The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-02-02

slbllity OF such titanic lungs. to travel
70 San francisco through the air.
On the wires II takes less than one
fifteenth of a second. Electricity was
driving DR.. Bells "ahoy'' at the rate
Of $4,000 miles per second. Sound.
una Detted, limps along in omuarison
making only 1,1oo feet per second.
So If there was pride in the faces
of the engineers who clustered around
DIR. Bell as he talked to Friend Wat
SON. Monday there was some reason
for it. Up TO now the longest tele-
phone line in the world was between
New York and Denver. but Mr.. Carly
and his young men have gone their
previous record 1900 miles better,
and once again they have given TO
this country the longest line in the
world. From Boston to Providence.
back in the eighties, from New York
to Boston, and then to Chicago in
1892, and finally from New York to
Denver and on to the coast. the en-
gineers have cOaXed cope wires into
carrying the human voice.
Constructing The Line.
The work of constructing the trans
continental line took two years, but
the history Of the work OF making
the poles and wires, set and strung
by the construction crews who do
their duty runs back over the space
of many years. It brings you into
experiment stations and testing rooms
and laboratories. It covers
able experiments and improvements.
Every step orwar in the develop
ment of telephony has been over a
gigantic scrap heap. Bells original
transmitter has seventy-three de-
~scendants. Fifty-three types and
styles of receivers have been intro
duced since 1877. Within ten years
the Bell system spent for construc-
ton n reconstruction an amount
more than equal to the present book
value Of the entire plant.
And what is true of transmitters
and receivers is ever truer of all that
lies between the terminals of the
transcontinental line, for it is in this
field that the engineers had their real
problems. To fill in the gap between
Denver and the coast with wires and
poles was comparatively simple. The
task they confronted was to begin at
New York and working all alone the
line, make the nultitudinous i'm
provements necessary for a 3,400 mile
talk. Transmitters, switchboards,
: metallic circuits, hard-drawn copper
wire and loading coils all had to be
attuned to the transcontinental key
= note. There is a hint of the real
achievement celebrated yesterday ir
: what the engineers did with the load
0 ing coil. When the loading coil lef1
t the hands of it's inventor it was as
: large as a key, and the fine iron wire:
inside it cost a mint to make. Today
the loading coil is a few inches il
e size, and in the New York-San Fran
n cisco line there are $4,000 miles o
e that wire whose cost of manufacture
: is comparatively low.
For those in the Dey street Office
IS there was striking proof that tn
d problem Of transmitting speech is no
solved by any loud-speaking transmit
e ter in the replica Of Bells invention
h that lay before them. They realize
t. as they looked at hat instrument
1t crude in the light Of all that has hap
is pened to transmitters since, what tn
IF engineers had accomplished to max
)r it speak across the whole Unite
States. They saw that it was not
er question Of more horse power, that tn
III telephone engineer could not speed u
e. dynamos or start more engines rur
ming to get what he was after. Fe
telephony's motive power is til
feeblest thing imaginable. 1t is
e, mere breath. And the engineer mu
preserve and hurry to their destin;
ton, practically instantaneously, tt
n, thousands of minute waves made
to the air by the voice with all their sci
arate shapes and individualities pr
SIS served. In speaking of his engineer
m problems, President Vail said:
be "The solution was ound only
the cumulative effect Of improv
OIL mentS, great ana small, IN telep1OU
transmitter, line, cable, s~witchboa,
u and every other piece Of apparatus
Of plant required in the transmission
,ry speech"
I'd The Pioneers.
ny The telephone pioneers who fiji
TN talked about universal service and
line across the continent were recei
no cd with derision. Most of them to
ent mart in the various celebrations t
he day. They could prophesy with su
nm certainty because they had laid doN
nd a plan in the seventies that was co
eat prehensive of the growth Of toda
They looked through big glasses
the telephone. From the start tn
saw that it was of service only as
TX was made available tosthe most pt
kyl pie. So the telephone in the Unit
to States has always set the pace