Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-03-21

For the last three years a farmers
telephone system has been in sue
cessful operation in Heath, Mass. The
company began operations with IA
miles of wire and 10 instruments, at
a total cost of only $3.50. At present
there are nearly 200 subscribers, who
pay but $12 year, and the company
is capitalized at $4,000. The amount
of stock sold to any one person is
limited, and the plant is owned and
managed entirely by farmers. Dur
ing the last two years the dividends
have been 10 per cent, and the system
is undoubtedly a success. The central
is over the postoffice in the city, and
farmers often have their letters read
to them over the telephone and dictate
replies, which are mailed in the regu-
lar course. The farmers are enabled
to keep in touch with the markets in
various towns on the line, and are
thus enabled to sell their produce at
favorable times. The line runs through
dozen towns in northwestern Massa-
chusetts and southern Vermont
New York Evening Post.
Wonderful Results.
Experiments in wireless telegraphy
recently conducted by the United
States weather bureau have developed
important improvements in this
modern method of communication. The
Geographic work of this bureau began
about year ago under the direction
of the secretary of agriculture. One
experiment of particular interest con-
sited Of sending messages from sta
ton near Fort Myer, just across the
river from Washington, to Cobb's
island, in the Potomac river 60 miles
distant. Communication was regu-
larly and freely established, the sys-
tenn of signals used. being by dots and
dashes, as in the Morse code. The
receiver was of the sounder type. With
the apparatus now in service it is ex.
pected to signal over much greater
distances. Practical tests will soon
be made by sending out vessels equip
ped with receiving instruments. The
first station for the wireless transmits
sion of messages has just been COM
pleted at Roanoke. Another will be
equipped at Cape Hatteras and another
at Cape Henry. The experiments thus
far made are said to be the most sys
tematic and thorough that have ever
been attempted. The tests started
with experiments in transmitting over
fixed distances under varying condi
tons. Then was tested the wireless
transmission of waves over the square
of the distance. In that manner an
immense amount of information has
been collected which is believed to be
new and useful In some cases the
operators succeeded in sending mes
sages for some distance from a staff
only three feet high.-Railway and En-
cheering Review.
The Telephone.
t~ical engineers have very near
ly outgrown the ability to be aston
ished. We have dealt so long with ap-
paratus and methods that seem to per-
form the impossible that it is only
once in a while we can feel the thrill
of real enthusiasm ard surprise. To
those who have had the privilege of
seeing the remarkable performance OF
Poulsens telegrapbone, there comes
back some OF the old wonder that a
few of us remember when first we
heard the telephone or photograph
The thing is so amazingly simple, and
its performance is so astonishlngly
perfect, that one feels the natural
wonder why it has not been done be-
fore and long ago. This instrument is
one of class that occasionally makes
it's appearance in the face of the belief
of most people competent to know
about it that it will not work. Doubt
less if we had no telephones we would
say on inspecting a drawing OF the
original Bell magnet apparatus that,
while there was bare theoretical pos
sibility that such a contrivance would
transmit sound, yet it was perfectly
evident that it could no do so in prac-
ice. 1t was much the same with Herr
Poulsens invention. Nobody would be-
lieve that magnetic strains of perma-
nent and reproducible character would
be set up in a steel wire by the deli
cate magnetic titillations of the little
apparatus employed. Still, it works;
and it works very much better and
more distinctly than any form of me-
chanical photograph we have had the
pleasure of seeing.-Electrical Re-
view
'Phoning Afar.
On very long circuits, and especially
in cables, where the capacity is much
higher than in overhead lines, this