The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-22

directly, have twenty-five cords AL together there are 100000 miles of fine wire in the relays of the switchboards of the largest ten telephone cities.
 All the copper used in equipping a central office is not in the form of wire however. Either pure or alloyed of the metal enters into the protective devices which guard the apparatus against damage from lightning, and the like the fuse mountings and arrester springs, as they called. The plugs at the ends of the operators connecting l cords and the springs inside the jacks or switch sockets in which each circuit from terminates in the switchboard, the weight which pull the cords back Into place when they are not in use, the drops" or targets" that on one type of board signal the operator when the subscriber wants to attract her atten- tion, all are largely of copper and so are the myriads of screws rivets and minor fastenings to hold together the thousands of parts of the board.
 When you talk over the thousand miles from Boston to Atlanta, or from New-Y Fork to Chicago, the circuit you use requires 1000 miles of heavy copper wire The total investment represented in wire and apparatus devoted to your exclusive use while such a conversation is going on Is several hundred thousand dollars, and If you consider the whole apparatus of which you require but a corner here and there the money value mounts into tine millions. The tele- graph still uses iron for many of it's transmission lines, as do many of the lesser telephone companies. But while the lower conductivity of4iron does not particularly affect transmission of tele- graph signals telephony demands for \ its perfection the best materials modern science can find, even though their cost Illness would have been practically prohibitive generation ago, and to- day calls for an enormous investment, enormous even for this period of colos- sal enterprises.
 Aside from the electrical industries, nearly every form of present day ac- tivity employs copper and the compost tions of which it Is part, to con siderable extent. Engineering could scarcely get along in any of It's branch es without it. Every up to date engine has brass oil cups, and bearings must be made of brass, gun metal, bronze or other compositions of copper if they are expected to withstand the terrific wear imposed on machinery. Brass and cop per tubing is used in many boilers. es- pecially In those of locomotives, for it will endure enormous pressure and is an excellent conductor of heat; and copper tubes are used almost ex- clusively in marine condensers, while many vessels have their lIulls sheathed with copper.
 The landlubber architect as well as his brother of the sea utilizes copper more than most of us realize. The sky scraper has roofing ad cornioes made from the metal churches and public buildings are adorned with bronze gates and doors, and bronze gfillwork; and from copper and its compositions are wrought all manner of other decora- tions-vases, urns, tablets, busts and statues. The comfort of even the hum blest American home owes almost as much to copper as the beauty of our most magnificent building. Knobs and locks for doors and furniture, rods for portieres, curtains and stair carpets, pipes and faucets, often plated with nickel, but nevertheless copper under meath; furniture, lamps, chandeliers and 8 hundred smaller but equally ne-