Famous U. Of M. Student

Prof. Amos E. Dolbear, well known to many Ann Arbor people, was born in 1837 at Norwich, Conn., and at an early age was left an orphan. In 1854 he began work in a pistcl factory at Worcester, Mas?., and there introduced the magnet to piek up the small parts of the locks of pistols. He entered the Ohio Wesleyan college at Delaware, O., and graduated in 186C. While there he invented a magneto e'ectrio telegrapn, in which the current of eletricity was generated by the action of a permanent magnet when thrust into or withdrawn from a hollow bobbm. This was (iesigned to move a needie. He alsoproposed to have alike instrument at the receiving station which he supposed would duplícate the movements of the first instrument. The receiving magnet wa9 to be furnished wilh a pen, and thus register the moveruents of the transmifing one. It will be seen, in the light oí the present, that the PRINCIPLE OF THE SPEAKINQ TELEPHONE is essentially involved in Djlbear's invention of 1864. The year 1867 was spent by Dolbear as a student at the TJniversity of Michigan at Ann Arbor. While here, he invented I a gyroscope to run by electro-magnetism, and which demongtrated the rotation of the eartb, and this machine was shown at the Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia. In 1874 he was appoiated Professor of Physics at Tufts College near Boston, and has oceupied that position up to the present time. During the years from 1867 to 1874 he continued hisexperiments in electrical ecience. He discovered the convertibility of sound vibrations in electrioity. Using a tuning-fork in connection with a thermopile and galvanometer, he noticed that when the fork vibrated the needie was deflected. He further observedjthe effect of a vibrating tuning-fork, which was also a magnet, upon the current from a thermopile. At the Portland meeting of the American Assooiation in 1873, Prof. Dolbear read b gh'ort paper in regard to the first of these experiment, which he thought was nevf, ut said nothingabout the second, as he deemed it only a particular case of magneto-currents which were well known. Still, it was precisely the same thing as the "undulatory current," which Prof. Bell claims to have discovered. In 1876 Prof. Lolbear cocstruoted a telephone with a permanent magnet, that transmitted inging and speech. He now thought (this was in December, 1876) of obtaicing a patent upon his speaking telephone with permanent magnets, but before he completed bis model, he was informed that Prof. Bell "had declared that he had sesured a patent upon the same thing two or three years before." About Maren 1, 1877, Prof. Dolbear chanced to see the official Gaz;;tte of the Patent office, containing Bell's patent of January 30, 1877, and then it first dawned upon him that he had been deceived. In July of that same year, Prof. Bell ncknowledged to Prof. Dalbear that he (Dolbear) had invented the telephone independently of himself. In 1879 Professor Dolbear perfected an entirely NEW (STATIC) SYSTEM OF TELEPHONY, which was patented in 1881. It has often been described and illustrated. By wsy of comparison it may here be stated that, in order to receive messagesby the Bell systean, it is necessary to use between the ear and the line wire an electrical machine, consisting of a magnet, a lic diaphragm near the magnet, a cuagnetocoil to influence the magnet, which coil is connected with the line wire and with the ground. Take out this machine, and the entire Beil telephone system will be useless; but this is precisely what Professor Dolbear has done, substantially, in his new system. To receive a message, he takes out the machine, and puts the end of the telegraph wire directly to the ear. Said the London Electrician, April l, 1882: "It must be regarded by all practical men as a new telephone, and one which does not conflict at all with the telephones already in use. There can be no question of likeness between electro-magnetic receiver of Bell, or the electro-chemical receiver of Edison, and the electro static instrument of Dolbear." JÜDGE CHEEVER DRAWS A MORAL. Upon being shown the foregoing taken from the November "Practical Efectricity," Judge N. W. Cheever, of th3 city, said: "Yes, I knew Prof. Dol bear when he attended the University in 1867-8. In view of his reraarkable success as a teacher and inventor, I am sure I shall be pardoned for making some statements in regard to him. When Prof. Dolbear came to Ann Arbor, I think he did not have money enongh to keep him a month. I employed him as organist for the Congregationai church, and gave him some assistance in forming a class in instrumental musió by which he was enabled to pay his way while in the University. I know that at the close of the year he, one day, went without his dinner, because he had no money to buy a dinner. It was also my privilege to render him some assistance in gettiner started as a teacher in Kentucky and Virginia. "For several years past Prof. Dolbear has held the position of Professor of Physic8 in Tufft's College near Boston. I believe he received at one time from the Bell Company, ten thousand dollars for his claim asVhe original inventor of a porticn of the telephone now in use. He also has invented a telephone that does not infringe upon the Bell patenta, ihat is, so far as the apparatus is coneerned. He has also nvented an instrument by which you can telegraph a map or anything of that nature, the receiving instrument making the exact counterpart of the figure made by the operator. Prof. Dolbear has also invented several other useful instruments that will ba of value, and is constantly at work in his shop in Boston upon new inventions. "I am sure I am within the faots when I say, that this one poor foreign student, who was enablei, throuph tha generosity of the State of Michigan, to obtain the preliminary training necessary to enable him to do the work he has done, has repaid in cash to the business men and farmers of thij State, much more than they have expended in the education of all foreign students since the University was established. It must be evident to all unprejudiced men, that it pays our State to turnish all the facilities for higher education as cneap as possible, even to loreign students. It never pays to leave such men as Dolbear undeveloped, and there are scores of poor boys and girls as able as he, who must remain in obscarily unless the strong arm of the State grants them aid."