It was 1877 when the telephone was invented, and
although there were a number of inventors
working on this powerful invention, the one
inventor credited with the first workable
telephone was Alexander Graham Bell - of course
we all know that. But did you also know that
Bell also played a big part in the development
of sign language for the deaf, and for hearing
aids? Once he even had the opportunity to use
one of his inventions to save a U.S.
President.
The date was July, 2, 1881. On that
day, President James Garfield was shot by an
assassin named Charles Guiteau. At first,
doctors expected that the president would die,
assuming that the bullet hit a major organ in
Garfield's body. Amazingly, after several days
Garfield was still alive. But doctors had to get
that bullet out if he was to recover.
Now they had not yet invented the x-ray so the
only way they could hope to find the bullet was
to probe into the bullet hole looking for it.
This was highly painful and likely to increase
infection - what were they going to do?
Well, one of Alexander Graham Bell's newest
inventions was an experimental model of a metal
detector and it worked. In fact, he had already
used it to find bullets never removed from the
bodies of Civil War survivors. So whenever he
heard the doctor's predicament regarding
President Garfield he immediately made his way
to the White House, bringing along his metal
detector. As he reached the President's bedside
he immediately hooked up his detector and began
to generate small currents of electricity
through the detector coils. All hopes were high
as Alexander Graham Bell listen for the hum
through the coils - the hum that would tell him
where the bullet was lodged in the President's
body. But try as he may, Bell could not find the
bullet. For some reason the metal detector would
not stop humming. After much effort, great
inventor Alexander Bell had to stop – sadly, he
had failed.
For another four weeks President Garfield fought
to overcome his grave illness; and, finally, on
September 19, 1881, President James Garfield
suffered serious hemorrhaging, heart failure,
and he died - very sad.
But one more thing; one more piece to this
story - just why did Alexander Graham Bell's
invention not work? Was it a failure? Not at
all. In fact, it worked perfectly. The
problem was that no one knew that President
Garfield was lying on another all-new
invention - the coil spring mattress. And
the metal coils in that mattress were
causing interference, so that the bullet
could never be detected - how very strange.
See you again next week.
May God bless America
May God bless you
Jerry Stewart
P.S. email me with your own thoughts and ideas
regarding our America at
stewartreport@onemomentinamerica.com
JS
This week's Stewart Report has been sponsored
by:
Moving &
Storage Solutions
