The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1915-02-05


the Trsnscontinental Line mas peeh
evolved and it has been an evoiution'
In tho words of President Theo. N.
Vail. it is "the cumulative. enoo
| improvements, great and smaii, III teie-
phone. transmitter, line, CABLE SWITCH
hoard and every other piece of appa-
rains or plant required in the trans
mission of speech" In all the 3,400
miles of the line there is no one spot
where man may point his finger and
says, Here is the secret of the Trans
continental Line; here is what makes
| it possible to telephone from New
York to San Francisco Rather, it is
the perfection at every point that
| has brought this about. 1t is the de-
velopment Of the transmitter at New
York that makes the receiver at San
Francisco do its work so well; it is the
improvements in the receiver at San
Francisco that causes the transmitter
at New York to perform its functions
so admirably; it is the perfecting Of
every inch of line and every bit of
mechanism between them that enables
lie luoll DIT IN6W lOlh W Tain
and that at San Francisco to hear.
The, Magnitude of the Task.
The line crosses thirteen states, it is
carried on 100000 poles. Four hard
drawn copper wires, .165 inch in di-
ameter run side by side over the entire |
distance, establishing two physical and
one phantom circuit. One mile of a
single wire weighs 435 pounds, the
weight of the wires in the entire line
being $4,000 pounds or 1850 tons.
This, of course, is the transmission
wires alone. In addition to these, each
physical circuit uses some 1880 miles
of fine hair-like insulated wire, 4-1,000
of an inch in diameter, for it's load
ing coils.
Simply to string this immense
amount of wire across the continent,
to set the poles and insure insulation,
to conquer the innumerable difficulties
offered by land and water, forests,
mountains, deserts, rivers and lakes,
was in itself task of no mean mag
nitude. The Panama Canal is hailed
|
of the worlds workers, as it is, but
the almost invisible lines of the Bell [
System, considered simply as to labor
and cost, constitute a monumental
achievement.
The Canal was begun nine years ago
and has cost $31OOO0OOO; within the
same space of time the Bell Company
has spent twice that amount in its
engineering construction work alone.
Two Leaders in the Work
The building of the Transcontinental
Line depended on the solution of no
one isolated problem nor will the glo-
ry of it be given to any one isolated
but there are few names
that will always stand out above the
rest in connection with it. There must
be great generals for armies that win
such victories. I
For many years this line from ocean
to ocean has been the dream of Theo-
dore N Vail, president Of the Ameri- {
can Telephone & Telegraph Company,
the goal toward which he has pushed
and toward which he has steadily led
his associates and the army of his I
Not the dream of
dreamer, but the prophetic vision of
a practical, forceful, capable man,
man of unlimited business energy and
who could see anything in
except impossibilities. S
At his side through most Of these ;
years has been a slightly built, 1.-the, [
keen-eyed man, who never has to be
told but once when a great thing is G
to be done. A nod, and a line goes
10 Denver; word, and it stretches to d
he Pacific coast. That is John ]. Carly, +
Chief Engineer of the American Tele- &
phone and Telegraph Company. A q
eader among the scientific men of all t
nations and honored by their rulers '
or his distinguished services in engi- t
leering accomplishment, his wide c
his keen judgment and his
ndomitable energy have combined to
make. him one of the great factors in
telephone achievement and advance
nent ps
There has been no greater achieve co
nent in the history Of the Bell Com e.