Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-01-30
new YORK To
SAN FRANCISCO
Transmission of the Human Voice
From Coast to Coast Now
Possible.

accomplished? The other day thu
Bell Telephone System accomplished
the feat of transmitting the human
voice from coast to coast Con
versations were carried ON betw
President Wilson of the United State!
and President Vail of the company
President Moore of the Panama Pa
cjfic Exposition, and many others
between the Atlantic and Pacific
cities. Perhaps every person reading
the story of those conversations will
wonder how 1T was done. No better
description nor any better story OF
how this remarkable achievement
was accomplished has ever been
written or told than was told by U.
N. Bethel, senior vice-president of the
American Telephone and Telegraph
Company, when he reviewed briefly
the history of the telephone system
in the world ito those who were gath
cred in the New York office to hear
and enjoy the transcontinental conve..
sations. Amog other things he said:
"This afternoon We shall formally
open the first transcontinental tele-
phone Line, spanning distance of
3,4V0 miles. Ih.s lime forms a high4
way of speech between the Atlantic
ID Danif n c.. t61anbnpn
"~rA tDlYe4ualed in its comprehensive
ness now covers Our vast country
from sea to sea, connecting cities,
towns, villages and firms into what
IS known as the Bell Telephone Sys-
ye.n. When we remember that the
telephone itself was invented no
longer ago than 1875, we cannot but
marvel at the position attained by
this wonderful instrument as an
agency In the conduct of social and
co-.l.Dercial affairs throughout our
country.
sovme idea, however, necessarily in
compete ard inadequate as to the
So and importance of the Bell Sys-
Ten as it is today, may be- conveyed
b. a lew figures.
Using round figures, there are i'm
the 81 stem, including connecting com
panieS, 100000 telephone stations
and 100000 miles of wire. The
plant OF the American Company and
lis associated companies alone repre-
sents an investment of $3.50, 100000.
"l he army of men and women en-
gagged in it's operations, exclusive of
tn~so emp.oyed by connecting COM
panies, number 100000.
~ he universally of the system is
strik.ngly shown by the fact that
while in our country there are ap-
proximately $4,000 places reached
by the telegraph, 10000 railroad sta
tions and like number of postoffices
the telephone joins together no less
than 10000 communities.
"l'he value of that agency as told
by the extent to which it is used
cannot be expressed in figures easily
comprehensive.
The messages transmitted over dts
lines number approximately mime bill
ions year. To aid us in our at
tempt to catch the significance of
this figure, the statisticians say that
1t is equivalent to tN enty-six million
messages day, or more than one
million per hour throughout the twent. |
four.
''The telephone has attained it's
largest measure of usefulness in the
land of its birth. 1T is sufficient |
to make but one comparison. In the |
two cities we are joining together
elephonically-New York and San
Franc.sco-there are 685,000 telephone
stations, more, by $4,000 than the |
number i'm London Paris, BERLIN, Wen
ma, Brussels, Amsterdam and Petro-
grad combined
"The population of those European
capitals is more than three times
that of the two American cities named
The statistics as to those foreign Cit |
hes, | may say, relate to conditions
before the commencement of the Eu-
ropean war.
From the beginning, the develop
ment of the art of telephony has
been advanced din America more than
dn any other country and more than
in all other countries combined. Am
erican engineers, inventors and finan-
ciers; American operating, CONNER
cial and accounting forces, through !
the introduction of new ideas and
practices, have always kept the unit |
system of the United States in the |
foremost position among the tele