The Telephone by J. O. C.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 2, 1915

The Telephone

By J. O. C.

ONE of the marvelous inventions of the last days is the telephone, by means of which the world has become a whispering-gallery. The sight is so common that one scarcely thinks of the magnitude of the equipment necessary to make its work effective. In a recent advertisement of the Bell system alone, they claim that to carry their wires throughout the country, 12,480,000 poles are necessary, worth $40,000,000, and sufficient, they state, to build a stockade around California. Enough wire is used to coil around the earth 621 times, and it is worth about $100,000,000, and contains $88,000,000 worth of copper. They also require $37,000,000 worth of lead and tin; enough conduits to go five times through the earth from pole to pole, worth in the warehouse $9,000,000. The value of their telephones is something like $45,000,000; the switchboards, $90,000,000; and buildings sufficient to house a city of 150,000 are required, which, unfurnished and without land, cost approximately $44,000,000. J. O. C.