Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-09-17
TWIN WIRE TELEPHONES.
The Duke of Marlborough on the Im-
provement of tho English Service.

and prospective of the telephone service
in London, appeared in the London |
Times of September 6th:
Having made special study of the |
telephone for many years, both from its |
connection with pure science as well as
its enormous possibilities as boon to |
the public, venture to crave your in |
diligence for the following remarks. |
The paper which was read at Cardiff by |
Mr.. Preece on the Paris and London |
telephone, and the equally interesting |
paper that followed from Mr.. Bennett
on complete scheme for the telephon-
ing of large town like London, mark
an era in the history of this invention,
which is destined before long to be as
important factor in our business and
domestic life as the telegraph itself.
| The reasons why this wonderful in
vention has SO slowly developed in
England are probably not entirely
known to the public, and, on the eve of
a great development which is now
likely to take place, it may be interest
| ing to some of your readers to know
what these causes have been in the past
and what the progress is going to be in
the future.
| When the telephone was first started
ceeded against the United Telephone
Company for infringing the telegraph
acts, it was decided by the courts that a
telephone message was a telegram
within the meaning of those acts, and
that no one had right to use this in
vention save the postmaster general.
The post office, however, came to terms
with the telephone company, and, on
consideration of 10 per cent royalty
on the gross receipts, the post Office
granted to the new telephone company,
and subsequently, to other telephone
companies, licenses of 26 years dura-
ton. These licenses were of the form
of all England licenses, and were not
applicable only to particular districts,
and the only reservations contained in
them were that the postmaster-genera
should not be debarred from entering
on the telephone business himself, and
that the post office should have the
right to buy up the telephone industry
at valuation at every septennial
period. The first septennial period
in the license of the present
national company occurred last year,
and brought the matter to the atten-
ton of the House of Lords, and pressed
the government to exercise the power
they had and undertake the telephone
work of the country as branch of the
: post office. / had many interviews with
the late postmaster-general on this
!. matter, but it was decided that the sum
required to establish the industry on a
G proper and complete system would be
a so large that the post office did not see
their way to undertake the work, be-
sides the fact that, owing to the am
n biguity of the wording of the purchase
g clause, it was impossible to say whether
e the government, if they served notice
! of purchase on the National" would
not have been obliged TO pay that
n company the whole three millions
which their share capital had amounted
q to under the various schemes of anal.
u gamation they had carried out with Other
is companies. AS matters are to-day
n there is small development of the tele'
:; phone going on in some of the large
Il provincial towns of England, but the sys
TEN is interior and the cost prohibitive
n In London the total number of sub
e. scribers does not exceed few thousand
and these ale almost entirely in tn,
Is city. Practically, no development o.
"a the telephone for social or business pur
q poses exists, while the price is abovt
"a the means of the many. In somt
s. European towns the telephone enter
rs largely into public use. In small plac,
W like Christiania, for instance, the Who'll,
IN business of the place is done on th,
telephone, as also Is the case in Stock
&c holm. A report from the consular ser
IT. vice, dated 1890, gives very full &C
count of the use of the telephone il
Norway and Sweden. The price doe
not exceed "a to "a los. per year b
he subscribers. In town like London W
might fairly expect that one in 80 a
81 least would be subscribers among offices
80, shops and residents.
OF One insuperable difficulty, however
re- has existed besides the large cost of f2
a year which the National Compan
S. have been charging to subscribers-viz
'rs that the system has been a single-wii
ed system of overhead wires carried o
at poles above houses, and the return cui
to rent between subscribers has been take
by the earth. The consequence has bee
en- that the telephone has tried the patienC
in, of everybody from its inaudibility, viii
In the primitive system of exchanges an
lto the fewness of these exchanges hay
en-, made the delays in getting through
RI as it IS called, on the telephone simp
he intolerable. Every one who has got
,ss. telephone in his house to-day is in OPT
revolt against the instrument, on a
count Of its irritating bell and its subs
the quent failure to make itself efficient
lrs- a means of conversation. Now all III
is changed when We come to the Pal
Mr. and London telephone. | have hea
the the tick of the watch of the person W
ars speaking to in the Rue de Grenelle frc
ele- the London General Post Office, anC
TIL could have conversed for hours as il
had been in the same room with my CT
lin respondent. This telephone is compl,
ele- metallic circuit with no earth retui
and The same result Is arrived at wherey
ion, the twin wire is used. and Mr.. Bennett
res plan was interesting in showing that
to is easy, at very moderate cost, to te
ruiz phone the whole of London on 1
be- twn-wire system, and, with the n
: by system of exchange appliances, to
S of away with all the delays in getti
through from one person to anoth
Moreover, it is demonstrable that t
can be accomplished at n remunerat
city profit for fl0 a year subscription
most the whole of the London district Of I
tory millions Of inhabitants. 1t is much
avn be feared that the National Compa
fairs will never be able to reduce their r
cted to fl0 level, as all the money Il
men, paid for patents should be written
one this year, their last important pate
lree, having expired. Further, their syst
gave being entirely single-wire, with ol
hose head connections, and with no gene
onel scheme for dividing London up j
central exchanges, it would be necess