Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise., 1935-08-23
53% WORLDS
CALLS BY 6%
OF THE PEOPLE
FOrty-Five Billion Calls Made By
Seventeen Million Phone
Users
UNITED STATES OWNS
51%o OF TELEPHONES

telephone calls are MADE Dy SIX per
cent of the population Of the globe,
occupying five per cent of the earth's
area. Of the 45 billion telephone calls
made annually throughout the world,
"a billion are made by the users Of
approximately II million telephones
in the United States, which is 81 per
cent of all the telephones on the globe.
DR.. Frank B. Jewett, vice president
of the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company, and president Of the
Bell Telephone Laboratories, in writ
ing on electrical Communication,
Past. Present and Future" in the cur
rent Bell Telephone Quarterly, says
"present-day service impresses upon
one that there are no limits or ply
sical circumstances which you can
longer impose on me as regards my
need or desire to speak face to face
with any man anywhere; from now on
1 propose to work out my destiny free
from this shackle of the past"
This condition has existed since 1915
when the voice was transmitted by
telephone from Arlington, Va, to
Paris and Honolulu, DR.. Jewett says.
Up to that time Nature could say to
man "There are limits to distance be-
yond which you cannot go in free in
innate personal converse with your
fellow man; you must work out your
destiny within this limitation"
Use of the telephone throughout the
world is emphasized by DR.. Jewett's
article. Alexander Graham Bells in
vention of the telephone, he says,
provided a new method of modulation
applicable over the frequency range
of human speech and hearing with the
result that two-way telephony annihi-
lated distance as affecting an inter-
change of intelligence through speech
and hearing. The gulf between wire
telegraphy and telephony was narrow
ed by the development Of means for
providing for both services simultan-
eously on the same circuit.
By 1912 there were three distinct
fields of application-two of tele-
telepgraphy and one of telephony
which were nearing the limits of
their development through engineering
application of existing scientific know
ledge. The keys to this situation
were the vacuum tube repeater and
the distortionless amplifier, opening
the doors to almost universal world
wide communication.
Probably in no field of applied
science, DR.. Jewett says, has man gone
so far in the organized control of
forces Of nature and in the regiment
ed operation of them in cooperation
with human endeavor as in that of
electrical communication.
To pick up telephone anywhere,
ask for friend who may be separated
by oceans and continents and to be
told to "hold the line, please" is to
stretch credulity to the limit. To sit
quietly in ones home and to hear in
full voice words spoken on the other
side of the world seems incredible, but
it is an actual practical fact that was
done more than $4,000 times last year.
From very early days the American
conception of telephony as Service"
DR.. Jewett says, has been that of
something to be furnished on demand
and as nearly instanteously as possible
mot as something to be furnished at
the convenience of the purveying or
ganization. The goal of an ideal SER
vice has always been that of "no de-
lay" service, where the two parties
are put in communication Immediately
following the request of the originat-
ing party and while he remains at the
telephone.
From the scientific and engineering
point of view, it is this mo delay"
objective for all telephone calls, more
than anything else, which has i'm
posed the greatest incentive and stim-
ulus to intensive research and develop
ment. Obviously, universal mo de-
lay" service can be obtained only if
the physical means of communication
are so cheap and reliable as to permit
a profusion of plant sufficient to ac-
comodate peak traffic without impos-
ing an excessive burden of cost on
the user.
While we are still long way from
ultimate objective, we have during the
past ten or fifteen years made ap-
preciable progress, especially over the
longer distances and that too with a
diminished cost of service to the sub
scriber. Except for accident, substan-
tally every telephone connection any
where in continental America, wheth-
er one calls by number or for par