Discussion on “report by the joint committee on inductive interference”, Spokane, Wash., September 11, 1914. (see proceedings for September, 1914)

P. N. Nunn: The paper just presented is one of signal interest and significance. It is of unusual moment in this, that it reports both an elaborate scientific study of great technical value and also a legal adjudication of conflicting interests between two public utilities of vast economic importance. Briefly stated, the paper reproduces a certain report to the Railway Commission of the State of California, by a committee authorized by it to investigate the subject of electrical interference by other electrical circuits with “communication” service, including telephone, telegraph and railway signal. The investigation, occupying several years, assumed the character of a research into the intricate phenomena of distant electromagnetic induction, its remote origin in the characteristics and manipulation of power apparatus and its acoustic effects upon telephone service. To present the details of the various tests, methods and apparatus employed has involved the production of fifty special reports now summarized in this general report which draws a series of conclusions and submits and discusses a proposed code of rules for the prevention of the interference in question.