Harmonic Method. Principles. To best understand the principle of operation of the harmonic party-line signaling systems, it is to be remembered that a flexible reed, mounted rigidly at one end and having its other end free to vibrate, will, like a violin string, have a certain natural period of vibration; that is, if it be started in vibration, as by snapping it with the fingers, it will take up a certain rate of vibration which will continue at a uniform rate until the vibration ceases altogether.  Such a reed will be most easily thrown into vibration by a series of impulses having a frequency corresponding exactly to the natural rate of vibration of the reed itself; it may be thrown into vibration by very slight impulses if they occur at exactly the proper times.

It is familiar to all that a person pushing another in a swing may cause a considerable amplitude of vibration with the exertion of but a small amount of force, if he will so time his pushes as to conform exactly to the natural rate of vibration of the swing.  It is of course possible, however, to make the swing take up other rates of vibrations by the application of sufficient force.  As another example, consider a clock pendulum beating seconds.  By gentle blows furnished by the escapement at exactly the proper times, the heavy pendulum is kept in motion.  However, if a person grasps the pendulum weight and shakes it, it may be made to vibrate at almost any desired rate, dependent on the strength and agility of the individual.

The conclusion is, therefore, that a reed or pendulum may be made to start and vibrate easily by the application of impulses at proper intervals, and only with great difficulty by the application of impulses at other than the proper intervals; and these facts form the basis on which harmonic-ringing systems rest.

The father of harmonic ringing in telephony was Jacob B. Currier, an undertaker of Lowell, Mass.  His harmonic bells were placed in series in the telephone line, and were considerably used in New England in commercial practice in the early eighties.  Somewhat later James A. Lighthipe of San Francisco independently invented a harmonic-ringing system, which was put in successful commercial use at Sacramento and a few other smaller California towns.  Lighthipe polarized his bells and bridged them across the line in series with condensers, as in modern practice, and save for some crudities in design, his apparatus closely resembled, both in principle and construction, some of that in successful use today.

Lighthipe’s system went out of use and was almost forgotten, when about 1903, Wm. W. Dean again independently redeveloped the harmonic system, and produced a bell astonishingly like that of Lighthipe, but of more refined design, thus starting the development which has resulted in the present wide use of this system.