Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-02-12
S...sSIp About the Telephone.

swarm ne over 10 epnOne3, ike miners ma
newly discovered gold country. The patent
office in Washington is thu depository, and
in mos c1se3 the sepulchrs, of a thousand
and one applications, specifications, models,
devices, all having for thoir object the
transmission Of the voice through cleo.
trically charged wires There are even
projects for tle transmission of sound
through tho water at sea from snip
to ship, and thers are plans for
house, fell, army and almosi countless
other telephones, soma even do1ging the
stumbling block that has SO lony protected
the Bell patents, to wit, Jnlge Lowe rs de-
cisioa that the discovery of the power Of an
electric current to transmit th3 human
voice is patsntable. A good many telephone
companies have been formed, soma Of them
backed by plenty of money, ike the Draw
laugh, some Of them unqles5i9nab.y for
the purpose Of compelling the Bill company
to buy or compromise, possibly some for
the purpo3e Of making a coatosj with the
Bell on which to get an opinion from the
supreme court on the %soundna55 Of Judge
Lowells opinion, but all Of them confident
that if they only gel the chanc9 to work it
their telephone will be as great a gol1 mine
as B9lPs has been.
1t is not forgotten by capitalists, though
it is perhaps b. enthusiastic inventors, that
the Bell company is a far better financial
success than it's instrument is a practical
one. Bell himself, who is not q tilancier,
would probably have gone the way of all
poor inventors had he not happened to
marry the daughter Of one of the most
skillful financiers in the country, and an
expert in telegraphic stocks and manage
ment, Mr.. Gardner Hubbard. When Mr..
Hubbard took hold Of the Bell machine,
organizo1 the company, and managei it
after the manner of men skilled in the de-
velopm9nt Of corporate wealth, It's financial
Success was assured. Nobody knows now
much money has been made for the original
stockholders, but everybody knows that
dazzling fortunes have been acquired in
almost no tima. But nobody ~realizoI bet
ter than Mr.. Bell that his telephone is
not yet perfact9l. Far from it. II does
not always work satisfactorily, and, az a
general thing, for long distances is prac-
tically worthless as yet. 1t sometimes is a
nuisance, as when the user is cut off, or in
other ways that suggest themselves to all
users. So Bell is as diligently at work now
as when he was first planning it to see
where the improvements can b. made.
Other companies doubtle3s have improve.
ments, great ones, but these hav3 been
patented, although the patents avail little,
because all these telephones make use Of
tho electric current for tho trans m i5sion Of
the voice.
There has been Of late unques-
tionably something Of a reaction
On the part of the pubic. especially
in New Englanl, from the high favor
in which the telephone was held. This has
been partly due to tho charges, partly to
ineficiency, and PARTLY because many GUS
toners have como to regard these inStru.
ments as more of a bother than a benefit.
In Lowell, Holyoke, Stamford and Green
witch very serious AMI organized oppo sition
has been developed, so that a large percent
aga OF instruments have BEEN ordered out.
Some shopkeepers say that their telephones
are nuisances, because people are contin-
ually calling them up on all sorts of foolish,
trivial matters, thereby taking their time,
and often provoking them to unseamly irri-
tation. BuS the expori)nce OF the e lphone
people has bean that people who have once
used the telephone sooner Or later order it
put up again.
AAOAO P4ONu I'LL VI IL G3SlOu dIlDug C1Dl-
talists VINO have given soma attention to
money possibilities in telephones, THAI the
Bell people do not expect always to defend
their bonanza, so as to keep it a monopoly.
Such capitalists profess to think that the
shrewd finan cier3 of the Bell company are
aware that telephoning will be declared
some day as free 10 all as ~telegraphing, and
that all any company can do will b. to pro-
tect its instrument by patent. WhsGher
this is a correct opinion or not, it prevails.
and to it is largely due the Willingness of
capitalists to look with favor upon any
telephone scheme. Inventors now have no
difficulty ip getting monsyei mon to ex-
anime AMI look into their tale hons inven.
tons, and there ara soma very superior
ones in the market.
A sergeant in the United States 81 gnaI
corps invented a field telephone, a marvel
OF simplicity as well as ingenuity. an in
strument so simple and ye5 so perfect that
it could be e1pojel for weeks to the wealth
er in a field or lie buriei in an ash heap
and not be injured. The signal Office made
use Of these instruments daily with perfect
satisfaction, but soma what to the annov-
ance Of the Boil people, who were disposed
to make some fuss about it.
A Washington stove dealer inventoi a
HOUSE. telephone, a simple little contrivance.
making use OF gas and water pipes instead
of wires, attached to which in each room
was a transmitter and receiver. But he
was informed that his machine was an in
fringement Of the Bell, though he usel no
electrical current, and he abandoned his in
tention of making a business of furnishing
these instruments in hoQSes
The simplest telephone in existence, AMI
one that will probably be left undisturbed
by the great corpcraticV, is in oper alton in
Fayetteville, N. G.. 1t is an old telegraph
wire. each end fastened into a thin sheet Of
wood, and its total distance about a quarter
Of a mile, extending Aroru the hotel Office to
the livery stable. Yet, rude as it is. it
serves its purpose admirably, carrying tho
voice over the wire with perfect clearness
though one has to use some considerable
lung power.
There is now on exhibition in the Fifth
Avenue hotel a telephone built by Iowa
men, and it is certainly a most interesting
machine. In a little box no bigger than a
half-pint cup Is the transmitter, and in an
other little box is the receiver. They are
attached to handles. Put the transmitter
to your mouth and the receiver to your ear.
and you can, as the owner asserts, talk with
perfect ease through what is measured as
200 miles OF wire. There is no battery. ex-
cept the magnetic armature in the little
box. There Is understood to be plentv Of
u,onav bac'y NJ thiq instr,p,on+ II IT,