Arizona republican., 1908-01-06


the horse for commercial uses would
have disappeared from metropolitan
streets to make room for electric
horseless carts, wagons. drays and
all the other vehicles which handle
the citys trade.
Yet If the metropolis has not arrived
at an exclusively horseless age-or
rather at that of electric transportation
each New Years day finds it a long
way further on its progress toward
the electrical era. The things that can
not be done by electricity now are
hardly worth doing.
Indeed in all parts of the country
the use of electricity and electrical
apparatus is undoubtedly increasing
by leaps and bounds. Whether II be
milking a COW or creating a tempera-
ture of such intense heat as has never
before been obtained-a mere trifle,
perhaps, of 1900 degrees-the volatile
agent lured from the clouds by DR..
Franklin is almost invariably called
upon. In its commercial aspect, too.
electricity permeates all business life.
1t is not surprising that the United
States not only leads all countries OF
the world in manufacturing electrical
apparatus, but also sends men abroad
TO do the construction work. In many
of the most highly productive manu-
featuring districts of the United States
electric power is being installed about
ten times more generally than any
other kind. The total of sales for
1907 is not yet available but those
of 1906 of the three greatest producers
of this field i'm the United States, and
therefore, of course in the world, the
Western Electric company. the General
Electric and the Westinghouse Electric
reached the enormous sum of more
than s16O,OOO,000. X
The product represented by this big
total enters into the daily lives of all
classes of Americans. Take, for ex-
ample, the output of the Western Elec-
trio company, the largest OF the big
three, whose sales alone last year APP
proximated $70,0OO.OOO. The great
bulk of these consisted not in power
plants or huge engines, but in that
universal agent of everyday life-the
ubiquitous telephone. More than $751;
10000 worth of telephones and tele-
PAlOht SdphiltS HCit BAOAuNtI III hiiN
United States last year and of this
sum the Western Electric manufac-
turer under the Bell patents. turned
out by far the greater part. With the
country sending over the wires some
| thing like 1900. 900, 900 telephone talks
every year. these figures give some
! indication of the extent to which
| through the telephone the whole coun-
try is being electrified.
At about the middle eighties when
the Western Electric first began to
turn out telephones the total output
for the year was 10000 instruments.
Now at its gigantic factory in New
York that total represents only two
weeks output. for the instruments are
manufactured at the astounding rate
OF 5000 daily. or say 100000 a year.
More than $4,000 employees OF this
company were busted last year in
turning out the little talk machines
and their accessories, the switchboards
and other apparatus being manufec-
tured at the Chicago headquarters.
The results of this labor IL combined
into a single instrument would create
a monster telephone nearly 300 miles
nlkH anu Nttklllllk fNVV lOilS
colossal monument to the use OF
electricity in everyday life.
ether uses Of electricity are almost
too familiar to mention. The Who'll :
matter is still scientific marvel. The
business man in his office looks at an
electric clock and takes an electric
car for his home. An electric bell is
at his door; electricity lights his house
and perhaps warns il too: It may even
cook his dinner. All the while the
telephone keeps the man in touch with
the world wherever he goes. Even the
milk left at the door in the morning
is handled by electric machinery in the
dairy whence il comes; the flour in the
bread is produced BY electrical mach
inery: the cloth which covers ones
body owes its debt to the subtle vibrat
ing medium.
Indeed the time has apparently come
when an old saying must be revised
for today. at any rate. ii is electricity
which makes the world go round al
though some scientists find that love
is an affair of subtle electrical cur
rents. Herein Uncle Sam has out
stripped Cupid and Is again to the
Nit pip-
duction OF electrical apparatus is con-
quering foreign fields. The Western
Electric management. for example. has
foreign plants and offices scattered
throughout the world-in Japan. India.
African scores of cities and dozens
of countries. all busily engaged in fur
nishing foreigners with apparatus for
projecting conversations. For just as
in the United States the manufactur-
ing associate of the Bell companies is
busily engaged In enabling people TO
talk. so in foreign countries IL is fur
nishing telephones for just the same
purpose. A hundred different tongues
may be spoken through these instru-
ments, but they all bear the imprint
OF Uncle Sans energy and all bear
striking testimony to the manner in
which electricity makes the CONNER
cial world go round.
During the latest year covered by
federal reports electric transportation
lines in the United States carried six
times as many passengers as the steam
lines. although the mileage OF the
latter was approximately eight times
greater. Yankee push. which has built
trolley line TO Egypts pyramids. the
earth's oldest monuments, is today
carrying electric transportation all
over the world. Every year through
this q AGENCY aIona the alactric 400 il