Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-06-25
THIRTY YEARS AGO TO-DAY.
Bells Telephone Was Put on Exhibi
 tion at the Centennial Exposltion.

Boston, June 25-Just thirty years ago to-day, on June 25, 1876, at the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia the telephone was for the first time exhibited to the public. A few months before Alexander Graham Bell had perfected his invention in Boston, but it was not until a month after the opening of the Centennial that it occurred to him to exhibit the wonder device at the great fair.
 The managers at Philadelphia, regarding it as rather interesting than useful, gave the telephone an inconspicuous place. AS matter of fact, but for the interest taken in it by Dom Pedro, the emperor of Brazil, the wideawake monarch who made it his business to copy the best features of American institutions, the telephone might have attracted much popular attention during the centen- nial But the scene in which the Brazilian emperor was the chief figure had far-reaching effect. Afterwards, indeed, until the exhibi- tion closed, the telephone shared with the then celebrated Corliss en- zine the distinction of being the center of attraction. For Dom Pedro's benefit Dr Bell recited over the tele- phone Hamlet's oft-quoted solioquy, and this is said to have. been the first public demonstration of the practical value of the telephone.
 The telephone as seen by those who visited the Centenniaul exposi- tion did not at all resemble in ap- pearance the instrument with which people of to-day are familiar. Lord Kelvin, who was the first scientist to hail the telephone as a scientific triumph, described the instrument exhibited at Philadelphia as home spun and rudimentary," but It em- bodied the essential principle with out which the electrical transmission of the sound of the voice would be l impossible,
 In the thirty years since the Gem tennial the telephone instrument itself has been perfected and. at the same time, means have been devised to bring 1t into practical use. The | first telephone switchboard was con structed at Bridgeport. Conn, in 1871. A little later at Ansonia, Conn, process was devised by which the outer surface of copper wire could be so hardened that the wire could be strung from pole to pole. This process provided peter conductor than the iron wire previously used and thus made 1t practicable to teie- phone over greater distances than were at first considered possible. The original Bell company advertised in 1sTT that the telephone could be used for distances up to 20 miles. | To-day. thousand-mile conversations are oS ordinary occurrence over the ' lines of the Bell system and, under special conditions. this distance has been nearly doubled As early as 1884. the use of the telephone had grown to such an extent that an 1 experimental line was constructed between Boston and New York. Early in 1892 New York was put in telephonie communication with Chicago and a line from Boston to the Western metropolis was opened soon after. Now the long distance wires extend from Canada in the north 10 the Cuff of Mexico cn the | south and from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to what was once known ss the Great American Desert. on the west. The lines of the Bell system alone include six million miles of wire and cUnnec more than 10000 cities. towns and villages In the United states. Over the Bell wires nearly Ie.0a0 communications pass every minute. or 14.0e0.0eo each day the total for the year being s-see.-
 gOe. .Saa. Efzhty-nine thousand eT- ployes are required to keep the plant
 in order and the trsesc moving. and one person ia every 8 Is subscriber
 to the service
 The development Of the telephone system has been brourhf sbo1t with marvellous rzpisisy but the sreineers
 szy tfz. shat has b&en zcpnplthed
 is only the beEinnink- fl is predicted that the tine rili cone u1en thefu