It is understood that the Department has under consideration the question of locating the boxes on the right-hand side of the road for the convenience of the carrier. The above system can be used whether all the boxes are located on the right side of the road or not. The question of entirely abandoning the practice of numbering boxes is also being considered and if adopted, this suggested method of additional identification would of course be useless. It is simply mentioned here as an idea to aid in readily assorting mail in the office and as a more complete method of identification than under the present system. If the Department decides that the name of the owner on the box is sufficient, this suggested new plan has no further value and can be regarded as one of the many novel ideas in connection with the rural service which come up from time to time.
It may, however, be said that a box once located and numbered always retains its identity and no matter how many persons live at, or move to or from that locality, the box number retains its identity the same as a house retains its identity in a city.
Wireless Telephones in the Rural Service
From that memorable day in June, 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell discovered a faint sound emanating from the curious little machine over which three years of patient labor had been spent, until today, when the world is debtor to this great man for one of the marvels of the age, the telephone has been a constant wonder and especially so at this time, when its adaptability for the common uses of life has made it of value wherever civilization extends. Mr. Bell was a professor at Boston University and his honors came to him at an early age, for he was but twenty-nine when the patent that was to make him famous was granted by the Government.
He exhibited his invention at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition with but indifferent success; no attention was paid him until Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, a visitor at the fair, who knew the young inventor, placed the receiver to his ear while Professor Bell, in an adjoining room, spoke into it and, listening to it a moment, looked up with the exclamation, “My God, it talks!” Recognition by the judges was then hurriedly given and future success assured.
The fortieth anniversary of the award of this patent was fittingly celebrated at the annual dinner of the National Geographic Society in Willards Hotel, Washington, D. C., March 7, 1916. The account of what occurred there, the splendid tributes paid to Professor Bell by the distinguished men present, appears in the March number of the National Geographic Magazine, 1916, and presents a story of achievement of which every American can be justly proud, but is not a matter of pride to American genius alone, but shared alike wherever men do homage to intellectual worth and greatness.
But what of the future? Can the telephone be brought to still other uses than already known? Can it be made adaptable for field use, for rural purposes in the country districts of the United States? The Electrical Experimenter, for April, 1917, discusses a practical possibility in this direction, not for civil pursuits but for military needs. It mentions a wireless telephone set, mounted on a motorcycle for army purposes by means of radiophonic communication in connection with a military aeroplane. This is of course intended for military purposes only, but shows the great possibilities involved and advantages that may follow fuller investigation of wireless methods. All questions of wireless development for military needs, however, may now be safely left in the hands of those directly concerned. Perhaps the greatest interest centers at present in its possibilities in the field of the rural delivery service where its successful introduction would work a most tremendous change. If, for instance, it could be used by a rural carrier, what a field of opportunity it would open in connection with such service.
Is there a possibility of such accomplishments? It would seem that there is from the investigation and discovery of a young electrician, Earl Hanson, of Los Angeles, Cal. He recently demonstrated to the mayor of Los Angeles and the president of the telephone company that his apparatus could send music, talk of any kind, whispers and signals without wires. His device is so light and small and yet so effective that when attached to a bicycle used by a policeman, constant communication could be maintained with the laboratory. One or one thousand receivers can be attached, and each hears as distinctly as if they were in the room from which the sounds proceeded. The only explanation of this marvelous process given is that the inventor used very low frequency wireless waves in a new way. The great drawback to wireless telephony and telegraphy has always been that the air is one great “line” and always busy. Hanson’s plan aims to overcome this, to send messages though the air is split up around him by the operation of other stations!