The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1915-02-04
NEW YORK TALKS TO SAN
FRANCISCO OVER WIRES

line between New ! Crk ana San
Francisco was celebrated Monday.
First, this city had speech with her
/ California neighpor 3 400 miles away.
Then the wires that swing south
ward from New York brought
Washington and San Francisco into
telephone touch. On down the
coast to little Jekyl Island. opposite
Georgia, they carried the Golden
Gates greeting. To the north, Bos-
ton, the birthplace Of the telephone,
talked across the continent.
At the White House President
Wilson spoke into the mouthpiece of
his telephone and his voice was
whir!ed across thirteen States to the
shores Of the Pacific.
At the centre Of these telephonic
dollgs, where the wires of the north
and south met those Of the distant
west, in President Wallis office at Is
Dey street, was Alexander Graham
Bell, who invented the telephone 40
years ago. Mayor Mitchell and 9TH
er officials, scientists and engineers
and telephone pioneers, and other
distinguished men, gathered round
Dr.. Bell as ne strobe into the room
on the top floor Of the telephone
company's building. On table at
che end Of the big Office was a repli-
ca Of the first telephone transmitter
to carry the human voice. It looked
to be crude enough affair. But 40
years ago when that crude affair
was first shown by Bell st the Phila-
delphia Centennial, the Emperor Of
Brazil backed away from it in
amazement, crying, "My God, it
talks. And today, because OF what
the engineers have done, DR.. Bell
was able to send his voice through it
across the continent.
One Of the first to greet DR.. Bell
as he entered was John Joseph Car
tY, chief engineer Of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company,
under whose direction the transcon-
tinental was bul;t. Today was not
Mr.. Cartv's FIST in TIE making of
telephone history. He has been do
ing it ever since Dr.. Bell gave the
membrane trans.nitter to a group
of bis friends and left it TO them 10
make it universal household serv-
ant. MIR. Carly is the organizer of
what might be called the first te1e-
phone university, and under bis d.
rection the art CT telephony was de-
velored.
The worh Of constructing the
transcont;nentai Ii1e took two years
but the history Of he work of max
ing the poles and wires, set and
strung by the construction crews
runs back over the space Of many
years. Bells original transmitter
has 10 descendants. Fifty three
types and styles of receivers have
been introduced since 1877. Within
ten years the Bell system spent for
construction and reconstruction an
amount more than equal to the book
value Of the entire plant.
And what is true Of trarsmitters
and receivers IS even truer Of ali
that lies between The terminals Of
the transcontinental lire, for it is IN
this field that the engineers had
their real problems. Tc fill in the
gap between Denver md the coast
with wires and poles was compare
lively simple. Tie task they con-
fronted was to begin at New York
and working ali along make the
multitudlnous improvements neces
S Try for a 3.400 mile talk. Trans
mitters, sWitch-boarGs, metallic cir
cults, hard-drawn copper wire ard
loading coils all had to be attuned
to the transcontirental keynote,
There IS hint Of the real achieve
ment celebrated yesterday in what
the engineers did with the loading
coil. When the loading coil left the
hands Of its inventor it was as large
as a key, and the fine iron wires in
side it cost a mint to make. Today
the loading coil is a few inches in