known as Lord Kelvin. It was fitting that he
should be there, for he was the foremost elec-
trical scientist at that time in the world, and had
been the engineer of the first Atlantic Cable.
He listened and learned what even he had not
known before, that a solid metallic body could
take up from the air all the countless varieties of
vibrations produced by speech, and that these
vibrations could be carried along a wire and
reproduced exactly by a second metallic body. He
nodded his head solemnly as he rose from the
receiver. "It DOES speak," he said emphatically.
"It is the most wonderful thing I have seen in
America."

So, one after another, this notable company
of men listened to the voice of the first telephone,
and the more they knew of science, the less they
were inclined to believe their ears. The wiser
they were, the more they wondered. To Henry
and Thomson, the masters of electrical magic, this
instrument was as surprising as it was to the man
in the street. And both were noble enough to
admit frankly their astonishment in the reports
which they made as judges, when they gave Bell
a Certificate of Award. "Mr. Bell has achieved
a result of transcendent scientific interest,"
wrote Sir William Thomson. "I heard it speak
distinctly several sentences. . . . I was
astonished and delighted. . . . It is the