Editing Photophone (section)

==Commemorations==
{{ quote box
| align = right
| halign = center
| quote = <poem>
FROM THE TOP FLOOR OF THIS BUILDING
WAS SENT ON JUNE 3, 1880
OVER A BEAM OF LIGHT TO 1325 'L' STREET
THE FIRST WIRELESS TELEPHONE MESSAGE
IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
THE APPARATUS USED IN SENDING THE MESSAGE
WAS THE PHOTOPHONE INVENTED BY
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
INVENTOR OF THE TELEPHONE
THIS PLAQUE WAS PLACED HERE BY
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL CHAPTER
TELEPHONE PIONEERS OF AMERICA
MARCH 3, 1947
THE CENTENNIAL OF DR. BELL'S BIRTH
</poem>
| source = Marker on the Franklin School commemorating the first formal trial
}}

On March 3, 1947, the centenary of [[Alexander Graham Bell]]'s birth, the [[Pioneers, a Volunteer Network|Telephone Pioneers of America]] dedicated a historical marker on the side of one of the buildings, the [[Franklin School (Washington, D.C.)|Franklin School]], which Bell and [[Charles Sumner Tainter|Sumner Tainter]] used for their first formal trial involving a considerable distance. Tainter had originally stood on the roof of the school building and transmitted to Bell at the window of his laboratory. The marker did not acknowledge Tainter's scientific and engineering contributions.{{original research inline|date=September 2017}}

On February 19, 1980, exactly 100 years to the day after Bell and Tainter's first photophone transmission in their laboratory, staff from the [[Smithsonian Institution]], the [[National Geographic Society]] and AT&T's [[Bell Labs]] gathered at the location of Bell's former 1325 'L' Street [[Volta Laboratory and Bureau|Volta Laboratory]] in Washington, D.C. for a commemoration of the event.<ref name="Gallardo+Mims"/><ref name="NS-1986.02.27"/>

The Photophone Centenary commemoration had first been proposed by electronics researcher and writer [[Forrest Mims|Forrest M. Mims]], who suggested it to Dr. [[Melville Bell Grosvenor]], the inventor's grandson, during a visit to his office at the National Geographic Society. The historic grouping later observed the centennial of the photophone's first successful laboratory transmission by using Mims hand-made demonstration photophone, which functioned similar to Bell and Tainter's model.<ref name="Mims 1982, p. 12"/>{{#tag:ref|

The demonstration model was a replica in principle but not identical to Bell and Tainter's model. The commemorative model transmitter was a thin mirror cemented to a short aluminum speaking tube, and its receiver was a silicon solar cell and audio amplifier, both installed in a lantern light housing.

|group="Note"}}

Mims also built and provided a pair of modern hand-held battery-powered [[fiber-optic communication#Transmitters|LED transceivers]] connected by {{convert|100|yd|m}} of [[optical fiber]]. The Bell Labs' Richard Gundlach and the Smithsonian's Elliot Sivowitch used the device at the commemoration to demonstrate one of the photophone's modern-day descendants. The National Geographic Society also mounted a special educational exhibit in its Explorer's Hall, highlighting the photophone's invention with original items borrowed from the Smithsonian Institution.<ref>Mims 1982, pp. 6 & 12.</ref>