CHAPTER II 



The 1907-1911 Period in New York 



IMPORTANT early developments of this period led to the successful 

 loading of open-wire phantom lines and their side circuits; the com- 

 mercial application of loading to 165 mil open- wire circuits; and the de- 

 velopment of duplex (quadded) cable and of phantom group loading for 

 such cables. Jewett's prestige rose high m consequence of his personal 

 efforts and his supervision of these developments, and was further enlianced 

 by the basic roles these developments played in the New York-Denver line, 

 and the Boston- Washington cable projects, which are also described in this 

 chapter. The Denver line proved to be, as was intended, a major prepara- 

 tory step in the westward march to achieve transcontinental telephony, 

 and then universal telephony within the United States. 



The important but more or less routine engineering work that was neces- 

 sary to maintain continuous progress in the telephone transmission art went 

 forward along with the specific developments in long distance telephony 

 that are described in detail herein. Mention should also be made on the 

 continuing fundamental work on the reduction of noise and crosstalk. 

 Especially in the long distance services, this was a vital necessity as the lines 

 became longer and longer. The rapid extension of the use of loading and of 

 phantom working over lines and cables, followed by the introduction and 

 the wide use of telephone repeaters, substantially increased the complexity 

 of the noise and crosstalk problems, and greatly magnified the importance 

 of the work. The steady improvement of transposition systems was an 

 important part of the effort on the open-wire lines. 



1907 Happenings 



Following the move of the reorganized Headquarters Staff Engineering 

 Department to New York, and partly in consequence of conditions that had 

 led to the recent reorganization, but mainly because of the critical general 

 business panic which exploded in Wall St. in October 1907, engineering and 

 development activities of the Telephone Company operated at a relatively 

 low voltage for a considerable period. Fortunately, the steps that Vail 

 had taken to improve the financial status of the Company had been effec- 

 tive, and the storm was weathered without important changes in the rate 

 of station growth, and without substantial distress of any kind. While 

 plant expansion was slowed down, the stringency did not prevent the start 



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