Inventors at Work, with Chapters on DiscoveryIles, George
History
Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery
Iles, George
Inventions -- History; Inventors
This artificial cable, when without coils, through a distance equal to
fifty miles of ordinary line worked well, up to seventy-five miles it
served fairly well, but proved impracticable at 100 miles, and
impossible at distances exceeding 112 miles: all this in exact
correspondence with an actual line of the same length. Over a uniform
telephone line an increase of distance interferes with the transmission
of speech, not only by diminishing the volume of sound, but also from
the rapid loss of articulation. At first this manifests itself as an
apparent lowering of vocal pitch. In Professor Pupin’s experiments an
assistant’s voice at the end of 75 miles of uniform cable sounded like a
strong baritone; at 100 miles it became drummy so that it was understood
with difficulty, although the speaker had his mouth close to the
transmitter, and spoke as loudly as if he were addressing a large
audience. At more than 112 miles nothing but the lowest notes of his
voice could be heard, the articulation was entirely gone. As soon as the
coils were inserted the drumminess ceased, and conversation could be
carried on as rapidly as one chose through the whole circuit of 112
miles. Drumminess is due to the obliteration of the overtones, long
distance transmission weakening these overtones much more than it does
the low fundamental tones. The addition of coils makes the rate of
weakening the same for all vibrations, hence the transmitted sound has
the same character at the end of the line as at the beginning.
In practice Professor Pupin’s method has proved a remarkable success. In
ordinary circuits it reduces materially the quantity of wire necessary.
Where a circuit is unusually long it assures clearness of tones or of
signals at distances previously out of the question. It makes possible
telephony across the Atlantic: a cable for this service would cost only
one fourth more than an ordinary telegraphic cable as now laid and used.
A decided advantage is reaped by its use in underground cables, liable
as they are to a serious blurring of currents at distances comparatively
short. The intervals at which inductance coils should be placed depend
upon the circumstances of each case. These are discussed by Professor
Pupin in the paper here mentioned.
Rules that Work Both Ways.
Analogy in many a path such as that of Professor Pupin has served as a
guide to the discoverer and inventor. Equally gainful has been the
conviction that many rules work both ways, so that ingenuity has only to
execute the converse or the reverse of a familiar task in order to
abridge toil, or reach a prize wholly new.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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