Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1900-02-17
PROGRESS OF THE
PASSING CENTURY,
The Slow and Tedious Steps Which Led Toward the Establish
ment Of the Telegraph and the Cable.

manner" he asked. "why not the width
regarded as an idle dream, but Field
was eloquent aud In 1851 the cable mad
been laid from Newfoundland TO Ire
land II was the beginning Of the
greatest Of modern achievements, for
to-day scores OF these cables stretch for
tens OF thousands OF miles under the
oceans OF all hemispheres.
HOOKS INSTRUMENT.
The consideration OF the telegraph
and cable naturally suggests their
younger brother, the telephone. As far
back as 1867 Robert Hook was expert
mentlng In the belief that 1t would be
possible for him to discover some means
Of conveying sounds by the use OF wires
and wooden rods. but Il was not until
1876 that the telephone in useful form
was evolved. The first apparatus Of
fairly useful telephone was introduced
TO the Patent Office by Alexander Ora
ham Bell. and this was the telephone
Of to-day minus the improved trans
mitter and with the chief parts some
what differently arranged
In 1881 Wheatstone succeeded In
showing that Hook had been correct In
his principle that sound waves could be
transmitted from one place 10 another,
TO moderate distance, by means OF
wooden rods, and afterwards be con-
yeyed to the ear by the vibrations given
20 the air at the end OF the rod. All
these experiments, however interesting
they may have been. were not pracu.
cal, but when Bell and Edison appeared
the problem Of voice communication
was solved.
To describe the steps by which thls
invention has been improved or to d.
| late upon it's commercial advantages
would be useless. The advent OF the
| long distance telephone alone has been
an inestimable advantage, but all these
achievements have been Of such recent
date that the successes are matters OF
current knowledge
WIRELESS MESSAGES.
Such have been the results Of nine
! teenth century achievement along the
lines OF long distance communications
but, great as they have been, there Is
every reason TO believe that the next
quarter OF a century will witness In
ventions so radical and Improvements
20 great that the methods OF commune
cation OF to-day, great as they may
seem to us, will sink into insignificance.
When Marconi a short time ago. es-
tablIshed the fact that wireless teleg-
raphy was within the realm OF proba-
billy the world entered upon a new era
OF invention, and the solution Of the
problems Of rapid telegraphy and the
| transmission Of pictures by wire VIII
be two Of the great inventions that will
make the dawn OF the twentieth CEN
fury memorable.
Let no word OF mine be taken TO i'm
ply that these results have not yet been
attained. OF course there can be no
question but that there are already ma.
chimes that make rapid biography pos.
sible. and there are already instru-
ments by means Of which pictures and
| drawings Of all kinds may be trans
mitted long distances.
At the present time, however these
inventions are more or less in the ex-
detrimental stage The results promis-
| ing as they are can scarcely be re-
garded as more than successful trials
OF the new inventions, and II VIII re-
main for the twentieth century TO Wit
ness the development that Will make
! them OF incaleulable value to the world.