The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-06-06
TELEGRAPHING AROUND THE
WORLD.

OF electricity at the Electrical Show in
New York, messages were sent around
the world on Saturday night in the pres
ence OF 10000 people, to whom announce
ment was made of the sending of the
messages and the receipt thereof by the
firing of cannon by electricity. To add
to the interest of the experiment or dem
onstration the messages were started on
their way by current generated by the
Niagara Power Plant. The world has
not had true girdle put about it as
Puck offered to do Gin 40 minutes" some
links in the line being missing, but the
messages sent from New York reached
the uttermost parts of the world before
their return to the sending place and
the time occupied was only so minutesl
In its transit it travelled by way of Chi
cago, Los Angeles and San Francisco to
Vancouver, thence through Canada by
way of Winnipeg and Montreal to Canso.
by cable to London, and on through Lis
bon, Gibralter, Malta, Alexandra, Suez
aud Bombay to Madras. Thence by way
of Singapore, Shanghai and Nagasaki it
was sent to Toxic, japan. For want of
a cable under the Pacific it was sent
back by the same lines to New York, the
distance being 27.500 miles. kilograms
were also sent by way of Galveston,
Texas, to Mexico. around the South
American Continent, to Lisbon. London
and back to New York, distance of
10000 miles. The message over the
route 1880 miles long was received by
Thomas A. Edison, an old time expert,
fifty minutes after it had been sent. the
message over the 10000 mile route was
received twenty one minutes after it had
been sent. The marvellous development
of telegraphy was thus fittingly demon
strated, for there are men now living who
saw the birth of telegraphy and middle
aged men remember the laying of the
irst ocean cable. Other developmt It's
OF the use of electricity, no less inn port
ant than telegraphy, are so young that
the youth who will cast his first vote for
President next November may claim
seniority over them.
Mr.. Depew, in the course of an adj
dress delivered while the messages were
being sent round the world, gave some
statistics showing the development of
the telegraph and telephone. which are
Interesting:
Thirty years ago there were 10000
miles of wire in the United States; to-
lay there are 100000 miles. Thirty
years ago 100000 messages were an
nually transmitted by telegraph; now
there are 0000000 In a quarter Of a
century the receipts of the telegraph
companies have increased from 81 100000
TO s25,000,00O per year. Since the open
ing of the telegraph the imports and ex-
ports of the United States have grown
from 1920 100000 to 81 LOCO, 100000, while
the internal commerce of the country
aas grown from about $1,000 100000 to
the fabulous figure of S25,000,000 900 a
year.
"Said the great English scientist, Sir
William Thompson, at our Centennial
Exposition in 1876, after he had ex-
mined the telephone: What Yesterday
should have declared impossible, l
rave today seen realized In twenty
,ears the use of the telephone has be.
come such necessity in our daily life
that the mileage of the telephone wires
had increased to 100000 miles and the
number of telephones to 100000 Nothing
more distinctly illustrates the truth of
the charge that the Americans are a
talking people than the statistics of this
wonderful instrument. for during the
asst year there we're had over the tele-
phone wires of the United States alone
100000 conversations. And yet the
telephone is only partially developed"
Mr.. Depew's prophecy Of the future,
coming as it does from steam rail-
way president. is also interesting. He
said:
1.-The next feat of electricity, now al
most accomplished, liz to be its use in
transportation. 1t is to accelerate the
speed and increase the comfort of the
passenger train, and to reduce the cost
for the revolving wheels of the freight
Ear; it is to be largely the substitute for
he horse, for the agriculture and the
road wagon; it is to furnish the light for
dwelling and factory. for hospital and
highway; it is to give the heat for cook.
ing and for comfort; ii is to be the power
for the machinery of the mill and the
press of the newspaper; it is to be the
motor for transportation by land and
sea-"
1t will, of course, ne many years be-
fore the world can afford to throw away
its steam locomotives. even though g
superior power should offer itself, but
there is little doubt that ultimately the
locomotive will go, and perhaps, also
the steam engine itself.
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