The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-04-26
Sound Sent by Wire.

Red Cloud and other Sioux chiefs,
when referring to a telegraphic message,
have always described it as ''talking
through O hollow wire.' If the speak
ing telephone becomes familiar instru-
ment in ordinary use, the fanciful phrase
of the Indian Will somewhat nearly coin
eide with the fact Students of electric
ity have shown cause for believing that
the current in ordinary telegraphy is
transmitted not by the core of the wire
but by it's outer fbers. In calculating
the capacity of the metal for carrying a
current, the electrician regards the wire
as if it were hollow. But neither in the
picturesque phrases of half-civilized man
nor in the boldest flights of fancy or ira
dition is there anything quite SO weird
as the speaking telegraph. In all the
terniegssls of magic, people who are
placed wide apart never communicate
directly with each other by speech. AT
ter the magician has drawn his circles in
the sand, and lighted the mystic fire,
and spoken the cabalistic words, he may
perhaps summon the distant one by oc-
cult influence or through the agency of
a genie. 1t is thousand times more
astounding as mere conception that the
voice, the tones, the very atterance of a
friend who is miles on miles away, may
be distinctly heard by the listener who
holds to his ear the trumpet of the tele-
phone. Compared with this, the trans
mission of music by telegraph, wonder
full though it is, seems minor achieve
ment.
There has been, however, very gen
eral misconception in the public mind on
this very point. The confusion arises
from the circumstance that there are two
distinct inventions, each known as tele-
phone, and each capable of transmitting
musical tones. Both these, inventions
have been exhibited to large audiences
in other cities Prof. Bells speaking
telephone at the East, Mr.. Gray's music
telephone at the West. Each is valuable
in its own field, and the most of what
either one can do, the other cannot do at
all-at present. The speaking telephone
can, of course, transmit vocal music as
easily as speech; the other instrument
can only send. such music as is played
upon it's piano keys at the other end of
the line. But how far the capabilities of
either instrument may be extended, no.
body can guess.
It is already obvious that by means of
Mr.. Gray's telephone ordinary tele-
graphic messages may be sent to any one
distant station, and not be repeated by
the instruments at any other stations on
the line. This is decided advantage
AS things are now, thesmost confidential
communications between distant points
may be tapped at any office IN the CIR
cult. Doubtless many of our readers
who have stopped while waiting for a
train, to have a chat with the telegraph
clerk at way station, have heard him
mention that his instrument, ticking
away in lively style, was repeating a
message in which he had no concern-a
message between other places on the
line. In war times q lively business
used to be done by tapping the wires. :"
Mr.. Gray's telephone may dispense with
the need of taking all the telegraph op-
orators in circuit into ones confidence,
narrowing the matter down to two, the
sending and receiving operators. Prof.
Bells telephone may dispense with the
telegraph clerk altogether, and enable
the sender of a message to talk into the
very ear of the receiver. But then sup
pose, in the latter case, that somebody
who has no business in the affair applies
his telephone funnel somewhere along
the line while very confidential mes
sage is passing. Greater scandals than
were ever poured into the ear-trumpet of
Dame Elinor Spearing may be absorbed
by the telephone Taper. 1t is yet too
soon to predict whether the new inven-
tions will fully secure what is most of all
needed, the sacred privacy OF kilograms.
-NeaD York Tribune.