would work out models of many of these for himself, and, showing them
very proudly, often claim them as his own devices. Drawbaugh was
now put forward by the opponents of the Bell organization as having
invented a telephone before Bell. It was claimed that he had been too
poor to secure a patent or to bring his invention to popular notice.
Much sympathy was thus aroused for him and the legal battle was waged
to interminable length, with the usual result. Bell's patent was again
sustained, and Drawbaugh's claims were pronounced without merit.

Many other legal battles followed, but the dominance of the Bell
organization, resting upon the indisputable fact that Bell was the
first man to conceive and execute a practical telephone, could not
be shaken. The telephone business was on a firm footing: it had
demonstrated its real service to the public; it had become a
necessity; and, under the able leadership of Vail, was fast extending
its field of usefulness.

XV

TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES

The First Suggestion--Morse Sends Messages Through the
Water--Trowbridge Telegraphs Through the Earth--Experiments of
Preece and Heaviside in England--Edison Telegraphs from Moving
Trains--Researches of Hertz Disclose the Hertzian Waves.

Great as are the possibilities of the telegraph and the telephone in
the service of man, these instruments are still limited to the wires
over which they must operate. Communication was not possible until
wires had been strung; where wires could not be strung communication
was impossible. Much yet remained to be done before perfection
in communication was attained, and, though the public generally
considered the telegraph, and the telephone the final achievement, men
of science were already searching for an even better way.

The first suggestion that electric currents carrying messages might
some day travel without wires seems to have come from K.A. Steinheil,
of Munich. In 1838 he discovered that if the two ends of a single wire
carrying the electric current be connected with the ground a complete
circuit is formed, the earth acting as the return. Thus he was able
to dispense with one wire, and he suggested that some day it might be
possible to eliminate the wire altogether. The fact that the current
bearing messages could be sent through the water was demonstrated by
Morse as early as 1842. He placed plates at the termini of a circuit
and submerged them in water some dist