Middletown transcript., 1922-03-25
AUDIENCES OF
5o,oO0,O00 SOON
Engineers Foresee Amp|ifiers
Bearing Presidents Voice
to Entire Nation.
IN ITS INFANCY, THEY SAY
current From Arlington Was Multi
piled 5000, ZOO, 900, 900 900, 900, 900,
100000 Times-RivaI Of
"Canned Music"

| Aoi TcSlutHt
who set a record for long g-distance or
atory on Armlstice day by addressing
simultaneously three great throngs ol
more than 100000 persons, gathered a.
| Arlington National cemetery, San
| francisco and New York, may easily
| find himself talking to an audience
running high into the millions and
scattered through every state In the
| Union, before he leaves the White
| House.
Indeed, says r. w. King, one of the
American Telephone and Telegraph
company engineers, whose work OH
the loud-speaking device made posi-
BILE the ushering In of a new epoch IN
SPACE annihilation at the ceremonies
ever the bier of Americas unknown
soldier, 1t Is well within the range of
possibility that President Harding may
see the day when President can sit
at ease In the White House and talk
az once to every city. town and ham
let In the United States that is tapped
ny telephone wires. An audience Of
O,OO0,UO perhaps! Or 10O,O0OOOO!
They don't even blink at figures like
that-these telephone company engin-
eers. For ability to look, unabashed,
INTO Tie faces of column of ciphers,
marching in threes across great open
white spaces, is one of the prereuui,
sites even to thinking about that mar
Velous contrivance, the electrical am
oliher, of which the loud-speakng de.
vice Is only one In long list of prac-
ical applications
sees Nation as Audience.
FOR instance, the electrical current
that carried President Har,lings fu
neral Grafton to the crowds at Airing
ton, San Francisco and New York was
multiplied 5000, 900 OOO. .0OO, ,OOO, ,OOO.-
CO,OO0000 times before it rolled out
converted into great sonorous sound
Eaves, over the heads Of three audi
ences.
1t took 3,000,0O0, 200, ,OOO, 900 ampli6-
cations to convey the Grafton and the
other ceremonies to San Francisco so
that they could have been heard
through an ordinary telephone recciv-
er. Then they had to be amplified a
million million times by the loud
speaking device
mere ten. million billions-1OOOO.-
ooO,Oo0, 900, ,0O0-of amplitications were
necessary to bring the ceremonies out
clear and strong in New York. Ten
thousand were used to bring the cere-
MONIES here, and million million to
raise them to audibility for the New
York audience. The other million mil
lion ampificatlons were used TO carry
the Presidents voice to the Arlington
crowd.
ly providing a few more scores of
thousands Of miles of wire, some thou
sands of loud-speaking devices and a
teW foolscap sheets filled with tiny
clphers indicating more amplifications.
the entire country might hear future
public ceremonies, Mr.. King said.
1t would be relatively simple, he de-
clared, to set up equipment in the capi.
EalS of the 48 states through which
10000 persons in each city-a total OF
7,2OO.oO0-could y hear a ceremony in
or elsewhere as distinctly
rs if they We're seated within a few
Yards Of the speaker.
Rival Of "canned" Music.
Canned" music, too, faces a poten-
ial rival In the loud speaker. Tele.
1hone engineers say the Armistce day
proved that music could
)e reproduced over the wire circuits
1t least as purely as 1t is reproduced
IN the best phonograph records aNd
hat II Will be matter of but a few
1ears when the last vestige of metallic
ing will be eliminated.
Mr.. King believes it will be but
'h"rt time, too, until all the principal
'uhlic halls and large university audi
orums. are equipped at least with To- |
al louf speakers. These, he pointed
'ut, could easily be switched on long
distance circuits carrying public ad- |
lresses and similar events from other
tps.
While the loud-speaking device is a
lev elopment Of the last two years the
mplifler which made 1t possible has
een In widespread use, piling up
iphers unseen OH every long-distance
telephone line in the country. since the
circuits were opened
D 1918. A long-distance call from New
'ork to San Francisco involves 400.
oO,ON, 100000 amplifications. The
umber of amplifications necessary
etween any two points depends not
My upon the distance but upon the
nture Of the circuit.
But the principle of the amplifier is
OF limited to telephone use. 1t Is
fundamental Of radio and wire teleg-
Apply, of radio telephoning, of all long
istance electrical signaling 1t was
he arplifier that picked up during
he war the water vibrations caused
y en-, my submarines and translated ,
lem into sounds by which command
rs OF allied warships were able to To-
,te tie hidden foe.