THE Telephone which we mentioned last evening (21st) as being fixed up between Mr R. G. Alford's office and Mosera MacEwen Frickel's store is now in working order, and may be seen and spoken through by any one desirous of inspecting the same.
It will be remembered that there was some talk a few months since of a Company being farmed here to introduce a Telephone Ex- chauge into the city, similar to that now established in Singapore; but that, as several parties appeared on the scene with rival claims upon the Government for a monopoly, the scheme seems to have been pigeon-holed ever since. The present Tele- phone has been set up by Mr Alford, with the intention, we believe, of affording that easy means of communication to any one who chooses to apply for it. As the in- struments are obtained from Home at a mo- derate cost, and the outlay for fixing the wire in the business part of the town is not great, it is proposed to start a central office where each one owning a Telephone can have his wire hooked on, at a given signal, to any of the others with whom he desires to communicate. This may be done, we understand, for the modest sum of $10 per month, assuming that thirty or forty residents can be found to enter into the scheme. The instrument used is a very simple affair, and is the same as that in use by the Post Offices at Home. The person at either end of the wire speaks over a small sounding-board, instead of into a tube (as is the ease in the older kind of instruments), and places two tubes, one at each ear, in order to receive the return message from the opposite end. The experiments to-day wore an entire success, and although the distance is considerable between the two places of business named, there was no difficulty in carrying on an animated and continuous conversation. An electric bell is attached to each instrument, in order to call the attention of the operator to the fact that the man at the other end desires to have a few words." It was somewhat amusing to listen to the interrogatory part of a conversation in Chinese between two natives, and the amusement amounted to something like wonder if not swe on the part of the Chinese who watched with eagerness the testing process. No difficulty has been experienced in conveying the wire along the verandahs of the houses situated between the two points, and indped every facility has been placed by property-holders in the way of those who made the experiment. When the Colony gets intersected with the wires connected with these wonder- ful little sounding boards, the increase of convenience will be immense--the total being made up of small journeys avoided, chits rendered unnecessary, and trifling or serious communications effected, which, though difficult to defiue, make up much of the day's work at one's desk during the working day. It is eren believed that before Jong the Docks will be within the personal superintendence of the Secretary from his Queen's Road office, by means of direct orders issued through the telephone, as a submarine line presents no formidable difficulties in the way. Present drawbacks as to communication with the Peak levels. and the suburbs, will doubtless disappear as the telenhung becomes more familiar; and it is expected that the telephone will become more popular with the Chinese than the telegraph, at least for comparatively short distances,
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