Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-04-02
THINGS or CURRENT INTEREST
The La,e.. wonder In reIegrsphy.

The newest invention in telegrsphy, that
Of communication between moving rail
way train and the rest Of the world, is now
in practical operation according to two differ
ent methods, the one Thomas A. Edison's,
the other that OF George M. Phelps, while
there is also a claimant TO priority Of inven-
ton of the Edison plan, In the person Of W.
L. Slvey of Cincinnati. This sounds more
marvellous than almost any other feat of this
science OF miracles, but it really offers moth
ing more amazing than multiple transmission,
or the sending Of four or more messages op.
posite ways at one and the same time. When
II is described it is seen to be one OF the
most simple applications Of the electrical
current by its known laws, and while 10 or
20 years ago IL would have seemed too won
derful for belief that II could be done at all,
the only wonder we feel now is that il has
not been done before. Mr.. Edison's process
was tested experimentally on the Staten
Island railway a few weeks ago and has now
been introduced on the Chicago, Milwaukee
and st. Paul line, where a special train was
run for the exhibition of the invention few
days ago, the leading electricians aud rail
road men Of the Northwest witnessing it,
sending and receiving business and social
messages all the way. The Phelps method
has been operated successfully on the Port
Morris branch of the New York, New Ha.
ven and Hartford railroad.
The idea of passing a message between a
train and an ordinary wire along the route by
simple induction was conceived by William
Wiley Smith of Tennessee, who took out the
first patent and Mr.. Edison has developed
his idea. battery is placed at q table in a
car, aud the operator sits at his instrument
with a small telephone affixed over each ear.
Ordinary telegraph wires run from the table
to the tin roof Of the car with which they
are connected. The message is licked of by
the Morse alphabet, and leaps through the
air from the roof to the regular wires strung
beside the railroad, no new wires being used.
Messages are received in the same way, and
are heard in the telephones by the operator
rs musical vibrations. Mr.. Edison says the
signals will leap from car-roof to wires or
the reverse for a distance of $50 feet and
that their passage through the air occupies a
go, OOOth part Of second. He asserts that
by this principle OF induction ships can tee
graph to each other through the air when 20
miles apart, by means of small balloons coat
ed with gold foil bearing a very thin wire,
sent up 300 feet into the air, at which height
the resistance If so slight that the electric
current will pass 20 miles. The moment"
he said that ship is within electrical
communication with another the telegraph
instrument on board will begin to sing, aud
| the operators may then talk with each other
IL have" he said, ALREADY experimental
across great fields with this system, and have
| met with great success" This extension Of
Mr. Elsou's idea will become Of even great
| er use when the science Of air navigation
shall be fairly reduced to practce-for while
We are looking at the future We might AZ well
look far enough
The Phelps induction telegraph company's
system is quite different from that Just de-
scribed. Instead OF using the regular tele-
| Uraph uirag and communicating nv the eaF
| roof wire conductor is laid in grooved
string pieces fastened continuously in the cen.
| ter OF the track and rising as high as the
rails, and for the secondary circuit wire is
carried from battery to the ceiling Of the
car, parallel to and about seven inches above
| the wire on the track. This involves great
| deal OF complication. The conductor on the
track has to be carried under switches and
railroad crossings in rubber tubes, and at
highway crossings it ia conveyed in gas-pipe
let into grooves IN the planking aud fastened
| by staples The wire coil beneath is incased
| in a rubber hose placed in a twoinch gas
pipe, and makes about three-fourth Of a mile
| of wire parallel with the primary line be.
tween the rails, and the return part Of the
coil is carried in the same rubber hose back
| through the upper part OF the car. The ter
| minals Of this car circuit are carried TO key
| for transmitting, and through the back con-
|
vented by Mr.. Phelps which is the receiving
instrument upon the car, operating a COM
mon sounder. The current from the car is
sent through the coil aud through "buzzsr'
which breaks the current very rapidly, caus
| ing humming like bees and this buzzing
is broken into Morse signals by the sounder
and received in telephone at the terminal
station.
The f iison system has an obvious advan-
tage in simplicity, and, although it ID claim
ed that the use OF the regular wires will cause
confusion and render it impracticable on lines
crowded with business. this difficulty does
not appear to be actual In the Staten
Island experiment, the wires used were the
Baltimore and Ohio qusdruplex, and it is
stated that not a message along the line was
interfered with. Nor was there any trouble
on the trial trip between Chicago and Mil.
waukee and there can hardly be a line in
the country more constantly occupied with
business service back and forth.