Show Bells Bell's Varied Achievements Revealed During Dilling Centenary By BAUKHAGE News Neus Analyst Ana and Comme Commentator a T NU Service 1616 Eye Ec Street N. N W. W Washington D. D C. C WASHINGTON Everybody has hast t been talking telephones because of the well publicized Alexander Graham Gra Gra- ham barn Bell centenary Reading the pounds of ot publicity I learned more about Alexander Graham Bell than I ever knew before I had read athow of at how he dreamed of making the telegraph tele ide- graph instrument talk tak and how howand howand and 2nd why his dream came true I didn't know about his fathers father's deep study of phonetics and his own interest in interest in in- terest in making speech visible in it teaching the thc deaf to talk or that he was an accomplished musician or many other facets of this remarkable remarkable remark remark- able mans man's remarkable history I 1 already knew a little about the telephone business from first hand observance It was Just about 20 years before I ever used a telephone that Bell thanks to his harmonically trained car ear found on that day in 1875 that what he thought could be done had been achieved in his own laboratory on Court street Boston From then thenon on it was just a 8 question of removing removing re re- re moving the bugs The next y year ar arhe he was demonstrating his ment before audiences with conversations conversations conver conver- over several miles of wire Before he be died at the age of ot 75 people w were re talking over an underwater under water cab cable e from United States to Cuba I doubt if il the great Inventor were to return to earth today he would 1 j I I A study of Alexander Graham BellIn BellIn Bell Bellin in later life shows how he spent many hundred man hours of his time tabulating statistics concerning concern concern- lug ing the deaf At one time be he produced produced produced pro pro- a 3 Memoir Upon the Formation Formation Forma Forma- tion of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race be greatly surprised at the strides in telephony which have been made since his death great as they have been He may not have considered however one of the temporary problems lems electrolysis which created many a headache for the telephone companies and which helped indirectly indi to provide the writer of this column who was to be a future extensive extensive ex ex- ex user of telephone facilities with a part of at his education To explain the above remark 1 miles of at program transmission trans mission circuits now are provided by the Bell Ben system for use of radio networks Its It's wireless to your h home me from your radio station but its it's wired vired between stations 2 The writer has been using a alot alot lot of these circuits five days a week for most of oi the last 14 ye years rs 3 He worked two college vacations vacations vaca vaca- as electrolysis inspector for forthe forthe forthe the telephone company To explain further 1 You know how electroplating is done The object say object say its it's a spoon to to be pIa plated ted is suspended in abath a abath bath containing the material with which the spoon is to be plated An Anele ele electric current Is passed through the substance in the bath Into the spoon The substance follo fellows fellow's s the current as far as it can which is the surface of the spoon Anyhow it moves 1 2 Youve You've seen the sheathed lead cables containing telephone wires being pushed through the manhole into conduits that lie under th the pavement The sheath on the cable protects the Insulated wires that carry the current which rings your phone bell and carries your voice 3 But other electric currents get loose and run all over the place You'd be surprised but almost every foot of earth or anything that will conduct an electric current in a city has some electricity flowing through it When the pOwer companies were careless about abou preventing leaks in j their wires It was worse Stray currents currents cur cur- rents left power wires or the rails of ot electric railways s 's and took a short shortcut shortcut shortcut cut back to the power house 4 Wherever they found a good conductor like a 3 lead cable that was like thumbing a ride for the vander lag Ing ng volts and amperes So far ar so good But eventually they had to leave the cable to find their way to toa toa toa a better conductor or just to say sc se selong long and struggle back to the I d dynamo namo 5 When they did that electroLytic electrolytic electro action set In The lead Inthe in inthe I the thc cable sheath followed the current current cur cur- rent as far as it could like the substance substance sub sub- stance in the bath and left the sheath porous Dampness and destruction destruction de de- de came in and soon your telephone line was out of order My job consisted of sitting by the hour watching the face of an ammeter am meter which registers the direction and flow of electric current and discovering where the current was escaping Then I had to get the power company to do what it could to stop leaks and the telephone company company com com- pany pan did all it it could to keep stray current out or to provide a safe exit for what got in In the process I learned much more than I earned not earned not much about electrical engineering but I had a afine afine afine fine worms worm's view of several Middle Mid dle die Western cities eye cities eye birds views too for I worked in cable boxes upon upon up upon on poles as well as down in manholes manholes man man- holes and also learned that it isn't only newspapermen who meet so many interesting people When I ponder on my electrolytic ic age and also when I address the mike Mondays through Fridays Fridas Fri Fridays Fri Fri- days das now I am deeply and doubly grateful to Alexander Graham Bell j I I I Jones Finall Finally Gets e s Official cial Birthday One day recently I received a tele telephone telephone telephone phone call from my friend Capt E. E John Long who is assistant curator of ot the United States naval museum at Annapolis I detected exultation in his voice and sure enough when I joined him at the club he was wearing that Eureka it I expression which blooms only on the face fac of ot a Bell discovering the telephone a Lord Carnarvon or and-or Howard Carter exclaiming ing as as ai he leans over the mummy-case mummy King Tut I presume pre pro sume sume-or sume or possibly you or me when we finally get a firm hold on the end of at our vanished pajama cord What happened to Long was com com- parable He had recorded the confirmation con con- by his chief Capt H. H A. A Baldridge chief curator of the long- long suspected but proved never date of birth of John Paul Jones father of the navy And It was fortunate he had for tor the post office department was demanding It for the next memorial stamp Baldridge already had a letter of Jones' Jones containing this sentence America has been the country of ot my fond election from the age of 13 13 Since it was known he sailed from Whitehaven England in 1760 that would make the birth date 1760 minus 13 13 1747 But the birth date was not actually recorded in any authentic writing not even the early Jones biography by Charles San Sands ls However f came into temporary posse possession i of t I Captain Baldridge a copy of that work upon whose margins Janette i Taylor had written some caustic comment Miss Taylor was a niece of Jones Tones who had been a close and meticulous student of at her uncles uncle's life lite and many of his papers which she possessed One of her holographic st statements re the picture of Jones In th the frontispIece frontispiece frontis frontis- frontispiece piece was this it is even too old making every allowance for his mode of life lite for tor a just representation of ot his appearance ap ap- ap at the time of his death he was then only 45 years and 12 days His death 1792 is of record That tied It it No wonder the cap tossed their scrambled eggs in the air like graduating midshipmen John Paul has an official birthday only ony two centuries late late and and his face on a stamp for a present S S SIn S In an attempt to end mess hall hail griping the army aims alms to make kitchen police a respected and respectable re re- army chore Well We'll have to wait on the critical judgment j or me the long mess lines before before be be- fore we really know but meanwhile well we'll offer afTer a toast of powdered ration K lemonade to General Ike and his his' staff just staff just for tor trying |