The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-15 00:00:00

TEE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

THE EDISON • TELBPILONB.

On the above subject The Times of Monday has published
the following letter :
Sir,—On the 10th of May last, in a leading article
on the subject of the Edison telephone, you published
a description of the means by which a resident in the
country might communicate with his office in town,
transact his business, dictate letters, and do all that
which can be accomplished by a personal interview.
The Edison telephcne has to-day fulfilled this pre-
diction in the most practical manner. With a wire
passing through the Exchange system of this company,
and conveyed for ten or twelve miles of the way on
poles with many other wires, conversation was carried
on with as much facility over a distance of fifteen
miles as though from room to room.
It will be difficult to convey to your readers a more
graphic description of whet can be done with the
Edison telephone than by shortly recounting what
has actually beep accomplished to-day. A. gentle-
man, with whose house the Edison Telephone Ex-
change has been placed in connexion was enjoying a
day's hunting. At the time he left home the telephone
had not been fixed in position, although the wire had
been run. Daring his absence the work was com-
pleted, and on his return important letters were read
to him, to which replies were dictated. A conference
with his solicitors being necessary, the operator at
the Central Exchange connected him in the manner
already described in your columns. An important
telegram from New York was received, and a reply
dictated in time to reach New York three hours after
the first message was despatched from America. The
principal portion of a day's work in town was thus
compressed into half an hones occupation in a library.

It must be borne in mind that what has to•day been
accomplished is no laboratory experiment, The con-
ditions involved were the conditions of ordinary life.—
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, ARNOLD WHIT;
Manager, Edison Telephone Company (Limited),
11, Queen. Victoria-street, November 8.

carrying millions of tons of every conceivable article
that can be transported on an American railroad.
Every few minutes a freight train rushed past the car
windows on the other line, and the hands were all
working extra time to keep the traffic moving and get
it out of the way so as to prevent a block. Many
trains of " empties " were sent westward to relieve
the pressure for more cars, and-at all the stations there
was complaint that goods came in faster than they
could be carried off. Could this sight of wonderfully
revived trade be only transported to England, I am
confident it would gladden your hearts; but it must
be the prelude of better times for you, as American
prosperity quickly tells abroad. . . .

of Captain De Bruyne in the little Dutch exploring
vessel the Willem. Barents, during best summer, yield
some new and interesting information about Nova
Zembla, the Barents and Kara seas, and Frans
Joseph Land. Captain Markham's paper will, we
hope, be read at our next meeting.
In the wide field of African discovery, the event
which most nearly concerns ourselves is the lamented
death on the 28th of June, of Mr. Keith Johnston, the
leader of the expedition to explore the route from Dar
es Salaam, south of Zanzibar, to Lake Nyassa, under
tho auspices of the society. You will, I know, join
with the Council in lamenting the premature death of
th; 3 distinguished youne geographer and explorer. He
wa - eminently qualified by his training, by his travels,
and by his apparently robust constitution for the task
he had undertaken. (Hear, hear.) The expedition had
m .de about 100 miles into the interior when Mr. Keith
Je riston died. The command devolved upon Mr.
Ph Anson, who was chosen as second to Mr. Keith
Jehnston on account of his qualifications as a geologist
and naturalist. We lately received, by the courtesy of
Lord Salisbury, some interesting news of the progress
of the expedition in a letter from Dr. Kirk to Lord
Salisbury, dated Zanzibar, September 15, which gives
also some fresh information respecting the navigation
ot the Lufgi River, which has been navigated as far as
a place called Pangard, about 120 miles from its mouth
in a directiine, by an Arab despatched by the Sultan
et Zanzibar. At Pangani there are rapids which Pre-
vented further progress, but it is thought that in flood
they may be got over. The ascent of Pangani occu-
pied 24 diqs, but the descent was accomplished in five.
Paugani is reported to be not far from the confluence
of the Ruaha and Uranga rivers, the former of which
is reported to be full of rocks, but the latter to be
navigable for many days west.
The London Missionary Society have had, in addi-
tion to the loss of two members of their party, to
deplore the loss of Dr. MuUens, their foreign secre-
tary, an eminent traveller, who was leading a party to
the great Lake .Tanganyika. (Hear, hear.) He died
near Mpwapwa, on the 10th of July, on the route
between the East Coast and Lake Tanganyika.
Dr. Mullens, though he had achieved great things as
a geographer and man of science, was better known to
the world as a missionary and a diree.tor of missionary,
enterprises. He had occupied for 13 years the import-
ant post of foreign secretary to the London Missionary
Society. '
With regard to the other exploring expeditions in
the interior of Africa, there is little to report except
that the usual obstacles of African travel have inter-
ferred with rapid progress. We hear of the continued,
though slow, advance of the Belgian International
Expeditions—two of which are on the way from the
East Coast to Lake Tanganyika and the Manyema
country beyond, and one under Mr. Stanley is ad-
vancing from the west vid the Congo. The caravan of
Indian elephants given to the Central Commission by
the King of the Belgians is now several hundred miles
from the East Coaat on its way to Lake Tanganyika.
The persevering efforts of the Garman African Ex-
ploration. Society to extend our knowledge of the
western interior of Africa are well known, During the
past summer, Her Schutt, one of the latest of their
band of explorers has returned to Europe, with rich
gleanings from the little-known region lying between
the Quango and the Kassai Rivers, and has recently
laid before the Geographical Society of Berlin maps
and a report of his expedition. His successor, Dr.
Buchner, was, when last hoard of, preparing for a
journey into the country of Lunde. Thus, in Western
Africa a fair measure of success has attended the re-
cent enterprise of the Germans; but in the North the
adventurous attempt of Gerhard Rohlfs to reach
equatorial Africa and the Upper Congo from to,
vi 4 Waday, has at present been baffled by the
hostility of the tribes of the Kufara Oasis.
Major Serpa Pinto, with whose expedition you are
doubtless familiar . (cheers), arrived in London
after our meetings for the summer were over,
I and when it was too late in the season to summon
a special meeting with any prospect of a sufficient
gathering to do him the honour which we should have
wished. He was kind enough, however, to give an
account of his travels, at my house, to the members of
the Council and such persons interested as I was able
to collect. We were equally or even more unfortunate
in the case of the eminent Bohemian traveller, Dr.
Emil Holub, who arrived in Linden in August, when
it isealmost as difficult to bring together men of science
in London as it would be in the southern part of
Central Africa i which he has recently visited. (Hear,
hear, and a laugh.) Dr. Holub has brought home
many maps and drawings and much valuable informs-
tion regarding the neighbourhood of the Zambesi
River, above the Victoria Falls, and I hope he will be
able to favour us with an account of his travels at our
meeting of the 12th of January next.
Turning from Africa to Central Asia, we hear that
Colonel Prejevalksy, whose great attainments are well
known, had reached Suchow, on the Chinese frontier, on
the 20th of June, three months after he left the Siberian
frontier of Russia, on his way to Lhassa. A Hun-
gariau traveller, Count Sz4cmlnsi, in correspondence
with the Geographical Society of Berlin, has also been
for many months engaged on an exploratory journey
I to Mongolia and Thibit, but making China his start-
ng point.
Additions to our geographical knowledge have been
made by the surveying officers who accompanied the
different columns during the recent campaign in
Afghanistan. The rs stilts will, no doubt, be in due
c‘stisse made known in form of a revised general map
of the country, by General Walker; meantime it may
I be recorded that descriptive papers of much interest
and value have been received by us from Captain
Holdich and Lieutenant R. C. Temple. relating to the
Thal-Chotiali route; from Captain Gerald Martin on
the Kuram Valley ; from Captain R. Beavan,
Lieutenant St. George C. Gore, Major Campbell,
and Major Malcolm Rogers on various districts in
Southern Afghanistan.
The President concluded his address, in the course
of which he read lengthened extracts from reportsi re-
ceived from Mr. Thomson, the successor of Mr. Keith
Johnston as leader of the expedition to Lake Nyaesa,
by referring to the expedition of Mr. Wilfrid Blunt,
I who was accompanied by his wife, Lady dune Blunt,
in the deserts of Arabia—a paper on which subj,et
would be read in the course 01 the session. Subse-
quently a paper by Professor Veth was read on "The
I Dutch Expedition to Central Sumatra."