THE TELEPHONE.

Kumara Times, Issue 433, 14 February 1878, Page 2

THE TELEPHONE.

A great change has come over the conditions of humanity. Suddenly and quietly the whole human race is brought within speaking and hearing distance. ; Scarcely anything was more desired or impossible. Few, indeed, can fill a room of any size, or even make themselves well heard anywhere; and the ear itself is the weakest and most treacherous of our faculties. The eye enjoyed an invidious superiority over the sister organ. Not to speak of its celestial achievements over other worlds, or of the kingdoms of the earth, it could see in a moment -of time, it encroached successfully on the domain of the ear, by beacons, and telegraphs, and all kinds of signals. Some of us may remember the line of telegraphs : from the Admiralty to Portsmouth, throwing their arms wildly about, ten minutes sometimes, . while . the bewildered clerks were turning over the leaves of the key or spelling a word. A storm or fog, or nightfall, would interrupt the message, and there it slept till next day, ho, matter its importance or its urgency. The railway seemed to compensate for this, but witn the railway came all the accidents and delays of personal agency. Then, about a generation ago, came the electric telegraph, too great a boon to be lightly spoken of, but even more divested of the charms that sweeten and assist «om muni cation than the old letter* writing. The writer must be known and loved in his letter,, which could not help being characteristic ; , but the telegram was the dry bones of correspondence. Gushes, sighs, tears, sallies of wit, and traits of fondness do not stand the ordeal of twenty words for » shilling, and the frigid medium of unsympathetic clerks. All lit once the telegram is fonnd to be. a barbarous makeshift, fit for buisness, or more messages, in which names, figure i, places, and dates are all that is to be transmitted. For any higher or tenderer purpose the telephone is to take its place. While we are talking about it, and hearing of its performances at scientific meetings, the Americausarebringingitrapidly into use. Already 500 houses in New York converse with one another ; 3009 telephones are in use in the United States; they are used bv companies and other large concerns whenever the works are some way from the office, in waterworks, pits, and mines. Friends on the oppsite sides of a broad street C' nverse as if in one room. The known tone and inflections of the speaker, a whisper, a cough, a sigh, a breath can be heard. The little incidents of human utterance which it takes a wakeful ear to detect, aided by eye and by familiar acquaintance, are found to pass along miles of wire, many of them under the earth or sea. Silent as the medium may be, and dead as it seems, the sound comes out true. A hundred miles of galvanic agency becomes only one imperceptible link between two human mechanisms.—London Times.