On the contrary, I am largely out of pocket by my researches, as the mere value of the profession that I have sacrificed during my three years' work, amounts to twelve thousand dollars." Fortunately, there came, in almost the same mail with Bell's letter, another letter from a young Bostonian named Francis Blake, with the good news that he had invented a transmitter as satisfactory as Edison's, and that he would prefer to sell it for stock instead of cash.

If ever a man came as an angel of light, that man was Francis Blake.

The possession of his transmitter instantly put the Bell Company on an even footing with the Western Union, in the matter of apparatus.

It encouraged the few capitalists who had invested money, and it stirred others to come forward.

The general business situation had by this time become more settled, and in four months the company had twenty-two thousand telephones in use, and had reorganized into the National Bell Telephone Company, with $850, 000 capital and with Colonel Forbes as its first President.