The Telephone.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3998, 21 October 1881, Page 3

The Telephone.

The following description taken from a Southern contemporary of the'instruments now in use in Auckland may be of interest. We hope to see the day when there will he telephone con- cction between, the Thames and Auckland :—The instruments supplied to the subscribers are a call hot, a transmitter, a receiver, and a battery. On a card attached to the apparatus by the makers—the Western Manufacturing Company, Chicago—it is named the " Edison "telephone. As a matter of fact, however, there is nothing at all of Eduon about it. The transmitter is by Blake, the receiver is by Bell, the contents of the call box are the inventions of many inventors, and the arrangement of. the several parts, together with several important improvements and simplifications are by Dr Lemon. Amongstihelatfer are fhe receiver which as sent by the makers, consisted of a formidable-looking apparatus, wilh, two bas(B containing diaphragms to apply to the ear, which were to be attached to a sort of visor to the head of the operator. As improved, there is only one light ebonite frame sbout the size of a watch, which is to be held: io the ear. It containsan exceedingly thin plate of metal, and it is by the vibrations of this disc that the sounds from the distant speaker are conveyei to the ear. The transmitter is a square box, containing in a convenient form a similar diaphragm, and, fixed at a proper height by side of the otber machinery, is spoken into by the person cou- v versing. TLeve is a hook at the lower part of the call-box, termed a " sliirup ;" the receiver, wlien the telephone is at rest, is suspended from the sin-rap. The act of removing the receiver {Vo~n the stivrup places the telephone ready for conversation. At the central offices the whole of the wires employed in the combination are brought to a cabinet, in size about six I feet long by two feet in breadth. Its face resembles somewhat the front of a totalieater, though much smaller. Fixed at the side are ins'.rumoiits corresponding to those at the terminal. On ihe upper part of the cabinet is a free plate, with rows of flaps, which cover numbers, in this c:ite from Ito 50. Tbe«e flaps are worked by electro magnets at the back of the plate. ( Under the number plate are a series of holes in insulated metallic bosses. numbered to correspond with the flaps aboTe. These are also in connection with the wives at the teimim. There are pairs of pegs connected by flexible insulated wires, which, when iuseriod in any of the holes, concect the wires they represent. It is the business of tie operator who attends this machine to use these pegs as requested by. his correspondents. He simply joins any two wires when directed just as two speaking-tubes mi^ht be joined in the centre. To secure this end there are many complex and beautiful operations performed by the machinery he has under his charge, but it is so arranged" as to do most of the work automatically. The instruments are of American manufacture.