The evening world. Newspaper, November 30, 1918, Page 9

How America’ s ‘Hello Army ~ Sent30,000,000 Calls a Day tions Every Second— ’ Wire Needed for Each By Joseph ‘HE matchless courage of the = fhe woods. ‘Most of the inventions used in origin. + Desert. of Mesopotamia. They were the snow-cdvered Alps. gust back from the various war zones, ince Uncle Sam stuck his fist under “goldiers of the Switchboard” they Gall the girls, and adu: “They've done their bit, you bet!” “These young women,” said Mr. 11, “were attached to the United tates Signal Corps, and they made good. Reports of Gen. Pershing’s big @rive that celebrated his birthday ‘on Sept. 13, 1918, told of the ‘perfect tel ephone communication’ that aided the @recision of the attack. That com- miunication was furnished by Ameri- can Switchboard Soldiers. In times, of peace millions of dollars in Wall Street and the Chicago wheat pit Dave depended upon their skill and agickness, and they proved equally, efficient in plugging calls to save ‘American lives.” ‘The telephone has found use in the trenches and out of the trenches, on the eca and under the sea and in communications out of the air, The * Boctres found use for them in thelr marin A British naval onary ap a bUCY at sea on which was the jnscription: “U. C. C-42 sunk here; please telephone Submarine Headquarters Kicl” The sailors epened the buoy and telephoned to the imprisoned crew in the depths of the ocean Mr, Carron did not tell all the ad- wantages of the Yankee invention. The Germans might be “listening: in ‘xs they did more than once in ne Man's Land.” But the wires recs guides for giving the range of we enemy's batteries, for detecting : approach of enemy planes, for getting information of the enemy. ‘Te coming of the alrcraf eral ing by the phone and warn! r arenes the threatened territory der. But the telephone as oo ee the peer of the smartest Gare-devi] scout. Our “listeners’, use: to throw a single wire into No Man's Land as near as posstble to the en- ‘emy trenches, with one end of It con- nected with an amplifier and a tele- phone receiver. “The amplifier, fr yi “enlarges al ere ast only picks up the magnetic leakage from the wires in the enemy's ‘trenches, but also serves like the an- dénmae’ of the wireless, picking up radiograms and even locating enemy radio stations.” vos MGentral,” the Soldier of the Switch- poard, found some queer locations for hep switchboard. ‘The central offices were located in battered old castles, in partly demolished dwellings and “jn dugouts many fect under ground, + fyitn stairways leading down to them, ~ Wie tg estimated that 80,000 miles of telephone circuit were needed for every 100,000 American troops at the {@nt. ‘The 100,000 operators on the “pattlefields of France of the Bell sys- tem alone handled every day 30,000,000 calla, This means 1,208,333 calls an pour, 20,140 every minute, or 336 each second, Some busy wires, but it was a very busy battlefront with the ar- tillery, infantry, tanks, balloons, Di- vision Headquarters and observation posts in action. Mr, Carroll estimates that there are 26,000 Bell system men in the mill- tary service and of these 2,100 are from New York City. The telephone organizations began training —bat- talions for the United States Signal Corps the day the United States en- tered the war. Every available sup- port is used for stringing the wires, from the trunk of a tree to an aban- goned German rifle. “The men who string the wires,” said Mr, Carroll, “never know when they may be called upon; it may be in broad dayiight or the dark of the night, in wind and rain and snow and mud, in storm of shell and gas, but always they carry on till their work is done. | “Nearly every list of American clta- tions for bravery contains the names of men who have maintained tele- phone communication between the pees t was of course,” sald Mr. sounds, The i Copyright, 1918, by The Press Publishing Oo, (The New York Evening World.) =~ " used | On Battlefields of France Women “Soldiers of the Switchboard” Stuck to Their’ Posts Under Fire and Made 336 Connec- Thirty Thousand Miles of 100,000 Troops. S. Jordan Allies and Americans has cast into shadow the brilliant achievements of the Crusaders of the Middle Ages. The Allies had set a swift pace for the Americans and their “itttle wooden swords,” dut the soldiers of six months and less in the making went over the top, while the veterans of Wilhelmstrasse took to the great conflict were of American The telephone, an American invention, was one of the greatest aids fm winning the war; and the telephone was used extensively by friend and foe al) over Europe. Wires were strung like tentacles across the battle- field. They spread over the walle of the Parthenon on the Acropolis at “Athens; they scrambled out on the Desert of the Sahara and spanned the flung above the clouds to the top of In an {llustrated lecture this week before the Jovian Club, H. J. Car- oll of the Information Department of the New York Telephone Company, gave an inkling of the “Hello” branch vot the service. It may be news to many New Yorkers that several hundred Yormer girl operators of this city have been serving on the front line ever the nose of Fritz. batteries and the observers while un- der fire, An artilleryman named Burns was read into the Army orders for keeping telephone wires to the ar- tillery repaired for two days and nights under the hottest of shell fire. Wires were shot from his hands as he worked.” “During one engagement,” Mr, Car- roll gaid, “the Germans concentrated thelr artillery fire on the American wires, which were cut many times, Couriers were forced to pass repoat- edly through numerous barrages in order to maintain communication. In the mean time the men of the Signal Corps, many of them calmly smoking cigarettes, restored the wires almost as fast as they were disrupted. One ™man reported that the line he worked was shot down twenty-four times, “What did you do? he was asked. ‘Why, I put it up the twenty-ffth time,’ he answered.” When Gen. Pershing first went to France, a number of the telephone men went with him. When he wanted to communicate with a camp some distance away he found that ther were no telephones. He asked a French engineer how long it would take to string the wires, “Not less than a week,” replied the Frenchman, “Sorry,” ‘said the General, “but I must have connection at once.” He gave a few commands to some Signal Corps men and in a jiffy they were paying out coils of wire from an automobile. Almost before the French engineers knew what was happening, the wires were up and Gen, Pershing was calm- ly issuing orders over them, “Results Pershing” as he has been called, During the last days of the war j the men broke and ran in all direc- “Heroine” Up. ‘JUMPING vP* INTO A TREE Is Done BACKWARDS 4 TAKE IT JUMPING DOWN ‘Ano PROJECT IT "JUMPING UP* NO TIME TO WASTE. Frees ot on @ small explosion of 48 at one of the arsenals now under construction, a panic en- sued among those working near and tions, Leading a party bound in the general direction of the ratlroad sta- tion was @ negro, hot-footing it with @ shovel still grasped in his hand, As he passed another party of sprinters some one shouted: th: shovel away, you— shouted the negro, without in his Might, “I ain't got no hrow it away.”—Judge, paus time to t ELL, old topper, the war ie done on both sides like a railroad restaurant fried egg. The old war is over. \ That 1s, the war 1s over for us single birds. our aerial squadrons were ma- hoeuvred by vocal orders that came by radio telephone from officers on the ground, The orders were carried through the air to each pilot and were heard clearly above the throb- bing roar of the airplano motors. The United States was the first! nation to demonstrate the military value of the telephone, notwithstand- ing its peaceful proclivities. At the time of the Boxer Rebellion in China our Smal Corps men alone, with the aid of the telephone and telegraph, kept the world in touch with the Im- perial City of Peking. Again was its use, emphasized in the Spanish-Amer- ican war and Heinie was quick to erase the importance of the “Hello” sys! Whi stories the “Soldiers of the tehboard” will have to tell when they return to New York! Through thick and thin they stood with the boys at the front and with thousands of thelr sisters helped to win the war, s December. HE name December is no longer appropriate, for it is derived from “decem," the Latin word, meaning “ten.” The name was first applied by the Romans, when the year was divided into ten months, with the addition of supplementary days to complete the period required for the revolution of the earth around the sun, When the calendar of Romolus was amended in 713 B. C. by Numa Pompillus and the year was divided into twelve months, December be- came the twelfth month, but retained its original name, The Emperor Com- modus, who reigned in the second century, attempted to change the name of December into Amazonius, in honor of a fair favorite of that name who he had painted to resemble an Amazon, This innovation was not popular, and when Commodius died from poison administered by another feminine favorite, the name of Ama. zonius died with him, ‘The ancient Saxons called the last month Winter- monat, which wag afterward changed to Heligh-monat, or holy month, when they were converted to Chris. tianity, The name was later changed to Christ-monat, because the month contains the annive: 'y of the birth of Christ, Finally the name “| ber” was adopted, teh ements Of course the married men will have to go home to their wives. And as Solomon used to sing, “When tho war is over, Lena, we will all go home and fight.” ‘The married birds will have to step right home, as, now that the war is healed, they haven't got any alibi for staying in the army. And the cannoneer’s future happiness depends on the method he uses in stepping up to the old home plate. He's got to have the power of command, And if he hasn’t got the essential qualities he is a gone cuckoo, Wifey will put the old ring back in his nose, and a once bold, cussing cannoneer will toboggan back to the ranks of hambacked, castanet-kneed, dish-faced married man, There ain't any romance in a cannoneer’s homecoming. What 1s he going to buzz the wife about the war? He don't know any more about the war than a one-eyed armadillo does about whiffletrees. Where was Gus Cannoneer and Co. when the Yanks looped it over the Rhine? They were chasing the Kaiser over the Ohio River, Where was John Cannoneer when the aiming points were screaming overhead and par- alaxes were bursting underfoot? Where was George Cannoneer when Third Lootenants fainted and brave men grew pale? Where was Bill Cannoneer on the day of the big battle? Where was he? Why, the fathead was N. C. 0. in charge of quarters. Therefore, the cannoneer will have to knock wife dead with his power of command or spend the rest of his career wiping dishes and sewing doilies. He's got to step right out there in front of the family battalion and snap ‘em to attention. When he flatwheels into the home barracks and wifey tries to kiss him on the beak he has to bawl the ears off her for moving in ranks and take away her ealmon colored card, thus depriving her of the privilege of spending her week-ends and hubby's nickels in a five and ten cent store. Everything depends on the power of command. Step right np and put the family cat and dog through fifty minutes’ intensive redrill. Then give the wife and the four kids equads right and hike ‘em off over the neighborhood terrain. Teach ‘em the arm signals, and if they are slow in learning, shoot ‘em back to the observation area. We're warning you, men, that you have to make good at the Jump or you're gone ganders, Go to it. P. S.—After the army {s unravelled and we are back in cits, an frregular cannoneer is going to have a corrugated time trying to bust bis regular habits, He is going to be awfully lonely without anybody to stake him to a four-barrelled bawling out for tossing off squads east when the arm signal calle for a column and a half right, But there are some stunts in civilian existence which aren't so different from artillery life. For instance, when the traffic cop at 42d and Broadway toots two short blasts on his GO-GO whistle all the ex-cannoneere located in the adjacent skyscrapers are going to pile out of the barrack doors like weasels out of a forest fire. The minute that fool cop toots the civilian equivalent for the 18th Battery reveille signal he is going to be smothered in a barrage of hobnailed field shoes inhabited by former cannoneers. ‘When a bold cannoneer gets an earful of his battery falbin whistle be ts going to fall in, war or po war, You can’t teach an old hound Here Are Some of the Deceptions Used by the -— Moving Picture People in Counterfeiting Real Dangers—No Trouble at All to be Washed Over the Falls, When an Invisible Wire Holds the nN PY, ih ian Oe vay 4 ‘*Back Home’’ BY CANDIDATE ARTHUR (“BUGS”) BAER (13th Training Battery, F. A. C. O. T. S., Camp Zachary Taylor, Ky.) new tricks, and once @ cannoneer, always a cannoneer, y N “ AS “MOTORING AROUND THE DAGGER! THROWING’. BLADES ARE 'UCK CLOSE TO BODY AND At eWITH DRAWN By WIRES WHEN FI THEN Film 18 PROJECTED BACKWARD A REMINDER, CHAPLAIN on making his & large cantonment stopped at the cot of a darky and said: “Sam, you yesterday.” The darky replicd: “Well, pahsdh, Ah don’ was kicked by a mule.” “What in the name of goodness aid he kick you for?” “Ah guess Ah don’ fo'got to salute,” |—Minneapolis Tribune, how ts it that you are in bed to-day? | | You were quite well when I spoke to SATURDAY, By Tricks It Seemingly Is Nothing for a Performer to Spring From the Ground Into a Tree Top, but He Really Jumps From the Tree to the Ground—Simply Reverse the Film and How Heroes Are Made Revealed. By Marguerite Mooers Marshall Copyright, 1918, by The Pres Publishing Oo, (The New York Brening World.) ‘OW movie ghosts are made to walk, how the beautiful heroine leaps H trom « precipice or over Niagara Falls and bobs up serenely from Topes, nets, guards, Scenes in the drama ors and camera men cannot create, Do you remember, for example, the film drama of the workman who fell asleep and dreamed that he could build a house by electricity? He | sat on @ stool and pushed @ button—then bricks hopped gaily on top of cach other, doors hung themselves, @ roof fell into place of its own volition, and the house would have stood complete to the last nail had not the dreamer’s pipe fallen into his lap, thus waking him up from his “pipe dream,” The explanation, according to Mr. Croy, is simply that the picture was taken “with the reverse English.” He explains it by instancing another favorite picture in which the audi- ence apparently sees a man jump from the ground to the top of a tall tree. “The action,” he writes, “was backward from what it appeared to be on the film, To make the jumping picture the man crawled to the top of the tree and the camera was fo~- cused on him, The photographer looked at the distance down that the man was to cover and estimated the number of seconds the action would take, put his hand over the lens of the camera to eliminate all light, and ran through a corresponding amount rounds in the base hospital of | of fim without exposing It, To an attachment of his camera especially constructed for trick work he fastened his crank so that the film would not proceed in the regular order, but would go backward, By his dial he could tell just how many feet of film he had run forward without ex- posure, and this he estimated to be jenough to cover the action that was to take place, “At a word from the director the man in the tree top rose and sprang TraMc cops have either to change their GO-GO signals or they will have tu put ear. muffs on all the ex-cannoneers, Things are going to seem weird and wonderful to the ex-ex-ex-can- noneer until he gets his range and establishes a flash defilade. He will be chirping deflection and deflection differences to the elevator boys and bawling ‘em out for not keeping their heady out of the way of the panoramic elevator starting handle. How I Began My Stage Career | FLORENCE NASH. T wouldn't be exactly right to say I [ever entered the theatrical profes- sion. From my earliest recollec- tions I was in the midst of theatricals and, like Topsy, I “Just growed” up in it, They tell me I made my first ap- pearance on @ stage at the age of five, and I finally remember enough of my early life to believe they are right My father, the late Phil Nash, was a well known theatrical booking agent and owned stock companies. From the time I could toddle I was in and about the theatre, They tell me it was as @ member of a stock company in Now Jersey that I first acted on a sta It seems that I had watched @ performance and got the idea that my appearance at a certain point would improve the play wonderfull | So 1 betook myself to the leading lady's dressing room and smeared my face with her make-up lavishly, Then I just walked on and was yanked off After that faux pas I wbandoned my stage career for several years really played my first part when 1 was fifteen. Father had a stock com- pany in Hoboken with the late John Bunny as director, They were to play a piece called “Lost ‘Twenty-Four Hours.” After it opened the ingenuc became {ll and I offered my services. They were accepted and I did well in the part, Father was rather surprised to see in the play, ag he did not know 1 as going in, but luck was with me at the first performance, for I was called before the curtain several times and father decided I might as well continue in the role until the other girl got well, I did and the play made money. rm) Woot Ss \\ ee \ pocseaioee O). |i) Sane FLORENCE. NASH to stay in one of father's stock com- panies that he finally consented and| I got a regular job in Philadelphia. I played the part of the maid in “The Little Minister” and my cent was so good I was asked to give the leading lady lessons in the use of wald accent, After that engagement hard luck, to f thinking, cam clear from the Mmbs, landing on the ground, the camera meanwhile re- cording his movements, The film was run backward instead of for- ward by means of the crank gear especially made for such work, When it came time to show this to the audience the first frame that met thelr eyes was the last one taken— the one showing him striking the ground, As a result, to them he seemed to be accomplishing the startling feat of standing still and jumping into the top of a tree. “On the same principle the house bullt by electricity was filmed; the house was actually being torn gown. The bricks were photographed being shoved out of the wall by @ hand out of sight of the camera and the film reversed in the showing.” Ghosts, the happenings in a dream or a reverie, the shadows of future events, are shown in moving pictures by double exposure and by certain mechanical or chemical methods of fading in or out details of any given scene, The effect of abnormal speeding up of any action or individual ts ob- tained simply by taking the film slowly, since the slower it is taken the faster the action 1s projected on the screen. And, speaking of speed, movie fans probably remember tho first of the films which appeared to depict a visit to the heavens, This picture showed an enthusiastic mo- toriat leaping from a precipice to the moon and making a race course of Saturn to escape pursuing speed cops. From the precipice on every scene was taken inside a studio, “When tho car was launched into space,” records Mr. Croy, “the film was recording only the trip of a miniature—a duplicate of the real car and driver in every way except that of size, In the car was seated a small dummy of the driver made to scale, The moon, located at an adventurous NOVEMBER 30, Eacy to Make Ghosts Walk Or Heroes Jump From Cliffs below, how the hero motors to the moon or builds a house by elec. hg tricity—these and a ecore of other mystifications of the } screen are explained in all their intimate workings by ; Homer Croy in his remarkable book on the past, present A and future of the cinematograph, the book which he has } called, “How Motion Pictures Are Made.” Trick photography, clever carpentry, hidden chaina, combination to produce the most thrilling and realistic {8 no illusion, no dream of the most erratic imagination, which @ working partnership of ingenious directors, act- of the Movies Get the Opposite Effect— for the Screen Now First skilful acting, are used singly or im of the screen. And apparently there distance of twenty feet, was another | model. The sky with its stars and Milky Way was stretched on boards, “After his ride over the moon the driver leaped to Saturn, ten feet away, the model being suspended on wire and photographed during its flight. Around and around the rim of Saturn, the small car sped, operated } by invisible wires, The whole was H taken with a short-focus lens, so that | the model of the car and the man } seemed life size when shown to the ! } | | mystified audience.” Nowadays, the writer adds, the sup- posed feats of skill and daring usa- ally are performed, and not faked, but the public does not see how they are performed or what safeguards are thrown about them, “In 'A Daughter of the Gods,’ he adduces an illustration, one of the scenes that the audience was at @ joss to explain how it was done showed Annette Koellermann being washed over a waterfall while her hands and feet were bound. Slowly she came over, struggling realiatic- ally before the camera, seemingly dashed from rock to rock. Im the early days the picture would have been accomplished by having the camera at such @ distance that the audience could not be sure that @ boy was not doubling in her part, but in the pictures before them they knew that this was not being done, for they could see her features all the while, “Although they could see her fea- tures, there was something that the director took pains that they should Hot see, and that was a rope around her waist manipulated by two men bebind @ blind,” And this is the “inside another thrilling screen preven er of the helpless girl in @ frame ef long-bladed knives, hurled by the villain, “It 1s @ drama, sure enough! The scene is accomplished in reality.” writes Mr. Croy, “by the director calmly golng up and placing the knives where his practiced eye dic- (ates, pushing the girl's head over if the danger don't seem appagent enough. To the knives, and invisible to the motion picture camera, are fine wires, fastened to the handles by - means of hooks, as may be seen in * the Instance of the knifo outlined against the left sleeve of the girl's dress, The camera is started up and by means of reverse motion a pio- ture is taken of the knives being jerked out, The last knife out, when shown on the screen will be the first one in. The audience goes home sate ifled that sooner or later the girl wil} pay dearly for this unwar posure of herself,” aM ae Ruthless cannibal chi Photo drama usually are niceaaal attired—at a local studio, from extras supplied by an employment ageney, one nme Jungle denizens are usually 00 well fed—or doped— aah ped—to start any. Thus does the movie ror up to nature! Dold tho.atio, “How Mction Pictures Are is published by Harper & Brothers, otch age! The Father of Chemistry.. HE first great original investiga- AL tor in the realm of modern chemistry, and the father of that sclence, was Dr. Joseph Black, who was born of Sedtch parentage in France in 1728, and died in Edin- purgh 119 years ag® His work asa selentific discoverer revolutionized chemistry and disproved scores of theories that were relics of the super- my way my way. My sister Mary and I were sent to a conve though I was permitte to my heart's content, the footlights were not there and I m d them. When I came out! of the school I mad Straight for adway and was given a role in ho Boys of Company B.” ‘Then “The Sinner,” “Within” the * in which I had tho Aggie Lynch part; “The Land of the Free and my present starring vehicle, “Remnant.” 1 am now in a role that I love and I believe “Remnant” will give me a chance to write by name ‘The next summer I begged so bard] op the gesoll of fame~maybe, he stitious dark ages. By proving that a gas not identical with atmospheric air was found in alkalies, he mado it plain that various dissimilar gases might exiat, and thus laid the founda- if tion for pneumatic chemist; troduced the name and. thease a latent heat, and this discovery ud | gested to Watt, his Pupil, a ae ta provements in the steam 4 After a long and useful 1: while sitting at a tabi Por. ind that he did not drop the gt milk which he held at the memes inne hand, but rested it upon his knee, ‘. and was, at first, theught ‘te fallen asleep, Dr, Black's theories inspired many of wonderful and useful * the last century,