The record-union., 1891-04-17
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHoNING
You Can Talk From New York to Chi
caGo or England Some Day.

4 Ou San Ink FROM New YORK to CHI
caGo or England Some Day.
There have been some curious facts in
long distance telephOning, says the New
York Press. Hard-drawn copper wire,
having the toughness of iron and the
conductivity Of copper, has made the
thing practicable for business purposes.
Before that wire came into use long dis
tance telephoning was problematical, or
at best an interesting toy. In the Black
Hills and at points in Wisconsin there
had beon telephone communication for
several hundred miles, but it was not
until January, 1887, that the line from
New York to Philadelphia was opened
for business. Now there are $4,000 miles
of long distance telephone in use in this
country, vastly more than in any other
country ofthe globe.
The system is chiefly confined to the
New England States, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and
Maryland 1t has made no headway
south Of Washington or west of Buffalo
and Pittsburg. There is no long distance
line connecting Buffalo and Cleveland,
but Chicago and Cleveland are connected,
and the connection between Buffalo and
| Cleveland will be made probably this
year. Before the opening of the Colum-
bian exhibition Chicago will become the
center Of an important long distance sys-
tenn. West of the Mississippi the teIe-
phone lines are merely local. As to the
limits of long distance teleDhoning no.
body pretends to make a guess.
The problem Of talking between New
York and San Francisco is perfectly sim
pie. All that is needed is continuous
wire of the right sort. II is not very long
since the experiment of talking over fif-
teen hundred miles Of wire was success
fully made. a circuit was established
between two Offices in Boston via Phila-
delphia, Buffalo, New York and North
Adams. The experiment was perfectly
successful, and experts say that if it is
possible to talk fifteen hundred miles it
is possible to talk five thousand miles.
Shall we talk with Europe? A few dar-
ing electricians believe that we shall
| The difficulty is not one of battery
strength, but of induction. If that can
be overcome the problem is solved.
Meanwhile, long-distance telephoning
within the range of territory through
which it has been extended is as much a
matter of course as local telephoning,
and. for the most part, more satisfactory,
for all metallic circuits are necessity in
long-distance teIephoning, and this in
sures good service. Indeed, the success
Of the all-metallic circuit in Iong-dis-
tance telephoning is In part responsible
for an Improvement now going on III
local telephoning.
When downtown New Workers found
tHSlI IeicplIOillIS 10 boston was usually
more satisfactory than telephoning to
Harlem they clamored for an improved
local service, and demanded to know
whether the Yankee voice had any pecul-
iarly penetrating quality that enabled 1t
to carry better from Boston to New York
than the voices OF New Workers carried
within the area of Manhattan Island.
The reply of the telephone company to
these complaints is not recorded, but all
the time experiments were going on with
a view to solving the problem of the local
circuits. Meanwhile, there was Il grow
ing demand for the burial of the wires in
New York.