Evening star., 1899-02-03
TRANSATLANTIC TELEPHONE.
Comment ON Edison'S Article Refer.
ring to Such system.
From ElreiricifN-


About year ago we referred editorially
| TO scheme that was said 10 be on foot
! looking to the establishing of a transat-
| iantic telephone line. The movement was
| at that time said to be backed by influ-
ential capitalists as well as by a number
| of telegraph and telephone companies. No
/ reliable Information was allowed to leak
out as to how 1t was proposed TO over
come the seemingly insurmountable diff
| culties to be met with, but il was asserted
that the problem of overcoming static in
| duction which had heretofore been the
chief stumbling block in the way of trans
atlantic telephony had been successfully
grappled with. Nothing further being
heard OF this proposed gigantic undertake
ing the interest In it naturally died out
The question was again recently brought
up, however, by an article which appeared
in one of the daily papers referring to an
interview with Mr.. Thomas Edison. In
thls article MI Edison stated that he was
prepared TO construct a telephone line
completely around the world providing
sufhcient capital was forthcoming for the
purpose. Fully appreciating the seeming
1mposslbmty OF overcoming static induc-
uon In long submarine telephone cable,
which, as is well known. changes the quick
short sound waves into long slow vibrations
impossible for the human ear to detect he
suggests rather unique and decidedly
costly method Of entirely eliminating all
trouble from this source. Mr. Edison. re-
ferrfng TO the project. says:
"Telephoring across the Atlantic ocean
will have to be dore on new lines. This S.
prol ably the feature of the plan that will
he most questioned. Inventors have been
at work for years trying TO send telephone
messages across the Atlantic. and have
failed every time. Nobody will be able to
telephone directly from Europe 10 America
until some force more powerful than cleo
tricity has been discovered.
Rather than attempt the Impossible, 7
tried the plan of constructing cables upon
new principles, but I met with the same
batfiing results. / had. in fact. about given
up the task as hopeless. when the idea &C
CURED to me that if the length Of the cable
under water were not great success
might oe easier. This led to experiments
whose success convinced n,c that the diff
Guilty would be solved by laying a new ca
bile for telenl loEe purposes only and work
ing il in relays of fifty to 100 miles or less
The idea is TO send out sounding parties
between the coasts of the two continents
for locating shoals. over each shoal would
be anchored a float ship like the. light
ships off Sandy Hook and elsewhere"
In other words. Mr.. Edison's idea would
De TO anchor ships at given distances across
the Atlantic ocean. each vessel being used
as a relay station. To the best of our
knowledge there is no submarine telephone
cable in actual use over thirty miles in
length. and that would apparently seem 10
be the extreme distance over which tele-
phone messages can be transmitted with
any degree of success. Such being the case
II would require not less than sixty-six relay
stations to enable a message 10 be trans /,
mitted between Great Britain and This
country. As may readily be inferred the
carrying out of such project would entail
an enormous exper diture of money and un-
less the chain of relay stations We're located
1ar out or the course taken by transatlan-
tic steamers they would be a serious mem
ace 10 navigation Moreover, there would
always be danger of these vessels break
ing loose from their noorings during very
rough weather as well a chance of some
of them being destroyed by icebergs TAX
ing il all in all. although the idea might be
successfully carried out by an expenditure
of millions of dollars, the results TO be de-
rived would seem scarcely to warrant such
an enormous outlay of money with the at
tending risks.