270 DIRECTIONS roi; TOUKIST.S 



ous Imililiiig iisL'd for t(.4fgia])liiL' jmrposes cannot 1a' mistaken,- 

 as it luonis up like a (Jolossns over tlie low thvellings ot' tiie ti>li- 

 ennen. The visitor may reckon on receiving a cordial welcome. 

 The officials of the Company are most courteous ami attentive to 

 strangers, and ready to explain all the mystei-ie> of telegiviphy. 

 The eye is at first Itewildered looking at the complicated appa- 

 ratus by which cable messages are sent or received. Kevs, key- 

 boards, jars, wires, wheels ami other telegi-aphic parajjhernalia 

 seem to the uninitiated a mass of inexti'icable confusion. But 

 the operator now seats himself bef(j';e the "Eecorder," the famous 

 instrument invented by Sir William Thompson, which has (piite 

 superseded the older instrument kn(jwn as the '' lletlector,'' and 

 made a new era in sub-marine telegraphy. He in([uires of the 

 operator at Valencia, Ireland, 1,700 miles away, what kind of 

 weather they have. The last movement in .sending the message 

 Las hardly ceased when the l)ras.s rollers begin to move and the 

 reply commences to lie received. As the pajier tajie passes pei'pen- 

 diculai'ly between the rollers, a delicate syphon, hung in a little" 

 i-eservoir of electrified iidc, is seen marking it ; and the marks are 

 the record of the message which has started from Valencia. The 

 characters are traced on the tape about as fast as a slow penman 

 copies a letter, and are read off at once by the jiractised eye of 

 the operator. A small magnetic coil whicli is positively or nega- 

 tively electrified by the working of two keys manipulated b}- the 

 sender of the mes.sage, swings the syphon point now to one side,- 

 now to the other, along the tape, marking out a delicate line, 

 ■which, to the irninitiated, looks like a minature tracing of the 

 summits of a monntain range. Here is a high elevation on the 

 line, theie a depression ; then a single notch, or two or three 

 notches are traced. The keen eye of the telegrapher glances 

 along this waving line, and every peak, dej^ression or elevation 

 is to him an alphabeti(;al symbol. The curves correspond with 

 letters and numerals, and thns he rai)idly translates them into 

 ^vords. This is the wonderful "Recorder" — a machine of the 

 most delicate fineness and flexibility, so as to minimize to the 

 utmost the electric strain needed for working the cable. What 



