The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-05

+, that as long as you have a wire with a
| telephone at each end Of 1t, 1t makes no
difference whether you can hear any
thing over the circuit, or even whether
| 1t Is a quicker means of communication
than the railway. On the other hand
| the American system has been built
up by the constant making of improve
ments and the expenditure of millions
Of dollars to bring them into use.
+ An American just back from Scotland
said the other day:
When I was in Glasgow I asked a
business friend IL 1 might use his tele-
phone to call up a man in Edinburg
with whom I wanted to make an APP
pointment.
! Certainly you may he said. If you
have the time. II you are IN a hurry
you had better run up to Ediburg your
self on the train. 1t only takes an hour
and 1t will surely take you longer than
| that to get a telephone call through
| The long distance service, which is
1 yearly becoming a more important fac-
tor in American business Is something
the foreigner cannot comprehend at all
Two or three hundred miles Is what he
calls a long distance: If you tell him
people talk every day over the thous-
and miles of wire between New York
and Chicago, or the 1900 miles of wire
| between Boston ana Omaha. he sets you
| down in the same class with the man
who has been spinning yarns of the
rate at which the cornstalks grow in
Iowa or the size of the barns the Kan
sas farmers use. The longest connec-
tion possible to the telephone user in
Germany, where telephony Is particu-
larly well developed for the Continent
| is between Paris and Berlin, 742 miles
| When the proposition to establish
long distance service between Paris and
Rome came up few years ago 1t raised
| a discussion that amused American en-
| gineers. 1t is DOT miles from the French
capital to Italy's ancient city, while, as
the Bell line goes, it is more than 10t
miles further from New York to Chica'
go. The New York Chicago telephone
| service had been in successful opera
tion for ten years when the French anc
italian authorities began to put theil
iheads together: yet to the Europeans
the undertaking OF extending the ZONE
of communication" which already In
IcIuded circuits from Lyons TO Turin anC
Iron Turin TO Rome. seemed full Of
most puzzling problems.
The Paris Rome telephone line." satt
M Crescitz, chief of the telephone bu'
ireau of the French government, will
be the longest international telephone
system in the world; It will therefore
lrequire an exceedingly powerful cur
Iaudible; those we are now obtaining
are far from that. The current Is fai
too feeble.
How shall we remedy this difficulty
That is a thing which only a technica
Icommission can determine"-thereby IL
Illustrating the beauties of government
management. for the momentous ques
ton which NJ Crescits declared requir
ed a technical commission for its decis
lion was as to the size OF copper wir'
necessary, to be used. and that had al
been figured out by the Bell engineer
Years before. Furthermore. even will
the minute current used in telephoning
the perfection of the American system
lis such that conversation over line
more than 1000 miles long are distinct
lily heard. The current EN-
ployed is almost too slight I,
be measured; comparison Otter
made to show its character is that tn
electrical energy which lights 16