'
The new invention was published to the world in a lecture before the
Physical Society of Frankfort on October 26, 1861, and a description,
written by himself for the JAHRESBERICHT, a month or two later. It
excited a good deal of scientific notice in Germany; models of it were
sent abroad, to London, Dublin, Tiflis, and other places. It became a
subject for popular lectures, and an article for scientific cabinets.
Reis obtained a brief renown, but the reaction soon set in. The
Physical Society of Frankfort turned its back on the apparatus which had
given it lustre. Reis resigned his membership in 1867; but the Free
German Institute of Frankfort, which elected him an honorary member,
also slighted the instrument as a mere 'philosophical toy.' At first it
was a dream, and now it is a plaything. Have we not had enough of that
superior wisdom which is another name for stupidity? The dreams of the
imagination are apt to become realities, and the toy of to-day has a
knack of growing into the mighty engine of to-morrow.
Reis believed in his invention, if no one else did; and had he been
encouraged by his fellows from the beginning, he might have brought it
into a practical shape. But rebuffs had preyed upon his sensitive
heart, and he was already stricken with consumption.
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