"Telephoning the Roar of Niagara"

[The following article w/image, reproduced here in full, appeared in Western Electrician, vol. 28, no. 24, p. 405. No author was cited.]

The roar of the falling waters of the Falls of Niagara is now transmitted to New York, Buffalo and other distant places by long-distance telephone in connection with the Bell service. In order to accomplish this a long-distance transmitter has been installed in the Cave of the Winds under the Falls. This transmitter is enclosed in a small box and has a megaphone attachment to gather the sound of the tumbling waters as they plunge over the cliff and break on the rocks below. The point where the telephone has been placed is right where the thundering waters pour over the precipice, and could the users of telephones have transmitted to them the scene about the spot, they would view rainbow land, for all about the telephone transmitter there are rainbows galore. In the illustration, the light streak in front of the megaphone is made by a rainbow of great beauty.

In the illustration the transmitter and attachment are seen standing on a ledge of rock in the spray cloud of the Cave of the Winds. Running off from the bottom will be seen the wires that extend to the Niagara Falls Bell exchange, the line being carried across Goat Island on trees and over the bridges etc. the mainland, where the pole lines of the Bell company are reached. The switchboard in the Niagara Falls exchange makes it possible for the operator to make connection with outside places for the transmission of the roar. In the Bell booth in the Electricity building at the Pan-American Exposition the noise of the thundering waters will be heard with great distinctness, and will no doubt form an interesting feature of the telephone exhibit.