The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-27
FUTURE OF THE TELEPHONE.
It's Use To Be Limited Only by the Continent
Improvements Constantly Studied
New York Tribune.

Professor Alexander Graham Bell, the invent
or of the telephone, spent few days in New
York last week. On Saturday he talked freely
to reporter of the telephone and of its increas-
ing usefulness and of other inventions which
are being developed.
"The time is not far distant" said Professor
Bell when all the larger centers of population
in this country will be connected by telephone
wires and when they will be in easy and salts
factory telephone communication. There will
be grand central Office, probably at New York,
and all of the other central offices in the coun-
try which it is desirable to reach will be con-
nected with it. When this system of connecting
central Offices has been developed it will be as
easy for a subscriber in New York to call up
friend in San Francisco and to engage him IN
conversation, as it would be to call another sub
scriber to the telephone in the city of New York
All movements in telephone circles tend to
this system of united central Offices. can see
very plainly that it must become national in its
scope Many centers of population in the sew
eral States are connected by telephone wires 1t
requires no special gift of prophecy to see that
all OF these small systems of central Offices can
and will be blended and united into one vast
complete system, which shall be limited only 10y
the boundaries of the country or the continent
| New YORK and Boston are already connected
| by "a telephone wire, or rather by two wires.
| The Circuit is made complete by the use of
double copper wire By means of the double wire
all disturbing influences are diminished. and IN
duction is reduced to minimum The telephone
service between New York and Boston is very
satisfactory, and there is reason why the
wires cannot be made to work over much longer
! distance"
Does the company expect to extend the wires
and bring the great cities Of the South and West
into telephone communication with the cities of
! the East"
| "Wen," said the Professor laughing merrily,
| 81 do not know that | can answer that question
for you with satisfactory precision. The fact is,
make it point to know little as possible
about che business details of the company. 1
need all of my time for work in the laboratory,
| and am really quite ignorant of the working
| plans of the company; but ii is my impression
that all of the great cities and, indeed, all of the
centers of population of any Importance, will be
placed in telephone communication. just how
soon this end can be reached | am unable to say,
but things seem to be working in that direction,
and it will not be long before you can converse
with your friends in the great cities of the
West After the wires have been extended to
all of the great cities in the United States, the
union of the central offices of which have
spoken will be speedily effected"
Would not the telephone service be improved
| if the wires were all placed underground
1T would be of vast benefit to the service.
| Every telephone wire ought to be buried. Every
| city ought to compel the telephone companies
| to lay their wires underground. The corpora
tlOUS Will never 40 H. rear, until IIey are re-
| quired by law to do so. 1t would be very expen-
sive, but it ought by all means to be done. 1t
would remove the wires from all the disturbing
! influences to which they subject when
stretched on poles, and would relieve the streets
and buildings of Che city from a steadily and rap
! idly multiplying network of wires which sooner
! or later will become troublesome if not danger
GUS. 1t would be a considerable and direct bene-
lit to the public to have all telephone wires under
the ground. Crossed and swaying wires would
| become an impossibility, and the service would
! be improved in a variety of ways Burying the
wires would probably not increasothe cost of rhe
telephone to subscribers but it would increase
| its usefulness wonderfully. l have small doubts
that public sentiment will recognize these facts
before great while and that the telephone com
| panes i'll the great cities and elsewhere, too,
hope, will be required to bury their wires The
efficiency of the telephone cannot be fairly
! judged and tested in a large city where the
wires are supported on poles and buildings"
Are You still working and studying over the
telephoneP
Eyes, but as yet it has not been improved
| The same telephones which were manufactured
several years ago are still in use in many places.
! There have been many additions to the tele-
! phone, but no real Improvement to the instru-
| ment itself has been made. 1T is these addi-
| tional contrivances which make the cost of the
! telephone to the subscriber so great. For eX-
| ample, the call bell which you see on every box
costs more than the telephone itself, There
! dozens of men in this and other countries labor
ing to increase the usefulness of the telephone
What additions or improvements are likely
| to be made soonl"
~ may say in general way that the tele-
! phone will be made much automatic
There will be less loss of time the subscribers
| and less mechanical friction and compleXity.7
us it possible to intensity tine sound so that
the voice issuing from the receiver may be heard
| in the remote corners of large roomP
yes, that result can be reached and probably
| will he We find this difficulty. however: when
! the sound is intensified it is at the expense of
! distinctness and of perfect articulation. This
| fault can probably be corrected in a measure, so
that if persons desire it they will be able to sit
some distance from the telephone and hear all
| that comes through the receiver The transmit
| ter can also be made to convey sounds brought
to it from distance If the Improvements are
made, it is not certain that there will be very
! general demand for telephones which would
bring the voice through the receiver to all parts
| of the room. Many persons would regard it
convenience and many other persons would con-
slider it to be a very Objectionable improvement
| because conversation of private nature could
| not be carried on"
| Twill tho relay system be brought into use
! when it is desired to transmit telephone mes
saEes long dstancesP
| 'Some method for repeating messages may have
| to be devised, but 1T now seems to me that it
| will hardly be necessary to resort to modifica-
| tons of any of the principles used by the tele
gaph companies, do not see what there is to
be gained by strengthening the current at vari-
| Gus points along the line. The current does not
make the sound; it is caused by fluctuations
communicated by the voice A powerful cur
rent will not lend additional power to these
| fluctuations 1t may be that repeaters or relays
will be used, in some way, but at present can
not see the necessity for any such system. If
the wires be properly made and so placed as to
be as free as possible from the disturbing in
fuences to which they are now subject l
see reason why a message cannot be
| easily and distinctly communicated by
telephone to a distant office without being
repeated or assisted, on the way at intermediate
stations This, however. is enc of the points
| which am now working upon, and l am not
prepared to speak definitely and precisely in re-
gard to it. have given you the views which /
believe viii prevail and which l think will be
successfully tested by practice"
'Will the late decision in the telephone suit