Later, a cornet solo played in Somerville was very
distinctly heard. Still later, a three-part song floated over the
wire from the Somerville terminus, and Mr. Bell amused his audience
exceedingly by exclaiming, "I will switch off the song from one part of
the room to another, so that all can hear." At a subsequent lecture
in Salem, Massachusetts, communication was established with Boston,
eighteen miles distant, and Mr. Watson at the latter place sang "Auld
Lang Syne," the National Anthem, and "Hail Columbia," while the audience
at Salem joined in the chorus.'

Bell had overcome the difficulty which baffled Reis, and succeeded in
making the undulations of the current fit the vibrations of the voice
as a glove will fit the hand. But the articulation, though distinct, was
feeble, and it remained for Edison, by inventing the carbon transmitter,
and Hughes, by discovering the microphone, to render the telephone the
useful and widespread apparatus which we see it now.

Bell patented his speaking telephone in the United States at the
beginning of 1876, and by a strange coincidence, Mr. Elisha Gray applied
on the same day for another patent of a similar kind. Gray's transmitter
is supposed to have been suggested by the very old device known as
the 'lovers' telephone,' in which two diaphragms are joined by a taut
string, and in speaking against one the voice is conveyed through the
string, solely by mechanical vibration, to the other. Gray employed
electricity, and varied the strength of the current in conformity with
the voice by causing the diaphragm in vibrating to dip a metal probe
attached to its centre more or less deep into a well of conducting
liquid in circuit with the line. As the current passed from the probe
through the liquid to the line a greater or less thickness of liquid
intervened as the probe vibrated up and down, and thus the strength of
the current was regulated by the resistance offered to the passage of
the current. His receiver was an electro-magnet having an iron plate as
an armature capable of vibrating under the attractions of the varying
current. But Gray allowed his idea to slumber, whereas Bell continued
to perfect his apparatus. However, when Bell achieved an unmistakable
success, Gray brought a suit against him, which resulted in a
compromise, one public company acquiring both patents.

Bell's invention has been contested over and over again, and more than
one claimant for the honour and rewa