Pocahontas star herald., 1911-09-08
AROUND THE WORLD
IN SIXTEEN MINUTES

of nine words around the world by
wire.
1t took exactly sixteen and one
half minutes for the message to
make the journey of 2s,5l3 miles
overland and under the seas of the
two hemlspheres. In that time 1t
passed through the hands of eight
cen different agencies, operating
land and submarine lines in the
new and old world, traversed the
United States, and touched at the
Hawaiin Islands, Guam, the Phil
ippines, China, two parts of India,
Africa, Spain and the Azores. 1t
flashed along the bottom of the Pa
cifc, Atlantic and Indian Oceans,
the Red and Mediterranean Seas
and Suez Canal and from Madras to
Bombay, buzzed its way through the
primeVal forests of the man-eating
tiger, panther, boa constructor and
python, over tie $50 miles OF land
lines owned by the Indian Govern
ment
The experiment had special sig.
nifcance in view of the fact that
tifty.four years ago this month,
Cyrus w. Oldfield saw his dream of
electrical communication between
England and the United States
realized in the successful laying of
the first Atlantic cable and the trans
mission of messages between the
two widely separated nations.
That achievement, folio wing the
introduction of the land telegraph
of Professor Morse, by thirteen
years, moved the world forward a
thousand years.
With its aid Dewey was enabled
to notify the world of the sinking
of the Spanish Armada under Monto-
10, 1900 miles away in Manila Bay,
an hour after that historic disaster
to Castilian ascendancy IN the fal
east.
As we think of this marvel, the
picture of Nathan Rothschild, rid
ing at top speed y a fiery steed
over rioht az Wost Of ReIoium
i would pass a1ewso, jthe defeat of
ne most lust apV aterlool land its DIS
patch by boat and relays of trusted
carriers every forty miles from
Dover to London, unconsciously
looms before us as a ghost of the
wistful past, reverting in fancy to
those primitive days, as we felici-
tate on the wonder of the modern
ocean greyhound crossing the AT
lantic in four days, the world now
recalls IN amazement how it took
eighty days for Ben Franklin to
make the journey to France on his
missionfor the American colonies.
From the introduction of the
cable dates most of those electrical
engineering and other marvels
which have since stirred the universe
and fired the Imagination Of the
progressive and thoughtful. Since
then Alexander Graham Bell has
given us the telephone, Edison, the
wonders OF the electric light, Bes
semer his great secret Of moderr
steel making, Holland and Lake
their submarine destroyers, Delany,
his time annihilating telepost auto
matte telegraph system, Westng
house, his striking mechanical in.
ventions, and Marconi, his marvel.
Gus wireless system, not to over
look the automobile, the airship.
and the great inventions which have
made possible the mile a minute
railroad train, the skyscraper, the
great canals, viaducts and bridges,
which facilitate communication be.
tween communities and add to then
comfort and convenience.
Jager-Schmidt, a Paris journal
ist, circles the globe in 40 days fol
his paper and makes Jules Verne's
conception of such an undertaking
In so days, once considered an ex.
travagantly impossible accomplish.
ment look ridiculous.