land, of Boston, had become
associated with him in his experiments, and they took out several joint
patents subsequently. The first practical use of the system took place
on a thirteen-mile stretch of the Staten Island Railroad with the
results mentioned by Edison above.

A little later, Edison and Gilliland joined forces with Lucius J.
Phelps, another investigator, who had been experimenting along the same
lines and had taken out several patents. The various interests were
combined in a corporation under whose auspices the system was installed
on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, where it was used for several years. The
official demonstration trip on this road took place on October 6,
1887, on a six-car train running to Easton, Pennsylvania, a distance of
fifty-four miles. A great many telegrams were sent and received while
the train was at full speed, including a despatch to the "cable king,"
John Pender. London, England, and a reply from him. [17]

[Footnote 17: Broadly described in outline, the system
consisted of an induction circuit obtained by laying strips
of tin along the top or roof of a railway car, and the
installation of a special telegraph line running parallel
with the track and strung on poles of only medium height.
The train and also each signalling station were equipped
with regulation telegraphic apparatus, such as battery, key,
relay, and sounder, together with induction-coil and
condenser. In addition, there was a transmitting device in
the shape of a musical reed, or buzzer. In practice, this
buzzer was continuously operated at high speed by a battery.
Its vibrations were broken by means of a key into long and
short periods, representing Morse characters, which were
transmitted inductively from the train circuit to the pole
line, or vice versa, and received by the operator at the
other end through a high-resistance telephone receiver
inserted in the secondary circuit of the induction-coil.]

Although the space between the cars and the pole line was probably not
more than about fifty feet, it is interesting to note that in Edison's
early experiments at Menlo Park he succeeded in transmitting messages
through the air at a distance of 580 feet. Speaking of this and of
his other experiments with induction telegraphy by means of kites,
communicating from one to the other and thus from the kites to
instruments on the earth