CONQUEST OF DISTANCE BY WIRE TELEPHONY 353 



his New York assistants, and with the Pacific Company engineers, in sur- 

 \-eying the principal problems involved, and the prospects for transcontinen- 

 tal telephony in terms of the development work then under way and of 

 potential future researches, particularly on telephone repeaters. Appar- 

 ently, the prospects were encouraging. 



Carty was stimulated in this study by pressure from President Vail, who 

 happened to visit San Francisco while Carty, Gherardi, and Jewett were 

 there. It appears that Vail was under some pressure from Pacific Coast 

 business men who were then very busy planning the Panama-Pacific Ex- 

 position (originalh- scheduled for 1914 but later postponed to 1915), and who 

 wanted him to promise that San Francisco would be put in regular telephonic 

 communication with the eastern cities when the Fair opened. Being a 

 good business man himself, Vail was sympathetic to these appeals. 

 Realizing that engineering difficulties would be involved, he consulted 

 Carty, who as usual, was unwiUing to commit himself without a careful 

 survey of the prospects and possibilities. Presently, Carty made a favor- 

 able report, and \^ail told the Fair management that the telephone company 

 would attempt to provide the desired transcontinental telephony. It 

 thus happened that before he returned to Xew York Carty added the 

 transcontinental line to his list of "must" objectives. 



The Engineering Situation in April 1909 



A major reorganization of the engineering department became effective 

 on March 13, 1909, soon after Carty 's return from the Pacific Coast. As 

 shown in the chart on page 402 the reorganized department had two major 

 divisions respectively reporting to B. Gherardi as Engineer of Plant and 

 K. W. Waterson as Engineer of Traffic. Jewett reported to Gherardi. A 

 third division of the department handled engineering work on legal cases. 



In a memorandum of April 8, 1909 addressed to \'ice-President Thayer, 

 his immediate superior, Carty discussed the planning of the new organiza- 

 tion and asked for additional personnel to enable him to carry on the new 

 duties and responsibilities in associate company relations which had been 

 assigned to his department, and to undertake certain important new en- 

 gineering and development work, without neglecting the important work 

 then under way. This memorandum includes such a beautifully clear and 

 significant exposition of the engineering situation that substantial extracts 

 are included in Appendix III. Carty's discussion of the principal projects 

 in which Jewett's department was or would be involved are included in 

 full under the headings: Phantom Circuits and Duplex Cables; Further 

 Development of Pupin Invention; The Problem of the Telephone Repeater. 

 From this discussion, it is clear that Carty expected that it would be possible 

 to accomplish speech between Xew York and Denver over loaded 165 mil 



