The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-01

Missed.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
jackson Park, Chicago, Sept 1s.-If
there is any truth in the electric school
of medicine a stroll through electricity
building ought to be as invigorating as it
is amusing. And 1t is fact that the air
is cooler there than in any other building
on the ground, save anthropology; but, as
musty as the latter cannot help but he
from the very nature of many of its ex-
hibits, that fresh and charged with a
peculiar saline quality is the former.
Though quite an ornate build
ing without, with great columns
forming a group rather obstruc-
tive to ventilation near the main entrance,
the structure is simple to baroness inside
and quite as breezy as the park at large.
But the plainness of the interior is COM
pensated for by the beauty of many of the
exhibits, and the hasty visitor who gives
a bare glance at the nomenclature of wiz
ards carved on the brow of Electricity
know not what varied pleasures they lose
by leaving it till the last" and then for
getting it altogether.
The building is the smallest gem of the
scientific group, and is practically in the
hands of the French, American and Ger
man electrical engineers, the second hav-
ing virtual possession Of the main floor
The Bell telephone exhibit monopolizes
the space before the northern entrance
with square Gothic pavilion bounded
by fine periStyle on each side. From
this exhibit are made all telephone con-
nections to and from the grounds and be-
tween the buildings, answering the needs
Of $50 subscribers and keeping a force
of at least eight girls busy all day.
The switch board is under the western
peristyle, and Is about one-eighth the size
of the main switchboard in the Chicago
Central. The manholes are in lead-cov-
cred cables which end at the cable heads
and then pass through the main and en-
termediate distributing frames to the
switchboard. The girls are all pretty,
and, harnessed and bridled to the mystic
element, attend strictly to business,
though surrounded by gaping and inter
ested public listening to the agent in
charge explaining the system.
THE STORY OF THE TELEPHONE.
ESThe eastern peristyle roofs an exhibit
more attractive to those to whom tele-
phone and q beauteous but saucy hello
girl are not synonymous terms. 1t is the
telephone itself, from its earliest state to
its present valuable but far from perfect
condition. About twenty-five models of
theinstrument. illustratin its growth, are
disposed in glass case. The first model
shows the essential parts of the first cleo
trio telephone, put together according to
the deposition of I. A. Watson in the
EdiSon-Bell suit, by himself at the in
stance Of Prof Bell, who had devised
plans for making a telegraph instrument
which should utter spoken words" This
plan was materialized June 2, 1875, when
Prof. Bell told his assistant exultantly
that he considered he had solved
the problem of the transmission of
speech. The wondrous model con-
sists of two wooden rings
and a wooden bar with two metal studs
for securing the transmitting and receiv-
ing wires. The diaphragm was of parch-
ment, and a small tongue of metal was
suspended between IL and the magnet;
now the diaphragm itself is of metal,
thus doing away with the metal tongue
The magnet, which was an awkward big
armature, is now a mere strip of metal
sandwiched between two other pieces in
the long gutta percha receiver. The
present transmitter was not Mr.. Bells
patent, but was evolved by Mr.. Blake
from Hughes microphone, as described
in Mature" in 1878, an instrument
which intensified sound by the use of car
bon. Mr.. Blake's patent was tinkered
at by Berliner Edison and Bell in turn;
hence the name of the magic quartette
on every transmitter.
OThere was a long stride from that first
model to the telephone of to-day; fully as
much as the hundred fold increase in its
use since first it entered the business
world, the figures showing 5,1S7 in use in
1877 and 552, 100 in 1892. In 1881 there
were AZ, $50 subscribers for phones; in
1898, 232, 40; while the employees required
were as ,4S1 to $3.50. With a record of
5000 900 connections made this last
year, and nearly all for business, the
amount of time saved to the people at
each end of the line (for nobody talks
more than he has to "by machinery'') is
simply prodigious.
LATEST TELEPHONE IDEAS.
The latest telephones are the long dis
tance-of which CHICAGO has herhaps as
many as of the ordinary kind-and the
automatic exchange phone, which has its
own little switchboard, that the grand
mogul who lives in the suburbs can com
municate at will with his underlings
without the formality of the hello go-be-
tween.
The notifications Of the little instru-
ment for use in mines, the navy, surveys,
etc, are highly interesting The mine
telephone is incased in q galvanized iron
box to render it water tight, the wires
being in perfect little rubber hose The
marine phone is mounted on a fine brass
pedestal clamped to the deck, the re-
ceiver resting on a weighted sphere
swung from a circular frame on top. The
other box is also brass-inclosed and fixed
in the engine room. The army phone has
a reel of coarse wire half a mile in length,
and the party can unroll his connecting
wire as he goes along and before he sets
up the instrument, which is made of
aluminium castings to make it light and
compact, and has Morse switch CON
nected so that he can use telephone or
telegraph, as hepleases.
The pavilion is very pretty, a fine an
tique fountain standing in front of each
peristyle, and there is an inner pavilion
where the public can test a long distance
phone or enjoy music from the German
village in Midway as they please. Three
sensitive transmitters, that is, exposed
transmitters set on pedestals insulated by
rubber pads, are in the dome of the band
stand at the village, and Is double ear
pieces in this little pavilion in electricity
building. The telephone is catching up
with the railroad; there are $4,000 miles
of copper wire laid in the United States.
AMUSEMENT FURNISHED BY SCIENCE.
How much of the scientists labor goes
simply for amusement is well illustrated
in this building. The great intellects of
the great science of the Dinataaptl, ao,,