TELEGRAPH. 



651 



York to that distant point, and the effects produced in 

 the market there returned to New York by 1 1 A. M. 

 The Congressional reports from Washington are 

 usually received simultaneously in Baltimore, Phila- 

 delphia, and New York ; and all that is necessary at 

 the intermediate stations is for an operator to be pres- 

 ent and receive the message as it is developed on paper 

 by the instruments. 



"The electric telegraph has been applied in this 

 country to a new and highly important purpose that 

 of the registration of astronomical observations ; thus 

 establishing the best possible means for the determina- 

 tion of the difference of longitude. The observatories 

 in different parts of the country are connected by tele- 

 graphic wires ; and the most delicate experiments, de- 

 pendent upon the appreciation of uiinute portions of 

 time, have been successfully performed. This method 

 has been recently used for the determination of the 

 wave time of electrical currents. 



"The great extent of the telegraphic business and 

 its importance to the community is shown by a state- 

 ment of the amount paid lor despatches by the Asso- 

 ciated Press of New York, composed of the seven 

 principal morning papers the Courier and Enquirer, 

 Tribune, Herald, Journal of Commerce, Sun, Tinx-s. 

 and Express. During the year ending Nov. 1, 1852. 

 these papers paid nearly $15,000 for despatches, and 

 about $14,000 for special and exclusive messages not 

 included in the expense of the association." 



The original invention of Prof. Morse was what is 

 known as the "single circuit." Soon afterward a 

 needle system was invented containing two multipliers, 

 and using an alphabet wherein the signals were dashes 

 at angles instead of the Morse arrangement in parallel 

 lines. 



Alexander Bain, (q.v.) a native of Scotland, patented 

 an electro-chemical telegraph on Dec. li, 1X4U; ami 

 another patent was granted to him in connection with 

 Kobert Smith, in October, 1849. The advantages 

 which the inventor attributed to the electro-chemical 

 telegraph were : " 1st. More economy and simplicity 

 in the primitive construction; 2d. More rapidity in 

 the transmission of despatches. A single wire, with a 

 good insulator, can transmit 1200 letters a minute; 

 3d. An electric current, more feeble than ordinary, 

 suffices to cause tlie apparatus to work ; 4th. More 

 simplicity and economy in the correspondence and 

 superintendence ; 5th. I'Ywer chances of error in the 

 despatches sent." '1 he liain telegraph was materially 

 improved by Henry J. Rogers. The earlier Bain tel- 

 egraph lines ran from New York to Boston, from 

 linstMii to Burlington and Otrdensburgh, from Boston 

 to Portland, from Troy to Saratoga, and from New 

 York to Buffalo. 



The "House printing telegraph" was invented by 

 Royal K. House, a Pennsylvania!!, and patented April 

 18, 1846. The first line opeiating with this instru- 

 ment was completed in August, 1850, by the Boston and 

 New York Telegraph Company between those cities. 

 It was patented in England by Jacob Brett. The 

 difference between Morse's and House's telegraph 

 was, principally, that the former traced at the distant 

 end what was marked at the other ; while House's 

 did not trace at either end, but made a signal of a let- 

 ter at the distant end which had been made at the 

 other, and thus, by new machinery and a new power 

 of air and axial magnetism, was enabled to print the 

 siirnal letter at the last end at the rate of sixty or 

 seventy strokes, or breaks, in n second, and at once 

 recorded the information, by its own machinery, in 

 printed letters. Morse's was less complicated and 

 more easily understood, while House's was very diffi- 

 cult to be comprehended in its operations in detail, 

 and worked with the iiddition of two more powers, one 

 air and the other called axial magnetism. One was a 

 tracing or writing telegraph; the other, a signal and 

 printing telegraph. The earlier House lines were 

 from Boston to New York, from Boston to Spring- 



field, Albany, and New York, from Poughkeepsie to 

 Troy, Albany, and Buffalo, and from Philadelphia to 

 New York. In 1848 the House Printing Telegraph 

 Company entered into competition with the Bain and 

 a similar company. In 1849 the owners of the Morse 

 patent sued the Bain operators, and a compromise 

 was concluded by which the Morse patents were used 

 over the wires of both companies. The Bain wires, 

 however, were used between Boston and Montreal 

 ibr many years. The House printing machine was in 

 use until 1847. It was similar to the ticker of to-day, 

 but larger ; the operator turned a crank with his foot 

 to induce the proper current. The House machine 

 was much more rapid and could do more work than 

 the Morse instrument, but in wet weather it became 

 useless on account of the escape, and the wire had to 

 be thrown upon the Morse apparatus. The House 

 circuit was the best and the largest wire, being No. 6 

 gauge of plain iron. The insulators were made of a 

 large iron cap which went on top of the pole. The 

 wire rested in a cleat made of iron but insulated from 

 the main cap, which was considered the best insulation 

 at that tiuie. In 1855 the Hughes printing machine 

 was patented ; but it was such a delicate instrument, 

 with its vibrating spring, that it did not meet with 

 much favor. 



In 1855 the rival lines in the West had all been con- 

 solidated into one company, which was named the 

 Ohio and Mississippi Printing Telegraph Company. 

 The word "printing" was added on account of the 

 company's using the House instrument. This com- 

 pany was incorporated in 1851 bv the State of New 

 York, with a capital of $360, 000, of which about $75,000 

 was paid. At that time this company was only one 

 of some twenty or thirty that were struggling for ex- 

 istence in the country, most of them situated in the 

 | Western States. Each company had a separate set 

 of officers and employe's of all grades ; and instead of 

 making money for its shareholders it was heavily 

 mortgaged and working at a loss. The stocks of these 

 coin panics were almost valueless, and the investors in 

 the new company determined to buy them up and con- 

 solidate the management. By an act of the New 

 York Legislature, April, 1850, it had its name changed 

 to the Western Union Telegraph Company. The 

 Legislature of Wisconsin also issued articles of incor- 

 poration of the company in 1856, when its capital was 

 placed at $500,000 with the privilege of increasing it 

 to $1 .000.000. The company then turned its attention 

 to the purchase and leasing of lines of struggling 

 Western companies. It soon acquired control of all 

 the wires west of Buffalo and Pittsburg. The wires 

 east of those points were under the management of 

 the American Telegraph Company, of New York, 

 with Amos Kendall, president, though the Western 

 Union built a new line from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. 



In 1859 the telegraph line from Omaha to Salt 

 Lake City to meet the California State Telegraph 

 Company was projected and J. H. Wade, of Cleve- 

 land ; Edward 51. Creighton, of Omaha ; J. M. Steb- 

 bins, of St. Louis ; Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, N. 

 Y. , and others were the prime movers in this enter- 

 prise. The Indians interfered in every way possible 

 by killing the line-men and cutting down the poles 

 and wire after the gangs and troops had passed on. 

 Down to 1800 the intervention of the government had 

 been confined to the passage of a few acts granting aid 

 and protection to parties proposing to extend the tel- 

 egraph to the Pacific coast and to the Atlantic Cable 

 Company. In June of that year Congress offered a 

 bonus of $40, 000 a year for 10 years, in addition to 

 rights on the public lands, to parties who would under- 

 take the construction of a line from the Missouri to 

 the Pacific ; and the line was completed in 1861. The 

 wire was seldom working more than two or three days 

 at a time ; after an interval of the same length the 

 company would succeed in_ getting it to work for aa 

 many days more. But business was accepted at gold 



