Daily Bread for 3.7.15

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have patchy fog in town today, with a high of thirty-nine. Sunrise is 6:19 and sunset 5:52, for 11h 32m 54s of daytime.

Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patent[76] drawing, March 7, 1876.

On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone:

Bell’s patent 174,465, was issued to Bell on March 7, 1876, by the U.S. Patent Office. Bell’s patent covered “the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically … by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound”[77] [N 17] Bell returned to Boston the same day and the next day resumed work, drawing in his notebook a diagram similar to that in [Elisha] Gray’s patent caveat.

On March 10, 1876, three days after his patent was issued, Bell succeeded in getting his telephone to work, using a liquid transmitter similar to Gray’s design. Vibration of the diaphragm caused a needle to vibrate in the water, varying the electrical resistance in the circuit. When Bell spoke the famous sentence “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you” into the liquid transmitter,[78] Watson, listening at the receiving end in an adjoining room, heard the words clearly.[79]

Although Bell was, and still is, accused of stealing the telephone from Gray,[80] Bell used Gray’s water transmitter design only after Bell’s patent had been granted, and only as a proof of concept scientific experiment,[81] to prove to his own satisfaction that intelligible “articulate speech” (Bell’s words) could be electrically transmitted.[82] After March 1876, Bell focused on improving the electromagnetic telephone and never used Gray’s liquid transmitter in public demonstrations or commercial use.[83]

On this day in 1811, a noted naturalist is born:

1811 – Increase Allen Lapham Born
A pioneer naturalist and noted author, Increase Allen Lapham was instrumental in establishing the Milwaukee public high school program. He was one of the founders of Milwaukee Female Seminary in 1848 and served as president of the State Historical Society from 1862 to 1871. Lapham came to Milwaukee in 1836 to serve as chief engineer and secretary for the Rock River Canal Company. He was one of the first authors and map makers in Wisconsin. Among approximately 80 titles in his bibliography, most notable was his Antiquities of Wisconsin, the first book length investigation of Wisconsin’s Indian mounds. Lapham also served as chief geologist for Wisconsin from 1873 to 1875. He founded many educational, civic, and scientific organizations in Wisconsin. You can see many of his writings, letters, maps, and drawings, at Turning Points in Wisconsin History by typing “Lapham” into the search box. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, SHSW 1960, pg. 221]