and had recently helped to organize the first
Brazilian school for deaf-mutes at Rio de
Janeiro. And so, with the tall, blond-bearded
Dom Pedro in the centre, the assembled judges,
and scientists--there were fully fifty in all--
entered with unusual zest into the proceedings of
this first telephone exhibition.

A wire had been strung from one end of the
room to the other, and while Bell went to the
transmitter, Dom Pedro took up the receiver and
placed it to his ear. It was a moment of tense
expectancy. No one knew clearly what was
about to happen, when the Emperor, with a
dramatic gesture, raised his head from the receiver
and exclaimed with a look of utter amazement:
"MY GOD--IT TALKS!"

Next came to the receiver the oldest scientist
in the group, the venerable Joseph Henry, whose
encouragement to Bell had been so timely. He
stopped to listen, and, as one of the bystanders
afterwards said, no one could forget the look of
awe that came into his face as he heard that iron
disc talking with a human voice. "This," said
he, "comes nearer to overthrowing the doctrine
of the conservation of energy than anything I
ever saw."

Then came Sir William Thomson, latterly