Semi-weekly herald., 1912-07-15
TELEPHONE STATISTICS.

There were approximately l2,I53,-
900 telephones and 1856, 900 miles of
telephone wire in use in the world
January /, 1912. Compared with
January l, 1911, this is an increase of
ten per cent in telephones and nine
per cent in wire. A careful estimate
places the worlds telephone invest
ment January /, 1912, at about ST.
/ f29,OOO,0o0, which is very nearly the
value Of all gold coin and bullion in
the United States. The annual num-
b-f of telephone conversations may
ne placed al 22,000, 100000, which is
about live times the annual number
of passengers carried by all the rail-
roads of the world.
! The subsequent statistical table
shows the telephone development of
the world January l, 1911. At that
date the United States had 67.4 per
cent of the total telephones, Europe
had 2G,3 per cent, Canada 2.5 per
cent. thus leaving but 3.8 per cent for
all other countries. The high per-
centage increase during 1910 for Bos-
mia, Greece, and Servie, is due to the
fact that these countries are just
beginning to be developed.
The magnitude of the United States
telephone Investment per capita may
be emphasized by comparing the tel
ephone with some of the other lead
ing industries. Such comparison
is based on recent special reports by
the United States census office, pub
fishing the requisite data as of jan
uary l, 1910. The chart shows the re-
suit of comparison of the telephone
business with ten large United States
Industries. Despite the fact that the
telephone has been in use but 35 years
the telephone investment per capita
January /, 1910, is the fourth largest,
yielding only TO the Iron a. Steel,
Lumber, and Gas a. Heating indus
tries.
! The statistics referring to invest
ment do not always represent the
actual replacement values of the va
rious telephone plants, as such infor-
nation is not recorded by the major
ity of foreign telephone administra-
tions. The only data available in
many cases are the aggregate amounts
that have been put into the business
since its inception. The worlds
telephone Investment January /, 1911,
is estimated at 81 ,561 300, 900, equiv
alent to $139 per telephone. This to-
tai investment is thus approximately
equal TO the value of the corn crop
Of the United States in 1911.
1t is interesting to compare the
telephone investment of the world
with that Of the telegraph (including
submarine cables). In the absence
Of any definite information concern
ing the entire world on that subject,
only an estimate can be made. Using
the total telegraph wire mileage, jan
uary l, 1911, as basis, the telegraph
investment may be estimated at about
100000, 100000. There are also 314,-
900 miles of submarine cable repre-
"NH'b "i NSNAiaetu ihscStlcHl Ol
S350,000,000, so that the total tele-
graph investment of the world jan
uary l, 1911, may be placed at ST.
O50,000,000, as compared with a tele-
phone investment Of 81 ,561, TIT 900, at
the same date.
The combined number of telephone
conversations Of the rest of the world
is but one-half that of the United
States. The telegraph traffic of the
United States presents quite con-
trast. Placing the worlds telegraph
traffic during 1910 at about 579,O ,O00,-
900, the United States took but II per
cent of the total, while Europe had
E62 per cent. In other words, Europe
has about the same proportion Of the
worlds telegraph traffic as the u. s.
has Of the worlds telephone traffic.
Going back to the first authentic
publication of telephone traffic in the
United States (1sS3) the total num-
ber of telephone conversations was
estimated to be 217,000,000 During
the intervening 2S years the United
States traffic has reached, as shown
above, colossal total Of over 14,0OO,-
100000, an increase Of $500 per cent,
or an average annual increase Of 232
per cont,