The Wasp — 1881 — page 120: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page primarily features an article about Alexander Graham Bell's photophone invention—a device transmitting sound via light beam. The two illustrations show the transmitter (a man speaking into a cone-shaped device) and receiver (men with optical equipment). The satirical column "The Press Gang" mocks newspaper editors and various publications. It critiques the *Tokio Maru* (a Japanese comic paper), *Record-Union* (for praising Stanford's railroad policy), the *Call's* Paris correspondent, and the *Valley Chronicle* (for an article about "Pass it Around"). The humor targets editorial inconsistency, pretentiousness, and what the author sees as absurd journalistic positions. The photophone article appears straightforward science reporting rather than satire.