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The first attack upon the young telephone business was made by the Western Union Telegraph Company. It came charging full tilt upon Bell, driving three inventors abreast Edison, Gray, and Dolbear. It expected an easy victory; in fact, the disparity between the two opponents was so evident, that there seemed little chance of a contest of any kind.

"I congratulate you, sir," he said, "upon your very great invention, and I hope to see it supplant all forms of existing telegraphs, and that you will be successful in obtaining the wealth and honor which is your due." But one year later, Dolbear came to view with an opposition telephone.

It is allowable no doubt, not to speak of an American quack, Mahlon Loomis, who, according to Mr Story, patented in 1870 a project of communication in which he utilised the Rocky Mountains on one side and Mont Blanc on the other, as gigantic antennae to establish communication across the Atlantic; but we cannot pass over in silence the very remarkable researches of the American Professor Dolbear, who showed, at the electrical exhibition of Philadelphia in 1884, a set of apparatus enabling signals to be transmitted at a distance, which he described as "an exceptional application of the principles of electrostatic induction."

As the cylinder still continues to dip into the blacking, the latter is thus spread ever the brush. La Genie Civil. A.E. Dolbear. He says that a Holtz machine may give through a short wire a very strong current. For if E = 50,000 volts, R = 0.001 ohm, then C = 50000/0.001 = 50,000,000 amperes. Now that is a very large quantity of electricity, and is equal to an enormous horse power.

It took action quickly and organized the "American Speaking-Telephone Company," with $300,000 capital, and with three electrical inventors, Edison, Gray, and Dolbear, on its staff. With all the bulk of its great wealth and prestige, it swept down upon Bell and his little bodyguard. It trampled upon Bell's patent with as little concern as an elephant can have when he tramples upon an ant's nest.

Dolbear observes that if a galvanometer is placed between the terminals of a circuit of homogeneous iron wire and heat is applied, no electric effect will be observed; but if the structure of the wire is altered by alternate bending or twisting into a helix, then the galvanometer will indicate a current.

At Tufts, Amos Dolbear, '67e, was for many years Professor of Physics. The Johns Hopkins faculty roll shows the names of Henry M. Hurd, '63, '66m, Professor of Psychiatry; John H. Abel, '83m, Professor of Pharmacology; Franklin P. Mall, '83m, Professor of Anatomy, and Herbert S. Jennings, '93, Professor of Biology.

To the complete bewilderment of Bell, it coolly announced that it had "the only original telephone," and that it was ready to supply "superior telephones with all the latest improvements made by the original inventors Dolbear, Gray, and Edison." The result was strange and unexpected.

After the victory over Dolbear, the Bell stock went soaring skywards; and the higher it went, the greater were the number of infringers and blowers of stock bubbles. To bait the Bell Company became almost a national sport. Any sort of claimant, with any sort of wild tale of prior invention, could find a speculator to support him.

They acquired the inventions of Edison, Gray, and Dolbear, and entered the telephone field, announcing that they were prepared to furnish the very best in telephonic communication.