Article reprinted from
HistoryBuff.com
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 aspects 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 and 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 thought 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 Bells' 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 as 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, 1881
.
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!
