No doubt the platinum contacts he employed in
the transmitter behaved to some extent as a crude metal microphone,
and hence a few words, especially familiar or expected ones, could be
transmitted and distinguished at the other end of the line. But Reis
does not seem to have realised the importance of not entirely breaking
the circuit of the current; at all events, his metal spring is not in
practice an effective provision against this, for it allows the metal
contacts to jolt too far apart, and thus interrupt the current. Had he
lived to modify the spring and the form or material of his contacts so
as to keep the current continuous--as he might have done, for example,
by using carbon for platinum--he would have forestalled alike Bell,
Edison, and Hughes in the production of a good speaking telephone. Reis
in fact was trembling on the verge of a great discovery, which was,
however, reserved for others.
His experiments were made in a little workshop behind his home at
Friedrichsdorff; and wires were run from it to an upper chamber.
Another line was erected between the physical cabinet at Garnier's
Institute across the playground to one of the class-rooms, and there was
a tradition in the school that the boys were afraid of creating an
uproar in the room for fear Herr Reis should hear them with his
'telephon.
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