Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-01-29

stated that II would not be commercially
opened for some time to come. as a NUM-
Der of details remain to be perfected. A
description of the line. while too techni-
cal to be understood by the layman. indi-
Gates that many problems had to be
solved before it could be completed.
While It would be natural to believe that
nothing more was required than to ex-
tend the telephone line to bridge the
gan between Denver and San Francisco.
almost the reverse of this was true.
1t was only after improvements had
been made and new inventions added to
line. cable. switchboard. receiver, trans
mitter and multitudes of other apparatus
tina the way was opened up to span the
continent.
To the force of five hundred and fifty
odd engineers and scientists which COM
pose the various experimental depart
ments of the Bell Company was given
the task Of devising new apparatus. new
ways of manufacturing equipment and
wire and of planning all the multffarious
details of the building of a practical
telephone line 34o0 miles long. a feat
which had never before been accom-
plished. To-day the triumph of the
telephone engineers is complete. The
new and wonderful talk canal which they
have planned has been tested and found
ps-fect. 1T will carry mans spoken
wSrds. the varied infections of his voice
which indicates his personality, clear
across the widest point of this continent
by means of electrical waves speeding
at the rate of 1000 separate vibrations
a second. How long does 1t take for
the sound of your voice to reach San
Francisco was a question asked. If
measured accurately the elapsed time
would be 1/15th of . sacond. saw the tele-
phone engineers.
Each new stride in the development
of long-distance telephony has brought
greater difficulties to be overcome and
further improvements of methods and
apparatus. The cumulative effect of this
progressiveness by the te1e-
phone engineers has led to this crown
ing success of the telephone art. The
first sustained talks between Boston
and Cambridge, a distance OF two miles,
took place about 1876. A single strand
of wire was used, and. to say the least.
conversation over this line was miser-
able. Later when the Boston and Prov
idence line was constructed, in 1884,
two strands of copper wire were used
instead OF the single ground line, thus
forming the so-called metallic circuit.
with the result of a wonderful improve
ment In the transmission. The man who
constructed this line was j. J.. Carly,
then a youth of twenty-five. Eighteen
hundred and eighty-four saw Boston and
Cambride connected. Later this line
was extended to reach New York. More
betterments in the art were introduced
when a line was opened between New
York and Chicago, in 1895. Since then
one improvement has succeeded another
as the lines were extended to Omaha.
Denver. then Salt Lake City-only about
a year ago.
The new continental line has required
10000 poles and $500 miles of hard
drawn copper wire in each of the two
circuits. In order to preserve the cleo
trical current. which is little more than
a breath, throughout the entire length
of this 3,400 miles of wire, a number of
pieces of special apparatus lave been
placed at regular intervals. In addi-
tion the four lines which compose the
two physical circuits are transposed at
regular intervals to form what Is
known as a phantom circuit, which
practically adds a third talking cir
cult. Even tho insulators on this line
are different They were specially de
signed for this purpose after many ex-
periments. They are of porcelain, in
stead of the usual glass kind.
1t is most fitting that during this year,
when our Panama Canal is to be for
mally opened to the nations of the
world, when the waters of the Pacific
are united to those of the Atlantic, that
this new talk canal should also be for
mally opened. To 1t is given the task
of not merely connecting two oceans,
but of binding together with its copper
strands into a closer union the people
of an entire nation. The steel rails of
the trans-continental railroads were the
first connecting links between the East
and the Golden West, but here is a
copper BOND which will more firmly
cement the union, as the messages of
friendship are whispered across 3.400
lies of wire in the unmistakable voice
( a united people.