On the Future of the Telephone as an Instrument for Listening to Music Remotely (Summer, 1876)

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

Here's an interesting piece on the future of the telephone, written just a few months after Bell's patent was granted him (at the age of 29) on March 7, 1876. “Telephones and other Applications of Electricity”, appearing August 24, 1876 in Nature (volume 14, pp 353-355),  was written anonymously though probably by the editor (and founder of the journal) J. Norman Lockyer, who discusses advancements in telegraphy and then switches his interest to the telephone. It was not Bell's telephone that the writer was discussing, but (mostly) that of Elisha Gray and “Reuss” (actually meaning Philip Reis).—and as a matter of fact there is no mention whatsoever of Mr. Bell.
The article turns its interest to the future and to the telephone, and how it may come to be that you could basically dial up any sort of music you'd like to hear, and thus do away with live musical entertainment. Curiously there isn't an implication for the using the telephone for communication--maybe the absence of Bell is less surprising in a way because Reis' instrument was actually pretty good at transmitting musical sounds and not-so with voice. Still this is a little odd, given that Bell made his famous demonstrations of the instrument's efficacy just weeks after his patent was granted.

The text:

• “We do not, however, believe that in its [the telephone's] present state, the invention is so complete that we can, at a distance, repeat on one or more pianos the air played by a similar instrument at the point of departure. There is a possibility here, we must admit, of a curious use of electricity. When we are going to have a dancing-party, there will be no need to provide a musician. By paying a subscription to some enterprising individual, who will, no doubt come forward to work this vein, we can have from him, a waltz, a quadrille, or a gallop, just as we may desire. Simply turn a bell-handle, as we do the cock of a water or gas-pipe, and we shall be supplied with what we want. Perhaps our children may find the thing simple enough."