The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-05

now been made public. He predicts
that two good copper wires fed with
mail matter on his plan will be
made to carry $4,000 messages of
fifty words each per day between New York
and Chicago, with a remarkable margin of
profit and with an immense acceleration IN
the transaction of business. The present
number of letters carried daily between
the two cities is put at 40, 900, so that Mr..
Delany counts on securing large proper
ton of that correspondence. His method
of transmission is based radically on the
use of system of double dots combined
with the familiar single dots in place of
the dash. He maintains that a single cop.
per wire of only 300 pounds to the mile,
thus machine-worked, between New York
and Philadelphia, will carry 5000 words
per minute, whereas by the present hand
system thirty EIGHT wires must be worked
quadrupleX. or 152 circuits, at about twenty
words per minute. The scheme embraces
TRANSCRIPTION of the tape at each end by
the typewriter and the delivery by mail.
1t is suggested that if the system is car
ried so far it would be only a natural de-
velopment of it to make a further economy
of time and cost and telephone the letters
to every body who had an intrument in his
house or office. Mr.. Delany's proposal is
timely and it is certain to bring out some
new and interesting points on the relative
merits OF telegraphy and telephony for
SINGULAR PHENOMENON ON LONG DIS
LANCE TRANSMISSION LINEs.-There are q
great many phenomena in ordinary cleo
trical work that electricians find it hard to
explain; but an entirely novel class of
electrical demonstrations have been OBJ
served in the new practice of transmitting
currents over long distances at high volt
ages. On the circuits of the San Antonio
Canyon transmission, Southern California,
where current is sent about fifteen miles to
Pomona and about thirty miles to San
Bernardino the line has been found, dur
ing hot, dry and cloudless weather, to be
heavily charged by the mere wind,
and the rate in which the line was
electrified in this way was actually
governed by the speed at which the wind
was blowing. 1t was also noted that the
substances blown against the wires at
such times, dust, ETC., gave up their charges
to it also. When the high tension current
reaches the distributing stations at Pomo-
ma and San Bernardino, its 10000 volts
are passed through transformer, and re-
duced to such pressure as can be safely
passed along the town circuits for lighting
and power purposes. In affecting this
change, the transformers give forth a
/ CODLluuOuS nuIuJ WHICH u6peuuS LOT us
INTENSIVE on the number OF alterations of
the current. This forms an excel
lent indicator for the attendant,
whose attention is instantly called
to any change in the running con-
ditions of the plant by the resulting
change of tone. This variation in the
sound from the transformers not only
marks changes that are taking place and
| that can be detected on the voltmeter, but
also gives notice of coming changes before
there is any other indication of them. One
afternoon a painful shock was obtained
on touching the line at the canyon
end, drifting clouds and a strong
wind being noticed in the valley. Again,
while the engineer was using the tele-
| phone he heard in it report which was
| so sharp as to cause momentary deaf
ness. Later, after a moderate wind had
been blowing for some time, loud re-
ports were noticed on the telephone
| at long intervals. As the wind rose the
reports came oftener. 1t was evident that
there was a discharge from the lines
through the telephone (Which was on
metallic circuit), and that it depended on
! the rate the wind blew