338 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



cipal actors. Needless to say, he has been aided by the fact that he was, 

 himself, a participant in much that he relates. 



As in every effort of this sort, it has been necessary to set up rather defi- 

 nite boundaries in advance. The decision was reached deliberately to con- 

 fine the present discussion to the broad phases of telephone transmission, 

 with very little reference to the concomitant, and indeed related, develop- 

 ments and improvements such as occurred in the domains of substation 

 apparatus, central office equipment, and operating methods. 



Without striving for effect, and without forsaking a simple and easily 

 comprehended engineering vernacular, Mr. Shaw makes the reader sense 

 the momentous nature of the work in progress and the basic importance of 

 the decisions under discussion. One sees in a new light, as he reads, the 

 difficulties which were patiently but determinedly overcome in creating the 

 first successful loaded phantom open-wire circuit; in reducing the crosstalk 

 unbalance in early cables; in evaluating the relative merits of the multiple- 

 twin and the spiral-four ; and in obtaining the balancing networks needed to 

 operate repeaters in tandem on a very long line. And, of course, there are 

 other matters too numerous to mention here which are similarly dealt with. 

 All in all, it is a recital whose simplicity is in sharp contrast to the intricate 

 nature of much of the work it narrates. 



And as one lays it down he feels a strongly renewed admiration for the 

 executives who visioned, guided, counselled, and in the days of rough going 

 had the courage to back their judgments, and more especially that of their 

 engineers, to a magnificent extent. 



We are now on the point of losing by retirement one of the best loved of 

 these executives. Starting as a young recruit in 1904, through outstanding 

 merit he was destined to rise so rapidly in responsibility as to become a 

 very influential counsellor within a few years, and ever since has occupied 

 a commanding position with respect to the Bell System's entire research and 

 development program. No individual is more intimately associated with 

 the scientific achievements of the System throughout the last forty years, 

 in the minds both of the public at large and those within our organization. 

 Under the circumstances, it is not easy to find an entirely adequate method 

 of signalizing the respect and good-will we entertain toward him. But for 

 a host of reasons — and for many more than the inherent modesty of the 

 individual himself would allow to be pointed out — the following narrative 

 is implicitly biographical. It must, therefore, bring back many cherished 

 memories. Moreover, it stands as testimony to his excellent scientific 

 judgment and courageous and sympathetic administration. It is an oppor- 

 tunity, therefore, which all welcome, especially the author and his intimate 

 advisers, to dedicate this review to Dr. Frank Baldwin Jewett.* 



* The text of this review is different in some degree from that published in monograph form on the date 

 of Dr. Jewett's retirement. 



