Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-07-12
GREAT WORDY WAR.
BELL AND WESTERN UNION MAY
CLASH OVER TELEPHONES.
Cross Competition Likely When Contract
Expires How Edison Sold HE Patent
For 100000 which Was Immediately
Resoid For sI,OOO.O0O

For 100000, Which Was Immediately
Resoid For sI,O0O.0o0.
Some two years ago attention was called
% the fact that the development Of long
distance tolophoniDg was giving anxiety
90 tho managers Of tho great telegraph
monopoly, and that 10 was very probable
upon tho expiration Of the contract DO
tween the Boil people and tho Western
Union that there might bo renewal Of
those hOstilitics which characterized tho
two companies some IL Scars ago. Recent
indications suggest that this paper cor
rcctly reported tho situation us IL then ex-
listed.
The contract between these two great
SOnOpOlies expires very soon. Each Will
DC free unless new accommodations Gro
agreed TO 10 use its wires how and where IL
chooses, and 10 Is thought here 10 be very
likely that the telegraph company may do
what ~ purposed ID years ago 10 do--adopt
tclcphoning as part Of It's business
whereas the telephone company may choose
20 compete with the telegraph company
for tclographing service.
When Edison sold his important tcle-
phone patent, the ono which was OF the
most value 10 the Western Union company,
for 800, 900, payment to DC made In sums
of IS, 900 annually, io did not know that
the Western Union people lad already
come 20 an understanding with the Bell
monopoly. Each OF these companies pos
sessed important patents which were neces-
sary for tho satisfactory operation Of the
telephone Each Of them perceived that
the instrument could not become CONNER
cially valuable unless the use Of these pat
| ents was secured
The Western Union abandoned TO the
Bell people the telephone business and sold
| TO that company tho right TO use the Edi-
| son patent IL made very pretty penny
| by the operation. Edison received $780,
600 for patent which day later the tele-
| graph company turned over TO the tele-
phone company for nearly 81, ,0O0 600.
No one then thought that it would ever
be possible for the telephone company to
engage In telegraph business. The long
distance telephone was then almost un-
thought Of. The business was practically
vicinity telephoning, and such IL was ex-
| pected IL always would remain. Therefore
1t was easy for the telegraph and telephone
| people TO make an agreement that neither
should invade the field of the other, and
that agreement was kept to the letter un-
til n few years ago.
When, after the expenditure Of q very
large sum Of money In experiments, the
telephone people discovered that by the use
| Of copper wire twisted with mathematical
accuracy and In almost geometrical pro-
portion IL was possible to convey the voice
for many hundred miles, the evils Of In
duction being done away with, then the
able men who were directing this company
were Of the opinion that ultimately the
| great profits of the business would come
from long distance use Of telephone wires
They Immediately began preparation for
| connecting the greater cities Of the Missis-
sippi and north of the Ohio with the ulti-
mate purpose of cobwebbing the continent
with long distance wires.
| They discovered that these could be
leased ut such figures as after q general
use had been established, would return
them large profits. Almost Immediately
New York brokers began to lease wipes to
Boston, Philadelphia and other large cities,
and 1t was once, when an accident oc-
CURED to an instrument at the end Of one
of these wires In Boston, that the sugges-
tion was made that Morse instruments be
attached to either end and the wire used
for telegraphing until the telephone could
| be repaired The idea was found to be
practicable, and it soon became known to
I, the telephone people that the lessees of
wires were using them both for telegraph
&c and telephone purposes They said that
| they could not prevent that.
Then the telegraph company perceived
that before they had known it almost the
telephone people had erected what was
really q perfect telegraph plant touching
many of the greater cities east of the Mis-
sissippi. They were persuaded that 1t was
the purpose Of the telephone people, as soon
as the contracts with the Western Union
had expired, either to enter the telegraph
business themselves or else TO encourage
the use of the wires both for telegraphic
and telephone messages.
That was exactly the situation reported
two years ago, but at that time the West
| ern Union had made no move indicating
It's own purposes when the contract expir-
ed. Since then its replacement Of ordinary
iron wire by copper wire and It's suspected
intention of substituting copper for its
whole plant and Of making alliance with
some/of those telephone companies which
have recently been created or of creating
one itself indicate that the Western Union
| expects next year to come out us In rivalry
against those who have been its allies for
the last / 3 years. There are also reports
that the new wizard, Tesla, has discovered
new laws of electricity which can be con-
trolled by mechanism which he has about
completed and which may cause a new in
nuence of the utmost Importance TO be de-
veloped before actual warfare begins be-
tween these two great monopolies. .-Hol-
land In Philadelphia Press.
L