[Footnote: A lecture delivered before the Society of Telegraph Engineers
and Electricians, London, Dec. 11, 1884.]
By Mr. W.H. PREECE, F.R.S.
I do not know what the sensations of a man can be who is about to undergo
the painful operation of execution; but I am inclined to think his
sensations must be somewhat similar to those of a lecturer, brimful of
notes, who has to wait until the clock strikes before he is allowed to
address his audience.
The President has been kind enough to refer to the paper I propose to give
you, as "Electricity in America in the year 1884;" but I would rather,
after having thought more about it, that it be called "A Visit to Canada
and the United States in the year 1884."
It will be in the recollection of a good many who are present that in the
year 1877 I visited America, in conjunction with Mr. H.C. Fischer, the
Controller of our Central Telegraph Station, to officially inspect and
report upon the telegraph arrangements of that country; and on the 9th
February, 1878, I had the pleasure of communicating to the members of this
Society my experiences of that visit.
During the present year my visit was not an official one; I went for a
holiday, and specially to accompany the members of the British
Association, who, for the first time in the history of that association,
held a meeting outside the limits of the United Kingdom.
We sailed from Liverpool in a splendid steamship called the Parisian.
There were nearly 200 B.A. members on board; and notwithstanding the fact
that rude Boreas tried all he could to prevent us from reaching the other
side of the Atlantic; notwithstanding the fact that the Atlantic expressed
its anger in the most unmistakable terms at our audacity in turning from
our native shore; notwithstanding the fact that Greenland's icy mountains
blew chilly blasts upon us, and made us call out all the warm things we
possessed--I say notwithstanding all this, we reached the Gulf of St.
Lawrence in safety, and I do not think that a merrier or a happier crew
ever crossed the Atlantic.
There is one very interesting fact that is not generally known, and I
certainly was unaware of it before I started, in connection with this
particular route across the Atlantic, and that is, that by it the ship
passes within only 200 miles of Greenland. The great circle that directs
the shortest route from the north of Ireland to the Straits of Belle Isle
passes within the cold region, and hence, while you were all sweltering in
heat in London, we were compelled to bring out our ulsters and all our
warm garments, to enable us to cross with any degree of comfort. The
advantage of this particular route is supposed to be the fact that only
five days are spent upon the ocean, and the remainder of the voyage is
occupied in the calms and comforts of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence. But
I am inclined to think that the roughness of the ocean and the coolness of
the weather at all seasons are quite sufficient to prevent anybody from
repeating our experience.
We arrived at Montreal in time to attend the opening meeting of the
British Association; and at Montreal we were received with great
hospitality, great attention, and great kindness from all our brethren in
Canada, and we held there certainly a very successful and very pleasant
gathering. There were 1,773 members of the British Association altogether
present, and of that number there were 600 who had crossed the Atlantic;
the remainder being made up of Canadians, and by at least 200 Americans,
including all the most distinguished professors who adorn the rolls of
science in the United States. As is invariably the rule in these British
Association meetings, we had not only papers to enlighten us, but
entertainments to cheer us; and excursions were arranged in every
direction, to enable us to become acquainted with the beauties and
peculiarities of the American continent. Some members went to Quebec, some
to Ottawa, others to the Lakes, others to Toronto, many went to Niagara;
and altogether the arrangements made for our comfort and pleasure were
such, that I have not heard one single soul who attended this meeting at
Montreal express the slightest regret that he crossed the Atlantic.
The meeting at Montreal certainly cannot be called an electricians'
meeting. The gathering of the British Association has often been
distinguished by the first appearance of some new instrument or the
divulgence of some new scientific secret; but there was nothing of any
special interest brought forward on this occasion. The only real novelty
or striking fact that I can recall as having taken place was a remarkable
discussion that originated by Professor Oliver Lodge, upon the "Seat of
the Electromotive Force in a Voltaic Cell."
This was an experiment on the part of the British Association.
Discussions, as a rule, have not been the case at our meetings. Papers
have been read and papers have been discussed; but on this occasion three
or four subjects were named as fit for discussion, and distinguished
professors were selected to open the discussion.
On this particular subject, Professor Oliver Lodge opened the discussion,
and he did so in an original, an efficient, and in a chirpy kind of manner
that took by storm not only the professors who knew him, but those who did
not know him; and I am bound to say that I do not think we could possibly
better spend an evening during the coming session, or more profitably,
than by asking Professor Oliver Lodge to bring the subject before this
Society, so as to allow us on this side of the water to discuss the same
subject.
Of course the prominent figure at our meetings was Lord Rayleigh; and I do
not think that any person could possibly have been present at those
meetings of the British Association without feeling an intense personal
admiration for this man, and an affection for the way in which he
maintained the position of an English gentleman and the credit of an
English scientific body, to the astonishment and delight of every one
present. Then, again, we had our past President, Sir William Thomson, who
was not quite so ubiquitous as usual; he did not dance from section to
section as he usually does, but remained as president of his own section,
A. I think he only left his section for a day, and that was to attend the
electrical day in Section G; but in his own section he brought down those
words of wisdom that one always hears from him, and which make one always
regret that there is not always present about him a shorthand writer to
take down thoughts and ideas that never occur again, and are only heard by
those who have the benefit of being present.
The subjects brought forward were not of intense interest. We had a paper
by Dr. Traill, describing the Portrush Railway, and there were various
other papers; and I can pass over some of the other subjects, because I
shall have to deal with them under another head. But while we were in
Montreal, a deputation of American professors and members of the American
Association came over, and invited a good many of those who were present
at Montreal to visit the American Association at Philadelphia. I was one
of those who went over to America simply and solely for a holiday, and I
am bound to say that I set my face determinedly against going to
Philadelphia. I traveled with two charming companions, and we all decided
not to go to Philadelphia. But the compact was broken, and we capitulated,
and went from the charming climate of Montreal into the most intense heat
and into the greatest discomfort that I think poor members of the
Telegraph Engineers' Society ever experienced. We entered a heat that was
100° by day and 98° by night; and I do not think there is anybody in this
room, unless he has been brought up in the furnace-room of an Atlantic
steamer, who can fully appreciate the heat of Philadelphia in these summer
months. The discomforts of the climate were, however, amply compensated
for by the hospitality and kindness of the inhabitants. We spent, in spite
of the heat, a very pleasant time.
Before referring further to the meetings at Philadelphia, I may just
mention the other journeys that I took. My holiday having been broken by
the rupture of the union to which I have alluded, I had to devote it then
to other purposes, and, in addition to Montreal and Philadelphia, I went
to New York (to which I shall refer again), from New York to Buffalo, then
to Lake Erie and Cleveland, and on to Chicago, where I spent a week or
more. From Chicago I went to see the great artery of the West--the
Mississippi. I stopped for a day or two at St. Louis. One remarkable fact
came to my knowledge, and I dare say it is new to many present, and that
is, that the Mississippi, unlike other rivers, runs uphill. It happens,
rather curiously, that, owing to the earth being an oblate spheroid, the
difference between the source of the Mississippi and the center of the
earth is less than that of its mouth and the center of the earth, and you
may see how this running up hill is accounted for.
From St. Louis I went to Indianapolis, thence to Pittsburg, where they
have struck most extraordinary wells of natural gas. Borings are made in
the earth from the crust to a depth of 600 or 700 feet, when large
reservoirs of natural gas are "struck." The town is lighted by this gas,
and it is also employed for motive power. In Cleveland, also, this natural
gas is found, and there is no doubt that it is going to economize the cost
of production very much in that part of the country. From Pittsburg I went
to Baltimore, where Sir William Thomson was occupied in delivering
lectures to the students of the Johns Hopkins University. In all these
American towns one very curious feature is that they all have great
educational establishments, endowed and formed by private munificence. In
Canada there is the McGill University, and in nearly every place one goes
to there is a university, like the Johns Hopkins at Baltimore, where Johns
Hopkins left 3,500,000 dollars to be devoted entirely to educational
purposes; and that university is under the management of one of the most
enlightened men in America, Professor Grillman, and he has as his
lieutenants Professors Rowland, Mendenhall, and other well-known men, and
each professor is in his own line particularly eminent. Sir William
Thomson delivered there a really splendid course of lectures. From
Baltimore I went through Philadelphia to Boston. I visited Long Branch,
and I spent a long time in New York, so that from what I have said you
will gather that I spent a good deal of my time in the States. Wherever I
went I devoted all my leisure time to inquiry into the telegraphic,
telephonic, and electric light arrangements in existence. I visited all
the manufactories I could get to, and I did all I possibly could to enable
me to return home and afford information, and perhaps amusement, to my
fellow-members of this Society.
As an illustration of the intense heat we experienced, I may mention that
it was at one time perfectly impossible to make the thermometer budge. The
temperature of the blood is about 97 or 98 degrees, and if the temperature
of the air be below the temperature of the blood, of course when the hand
is applied to the thermometer the mercury rises. In one of our journeys up
the Pennsylvania Road we tried to make the thermometer budge as usual, but
could not, which proved that the temperature of the air inside the Pullman
car in which we traveled was the same as that of the blood.
The American Association is of course based on the British Association.
Its mode of administration is a little different. It is divided into
sections, as is the British Association, but the sections are not called
the same. For instance, in the British Association, Section A is devoted
entirely to physics, but in the American Association, Section A is devoted
to astronomy and Section B to physics. In the British Association, Section
G is devoted to mechanics, but in America Section D is devoted to that
subject. But with the exception of just a change in the names of some
sections which are familiar as household words to members of the British
Association, the proceedings of the American Association do not differ
very much from ours. They have, however, one very sensible rule. The
length of every paper is indicated upon the programme of the day's
proceedings, and the continuation or the stopping of any discussion on
that paper is in the hands of the section. For instance, if the President
thinks that a man is speaking too long, he has only to say, "Does the
meeting wish that this discussion shall be continued, or shall it be
stopped?" A majority on the show of hands decides. Such a practice has a
very wholesome effect in checking discussion, and I certainly think that
some of our societies would do well to adopt a rule of the same character.
The meeting of the American Association, again, was not distinguished by
any particular electrical paper, or any new electrical subject. The main
subject that was brought before us was the peculiar effect called "Hall's
effect," that Professor Hall, now of Harvard College, and then assistant
to Professor Rowland, discovered in the powerful field of a magnet when a
current was passed through a conductor; and a description of that effect
(which he at one time thought was an indication that electricity was
something separate from matter) formed the subject of two debates that
lasted for nearly the whole of two days. I am bound to say that in that
prolonged discussion the members of this Society held their own. I see two
very prominent members present who spoke on most of the electrical
subjects dealt with--Professor G. Forbes, who knows what he says and says
what he knows, and Professor Silvanus Thompson, who held his own under
very trying circumstances.
At the same time that this meeting of the American Association was being
held at Philadelphia, where we were treated with marvelous
hospitality,--excursions, soirées, dinners, parties, etc., etc.--and as
though it were not quite sufficient to bring over humble Britishers from
this side of the Atlantic to suffer the intense heat at one meeting of the
Association, they held at the same time an Electrical Conference. There
was a conference of electricians appointed by the United States
Government, that was chiefly distinguished on the part of the American
Government by selecting those who were not electricians. But many attended
the Electrical Conference who stand high as electricians, one especially,
who, though perhaps from want of experience he did not shine very
brilliantly as a chairman, certainly stands as one of the ablest
electricians of the day--I mean Professor Rowland. The Conference was held
under Professor Rowland's presidency, and nearly all the well-known
professors of the United States attended. The Conference was established
by the United States Government to take into consideration the results and
conclusions arrived at by the Congress of 1884, held in Paris. The Paris
Congress decided upon adopting certain units of resistance of
electromotive force, of current, and of quantity, and they determined the
particular length of a column of mercury that should represent the ohm--a
column of mercury 106 centimeters long and of one square millimeter in
section. It was necessary that the United States should join this
Conference, so a commission was appointed to consider the whole matter.
All these units were brought before them, as well as the other conclusions
of the Paris Congress, such as the proper mode of recording earth currents
and atmospheric electricity. The Paris units were adopted in face of the
fact that the length determined upon at Paris was not the length that
Professor Rowland himself had found as that which should represent the
ohm. It differed by about 0.2, as near as I can remember; but it was
thought so necessary that uniformity and unanimity should exist all over
the world in the adoption of a proper unit, that all differences were laid
aside, and the Americans agreed to comply with the resolutions of the
Paris Congress.
There were two units that I had the temerity to bring forward, first, at
the British Association, and secondly, before the Electrical Conference.
It will be remembered, that at the meeting of the British Association at
Southampton in 1882, the late Sir W. Siemens proposed that the unit of
power should be the watt, and that the watt, which was derived from the
C.G.S. system of absolute units, should in future, among electricians, be
the unit of power. This was accepted by the British Association at
Montreal, and it was also accepted by the American Electrical Conference
at Philadelphia. But I also, at Montreal, suggested that as the watt was
the unit of power, so we ought to make some multiple of that unit the
higher unit of power, comparable to that which is now represented by the
well-known term "horsepower." Horsepower, unfortunately, does not form
itself directly into the C.G.S. system. The term horsepower is a
meaningless quantity; it is not a horsepower at all. It was established by
the great Watt, who determined that the average power exerted by a horse
was equal to about 22,000 foot pounds raised per minute; but this was
thought by him to be too little, so he increased it by 50 per cent., and
so arrived at what is the present horsepower, 33,000 foot pounds raised
per minute. Foot pounds bear no relation to our C.G.S. system of units,
and it is most desirable that we should have some unit of power, somewhere
about the horsepower, to enable us to convert at once watts into
horsepower. For that purpose I proposed that 1,000 watts, or the kilowatt,
should replace what is now called the horsepower, and suggested it for the
consideration of engineers. It has been received with a great deal of
consideration by those who understand the subject, and a considerable
amount of ridicule by those who do not. It is rather a remarkable thing
that, as a rule, one will always find ridicule and ignorance running side
by side; and it is an almost invariable fact that when a new proposition
is brought forward, it is laughed at. I am always very glad to see that,
because it always succeeds in drawing attention to the matter. I remember
a friend of mine, who had written a book, being in great glee because it
was severely criticised by the _Athenæum_, a fact which drew public
attention to the book, and caused it to make a great stir. So when I
proposed that the horsepower should be increased by 33 per cent., and made
equivalent to 1,000 watts, I was not at all sorry to find that I had
incurred the displeasure of the leader writers in nearly all our
scientific papers, and I was quite sure that the attention of those who
would not perhaps have thought of it would thereby be drawn to the matter.
Some people object to the use of a name, this name "watt." When you have
fresh ideas, you must have fresh words to express those ideas. The watt
was a new unit, it must be called by some name, otherwise it could
scarcely be conveyed to our minds. The foot, the gallon, the yard, were
all new names once; and how do we know that they were not derived from
some "John Foot," "William Gallon," or "Jack Yard," or some man whose name
was connected with the measure when introduced? The poet says:
"Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest--
Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood:"
so in these names some forgotten physicist or mute engineer may be
buried. At any rate, we cannot do without names. The ohm, the ampere, the
volt, are merely words that express ideas that we all understand; and so
does the watt, and so will the 1,000 watts when you come to think over the
matter as much as some of us have done.
At this Conference several other subjects were brought up which attracted
a good deal of attention. Professor Rowland brought forward a paper on the
theory of dynamos that certainly startled a good many of us; and it led to
a discussion that is admirably reported in our scientific papers. I think
that the discussion evolved by Professor Rowland's paper on the theory of
dynamos deserves the study of every electrician; it brought very strongly
into prominence one or two English gentlemen who were present. Professor
Fitzgerald, of Dublin, spoke with a considerable amount of power, and
showed a mastery of the subject that was pleasant not only to his friends,
but must have been gratifying to the Americans who heard him. On this
particular subject of dynamos it was truly wonderful how the doctors
disagreed. Two could not be found who held the same views on the theory
and construction of the dynamo, and that shows that we still have a great
deal to learn about the dynamo, and that the true principle of
construction of it has yet to be brought out.
It is a very curious thing, and I thought about it at the time, that when
you consider the dynamos in use, you see how very little has been done to
perfect the direct working dynamo in England. Although the principle of
the dynamo originated with Faraday, yet all the early machines, Pacinotti,
Gramme. Hefner von Alteneck, Shuckert, Brush, Edison, and several others
who have improved the direct action machine, have not been found in
England. But when we deal with alternate-current machines, then we find
the Wilde, Ferranti, and various others; so that the tendency in England
has been very much to improve and work upon the alternate-current
machines. In other countries it is exactly the reverse; in fact, in
America I never saw one single alternate-current machine. When Professor
Forbes wanted an alternate-current machine to illustrate a lecture that he
gave, it was with the greatest difficulty that one could be found, and, in
fact, it was put together specially for him.
The other subjects brought before this Conference were Earth Currents,
Atmospheric Electricity, Accumulators or Secondary Batteries, and
Telephones. There was an extremely able paper brought forward by Mr. T.D.
Lockwood, the electrician of the American Bell Telephone Company, on
Telephones, and the disturbances that influence their working. When that
paper is published, it will well be worth your careful examination.
Papers were also read on the Transmission of Energy, and there were papers
on many other subjects.
So much for the Electrical Conference.
Now, the Americans at the present moment are suffering from a mania which
we, happily, have passed through, that is, the mania of exhibitions.
While we were at Philadelphia, there was an exceedingly interesting
exhibition held. I do not intend to say much about that exhibition, for
the simple reason that Professor G. Forbes has promised, during the
forthcoming session, to give us a paper describing what he saw there, and
his studies at Philadelphia; and I am quite sure that it will be a paper
worthy of him, and of you. But, apart from this exhibition at
Philadelphia, I could not go anywhere without finding an exhibition. There
was one at Chicago, another at St. Louis, another at Boston; everybody was
talking about one at Louisville, where I did not go; and there were rumors
of great preparations for the "largest exhibition the world has ever
seen," according to their own account, at New Orleans. However, I
satisfied myself with seeing the exhibition at Philadelphia, which
consisted strictly of American goods, and was not of the international
nature general to such exhibitions. But it was a fine exhibition, and one
that no other single nation could bring together.
_Telegraphs_.--When I spoke to you in 1878, my remarks were almost
entirely confined to telegraphs, for at that day the telephone was not, as
a practical instrument, in existence. I brought from America on that
occasion the first telephones that were brought to this country. Then the
practical application of electricity was applied to telegraphs, and so
telegraphs formed the subject of my theme. But while in 1877 I saw a great
deal to learn, and picked up a great many wrinkles, and brought back from
America a good many processes, I go back there now in 1884, seven years
afterward, and I do not find one single advance made--I comeback with
scarcely one single wrinkle; and, in fact, while we in England during
those seven years have progressed with giant strides, in America, in
telegraph matters, they have stood still. But their material progress has
been marvelous. In 1877, the mileage of wire belonging to the Western
Union Telegraph Company was 200,000 miles; in 1884, they have 433,726
miles of wire; so that during the seven years their mileage of wire has
more than doubled. During the same period their number of messages has
increased from 28,000,000 to over 40,000,000; their offices from 11,660 to
13,600; and the capital invested in their concern has increased from
$40,000,000 to $80,000,000--in fact, there is no more gigantic telegraph
organization in this world that this Western Union Telegraph Company. It
is a remarkable undertaking, and I do not suppose there is an
administration better managed. But for some reason or other that I cannot
account for, their scientific progress has not marched with their material
progress, and invention has to a certain extent there ceased. There really
was only one telegraphic novelty to be found in the States, and that was
an instrument by Delany--a multiplex instrument by which six messages
could be sent in one or other direction at the same time. It is an
instrument that is dependent upon the principle introduced by Meyer, where
time is divided into a certain number of sections, and where synchronous
action is maintained between two instruments. This system has been worked
out with great perfection in France by Baudot. We had a paper by Colonel
Webber on the subject, before the Society, in which the process was fully
described. Delany, in the States, has carried the process a little
further, by making it applicable to the ordinary Morse sending. On the
Meyer and Baudot principle, the ordinary Morse sender has to wait for
certain clicks, which indicate at which moment a letter may be sent; but
on the Delany plan each of the six clerks can peg away as he chooses--he
can send at any rate he likes, and he is not disturbed in any way by
having any sound to guide or control his ear. The Delany is a very
promising system. It may not work to long distances; but the apparatus is
promised to be brought over to this country, to be exhibited at the
Inventors' Exhibition next year, and I can safely say that the Post Office
will give every possible facility to try the new invention upon its wires.
One gratifying effect of my visit to the telegraph establishments in
America was that, while hitherto we have never hesitated in England to
adopt any process or invention that was a distinct advance, whether it
came from America or anywhere else, they on the other hand have shown a
disinclination to adopt anything British; but they have now adopted our
Wheatstone automatic system. That system is at work between New Orleans
and Chicago, and New York and New Orleans--1,600 miles. It has given them
so much satisfaction that they are going to increase it very largely; so
that we really have the proud satisfaction of finding a real, true British
invention well established on the other side of the Atlantic.
The next branch that I propose to bring to your notice is the question of
the telephone.
The telephone has passed through rather an awkward phase in the States. A
very determined attempt has been made to upset the Bell patents in that
country; and those who visited the Philadelphia Exhibition saw the
instruments there exhibited upon which the advocates of the plaintiff
relied. It is said that a very ingenious American, named Drawbaugh, had
anticipated all the inventors of every part of the telephone system; that
he had invented a receiver before Bell; that he had invented the
compressed carbon arrangement before Edison; that he had invented the
microphone before our friend Professor Hughes; and that, in fact, he had
done everything on the face of the earth to establish the claims set
forth. Some of his patents were shown, and I not only had to examine his
patents, but I had to go through a great many depositions of the evidence
given, and I am bound to confess that a more flimsy case I never saw
brought before a court of law. I do not know whether I shall be libelous
in expressing my opinion (I will refer to our solicitor before the notes
are printed), but I should not hesitate to say that I never saw a more
evident conspiracy concocted to try and disturb the position of a
well-established patent. However, I have heard that the judgment has been
given as the public generally supposed it would be given; because as soon
as the case was over the shares of the Bell company, which were at 150,
jumped up to 190, and now the decision is given I am told that they will
probably reach 290.
We cannot form a conception on this side of the Atlantic of the extent to
which telephones are used on the other side of the Atlantic. It is said
sometimes that the progress of the telephone on this side of the water has
been checked very much by the restrictions brought to bear upon the
telephone by the Government of this country. But whatever restrictions
have been instituted by our Government upon the adoption of the telephone,
they are not to be compared with the restrictions that the poor
unfortunate telephone companies have to struggle against on the other side
of the Atlantic. There is not a town that does not mulct them in taxes for
every pole they erect, and for every wire they extend through the streets.
There is not a State that does not exact from them a tax; and I was
assured, and I know as a fact, that in one particular case there was one
company--a flourishing company--that was mulcted is 75 per cent. of its
receipts before it could possibly pay a dividend. Here we only ask the
telephone companies to pay to the poor, impoverished British Government 10
per cent.; and 10 per cent. by the side of 75 per cent. certainly cuts but
a very sorry figure. But the truth is, the reason why the telephone is
flourishing in America is that it is an absolute necessity there for the
proper transaction of business. Where you exist in a sort of Turkish bath
at from 90° to 100°, you want to be saved every possible reason for
leaving your office to conduct your business; and the telephone comes in
as a means whereby you can do so, and can loll back in your arm chair,
with your legs up in the air, with a cigar in your mouth, with a punkah
waving over your head, and a bottle of iced water by your side. By the
telephone, under such circumstances, business transactions can be carried
on with comfort to yourself and to him with whom your business is
transacted. We have not similar conditions here. We are always glad of an
excuse to get out of our offices. In America, too, servants and messengers
are the exception, a boy is not to be had, whereas in England we get an
errand boy at half a crown a week. That which costs half a crown here
costs 12s. to 15s. in America; and, that being so, it is much better to
pay the telephone company a sum that will, at less cost, enable your
business to be transacted without the engagement of such a boy.
The Americans, again, adopt electrical contrivances for all sorts of
domestic purposes. There is not a single house in New York, Chicago, or
anywhere else that I went into, that has not in the hall a little
instrument [producing one] which, by the turn of a pointer and the
pressing of a handle, calls for a messenger, a carriage, a cab, express
wagon (that is, the fellow who looks after your luggage), a doctor,
policeman, fire-alarm, or anything else as may be arranged for. The little
instrument communicates to a central office not far off, and in two
minutes the doctor, or messenger, or whatever it may be, presents himself.
For fire-alarms and for all sorts of purposes, domestic telegraphy is part
and parcel of the nature of an American, and the result was that when the
telephone was brought to him, he adopted it with avidity. On this side of
the Atlantic domestic telegraphy is at a minimum, and I do not think any
one would have a telephone in his house if he could help it.
When you want a thing, you must pay for it. The Americans want the
telephone, and they pay for it. In London people grumble very much at
having to pay £20 to the Telephone Company for the use of a telephone. I
question very much whether £20 a year is quite enough; at any rate, it is
not enough if the American charge is taken as a standard. The charge in
New York is of two classes--one for a system called the law system, which
is applied almost exclusively for the use of lawyers, which is £44 a
year; the other being the charge made to the ordinary public, and which
will compare with the service rendered in London, which is charged for at
£35 a year, against £20 a year in London. The charge in Chicago is £26 a
year; in Boston, Philadelphia, and a great many other places it is £25 a
year. At Buffalo a mode of charging by results is adopted; everybody pays
for each oral message he sends--every time he uses the telephone he pays
either four, five, or six cents, according to the number for which he
guarantees. Supposing any one of us wanted a telephone at Buffalo, the
company will supply it under a guarantee to pay for a minimum of 500
messages per annum. If 1,000 messages are sent, the charge is less _pro
rata_, being six cents, if I remember rightly, for each message under 500,
and five cents up to 1,000 messages, four cents per message over 1,000
messages; and so everybody pays for what work he does. It is payment by
results. The people like the arrangement, the company like it because they
make it pay, and the system works well. But I am bound to say that, up to
the present moment, Buffalo is the only city in the United States where
that method has been adopted.
The instruments used in the States are no better--in fact, in many cases
they are worse--than the instruments we use on this side of the Atlantic.
I have heard telephones in this country speak infinitely better than
anything that I have heard on the other side of the Atlantic. But they
transact their business in America infinitely better than we do; and there
is one great reason for this, which is, that in America the public itself
falls into the mode of telephone working with the energy of the telegraph
operator. They assist the telephone people in every way they can; they
take disturbances with a humility that would be simply startling to
English subscribers; and they help the workers of the system in every way
they can. The result is, that all goes off with great smoothness and
comfort. But the switch apparatus used in the American central offices is
infinitely superior to anything that I have ever seen over here, excepting
at Liverpool.
A new system has just been brought out, called the "multiple" system,
which has been very lately introduced. I saw it at many places, especially
at Indianapolis, at Boston, and at New York, where three exchanges were
worked by it with a rapidity that perfectly startled me. I took the times
of a great many transactions, and found that, from the moment a subscriber
called to the moment he was put through, only five seconds elapsed; and I
am told at Milwaukee, where unfortunately I could not go, but where there
is a friend of ours in charge, Mr. Charles Haskins, who is one of our
members, and he says he has brought down the rate of working to such a
pitch that they are able to arrange that subscribers shall be put through
in four seconds.
You will be surprised to learn that there are 986 exchanges at work in the
United States. There are 97,423 circuits; there are nearly 90,000 miles of
wire used for telephonic purposes; and the number of instruments that have
been manufactured amounts to 517,749. Just compare those figures with our
little experience on this side of the Atlantic. I have a return showing
the number of subscribers in and about New York, comprising the New Jersey
division, the Long Island division, Staten Island, Westchester, and New
York City, and the total amounts to 10,600 subscribers who are put into
communication with each other in the neighborhood of New York alone; and
here in England we can only muster 11,000. There are just as many
subscribers probably at this moment in New York and its neighborhood as we
have in the whole of the United Kingdom.
I am sorry to delay you so long. I have very few more points to bring
before you. I spoke only last week so much about the electric light that I
have very little to say on that point. High-tension currents are used for
electric lighting in America, and all wires are carried overhead along the
streets. A more hideous contrivance was probably never invented since the
world was created than the system of carrying wires overhead through the
magnificent streets and cities in America. They spend thousands upon
thousands of pounds in beautifying their cities with very fine buildings,
and then they disfigure them all by carrying down the pavements the most
villainous-looking telegraph posts that ever were constructed. The
practice is carried to such an extent, that down Broadway in New York
there are no less than six distinct lines of poles; and through the city
of New York there are no less than thirty-two separate and distinct
companies carrying all their wires through the streets of the city. How
the authorities have stood it so long I cannot make out. They object to
underground wires--why, one cannot tell. It is something like taking a
horse to the pond--you cannot make him drink. So it is with these
telephone companies: the public of America and the Town Councils have been
trying to force the telephone and telegraph companies to put their wires
underground, but they are the horses that are led to the pool, and they
will not drink. It is said that the Town Council of Philadelphia have
issued most stringent orders that on the first of January next, men with
axes and tools are to start out and cut down every pole in the city. It is
all very well to threaten; but my impression is that any member of Town
Council or any individual of Philadelphia who attempts to do such a thing
will be lynched by the first telephone subscriber he meets.
This practice of running overhead wires has great disadvantages when the
wires are used for electric-lighting purposes as well as for ordinary
telephone or telegraph purposes. No doubt the high-tension system can be
carried out overhead with economy; but where overhead wires carrying these
heavy currents exist in the neighborhood of telephone circuits, there is
every possible liability to accident; and in my short trip I came across
seven distinct cases of offices being destroyed by fire, of test boxes
being utterly ruined, of a whole house being gutted, and of various
accidents, all clearly traceable to contacts arising from the falling of
overhead wires, charged with high-tension current, upon telegraph and
telephone wires below. The danger is so great and damage so serious that,
at Philadelphia, Mr. Plush, the electrician to the Telephone Company, has
devised this exceedingly pretty cut-out. It is a little electro-magnetic
cut-out that breaks the telephone circuit whenever a current passes into
the circuit equal to or more than an ampere. The arrangement works with
great ease. It is applied to every telephone circuit simply, to protect
the telephone system from electric light wires, that ought never to be
allowed anywhere near a telephone circuit.
Fire-alarms are used in America; but in England, also, the fire systems of
Edward Bright, Spagnoletti, and Higgins have been introduced, and in that
respect we are in very near the same position as our friends on the other
side of the Atlantic. Some members present may remember that, when I
described my last visit to America, I mentioned how in Chicago the
fire-alarm was worked by an electric method, and I told you a story then
that you did not believe, and which I have told over and over again, but
nobody has yet believed me, and I began to think that I must have made a
mistake somewhere or other. So I meant, when at Chicago this time, to see
whether I had been deceived myself. There was very little room for
improvement, because, as I told you before, they had very near reached
perfection. This is what they did: At the corner of the street where a
fire-alarm box is fixed, a handle is pulled down, and the moment that
handle is released a current goes to the fire-station; it sounds a gong to
call the attention of the men, it unhitches the harness of the horses, the
horses run to their allotted positions at the engine, it whips the clothes
off every man who is in bed, it opens a trap at the bottom of the bed and
the men slide down into their positions on the engine. The whole of that
operation takes only six seconds. The perfection to which fire-alarm
business has been brought in the States is one of the most interesting
applications of electricity there.
Of course during this visit I waited on Mr. Edison. Many of you know that
a difference took place between Mr. Edison and myself, and I must confess
that I felt a little anxiety as to how I should be received on the other
side. It is impossible for any man to receive another with greater
kindness and attention than Mr. Edison received me. He took me all over
his place and showed me everything, and past differences were not referred
to. Mr. Edison is doing an enormous amount of work in steadily plodding
away at the electric light business. He has solved the question as far as
New York is concerned and as far as central station lighting is concerned;
and all we want on this side is to instill more confidence into our
capitalists, to try and induce them to unbutton their pockets and give us
money to carry out central lighting here.
I met another very distinguished electrician--a man who has hid his light
under a bushel--a man whose quiet modesty has kept him very much in the
background, but who really has done as much work as any body on that side
of the Atlantic, and few have done more on this--and that is Mr. Edward
Weston. He is an Englishman who has established himself in New York. He
has been working steadily for years at his laboratory, and works and
produces plant with all the skill and exactitude that the electrician or
mechanic could desire.
Another large factory I went over was that of the Western Electric Company
of Chicago, which is the largest manufactory in the States. That company
has three large factories. While I was there, the manager, just as a
matter of course, handed me over a message which contained an order for
330 arc lamps and for twenty-four dynamo machines. He was very proud of
such an order, but he tried to make me believe that it was an every-day
occurrence.
There are no less than 90,000 arc lamps burning in the States every day.
The time has passed very rapidly. I have only just one or two more points
to allude to. I think I ought not to conclude without referring to the
more immediate things affecting travelers generally and electricians in
particular. It is astounding to come across the different experiences
narrated by different men who have been on the other side of the Atlantic.
One charming companion that we had on board the Parisian has been
interviewed, and his remarks appeared in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ of
Tuesday last, December 9th. There he gave the most pessimist view of life
in the United States. He said they were a miserable race--thin, pale faced
and haggard, and rushed about as though they were utterly unhappy; and the
account our friend gave of what he saw in the United States evidently
shows that the heat that did not affect some of us so very much must have
produced upon Mr. Capper a most severe bilious attack. Well, his
experiences are not mine. Throughout the whole States I received
kindnesses and attentions that I can never forget. I had the pleasure of
staying in the houses of most charming people. I found that whenever you
met an educated American gentleman there was no distinction to be drawn
between him and an English gentleman. His ways of living, his modes of
thought, his amusements, his entertainments, are the same as ours; there
is no difference whatever to be found. In Mr. Capper's case I can readily
imagine that he spent most of his time in the halls of hotels, and there
you do see those wild fellows rushing about; they convert the hall of the
hotel into a mere stock exchange, and look just as uncomfortable as our
"stags" who run about Capel Court. You may just as well enter a
betting-ring and come away with the impression that the members represent
English society, or that that is the most refined manner in which English
gentlemen enjoy themselves.
Well, gentlemen, there are just as exceptional peculiarities here as on
the other side of the water. The Americans are the most charming people on
this earth. When we enter their houses and come to know them, they treat
us in a way that cannot be forgotten. I noticed a very great change since
I was in America before. Whether it is a greater acquaintance with them or
not I cannot say, but there is an absence of that which we can only
express by a certain word called "cockiness." It struck me at one time
that there was a good deal of cockiness on that side of the Atlantic, that
has entirely disappeared. Constant intercourse between the two countries
is gradually bringing out a regular unanimity of feeling and the same mode
of thought.
But there are some things in which the Americans are a little lax,
especially in their history. At one of their exhibitions that I visited,
for instance, there was a placard put up--
"The steed called Lightning, say the Fates,
Was tamed in the United States.
'Twas Franklin's hand that caught the horse;
'Twas harnessed by Professor Morse."
Now, considering that Franklin made his discovery in 1752, and the United
States were not formed till about thirty years afterward, it is rather
"transmogrifying" history to say the lightning was tamed in the United
States.
Again, where the notice about Professor Morse was put, they say that the
instrument was invented by Morse in 1846, while alongside it is shown the
very slip which sent the message, dated 1844; so that the slip of the
original message sent by Morse was sent by his instrument two years before
it was invented.
Again, that favorite old instrument of ours which we are so proud of, the
hatchment telegraph of Cooke and Wheatstone, invented in 1837, was labeled
"Whetstone and Cook, 1840," so while I am sorry to say they are loose in
their history, they are tight in their friendships, and all the visitors
receive the warmest possible welcome from them generally, and especially
so from every member of our Society belonging to the States.
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