The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1915)

76 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. THOS. A. EDISON TALKS ACROSS THE CONTINENT. Friends at the Laboratory at Orange Converse with the Inventor in San Francisco — Send Edison Music 3,400 Miles Over Wires — A Record Breaking Order Day for Edison Products. While Thomas A. Edison was surrounded by his friends in a specially arranged booth on the grounds of the PanamaPacific Exposition at San Francisco on October 21, the evening of Edison Day, a number of his friends had gathered in the Edison laboratory at Orange to receive what he termed his "first real telephone message" across the continent. In the laboratory were nearly 200 invited guests, who enjoyed to the utmost the historic evening. An amplified receiver made possible for Mr. Edison his use of the telephone in the across-conti that a record had been completed that day which would convey a message to Mr. Edison from his friends in the Orange laboratory. The record in part contained the following: "In commemoration of the thirty-sixth anniversary of your great invention, the incandescent lamp, many of your friends, including members of your family, associates of the early days of Menlo Park, heads of departments of your great organization and all the members of your engineering staff, are gathered in the library of your laboratory. We are all distinctly Edison. This address, ure at the end with the perfect reproduction. "That's fine," he said. He was asked to play the record back from San Francisco, and a machine at that end was started and the West Orange audience heard the record repeated. Mr. Edison then carried on a conversation with a number of friends at the laboratory, among whom was Carl H. Wilson, vice-president and general manager of the Edison interests. After he congratulated Mr. Edison upon the honors paid him at San Francisco, he remarked: "I have got some good business news to convey to you, Mr. Edison." "What is it?" asked the gre.at inventor. "We have been celebrating Edison Day at this Guests in Edison Laboratory at Orange, N. J., Listening to Cross Country Telephoning. nent conversation, which was arranged as a part of the celebration to commemorate the thirty-sixth anniversary of his invention of the incandescent electric light. The great Edison plant was well illuminated, and over the laboratory floated the American flag, brought out in distinct contrast by electricity against the darkened sky. As the visitors were ushered into the library of the laboratory they found the place lighted with numerous incandescent lamps, while Mr. Edison's picture was surrounded by them. American colors draped the hall and the platform erected over Mr. Edison's own desk, on which the instruments that were to amplify the sound and carry on the event were placed. One of the interesting exhibits was one of the first generators devised by Mr. Edison. There was also a section of the Atlantic submarine cable over which the first message was sent. Dr. Miller Reese Hutchinson, chief of the recording laboratory, had charge of the Orange entertainment. On the chair of each of the guests was an individual receiver, and before getting the San Francisco connection Dr. Hutchinson remarked for instance, is being made to you by your greatest favorite, the Edison diamond disc phonograph." When asked to reply Mr. Edison insisted on having his joke and said, "Let me get my glasses." He then said : "It may seem strange to those who know my work on the telephone carbon transmitter that this is the first time I have ever carried on a conversation over the telephone. Trying to talk thirtyfour hundred miles on my first attempt at a telephone conversation seems to be a pretty big undertaking, but the engineers of the Bell system have made it easier to talk thirty-four hundred miles than it used to be to talk thirty-four miles. In my research work I have spent a great many years listening to the phonograph, but it gives me a singular sensation to sit here in California and hear the new diamond disc phonograph over the telephone all the way from Orange, N. J. I heard the record of Hutch's talk very plainly. I should now like to hear a musical record. 1 f you have one handy I wish you would play that Anna Case record from 'Louise.' " The selection from "Louise" could not be found, but Anna Case's Charmant Oiseau from "The Pearl of Brazil" was played instead. Mr. Edison expressed great pleas end of the line, and to-day we have received orders for 7,300 machines, reaching a total value of $563,000." "Sounds good. Looks like business, doesn't it?" remarked Mr. Edison. The conversation then shifted to Chicago, and the guests in Orange listened to a talk between Mr. Edison and John J. Carry, chief engineer of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Mr. Carty congratulated Mr. Edison, and said that he was pleased to give him the first information of the wireless conversation from Arlington, Va., with the Eiffel Tower in Paris. "A notable achievement," replied Mr. Edison. "You and I ought to get together with my phonograph and your wireless telephone to increase sound waves. With a megaphone attachment an entire audience on the Pacific Coast might readily hear a concert on the Atlantic seaboard." The conversation with Mr. Edison 3,400 miles away with his various friends was perfectly audible and distinctly characteristic of the man. After Mr. Edison had left the booth at San Francisco Mrs. Edison was placed on the wire and spoke to her two sons, Charles and Theodore, in Orange. In the first rows were members ot Mr. Edison's