The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1915-02-12

improvements, great and small in ~
phone, transmitter, line, cable. switch
board and every other piece of aupa.
ratus or plant required in the trans.
mission of speech" In all the 3 400
miles of the line there is no one snot
where man may point his finger and
says, Here is the secret of the Trans.
continental Line; here is what makos
1t possible to telephone from New
York to San Francisco" Rather. it is
the perfection at every point thai
has brought this about. 1t is the de-
yelopment of the transmitter at Now
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 it's functions
so admirably; it is the perfecting of
every inch of line and every bit of
mechanism between them that enables
the instrument at New York to talk
and that at San Francisco to hear. /
The Magnitude of the Task.
The line crosses thirteen states, it is
carried on 10000 poles. Four hard
drawn copper wires, .165 inch in d.
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 1860 miles
of fine hair-like insulated wire, 4-1,OOO
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 a task of no mean mag
nitude. The Panama Canal is hailed
as one of the greatest achievements
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 $31OOOO.OO0; 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
individual, but there are a 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.
For many years this line from ocean
to ocean has been the dream of Theo-
dore N Vail, president of the Ameri-
can Telephone q Telegraph Company,
the goal toward which he has pushed
and toward which he has steadily led
his associates and the army of his
employees. Not the dream of a
dreamer, but the prophetic vision of
a practical, forceful capable man, a
knowledge, who could see anything in
telephony except impossibilities.
At his side through most of these
years has been slightly built, 1.-the,
keen-eyed man, who never has to be
told but once when great thing is
to be done. A nod, and line goes
to Denver; a word, and it stretches to
the Pacific coast. That is John J. Carly,
Chief Engineer Of the American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company. 4
leader among the scientific men of all
nations and honored by their rulers
for his distinguished services in engi-
neering accomplishment, his wide
knowledge, his keen judgment and his
indomitable energy have combined to
make him one of the great factors in
telephone achievement and advance
ment
There has been no greater achieve
ment in the history of the Bell Com
pany, none in the history of telephony,
few in the history of the world. The
gain to science is great. UNNECESSARILY
more precious, however, is that to the
nation, and intellectually greater are
the benefits to commerce and society.
What the Transcontinental means to
the future Of the country, what it will
bring about by drawing the East and
West closer together, how much of in
creased prosperity and happiness these
thousands of miles of wire will in
sure no man can gauge
Universal Service
The opening of this line is the culmi-
nation of the Bell idea of universal ser
vice-in presenting it for the use and
convenience of the public, the Amer
lean Telephone & Telegraph Company
renders an account of it's stewardship.
1t has fulfilled its promise and, not
only in itself, but as an earnest OF
what is to follow in future develop
ment this nationwide line proves
that it is the intention of the Ameri-
can Telephone & Telegraph Company