victims

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On July 2, 1881, after roughly four months in office, U.S. Pres. James Garfield was shot twice in a railroad station in Washington, D.C., by Charles J. Guiteau. One of Guiteau’s bullets entered the president’s back, and doctors were unable to locate it. The president would linger for 78 days before passing away, but not before doctors tried several times to find and remove the bullet through physical probing with medical instruments. Mathematics professor Simon Newcomb of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., knew that metal placed near electrically charged coils produces a faint hum, and he thought that a device he created based on these principles could help locate the bullet lodged in the president. Newcomb was interviewed by a journalist about his metal-detecting device, and Newcomb noted that it needed work. Bell read the story in the newspaper, contacted Newcomb, and offered assistance. Together, Newcomb and Bell made some improvements to Newcomb’s device (which included the addition of Bell’s telephone to amplify the hum). At the end of July, Bell began searching for Garfield’s bullet, but to no avail. Despite Garfield’s death in September, Bell later successfully demonstrated the device; surgeons adopted it, and it was used to save