The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1915-02-05

Telephone
has taken am army OF thoughtful, con-
scientious, patient men, keen of brain and
skilled of hand, striving day and night
for the one great end-the perfection Of
q system and the conquering Of time and
space. In office, laboratory and shop,
under the earth, high up in the air, they
have thought and experimental and
toiled, always aiming toward this idea Of
universal service.
There has been no isolated problem,
literally as well as fguratively the devel-
opment and perfection of The system has
been "all along the line" The fight, this
new Winning of the West has not been
v duel, to be- won BY single inventor
struggling for the solution Of some one
BIZ problem, but battle, a campaign,
in which thousands have helped To over
come a thousand hindrances and imper.
fections and difficulties.
When the telephone left the hands OF
Bell and Watson, it was fan essentially
perfected instrument" in the eyes Of the
law, that is, it did what was claimed for
TIT talked-but that wa all. The
diaphragm was simply an animal mem.
brane tied around a piece of wood and
in touch with a magnet. From this
acorn the oak of the Bell System, nation
wide, has grown. From this small begin
ming, the Transcontinental Line has been
evolved, and it has been an evolution In
the words OF President Theo. N. Vail, il
is '.the cumulative effect of improvements,
great and small, in telephone, transmit
ter, line, cable, switchboard, and every
other piece Of apparatus Or plant re-
quired in the transmission Of speech"
In all the 3,400 miles of the line there ia
no one spot where a man may point hi
finger and say, ''Here is the secret Of the
Transcontinental Line; here il what
makes it possible to telephone from New
York to San Francisco" Rather, it is
the perfection ut every point that has
brought this about. It is the develop
ment of the transmitter at New York
that makes the receiver at San Francisco
do its work so we'll; it is the improve.
ments in the receiver at Sam Francisco
that causes the transmitter at New
York to perform it, functions % admir-
ably; it il the perfecting OF every inch
of line and every bit of mechanism be-
tween them that enables the instrument
at New York to talk and that at San
Francisco to hear.
The Magnitude Of the Task
lin spite, however, Of The fact that, com
pared with the electrical problems, the
mere engineering task of constructing the
line may appear simple to the scientist,
no one can run his finger over the route
Of the new line on the map without Be
ing impressed witch the magnitude of the
undertaking. The data and figures are
tremendous. The line crosses thirteen
States, it is carried on 100000 poles.
Four hard-drawn copper wires, .l65 inch
in diameter, run side BY side over the
entire distance, establishing two physical
and one phantom circuit. One mile VI
single wire weighs 49, pounds, the
weight of the wires in the entire line
being 100000 pounds or 1880 tons.
This, of course, il the transmission wires
glone. I'm addition to these, each physical
circuit uses some 1860 miles of fine
hair-like insulated wire, $1,000 Of all
inch in diameter, for its loading 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, des-
erts, rivers ard lakes. was in itself task
w no mean magnitude. The Panama
Canal is hailed as one of the greatest
achievements Of thu worlds workers, NJ ii
u. but the almost invisible lines of the
Bell System, considered simply as to la
bor and cost, constitute monumental
achievement.
The Canal wa begun nine years ago
and has cost S310,0O0,000; within the
same space of time the Bell Company has
lT,L sA-
ing construction work alone.
Two Leaders in the Work
The building of the Transcontinenta
Tine depended On The solution Of no onr
solated problem nor will the glorv Q
o. gwen to any one isolated mu1vluuary
but there are few names that will Al
ways stand out above the rest i'm connec-
ton with it, There must be great gen
erals for armies that win such victories.
For many years this line from ocean TO
ocean has been the dream Of Theodore N.
Vail, president of the American Tele-
phone n Telegraph Company, the goal
toward which he has pushed and toward
which he has steadily Ted hi associates
and the army OF his employees. Not the
dream of dreamer, but the prophetic
vision of "A practical, forceful, capable
man, man of unlimited business energy
and knowledge, who could &C. anything
In telephony except impossibilities. He
not only cannot see them, but will not
admit that they exist; he does not find
the word impossible" in his dictionary
Of engineering terms. Almost from The
beginning OF the telephone, his energy
and enthusiasm, his dauntless optimism
and ambition in everything relating to IT.
perfection and promotion, and his idea of
universal service have dominated The
company ana made enthusiasts OF every
one connected with it in great things or
i'm little
At his side through most Of these years
has been slightly built, 1.-the, keen-eEed
man, who never has to be told but once
when great thing is to be done. 4 nod,
and line goes To Denver; a word, and
it stretches to the Pacific coast. That
il John J. Carly, Chief Engineer of the
American Telephone and Telegraph Com
pany. A leader among thu scientific men
VII all nations and honored by their rulers
for his distinguished services in engineer
inn accomplishment, hi wide knowledge,
lii keen judgment and his indomitable
energy have combined to make him one
of the great factors in telephone achieve
ment and advancement. He is wizard
of the wires Long ago he said this
! great thing could and should be done,
and through the great banks Of silence
THAT separated thu East from the West,
| +h;e Coa+baIS ~ aIoctricttv has haau emf