Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-02-06

A, ity.' thereby cutting down the limit
Of transmission AS a matter Of fact,
you can talk about 80 times as far over
an open overhead wire of the size
adopted as standard by the Bell sys-
TEN rs you can through the Ordinary
size Of underground cable-or over
mead cable, for that matter, for it is
all the same thing In local traffic
around a city this is not so important;
but in long distance traffic it is a very
serious consideration
For instance a men in New York
calls up a man in Chicago. The dis
taLce between the two cities, as the
lines go, is 932 miles. Wherr the
wires pass directly from one CITY to
the other and are not "cut in at way
stations, very good transmission can
be secured. The last year or two i.
has become commercially possible TO
have a few dough circuits of This
sort; the other circuits, in order to be
economically operated, must be used
for way trafnc between intermediate
cities when through traffic does not
demand them. The central offices at
either end and the switching stations
in between adds what amounts to from
200 to 400 miles to the actual mileage
of the cross-country wires
Even SO telephony has been per
fected to point where these obstacles
would be satisfactorily overcome
But there may be from two to ten
miles of underground at the New
Workers. end of the line and from three
90 twelve miles more of underground
at the Cldcagoan's end. Together
these sectious of underground add,
roughly, the equivalent of anoth r
4D0 miles. Furthermore, a majo .ty
of business calls are between private
branch exchange subscribers. The
private switchboard, while very con-
venient, is often the cause of further
losses in transmission due very largely
to the practice in many Offices of re-
quiring the person who operates it to
stay in on the line" to see that every
thing goes smoothly for the takers
When an operator is thus kept in on
connection at each end OF the line,
the loss is approximately equai to
that in 300 miles of open wire. So
while you are talking between places
actually less than thousand miles
apart, the telephone system insult have
as great efficiency as would be re-
quired to communicate nearly 900
miles if your telephone and that Of the
man you converse with were attached
directly to the ends of open wires
The complications introduced by
the necessity OF burying the wires in
many places made it necessary to cs-
tablieh switching stations on the long
distance circuits whenever they pass
ed near large cities. Thus messages
may be turned into the city itself or
may De carried on without the loss of
power that would result from their
passing through a lot of cable con-
stcuction. AS more places require
/ telephone wires buried in cables the eff
| forts of the engineers to extend the
distance over which they can talk are
made more and more 5ifficul|. 10 a
less extent, perhaps, but none the less
to a very appreciate degree the in
reference of foliage and tree limbs is
a serious obstruction to long distance
talking In many places the Bell en-
gfneers buy private rights of "; y
and cut down trees on both sides OF
the line, which protects the wires
from interference and lessons the risk
of their being broken down in storms
But iris cannot be done everywhere
and wiz the restrictions that are
placed on trimming trees on highways
! it is impracticable to avoid leakage
from this cause.
During the past twelve months the
! last gap in the system was filled in so
that now there are wires that can be
connected into one continuous line
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Al
ready in the laboratories in Boston
conversations have been held by ex-
perts over artificial circuits represent
ing more than 5000 miles of ideal
line. How long 1t will be before the
ideal can be nearly enough approached
in the actual working plan to make
transeontinental conversations prac-
teal success no one can predict
with any certainty.