Omaha daily bee., 1890-09-29
A TELEPHONE TO THE sun.
The Marvellous Experiment Edison Now Has
Under Way in Jersey,
CLOSED ELECTRIC RAILWAY coSOUlTs.
Desc ription OF One of tn q --latest DE.
vices-A Register for Telephone
Excha nges-Rem ark able NJ Tulti-
plex elcgraph-Sparks.

At Ogden, n. j., there is mass Of
Iron ore IA mile long standing perpen.
dicular and extending into the bowels Of
the earth 20 great but unknown depths
said TO contain several hundred mil ion
tons ofmagnetic material. As the vic.
lent storms and uprushes in the sun pro
duce disturbances Of the earth ; magne.
tism which are recorded ON the magne.
tometers at the Kew and other observa.
tories, 1t has occurred to Mr.. Edison,
says the New York Jun, that the
siren 9Th of the solar disturbance as ex.
erted In our planet could ''be Increased
enormously by utilizing vein Of mag
netic iron ore. and running around the
body Of ore several miles of wire, form
ing an inductive current, into which
powerful electric currents would be
thrown by any disturbance Of theearth's
magnetism" by the use of instru-
ments every change, " he says, "coud
be recorded and the use Of the tce-
phone all sounds prod uced on the
sun would be heard on our planet"
He Is, accordingly, erecting tee-
graph pol es on each side OF the Ogden
ore hill and parallel with it, on which he
is coiling an insulated wire many times
around the whole area where theearth's
magnetic lines leave the iron noun tain
and extend into space. The two ends Of
the long wire will be taken into his OBJ
servaton station and connected with the
receiving telephone.
From every point of yiew-poetic,
spiritual and ntifc-this promises to
ba nf tho rrNnat I hrii mn a, mn
ever made. Its successful conductor
like WordswOrth's
"Curious child, who welt upon tract
OF inland ground, applying tOhis car
The cOnv olutions Of smooth.lipped SHELL"
hearing -'sonorous cadences' and mold
ing converse with the unseen universe
itself-w i'll be able 10 listen to the awe
inspiring rush and roar of the suns
mountainous billOwS Of tireas they splut-
ter forth in inconceivable fury from his
cyclopean furnaces. What sermon
will be preach ed into the receiving g in
strument! A voice from the central orb
Of our planetary system-type answer
ing to anti-type laundering forth the
eternal power and godhead of him whom
the Christian pulpit, often too feebly for
our dull ears, proclamS the lg OF
this world"
From a scientific point of view the
valued of this experiment may Oe i'm
mense. Every new fact brought cer-
tainly to light respecting the actual
phenomena in the regions beyond"
however insi gniiicant it may seem at
first, becomes to science in her on ward
path Of research the keystOn of an
arch serving TO bridge some hitherto i'm
passable chasm. Almost every great
outburst Of a solar cycloneis followed by
a magnetic storm on our little planet,
and simultaneously the ices of its polar
circle glisten in the light Of the aurora
borealis-
Familiar examples of this are found in
all astronomical and magnetic observa-
tions, The magnetic storm OF NOyem-
ber7, 1SS2 S2(succeeding theappearance on
the 18th Of a sun spot w hch, measured
at Allegheny observatory, covered
2, 2OO0Oo,OO0 square miles, seriously in
terupted the teleg graph lines at New
York, and ca BILE messages were delayed
nearly an hour while at Chicago, the
switch board was dozen times on fire.
AS an expert ment one OF the Western
Union wires between Washington and
Baltimore was worked with the earth
current alone. There is every reason
tn herefore, to expect that the siren 9Th of
all such disturbances will be increased
enormously in Mr.. Edison'S inductive
circuit ofthe Ogden iron mountain; that
by the use of this instr the varia-
tions of intensity can be recorded, and :,
as he hopes, sounds produced on the
sun will be heard on the telephone"