Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-09-02

per highway 8.400 miles long, from
New York to San Francisco. and on
that occasion the first official greetings
were exchanged between Alexander
Graham Bell. the inventor of the tele-
phone, and Thomas A. Watson. his
early assistant Most wonderful of
all, perhaps, in the minds of those who
have talked from one side of the
country to the other, is the fact that
this achievement, the crowning glory
of so vast and complex system, has
taken place within the lifetime of the
man who first conceived the telephone.
On March 10, 1875, Professor Bell,
working away at the crude boX-like
instrument he had invented, called to
his assistant, Mr.. Watson, come here,
| want you" and Watson heard that
first of all telephone messages over
the wire. A few months ago in New
York the same voice was talking and
in San Francisco the same ear was
listening as on that day thirty eight
years ago, but under what changed
conditions!
Then the struggling young inventor
and his associate had just succeeded
in producing a telephone and talking
over a few feet of wire. Now they
part of a vast system joining together
the country's greatest and most dis
tant cities and serving the uses of
hundred million people.
In 1875 it talked from Boston to
Cambridge, two miles, and one had to
have sharp ears and a good voice at
that; in 1882 it talked from Boston to
Providence, As miles; in 1884 from
New York to Boston, 235 miles; in
1895 from New York to Chicago, 900
miles; in 1911 from New York to
Denver 2,100 miles; in 1913 from New
York city to Salt Lake City, $500
miles and in this year the men of the
Bell ssytem have made it possible for
the people on the Atlantic coast to
talk to those on the Pacific coast over
a line 3,400 miles long more perfectly
than Bell could talk over two miles
those few years ago.
From Harrisburg the route of the
transcontinental telephone line runs
through Pittsburgh and from that city
to Chicago, Omaha, Denver, up past
the canyons to Salt Lake City, over
the Sierra NevadaS and down across
the western slopes from the snow
capped peaks to the Golden Gate.
There are four wires, each .165 of an
inch in diameter; the weight is $40
pounds per circuit mile, that is. 435
pounds per mile to each wire, two
wires being required for a circuit; the
total weight of one circuit of two such
wires is 2,960,000 pounds. or 1,4S0
tons. That means that the voice of
the Governor and of those who con-
versed across the country set in mo-
ton an electrical impulse which ener-
gized nearly 1900 tons of copper
In this line alone there are 10000
poles and this link betwene the two
oceans is the backbone of a network
of 21,000,000 miles of wire between
100000 telephone stations of the
Bell system. A voice travels across
this line at the almost incredible speed
of $4,000 miles per second, or Ills of
a second from Harrisburg to San Fran
cisco. Sound unaided travels 1,160
feet per second, and at that rate if a
sound could be produced of sufficient
volume to carry across the country it
would require more than three hours
for 1t to be heard at the exposition.
This is the second time that this
city has been the scene of historic
telephone achievement, for on jan
uary %, 1891. there appeared an adj
Vertisement in the Harrisburg news
papers reading substantially as fol-
lows:
THE American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company desires to announce
the completion of the long distance
telephone lines between Harrisburg,
Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Wash
ington, New York and intermediate
points. and respectfully invites you to
call at the Commonwealth Hotel on
Wednesday, January 2S, or Thursday,
January 30, 1891, to make a personal
trial of the service
Clippings from the Telegraph, the
Patriot and the Morning Call of jan
uary 29. 1891, indicate that the pre-
vious evening there assem- bled in the
parlors of the Commonwealth Hotel
about $50 people, including members
OF select and Common Councils, their
families and friends. Owing to trouble
with the wires, it was impossible to
esta connection with New York,
from which 1t had been planned to
play over the line q phonograph record
of selection by the Seventh Regi-
ntent Band. The line to Philadelphia,
however. worked splendidly and sew
eral musical numbers were rendered
by singers of note in that city. On
that occasion one of the men who
aided in completing arrangements was
Leonard Fl. Kinnard who. as vice
president and general manager of the
Bell Telephone Company of Pennsyl-
vania, officiated at the celebration yes
terday. Mr.. Kinnard will be we'll re-
membered as general manager of the
Pennsylvania Telephone Company and
for his years of residence in this city.
Born in Harrisburg, Mr.. Kinnard has
peen IN the telephone business through
his entire business career, serving in
various capacities at Harrisburg. Car
Isle and Lancaster. rising through no
sittons of superintendent of the south
ern division. general superintendent
general manager of the Pennsylvania
Telephone Company general contract
agent of the Bell Telephone Company
of Pennsylvania and Associated Com
panies in Philadelphia, to which city
he removed in 1908. and finally to
the position of vice-president and gem
erel manager In November. 1912.
j. Heron Crosman, Jr., of Phila-
delphia. general commercial superin-
tendent of the Bell Telephone Com
rany of Pennsylvania and we'll known
throughout the State as a former resi-
dent and telephone official at Harris