, 1922-01-11
Engineers Foresee Amplifiers
Bearing Presidents Voice
to Entire Nation.
IN ITS INFANCY, THEY SAY
Current From Arlington Was Multi
piled 5000. 900, ooo, 900. ooo. ooo. ooo,
100000 Times-Rival Of
"canned Music.s

New York.-PresIdent Harding,
who set a record for long-distance or
atory on Armistice day by addressing
simultaneously three great throngs of
more than 100000 persons, gathered at
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 on
the loud-speaking device made posi-
Bile the ushering In of a new epoch in
space annihilation at the ceremonies
over the bier of Americas unknown
soldier, 1t is well within the range OF
possibility that President Harding may
see the day when a President ian sit
at ease In the White House and talk
at once to every city, town and ham,
let In the United States that is tapped
by telephone wires. An audience of
50.000,000 perhapsi Or 100, 0O0.0OOi
They ont ever blink at figures like
that-these telephone company engin-
GERS. For ability to look, u~nabashed.
into the faces of a column of ciphers,
marching 81 threes across great open
white spaces. is one Of the ~prerequi-
sites even to thinking about that mar
Vicious contrivance, the electrical am
pli5er, of which the loud-speaking de-
vice is only one in a long list of prac-
tical applications.
Sees Nation as Audience.
For instance, the electrical current
that carried President H%arding's fu-
neral GRAFTON to the crowds at Airing
ton, San Francisco and New York was
multiplied 1900 600. COO. 900, OO0. OOO,-
000.000.OQ0 times before 1t rolled out,
converted into great sonorous sound
waves, over the heads of three audi
ences.
1t took 5000. 0O0. 00o. GOO. 700 amplif-
cations to convey the Grafton and the
other ceremonies to San Francisco so
that they could have been heard
through an ordinary telephone receiv-
err. Then they had to be amplifed a
million million times by the loud
speaking device.
A mere ten-million billions-10.OOO.-
600, 1000. 000, 000-of amplifications were
necessary to bring the ceremonies out
clear and strong in New York. Ten
thousand were used to bring the cere-
moines here, and a million million TO
raise them to %audibility for the New
York audience. The other million mill
Ifn. apnnIf Haott r-aI - -.-~
the Presidents voice to the Arlington
| crowd.
By providing a few more scores OF
thousands of miles of wire, some thou
sands of loud-speaking devices and a
few foolscap sheets filled with tiny
ciphers indicating more am~plifications.
the entire country might heal future
public ceremonies, Mr.. King said.
1t would be relatively simple, he de-
clared. to set up equipment in the capt
tails of the 4S states through which
10000 persons in each city-a total of
1900, 0O0-could hear n In
Washington or elsewhere as distinctly
as IL they were seated within a lew
yards Of the speaker.
A Rival of "canned" Music.
Canned music, too. faces a poten-
tial rival In the loud speaker. Tele-
phone engineers say the Armistice day
experiment proved that music could
be reproduced over the wire circuits
at least as purely as it is reproduced
on the best monograph records and
that 1t Will be d matter of but a few
years when the last vestige of metallic
ring will be eliminated.
Mr.. King believes 1t win be but a
short time, too, until all the principal
public halls and large university audi
forums are equipped at least with To-
cal loud speakers. These. he pointed
out. could easily be switched on long
distance circuits carrying public adj
dresses and similar events from other
cities.
While the ioud-speaking device is a
development of the last two years, the
amplifer which made 1t possible has
been in widespread use, piling up
ciphers unseen on every long-distaRce
telephone line in the country, since the