Year: 1877

The telephone itself is simple affair, and
one which every person acquainted with the
electric telegraph would understand at sight.
The instrument consists of powerful, com.
pound, permanent magnet, to the poles OF
which are attached ordinary coils of insulated
wire. In front of the poles, surrounded BY
these coils of wire, is placed diaphragm of
iron, while mouth-piece to concentrate the
sound upon this diaphragm substantially
completes the arrangement. When the hu.
man voice causes the sensitive diaphragm to
vibrate, electrical undulations are induced in
the coils surrounding the magnets precisely
in the same manner as the undulations of the
air are produced by the voice. These undu.
lations then travel through the wire, and
passing through the coils of an instrument of
similar construction at q longer or shorter dis.
tance, as the case may be, are again trans
formed into air undulations by the diaphragm
of the instrument. It will be born in mind
that the voltaic battery is dispensed with en-
tirely, and all that is needed for transmitting
the voice sounds are the instruments and the
telegraph wire. In this connection remark
able popularity of the telephone is that
practiced ear is able to distinguish the voices
that speak through the instrument. The in.
ventor claims that as any effect produced BY
electricity over short wire, can with equal
facility be produced over one of 100 or 1000
miles in length, provided the insulation be
good, so can the electric wave of the telephone
be perfected to render free and easy the
sounds generated by the human voice to any
length. In fact, with such advances as the
system has made of late, there would seem to
be no limit to which it may be put, and the
practical advantages likely to result from it.
The invention is now in its infancy, but no
doubt it will soon sstonish the world BY what
it may be able to do


It is probable that among the first practi-
cal uses to which the telephone will be put,
will be its use by several of those railroads
that have special wires used only for railroad
purposes. Next, private banking houses and
large manufacturing establishments, etc., will
find it advantageous to use the telephone. It
is we'll known that the expense and trouble of
batteries and keeping them in order has been
one of the main items in the account of tele-
graphing, and with the present system expert
operators are required. Under the system Of
telephony the cost of constructing the line
and putting in the instrument is all, and the
affair is permanent 80 long as the wires and
poles shall last. The invention will be won
derfully economical, to say the least, as we'll
as more expeditions and easier to learn to op-
crate than the present system Of telegraphy.
This invention will not only be decided i'm.
provement, but may exert powerful infu.
ence in breaking up the telegraph monopoly
and reducing rates to lower scale than that
now in vogue.


Respecting the adaptation of the invention
to long distances, the late experiments war
rant the belief that it can be made to answer
all the purposes of the telegraph either under
the ocean or across the land. The artificial
resistance employed in the experiment be-
tween Boston and Salem, as already hinted,
was much greater than an equivalent of the
length of the wire between New York and
San Francisco or the Atlantic cable. In fact,
the inventors hope soon to talk through the
cable and send their compliments to queen
Victoria.-Graphic.