Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1916-07-07
STORY OF THE TELEPHONE.
Tremendous Extent of It's Service and
Necessity of Perfect Working Ap-
paratus Pointed Out.

paratus Pointed Out.
In the recent demonstration in Keene,
n. H., of the possibilities of long-dis-
tance telephone service, nearly 1000
persons listened to conversations be-
tween that city and San Francisco. In
tcresting exercises were held which
have been reported in the news col
umns of The Reformer. One of the
speakers was Edward X. Hall of Bos-
ton, vice president of the New Eng
land Telephone and Telegraph com.
pany, and a former resident of Hins-
dale and Brattleboro. In a striking
way he spoke of the tremendous extent
of the telephone service in this coun-
try, and Of the necessity Of having the
apparatus in perfect working order to
assure results. A part of his address
was as follows:
Forty years ago last March, in a lit
tic attic room at 3 Exeter place, Bos-
ton, u young inventor unknown to
science and the world, spoke into
telephone the first words ever heard
over telephone wire. 1t was Alexan-
der Graham Bell talking to his asso-
ciate, Thomas Watson.
In the wear 1915 Mr.. Bell, now
known as one of the world S greatest
inventors, talked from his offices in
New York once more to Thomas Wat
son, but this time Mr.. Watson was in
San 400 miles across the
continent The completion of this
transcontinental line marked the forg
ing of the last link connecting the At
lantic and Pacific oceans and the most
spectacular step in the construc
ton of one great telephone system
giving universal service, to which are
connected 100000 telephones. The
American Bell Telephone system is
operating today 21,000,000 miles of
wire. If they had started stringing
this wire when Christ was born and
had continued stringing it at the rate
of a mile per hour for every hour, day
and night, it would still take several
centuries before an amount was strung
equal to that now installed in the Bell
system.
Bell contributed to the art crude
instrument, but it was enough. The
American Telephone and Telegraph
company has done the rest. The con
struction of the plant itself was a
Herculean task but the real problem
is to make the whole machine talk.
The motive power with which the tele-
pHOHc engineers HdNc W ucdl Is SIMPLY
the human breath. Sound. as it comes
from the human mouth, travels 1,l60
feet per second. Sounds that you will
hear travel over telephone wire tonight
travel at the rate of $4,000 miles per
second.
All that passes over the wire are
waves-waves of sound generated at
the rate of 2,100 per second. AS they
strike the metal disc in the telephone
they start going electrical waves Of
the same kind and shape, which travel
over the wire path provided for them
until they reach their destination,
where they strike another metal disk
whose vibrations translate them again
into sound waves and the sound waves
are heard just as they started here in
Keene. There are millions of these lit
tie waves as irregular in form as the
waves of the sea. They must not
hurry, push, stumble nor splash, but
they must break in the same order anG
in exactly the same form in San Fran
cisco as they started here in Keene. If
this does not happen, millions of dol
lars have been thrown away. If sin
gle pin prick of construction is wrong
if there is one iota of imperfection in
the line between here and the Pacific
coast, then all these miles of wire arc
of no use; the waves and the words
will not reach San Francisco and the
result will be unintelligible.
The motive power, remember, is sim
ply the human breath against the
metallic disk The electrical energy
which is used is less than thou
sandth of the electrical energy used tC
operate one electric light The tasl
is so delicate that it is gigantic.
1t has been the problem of the tele
phone engineer to nurse and coax thi
delicate current through the streets O.
the city, roads of the country, through
all sorts of climate, across the alkal
plains and the snowcapped peaks. |
has taken the time and effort of man.
of the very best minds in the scientifi
world. No single man is entitled t
the credit. 1t goes to thousands o
men. An army of men have been dc
voting their lives to this one end.
The telephone itself was the start -
the acorn. The transcontinental lin
is the accumulative effect of all in
provements, both great and small, i
telephony up to the present moment.
What this line and the universal SCI
vice it stands for means to the futur
of the country, what it will accom-
plish in bringing the East and Yves
closer together, how much increase
prosperity and happiness these thor
sands of miles will insure, no man ca