1
132
NOTES
Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Transcripts of the first and second letters were published in Volume 29 and Volume 30 of the JHKBRAS
The late Dr. R.G. Irwin, former cataloger at the East Asiatic Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has left a manuscript describing the Library's holdings of Fryer translations, most of which were published at the arsenal at Kiangnan. Dr. Irwin wrote that John Fryer "constructed the first telephone in China (1877) and imported the first phonograph, together with a Caligraph typewriter (1888)". The present author has examined the extant Fryer papers in detail and can find no documentation, not even a hint for such claims. However, it is known that Dr. Irwin was in contact with Fryer's son, Charles Edmund Fryer, in the 1950s; it may be that this information was passed on at that time. The present author would like to hear from anyone having information bearing on these claims.