PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS AND EXPERIMENTS OF BOURSEUL, REIS AND DRAWBAUGH--FIRST SPEAKING TELEPHONE BY PROF. BELL--DIFFERENCES BETWEEN REIS’ AND BELL’S TELEPHONES--THE BLAKE TRANSMITTER-- BERLINER’S VARIATION OF RESISTANCE, AND ELECTRIC UNDULATIONS BY VARIATION OF PRESSURE--EDISON’S CARBON MICROPHONE--THE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE--STATISTICS. Τηλε (far), and φωνη (sound), are the Greek roots from which the word telephone is derived. It has the significance of transmitting sound to distant points, and is a word antedating the present speaking telephone, although this fact is generally lost sight of in the dazzling brilliancy of this latter invention. In the effort to hear better, the American Indian was accustomed to place his ear to the ground. Children of former generations also made use of a toy known as the “lovers’ telegraph”--a piece of string held under tension between the flexible bottoms of two tin boxes--which latter when spoken into transmitted through the string the vibrations from one box to the other, and made audible words spoken at a distance. These expedients simply made available the superior conductivity of the solid body over the air to transmit sound waves. The electro-magnetic telephone operates on an entirely different principle. It is a marvelous creation of genius, and stands alone as the unique, superb, and unapproachable triumph of the Nineteenth Century. For subtilty of principle, impressiveness of action, and breadth of results, there is nothing comparable with it among mechanical agencies. In its wonderful function of placing one intelligent being in direct vocal and sympathetic communication with another a thousand miles away, its intangible and mysterious mode of action suggests to the imagination that unseen medium of prayer rising from the conscious human heart to its omniscient and responsive God. The telegraph and railroad had already brought all the peoples of the earth into intimate communication and made them close kin, but the telephone transformed them into the closer relationship of families, and the tiny wire, sentient and responsive with its unlimited burden of human thoughts and human feelings, forms one of the great vital cords in the solidarity of the human family.