The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1893-03-03
POSSIBILITIES OF TeLEPHoNINe.
Proposed Lines Across tho Continent and
Under the Ocean.
LSpeciA CorrespOndence.l


LSpeciSl Correspondence.l
New YORK, Jan. 12.-"When are you
going to talk to San Francisco" is a
question that has been asked of tele-
phone experts in dozen cities great
many times since the opening of the
longest telephone line in the world-that
from New York to Chicago.
The question was asked by man in
Chicago the other cay, and the answer
was that, although nobody could tell
when the thing would come about, it was
doubtless a future possibility. An ex-
pert in New York said, IF the managers
Of tho Long Distance Telephone COM
pany should ask this Office for estimates
on line to San Francisco haven't a
doubt that the estimates would be forth
coming"
The truth is that the science Of cleo
tricity and the art of telephoning have
reached a degree Of development that
makes possible all sorts Of calculations
touching things that once went by guess.
Before the line from New York to Chi
cago was built the telephone managers
felt reasonably certain that it would
work satisfactorily, though they called
it an experimental line. The men who
do the figuring had come to the belief
that 1-ilch hard drawn copper wire,
weighing 4aj pounds to the mile, would
enable Now York and Chicago to talk
with each other Experiments made by
joining several shorter circuits till tie
distance equaled the $50 miles between
the two cities seemed to prove that the
smaller wire used in these shorter cir
cults would not do for the proposed long
one and confirmed the reports of the
men who had been figuring or the prob
lem in the Office.
When the time comes for talk across
the continent, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. like calculations and like ex-
periments will determine the necessities
Of the case. 1t has been demonstrated
that telephOning is possible over line
ESQ miles in length, and that being the
case the long distance system, which
now does not extend farther south than
! Washington or farther north than Buf.
a falo and Portland, may be extended to
far southern cities and up into Canada
q. By the time this has been done part Of
the distance between Chicago and San
Francisco will have been blidged, and it
will be possible to hitch together five or
six of these long circuits, and thus to OBJ
tain for experiment a line as long as the
! 1fcfp hot 1
Francisco.
Scientific electricians have a formula
for calculating theutmost possibilities of
talk by telephone with hard drawn cop
per wire as the medium. The thing to
do is to get the highest tensile strength
with the least electrical resistance. If
the wire now in use could be greatly re-
c duced in diameter without correspond
ing reduction in tensile strength. the i'm
mediate possibilities Of relephoning
would be enormously widened.
The experts own that there is an error
somewhere in the formula 10y which
they determine the possible limits OF
TELEPHONE, and they are hard at it try
. ing 10 find the error and toget rid Of it.
5 Meanwhile if somebody viii find bet
f ter medium than hard drawn copper
wire another great stride viii be posi-
bic The experts say, however, that nc
, such medium is likely to be discovered
= Telephoniug across the Atlantic is d
- theoretical possibility, and nobody
:, knows how soon it may become an ac
comphshed fact. No syllable has evel
u passed between the two continents by
e way Of the existing cables, but d clever
). expert has suggested method Of getting
u at least one note through. and another
r. man has taken out q patent on the process
!. The immediate difficulty Of telcphon
ing by the present Atlantic cables lies il
the fact that they work too slowly. II
" transmit the note G to the human ear 10y
> the existing Atlantic cables it would b.
o necessary t send back and forth 2j(
Il vibrations in q second But the cables
If cannot come anywhere near such feat
a. The patented process of sending. al
-, American musical G to Great Britain
-, involves the use Of the monograph.
~ The scheme is to sound the note into
phonograrh at this end of tie line anC
9r set the phouograph going very slowly, s,
il that the vibrations of the note. whicl
re would be inaudiLle to human ears. shall
j. be communicated to the cable. transmit
80 ted under the ocean and received on an
", other slowly revolving monograph be
>" yond the ocean. The record made. tn
" photograph could be set a-going at
N rapid rate Of speed, and the note woul,
- be ground ont with sufficiently rapid Vi
bratioGs to he audible to British ears
10 The process would Le Il very slow one
=, however, and IS all the mechanical an
phances would have to be very nicel
," adjusted and at great expense the ez
I pertinent has lot vet been tried.
81 1t may be tried one Of these DAYS. how
Il ever, and the more sauguiue electrica
experts pEophesy tolephoniug betwee
Europe and America. Nobody. how
re ever, is going to lay an enormously en-
- pensive cable just for fun or even in tn
m interest of electrical science. and in th
a., present state Of the art Of telephonin
such a cable to Europe could not be
> commercial success.
E. n. YALLANDIGHAM.