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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1904)
1DCZZZ JSl Ji lf.EllE HUM U KB n n l.nna-Dtstance Telephony, WKNTY-FIVK yearn nuw nniks the span of life of long-uisl.j nee telephony. I Wore 1S79 no tele phone mfSJi)!i? had been ttai.s mittcil from one city to anoLl.e-, and lew persons tit lh;U time would 111 tcrtain the Idea of transmitting the human voice over a wire for thirty r forty milt a. Three years after the Invetitl.n if Alex ander Orsiham Hell had been exhibited at the Centennial exposition at Philadelphia and h:oi excited the curiosity of the wor d, rather as a scientific novelty than a prac tical utility, thine men In the New Kng lanil company authorized the construction of a line from lloston to Lowell, a distance of twenty-seven milei. When the wire htl been strung it was found that they wero light in their expectations, and the voire of a person speaking In Huston cnulJ le heard liy the person at the receiver In Jaiwell. The first experimental line in which cop mt wire was used was that from Hmton to New York, completed in 18-4, end i lit -i was In tarn followed by extension to Phil adelphia and other points of commercial importance, no that the cities in the eaat ern ruction of the country were poon ltnktd together. Then the line were pus! e 1 westward, and on October 21, Prof. Hell, in the presence of a rcmpmy of dis tinguished electricians and officrs of Ule photie companies, spoke into a transmit ter In the city of New York and the menuKe wa- heard in Chicago. What was at first regarded as a scOi tHr toy has in a quarter of a century bvoutrht fill communities in th. l'nited StatiM Wllhln speaking distance of each ctlnr. Kleetrlcnl Irnrfiiin. A pamphlet js.nied recently by a Phila delphia house shown that there are today over i.'l.O'H) miles of electric lines In opcr-i-tlon In the l'nited Ftates, representing an Investment of upward of $r)0,iiO,0iO. While In mileage of track and capitali sation the electric railways of the coun try cannot compare with the steam rail roads, in the number of ayscngcrs car ried tin y far excel them. During the fisal year ended June t, V:'2. the electric lines carried S,sl,!l"7,&!u passengers. Daring the calendar year i;..3 the steam railroads car lied l!H,0(.O.COO passenger The mileage of sti'am railroads, however, was Uij.ixx) as compared with SI. 131 for th electric lines. Some of the electric U-aetion figures are astonishing- in the th-vl year ,1!K,J there were 4,H'!),5a4,4!M fares eoilected from pas Benders and 1.0tii,l(..1,3iC transfers issued. Tlio average, fare paswngera per mile of track were 'JO-viXx). The total car mileage was l,t,!35ti,714. The average fare of pas sengers was 4.13 cents. The si reel railroad lis a llnancial proposi tion is interestingly shown by the statis tics. Total ligiireu of Imt companies out of the DSJ in the l'nited States show an ag gregate Issued caiitalization of $2.3ikS.2S.',i,9,t. The assets of the same companies are put at yj.4ti0,n:,!ti,0. For the fiscal year VT.t them companies earned $Kw,ia2.o:ai. There was J.1S.0h5,:i11 paid in Intei'PHt by these companies, $4,3d.2;4 in dividends on the preferred stocks, and J'J'i. 737.NN7 In dividends on t lie- common stocks. Tho interest return figures out about 4.4 per cent on the funded debt. The dividend returns on the common and preferred ftocks were about 5.1 per rent each. Wonder of the new -Ray a." A dispatch from Paris saya that since Tilondlot's discovery of the '-N-rayB" sci entific papers In England and France have teemed with discussion. It even has been asserted that the so-called "X-rays" do not exist, but Hlondlot and t'arpentler, In the meanwhile, have been accummulating faets which have placed beyond question T Mm the fact that their discovery la a valuable contribution to science. They can pass through aluminum aa sun light through glass. They can be focused by an aluminum lens. They traverse lead, tinfoil, platinum, and copier without diffi culty and do not require a complicated ap paratus as the Roentgen. When thrown directly and solely upon tho eye the "X-rays" liable it to see in a darkened room objects previously invisible. Prof. Ill irdlnt more recently has discov ered more n vs. unlike the "N," which In crease the power of vision, smelling- and hearing. The new rays diminish the ac tivity of tho senses. Telephone Systems la F.nataail. The announcement Is made that the llrtt lsh post office propones to exercise its right to buy out the (Ireat National Telephone company nt the tnii of the present year, and it is Ilk dy to he welcomed by millions who have hitherto been deprived of this convenience. The action of the govern ment In est ihlishing a service of telephones under the management of the postofflce Wis the M'sl step in breaking down the monopoly which has shackled and curbed the development of telephones In the l'nited Kingdom. Their present resolve to take over th.it monopoly gives promise that in th- nea- future the telephones may be organize. I and managed on the principle of providing the twst service at the cheap est rate and In the most convenient manner to the public. With low charges and en terprise continental towns enjoy the benefit of telephones to a di gree undreamed of in Kiigl'ind. In (Suernsey there is a tele . pl:o!i" for every thirty Inhabitants; In Sweden the proportion is nearly as great. Thr,,u'rhout derma ny even small shops and saloons are all furnished with Instruments, while In every street are public call others at which the charge Is one penny. Tho ruling ptlnclple in Kngland lias leen to extort high fees for an inadequate service. The poslefllce has been able to provide a system for a great part of London at a charge which Is less than $10 for 90 per cent of its subscribers. This competition las awakened the National company ami brought It to a more reasonable frame of mind, but this change is not apparent in districts where Its monopoly remains un impaired. To provide a really efficient trunk system and a good service for Ion don It is necessary that the concern should be In the hands of one authority, and the only possible central authority Is the post office. There is good reason for the qualms felt by members of the House of Commons at the possible bargain which the postotllce may strike with the astute directors of the National company, and the terms will require the most careful scrutiny. Tho absurd price which the state was compelled to pay for the telegraphs has been a bur den on that undertaking ever since, and there appears no prospect yet of Its paying. Kleetrlelty on Steam Honda. The Illinois Central Is negotiating with an electrical concern fur twenty motor cars for use In the suburban service of thu company in Chicago. Officials of the road were noncommittal. It la said that the order for the motor cars has been given to the same eastern company that is manufacturing the motois for the New York Central, to use In and out of the city of New York, and thai the order will be Increased to forty motors within a year. It is well known that the Illinois Central has hail a standing offer to adopt for suburban traffic any elrctrle sys tem which con 11 be demonstrated to Ixs eqtsil to the work. The company has adopted the rlng'e al ternating phase current systems which Hion J. Arnold recently brought Into prom inence. If electricity is adopted a a mo tive power It Is expected that the suburban trains eventually will consist of elct-trlo motors drawing steel side-door cars, the latter being- practically indestructible. t ucle slant to Handle Wireless. Negotiations are under wny betwein thu Navy department and the two lib-graph companies looking to an agreement by which commercial messages captured at the wireless telegraph stations of the navy may be forwarded by the private compa nies. Both of the telegraph corporal ons have consented to receive communications of this kind and tnuitniit them collect, and all that now remains to In- d uie Is to ad Just the details of the agreement. The government has a strug of navy wired as telegraph stations from the Maim- coist to Florida and up (be I'ac lie c.-i't. It frequently happens that puts, tig ships w II get into communication with one of ih si stations and request that a message be dis patched to a certain inland city. In some Instances the local telegraph company has forwarded these dispatches in thu hope that the receiver would pay for them. Admiral Manney, chief of the bureau of equipment, under which wireless woik In the navy Is carried on, recently applied to tho telegraph companies for some 1 d of agreement by which messages of this kind could be handled by them. They readily agreed to forward dispatches ntnl trust to the receivers to pay for them. The stations of the navy equipped with wireless telegraph Instruments are as fol lows: Cape Klizurxth. Maine; l'.irtsmoulh navy yard, New Hampshire; Thatchers island, off Cape Ann, Massachusetts; High land Light, Cape Cod, M issai husetts; Newport training station, hi d Island; Naveslnk Highlands, New Jersey; ltrok lyn navy yard; Cape Henry, Virginia; Nor folk navy yard. Virginia; Key West and Pry Tortugas, Florid i; 1'ensacola. F'.orlla; Terns, Hueno naval training station at San Krnnclsco and Marc Island navy yard. Cal ifornia. It Is expected that steamers approaching these shores will take ndvantage of the navy stations to report their arrivals and have the warnings forwarded lo Inland cities. No charge Is made by the govern ment for its part in handling the nu-ssages, and the business will not be continued where It comes Into competition with pri vate enterprise. Ilrarlnalnsra of the Incandescent Knnip. Thomas A. Kdlsnn, writing for the Nice trical World nnd Knglneer, tells of his ex periments with the Incandescent electric, lamp, which will celebrate Its twenty-llfth birthday this year. He began trying to subdivide the electric light In the fall of 1X77, and continued until July, 187H, when ho broke down under the strain of a number of years of ceaseless work, nnd he took a rest, Iltle was done with the lamp, however. In tho first six months of that year, owing to the exhibition nnd trials of the com pleted phonograph. In August Mr. F.dlson began again upon bis experiments with car bon filaments. Trial were continued until October, 1K79. when lamps were made of paper carbon, and with carbons of com mon sewing thmud, placed In a receiver or bulb made of glass with the leadlng-lu wires scaled by fusion. Tho whole thing was then exhausted by the Spreugel pump to nearly one-millionth of an atmosphere. Mr. Kdlson then continues: "These fila ments of carbon, although naturally quite fragile, owing to their length and small mass, had a smaller railiatlng surface and higher resistance than we dared hope. We had virtually reached the position where the carbons were stable. In other words, the incandescent lump as we still know It to;Liy. In essentially alt its particulars un changed, luul been Imrn." Ho then tells of his experiments with bamboo and other vegetable substances to get the best car bon filaments, and the final use of cellulose. He says in conclusion that upon a moderate computation tlx production of Incandescent lamps in the country since his first suc cess has reached n total of 2Trt,0iV,Oi" lamps, or not less than l'i.04i,(m a year for cadi of the twenty-five years. The lamp ha.s remained structurally the same since ls',, In the elements then demonstrated to 1m essentially vital and necessary to commer cial suei ess. I lahliua of I'.lecfrlc Cars. The incident at HobcKcn n few i ven;ngs ago, when one of a gang of pickpockets, standing on the back platform, took ad vantage of the occupation of the con ductor In collecting lures in the forw nd part of a crowded car to tlrow the tin I y off Its wire a tut thus extinguish the lights, giving his companions a chance to po. s m themselves of the portable piopcrfy of tho pitsfciigei a, was only one of a scrlis of such Incidents which are almost iliily happening wherever thlevis ply tleir voca tion. It Is rendered possible to plunge a car Into darkness by rea-on of the fact thai the moment contact with the chaig.d conductor Is broken the Inc, indecent lumps are exl ingiilsheil. As the cars of (he sur face lines of New York are oquipixd, til )iapH-:is very frequently. Innlai.t lniti-1-lion from brilliant Illumination to Hick, darkness Is not only extremely illxai reli able, 11 Is also an Invasion of the rUlit of the pa.-cenger, which Is loler.i nl only liecniMe we arc astonishingly patient with corporal ions. Hut the grievance of blink ing lights, which destroys the eyes, Ind iio headaches ami demand eotiMtalit vlg'laucil to make sure that the hand In ol e's I" eket Is one's own, Is not one likely to be for gotten, for no better reason than that thn companies are not disposed to eay or ih anything about It. The nuisance Is wholly unnecessary. At a cost much less llvn thu comfort and convenience of the passiiiger are worth a car may be so wired that Its lights. Inside and outside, will remain burning for si me time after the contact of trolley or plough with the i hinge! con ductor has been broken. Thl system Is simple and practical. It is in suec -rsfnl use on a number of electric lallways in Kurope and has Just been Im-tal eil. after careful test, on the electric street railway system of Heranton. Pa. The kind of en terprise to be expected of a corporation operating a franchise as valuable n-t nnn for a surface road In New York should, lead the Metropolitan management to makn this change without waiting for the press ure of public opinion to find expression In mandatory legislation. The attitude of passive resistance to Improvement Is not that which shows the largest measure of worldly wisdom In a corporation at all times peculiarly vulnerable to regulation by statute. IScggar Kcbukcd Him "I nm disgruntled, " said Senator Foster recently. "Til never give money to a street lieggar again as long aa I live. There was a very pitiful looking; Is ggar In the avenue a few minutes ago und, my heart going out to him. 1 stopped to band him a few small coins. I hud some difficulty, I admit, III finding my change, but was that any reason for the beggar to frown nt me and Bay, Impatiently: "Hurry up. dr. I've lost several customers while you've been imiddll. g over them pennies." A rgonatit. The Verses He Knew A student In one of the thcohgicnl sem inaries recently went up for examination, and it was seen that he was sadly deficient In bis knowledge of the Hible. It was also seen that he could not pass, buf the exam iner, who wanted to show that he knew' something, asked him if there was any verse In the Hible that he knew. Yes, Ilia young man knew one. "What is it?" " "Judas went out and hanged himself.' What to Kat.