Circled the Hemisphere

Instructive Demonstration of Modern Electrical Science.

MR. DEPEW TALKS ABOUT IT

Interesting Brest at the Electrical Exposition in New York Last Night — Route of the Messages and the Time They Took to Girdle the Globe.

New York, May 16. — Chauncey M. Depew was master of ceremonies at the Electrical Exposition tonight when two messages were sent by Prof. Chandler of the Postal Telegraph company, from one corner of the room and received by Thos. A. Edison in the other. The first message signed by Chauncey M. Depew and addressed to Edward D. Adams, read: “God created nature’s treasures, science utilizes electric power for the grandeur of the nations and the peace of the world.”

It went to Chicago, to Los Angeles, to San Francisco, to Vancouver, to Winnipeg, to Montreal, to Canso, to Boston, to London, and was repeated to New York. From London the message was transmitted to Tokyo, Japan, and was received back in 50 minutes.

The second message was from Edward D. Adams, to Chauncey M. Depew, and read: “Mighty Niagara, nature’s wonder, serving man through the world’s electric circuit, proclaims to all people science triumphant and the benevolent Creator.”

This message, over the wires of the Western Union company, made a circuit between New York and Galveston of 10,000 miles. It went by way of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and St. Louis. At Galveston it was handed to the Mexican Telegraph company and transmitted by way of Mexico, San Juan, Nicaragua, St. Elena, Ecuador, Valparaiso, Chili, thence over the Andes mountains to Rio Janeiro, Pernambuco, St. Vincent, to Lisbon. From Lisbon it went to Penzance, England, returning over the United States Atlantic cables to New York. The total circuit traversed was 27,000 miles, practically circling the Western hemisphere. Forty minutes after the message was sent out it was repeated from London.

Chauncey M. Depew was introduced by Speaker Hamilton Fish and said in part:

“The fables of antiquity are the facts of today. The poetry, genius and learning of the ancient world ascribed to the gods of Olympus various achievements in rapid transit, the transmission of intelligence and the metamorphosis of matter. These wonders of imagination were the inspiration of ancients, in their religion, their literature and their life, and to them the poetry, the philosophy of the modern world are largely indebted. Though the high intelligence and superb culture of Greece and Rome remained blindly superstitious before the miracles of mythology, Jupiter and Hercules, Apollo and Minerva are commonplace persons when compared with Morse and Edison, with Bell and Tesla.

“History is a dreary record of the conflicts of ambition and power, and the horrors, the devastations and the miseries created by war. While for thousands of years the antagonisms and energies of the rulers and leaders of mankind have been concentrated upon policies and actions which destroyed the possibilities of happy and comfortable living upon this planet for the masses of the people, the present century is distinct and distinguished not only in winning plaudits for making two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before but for rendering it possible for millions to subsist in comfort and lead happy lives where thousands had dwelt in poverty and ignorance. The most practical philosopher who ever lived was Benjamin Franklin. Theory and discovery were worthless in his judgment unless they could be utilized for some beneficial purpose. The kite, the string and the key in his hands won from nature her secret that the air-encircled globe is the exhaustive storage battery of electricity.”