The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-09-06 00:00:00

THE EDISON TELEPHONE.

The Parts Correspondent of the Standard gives the fol-
lowing particulars respecting the operation of the Edison
Taephone in Paris :

Homer tells us of winged words that flew far and
fast, but the wondrous agency by means of which a
conversation can be kept up between two persons sta-
tioned at fifty miles distance from each other beats the
achievements of all the gods and goddesses of Olympus
put together. A series of experiments with the Edi-
son telegraph and.motograph took place yesterday over
the wires of the Compagnie de L'Oueat, at the station in
the Rue St. Lazare, which established the power of those
wonderful instruments in annihilating time and space as
regards the transmission of sound. The Western
Company obligingly placed a room at the St.
Izare terminus at the dispreal of the Edison
Company, and telephonic centres were established at
Saint Germaio, and Asnieres, and Mentes, the wires
being so arranged as to give a complete transit of
seventy-eight kilemetres. Saint Germain is about
twenty-one kilometres from Paris, Asnieres only six,
and Mantes fifty•one. It is clear, therefore, that if
the sound was transmitted to Mantes it would travel
only over fifty-one kilometres; but the wires having
been connected, the sound first went to Saint Germain,
then back te Asnieres and on to Mantes, thus travelling
over seventeanine kilometres, or in round numbers fifty
English miles. Though only the common wires of
the Company were used, the result was completely
satisfactory. Mantes conversed readily with Paris.
Saint Germain was then ordered to converse with
Mantes and did so, a curious feature being that the
sound passed through Paris and the words uttered at
Mantes were distinctly heard here before—though the
difference in time was not appreciable—they were
heard at St. Germain. A tnue was played
on the flute at Mantes, and it wee distinctly
heard at the Paris station, and the large and dis-
tinguished company assembled in the Rue St. Lazare
withdrew with the conviction that they had been wit-
nessing the working of one of the most wonderful dis-
coveries of an are of wonders. Dr. Puskas, who is in
charge of Mr. Edison's discovery here, deserves the
tnanke of those I..reeent for his singularly able and lucid
exposition of the working of the machinery and of its
practicel value. I EOM not a man of science, and
cannot attempt to give a scientific explanation of how
the wonderful results arrived at are achieved; but as
a man of business I can perhaps make clear to your
readers what it is the Edison, Gower, and other Tele-
phonic Companies propose to do, It is no more
than has been done in Boston, New York and Chicago,
and even small places like Danvers. There are three
telephonic companies in this city, all of whom have
obtained the authorisation of the Government to
establish what I may call house to house verbal
communication. I do not know the modus operandi
of the other companies, but here is what the Edison
people profess to be able to do. On the payment
of a monthly subsciiption of fifty francs they will
place a telephonic apparatus in your house or office,
and lay from thence a wire to their central office.
There is a frame with numbers corresponding to the
names of the other subscribers. If my friend's num-
ber us, say 21, and I have an immediate and pressing
communication to make to him, all I have to do is to
press a knob opposite No. 21. This is a warning
to the central office to connect my wire with his
wire, an operation which I am informed takes
up but little time. As soon as the operation
is completed, the central office notify it to
me by wringing my electric bell. I then go to my
telephone, speak to my friend and hear what he
has to say, and we may go on conversing as long as
we like. In a city like Paris such an invention is an
inestimable boon. I have only to add that the Edison
Company by charging only fifty francs a month for
such accommodation must be confident of success.
It is not, moreover, only for short distances. I will
assume that I am a merchant in Perim, and have a
correspondent in Havre. By means of the special
wires they mean to lay, I am informed that I
could converse with my correspondent one hundred
and fifty miles off as easily as if he were
in the same room; and in course of time,
as the working of this wonderful instrument
progresses, communications which cannot so well be
exchanged by telegram or letter will be able to take
place freely between Paris and London. The fact
that yoa may have instantaneous communication with
all those with whom it may be necessary to speak,
even in a great city, laid on in your house or office, just
as water or gas, and on payment of a trifling sum a
year, is one of considerable importance, politically,
socially, and commercially, It is almost startling to
think that before three months are over it may be a
fait aecorapti, and almost cease to be the wonder that
it is.