a trial of it himself. The young
inventor went to the other end of the wire, which was in another room,
and spoke into the transmitter some lines from a great poem. Don Pedro
heard perfectly, and his praise changed the mind of the judges. They
decided to enter the invention as a "toy that might amuse the public."
This toy was the Bell telephone, the young inventor was Alexander
Graham Bell, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the "toy" become
the greatest attraction to visitors at the Centennial. This must have
brought comfort to his heart, for Mr. Bell had been trying for some
time to have people see what a convenience his invention would be.

He had first thought of the telephone while searching for some way to
help deaf mutes to talk. His father and grandfather had both been
voice teachers in Edinburgh and London, so when young Alexander came
to America to seek his fortune it was natural he should teach methods
of using the voice. But his pupils were unfortunate persons who could
not talk because they were unable to hear the sounds of the voice. His
father had worked out a plan for teaching the deaf, that the young man
improved. It was based on observation of the position of the lips and
other vocal organs, while uttering each sound. One by one the pupil
learned the sounds by sight. Then he learned combinations of sounds
and at last came to where he could "read the lips" and tell what a
person was saying by looking at his moving lips.

So you see Alexander Graham Bell knew a great deal about the way we
talk. He kept studying and working in his efforts to help his pupils,
and his knowledge of the human ear gave him the first idea of his
remarkable invention.

He thought if the small and thin ear drum could send thrills and
vibrations through heavy bones, then it should be possible for a small
piece of electrified iron to make an iron ear drum vibrate. In his
imagination he saw two iron ear drums far apart but connected by an
electrified wire. One end of the wire was to catch the vibrations of
the sound, and the other was to reproduce them. He was sure he could
make an instrument of this kind, for he said, "If I can make deaf
mutes talk, I can make iron talk."

One of his pupils helped him to do this by her words of sympathy and
interest. She was a young girl named Mabel Hubbard. While still a baby
she had lost her hearing, and consequently her speech, through an
attack of scarlet fever. She was a bright, lovabl