ase. While one group of
scientists had given themselves to experimentation with the Hertzian
waves which led to wireless telegraphy, other scientists and engineers
were busily engaged in bringing the telephone to a perfection
which would enable it to accomplish even more striking feats. These
electrical pioneers did not work as individuals, but were grouped
together as the engineering staff of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company. At their head was John J. Carty, and it was under
his guiding genius that the great work was accomplished. John Carty
is the American son of Irish parents. He was born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on April 14, 1861. His father was a gun-maker and an
expert mechanic of marked intelligence and ingenuity who numbered
among his friends Howe, the creator of the sewing-machine. As a boy
John Carty displayed the liveliest interest in things electrical. When
the time came for him to go to school, physics was his favorite study.
He showed himself to be possessed of a keen mind and an infinite
capacity for work. To these advantages was added a good elementary
education. He was graduated from Cambridge Latin School, where he
prepared for Harvard University. Before he could enter the university
his eyesight failed, and the doctor forbade continuance of study.
Many a boy would have been discouraged by this physical handicap which
denied him complete scholastic preparation. But this boy was not
the kind that gives up. He had been supplementing his school work
in physics with experimentations upon his own behalf. Let us let Mr.
Carty tell in his own words how he next occupied himself.

I had often visited the shop of Thomas Hall, at 19 Bromfield
Street, and looked in the window. I went in from time to time,
not to make large purchases, but mostly to make inquiries and
to buy some blue vitriol, wire, or something of the kind. It
was a store where apparatus was sold for experimentation in
schools, and on Saturdays a number of Harvard and Institute
of Technology professors could be found there. It was quite a
rendezvous for the scientific men in those days, just the
same as the Old Corner Bookstore at the corner of School and
Washington Streets was a place where the literary men used to
congregate. Don't think that I was an associate of these great
scientists, but I was very much attracted to the atmosphere of
that store. I wanted to get in and handle