This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/18/2024
[BELL, Alexander Graham (1847-1922)]. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Vol. XLIII, No. 1,115. New York, February 10, 1877. 16 large 4to pages on folded leaves. Each page approximately 398 x 280 mm. Toned, worn, occasionally lightly soiled with some tears, several pages loose. On p. 373 are two early engraved images of “Bell’s Articulating Telephone for Transmitting Sounds by Electricity.” The accompanying article is on p. 375, “Bell’s Articulating Telephone. The Transmission of Sound by Electricity. Attempts to transmit musical or articulate sounds to a distance by means of electrical communication have been made partially successful by the early experiments of Sir Charles Wheatstone in England, Phillipp Reis in Germany, and Elisha Gray in the United States; but it has been left to Mr. Graham Bell, of Boston, to invent an apparatus by means of which the sound of the human voice may be transmitted by electricity along a telegraph line, and heard, as a voice, at the other end.” The article goes on to describe the apparatus, as well as the successful test of the telephone by Professor Thomas A. Watson (1854-1934) and Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), transmitting a recognizable voice between buildings several miles apart in Philadelphia. This article predates the first available telephone sold to the public by nearly a year. Two days after this article was published, Bell made the first long-distance telephone call, between Salem and Boston, MA.