THE PHONOFOR

Evening Star, Issue 14573, 23 May 1911, Page 2

THE PHONOFOR

IN WELLINGTON. LONG-DISTANcF TELEPHONY. [Sfkct.4l to the Star.] WELLINGTON, May 23. Longdistance telephony has been regarded" in New Zealand until recently as • j too expensive privilege to be made cheap land popular, because it meant the inetalktioHf a double line of heavy copper wire between the talking pointc. A demonstration of the newest form of longdistance telephone, at a lecture in the Wellington Railway Social Hall by Mr T T Fahey, A.M.1.E.E., showed that it is possible not only to hold audiblo and easy conversation with a person at 1 almorston North (a distance of about ninety miles) bnt also to transmit telegraphic messages simultaneously over the some wire °The phonofor, as the instrument is christened, » of English origin, and tho first set imported into New Zealand came through the agency of Mr J. H. Wynne, electrical signal engineer to the New Zealand Railways Department. A trial has j been made with it between the Chief Traffic Irisrjector's office in Wellington and Palmerston North railway station. Telephonic conversation over that distance had previously been almost impossible, and certainly quite unreliable for business ' purposes, because of the many interrupi tions from other points in the circuit and the tremendous buzzing due to induction. ! Now to use the simile of one of the j officers with experience of its working, "giving orders to Palmerston is as easy i from Wellington as if you were looking in at the door." All the time the lino is in use fox telegraphing of Morse signals, I which are not heard through the telephone. ■ Roughly speaking, it costs about I £I,OOO to put m a copper wire for telcj phoning between Wellington and Palmerston North, but the phonofor gives far better talking facilities for the expenditure of £lO on instruments attached to the iron wire ol the telegraph line.