Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-09-08
TIE TELEPHONE
I:rowth and Popularity Of the system.

1t is only six years since the first practical
results were reached in transmitting speech
by electric circuit 1t was few years later
when the first telephones were put mp in this
city somewhat primitive affairs, with twinc
instead of wirc and paper-collar-boX for
receiver and lransmitter. Now, we have a
district telephone system, with more than
two hundred subscribers, and the arrange
mcnt is growing in popularity daily. The
first telephone telegraph patents were issued
in 1877, and by January LIST of the following
year about twenty had been taken out. Now
there are. altogether, four hundred and
thrty-cight patents The telephone was first
offered to the public in crude state and
there was an undesirable variety of systems
but with great rapidity, improvements have
been made and consolidation has been the
order of the day. Most telephone exchanges
are said TO he on II dividend paying basis, us
II result OF combination. At first, both GUS
toners and companies were at sea about the
proper tariff of charges the companies now
claiming that they were then too generous III
their conditions, The public seems disposed
to make the business remuncra'vc for the
corporations.
The first telephone lines were private
lines; now licenses for the exchange system
are called for in large numbers, there being,
in July of this year, one hundred and seventy
five licenses for exchanges in all parts of the
United States. The tendency is to longer
lines of communication. Ordinarily the ex-
change lines vary from short lengths up to
six and eight miles. ENtra-tcrrtoral lines
extend from five to fifty miles. AS
an example OF the extent of the use
of this instrument, one New England
company represents 5000 subscribers and
10, 600 miles of wire. The extension goes on
steadily in every part OF the country. In
England, too, the enlargement is great,
though the progress has been delayed by the
government policy, which, on the introduce
ton of the telephone, took the ground that it
was I'm infringement of the telegraph bust
ness purchased by it 10 establish the postal
telegraph system. However, one company
in London, in two years after its orsanza-
ton, had 1000 subscribers In recent re-
port this company shows that 1882 "tele-
ogilcs" had been sent in single day for 1918
subscribers at penny each. Between
Liverpool and Manchester eight circuits of
thirty-siX miles each are in operation
In France in March OF this year u
Paris company reported 32S2 subscribers
and an average of 122, sos calls Il week.
There are 2000 miles Of cable under ground
and nmety.six miles over house-tops in Paris
controlled by this company. The govern
ment is arranging for the connection by
telephone of the chief towns throughout the
republic. Germany has been prompt in
avaiing herself of this invention. Berlin
has 100 stations with 800 miles of network.
The telephone is operated by the govern.
ment. At Hamburg and other towns there
are tclephone-rooms in the postoiilccs. In
Belgium 1000 lines are working. Russia,
Spain, Italy, Portugal, Central and South
America and the West India Islands are
eagerly adopting what is now regarded rs an
Indispensable facility of business, Statistics
prepared in June last may be given in round
numbers AS 5000 subscribers in England
2G00 in France, 1000 in Germany, aud about
the same number in Belgium, 2000 in Italy
and so on,
The improvements in the instruments
themselves, and in the wire employed, are
matters for the scientific more than for the
ordinary understanding, though the theory
that, Ms in the telegraph, the best transmit.
ting wire ought to be used impresses one as
sound sense. The Circumstance is recorded
that telegram OF iify-three words and a
telephone despatch of one hundred and nine.
teen words were sent simultaneously oveI
one wire. This suggests the adaptation Of
the telephone to the regular telegraph wires
One thousand instruments are shipped weekly
from the source of supply TO the various ex'
changes, and the average in New England Is
already one telephone to less than every sixty
! inhabitants.