Partly estimated. 3,144,000 + U. S. census, 1912. Finland included in Russia. a Partly estimated to include all companies and lines. Total telephones in United States, December 31, 1912, 8.729,592 (United States Census); December 31, 1913, 8,975,074, of which 7,456,074 are in Bell system, leaving 1,519,000 rural and other company telephones not connected with Bell system. The independent telephone companies of the United States, which are owned and operated entirely apart from the Bell organization, are represented in the National Independent Telephone Association, with headquarters in the Colorado Building, Washington, D. C., and the Independent Telephone Association of America with headquarters in Chicago. According to the United States Census of 1912, there were 1,740 independent telephone companies with over $5,000 annual income, nd 2,239,721 stations. Many of these companies connect with the Bell system. The capital invested is approximately 3200,824,000 and the income is about $48,950,000 per annum. The independent companies, which are for the most part financed in the territories which they cover, are particularly strong throughout the middle and far West. They are established in nearly every large city in the United States except those on the Atlantic coast. TELEPHONE DEVELOPMENT OF PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE WORLD. b Service not opened until February 28, 1914. Electrical Progress in 1914. BY CHARLES H. HUCHES. IN GENERAL. THE breaking out of the war in Europe had a most serious effect during the latter part of the year on the development of new electric apparatus and enterprises, particularly in European countries. Among the large engineering developments which were stopped was the electrifying of many steam railroads in Germany and France, particularly in Germany, which country was contemplating extensive electrification in Silesia, the funds for which were withdrawn for war purposes. Electricity played a most important part in the European war, especially wireless telegraphy, which was extensively used not only for communication on land, but also between ships at sea. Aside from the use in war, improved wireless apparatus was brought out both for telegraphy and telephony, and there was established by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company a round-theworld-circuit, viz., a message could be sent from a station in New Jersey to Wales, then to Egypt, from Egypt to India, then to China, from China to Hawaii, then to San Francisco, and finally from San Francisco to the station in New Jersey. In regard to improved wireless telephone apparatus, ships at sea 40 miles apart readily communicated, while on land parties at distances of 60 and 90 miles have talked with each other. It is interesting to note the rapid advancement the Japanese have made in the manufacture of electric apparatus. Motors, generators, and transformers were manufactured in large quantities, and as to size, generators were built up to 6,000 kilowatts. Porcelain insulators were made in great numbers, as suitable materials are plentiful at Kiushiu and other parts of the Empire. Mention should be made of the still wider field of use of electric motors for all kinds of manufacturing and industrial purposes. For instance, in the development of oil properties, wherever possible electric motors are installed for furnishing power for pumping. Then again they are used in driving cotton gins, rolls, and presses, and also in mines, where they have proved satisfactory for operating hoists, and so on in other fields they are proving to be of exceptional value and consequently their use is becoming larger every year. Many electric novelties were brought out, and it is worth briefly reviewing some of them, which in many cases are very ingenious and clever. For example, the combination of a small lamp and a fountain pen for writing in dark places; the steering and the controlling of the engines in a boatby wireless waves sent from a station several thousand feet away; and the installation in Berlin of a miniature electric train running in a tunnel carrying the mail, instead of having the mail carried In cases that are sent through pneumatic tubes, as is the practice in New York and other large cities. For the home it seems as if electricity can be used for every conceivable purpose. Electrically operated dish washers are common, and there are electric stoves on the market varying in size from small ones for making a cup of coffee to those on which a course dinner can be cooked. Toasters are made on which the toast can be turned without removing it from the toaster, electric ice breakers and ice cream freezers have proved to be popular, and after all the house work is done no one needs to use a towel for drying hands, but an electrically operated dryer. ELECTRIC LIGHTING. An important advance in the development of the X-ray was the invention of a new Roentgen tube by Dr. W. D. Coolidge. With the tube it is possible to show the finest blood vessels of the foot and hand. At the Panama-Pacific Exposition there is being erected a steel tower 435 feet high for demonstrating a novel system of lighting. The tower will be covered with suspended cut glass prisms (over 125,000) which, when lighted by the sun's rays during the day and by artificial light at night, will give most spectacular effects. Experiments conducted at the Brighton Mills, Passate, N. J., showed that the average loom operator could see a white cotton thread at a distance of 17 feet in daylight. Under the rays of a mercury vapor lamp the same employés were able to see the same thread at a distance of 24 feet. An improved arc lamp of the flame carbon type for ornamental street lighting was brought out by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. A feature of the lamp is its adaptability to practically all standard commercial circuits. A new system of freight yard lighting was tried by the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad at its yard near Pittsburgh. Eight 100-foot steel towers were erected, at the tops of which were placed Cooper-Hewitt quartz tube lamps. At the Finsen Light Institute of Copenhagen, Denmark, the successful use was reported of electric arc light in the treatment of patients suffering from surgical tuberculosis. Notable improvements have been made in incandescent lamps. The bulbs of lamps when filled with nitrogen or other inert gas increases the eficiency of the lamp and gives it a longer life. One of the largest electric signs in the world was erected at Montreal, Canada. It is on top of a nine-story building and is 135 feet long by 77 feet high. A new cathodic glow lamp was brought out by Dr. Greinacker of Zurich, Switzerland, that is based on the fact that when a Geissler tube is subjected to an electric discharge the negative electrode becomes hot to a more or less marked degree, according to the intensity of the discharge and the current producing it. The German army used a special type of field electric searchlight, which could be raised a considerable distance above the ground by means of a telescopic tubular pole. Many installations of tube lamps for outlining the lines of buildings and for interior showroom illumination were made in England. In London a single tube 255 feet long was used to light two moving stairways. Improvements were made by the Cooper-Hewitt Company, Hoboken, N. J., in their mercury vapor lamps and floor stands for use in taking motion pictures. The improved outfits can be equipped with light transformers or red reflectors where color values are essential. What is claimed to be the most brilliant electric searchlight in the world was erected for tests at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York. The searchlight is a German invention and uses carbons. with a metallic core. A departure from the prevailing types of exterior illumination was adopted for the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company's new office bulling in Cleveland, Ohio. The lamps were concealed In terra-cotta cornices, at the top of which were reflectors throwing the light down, the lamps. themselves being entirely invisible. It was reported that many vessels now using the Suez Canal are equipped with searchlights having the light divided in halves, each half being directed toward the shore. METALLURGICAL AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING. The Canadian Department of Mines conducted an elaborate investigation of the preparation and properties of metallic cobalt and its alloys. A committee was appointed by the council of the Institute of Metals (England) to consider the nomenclature of alloys. In their report they suggested that the nomenclature should be based ELECTRICAL PROGRESS IN 1914--Continued. on naming the alloys according to their chemical composition by weight, the names of the component metals being placed in the order of increasing numerical importance. The extraction of casein from milk by an electrolytic process was announced by a French authority. A submarine oxy-hydrogen torch was reported to have been experimented with in Kiel Harbor. Germany, for the purpose of testing the possibility of dismantling sunken vessels. Basic linings of magnesite brick in copper converters are superseding those with acid lining, as with the former the life of the converter is longer. Iron ore from the Mesaba mines of Michigan was converted into a high grade of pig iron by an electric furnace at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pa. The Borchgrevink electrolytic process for the treatment of zinc ore was experimented with in Mr. Borchgrevink succeeded in making his process a success with zinc ore in limestone Germany. containing less than 6 per cent. zinc. A new porous filter tile that is white and rigid was brought out by the General Filtration Company of Rochester, N. Y. An Important bulletin on electric furnaces for making iron and steel was published by the Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C. An electric welding process for welding iron sheets which will compete with riveting was brought out in Germany. For the electrothermic treatment of iron ores by a modified type of the original Bie Lorentzen process a smelter was erected at Ulefos, Norway. This is the first instance in Norway where a marketable pig iron from its own mine is produced by the electrothermic method. An improved apparatus for graphitizing carbon was patented by M. P. L. V. Héroult of In the present patent the carbon is broken into a suitable size and subjected to a Paris, France. It is then heated to a graphitizing temperature electrically. blast of air. A new process termed ferro-zincing or ironizing for coating steel with almost pure fron was devised, thus making a practically rustless steel. An electric furnace was brought out in Sweden having three electrodes, two mounted horlzontally in the same plane above the charge and the third vertical between the two horizontal. For extracting benzine from coal a new electric process was invented by a Swedish engineer. The principle that the components of explosive gaseous mixtures will combine without flame and at temperatures below the ignition points when in contact with incandescent solids has been applied by Prof. W. A. Bone and Mr. C. D. McCourt in the design of furnaces for commercial purTELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE. poses. Wireless telephone messages were successfully sent from New York to Philadelphia, a distance At sea warships 40 miles apart communicated with each other without any of about 90 miles. trouble. The longest distance attempted was between London and Berlin, but in this case the messages were not very clear. A portable wireless telegraph outfit, designed to send messages under favorable conditions 800 miles, was put in use by the United States Army Signal Corps. The telephone cable which will connect Aldeburgh, England, with Walcheren, Netherlands, a distance of 79 nautical miles, will on completion be one of the longest submarine telephone cables in the world. An ingenious apparatus was brought out in Germany which can transmit writing and drawing over a telephone or telegraph wire to an instrument that makes a perfect reproduction of the original. The Pennsylvania Railroad decided to run its telegraph, telephone, and signal wires in underground conduits between New York and Philadelphia. Official Experiments were carried on by Mr. J. H. Hammond, Jr., co-operating with the United States War Department, in the developing of a system for controlling torpedoes by wireless waves. reports of the Government state that vessels moving at speeds of 30 miles an hour may be controlled with precision and reliability at distances up to 8,000 yards. A wireless apparatus which enables the navigating officer of a ship to take bearings of wireless telegraph stations for finding the position of his ship and also indicating the presence of another ship was brought out by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. In January the largest and best equipped long distance telephone central office in the United States was placed in service in New York City. Along the coast of England signal guns fired by Hertzian waves are now used during fogs to warn passing vessels of dangerous rocks and shoals. The Betulander relay automatic telephone system was exhibited in London, England. In this system the selector and common relay units, after performing their respective functions, are automatically cut out of circuit and are immediately available for building up other connections. The Lackawanna Railroad started work on wireless telegraph stations which will be used for communication between Buffalo and New York. In the Wireless telegraphy in aeronautics was discussed in the August number of Knowledge. article a map is given of the wireless telegraph stations around Germany to determine the position of airships by night or during a fog. Prof. R. A. Fessenden perfected improved means for ships to communicate with each other under water, and also be warned of the approach of icebergs. About 1,500 employés are required to take care The Western Union Telegraph Company installed in its new building in New York City one of the largest operating departments in the country. of the trame, which averages approximately 150,000 messages a day. The greatest distance, it was reported, attempted during the year with radio signals was between Radio, Va., and the Eiffel Tower, Paris, in obtaining the difference in longitude between Washington and Paris. ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. Direct current of 2,400 volts will be used. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad started electrifying a portion of a 440-mile stretch across the Belt, Rocky, and Route Mountains. An order for 100 cars was placed by the New York Municipal Railway Corporation for use on The cars will be 67 feet long and will have three pairs of side doors, the elevated and subway lines. The maximum standing and seating capacity will be 270 people. thus eliminating vestibules." In March a railless trolley car system at Boksburg, Transvaal, South Africa, was opened to the public. This is the first installation of its kind in the Transvaal. The electrified division of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad from New York to New Haven, a distance of about 74 miles, was placed in regular operation in July. An interesting development in connection with the electrification of the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway was the use of auxiliary trucks that can be coupled to the electric locomotives used for switching and for hauling slow freight. Three important projects for electrification of railways in India were considered-viz., the sub ELECTRICAL PROGRESS IN 1914-Continued. urban railways of Bombay, the Ghats section of the Great Indian Peninsula and the suburban section of the Eastern Bengal State Railway at Calcutta. For the protection of grade crossings, automatic flagmen were installed on the Long Island Railroad, Long Island, N. Y. The flagmen consist of a bright swinging red light, imitating that of a man swinging a red lantern, and a loud sounding bell of the locomotive type. The chief features Several new designs of railless trolley cars were brought out in England. were dividing the car into two compartments and in bringing the floor close to the roadway so only one step was necessary. The regular operation of trains late in 1914 on the Kiruna-Riksgransen Railway from Narvik, Norway, to Lulea, Sweden, is one of the few instances, and perhaps the only one, of electric trains running within the Polar Circle, The road will be largely used for carrying iron ore. The Pennsylvania Railroad began work on a very complete plan of electrifying its suburban steam lines around Philadelphia. The single phase system will be adopted, with overhead wires. For use in the Grand Central Terminal, New York City, one of the largest electric locomotive cranes in the country was placed in service. It has two electrically operated cranes with a capacity of 100 tons at each end. The Chicago Elevated Railways ordered a large number of cars of different design from the present ones. The new cars will be all steel, of fireproof construction, have centre and end doors, and a seating capacity of 44 people. An improved car fan and lighting fixture was brought out by the safety Car Heating and Lighting Company, New York. The important feature is an air deflector under a disc fan, below which is the lamp. Electric locomotives for switching have proved, after 18 months trial on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, to be superior to steam in regard to speed of handling cars and reliability of service. Diesel electric motor cars were tried out on the line connecting Dresden, Coswig, and Meissen, Germany. The car has two trucks, one of which has three axles and the other two, the Diesel motor and dynamo being mounted on the three-axle truck and the electric motor on the two. Among the new types of trolley cars brought out was a 42-foot, double-deck, centre-door type, with inclosed stairways at each end leading to the upper deck. This car was placed in service by the Washington Railway and Electric Company of Washington, D. C. POWER AND TRANSMISSION. The electrical installation at the Joint Dock, Hull, England, is an excellent example of the latest British electric, conveying crane and lighting equipment. The entire project cost upward of $15,000,000 and took eight years to complete. One of the largest electrical installations in any Latin-American country was made by the Havana Electric Railway and Power Company of Havana, Cuba. The generating equipment consisted of three 12,500 K. W. turbo-generators. Work was started on laying a submarine cable under the Strait of Oresund from a power station on the Laga River, Sweden, to the Danish Island of Sjaeland. The cable will transmit electricity for lighting the entire northern part of the island. An order for a 25,000 K. W. turbo-generator, which will be one of the largest ever built, was placed with the Westinghouse Machine Company for use in the power house of the Edison Illuminating Company of Brooklyn. Many new water-power developments in Norway were contemplated or work actually started on them. Among the most important is a large power station of 50,000 horse-power which will be erected on the Folla River. A new type of current transformer was designed by Vedovelli, Priestley & Co., Paris. The principal feature is the special insulating material moulded under pressure around the windings and core of the transformer, thus forming both an electrical and mechanical casing. An electrically operated wagon with a bucket conveyor was built, which was used to advantage in sand and gravel pits and for handling coal. The Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C., Issued a pamphlet on safety rules to be observed in the operation and maintenance of electrical equipment and lines. A bill was introduced in the United States Senate providing for the development of electric power from the Potomac River, near Washington, D. C. It is estimated that a power plant could be built of 99,000 horse-power. A meter which records without the use of clock mechanism both the kilowatts consumed per hour and the maximum kilowatt demand was placed on the market by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Experiments made by Prof. H. K. Onnes of Leyden, Germany, showed that at a temperature a few degrees above absolute zero the electrical resistance of certain pure metals practically vanishes. Among the metals experimented on was lead. An improved high voltage outdoor oil switch was placed on the market by the General Electric Company that can be operated by hand, solenoid, or air. The operating mechanism is completely incased and is thus protected from the weather. For the steering of large ships an apparatus consisting of two 150-horse-power 120-volt direct current motors, which operate separately or together as occasion requires, was designed and built by the Diehl Manufacturing Company, Elizabeth, N. J. A furnace-charging machine was installed in a steel works in England which lifts by electric magnets the charging boxes that have been filled with pig iron and empties them into the furnace. A single-phase watt hour meter operating on the induction principal and having such important features as high initial and maintained accuracy was manufactured by the General Electric Company. JOINT STATE AND NAVY NEUTRALITY BOARD. SHORTLY after the outbreak of the European war the President of the United States appointed a Neutrality Board to advise the Department of State and other departments of the Government regarding the numerous questions with respect to the duties and the rights of the United States as a neutral nation, in cases which have constantly arisen and many of which are of a very delicate character. The Chairman of the Neutrality Board is Mr. James Brown Scott, formerly Solicitor for the Department of State, Secretary of the Carnegie Endowment and Director of its Division of International Law: associated with him are Capt. Harry S. Knapp, member of the General and Joint Boards of the Navy Department, and Capt. James H. Oliver, Director of the Bureau of Navel Intelligence and member of the General Board of the Navy. Headquarters, Washington, D. C. The Neutrality Board holds daily sessions to consider questions referred to it by the Department of State. IMPORTANT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD. Alberg-Under the Alps at the Arl Mountain, and extends from Langen to St. Anton, 6% miles; opened 1884. Andes Mountains-See "Trans-Andine." Big Bend-Drains the Feather River in fornia, 2 miles; opened 1886. Mont Cenis-Italy to France, under the Col de Call-Otira-In New Zealand, 5 1-3 miles. Bitter Root Mountains (Montana and Idaho)10,100 feet long. Blackwell-Under River Thames, England, 1% miles; opened 1897. Cascade Mountain-Through the Cascade Mount- Continental Divide, for the Denver and Salt Lake Gunnison-Southwestern opened 1909. Hoosac-Through Colorado, 6 miles; Hoosac Mountains, Mass., 44 miles; opened 1873. Khojak Pass-Inda, from Quetta to Kandahar, 2 miles. Loetschberg-Through the Alps, in Oberland, Mt. Roberts-From the shore of Gastineau Chan- Roger Pass-Under the Selkirk Mountains pene- mines, St. Clair-Under St. Clair River from Sarnia, St. Gothard-Through Goschenen with Airolo, in Switzerland, 9 1-3 miles; opened 1881. Severn-From Monmouthshire to Gloucestershire, England, 4 miles; opened 1886. Simplon-Through the Alps, 121⁄2 miles; opened 1905. Strawberry-Through the Wasatch Mountains. Trans-Andine Ry. tunnel-5 miles long, 12,000 TUNNELS IN AND ABOUT NEW YORK CITY. (For Subways in and about New York City, see Index). PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD SYSTEM-Tunnels under Hudson River extend from Pennsylvania Railroad Station, New York, to Weehawken, N. J. There is no station at Weehawken, the electric trains from the Pennsylvania Station run to Manhattan Transfer, near Newark, N. J., without a stop. Work started April 1, 1904; completed in 1910. Two tubes of cast iron rings, 23 feet outside diameter and 21 feet 2 inches Inside diameter; subaqueous portion 6,118 feet long. Manhattan Cross-Town Tunnels from the Penn- HUDSON AND MANHATTAN RAILROAD SYSTEM- South tunnels under Hudson River from Jersey City Tunnels (consisting of two single track tubes) extend from the Hoboken terminal of the Lackawanna Railroad to Washington St., Jersey City, with connections to the north tunnels and to the Erie Railroad station. At Washington St. a branch runs to the Pennsylvania Railroad station at Jersey City, where connections are made with the south tunnels. West from Washington St. to a point east of Summit Ave. is a double track concrete tunnel with a centre wall dividing the tracks. Work started March, 1906; completed in July, 1911. BELMONT TUNNEL under the East River from 42d RAPID TRANSIT TUNNEL under the East River from Two tunnels, both under the East River from the Battery, Manhattan, to Brooklyn, will be built. These tunnels will form part of the new subway system now under construction. unnel from Brooklyn to Staten Island, under the Narrows, is contemplated. |