The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1907-09-19

"haIoFcF the CrOuDle force Ot Sta-
ton inspectors must correct it with
the greatest dispatch
What results have been attained
by the work Of the various forces
mentioned are not generally real
lied by the public and may best be
expressed by the statement that for
every case of actual trouble which
develops while telephone users want
to talk approximately 1,4O0 messages
are successfully handled-and that's
going some.
Weak Current Works Hard.
There are many excellent reasons
why long-distance telephony is i'm
practicable beyond certain limits, but
most of them are decidedly muddling
to the layman. One thing, however,
is as plain as a pikestaff. 'Tis just
this: The main difficulty is not one
OF construction, for Telephone engi-
neers have met and overcome the
most desperate difficulties of noun
tain and wilderness, but rather one
of maintaining the carrying power
Of the telephone current. Astonish-
ingly few people realize how slight is
the current that operates the tele-
phone, one of the greatest of the
many Indispensable contrivances de-
pending upon electrical energy.
Sufficient of this energy to carry
speech over 1000 miles of wire con-
stitutes only an infinitesimal fraction
of that necessary to operate six
incandescent light,
and the amount of electrical energy
required to lift thirteen ounces one
foot from the ground would operate
an ordinary telephone for 100000
years. And that's some time.
Every telephone message that flies
over the wires has a rough road, full
&C obstacles, over which to travel.
Every switchboard through which
the lines pass increases the resist
ance encountered by the delicate cur
rents and so shortens the limit Of
transmission. And it must be re-
membered, moreover, that the cleo
trical energy supplied to a telephone
cannot be temporarily increased, as
in the case of the telegraph, for the
purpose of overcoming troubles
which often are due to trivial causes
In the case of aerial lines a few
broken insulators or local storm
somewhere in the path of the mes
sage may seriously impair transmits
sion, or, as is often the case, actually
interrupt it.
Wire Chatters Don't Think.
But how many telephone users
think of these things. Suppose a
Washington business man puts in a
Cumberland call and finally gets his
party at the other end Of the line.
And suppose, just after he's said
'Hello!' and settles down to discuss
an important matter in particularly
hasty jig time, something in the re-
ceiver begins to snap and crackle
like pack Of Chinese firecrackers,
and all he can hear from over the
wire is a "b-r-r-r-r" and "b-Z-Z-Z-Z"
Does he compose himself and reflect
that somewhere between here and
on mountain or I'm val.
ley, by stream or bridge, an inf
Intestinal part of the hundred and
fifty miles of wire may be in trouble?
rain or freshet or flood? Not for a
He trembles on the verge
of apOplexy for the nonce, and then,
in the soundproof seclusion of the
long-distance booth, pays his re-
spects in superlatively ornate and
super-heated language to the tele-
phone company and everything per-
tanning to it,
There's another feature involved
in the maintenance of telephone
lines about which the average user
of the service knows mighty little.
But telephone engineers all say that
the scarcity Of timber suitable for
telephone and telegraph poles has Of
late assumed serious proportions. 1t
instance, there are about 100000
miles of line in operation in the
United States at the present time
AS the average line contains about
forty poles for each mile there are,
approximately, 32,000,U00 poles in
use, and assuming that the average
life of pole is twelve years, it fol-
lows that merely for the maintenance
Of the lines now in operation more
than 2,63o,O00 poles are needed each
year. The available supply isn't go
ing to last very long at any such rate
Of consumption as that. Consequent
~ the American Telephone and Tel
cgraph Company, in co-opertion with
the United States forest service, has
been MAKING cytcnciuo oyDorirnopte
to determine the best method Of pre-
serving and prolonging the life Of
the poles, whether by seasoning,
fixing with chemicals, or what not.
We're Going Pretty Fast.
All these matters are big items in
the OnGrati0n Of toll inos nnd In