The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-05-01

properties OF these great systems have
been improved in character until thc
railroad business of the United States
represents one of its most colossal as
sets.
For almost every mile Of trackage
in this intricate system of steel rails
the telegraph wire Is an accompani-
ment Professor Samuel r. r. Morse
was the founder of the system. and
from the United States the telegrsphic
service of the world has grown to
nearly 100000 miles of wires.
For the ocean cable the world also
is indebted to the United States. To
the energy of cyrus w. Field Is due
the first telegraphic communication be.
tween England and America. His at
tempts in 1887 we're failures. but one
year later line was laid that proved
a short-lived success. The principle
was established. however. and since
1866 thirteen cables have been laid and
are operating under the Atlantic. To-
| day there is scarcely a spot on the
| map that cannot be reached by cable
| fash from the centers of the worlds
activities. In a recent report from the
| United states bureau is this striking
| paragraph:
The submarine telegraphs Of the
| world number 1,5o0: their aggregate
| length is 10000 miles: their total cost
| IL estimated at $3.50. 900 900. and the
| number of messages annually trans
mittcd over them 6,000,O00 ~ the
| grand divisions of the earthGare now
connected by their wires, and from
country to country and island to ISL
and the thoughts and words Of man
kind are instantaneously transmitted.
! oil
universal language which this system
has created flows uninterruptedly and
man talks as face to face with his
fellow man at the antipodes. Darkest
Africa now converses daily with en-
| lightened Europe or America. and the
great events of the morning are known
in the evening throughout the nhabit-
| cd world. Adding to the submarine
| lines the land-telegraph systems by
| which they are connected and through
| which they bring interior points of the
| various continents into instantaneous
| communication, the total length of tel
| egraph lines of the world is S35 900
miles. the length of their single wires
or conductors 3.500.00o miles and the
total number of messages annually
sent over them 365 100000, or an aver
age of 100000 messages each day"
IMPETUS TO FOREIGN TRADE.
The significance of these figures is
! shown in the same report. recounting
that in 1866. when the first cable line
was operated between the United
States and Europe, "our commerce
with Europe amounted to 1862 232, 2s9
in 1876. to s72S, 959, 053 in 1886. to $685.
ell,504; In 1896. to l.O9l .sS2s74. and in
1898. to sl,279,759,93G. while our COM
merce with the whole world which in
1866 amounted to s7sS S,67l .5Ss. had by
1898 reached the enormous sum of ST.
S47, ,531. .9s4"
In the telegraph the Morse code and
the Morse key have not been improved
upon for practical purposes. The hu.
man hand and the human ear are in
dispense BILE In the vastness Of the bust
ness of the telegraph companies. Car
rying capacities OF the wires have
been increased. but II the promise Of
the new MarconI system is to be real
ICED, this accomplishment may not
mean much to the telegraph company
of the twentieth century.
To all practical purposes Alexander
Graham Bell has the credit for the
telephone. Elisha =. Gray. of Chicago.
contested his legal claims to It. each
having filed applications for patents
- the same day. Page had transmit
ted musical tones to a distance as car
ly as 1897. Refs, too. had experiments
on the sam" lines. but It was reserved
for Professor Bell in 1877 to establish
vocal communication between lecture
hall in Salem and building I'm Bos-
ton, twenty miles away. few days
later Professor Gray, in Chicago,
talked with persons in Milwaukee.
hearing perfectly across the eighty
five miles of intervening distance The
courts gave the decision to Bell. and
the Bell Telephone company has be-
come one of the greatest institutions
of the last quarter of a century.
VAST SYSTEMS OF PHONES.
The United States, above any other
country. has made use Of the tele-
phone, and in this country the inven-
tion has been brought to it's greatest
perfection and utility. There are .300,-
900 instruments in the United States,
connecting with 173,00O miles of wires.
The long distance service has a maxi
mum reach OF 1000 miles over which
the human voice is conveyed distinct
ly with all its infections.
When Bell had made the system
practicable II was thought that the
| telephones would replace the telegraph
In its relation to transportation service,
but the intricate business Of the train
| dispatcher continues to be done
through the key and sounder OF the
telegraph office. The telautograph,
which was designed successfully to
write out messages in long hand, has
never found favor against the myste-
ries OF the dot and dash
With the expiration of the Bell pat
ents independent telephone lines have
been organized in many states until
the telephone wires in the rural dis
tricts OF the west are almost as COM
mon as the clothes-lines of farmers
wives Villages are strung together
, and hundreds of farmhouses are in
cluded in the circuits.
Business Of the express comparies
in this country has fastened itself to
transportation until more than $4,000
miles of railway are interested in the
service. The equipment of the various
companies in the United States in 1890
was valued at $5,074,OOO, and the an
nual business was measured by tens
! Of millions of dollars.
The postoftice system of the country
was evolved from the railway service,
and the two have gone together in the
efforts toward perfection. The railway
postoftice, flying at sixty miles an
hour, is one of the picturesque nsti-
tutions OF the age, 1t has been per-
fected until mails for the big cities
are made up ready for the carriers be-
fore the locomotives that pull the