The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-05

N OF SOME POLICE 1ELE-
GRAPH SYsTEMs.-A statement made by
Police Commissioner Andrews of New
York has drawn attention to the made
quacy of the majority of existing systems
of communication between policemen on
the beat and headquarters, fire stations,
etc. Commissioner Andrews says: with
a perfect telegraph system every man
would be kept constantly on his post. He
could communicate with his precinct
whenever the occasion required 1t. With
such a system there would be saving of
several hundred men. 1t would be better
to discontinue the appointing of 100 men
yearly for period of several years, and
establish such a Geographic system as
have described. This department certainly
requires it, The fault with many police
telegraph systems is that, although they
are good as far as they go, they do not go
far enough. Too few alarm-boxes are used,
and the communication, as rule, does
not extend beyond the station houses.
There should be box on every mans post,
so that he could send for assistance, call
an ambulance or tire-engine or make re-
ports without leaving the post and travel
ing to the station-house. There are now
available several systems which would
meet all these requirements. The smallest
salaried policeman costs city much
more than the most expensive alarm-boX,
and the latter is often the more needed OF
the two.
SIGNALING THROUGH SPACE.-In further
confirmation of the successful experiments
concluded last year in England in trans
hitting Geographic messages over long
distances without wires, an account has
been received from Scotland of the main
Is o1n 10 ipoti ion hu
means of the same system between the
island of Null and the mainland. The
islanders were decidedly put to shift.
The six-mile cable which usually kept
them in touch with the outer world had
broken down, and they were uncertain as
to how long the interruption to communi-
cation would last. A local electrician,
who had heard of Mr.. Preece's plan, saw
no reason why it should not operate at
Oban Just as well as anywhere else, and
lost no time in running gutta-percha
insulated wire, IL miles long, along the
ground from Morvern, 10 miles from
Oban, and signaling through that, while
on the island of Null the ordinary over
head circuit connecting two distant vii
lagos was made use of. The distance in
tervening between the two parallel Cir
cults was about 81 miles. A vibrator was
used as transmitter, and telephone as
a receiver, and the usual Geographic traf-
| fic was carried on until the cable was re-
paired. An account not so we'll authenti-
Gated comes from India OF the completion,
by Professor J. G. Bose of the Calcutta
Presidency College, of some instruments
by which extraordinary results are said to
have been obtained. Certain phenomena
have been reproduced without any con-
| nection between the transmitting and re-
ceiving stations. Signals in the form of
light and sound have been passed along
the ether, without any other apparent
means of transmission, and even solid
walls have not interposed any obstacle to
the passage of these signals.
TELEPHONES AND FIRE ALARMS = The
efficiency OF many of the London fire
brigades has been greatly promoted by the
| adoption of new system of loud-speaking
telephones and fire-alarm posts and ap-
paratus. The principal apparatus consists
OF call point, or post, for the street and