

Alexander Graham Bell and the Garfield Assassination

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My thanks to www.historybuff.com and
mailto:rbrown@tir.com for this interesting report.  PAT]

By R.J. Brown
Editor-in-Chief

Some people ask me "Why bother to collect old newspapers? If I want
to read dry, boring history, I can just get a history book." My
answer to this is that even the best of history books leave out some
mighty interesting asbpects of historical events. The only way they
can be re-discovered, is through reading original newspapers
published during the time of the event. The assassination of
president James Garfield in 1881 is a prime example of this.

James Garfield was assassinated on July 2, 1881 and lingered until
September 19, 1881 when he died. The problem was that a bullet was
lodged inside his chest. The two methods of treatment at the time
were: (1) If the bullet had penetrated the liver (or other organs)
it would mean certain death without surgery to remove it. (2) If the
bullet hadn't penetrated an organ was wasn't lodged tightly against
an organ at the present time, the chances of recovery were much
better if they delayed the surgery until the president's condition
stabilized. Therefore, finding the exact location of the bullet was
very critical in the president's recovery. X-rays had not been
invented yet so the only way to determine the exact location of the
bullet was to do a manual probe with instruments. If they were to
make continued probes to locate the bullet, it increased the risk of
infection.

As a result of this indecision, a most unique journalistic style
arose.  Newspapers across the United States printed editorial after
editorial making big light of this indecision by the White House
doctors. Soon, lay-people, as well as qualified medical personnel,
jumped in with their opinions. The White House doctors were deluged
with package after package containing such items as special herbs,
teas, home remedies, poultices, as well as patent medicines. A
special area was set up in the White House basement to store all the
items.

In addition, people with medical degrees sent lengthy letters giving
their opinions on what should be done. Many of these letters were
also published in newspapers. Coverage of the debate received so
much attention that discussions from this angle over shadowed the
current medical condition of the president.

One such example of the press taking over the job of finding the
answer as to finding the exact location of the bullet took place one
week after the shooting.  Simon Newcomb of Baltimore was interviewed
by a reporter for the Washington National Intelligencer. Newcomb had
been experimenting with running electricity through wire coils and
the effect metal had when placed near the coils. He had found that
when metal was placed near the coils filled with electricity that a
faint hum could be heard at that point in the coil. The problem was
that the hum was so faint that is was very difficult to hear. He
suggested that he might be able to perfect his invention so that it
could be used on the President but, unfortunately, he though that
the perfection of the apparatus would take too long.

While in Boston, Alexander Graham Bell read the newspaper account
mentioned in the above paragraph of this article. Upon reading this
account, Bell telegraphed Newcomb in Baltimore and offered to assist
him. Further, he suggested that perhaps his own invention of the
telephone was the answer he had been seeking. His telephone
amplified sound made through wire!

Newcomb accepted Bell's offer. Bell immediately went to Baltimore to
work with Newcomb. White House surgeons spent a lot of time at the
Baltimore lab witnessing the experiments. The invention consisted of
two coils of insulated wire, a battery, a circuit breaker, and
Bell's telephone. The ends of the primary coil were connected to a
battery and those of the secondary coil were fastened to posts of
the telephone. When a piece of metal was placed in the spot where
the circuit breaker was, a hum could be heard in the telephone
receiver. As the metal was moved further away, the hum became more
faint. Five inches away was the maximum distance that a hum could
still be heard.

Various methods of testing the apparatus were tried. At first a game
of hide and seek was played. Either Bell or Newcomb would hide an
unspent bullet in their mouth, arm pit, or elsewhere on their body.
The other would pass the wand over the others' body. Meanwhile an
assistant would be listening on the telephone to announce (based on
the hum) where the bullet was and how far away from the tip of the
wand it was.

Next, the experiments included spent bullets and hiding them in bags
of grain, inside sides of beef and so forth. Various adjustments
were made with each test.

As a final test, before using it on the president, they went to the
Old Soldiers Home in Washington, D.C. where they solicited Civil War
veterans and lined them up in open fields. They passed the wand over
each volunteer's body.  As some still had bullets in their body from
doing battle in the war, this provided a very close approximation of
what they hoped their invention would accomplish -- locate a bullet
inside a human body. In each case, the soldiers with bullets still
in them, and where the bullets were, were identified. Now was the
appropriate time to try the invention on the president.

On July 26, Bell, his assistant Tainter, and Newcomb had an
appointment at the White House. In the early evening they made their
first attempt to locate the bullet using their apparatus. There were
also five White House doctors and several aides present for this
experiment. The president looked apprehensive as the wand was passed
over his body. He expressed a fear of being electrocuted. Bell
offered reassurance and tried to explain how the apparatus worked.
None-the- less, Garfield's eyes never left the wand through out the
experiment.

The results of the experiment were inconclusive s there was a faint
hum no matter where the wand was placed on the president's body.
After many attempts, Bell, Newcomb and Tainter left the White House
wonder just where they went wrong.

Meanwhile, the press used this failure as a personal attack on Bell.
The hostility of the rivalry among claimants that they (and not
Bell) were the first ones to invent the telephone was at its peak at
this time. Many lawsuits were already pending in the courts over
this issue. The publicity over Bell using his invention to attempt
to find the bullet in the president's body didn't help matters.
Editorials in newspapers called Bell a "publicity seeker."

Undaunted, Bell returned to the lab with Newcomb and Tainter. They
ran more experiments. It still worked just fine in the lab and at
the Old Soldier's Home.  Bell managed to talk White House doctors
into letting them come back and try again. The last day of July they
went back to the White House to try again. It was the same thing
again -- no matter where they placed the wand on the president's
body, a faint hum could be heard. When they moved the wand away from
the president's body the hum could no longer be heard. All were
stumped. It worked fine on everyone else but the president. Feeling
dejected, they again left the White House. Bell continued back to
Boston and gave up trying to perfect the invention.

A few weeks after their last attempt, President Garfield was moved
to his home in New Jersey and died on September 19, 881.

So what is the answer to why Bell's and Newcomb's invention worked
on everyone except the president? It wasn't the president that was
the problem. The problem was the bed he was in. Coil spring
mattresses had just been invented. In fact, a national campaign
hadn't even been started yet at the time of the assassination. The
White House was one of the few that had the coil spring mattresses
at the time. Very few people had even heard of them. Thus, Bell's
and Newcomb's invention was detecting metal -- unfortunately they
didn't realize that it was the coil springs. If they had moved him
off the bed to the floor or table, their apparatus would have
detected where the bullet was and likely, knowing this, the White
House surgeons could have saved James Garfield's life!


Send mail to mailto:rbrown@tir.com the author of this article.

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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My thanks to Mr. Brown and History Buff
for this fascinating article I am sharing with you today.  PAT]


