Bell, Alexander Graham. On the Production and Reproduction of Sound by Light. Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 115-136. Salem, 1880. 8vo. Contemporary leather over marbled boards.FIRST BOOK EDITION AND APPEARANCE OF BELL’S DISCOVERY OF THE PHOTOACOUSTIC EFFECT AND THE PHOTOPHONE.On June 3, 1880, Bell's assistant, Charles Tainter transmitted a wireless telephone message from the roof of the Franklin School to the window of Bell's laboratory, some 213 meters (about 700 ft.) away.The photophone functioned similarly to the telephone, except the photophone used light as a means of projecting information, while the telephone relied on a modulated electrical signal carried over a conductive wire circuit"Bell believed the photophone was his most important invention, telling a reporter shortly before his death that the photophone was "the greatest invention [I have] ever made, greater than the telephone".Bell's and Tainter's invention, for which Bell received the master patent (Patent 235,1990 in December 1880, was the forerunner of wireless telecommunications and the far-advanced forerunner of fiber-optic telecommunications in the 1980s.

Minor rubbing. Some loss to corner leather.