The Washington times., 1920-07-11
COMBINES PHONE
WITH TELEGRAPH
New System on Exhibition At
Sterling Hotel Revolutionizes
Old Methods.

1 -
There is now exhibited for the first
time in public, at the Sterling Hotel,
Thirteenth and Il streets northwest.
what may well be termed the last
word" in teegraphy and telephony.
using but one wire for the two.
For some years a so-called simplex"
system OF simultaneous telegraphy
and telephony using two wires. and
also a composite" system using one
wire, have been quite extensively
used in the United States.
Throughout the rest OF the world.
however. very little has yet been at
tempted in this connection. The sim
plex" and the composite" have been,
FILLING the bill" much as the very
first OF everything fills the bill until
later discoveries or improvements
crowd them out. -r'r. -
1T must be admitted that the. simplex
in particular has done mighty well.
especially in favorable weather. Both
OF those systems, however. are quite
costly to install, expensive to, keep
up. and require high priced expert
attention almost constantly.
SERVES DUAL PURPOSE.
The new system supplies a method
by which one wire may be used for
either telegraphing or telephoning.
Practically all costly parts. such as
repeating coils, bridging condensers,
and so forth. are entirely done away
with; and all Of the telegraph keys in
the circuit may be left open without
In the least bothering the current
pathway.
The latter point is a valuable asset
indeed. At. the present time the
American telegraph key must be kept
closed when not in use. otherwise the
entire circuit 10 totally unworkable.
1t is true that in France. Spain and
other countries telegraph circuits are
SO arranged that the keys are figura-
lively open" but other drawbacks
outweigh that one single good point.
In the new equipment there is moth
Ing concealed behind the switchboard.
The entire apparatus for both tele-
phoning and telegraphing is contain
ed within q. simple. neat low base
which Is light, handy and portable.
1t may be plugged" in or out of any
circuit at will and Is subject to any
desired switchboard arrangement, tho
same as the most simple key, relay
and sounder may be today
ARRANGEMENT UNIQUE.
The telegraph battery or power ar
rangement Is unique In that every Of
flee on the line automatically supplies
a portion Of the electric current after
the fashion of ordinary telegraph re-
peaters. but without the whimsical
stubbornness of the latter. BY thus
distributing power evenly along the
circuit the current leskag. at any
point due to a rain storm is localized,
so that as long as u tiny bit Of the
current does > manage to struggle
through to the next station II there
feeds up to full strength and goes
on, and they said in the ChS
cago convention).
And another talking point that Isl
not at all to be overlooked, Is that
when the telegraph is not in use there
Is no electrical current being used.
That means a tremendous saving in
battery upkeep. 1t Ia we'll known
that all American telegraph; CIR
cults Of today require constant cur
rents at all times.
When one stops to think Of the
hundreds of thousands OF miles of
telegraph circuits in the United States.
probably three quarters Of which are
idle most Of the time, especially at
night. some idea of the enormous
amount of electricity expended USE
lessfy may be grasped.
INVENTOR IS WIZARD.
The inventor Of. this new system
of tslephoning and telegraphing over
one wire is William r. Garner. an
electrical wizard as we'll as a mechan-
ical genius. For more than q score
of years he has been delving into
science alone: apart, away from the
too well trodden paths of book learn
ing, studying the .infnitisimal, latent
vital peculiarities and habits of the
universe; because he was not content
to believe that we of the world have
even begun to know 1t all.
1t is'und liable that no writer can
truthfully say that electricity is So
"a nd so; because nobody knows what
itxis. We know how to do a certain
thing to produce a desired effect: and
content ourselves by calling the cause
OF electricity.
The latest theory is that a copper
wire for example, is composed OF
molecules. atoms and electrons, the
latter being so teeny that 1t hEura-
lively takes A fistfull to fll the space
required by an atom. When properly
excited these teeny weeny wigglers
light out down the copper wire at
the breakneck speed OF tens Of thou
sands of miles per second.
Another idea is that the exciting
medium lights astride one Of the cleo
irons and worries MIN, ike a morse
fly nipping a neurotic nag, whereupon
the electron gets fidgety and switches
it's tail, thereby swatting his next
neighbor! The second electron. thus
awakened. gets .peeved and punches
the next fellow, and so on.
In this way. It will be seen that
while a wave of action passes along
the wire, or through it, from one end
of the copper wire to the other, none
OF the electrons have actually made
the entire journey,
All that we can do at present IL
to study these theories, form our
own individual conclusions, and let
'er go at that. Garner has kept pace
with the discoveries and theories OF
others; but at the same time he has
tried to go beyond them. 1t 10 highly
instructive and interesting to hear
him talk upon technical subjects.
He has studied in particular the
action OF the solar ray, the repulsion
effect OF the earth's crust and the
electrical actions thus engendered,
and he has put these phenomena into
practical use in his combination tele-
81 lH,I-