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Alexander Graham Bell Typed Letter Signed....
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Sold on Oct 4, 2012 for:
$956.00
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Description
Alexander Graham Bell Typed Letter Signed. One page, 8" x 10.5", Washington, January 15, 1902, to George C. Maynard, a friend and former agent of Bell Telephone Company for Washington, D. C. The letter reads, in full:"You will be glad to hear that my application to Marconi was successful, and that he will present to the National Museum the instrument with which he received the first signals from Europe, and will also be glad to present us with some of his old models. I write today to Prof. Langley upon the subject, suggesting that some formal communication be send to Marconi, on behalf of the National Museum, but I thought that you were entitled to receive the first news."
Four weeks prior to writing this letter, Irish-Italian inventor and radio pioneer, Guglielmo Marconi, using a kite carrying an antenna to a height of approximately 500 feet from atop Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland, received a signal being sent wirelessly across the Atlantic Ocean from Cornwall, on the southwestern tip of England 2,200 miles away. The message was simply three short dots, Morse code for "S." Set upon by skeptics, he performed a similar experiment in February, 1902, while aboard the SS Philadelphia sailing east to Europe and recorded daily transmissions from the same transmission station in Cornwall proving that radio signals could travel many hundreds of miles.
The signature is 90% faded, but can still be seen. Directly below is a second signature, in pencil, presumably written by someone in Maynard's family. The edges are toned and chipped in places. Smoothed folds, which also show some toning, are weakened and separating at the page edges. There are three small holes, in each of the lower corners and at the upper edge in the middle, where the document was mounted.
Auction Info
2012 October 4-5 Historical Manuscripts Signature Auction - Beverly Hills #6084 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
October, 2012
4th-5th
Thursday-Friday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 24
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 860
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19.5% of the successful bid per lot.
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