THE PHONOFOR.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 364, 27 May 1911, Page 6

THE PHONOFOR.

- •♦- LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONY. Long-distance telephony lias been regarded in New Zealand, until recently, as too expensive a privilege to be made cheap and popular, because it meant the installation of a dcjuble line of heavy copper wire between the talking points. A demonstration of the newest form of long-distance telepony at a lecture in the Wellington railway social hall by Mr J. T. Fay, A.M.1.E.E., showed that it is possible net only to hold audible and easy conversation with a person at Palmerston North —a distance of about ninety miles —but also to transmit telegraphic messages simultaneously over the same wire.

The Phonofor, as the instrument is christened, is oi: English origin, and the first set imported into New Zealand came through the agency of Mr J. H. Wynne, electrical signal engineer 10 the New Zealand Railways Department. A trial has been made with it between the Chief Traffic Inspector's office in Wellington and Palmerston North railway station. Telephonic conversation over that distance was previously almost impossible —certainly quite unreliable for business purposes—because of the many interruptions from other points in the circuit, and the tremendous buzzing due to induction. Now, tu ose the simile of one of the officers with experience of its working, "Giving orders to Palmerston h as easy from Wellington as if you were looking in at the door." All the time the line is in use for telegraphing of Morse signals, which are not heard through the telephone. Roughly speaking, it costs about £IOOO to put a copper wire for telephoning hetween Wellington and ralmerston North, but the Phonofor gives far better talking facilities for the expenditure of £lO on instruments attached to the iron wire of the telegraph line.

A whisper can be heard at the far end of the wire, and it was, of course, quite easy for a Palmerston North listener to hear the pianoforte played in the railway social hall in Wellington. The Phonofor has a sound magnifying attachment enabling the far-away speaker to make himself audible to a roomful of listeners. This experiment was tried by Mr Fahy, a cornet solo being played at the traffic office in Featherston street and easily heard in the hall through the instrument about a hundred yards oft' Distance, it v/as explained, is immaterial, at any rate within wide limits.