The Conquest of Distance by Wire Telephony

S OME few months ago, in anticipation of the retirement of Dr. F. B. Jewett, an informal committee undertook to discover such action as the Journal might appropriately take to commemorate the event. The various possibilities finally narrowed down to one, a historical review appearing for various reasons to be the most suitable. The period to be covered by the review was not difficult to fix. For sentimental reasons its beginning should naturally tally with Dr. Jewett's appearance upon the scene of telephone engineering, but as this followed close upon the invention of the loading coil, such a beginning had more than sentiment to recommend it. The review is carried through the creation of the high vacuum tube to the demonstration by large scale practical application that this was the keystone of an art which would open up a new era in transmission of the voice. An examination of the record shows that the last twenty-five years of the art of telephone engineering have been adequately chronicled from year to year, almost from month to month, in the technical press. The immediately preceding period of approximately fifteen years covered by the review was badly in need of a historian in spite of the fact that in some respects the events of those years were as significant as any that have occurred subsequently. Such considerations led to the decision to record these events while the story as it stood in the minds of certain of the chief participants was readily available. But while a committee may reach a decision, it is likely to prove a poor instrument of accomplishment.