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The Telephone iS1 tion proved that Bell’s application had been the first to be received, and accordingly his application was accepted and the patent ultimately awarded to him. It was a fortunate circumstance for Bell, because he only reaped the fruits of his labours by a matter of minutes. Bell realised that his instrument was primitive, and that many improvements would be necessary before the invention could be described as being commercial. But stories of what he was doing in the way of talking over the telegraph began to be circulated and magnified, and inquisitive visitors to Williams’s workshop became too numerous. Bell grew apprehensive of this publicity, so he removed his instruments from those workshops to the security and obscurity of two rooms on the top floor of a cheap boarding-house, No. 5 Exeter Place, Boston. The upper room he equipped as a laboratory, while the other room, beneath the former, was his living- and bedroom. At his suggestion, Watson rigged up two copper wires between the two rooms, and in this seclusion the commercial telephone was worked out, Watson, who had severed his connection with Williams, assisting in the enterprise. These arrange- ments were quickly completed. Then Bell in one, and Watson in the other, room sat at the instru- ments patiently for hours on end striving to transmit and to receive sentences spoken by the human voice over the telegraph wire. Progress was slow because innumerable modifications and adjustments had to be carried out. Some human tones would be heard distinctly, but others could not be heard at all. But the afternoon of March 10, 1876, brought the