The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-28

terly that 1t was unable to communi-
cate satisfactorily with the various
stations upon its line. 1t held the COM |
pany strictly to the performance of its |
contract. 1t claimed that it could hold
telephone conversations between dis |
tant stations not at all and between
adjacent stations with the greatest diff
ficulty and that the sending and re-
ceiving of signals was unsatisfactory.
DIFFICULT PROBLEM TO SOLVE.
Mr.. Carly, then a young man Of only
26 years of age, undertook to solve the
problem and to devise apparatus which
would make II as easy to use the tele-
phone upon a wire which contained
number of stations as upon single
metallic circuit wire. The problem was
very difficult one and it was a new
one. 1t required the arranging of two
wires of an eleven-station line, with
reference to the signaling and talking
apparatus pertaining to the line in such
a manner that any one station could
send a signal to any other station and
to all of the other stations, and that
this same station could receive a sig
nal from any other station, and also
that any one station could transmit
| speech to any of the other stations and
| could receive speech transmitted from
any of the other stations and do all
| these things without upsettng the
| electrical balance of the line.
To upset the electrical balance of the
| line would make it certain that con-
versations taking place upon neigh
boring lines would be heard upon this
| eleven-station line.
In other words. Mr.. Carly set about
| devising apparatus which would do
something up to that time not done
which would make a telephone line
commercially useful and satisfactory
| to the customers.
| Since then the metallic circuit has
been so generally established in cities,
| especially in New York, where the in
| dividual lines are very short, owing to-
the numerous central stations, and it
has been found quite feasible, CONNER
cially, not to have any more than one
party upon line-that is, each sub
scriber has his individual line but in
smaller places and especially in coun-
| try districts, in order to make the tele-
phone commercially advantageous, 1t is
absolutely necessary to have a good
many more than one person upon a
| line.
| CARTY FINDS SOLUTION.
| Mr.. Carly, after exhaustive investi-
cation and the most intense applica-
ton. at last developed an apparatus
which is known as the bridging bell
apparatus, and under that name it re-
| ceived its patent. 1t Immediately
solved the problem. Tt did for the wire
what the Berliner apparatus and the
| mCrophone did for the transmtter;
what the metallic circuit did for long
| distance telephoning, and what the
| multiple switchboard did for central
| offices where there was large business.
| Moreover, it established Mr.. Carty's
| reputation as an electrical scientist
and inventor.
A description of the apparatus would
| be too technical and difficult to set
| forth in a report of this kind. 1t is
enough to say of it that it is regarded
as one of the four or five different ap-
paratus entering into the perfect tele-
! phone which is able to transmit over q
thousand miles of wire or ten feet of
wire intelligibly the human voice. Upon
1t the original telephone company Of
the United States has relied for the
maintenance of it's monopoly equally
with its reliance upon the Berliner
| transmitter and some other apparatus.
INDEPENDENT COMPANIES.
Many of the independent telephone
companies, which were organized as
soon as the patent for the receiver ex-
pred, have professed to be Indifferent
to any decision which the courts might
render as TO the validity of the Berliner
transmitter patent. Their managers
| hn n..fA 81
be done without that apparatus; but il
seems to have established that inde-
pendent companies for the most part
if not entirely have found if absolutely
necessary to employ the Bridging Bell
patent, otherwise they give as did the
earlier telephone only confusing mur-
muring and unsatisfactory service over
the wire
| A local company in Chicago, which is
one of the subordinate organizations Of
the parent telephone company of the
United States, and the little Millheim
company, of Pennsylvania with its
twenty-five subscribers, We're perhaps
chosen to make the judicial test in
this case so that the litigation could
attract as much public attention as
possible. 1t has been in progress near
ly two years and even the electrical
journals have paid but little attention
to it.
The Berliner litigation and some of
the other suits brought to restrain al
legged infringement of patents for tele-
phone apparatus have attracted very
wide attention. but this little case has
escaped all public notice and not even
the decision which so vitally affects
large amounts of capital and seems to
threaten the established independen,
telephone industries, will not be made
public until this report appears. 1t is
the intention, now that decision has
been handed down sustaining the valid.
ity of this patent, to proceed vigorous
ly against every telephone association
in the United States which has beer
making use of the Bridging Bell ap-
paratus, and it is the belief that judic-
ial interference to prevent further use
of this patent will in all probability
seriously cripple, if not destroy, almost
all if not all of the independent tele-
phone companies of the United States.
In large cities the decision recently
handed down by the United States Cir
cult court sustaining the Firman Null
tiple switchboard patent will also tend
seriously to embarrass independent
companies. The decision seems to have
been made upon the broader grounds,
and it's definition of some of the prin-
ciples guiding courts in determination
, of patent litigation are regarded as OF
the highest importance, in that II
sweeps away many of the contentious
heretofore claimed by defendants in