Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-01-26

ployed in their earliest experiments
and had answered:
"I hear you perfectly. Do you hear
me well?"
Bell-"Yes, your voice is perfectly
distinct. 1t is as clear as if you were
here in New York instead of being
more than 5000 miles away
IT want to switch in another tele-
phone and talk to you through that
Belt am NV talking through an
exact duplicate of the first telephone,
which was made in June, 1875. Can
you hear me?"
Watson-"I hear it perfectly, though
less distinctly than the other, OF
course"
(Now switching back to the stand
ard transmitter.)
Wonderful Progress of system
Bell-"What wonderful progress has
been made by the Bell system since
then to enable our voices to be trans
mitted over a circuit OF $500 miles
without the least apparent distortion
or weakening
DIR. Bells voice leaped across the
wires from New York to San Francisco
in lis second.
In 1876 the limit was two miles,
from Boston to Cambridge, and one
had to have pretty sharp ears and
pretty good voice at that; 1884 saw
boston and New York linked then the
600 miles to Chicago were bridged in
'95. one after the other came Omaha,
Denver and Salt Lake City. Yesterday
the oceans were linked by great talk
canal over whose copper strands Bell
and a hundred officials and business
men who attended the celebration sent
their voices in electical waves, at the
rate of 1000 per second, from coast to
coast.
The celebration was held in the
office of Theodore n. Vail, president
of the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company, at the New York end,
and in an office of the Pacific Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company, at San
| Francisco. Between these two points
10000 special poles have been erected,
carrying two complete circuits of four
wires, each 3.400 miles in length. AT
! frequent intervals along this line
| sDecial coils were introduced to
strengthen and hold the tiny current,
and almost countless inventions and
tricks of the telephone scientists skill
have bene used to make the transmits
sion perfect.
Crosses Susquehanna
From New York the new line sweeps
down first to the outskirts of Phila-
delphia, leaps across the Susquehanna,
ZigZags up and down the Alleghenies,
dips into the murk of Pittsburgh, goes
straight on through Ohio and Indiana
to the windy city of Chicago, then
traverses the plains, crossing Missouri
at Omaha, and then it runs along the
very brink of the Grand Canyon and
up over the snow-capped peaks of
Pueblo and the lofty city of Denver;
then il turns northwest to Salt Lake
City and dips down through the foot
hills of the Rockies. past the orange
orchards of California and finally
crosses the Sacramento river to San
Francisco. From the Statue of Liberty
to the Golden Gate, at the rate of
SO, 900 miles a second, infinitely less
than the wink of an eye.
For years a corps of more than $50
engineers and scientists in the Bell or
ganization have bent every energy
toward the means of making the feat
possible.
At New York the men who wit
messed the demonstration included
Mayor Mitchell. other city and state
officials. a number of prominent busi-
ness men and telephone officials. A
small group gathered in San Fran
cisco.
President Also Talks
In Washington President Wilson,
who was on the wire. talked across
the continent. The Presidents conver-
sations were overheard by the scores
of persons in the telephone company's
offices.
The transcontinental service will not
be established for public use until
about March /. 1t will cost a person
$20.70 in New York to talk for three
minutes with San Francisco, and $6.75
for each additional minute.