The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-09
SPREADING
 RAPIDLY OVER ALABAMA
BY WALTER HARPER

his genius. They called 1t a scientific toy, and as such 1t seemed for while doomed to remain in obscurty.
 Financial men laughed outright at Dr. Bells scheme to sell his patent for s100O0O. It was scoffing of the same sort that Morse had received, 40 years before, when he tried to induce the government to pay him s6o,C0O for his pet, the tele- graph.
 To-day the telephone system that bears the name of the inventor has more than 12. .0OO, OO0 miles of wire in operation enough to girdle the earth many hun ireds of times. The value of the tele- phone properties in the United States to- day aggregates a sum that makes the s1oo,O0O that pr. Bell requested look like the proverbial thirty cents.
 Tt was not long before the march of progress seized upon the telephone. The wizards of the electrical field put their time into perfecting the technical details of the scientific toy
 "The usefulness of the instrument in- creased, and with it the demand for share in it's benefits. Today the annual earnings of the telephone in the United States are no less than s2Oo 0,000 One manufacturing concern. the Western Electric company. has 100000 of its tele- phones in use.
 ''The fact that pr. Bell himself is still alive to see the wonderful conquest his toy has made emphasizes the youthful ness of the telephone. Thirty-five years seems a short time for an agency so l widely known and so universally accept l ed as a necessity.
 Here are some of the achievements of the telephone in its brief span of exist
 ence:
 Tt has made possible what is known as modern business methods. Every busl- ness man has a telephone at his elbow
 and finds 1t his most trustworthy assist. 1 ant. The telephone came into the office | and into the discard went delays, confu- l sion, uncertainties. etc.
 l Tt has invaded the homes or the people ! themselves. Here it performs faithfully 1 it's many tasks-savng time and steps, providing protection and affording means of social diversion.
 Without it the skyscraper in the busy city would be impossible. Telephone sys- tems and elevators-talse these away and the modern office building will be use less
 '1t has smoothed the way for thou sands of railway trains. In service on the dispa tching circuits of B, 600 miles of road. supplanting the old familiar tele- graph, with never an accident due to its | use--that Is the record of the railway l telephone today.
 Tt has banished isolation on more than 1 100000 farms. In the rural districts the
 telephone has done incalculable good ] Many say this is the most valuable ser vice the handy little instrument has per. 1 formed.
 l '"The rural telephone enables the far 1 mer to conduct his business with the greatest profit to himself. He keeps | posted on the prices of his products and
 he economizes by cutting out his trips
 to town when a telephone message will
 suffice. The lonelines which has made 1 farm life burden to so many people,
 especially to the women and children:
 the fear tbat takes possession of them
 when the men are away, the fear -of the
 inability to reach doctor in times of sickness. are all banshed by the tele- phone in the farmhouse. l What will come next? An army of engineers is constantly at work planning and devising new wonders of the tele- phone. The rapid spread of service over l tine wires shows no signs of ahattnp and