ments were not arranged to overcome this
retardation. However, the lectures were a success from the popular
viewpoint. The public flocked to them and the fame of the telephone
grew. So many cities desired the lecture that it finally became
necessary for Bell to employ an assistant to give the lecture for him.
Frederick Gower, a Providence newspaper man, was selected for this
task, and soon mastered Bell's lecture. It was then possible to give
two lectures on the same evening, Bell delivering one, Gower the
other, and Watson handling the laboratory end for both.

Gower secured a contract for the exclusive use of the telephone in New
England, but failed to demonstrate much ability in establishing the
new device on a business basis. How little the possibilities of the
telephone were then appreciated we may understand from the fact that
Gower exchanged his immensely valuable New England rights for the
exclusive right to lecture on the telephone throughout the country.

The success of these lectures made it possible for Bell to marry, and
he started for England on a wedding-trip. The lectures also aroused
the necessary interest and made it possible to secure capital for the
establishment of telephone lines. It also determined Hubbard in his
plan of leasing the telephones instead of selling them. This was
especially important, as it made possible the uniformity of the
efficient Bell system of the present day.

XIV

IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION

The First Telephone Exchange--The Bell Telephone
Association--Theodore N. Vail--The Fight with the Western
Union--Edison and Blake Invent Transmitters--Last Effort of the
Western Union--Mushroom Companies and Would-be Inventors--The
Controversy with Gray--Dolbear's Claims--The Drawbaugh Case--On a
Firm Footing.

Through public interest had been aroused in the telephone, it was
still very far from being at the service of the nation. The telephone
increases in usefulness just in proportion to the number of your
acquaintances and business associates who have telephones in their
homes or offices. Instruments had to be manufactured on a commercial
scale, telephone systems had to be built up. While the struggles of
the inventor who seeks to apply a new idea are often romantic, the
efforts of the business executives who place the invention, once it
is achieved, at the service of people everywhere, are not less
praiseworthy and interesting.

A very few te