Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-25
Some Things You Want to Know
Growth of the Telephone.

prevention Of fires and the repression Of
crime. In all cities they transmit messages
free to fire alarm and police stations. In
Chicago the call for police is Main - and
It was used zoos times in 1909. The fire
alarm cali. Main 0. was used sS@ times.
American telephone companies could well
initiate a Copenhagen company, which in
stalled monographs In its central office.
Whenever an irate subscriber abused an
operator over the wire she simply switched
his voice into the phonograph. II he were
At fault, he was summoned to the office
and asked to listen to himself talk. As an
abuse-repressor IL has proved a great sue
cess.
Selling time service as a by-product OF
the business Is one OF the latest wrinkles
in telephones. For many years the West
ern Union has sold standard time service,
though It never has pushed the idea. Now
comes a Missouri man with a master clock
in the telephone office with which clocks
in the homes and offices Of subscribers are
connected Where the experiment has been
tried Il has proved satisfactory, and 1t Is
not improbable that hustling telephone
companies everywhere will adopt the idea.
Telephones are now sometimes attached
TO barbets chairs. A New Jersey barber
installed Nevsral in his shop and his pat
ronage hss increased because Of II. In
this way the busy man can keep in touch
with his office, while being shaved or
having his hair cut.
The Germans have a telephone which
seems to be the acme OF perfection. The
transmitting and receiving are made into
one piece in such way that when the sub
scriber holds the receiver to his ear the
transmitter is in the correct position before
his mouth. Thus one hand is always left
free and both transmitter and receiver
can be moved as far as the cord will per-
NIT
A Philadelphia inventor has brought out
a fire-hose telephone. II consists OF wire
connection woven through the lengths Of
the hose and a small portable telephone
attached to each end of the line of hose.
In this way the firemen may talk with the
chief and get orders even when the latter
is block or more away from the fire.
Whenever the hose sections are put to-
gether the wire connection is made auto
matically. -
Thomas Thorne Baker, In charge Of the
photo telegraph department Of the London
Daily Mail, has perfected a new photo
graphic transmitting device which he
calls the telectrograph 1t is being used
between the London and Manchester offices
of the Mail especially for the transmission
Of pictures from the London office to the
Manchester office where they appear stimuli
taneously with their publication in Lon
don. From four to-five hours are saved
over the transmission by mall. 1t takes
one hour to transmit picture.
The illustration is first photographed
through a screen ruled like checker
board. with seventy-five lines each way to
the inch. BY chemical treatment the de-
veloped plate is made to contain little fish
glue dots, one dot for each mesh In the
screen. As the needle, corresponding to
the needle Of photograph passes over the
plate these glue dots alternately make ana
break the circuit, and corresponding i'm
pulses are sent out over the wire. At the
other end OF the line needle acts in the
same manner on paper so sensitized that
the little impulses Of electricity make q
black mark at each mesh, corresponding in
intensity with the degree Of the impulses
Consequently, when the reproducing needle
has followed the sending needle through
all of the little mesbes on the sending
plate, an exact reproduction OF the original
with all its gradat!ons of light and shade
Is the result. A line between London and
Paris is being planned and will soon be in
operation.
The very newest thing in electrical cir
cles is farming by wireless" At the re-
cent Hobby night OF the National Press
club in Washington, Prof. Willis Moore
stated that the highly electrified norts-
west wind Is the source OF Americas re-
markable energy, and, in keeping with this
idea, some English scientists are making
experimental efforts to transfer the energy
of the atmosphere to products of the soil.
They rigged up an oil engine and dynamo
and covered some twelve acres Of land with
a series of parallel wire lines not so high
as telegraph lines. but still high enough TO
be ont OF the way Of farm operations.
Through these wires electrical currents are
sent over the growing crops with remark
able results. Anyone walking below the
wires can feel the effect on the hair of the
head as OF a cobweb one the face At dusk,
just before the power is cut off, there is a
glow visible wherever a leakage Of current
occurs The current Is turned on several
hours each day, and the photographs of
crops grown under such stimulation show
that by this means production may be in
creased by one-half
BY RREDERIC J. HAsKIN.
Tomorrow-''PrSvsnting Mine Disasters"