Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1917 — Underseas Telephones Not An Impossibility, is Belief [ARTICLE]

Underseas Telephones Not An Impossibility, is Belief

Of recent years there has been much discussion about a telephone service between America and Europe. Romancers have taken delight in picturing the hero of the future as “ringing up" the heroine in London, from a Broadway telephone booth. But it would seem that the thing may be possible after all. Recently the largest submarine telephone cable In existence was laid under the Hudson river, running from Nyack to Tarrytown. This telephone connects the two systems on either side of the river, and constitutes an Important link in the telephone service of the district. The size of the cable and the difficulties which attended Its laying made the event one of special Interest in the technical world Experts profess to see In the success achieved a promise of ’ transatlantic telephone lines. .

A length of cable 14,670 feet long was required for the job. It took a sand-scow, a tugboat and a lightdraft tug eight days to lay the cable, which weighed about ninety tons. Seventy-four pairs of wires were run through the big tube, and the people on both sides of the river can now hold “submarine” conversation just as though there was not several miles of water, between telephones.