The first attempt was from Boston to Providence and the results seem to have been sufficiently encouraging so that in May, 1877, Western Massachusetts was taken in hand. The promotion member of the project first arranged for a demonstration preceded by sufficient newspaper publicity so that the public might be well aware of what to expect. Hence, on Tuesday, May 9, 1877, there appeared in the Springfield Republican, a one and one-half inch, single column, adver- tising "card" reading as follows :
"City Hall, Springfield, And Academy of Music, Pittsfield, United by Telephone, Saturday Evening, May 12.
"Words and Music over 50 miles of wire. Two audiences hearing together. Brief opening explanation by Prof. Bell. Cornet and Organ Solos and Vocal Solos and Duets through the Telephone from Westfield for both audiences. Informal Tests and Conversation between citizens of Springfield and Pittsfield.
"Admission 25 cents; Reserved Seats 10 cents extra. Tickets for sale at Gorham & Wood's Music Store on Friday morning."
This was preceded on May 8th, by a news item of similar import and was followed by others on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Monday, May 14th, the Republican printed an "Editorial" a bit more than a column in length, the choice of words and the phrasing of it being so characteristic of the clever Mr. Gower that one realizes that he must have been the author. Certainly no small-town journalist had sufficient technical knowledge to have composed it.
The newspaper items tell a complete story of the episode:
"Springfield, Tuesday, May 8, 1877.
"The details of the telephonic exhibition Saturday evening have been arranged. Prof. Bell is to be stationed in the City Hall, which is to be connected with the Pittsfield Academy of Music, with West- field as the way station and words and music are to be transmitted over fifty miles of wire. Of course the exhibition will be worthy of
WV. Mass .- I-29
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our best patronage. Boston and Providence have been showing an untiring interest in the wonderful invention and the most distinguished people have introduced and indorsed it. The choice of the evening is a very wise one and popular prices give opportunity for everybody to see the telephone in operation."
"Springfield, Wednesday, May 9, 1877.
"The program for the telephone exhibition at the City Hall Satur- day evening will be a brief explanatory lecture by Prof. Bell and then for an hour a concert of vocal solos and duets, cornet solos and organ-playing to be sent through the telephone from Westfield. After- ward, there will be a series of conversations between citizens of this city and Pittsfield via telephone, with other special tests. The wire will be stretched from the City Hall to the Western Union office today. Tickets go on sale at Gorham & Wood's Friday."
"Springfield, Thursday, May 10, 1877.
"There are to be four telephones at the City Hall Saturday eve- ning so that the concert at Westfield may be heard to the best advan- tage. Some of our prominent citizens are to talk with Judge Colt and others at Pittsfield over fifty miles of wire. A considerable North- ampton party is coming down to the novel performance."
"Springfield, Friday, May 11, 1877.
"The telephone concert tomorrow evening is exciting consider- able interest, both in this city and at Pittsfield and also at Westfield, where a select few are to occupy the telegraph office, to hear what takes place at the two ends of the line, and Lawyer Gillett will talk and a chorus sing for the benefit of the two larger audiences. A train will be run after the concert from this city to Easthampton and Northampton and a delegation from Williston Seminary will thus be able to attend the concert."
"Springfield, Saturday, May 12, 1877.
"A big audience at both ends of the telephone exhibition this evening is assured as Prof. Bell goes into New York state to lecture at once, this is likely to be our only opportunity of testing the new telephone for some time to come, and then there will be no fun in seeing it after everybody else has got used to it."
"EDITORIAL. "Springfield, Monday, May 14, 1877. "The Miracle of the Telephone.
"When the words 'What hath God wrought' flashed through the first Morse wire, the nation too was electrified with a thrill of inter- est full of awe for the mysterious achievement (few unimportant
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words deleted) and Prof. Bell's confident expectation that he will shortly be able to send his voice across the Atlantic and talk with men three thousand miles away as readily as if they were in the same room, meets with no such incredulous and satiric bearing as Cyrus W. Field's first proposal to lay an Atlantic cable twenty years ago. The 'telephone' instrument aims to reproduce tones at a dis- tance by means of electro-magnetism but the only ones of consequence are of Elisha Gray of Chicago and Prof. Bell. The first of these is the one lately employed to give a concert in New York by means of an instrument played in Philadelphia and while it is very interesting it does not offer the promise of development and value which attaches to the Bell telephone. Mr. Gray's apparatus comprises a sending and a receiving instrument; the former is in the shape of a two-octave key-board, where keys are attached to tuning forks, each of which transmits its own tone. The receiver consists of a sounding box supporting an electro magnet and a tuning fork, each note of course having its own box, magnet and tuning fork. The magnets are placed in the circuit of a battery. The musical tones are transmitted by a make-and-break system as telegraphic signals usually are and the instrument can only produce the pitch and intensity, not the quality of the notes. There is not the least chance to confuse this ingenious invention with the more important one of Prof. A. G. Bell's, by which the use of a battery is wholly discontinued, and the human voice or the tone of an instrument is itself made the means of gen- erating the electric current and reproducing itself in all its char- acteristics of pitch, intensity and quality at a distance of hundreds of miles. This instrument of Prof. Bell's is extremely simple and both sends and receives the sounds. It consists of an ordinary electro-magnet mounted before a membrane of steel in a sounding box and connected with a telegraph wire. It can be used and was used the other evening in connection with a battery, transmitting music from a telephonic organ by means of small steel points touching the reeds of the instrument and each communicating with the wire. By this means musical tones and chords are produced at the receiving end of the wire, but its distinguishing achievements require no bat- tery and could not, in fact be attained with one.
"To send the tones of the human voice, the instrument is dis- connected, with the battery and the circuit made through the earth. The message is then uttered in a funnel leading into the sounding box and the sound-waves of the voice, striking upon the membrane within are instantaneously converted into magnetic-electric vibrations along the wire and at the other end of the circuit are reproduced with distinctness, and with their characteristics so preserved that the speaker can be recognized.
"Of course these results are as yet imperfect for the invention is in its very infancy but its marvelous character needs no empha- sizing. The most remarkable test so far occurred in New Haven, in a company including members of the faculty of Yale College. Instead of making connection with the earth, a second wire was used for the
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return circuit and the wires were extended from a telephone through several apartments into a room. The practical uses of the invention are suggesting themselves already. But that the conversational uses of the telephone are, even in its present imperfect condition, equal to genuine usefulness seems obvious. Among the purposes to which it will be applied first are for conveying intelligence in mines, which is already under consideration and communicating from one office with a large number of factories for which a prominent New England manufacturer intends to utilize it as soon as may be and for the benefit of divers beneath the ocean. The size of the telephone sounding box is of small consequence and a complete instrument may be made not larger than the palm of the hand. Such a one could easily be attached to the diver's armour in a way to allow him at any time to speak with the assistant above and its value in that instance is plain. We do not understand that it is Prof. Bell's intention as yet to manufacture the instruments, but it will eventually have to be done.
"How sound waves can generate magnetic waves, and still more strange how these can be far off and instantly reconverted into sound waves, with their every characteristic accurately preserved, is one of the most baffling mysteries which electricity presents to our consideration.
"One of the strange incidental experiences of the telephone indi- cates in a manner actually weird and magical, a possible entrance into new penetralia, for in listening there came to the ear, inexplicable noises like the bubbling of water or like the crackling of fire or some- thing like the hum of a crowd,-noises not of the nature of that dull hum which comes when one applies a sea shell to the ear, but wild and incomprehensible and suggesting that nature's elemental forces were surprised at work."
"Monday, May 14, 1877.
"The telephone concert at the City Hall Saturday night was entirely a success in showing the nature and workings of the inven- tion, although the instrument is not yet advanced enough to transmit speech or music for any public purpose. There was one telephone on the platform and two others at other points of the City Hall where an exceptionally full audience was gathered only one of these being used at a time. Another was at the telegraph office in Westfield and yet another at the Academy of Music in Pittsfield where there was a smaller audience than in this city. Prof. A. Graham Bell, the inventor made a brief address in this city and his assistant, Mr. Gower, late of the Providence Press, a similar one at Pittsfield, explaining the nature of the instrument, which is a wooden box some- what smaller than an ordinary photographer's camera containing simply a plate of iron and a horseshoe magnet wrapped about with wire from a voltaic electric battery. The vibration of the reed of a cabinet organ at Westfield causing the plate of iron in the telephone there to vibrate against the magnet, a current of electricity was
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formed extending to the magnet in the Springfield telephone, which would cause the vibration of the plate of iron and that would cause vibrations of the air and sound rapidity, with vibrations of the reed in the cabinet organ. Not only notes but chords were transmitted, thus making it possible to send as many messages as musical notes can be distinguished. The playing of the cabinet organ at Westfield resulted in the reproduction of the tunes at this city and Pittsfield, rather more faintly than the original but still clearly distinguishable except when the inevitable late-comers disturbed the audience. The reproduction was rather more audible in this city than at Pittsfield, the telegraph line at this end being made with soldered joints, but with merely twisted joints from Westfield to Pittsfield. For the transmission of the cornet music and vocal notes, however, where the sound is all concentrated at the orifice of the telephone, the battery is found to be needless and indeed, an impediment, the sound waves producing the necessary magnetism for their own transmission in some unexplained way. A cornet solo at Westfield, accordingly was heard at both ends of the line and a cornet on the City Hall platform was heard faintly at Pittsfield. Prof. Bell carried on conversation with the operator at Westfield and with Mr. Gower at Pittsfield, their words being audible but indistinguishable to the audience and a subsequent attempt to address the Springfield audience resulted only in a low hum, in which the intonations of the voice could be distinguished. Prof. Bell remarked that the possibilities of the telephone were only partly known, but Saturday night's experiments gave a satisfactory idea of what it is hoped to accomplish by it. The public is indebted to Mr. George H. Cary of the First Pittsfield Grammar School for its evening with the telephone, and we regret to learn that he is likely to lose money by his venture. The audience at the Pittsfield end was a losing one and our big hall full does not make its expected returns."
"Springfield, Wednesday, May 23, 1877.
"Mr. Fred A. Gower, the agent for Prof. Bell's telephone is at the Haynes House today, where he will be ready to consult with local parties wishing to introduce telephones for purposes of business or experiment. Arrangements have been completed more speedily than was expected for making this invention available for practical uses. Thus, the Boston Herald people are planning to distribute telephones over their projected building instead of speaking tubes, and the Pacific Mills at Lawrence will also avail themselves of the telephone. The advantages are apparent and the prices are made very reasonable, two telephones being introduced between dwelling houses for social purposes for $20. a year, while a pair of business telephones cost but $40. The instruments will not get out of order and it seems destined to do away very largely with the telegraph for local business."
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"Springfield, Thursday, May 24, 1877.
"Several proprietors of large business concerns and manufac- tories in this city and Holyoke examined the telephone yesterday and were so favorably impressed with it that the prospect is that as soon as the inventor is ready to introduce them, quite a number will be wanted for these two cities."
"Friday, June 1, 1877.
"The Whiting Paper Company always have the latest improve- ments and they now have put telephones into their two mills, the wire that was put up last year for their telegraph machine being used and so arranged that either the telegraph or the instruments can be used. The boys havn't practiced enough vet to use it fluently, but by dint of talking slowly and distinctly they get along all right. Two firms on opposite sides of High street have also provided themselves with a telephone, consisting of a cord, with the cover of a paper-collar box at each end, and say they can converse with ease by means of it."
"Monday, June 25, 1877.
"The telephone at the Whiting Mill has been taken out and one of a new pattern substituted for it which is thought to be a consid- erable improvement."
Following the Western Massachusetts demonstration, a similar one was staged between Boston and Lawrence, a distance of twenty- seven miles. Much more generous advertising space carried an invita- tion to see the operation of "the miracle of the age." Increasing con- fidence in the proposition led the sponsors to increase the fee for "cards of admission" from twenty-five to thirty-five cents while reserved seats cost fifty cents as compared to thirty-five cents at Springfield.
From such humble beginnings seventy-two years ago, the tele- phone system as we know it today, has made constant progress and improvement. Within a few months after these preliminary negotia- tions were completed, the Springfield exchange had been set up with one hundred subscribers paying two dollars per month to rent the instruments and eleven dollars per year for the use of the exchange. The site of the original Springfield Exchange was in a small room in the Haynes Opera House on Pynchon Street now occupied by the Capitol Theatre. Through the years the company moved to various larger quarters, finally making its home at the corner of Worthing- ton and Dwight Streets. Over 1,400 people are now employed by the Springfield Exchange satisfying the needs of more than 81,000 subscribers. Little did Prof. Bell dream seventy-two years ago that the crude telephone of that era would provide employment for so many and benefit mankind so generously.
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After graduating at Yale, S. F. B. Morse of Charlestown, Massa- chusetts, went to Europe to study painting, returning to New York in 1815 where he successfully followed his career. He became inter- ested in electricity and by 1835 had developed the telegraph instru-
CITY HALL, LAWRENCE, MASS. Monday Evening, May 28
THE MIRACLE
TELE
HONE
WONDERFUL
P
DISCOVERY
TELE
HONE
OF THE AGE
Prof. A. Graham Bell, assisted by Mr. Frederic A. Gower. will give an exhibition of his wonderful and miraculous discovery The Telephone, before the people of Lawrence as above, when Boston and Lawrence will be connected via the Western Union Telegraph and vocal and instrumental music and conversation will be trans- mitted a distance of 27 miles and received by the audience in the City Hall. Prof. Bell will give an explanatory lecture with this marvellous exhibition.
Cards of Admission, 35 cents Reserved Seats, 50 cents Sale of seats at Stratton's will open at 9 o'clock.
ment and in 1838 asked Congress to build an experimental line from Washington to Baltimore, but his petition was denied. He was about to give up and seek aid in Europe, when Congress, on the last day of the session, March 3, 1843, appropriated $30,000 with which the line was built and on May 24, 1844, the well-remembered message was sent from the Capitol at Washington to the awe-struck listeners at Baltimore,-"What hath God wrought".
America accepted the telegraph wholeheartedly for it was so patently adapted to a land of great spaces. Time and distance were annihilated, leaving the railways figuratively by the wayside. Where
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such quantities of wire came from, as were required for so promptly constructing hundreds and hundreds of miles of line is a mystery, but it was provided from some source or other. The procuring and setting of poles was of course mere routine work for Americans, yet the speed with which construction was carried on was amazing. The year following the Baltimore experiment, the United States Journal, in the naive phraseology of the era, announced under the caption, ---- "Magnetic Telegraph,-We learn from Mr. Kendall that he has made arrangements for the putting up of the Magnetic Telegraph from Springfield, Mass. to Buffalo, N. Y., and that he entertains the opin- ion that in a few days he shall be able to make a contract with the same individual for the route from Boston to New York".
In 1847 the New York Tribune announced that: "The posts are all erected for the Providence and Worcester Telegraph and a part of the wire has been placed. The workmen are making very good progress on the New Bedford, Taunton, Fall River and Providence line ".
That same year, the Tribune boasted that: "We present our readers this morning with upward of seven columns of close-printed matter received by telegraph. The Governor's Message, we believe, is the most lengthy document which has ever been telegraphed entire for the New York press".
On January 15, 1849, the Tribune announced that "the directors of the 'Magnetic Telegraph Company' whose line extends between Washington and New York have declared a semi-annual dividend of three per cent and one per cent upon the new stock created by the extension of the line across the North River into the City of New York. When will the unfortunate stockholders of the New York and Boston Telegraph Company finger a dividend? This line is one of the most profitable in the country, yet some unfathomable abyss seems to swallow up all the savings".
During the following thirty years the public made increasing use of the telegraph and eventually visualized a chain of private exchanges similar to the telephone central offices of a later date. In 1876 the newspapers called for support of a plan "to establish a district telegraph company to connect business and dwelling houses with a central office". A number of such installations were actually in being in Western Massachusetts when, in 1877 and the following years the telephone took over and relegated the telegraph to long distance fields.
Actually, the public was well aware of the possibility of utilizing the vibrations caused by the voice in transmitting the voice itself. One such case is of record in Holyoke in 1877, but before that, on September 22, 1876, the Springfield Republican reported that "the 'lover's telegraph' has appeared on the street and the philosophy by which a whisper in a little tin box can be heard by a person fifty feet off at the end of a string and another box, puzzles many, includ- ing the elect. The name of the toy will probably sell it".
Such toys were actually relied on in lieu of speaking tubes and such.
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