THE SUBMARINE TELEPHONE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 502, 21 September 1912, Page 6

THE SUBMARINE TELEPHONE.

The latest sensation in the electrical world is the invention of Alfred Williams, of Seattle, who has discovered the art uf transmitting long distance telephone messages over a bare wire lying in naked contact with the salt water of the ocean. It has been found impossible to talk over an insulated cable of any great length, because the electrical waves sent by the telephone transmitter are retarded unevenly by the electrostatic capac ty of the scale, and they are not transmitted in the exact order of sending. The result is a meaningless mumble of sounds. Williams overcomes this difficulty by using a cable which is not electrically charged, and therefore has no electrostatic capacity. This condition has been made attainable by a peculiar discovery. The current sent over a bare wire through water must not have a higher potential than 1.6 volts. Such a tiny current, by all the Ohmic laws cf resistance, is very soon absorbed, any its arrival at the end of a great length of wire could not be detected by and of the usual electrometers,. But Williams discovered that though the electrical vibration set up by this tiny current was very weak, it was still possible to detect it with an instrument of sufficient delicacy. He also discovered that once this little current Was sent along the line, a second current could also slip over the wire, much as a skater passes safely over thin ice at great speed. The first current is called the "pilot current," and the second the "talking current." Tests carried out recently between Seattle and Vasnon Island, a distance of eleven miles, were entirely successful. By the use of a microphone the voice of a person speaking at Vasbon Island was made audible to a whole roomful of people at Seattle. A phonorgaph was connected to the transmitter at Vasbon Island and heard distinctly at Seattle. It is claimed that the new system will make the telephone a practicable means of communication over distances up to 8000 /nilps.