Ted and the Telephone   By: Sara Ware Bassett (1872-1968)

TED AND THE TELEPHONE

By Sara Ware Bassett

The Invention Series

PAUL AND THE PRINTING PRESS STEVE AND THE STEAM ENGINE TED AND THE TELEPHONE

[Illustration: "Would you like to go to college if you could?" persisted the elder man. FRONTISPIECE. See page 178.]

The Invention Series

TED AND THE TELEPHONE

By

SARA WARE BASSETT

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WILLIAM F. STECHER

BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1922

Copyright, 1922 , BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

All rights reserved

Published April, 1922

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO THE MEMORY OF

EDWIN T. HOLMES

WHO PLAYED A PART IN THE WONDERFUL TELEPHONE STORY, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

S. W. B.

It gives me much pleasure to acknowledge the generosity of Mr. Thomas Augustus Watson, the associate of and co worker with Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, who has placed at my disposal his "Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone."

Also the courtesy of Mrs. Edwin T. Holmes who has kindly allowed me to make use of her husband's book: "A Wonderful Fifty Years."

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION 1

II TED RENEWS OLD TIMES 11

III GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 21

IV THE FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 35

V A VISITOR 49

VI MORE GUESTS 60

VII MR. LAURIE 76

VIII DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 94

IX THE STORY OF THE FIRST TELEPHONE 106

X WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 122

XI THE REST OF THE STORY 141

XII CONSPIRATORS 152

XIII WHAT TED HEARD 163

XIV THE FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 173

XV WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT 189

XVI ANOTHER CALAMITY 199

XVII SURPRISES 213

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Would you like to go to college if you could?" persisted the elder man Frontispiece

"You can't be spreadin' wires an' jars an' things round my room!" protested Mr. Turner Page 9

Soon he came within sight of the shack which stood at the water's edge " 27

He heard an answering shout and a second later saw Ted Turner dash through the pines " 88

TED AND THE TELEPHONE

CHAPTER I

AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION

Ted Turner lived at Freeman's Falls, a sleepy little town on the bank of a small New Hampshire river. There were cotton mills in the town; in fact, had there not been probably no town would have existed. The mills had not been attracted to the town; the town had arisen because of the mills. The river was responsible for the whole thing, for its swift current and foaming cascades had brought the mills, and the mills in turn had brought the village.