Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-03-03

because under the sea it is not possible
to use such heavy wire or to add
loading coils" at frequent intervals.
No wonder, then, that the engineers
have almost given up trying to solve
the problem of telephoning under the
Atlantic, where 5000 miles of cable
must be used.
Dr. Musso, however, realizing that the
limit of improving the line had been
reached, determined TO try to improve
the current. He imagined the electrosta-
tic capacity neutralized by current
specially prepared beforehand for this
specific purpose, and he set about to find
the means of treating the current to pro-
duce this effect. The result is the ap-
paratus for which three patents have
been granted by the United States Patent
Office In showing 1t the other day Mr..
Musso said
while others were trying to improve
the cable 1 was devoting my energies to
improving the electric wave. They were
treating the cable mechanically. l treat
the current electrically they would I'M
prove the road. improve the vehicle.
when an electric impulse is generated
or set directly an a long line or on a
cable the electrostatic capacity of the
cable changes the current in two ways:
First, it affects what l may call it's
magnitude. alternating this more or less
according as the cables capacity is great
er or less; and, second. it distorts what
may aptly be called it's form or its shape.
Consequently the impulse dies out before
it reaches the receiving end of the cable,
or 1t arrives at that end in such enfeebled
or distorted condition as to be incompe-
tent to produce the desired effect
What is necessary. then, is a current
that will be proof against the alternating
and distorting effects of the electrostatic
capacity of the cable. To impart this re-
sisting power to the current or impulse
a special apparatus is necessary. The
current passes through this apparatus
before being set upon the line. What
this machine does is to treat the current
and to transform what l call it's physi-
ogomy, so that its characteristics are ex-
actly the opposite of those which the
cable will try to impress upon 1t. In 9TH
er words, the cable exerts certain
amount of power to distort the impulse
in a certain direction. and my machine
gives the impulse corresponding initial
the current enters the cable already dis
torted and the distorting power Of the ca
BILE merely Strengthens it out.
These words are not precisely, scien-
tifc | should put the matter slightly
differently if 1 were describing the APP
paratus for a technical magazine; but the
terms 1 should use under those circnm-
stances would probably be meaningless
to those of your readers who are not ex-
perts in electrical mathematics. They
ought, however, to bring home TO per-
sons with little or no technical knowledge
the method by which this apparatus
works What l want you to understand
is simply this That the current Is
changed in character by this machine In
such way that it counteracts the effects
of the electrostatic capacity of the cable.
and, instead of dying out before reaching
the far end. arrives there intact. carrying
the message that your voice impresses
upon the diaphragm of the telephone
into which you talk 1Ark World.