Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-02-10

THETEsEPRONE.


The development Of the telephor
system has been almost as silent and
little noticed az j. ia extraordinary. IT
II bit some half dozen years since 1t haS
been in practical existence, but stats
tics recently published blythe compag""
International dss Tslephonss, and reias
inQ to telephone systems throughout the
world at the beginning Of October, 1882
give some idea Of its progress. The com
pilation il necessarily somewhat incofn-
plete as regards small and distant places
but the value Of the main results Is no
thereby much impaired. 1t Is in the
United States, of course, where tsle'
yhony is less encountered by hamper
ing legislation than in Europe. that sh'
development has been greatest. Ne"
York counts 1000 subscribers. Chicago
2726. Cincinnati 1880, Boston 1925, San
Francisco 1900. etc. Some of these fig
ures refer to May. There are now in
the United States more than 100, 900 sub
scribers, and certain small towns, with
populations less than 1000, have yet
thirty to fifty telephone subscriber
some even more, and were it not for fhs
outrageous expense connected with th'
use of the telephone. the whole numbe'
Of subscribers would reach million II
Ave years.
As regards the absolute number o.
subsc .ibers Paris comes third. after New
York and Chicago: it had on October ls'
on fewer than 2422 subscribers, Will
London had only 1900, amsterdam 700
Stockholm 672, Vienna Gn0, Berlin 58l
Brussels 40, Turin 40, Copenhaeer
400. st Petersburg 145, Alexandria III
and Mexico 800; while the annual sub
scription is COO francs in Paris, 5G
francs in London, and 400 francs in the
provincial towns OF France, it descend
TO 300 francs and 200 francs in Belgium
l35 and 100 francs in Italy, and only ~
francs in Switzerland. A calculation OF
tho ratio of tho number Of subscriber
10 that of inhabitants for each town re-
veals eoodIy number of small towns ir
the United States where there is tele
phone for every 20 inhabitants; in Chi
oago the proportion il about one in 800
in New York, ono in 800; III Brussels.
one in 800; in Paris about one in 1907
in Berlin, ono in 1000; in London. one
in anoo; and In st. Petersburg only one
In 1000.
BY the above it will be seen, remarks
the Alta, that England hes been yer,
backward in availing herself Of the ad
vantages offered by this extraordinary
invention. This is due, however, les
to lack Of appreciation of its great
merits than to the fact that the Govern
ment has hitherto thrown every possible
impediment in the way Of its develop
ment. The authorities there some years
ago bought up all the telegraph com
panies operating within the United
Kingdom, combining the telephone with
the postal system. When, however, the
newly discovered invention Was intro
duced, the authorities declared it to b.
substantially but another form Of telee
rsphy, and refused its free usage to the
public, carrying ont its hostility by
means Of costly and protraotsd litiea-
lions among other measures Of impedi-
ment. 1t is understood. however, that
this antagonism has now ceased, and
the next annual statistics are therefore
likely to present better showing 80 far
a. Great Britain ia concerned.