New Britain herald., 1916-02-24

thousand men beginning with Bell
 and Watson, tinkering away at the
 first crude telephone in the attic, forty years ago
 When the telephone left the hands
 of Bell and Watson, it was an essen- tially perfected instrument in the eyes of the law, that is, it did what was claimed for it-it talked-bub that was all. The diaphragm was simply an animal membrane tied around a piece of wood and in touch with magnet. From this acorn the oak has grown. In the words of President Theodore N Vail it is the cumulative effect of improvements, great and small, in telephone, trans hitter, line, ca ble, switchboard, and every other piece of apparatus or plant required in the transmission of speech. In all 3,4O0 miles of the line there is no one spot where man may point his finger and say: Here is the secret of the trans continental line; here is what makes it possible to telephone from New Britain to San Francisco
 The ocean to ocean wires stretch across thirteen states. Leaving San Francisco the line loops into Salt Lake City after covering TO miles of territory, and then is strung to Denver 580 miles The next stretch is from Denver to Omaha. 5s5 miles and from Omaha the line runs into Chicago after travelling 500 miles. From the Windy City there are two brancnes-one going to Pfttsburg, 545 miles and then to New York, S9o miles, and then going to New Britain. v1,1 T ,,r{,-. New York, Pittsburg and Chicago route. There are two physical cir cults and phantom circuit derived by means of four hard drawn copper wires, each s,4oO miles in length In each Of these circuits are two wires, each .165 inch in diameter. One circuit of two wires weighs 2,e6o.0OO pounds, or 1,4S0 tons, this being a wire only. Each phy- sical circuit in addition, requires some 13 500 miles of fine hair-like. insu- lated wire, -thousandths of an inch in diameter.
 Guardians of the Line.
 This wire is used for loading coils, which are placed at hundreds of Loints along the line to reinforce the u11 Clt. io oNPpOit IIc llllC o1 totOi If 13o,oOo poles are used Along this inc there are employed a force of l,2o0 men who are always available, lnyone or all of whom can instantly oe moved from any of the headquar- CTS. The Bell system employs 6o.000 men and women.
 Tt is interesting to note the de- 'clopment of transportation and com across the continent. In lS49 San Francisco was reached by rrairie schooners in five months travel. In 1859 sailing vessels the Horn to San Francisco from New York in three months. Tn S69 the first Union Pacific engine worked its way by rail from New York to San Francisco in twenty days. Tn 1914, via. the Panama canal, the journey west was made from New Britain to San Francisco in sixteen days. In 1915, by rail route from New Britain to San Francisco in con- junction with the Overland Limited it required four and a half days and also in 1915 the transcontinental tele rhone voice highway sends the little talk trains in perfect safety to San Francisco from New Britain and back dSdlll III leSS LIldIl one SeCOllu.
 Simply to string this immense amount of wire across the continent, to set the poles and insure insulation. to conquer the innumerable difficult ties offered by land and water forests, mountains, deserts, rivers and iakes-was in itself task of no mean rl a gnitude. The Panama canal is hailed as one of the greatest. achieve 1,,n y,fc of is, but the almost invisible lines of the Bell system, considered simply es to labor and cost, constitute a achievement The canal was begun nine years ago and has cost 0,o00,00o; within the same space of time the Bell company has spent twice that amount in it's en- gireering work alone''
 Following the stereopticon views moving pictures were shown of the country traversed by wire on which the listeners on the local end of the pho would receive the voices. The first was of the building of the con- pany on Worth street. New York thence to Pittshurg, where the various lines along the highways were shown. Leaving the Sm moky City the next view brought the audience to Chicago with it's hustle and hustle on it's crowded streets. Leaving the Illinois city, the line begins to traverse somewhat rougher country and the hard work of the construction gangs in digging holes and laying out poles was very in tresting. When Omaha is reached the busy interior of the company was shown and a fair conception was giv- en of the workings of a switchboard in busy city. The pictures of the country west of Denver were extreme ly intersting, owing to tn wild nature of the vast Drairies the lines traverse. Construction gangs that travel in herds like gypsies were shown and the methods employed by these men were thoroughly explained. Where in the