THE HISTORY OF THE TELEPHONE

BY HERBERT N. CASSON




PREFACE


Thirty-five short years, and presto!
the newborn art of telephony is fullgrown.
Three million telephones are now scattered
abroad in foreign countries, and seven millions
are massed here, in the land of its birth.

So entirely has the telephone outgrown the ridicule
with which, as many people can well remember,
it was first received, that it is now in most
places taken for granted, as though it were a
part of the natural phenomena of this planet. It
has so marvellously extended the facilities of
conversation--that "art in which a man has all
mankind for competitors"--that it is now an
indispensable help to whoever would live the
convenient life. The disadvantage of being deaf and
dumb to all absent persons, which was universal
in pre-telephonic days, has now happily been
overcome; and I hope that this story of how and
by whom it was done will be a welcome addition