The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1921-12-12
oud Speaking Device
Ushers in New Epoch

lance oratory on Armistice day by ad-
dressing simultaneously three great
throngs of more than 100000 persons,
gathered at Arlington National Gene
terry, San Francisco and New York
may easily find himself talking to an |
audience running high into the mil
lions and scattered through eyery
state in the union, before he leaves
the White House.
Indeed, says r. w. King, one of the
American Telephone & Telegraph
company engineers whose work on the
loud speaking device made possible
the ushering in of Il new epoch in
space annihilation at the ceremonies
over the bier of Americas Unknown
Soldier, it is we'll within the range
Of possibility that President Harding
may see the day when president can
sit at ease in the White House and
talk at once TO every city, town and
hamlet in the United States that is
. tapped by telephone wires.
An audience of 5O,000,006 perhaps.
Or 1OO,OOO,OOO!
They don't even blink at.figurcs like
that-these telephone company engi-
neers. For ability to look, unabashed.
into the faces Of column of cipherS,
marching in threes across great open
white spaces, is one of the prerequi-
sites even to thinking about that mar
"a t,.IN al sDl
pliier, of which the loud speaking de
vice is only one in long list of prac-
teal applications.
For inStance-thc electrical current
that carried President Hardinp's fun
eral oration to the crowds at Airing
ten, San Francisco and New York,
was multiplied 3,OOOOOO,O 100000, ,OOl,- y
00O 900 100000 times before it rolled
out, converted into great sonorous
sound waves, over the heads of three
audiences
1t took S,0OO,O0O,0O ,OOO,O 900 ampli-
iications to convey the Grafton and the
other ceremonies to San Francisco 50
that they could have been heard
through an ordinary telephone recei:-
cr. Then they had to be amplifed \
million million times by the locd
speaking device.
A more ten million billions of amp,i-
':cations were necessary to bring the
ceremonies out clear and strong IA
New York. Ten thousand were uscl
TO bring the ceremonies here, and a
million million to raise them to audi
bi!ity for the New York audience
The other million million amplifica-
tions were used to carry the pres
dents voice to the Arlington crowd
BY providing a few more scores G!
thousands of miles Of wire, some thou
sands of loud speaking devices and :,
'ew toolscap sheets filled with tiny
ciphers indicating more amplifica
tions, the entire country might hear
f9tue public ceremonies, Mr.. King
aid.
|. IL would ,be relatively simple, he de-
cared, to set up equipment in the cap
italS of the 48 states through which
10000 persons in each city--a total
of 1900, ,000-could hear q ceremony in
Washington or elsewhere as distinct
~ as if they were seated within a
few yards of the speaker.
Canned" music. TOO, faces a potel-
,al rival in the loud speaker. 1t would
be as simple to connect the stage of
the Metropolitan Opera House up with
the nation at large as to connect q
president, once the equipment was scs
up.
Telephone engineers say the Armis-
tice Day experiment proved that mu-
sic could be reproduced over the wire
circuits at least as purely as it is
reproduced on the best phonograph
records and that it will be matter of
but Il few years when the last vestigc
of metallic ring will be eliminated.
Mr.. King believes it will be but a
short time too, until all the principal
public halls and large university audi
tcriums are equipped at least with
local loud speakers. These he pointed
out, could easily be switched in on
long distance circuits carrying public
addresses and similar events from
other cities.
While the loud speaking device is 4
development of the last two years, the
amplifier which made it possible, has
been in widespread use, piling up eli
piers unseen on every long distance
telephone line in the country, since
the transcontinental circuits were op
cned in 1915. A long distance call
from New York to San Francisco in
wolves 4OO.OOO,O0O 900 amplifications.
The number Of amplfications neces
sary between any two points depends
not only upon the distance but upon
the nature of the circuit.
But the principle Of the ampliticr is
not limited to telephone use
1t is fundamental of radio and
wire tclegraphy; Of radio telephonng; !;
Of all long distance electrical signal
ing.
1t was the amplifer that picked up