Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1921-12-10
WORDS HEARD ACROSS.
THE CONTINENT
AMAZING FEAT OF CARRYING
AFAR WORDS SPOKEN AZ
ARLINGTON CEREMONY.
(By Arthur Bennington.

(By Arthur Bennington.)
When hundred thousand persons
: in Arlington Cemetery, thirty thou
and in New York and twenty thousand
4 In San Francisco actually took part III
the ceremonies attending the burial OF
tho Unknown Soldier III Arlington
! Cemetery, Washington, d. c., hearing
i every word spoken and joining in the
! prayers and hymns, the magnitude
! and importance of the scientific achicv
i ment that made this possible was Tor
/ the moment cast into shadow by the
impressive so.emnity Of it all. The
very perfection Of the achievement
drove public attention away from the
\ scientific device. Nevertheless, count.
less thousands must have asked how
j it was done, how was it that one could
IStand in Madison Square or in the
- auditorium at San Francisco and lis.
! ten to the words Of President Harding,
n Of Bishop Brent Of Foch and Diaz and
il Beatty, speaking hundreds of miles
Il away, as If they had been standing
Il within ten feet? How was it that the
i quiet words of "Our Father" came
a over that vast distance SO clearly and
4 distinctly that ell the vast crowds
u were able to say the prayer III absolute
y unison with him who was saying II
j over the soldiers coffin hundreds Of
i miles away, and that the sweet notes
i Of the bugie sounding "raps' over
athat grave in Virginia were heard in
q San Francisco and New York as clear
i ly and swcetly as by those who stood
8reverently watching the final entomb
4 ment?
q Amplifiers on the telephone, was tho
q answer to those who inquired. Blu.
q the answer, while correct, conveys on
Il sy tho vagucst Of ideas to any one who
81 is not an expert in telephony. I asked
MCol. John ]. Carly, Vice President of
j the American Telephone and Telc.
8graph Company, the man under whose
direction the amazing feat was accom-
plished to tel me just how it was done.
n Col. Carly is that rare combination
|Sof practical engineer and far-visioneI
4 idealist In whom tho imagination Of q
! poet Is blended with the hnrd-headed
Hpracticality OF the man who does
i things. He is short and slender, with
n face OH which many smiles have
! left their marks in wrinkles. His
! hands are small and delicate as n
! girls, with slender fingers that one
thinks of as drawing exquisite harm
4 onies from the strings Of n harp.
cannot even begin to suggest the
I charm Of tire way he talks. His voice
: is pleasing, he explains abstruse scicn
tific problems III the simplest of
words and he interspcrses his talk with
striking and picturesque similtudes.
The imagination he brings to bear up
on his everyday work Is wela illustrat
- by some hines he wrote as preface
a booklet for his company:
"I have faith that we shall some
hay build up n great world telephone
system, making necessary to all the
nations the use OF a common language
which will join all the peoples of the
earth into one brotherhood. :"
1.-THE achievement OF Armistice Day
said Col. Carly, "was the fruit OF two
years Of preparation. 1t is two years
since we perfected the apparatus that
Il made it possible. Forseeing then some
great OCCASION such as this, gave or
lers to make several of the machines.
= So we had them when the time came.
: But careful preparation and perfect or
5anization were tire chief factors Of
4 success. realized that this demon
stration would he either n landmark
ions or a. most monumental fiasco.
There could be no middle ground. The
: occasion was so solemn, so heart-stir-
ing that only perfection in its repro
lotion at a distance could prevent it
: rom being perfection in every min
= lteSt detail.
"Thercforc we had to organize most
carefully to make tests that insured
hn &c lii,
y o drill our own employees and many
pr the principal participants. To make
= ure that there should he no flaw at
my point in the lines. we stationed
= ried and trusted man every seven
cen miles along each of the lines be-
Ween here and the Pacific Coast
rom Washington to Denver via New
DIRK We had three lines arranged so
hat at any point one fine could be
ubstituted for another. Beyond Den
er there were two lines. Each man
) vas responsible for the perfect work
ng Of his own section Of line. At nil
he relay points our best men were
tationed.
AT Arlington there was a difficult
- robsem. The Auditorium there Is
either indoors nor out but Is both.
Is easy to amplify a voice so that
very one In ~ vast room can rear it;
! Is equally easy to amplify it in the
pen air so that a million persons can
> ear 1t. But here we had to combine
le two; the pillars Of the stadium
ould reflect the sound back into the
lside and the sound from the amp,i-
ers outside would enter through the
rclfes between the pillars. We expert
fented on the spot until we solved
lat problem.
TO make sure that our amplifiers
ould carry to great distances i'm the
pen air we made other experiments
nd l was not satisfied until I went
Il ysef to Newark. N. J.. and stood in
ne OF the parks and listened to
3ace coming from Arlington. Va.
trough an amphlifier a thousand
pet away in tree top.
~ CT,