THE TELEPHONE UNMASKED.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 48, 25 February 1878, Page 4

THE TELEPHONE UNMASKED.

{From tha New York Times.-] It is time that tbe attrocious nature of the telephone Bhould be fully exposed, and its inventors, of whom there are any quantity; held up to publio ex•ecratipo. When this nefarious instrument was first introduced, it was pretended that ita purpose was aa innocent one. We were told that the telephone would enable a man in New York to hear what a man in Philadelphia might say ; and though it woe difficult to understand why anybody should ever want to listen to a I'hiladelpljiati'fl remarks-r-which notoriously consist exclusively of allusions to the Ceniennial Exhibition and an alleged line of American steamships — -there was nothing necessarily immoral ip this possible use of the telephone. Then it was claimed that by the use of the telephone conversations oould be carried on with other than Fhiladelphians, and that political speeches delivered in Washington could be beard in any city of the continent. As the President was at tbst time making speeches in Vermont instead of Washington, the public was not alarmed by this announcement, and it was not until the telephonic conspirators mentioned tbat tbe uproar of a brass band could be transmitted lo any disjaoce through the telephone that any feeling of uneasiness was developed. Nevertheless the vast capabilities for mischief of the telephone, and the real purpose ojf its unprincipled inventors, have been studiously concealed, and it is only by accident that the greatness and imminence of the danger to which the public is exposed have suddenly been revealed. Suspicion ought to have been awakened by th# recent publication of the fact that if the lamp-posts of our city were to be connected by wires, every confidential remark made to a lamppost by a |belated democratic statesman could be reproduced by a telephone connected with any other lamp-post. It is true thst this publication was ostensibly u_ade in the interest of the police force, and it was recommended tbat patrolmen should use the lamppost aB means of communicating with police head quarters. It was evident, however, that the result would be to make every lamp-post a spy upon midnight way-farers. Men who had trusted to friendly lamp-posts for years, and embraced thera with the utmost confidence in their silence and discretion, would find themselves shamelessly betrayed, and their unsuspecting soliloquies literally reported to their indignant families; strange to say, this suggestive bint of the powers of the telephone attracted no attention, and has ere this been in all probability forgotten. A series of incidents wbich has lately occurred in Providence has, however, clearly shown the frightful capabilities of the telephone. Two men, to whom, bo for as|is known, no improper motive can be attributed, were recently experimenting with a telephone, the wire of which was stretched over the roofs of innumerable buildings, and was estimated to be fully four miles in length. They relate that on the first evening of their telephonic dissipation they heard men aud women singing songs and eloquent clergymen preaching ponderous sermons; and that they detected several persons in the act of practising upon brass instruments. This sort of tbiDg was repeated every eveniag, while on Sunday morning a perfect deluge of partially conglomerated sermons rolled in upon them. These are the main facts mentioned by the two men iv what may be called the official report of their experiments, but it is asserted that they heard olher things which they did not venture to openly repeat. The remarks of thousands of midnight cats were borne to their listening ears. The confidential conversations of hundreds of husbands and wives were whispered through the treacherous telephony, and though the remarks of Mr and Mrs Smith were sometimes inextricably entangled with tboße of 'Mr and Mrs Brown, and it was frequently impossible to tell from ' what particular wife came the direful threat '• 0 ! Til just let you know," or from what strong husband in his agony came the cry, " Leggo that hair 1" the two astonished telephone experimenters learned enough of the secrets of the leading families of Providence to render ifc a hazardous matter for any resident of that city to hereafter accept a nomination for any office. Now it has been ascertained tbat the wire of tbis telephone wes not in contact with any other wire, and thus the hypothesis that the sounds heard by the two men were messages in process of transmission by tbe usual telegraphic wires is untenable. Moreover, a little reflection will .how tbat cots do not send telegraphic messages, and that leading citizens do not .raceosit telegraph petitions lo their wives advoc»fing a policy of conciliation iv reject (o hair. The scientific pcr-sous whom the two men have consulted have no hesitation in saying that the t.lophouic wire pitkeu up all the sounds in ita neighborhood by the prccess of induction. When the wire passed over a church, it took up the waves of sound set in motion by the preacher and reproduced tbem on the ttla s >houe. In like manner it collected the.ouuds from the concertballs, and dwelling-houses over the roofs of whfch it passed, and the peculiar distinctness with which it transmitted the remarks of cats was due to the fact that it must have passed in proximity to several popular feline resorts.

We can now comprehend the danger of tho telephone, If any telephonic miscreant connects a telephone with one of the countless telegraphic wires that pass over the roofs of this city there will be an immediate end of all privacy. Whatever is said in the secrecy of the back piazza by youthful Biudents of the satellites of Mars will bo procVimed by of the bouse-top to the eavesdropping telephone operator. No matter to what extent a man may close his doors and windows, and hermetically Beal his keyholes and furnace-registers with towels and blankets, whatever be may say, either to himself or a companion, will be overheard. Absolute silenoe will be our only s-jfety. Conversation will ba carried on exclusively in writing, and courtship will be conducted by the use of a system pf ingenious symbols. _Stn invention which thus mentally makes silence the sole condition of safety cannot be too severely denounce*!, and while violence, even in self-defence, is alwayß to be deprecatad, there can be little doubt tbat the death ofthe inventors and manufacturers of the telephone would do rnjjch towards creating tbatj f cling of confidence which financiers tell us. must precede aoy revival in business.