COMMUNICATION BY TELEPHONE

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8208, 2 August 1905, Page 7

COMMUNICATION BY TELEPHONE

The Condenser System.

(From ])<(,!t/c///'$ h'cvien').

In any large and scattered country, where the greatest drawback is-the lack of effective means of travel and communication, devices that will bring the producer into closer touch with his market are not only a personal convenience but an assistance to him in his daily business. Anything that will help him to overcome the disadvantage of Iris isolation adds so much more to his value . to the State as a wealth producing factor. It is then in a congratulatory state of mind rihat we can turn to the achievements of the postal officials for their ingenuity in forwarding the application of long distance telephony, and the Minister who gave their

idea a chance of development. It is true that the idea of the condenser Jkystem is not the absolute invention of an but we are informed on good authority that the present method of use is in its essential details the outcome of Australian State-paid brains. The pith of the invention consists of the use of the telegraphic line for the conveyance of telephonic vibrations. How this can be done seems at first impossible to conceive. To make it quite plain how the scheme works would require the use of technical terms and more than ordinary electrical knowledge on the part of the reader. To put it as shortly and plainly as is possible, it may be said that the effect is gained by attaching the telegraphic wire to the telephone, so that the instrument comes into direct and sensitive communication with the electric current.

Now, unless some special agent were interposed, the result of this would be to throw both instruments into a state of confusion and uselessness. But at this point is interposed the appliance that gives its name to the whole system, that is, a condenser. At the point of contact between the telephone and the telegraphic wire are interposed a number of alternate layers of tinfoil and paraffined paper which have the remarkable effect of shutting the machine oil from the effect of the battery current, while at the

same time leaving it capable of receiving ♦ and registering the telephonic impulses of vibrations. Thus the telegraph will not affect the telephone nor the telephone the telegraph. In this crude explanation one can get a glimpse of the astounding simplicity of the primal idea, but at the same time in its application there are difficulties to be overcome that require the keenest skill and knowledge of the delicate instrument under experiment. It was the unexpected development of these obstacles that held the idea back so long. It was in 1877 that a discovery of similar nature was made to this, and as the result of some very favourable trials, it was hoped that the whole of the interlacing system of telegraph wires of Belgium might be, shall we say, " vocalised." But discouragement damped the ardour of the inventors, and the idea lost its first activity. It is pleasant to think that it has found such a vigorous revival in our own country. In order to place before readers a practical test of what can be established by means of the new system it is as well first to glance at what has been done and then to consider the position of the owner of distant homestead who wishes to use the line. Among communications that has been established for some time and are working well are Sydney, Bathurst, Orange (a distance of over 190 miles, yet giving clear and distinct con-

versations) and Sydney-Wollongong. In the

♦ first of these two cases the 47 miles that separate Bathurst from Orange could only have been spanned for the purpose of connection by telephone, at a cost of £3000, but by the intervention of those layers of tinfoil and paraffined paper the same result is obtained at a cost of £70. So the further connection of Bathurst with Cowra would, under the old system, have entailed an outlay of £3600; the condenser effects it for £150. The joining of Sydney and YVollongong affords perhaps the most remarkable instance of all of the savings that the condenses can effect, the actual extra cost incurred being only £05. These instances are enough to show that a network of telephonic communication can be spread through the country for the price that would formerly be necessary for a single line. Turning from the saving to the State as a whole to consider what it can eltect for the individual; suppose that a pastoralist wanted to obtain a direct service with a town some distance from his home, taking, for example, the case of a man that lived some miles out of Cowra, he would first require to have a private line erected; this would be done by the department at a regular rate of (1) where the wire pan be fixed to trees, at about £7 per mile, (2)

where it has to be fastened on battens to the

top of fences, at £10 15s a mile. The cost jSf of the instrument and of connecting it with the post office at Cowra would add a yearly payment oi £2 ss. After the prime cost of erecting the wire has been met, a yearly rental of 25s a mile is charged. This cost may be reduced by other subscribers using the first line and paying part. However, the expenses do not stop there. The fees paid only entitle this subscriber to connection with and attention at the Cowra exchange. If he wishes to use the long distance lines that radiate from his township he will have to pay a trunk line charge for every conversation. The fees to be paid are on a sliding scale on the basis of a three minutes' conversation, and range from Gd

for distances up to 25 miles to Is 6d for 100 miles and so on. It may occur to an intending subscriber that when he did pay these charges the man to whom he wished to speak might not be in his Sydney office. But this objection is provided fer by a very wise and just rule, that if there is no conversation there is no payment charged. More than that, the department will send a messenger to any person anywhere within reach and debit the subscriber with a fee of (>d for every mile that the messenger has to travel to find the person sought. If the messenger is not able to find the person called, no fee is charged for the use of the

line. So that though the system is expensive

no money is wasted. Compared with the charge for a season ticket on the trains, its Bγ cost is, of course, hardly to be reckoned. Yet it brings all the city firms within as easy reach as if the distant subscriber was himself in Sydney paying hotel bill and cab fares, and taking a fortnight to do the business that the telephone can do in a couple of hours. At the same time it is apparent that the prime cost, added to the yearly, rental and to the charges for conversations, place the common use of the long distance telephone beyond the means of the average individual homestead. The way that that objection could be overcome is to arrange for the construction sf some central depot to which all within a day's ride could contribute, so that by a division of all the original cost no greater expenditure would have to be met, and, moreover, those who used the line the

most would, under this system, have to bear

er,ch his own cost for his owr£conversati(ms. There is one check, however, to the vista that is opened up of a whole country placed, by means of this system, within talking distance of every town and of every man of importance. Up to within recent years almost all tho telegraph wires in use have been constructed of galvanised iron, a substance that has a damping effect on the telephonic vibrations. Most of the existing lines could only be used for comparatively short distances. It is only over copper wire, the mineral par excellence for the transmission of electrical activity in all its manifestations, that the.system can work satisfactorily. But, notwithstanding, all this much has been done already to bring many of the outlaying districts into closer touch with the metropolitan business houses, and an appreciable gain is anticipated. When we look back a few years and think what the country was like before the introduction of the railway, the telegraph, and lastly the telephone, it makes us realise that the phrase " buried in the bush " is losing in an immense degree its old timo dreary significance.