The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-26
THE TELEPHONE.
What a Lawrence Paper Says the
Subj ect.

THE TELEPHONE.
What a Lawrence Paper Says the
Subject.
Ever since the expiration of the origi-
nal Bell telephone patent some months
since, says the Lawrence Journal, nu-
merOus plans and schemes have been
started which promise to supersede the
service of the existing company. This
promise is predicated largely upon the
assumption that a great saving is to be
made, by which the service will be cheap
ened by refusing to pay royalties that the
old companies are now paying.
The fact is generally ignored that if
the new companies can successfully res
sist these claims for royalties it would be
after a vigorous contest with the owners
of the patents in question, and that the
existing companies will, without expense
to themselves, share the benefits and
thus be able to meet any competition
that may arise, together with all the ad-
vantage of position that they now pos
SeSS.
OF course cheaper rates for telephone
service would be acceptable to all who
desire to use the service, and they may
come, but in any event we may reasona-
bly, expect to see the present companies
still doing business at the old stand. The
following in reference to this matter
from the Chicago Tribune will be found
well worth reading by those who may be
interested:
How soon will that much talked about
competition to the Bell telephone COM
pany begin? Several months have
elapsed since the foundation of patents
on the Bell telephone expired. OF the
score or more of telephone companies
formed for the announced purpose of
hinging down the gage of battle to the
Bell company in all parts of the country
none, SO far as outward appearances are
concerned, is moving rapidly toward the
point OF doing business in this city. The
files of the council proceedings contain
several ordinances which have been al
lowed to slumber, some for a long time.
One company has secured an ordinance,
one of the provisions of which requires
the company to have 5000 telephones in
operation by a certain date in 1895.
"Prof. John P. Barrett, who was one Of
the best electrical men in the country,
chatted about the situation Saturday.
$50 far as l can see telephone compe-
tition in large cities is not an immediate
probability he said ANY company
that undertakes to compete with the Bell
company, in this city, for instance, must
face an expenditure of $5,OOO,OOO before
it can begin the operation. Do l think
there is any one that can do that?
think organizations have been made and
doomed to sell stock to people who do
not understand the telephone situation.
They ought to study it The Bell Gele-
phone company is one of the best man.
aged concerns in the world. 1t owns 90
per cent of the stock of all the companies
operating under it's license. 1t does not
owe dollar. 1t has an immense surplus,
a perfect organization. an experience of
years, and every patent of any value that
has been made for years. The Bell Tele-
phone instrument reserve is something
few people know about That ought to
be studied by investors in new COM
panies. It has device combining the
~.
fixed in the pigeon hole of a desk. A
man may lean back in his chair and talk
to a person in New York in an ordinary
tone just as | am talking to you. He
needn't put a transmitter to his lips. He
talks just into the air. He doesn't put a
receiver to his ear either. The voice of
his correspondent issues clear and loud
from the pigeonhole. This device may
be placed in a mans bedroom and he
can lie abed, look up at the ceiling, and
converse with a person anywhere. This
and equally wonderful devices are simply
being held back ready to be slapped into
use if any competing company makes it
necessary"
1.-THE Bell company is pushing its long
distance lines in every direction No
such system of electric wires was ever
constructed. 1t IS as near perfectNas it is
possible to make it. The company is
ripping out its ordinary phones and re-
placing them by long distance instru-
ments It looks as if the customers who
use those instruments were to be given
inducements to use the long distance
wires freely. 1t is possible to use the
Morse telegraph system on their long
distance wires while they are being used
for telephoning. 1t IS not easy to con-
vince anyone who understands, the situa-
ton that adaptions of the old magnets
can be accepted by the public as equal to
the Bells improved devices. When it
was proposed to bury all electric wires
scores of inventors came forward with
ways to do it and preserve perfect in
sulation. If Washington and Dearborn
streets were dug up all that remains of
hundreds of thousands of dollars invested
would be visible in-the shape of rusted
wires and rotting conducts. The sight
would be Instructive to investors in some
of these competing telephone com
panies-"
Let US remind you that now is the time
to take De Wits Sarsaparilla, it will do
you good 1t recommends itself. J. K
Jones'
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