They were in fact electrical claps; while Bell conceived the idea--THE WHOLLY ORIGINAL AND NOVEL IDEA--of giving continuity to the shocks, so as to perfectly reproduce the human voice." One by one the scientists were forced to take the telephone seriously.
At a public test there was one noted professor who still stood in the ranks of the doubters.

He was asked to send a message.

He went to the instrument with a grin of incredulity, and thinking the whole exhibition a joke, shouted into the mouthpiece: "Hi diddle diddle--follow up that." Then he listened for an answer.

The look on his face changed to one of the utmost amazement.

"It says--`The cat and the fiddle,'" he gasped, and forthwith he became a convert to telephony.