Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-16

ooo.o 0 annually, and the Postal company
nearly as much, this representing a
business OF more thai 100, O0C, 900 mes
sages.
The thought that poles might posi-
bly, be dispensed with and hat insulated
wire might be laid along the floor Of the
ocean was slow in suggesting itself, u
finally 1t did. come. In 1851 a submarine
cable was laid from Dover to Calais.
1t was at this time that Cyrus Field
evolved the idea that has given us the
great ocean cable system of today. "If
thirty miles CAM be bridged in this man.
ner," he asked, why not the width of
the Atlantic?" At first the idea was re-
garded as an idle dream, but Field was
eloquent and in 1867 the cable had been
laid from Newfoundland to Ireland. 1t
was the beginning of the greatest of mod
ern achievements, for today scores of
these cables stretch for tens Of thousands
OF miles under the csans Of all hami-
spheres. Hl
HOOKS INSTRUMENT.
The consideration of the telegraph and
cable naturally suggests their younger
brother. the telephone. AS far back as
1867 Robert Hoo was experimenting N
the belief that 1t would be possible for
him to discover some lreans of convey
ing sounds by the use Of wires and wood
en- rods. but it was not until 1875 that
the telephone in a useful form was
evolved. The first apparatus Of a fairly
useful telephone vas introduced to the
patient Office by Alexander Graham Bell,
and this was the telephone Of today min
us the improved transmitter n with the
chief parts somewhat Different y ar
ranged.
.Ip,1ss1 Wheatstone succeeded in show
ing that Hook had been correct in his
principle that ound waves could be
transmitted from n place to another,
to a moderate distance, by means of
wooden rods. and afterwards be conveyed
to the ear by the vibrations given to the
air at the end of the rod. All these ex-
per.meSnts, however interesting they may
have been. were not practical. but. when
Bell and Edison appeared the problem
OF voice communication was solved.
To describe the steps by which this
invention has been improved or to dilate
upon it's commercial advantages would
be useless. The advent of the long dis
lance telephone alone has been an ines
Unable advantages. but all these achieve
ments have been of such recent date tina
the successes are matters Of current
knowledge.
WIRELESS MESSAGES.
Such have been the results of nine
teenth century achievements along the
lines of long distance communication;
but, great as they have been, there is
every reason to believe that the next
quarter of a century will witness inven-
tions so radical and improvements SO
great that the methods of communica-
ton Of today, great as they may seem to
us. will sink into insignif1cance.
When Marconi, a short time ago, es-
tablished the fact that wireless tele-
graphy was within the realm of proba-
hillty the world entered upon anew era
Of invention, and the solution of the
problems Of rapid telegraph and the
transmission of pictures by wire will be
two of the great inventions that will
make the dawn of the twentieth century.
memorable.
Let no word of mine b. taken to i'm
ply that these results have not yet been
attained. OF course there can be no ques-
ton but that there. are already machines
that make rapid telegraph possible, and
there. are already instruments by means
OF which pictures and drawings Of all
kinds may be transmitted long distances.
At the present time, however, these in
ventions are more or less in the expert
mental stage. The results promising as
they are San scarcely be regarded as
more than successful trials of the new
Inventions, n it will remain for the
twentieth century to witness the deyel-
Opnent that will make them of incalcula-
BILE value to the world.
There is every probability that these
results will soon be realized, but, how
ever o they may he attained, 1T will
be impossible to rob the nineteenth CEN
fury of the credit for having given birth
to the ideas that will result in such Won
derful achievements.