OFESSOR BELL IN SALEM, MASS., AND MR. WATSON IN
BOSTON, DEMONSTRATING THE TELEPHONE BEFORE AUDIENCES IN 1877]

[Illustration: DR BELL AT THE TELEPHONE OPENING THE NEW YORK-CHICAGO
LINE, OCTOBER 18, 1892]

Yet but a small part of the public could attend the exposition and
actually test the telephone for themselves. Many of these believed
that it was a hoax, and general skepticism still prevailed. Business
men, though they were convinced that the telephone would carry
spoken messages, nevertheless insisted that it presented no business
possibilities. Hubbard, however, had faith in the invention, and
as Bell was not a business man, he took upon himself the work of
promotion--the necessary, valuable work which must be accomplished
before any big idea or invention may be put at the service of the
public. Hubbard's first move was to plan a publicity campaign which
should bring the new invention favorably to the attention of all,
prove its claims, and silence the skeptics. They were too poor to
set up an experimental line of their own, and so telegraph lines were
borrowed for short periods wherever possible, demonstrations were
given and tests made. The assistance of the newspapers was invoked and
news stories of the tests did much to popularize the new idea.

An opportunity then came to Bell to lecture and demonstrate the
telephone before a scientific body in Essex. He secured the use of a
telegraph line and connected the hall with the laboratory in Boston.
The equipment consisted of old-fashioned box 'phones over a foot long
and eight inches square, built about an immense horseshoe magnet.
Watson was stationed in the Boston laboratory. Bell started his
lecture, with Watson constantly listening over the telephone. Bell
would stop from time to time and ask that the ability of the
telephone to transmit certain kinds of sounds be illustrated. Musical
instruments were played in Boston and heard in Essex; then Watson
talked, and finally he was instructed to sing. He insisted that he was
not a singer, but the voices of others less experienced in speaking
over the crude instruments often failed to carry sufficiently well
for demonstration purposes. So Watson sang, as best he could, "Yankee
Doodle," "Auld Lang Syne," and other favorites. After the lecture had
been completed members of the audience were invited to talk over the
telephone. A few of them mustered confidence to talk with Watson
in Boston, and the newspaper reporters c