The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-07-05
WONDERFUL STORY
OF THE TELEPHONE
Tremendous Extent of It's Service and
Necessity of Perfect Work
ing Apparatus Pointed Out.

In the recent demonstration in kecne |
y. H., of the possibilities of long-dis- !
/ tancc 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
Imns Of The Reformer. One Of the
/ speakers was Edward X. Han Of Bos-
ton, vice president Of the New Eng
land Telephone and Telegraph com
! pahy, and 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. \ part OF his address
was as follows:
Forty years ago last March, in a lit
! tie attic room at Exeter place. Bos-
/ ton, Il young inventor unknown to
science and the world. spoke into
/ telephone the first words ever heard
over telephone wire. 1t was AIexan-
! der Graham Bell talking to his asso-
ciatc, Thomas Watson.
In the year 1915 Mr.. Bell. now
known as one of the world s greatest
Inventors talked from his offices i'm
New York once more to Thomas Wat
son, but this time Mr.. Watson was in
san Francisro-34 400 miles across the
continent. The completion of this
trmsrontincntal line marked the forg-
ing Of the last link connecting the Al
lautir and Pacific oceans and the most
/ Spectacular step in the construc-
tion Of one great telephone system
giving universal service, to which are
connected 9,000,000 telephones. The
American Bell Telephone system is
operating today 2l,o0o,o00 miles OF
wire. If they had started striuging
this wire when Christ was born and
had continued stringing it at the rate
Of mile per hour for every hour, day
and night, il would still take several
centuries before an amount was strung
equal to that now installed in the Bell
system.
Bell contributed to the art a crude
instrument, but it was enough. The
American Telephone and Telegraph
company has done the rest The con
Structiou of the plant itself was
Hcrculran task. but the real problem
is to make the whole machine talk
The motive power with which the tele-
phone engineers have 10 deal is simply
the human breath Sound. as it comes
. from Inc IFiildH iltNl 10. lidNtlN ] lou
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 ut
the rate Of 2,l0o per second. As they
strik" 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
Kcenc. 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 i'm the same order and
in exactly the same form in San Fran
cisco rs they started here in Keene. f
this does not happen, millions of dol
lars have been thrown away. If a sin
Gle rin 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 are
OF no use; the waves and the words
viii not reach san Francisco and the
result will be unimtelligible.
The motive power, remember, is sim
ply the human breath against the
metallic disk The electrical energy
which is used is less than a thou
saudth of the electrical energy used to
operate one electric light. The task
is SO delicate that it is gigantic.
Q 1t has been the problem OF the ttle-
delicate current through the streets of
II the city, roads of the country. through
E all sorts OF climate, across the alkali
s plains and the snowcapped peaks. 1t
r. has taken the time and effort of many
n Of the very best minds in the scientific
$. world No single man is entitled to
r. the credit. 1t goes to thousands OF
is men. An army of men have been de
IS voting their lives to this one end.
9 The telephone itself was the start -
= the acorn. The transcontincntal line
u is the accumulative effect of all i'm
n provements, both great aud small, in
telephony up to the present moment.
o What this line and the universal ser
=. vice il stands for means to the future
n of the country. what il will accom-
! plish in bringing the East and West
n closer together, how much increased
% prosperity and happiness these thou
sands of miles will insure, no man can
- gauge.