MAP SHOWING VOICE) VOYAGES MADE BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY FROM 



WASHINGTON TO PITTSBURGH, CHICAGO, OMAHA, DENVER,, SALT TAKE CITY, 



SAN ERAN CISCO, PORTLAND, SEATTLE, EL PASO, OTTAWA, 



JACKSONVILLE, AND INTERMEDIATE POINTS 



through the forty years that have passed 

 since Alexander Graham Bell first solved 

 the problem of sound transmission by 

 electricity. 



The telephone paid tribute to Dr. Bell, 

 its father, by transmitting with equal 

 fidelity the sound of music, the roar of 

 breakers, and the intonations of the hu- 

 man voice. It paid its tribute to Presi- 

 dent Vail by proving that it indeed had 

 grown to be a national institution in its 

 geography, in its use, and in its possibili- 

 ties. It paid its tribute to the great engi- 

 neering staff, headed by John J. Carty, 

 by demonstrating that it had, through 

 them, ceased longer to be dependent on 

 wires, but could now make the Hertzian 

 waves its messengers — messengers which 

 can travel eight times around the earth 

 between the beats of the human heart. 



The big banquet hall of the New Wil- 

 lard is nearly a city block long and per- 

 haps sixty feet wide. Eight hundred 

 people were seated around the tables of 

 the huge gridiron, each with a telephone 



receiver at his elbow. At the one end 

 of the great hall was a large map, with 

 electric lights marking every junction 

 station on the transcontinental voice 

 highway, from Florida to Puget Sound 

 and from Ottawa, Canada, to El Paso, 

 Texas. 



VOICE VOYAGES TO SEATTLE 



After the courses had been served, the 

 chief of the engineering staff of the 

 American Telephone and Telegraph 

 Company, Mr. John J. Carty, announced 

 that the assembled guests would take a 

 voice voyage to Seattle, Washington. 

 Eight hundred receivers went to eight 

 hundred wondering ears and the trans- 

 continental roll-call began. 



"Hello, Washington, D. C," said Mr. 

 Carty. 



"Hello, Mr. Carty: this is Washing- 

 ton ; Truesdale speaking," came the an- 

 swer. And the bulb indicating the Na- 

 tion's Capital on the electric map grew 

 bright. 



297 



