CONQUEST OF DISTANCE BY WIRE TELEPHONY 419 



incalculable prestige which we would thereby obtain, we could make suc- 

 cessful headway against competing companies and entrench ourselves 

 against the time when the Pupin patent will have expired. 



The Problem of the Telephone Repeater: 



At the present time we have in service in the long distance lines a number 

 of telephone repeaters. When these instruments are working in the manner 

 intended, they accomplish a substantial improvement in extending the range 

 of telephone transmission. When working satisfactorily, and interposed at 

 the half-way point in the New York-Chicago line, they cause an improve- 

 ment in the transmission on that line by making it talk as well as though it 

 were 300 miles shorter. They are not uniform in their action, but the 

 chances of our making them so are so good that a strong effort in this 

 direction is justified. This lack of uniformity of action is not the only 

 difficulty with these repeaters. For reasons which need not be discussed 

 here, they are not operative upon loaded lines. This constitutes a serious 

 defect in the repeater situation, not only with respect to loaded overhead 

 lines, but also with respect to loaded underground lines. Naturally it is 

 difficult to forecast the saving in our future construction which would be 

 accomplished by the use of a repeater having uniform action, but other- 

 wise no more efficient than the present one. Some idea of this saving, how- 

 ever, may be obtained from results of a study which we have made with 

 respect to plant which we have already constructed. This study shows that 

 if such a repeater were available when the present loaded circuits were 

 constructed, the first cost of these circuits would have been reduced by 

 $7,000,000. The annual charges on this figure are $700,000. This, it should 

 be borne in mind, does not count upon a repeater having greater power 

 than the present one, nor does it count upon the saving which has been ac- 

 complished by the use of the repeater in non-loaded circuits. So important 

 do we regard this repeater matter that we are satisfied that we should 

 attempt to develop one having much greater power. There is nothing in 

 the nature of the case to discourage us in this line of work and the art 

 seems to have so many possibilities and the results to be obtained from a 

 more powerful repeater are so far-reaching that work upon this line should 

 be pushed vigorously. If we successfully load the Denver line and thereby 

 accompUsh speech between New York and Denver, the development of a 

 successful repeater w^ould enable us to accomplish speech between San 

 Francisco and New York. The achievement of this result would mean uni- 

 versal telephony throughout the United States and its importance is so 

 apparent that no argument is needed to demonstrate it. 



I do not think it can be said that we are looking too far ahead in talking 



