“I recollect the instrument in the shape of the human ear very well: it was Reis’s earliest form of transmitter. The transmitter underwent a great many changes, even during my time. The form you sketch (Fig. 9, p. 20) was almost the oldest one, and was soon superseded by the funnel-shape (Fig. 35). The back was always closed by a tympanum of bladder, and many a hundred bladders were stretched, torn, and discarded during his experiments. I recollect him stating to me that he thought a very thin metal tympanum would eventually become the proper thing, and one was actually tried, coated over on one side with shellac, and on the other likewise, except at the point of contact (Fig. 36). I believe it was made of very thin brass, but at the time the experiments were not satisfactory. Talc was also tried, but without success, the platinum contacts being in all cases preserved. “I remember very well indeed the receiver with a steel wire, surrounded by silk-covered copper wire. The first one was placed on an empty cigar-box, arranged thus:-- [Illustration: Fig. 37.] “The wire was a knitting-needle and the copper wire was spooled on a paper case. [Illustration] “The spiral was supported by a little block of wood, so as to allow the knitting-needle not to touch it anywhere. Later on a smaller cigar-box was invented as a cover--thus; (Fig. 38)--having two holes cut into it like the _f_-holes in a violin. [Illustration: Fig. 38.] “The practice was to place the ear close to the receiver, more particularly so when the transmission of words was attempted. “The spiral was, during the early experiments, placed on a violin--in fact, a violin which I now possess was sometimes used, as it was of a peculiar shape, which Reis thought would help the power of tone. “I have already enumerated some of the words which were transmitted, but there were many more; on one occasion a song, known in this country as ‘The Young Recruit’ (Wer will unter die Soldaten) was transmitted, the air and _many_ of the words being clearly intelligible. “I do not recollect seeing the receiver shewn in the woodcut (Fig. 21), but Reis often said that he would make such a one, although the sketch he made for me then differed in some details from your woodcut. Reis intended to keep me fully informed of all he could achieve, but, immediately after leaving his tuition, I fell ill, and was laid up for a very long time. Shortly afterwards I left for England, and then he died, and I never saw him again. The electromagnet form was certainly strongly in his mind at the time we parted, and he drew many alternative suggestions on paper, which have probably been destroyed; but the electromagnets in all of them were placed upright, sometimes attached to the top of a hollow box, and sometimes to the bottom of a box arranged thus (Figs. 39, 40); but, to my recollection, they never got beyond the stage of drawings, whatever he may have done after he and I parted company. [Illustration: Fig. 39.]