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l)T1mri( of te Telepkoa.
vm t vAr (hsl w)in vnti sneak
J I Into the long distance telephone
I v- man with whom VOH talk. DO
he fifty or 100 or 1,000 miles away.
hears the sound of your voice be
fore your stenographer who sits across the
room can hear It? It Is perhaps the near
est approach to the quickness of thought,
this; for It takes the sound of speech as
it leaves your Hps and carries It on elec
tric Impulses a thousand miles In less than
a hundredth part of a second.
And what does this journey of a thousand
miles lnvolyet What are the electrical
waves about while the sound waves are
making their way to the other side of
the room? Suppose, for example, a busi
ness man In his office on the twentieth
floor of a New York sky scraper talks
with the manager of his exhibit at the
Bt. Louis fair. Lifting the receiver from
Its hook when the long distance operator
At "central" tells him "St. Louis is alt
ready" he says "Hello."
Through the little si Ik-covered wires that
trail from his telephone to the wall oppo
site his desk, up to the molding sbove the
window, around two sides of the room, the
little word goes Into the office switchboard.
From there It scurries under the floor Into
the hallway and joins probably twenty
Other wires In a cable that climbs down
the elevator shaft, picking up ten or fif
teen more connections at each floor In It
progress, passing from the basement
through the wall to become a part of a
larger lead-covered cable In a conduit
nder the street.
Here travel Is not so easy as It was in
the building, for 1.200 wires, each In Its
little covering of Insulated, air-lined paper,
are wrapped together In the cable and
many Influences from outside combine to
Impede the progress of the message. But
one after another they are overcome and
In perhaps the ten-millionth part of a sec
ond the "Hello" hss entered the telephone
"central." Here it encounters more Im
pediments among the lightning ar
resters which stand guard over the
switchboard and the other Intricate appa
ratus that surrounds the marvelously deli
cate mechanism telephoiiy employs for
bringing together Its sensitive filaments.
But these obstacles are overcome and
through the main switchboard it darts to
the long dlstanco switchboard In another
part of the building.
Another downward leap and It Is once
more hurrying through the cable beneath
a busy street. In Its path to the westward
Ilea the Hudson, but snugly wrapped In
the cable it dives below the clustering
river traffic and finally comes out again
to the light of day In Jersey City, where,
for the first time, it Is brought up through
the pavement and suspended from the
croHS-arms of huge poles.
Now its Journey becomes easier, for the
copper thread hung in midair offers less re
sistance to the passage of the message
than do the crowded confines of the many
Wired conduit Indeed, such a difference
does this make that whenever it approaches
a large city a long distance telephone lino
passes around the densely populated sec
tions so that It may stay above ground, a
little switching station being provided to
accommodate It But at each station it
must pass through the switchboard with
Its lightning arresters and Other para
phernalia. Down over the New Jersey meadows and
pine lands the little word "Hello" hurries
to ascend the Alleghanles. Then It shoots
down again to dart across the farm lands
and - mining regions of eastern Pennsyl
vania, past Pittsburg with Its furnaces and
foundries and over a corner of West Vir
ginia. On the banks of the Ohio It resorts
to another cable, emerging on the farther
Shore In the pleasant countryside of Ohio
and Indiana and journeying on over the
Undulating prairie state along roads which
Wind through great com and wheat fields. -
Now Its flight la nearly over, but the
mighty Mississippi still lies between It and
Its destination. It crosses the river on one
of the wires strung on a great bridge.
Then there Is a plunge Into a city conduit,
a rush Into the St Louis "central." out
and underneath the streets again, up once
more to the aerial line and Into the fair
grounds, where, sitting at his desk in the
exhibit booth, the manager sends back his
answering "Hello" before the stenographer
In the New Tork office has time to ask,
'.'Did you got him7" It has all taken but
a hundredth part of a second an Infini
tesimal fraction of the time required for
the conductor's warning cry of "All
abroad r to reach the hurrying people tak
ing tho express train which, traveling us
fast as human Ingenuity can make It,
spends twenty-nine hours on its way from
New York to the city of the exposition.
Tho word which made its 1,000-mile jour
ney In less than a hundredth part of a sec
ond was given at the start an Impulse so
slight that scientists long sought in vain
for a device which would detect and meas
ure the very weak electrical current in the
wires. The word as it hurries westward
receives no other Impetus. Repeating de- .
vices are included In telegraph lines, but
the word spoken Into the telephone must
make Its journey unaided after It has re
ceived at the beginning the impulse which .
Is so small that it cannot be detected. But
that Initial Impulse will carry the word
many hundred roilea and In this fact Is
found one of the greatest of the wonders of .
telephony. '
To the layman, who never stops to think -Of
It particularly, getting a long distance -call
for a subscriber may seem just as sim
ple a process for the company as making a
local connection; but after following the
New York conversation to St Louis he can
understand that It Is not an entirely simple
matter. If two copper wires were strung
. side by side without a break between the
two cities and It were possible to telephone
directly over them It would be less difficult .
As a matter of fact however, the message
passes over five distinct circuits between
the transmitter In the east and the receiver
In the west Ave circuits arranged in tan-
dem. The circuits are united, like links in
a chain, at switching stations Just outside
the cities of Pittsburg, Columbus, Indianap
olis and Terre Haute. Each switching sta
tion has Its switchboard and other appa
ratus through which the message must
make Its way, but these obstacles cannot
be eliminated, as there must be junction
points In the long distance lines, places
where messages may be turned from one
route to another.
The managers early saw the possibilities
of long distance communication and began
Joining line to line and making equipment
and apparatus capable of harmonious oper
ations. The result of their efforts is a long
distance system far more extensive and ef
ficient than that of any other country.
Speech has been transmitted over these
lines for a distance of nearly 2,000 miles,
and It has been shown that If It were pos
sible to stretch a sufficiently heavy and un
broken wire from one side of the continent
to the other the Atlantic could talk with
the Pacific by telephone.
To make communication feasible over
long distances It has been found necessary
that all parts of the amalgamated plant,
so to speak, should be of a uniformly high
standard of construction, and for this rea
son it Is not practicable to create a satis
factory cross-country telephone system by
joining together a number of little local
plants built in many divers ways and
equipped with Instruments of many pat
terns. It is. chiefly the uniformity main
tained by all the associated organizations
that has made the present long distance
service possible.
When you telephone your customer," or
your tradesman, or your friend In the sub
urbs, the central office with which your
telephone Is connected calls the central with
which be Is connected and It takes but a
moment to establish conversation by word
of mouth, so to speak. It is evident though,
that If this method wers used In making
long distance calls It would be tremend
ously expensive, and what really happens
Is that while somebody else Is using the
line for talking, the New Yorker's call--the
number he wishes and the name of the
individual he wants to talk with is tele
graphed over the same wires that convoy
the telephone messages, for It Is one of the
peculiarities of electricity that this can bo
done without either messsge Interfering
with the other. Chicago Chronicle.
High KleetMeal Railroad.
An Interesting experiment in high-speed
electric railroading la about to be made la
New York City, the outcome of which will
be keenly watched by electrical and me
chanical engineers, for whom, if it suc
ceeds. It will upset Beveral theories hitherto
regarded as axioms In the utilization of
electric power.
The experiment is being made by the
Electro-Magnetio Railway Construction
company. Incorporated about a year and a
half ago to develop the system of magnctlo
railroading Invented by Dr. Albert C. Al
bertson and hitherto never put into prac
tice except In comparatively small models
by way of experiment
The -company Is about to build a two
mile stretch of elevated railroad along the
shore in Staten Island between Midland
and South beaches, to be ured so'ely for ex
perimental and demonstration purposes.
The contract for the construction of the
road has been let to It S. Bishop & Co.,
and work Is to be begun at onoe. The roal
Is expected to be finished by August or
soon afterward.
It is not to be used for ordinary traffic
in fact, it will not lead from anywhere to
anywhere else In particular. Its sole ob
Ject Is to be the demonstration of the prac
ticability of the Albortson system of elec
Jtrlc traction, about which many engineers
have been somewhat skeptical, and to de
velop and Improve the system. But when
the doubtful are convinced Dr. Albertson,
the Inventor, says the two-mile piece of
road may be used as the nucleus for a
working high-speed ' electric railroad, and
In that case a franchise wl'.I be applied
for. At present none is needed.
Dr. Albertson's system has been the sub
ject of several articles In the newspapers
and the scientific press since he first made
It known early last year. Briefly, It con
sists of the application of electric magnets
to divide with electric motors the work of
running a train. Other engineers assert
that while the system is theoretically
sound It will not work In practice.
The inventor's train Is planned to run on
an elevated steel structure. A small elec
tric motor, insufficient under ordinary con
ditions to draw so great a weight as a
fully loaded train, pulls the cars. Beneath
each car, however, and attached to the car
by a steel frame is suspended a double set
of electric magnets connected with storage
batteries under the car body. The face of
these magnets is set an inch or two below
the under surface of the steel girder of the
elevated structure on which the train runs.
Suppose, Tor the sake of illustration, that
the car weighs 2,500 pounds. When it Is
desired to start the train sufficient current
is turned Into the eleetrio magnets from
the storage batteries to exercise a force of.
say. 2,000 pounds. This force, exerted by
the magnet to reach the steel girder above
it Is subtracted from the weight of the
car. The face of the magnet does not reach
the steel girder or it would adhere and the
train would stop. But a force of 2,000
pounds Is pressed upward, lightening the
weight of the car so much, reducing the
eoelfleclent of friction on the wheels and
leaving the eleetrio locomotive only 600
pounds to haul.
The thing. In effect. Is the. principle of
the captive airship to which the locomotive
supplies what Is practically only a guiding
force. The train cannot leave the rails, for
there Is still (to continue the illustration)
SCO pounds pressure per car upon them,
and, anyway, the steel supports of the
magnets surround the side girders. Im
prisoning the train to the track, so that de
railment 1s Impossible.
Assuming that the magnets are charged
with sufficient power to exert an upward
pressure equal to nine-tenths of the weight
of the train, there Is only one-tonth the
weight to move, and a comparatively low
power locomotive can move the train at '
great speed speed to which 100 miles aa
hour will be a trifle. .' -
That is Dr. Albertson's theory. For a .
year or more he has been demonstrating
It In a model in his outer offloe, and now
the men he has Interested In It and who
with him have formed the Electro-Mag-
netlo Hallway Construction oompany, are
vol n g to test It In practical form. When
tills has been done they hope to Interest :
practical railroad luefi In their system.
Dr. Albertson himself Is president of the
company. N. M. Weser, an ' agent of the
piano manufacturing firm and a relative
of several of Its members, Is treasurer.
The directors Include Sol Levy, the butcher
of West Fortieth streot, and several New .
York and New Jersey lawyers.
Scientific critics of Dr. Albertson's sys
tem, to confound whom this experimental
railroad is to be constructed, say that '
when It is built It can never be operated
successfully because, while Dr. Albertson's ,
system Is beautiful In theory. In practice
it can't be carried out. That is why the ,
enterprise will be watched with so much ;
interest by the engineering profession.
"It looks nlco," a well-known engineer
told a Sun reporter, "but 1 am afraid it
won't do In practice. If It does It will be
a revelation to. the engineering fraternity,
In the first place the friction on the wheels,
which Dr. Albertson's magnets are designed
to overcome. Is almost a negligible quantity
when a train Is In motion.
"In starting a train the comparative co- :
efficient of friction Is about .136; when the
train is in motion It Is only .008. That is.
It has decreased from one-tenth of a pound
to eight one-thousandths of a pound. The'
real friction is caused by the air pressure
on the front and sides of the train, and '
though Dr. Albertson's motor and cars
are constructed with a view to minimizing
this the gain Is very small Indeed.
"There is another factor. When the
train is stationary and the power is turnej
into the magnets the lines of this magnet lo
force are exerted vertically upward In
straight lines. But when you move the
magnets forward at a high rate of spaed.
Bay 100 miles an hour, the lines of mag- t
netlc forco become distorted, causing a
backwurd drag on the magnets and the
train.
"But the moit Important factor is this:
Magnetic force decreases in Inverse ratio
to the square of the distance botweea the
magnet and the object to which It Is at
tracted, in this case the steel rail or
girder. It will be Impossible, I believe, to
get magnets of sufficient . power close
enough to the rail to exert a force strong
enough to exercise a material influence on
the train,
"More than that the rail, the magnets
and the who'.e equipment must be abso
lutely rigid, for if they should not be and
the magnet should touch the rail for an
Instant the whole principle of tho system
falls, the train sticks and generally I think
there would be the devil to pay.
"These are the weak points in the sys
tem. If Dr. Albertson can construct a rail
way which will eliminate them and dis
prove what are regarded as engineering'
axiom, he will have done a wonderful
thing. . and the possibilities of his system'
will be endless. We other engineers don't'
bellove for a moment that he can." New
York Sun.