There were the telegraphic and light-and-power currents, its strong and malicious cousins, chasing and assaulting it whenever it ventured too near.

There were rain and sleet and snow and every sort of moisture, lying in wait to abduct it.

There were rivers and trees and flecks of dust.

It seemed as if all the known and unknown agencies of nature were in conspiracy to thwart or annihilate this gentle little messenger who had been conjured into life by the wizardry of Alexander Graham Bell.
All that these young men had received from Bell and Watson was that part of the telephone that we call the receiver.

This was practically the sum total of Bell's invention, and remains to-day as he made it.