The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

12 THE PHONOSCOPE April, 189? popular Science How It Feels to Be Telephoned Through There is only one man in the world who has been telephoned through. He is Torger O. Ende son, a swede of Rock Dell, Olmsted County, Minn. He held the ends of a telephone wire while people several miles amy talked through him. The electric current knocked him down, but he held bravely to the wires, and the remarkable experiment was a complete success. His performance has attracted wide attention among scientific men. Here is the first account that Mr. Enderson has ever written concerning it : "To the Editor. — I believe that I am the only man in the world who was ever talked through. It is a strange experience, and one that I do not care to duplicate. Although it occurred very recently, it seems to have attracted the attention of scientists, and I have received a number of inquiries from them. " I was getting read} to go and fix up the tele phone wire which seemed to be broken somewhere between Rock Dell and Hayfield. These two towns are seven miles apart, and we could not get a message through at all. The electricity would not work, or the wire was broken, or something was wrong, and as nobody knew what it was, we had to investigate. AYe suspected it was a broken wire, and so J. \V. Lundale, the operator at Rock Dell, asked me to go out and find the trouble. If it v. as a broken wire, he said, he wanted me, when I got to the place, to take hold of the two ends so that he could send a message through me. "You see, he wanted me to be the connection between the two broken ends of the wire. You know, when 3-outalk through the telephone it ain't the sound wave from your voice that goes over the wire, but it is an electrical vibration. So it was this electrical vibration that was to go through me. I was afraid to try it, but Lundale told me that there would not be any danger at all, and so I said I would, provided it was a broken wire that caused the trouble. Lundale and I set our watches at the same time and started out to hunt up the break. It was a sure enough break, and it happened about three miles from Rock Dell. " I looked at my watch after I got to the broken wire, and found that I had forty minutes to get ready to be the connection. I made a loop on each end of the broken ends of the wire, so I could get a good hold, and there would be no mistake about the connection being all right. I had not gone alone to this place, as there were four men with me — Yorkel Jorgenseon, Martin Hanson, Cyrus Rierson, and Andrew Olson. After a while it got to be the time when I had agreed with Lundale to try the experiment. I took hold of the loops and Martin Hanson held the watch. Then Lundale called up Hayfield, the call for which is two rings. I could feel in my body what station was called. If somebody had hit me on the head twice when Lundale called Hayfield it would not have been any plainer to me. " Hayfield did not answer at first, and Lundale called it up three times. The last time was too much for me, and I fell to the ground, losing hold of one wire. I was not hurt any, only just knocked down, and I grabbed hold of the wire that I had dropped. After a couple of minutes Lundale called up Oslo. I could feel the five short rings for that place, just like five thrills going through me. " After |a little while Lundale called up Dodge Center by three rings. It was pretty hard for me, but I stood it, for I had made up my mind that I would not give in just as long as I could hold myself together, but when Lundale gave Austin a call he rang me down as flat as a pancake. I never did know what the Austin call was, but I think it takes a pretty good long ring to get the town. Even this did not hurt me, so I got up after a minute or two and took hold of the ends of the wire and made the connection for the answer from Austin. I managed to hold out until the time Lundale and I had agreed that I was to hold the wire was up. Then I fixed the wire, and we all went back to Rock Dell. When I got back to Dell Lundale told me that while I was holding the wires he got an answer from Oslo, which was seven miles away. He had also a* talk with Dodge Center, which is twenty miles from the Dell. He had quite a talk with Austin, forty miles away, but he did not hear from Hayfield, which, I believe, was because the operator at that place was not there when the call came. There is no reason why he should not have answered if he had heard the ring. ' ' I cannot say that my experience as a means of connection of telephone wires hurt me any to amount to anything. Of course, the electricity jerked my muscles terribly. I seemed to suffer the most in my arms, particularly in the arm that was holding the broken wire that ran toward the Dell. All the while the talking was going on I felt hard shocks in my chest, but I can hardly explain how it really felt. Just the same, if anybody is thinking of trying the same thing who has not verystrong nerves, thev had better take my advice and give the idea up. "You see, it does not make any difference how strong a man is ; if he has not got good nerves electricity does not agree with him. I've had lots of little shocks in fixing telephone wires, but they never have made me lame or anything of that kind before. It seems to me that there must have been a mighty powerful current of electricity passing along that wire when I acted as the connection. I remember at a fair once taking hold of the handles of one of those machines that they give you electric shocks with, and that made me feel just a very little bit like I felt when I was holding those broken wires. Besides the pains in my chest and in my arms, I felt just as if somebody was pricking me a little all over, and then as if in some way or other they had been able to grab hold of my nerves and give them little pulls. ' ' I am not at all nervous, and it takes a good deal to startle me, so I was not scared at all while these things I have written about were going on. It never seemed to me that as long as you were careful there was any danger in letting a little electricity into you. It all depends on how you do it. I thought of all those things when I was holding these wires. When it came so fast that it knocked me to the ground I thought it was getting sort of strong, but I did not feel there was any reason for me to be frightened. "T. O. EXDERSOX." Mr. Enderson's experience was certainly most remarkable. That he was able to endure the continued shocks and be none the worse for acting as a conductor for a tremendous current of electricityfalls little short of marvelous. It is no exaggeration to say that ninety-nine persons out of a hundred would have nearly died had they grasped the ends of the broken wires. These wires were not exactly what are known as live when broken, but immediately the connection was formed, and the telephone put into use, they practically became so. The facts stated — and there is no question about their accuracy — dispel some greatly cherished theories. In other words, no one knows exactly how much electricity a man can stand without producing death. — Chicago, III., Inter-Ocean. of many a fire at similar surface buildings in collieries and elsewhere, in which timber covered with coal dust may be in intimate connection with heated metal plates, has been offered in a German colliery. The surface works of the colliery are made chiefly of iron, the galvanized corrugated sheets which form the walls of the building being supported by strong iron girders. It became necessaryto repair a pipe passing through one of the sheets forming a wall facing the south. A mechanic, on going to remove the layer of coal dust from a girder .close to the sheet, burned his hand. The official inquiry showed that the layer of coal dust, which contained a large proportion of pulverized rock, had become ignited along the whole length of the metal wall. The heat ©f the sun had struck right through, and the coal dust, as was proved by the layer of white ash on the top, had been burning for a considerable time. Successful flnventions The most notable exhibit at the Food and Industrial Exhibition iu the Grand Central Palace and American Institute Fair, Madison Square Garden, this city, was the display made by Hamei>chlag & Co., the well known manufacturers of patented electrical specialties. This firm are electrical contractors and dealers iu electrical supplies of every character. The principal feature of their display at the food show was the marvelous device invented by A. Hamerschlag and known as the Cathoscope, which has proved itself the most perfectly developed of the Roentgen or X-ray Machine. This apparatus shows the title inwardness of man in a remarkably plain A proof of the remarkable case with which dry coal dust may be brought to ignition, even byexposure to the sun's rays, and also an explanation and distinct manner. It is being used iu innumerable cities by Exhibitors, Physicians and the Scientific Fraternity, and being protected by pateuts, offers a lucrative field for investment as its money earning capacity is far larger than that of any machine in the world of equal cost. It attracted much attention at the show and excited the wonder of others.