In a single one of these monstrous buildings, the Hudson Terminal, there is a cable that runs from basement to roof and ravels out to reach three thousand desks.
This mighty geyser of wires is fifty tons in weight and would, if straightened out into a single line, connect New York with Chicago.

Yet it is as invisible as the nerves and muscles of a human body.
During this evolution of the cable, even the wire itself was being remade.

Vail and others had noticed that of all the varieties of wire that were for sale, not one was exactly suitable for a telephone system.
The first telephone wire was of galvanized iron, which had at least the primitive virtue of being cheap.

Then came steel wire, stronger but less durable.

But these wires were noisy and not good conductors of electricity.