Operating a "Chain"

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 36, 22 March 1929, Page 8

Operating a "Chain"

GPEECHES by prominent figures Y in politics, engineering, and industry at Washington, New York, and at the tunnel’s mouth in the Cascades were controlled by the inexorable sec-ond-hand of a stop-watch. Stop-wat-ches, in turn, were synchronised with electric clocks on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, adjusted to the second with the clocks that govern the operation of the Oriental, Limited. By moving a switch the engineers shifted the centre of the network to the eastern portal of the tunnel just as the train approached. There it came to a momentary halt, while an announcer "presented" Mr. Ralph Budd, President of the Great Northern Railway. Afterwards, both boarded the train, and, as its light disappeared, other switches transferred listeners back to New York and Washington, and again to Francisco before the express emerge{l from the western end of the tunne where another microphone picked up*a description of the first trip through what is said to be the largest tunnel in the world. Thirty-seven stations, from coast to coast, participated.