World-Wide Telephony - Its Problems and Future

HE rapidity with which telephone service has been extended to world-wide proportions during the past few years is perhaps one of the most remarkable of man's conquests over time and distance. Already it is a commonplace to hear the human voice from thousands of miles away, over land and sea. Distance and the great natural barriers of the world no longer prevent us from talking with each other. Across oceans and over high sierras the voice now carries its full message. Furthermore, these results have been accomplished within a few years. Telephony has demonstrated its international and intercontinental services. The development and extension of those services lies before us. It seems an appropriate time, therefore, to review some of the problems and possibilities in this extension of the application of the electrical arts to the service of mankind. World-wide telephony has as its foundation the wire line networks on the various continents with their millions of users. The first step was taken toward overcoming the great barrier presented by the oceans in 1891 when the first submarine telephone cable was laid between Dover and Calais. Further submarine cable developments followed including the laying of a continuously loaded cable between Denmark and Sweden in 1902. In the meantime the problems of spanning great distances over land were being rapidly solved, both in North America and in Europe, through the application of the loading coil and other transmission improvements. In 1911 service was opened between New York and Denver, a distance of 2000 miles (3300 kilometers).