| Reference number | MM/16/31 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Report advocating an award from the United States Centennial Commission, for Alexander Graham Bell's electric telephone and multiple telegraph, signed by William Thomson, Lord Kelvin |
| Date | 8 July 1876 |
| Description | "Thomson first visited the United States in 1876 when he acted as a judge in the technical instrumentation section of the Centenial Exhibition in Philadelphia...astonishing though, was Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. Thomson heard "marvellously distinct" the words "to be or not to be" spoken through the device, along with a selection of items read from a local newspaper that were not so easy to make out". (David Lindley, 'Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy', Washington, 2001).
"In Thomson's report on the device, he wrote that Bell "achieved a result of transcedent scientific interest - the transmission of spoken words by electric currents through a telegraph wire"". (Harold Issadore Sharlin, 'Lord Kelvin - The Dynamic Victorian', Pennsylvania, 1979). |
| Extent | 4 sides |
| Format | Photocopy |
| Access status | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | Name | Dates |
| NA8289 | Thomson; William (1824 - 1907); Baron Kelvin of Largs; physicist | 1824 - 1907 |