TELEGRAPH. 



653 



The fact that the Western Union Company had 

 secured virtual control of the telegraph business in 

 this country led to attempts in Congress from l^i! to 

 1885 for the establishment of a postal telegraph to be ! 

 carried on by the U. S. government, (bee POSTAL 

 SERVICE.) 



W hat is called quadruples telegraph (or the transmis- ! 

 sion of 4 messages from a single wire at the same time) 

 has been made possible by a combination of single and 

 double currents. In the duplex working one operator j 

 sends upon a key which reverses and operates only on 

 the sending battery, whilst the working of another key 

 brings into play the full strength of the battery. At 

 the receiving end one man reads his messages from a 

 delicately adjusted instrument, which is acted ujiou I 

 only by the reverse currents of the first sending op- 

 erator, while another receives his message from a less 

 delicate machine, responding only to the stronger big- ] 

 nals sent by the second sending clerk. To accomplish 

 quadruples working an arrangement is made, permit- 

 ting transmissions in opposite directions at the same 

 time. This is done by making the receiving apparatus 

 of the home station insensible to the effects ot the out- 

 going currents. 



]^ater improvements of tBUMUHBH include an in- 

 vention which can send some hundreds of words per 

 minute, and have them received at the receiving sta- 

 tion in Houian letters, all ready for the attendant to 

 Elace in envelopes and send to the persons addressed, 

 xpcrimcnts are still making in regard to the laying 

 of wires underground, and several miles of subways 

 have already been laid in the city of New York with 

 moderate success. The same experiments are extend- 

 ing to Washington, Boston, and other cities. 



The aggregate mileage of telegraph lines in the 

 United Stales used for public business exceeds 1 80,00(1 ; 

 which is exi'hisive of railroad, government, private, and 

 telephone lines, the length of which cannot be ascer- 

 tained. 



Xuliiiuiriiie Trlrgraplu. In June, 1852, the sub- 

 marine telegraph between Dover and Ostend was com- 

 pleted, and on Nov. 1 electric communication was 

 established direct between Great Britain and the 

 continent of Europe. The history of the Atlantic 

 cable is full of interest. Cyrus W. Field, ot New York 

 city, was applied to in 1854 for aid in completing a land 

 telegraphic line which had been begun in Newfound- 

 land, to cross the island, 400 miles, from Cape Kay to 

 St. John's, from which it was intended to run a line 

 of fast steamers to the west coast of Ireland, and thus 

 bring America within a week of Europe. While 

 studying this subject, and turning over the gobe in his 

 library, lie thought, "Why not carry the line across 

 the ocean?" (joing to St. John's. Newfoundland, in 

 March, 18.">4, he obtained from the Legislature of that 

 colony a charter granting an exclusive right for 50 years 

 to establish a telegraph from the continent of America 

 to Newfoundland and thence to Europe. On .March 

 10, l,s.">4, the articles of association were ftigned by five 

 citizens of New York Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, 

 Marshall <). Koberts. Chandler White, and Cyrus W. 

 Field. Mr. Cooper became president of the ;> 

 tion. Mr. White subsequently died, and Wilson G. 

 Hunt took his place. The association was called "The 

 New York. Newfoundland, and London Telegraph 

 Company." Mori; than two years were required to build 

 the land line across Newfoundland and Cape Breton 

 Island. Meantime Mr. Field went to Europe and or- 

 dered a submarine cable, to connect Cape Hay and 

 Cape Breton. This was sent put in l,s.~>r>, and was lost 

 in a gale in an attempt to lay it across the Guif of St. 

 Lawrence, but the attempt was successfully renewed in 

 1856. In that year Mr. Field again went to London 

 and organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company, to 

 carry the line across the ocean. As an evidence of his 

 confidence in its success. Mr. Field subscribed a fourth 

 of the entire capital stoek of the company, lie se- 

 cured from the British and American governments aid 



in ships, and he accompanied the expeditions which 

 sailed from England in 1857 and 1858 ibr the purpose 

 of laying the cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Twice 

 the attempt failed in 1857, and again in 1858. The 

 third attempt proved successful, andin 1858 telegraphic 

 communication was established between England and 

 America. The first public messages were congratula- 

 tions between Queen Victoria and Pros. Buchanan, 

 which occupied in transmission 67 minutes each. 

 jJoubts were expressed of the genuineness of these 

 despatches, and only when a despatch conveying the 

 action of Parliament on an important public matter 

 was verified by mail two weeks afterward were these 

 despatches accepted as real. But in a lew weeks the 

 cable ceased to work, and it was again pronounced a 

 failure. Mr. Field, however, never lost faith in its 

 ultimate success, and he made frequent trips to Europe 

 to resuscitate the company. But the American civil 

 war broke out, and not until 1805 was another ex- 

 pedition prepared. 



Meantime submarine telegraphy had been greatly 

 improved in many ways, a better cable was prepared, 

 and (he steamship Great Eastern took it on board and 

 sailed lor the American coast. Over 1200 miles of cable 

 had been laid, when, by a sudden lurch of the vessel, 

 the cable napped and was lost. The bottom of the 

 sea was dragged for days in search of the broken end, 

 and the expedition returned to England. In 18C6 the 

 Great Eastern again sailed wHi a fresh cable, and 

 2iK>0 miles of wire were safely stretched across the 

 ocean, and the communication was perfected July 27. 

 1 800. Alter landing this the Great Eastern returned 

 to the middle of the ocean, and after two months' 

 search succeeded in grappling the sundered cable of the 

 year previous. It was Drought up from a depth of 

 two miles, joined to the cable on the steamship, and 

 carried safely to the western shore. After twelve years 

 ot'inec.-.-am labor, in which he crossed the ocean nearly 

 fifty times. Mr. Field saw the crowning effort of his 

 life accomplished. Congress voted him a gold medal 

 with the thanks of the nation, while the prime min- 

 ister of England declared that it was only the fact that 

 he was a citizen of another country that prevented his 

 receiving high honors from the British government. 

 The first cable cost $1,250,250, and the company's ex- 

 penditures up to Dec. 1, 1858, amounted to $1,834,500. 

 Among the despatches sent over the new cable was 

 the speech of the King of Prussia just before the 

 Austrian war of 1800. It cost $3000 to transmit it. 

 This cable has been in running order almost continually 

 since its successful completion. 



In 1874 work was begun by the " Direct Cable Com- 

 pany " to lay a cable between Ballinfckellings Bay, in 

 | the southern part of Ireland, and llye, New Hamp- 

 shire, by way of Nova Scotia. It was finally completed 

 in 1875. The Commercial Company laid a scries of du- 

 plicate cables in 1884. The starting point may be con- 

 sidered the village of Waterville, near Bahintkellings 

 Point, but a few miles south of Valentia, the terminus 

 of the earliest ocean lines. From this point the new 

 line has double connections to the English and Eu- 

 j ropean centres ; a land line direct to Liverpool, London, 

 ! and Paris ; also a submarine cable through the English 

 Channel to Havre, thence two separate cables across 

 I th3 Atlantic to Canso, from which place it has two 

 submarine cables to the United States, one to Rockport 

 and another direct from Canso to New York city, thus 

 (giving double lines from London and Paris to Boston 

 ami New York. These lines are all duplicated for two 

 reasons, the press of business and the contingency of 

 disaster to one of them. The system adopted is known 

 a- octoplcx harmonic, one wire doing the duty of eight. 

 The cost of these cables is estimated to have been 

 about $I(),(XH>.()IM|. 



Method nf Worlcing. In the early part of the history 

 of the Atlantic cable, the flash system of signals was 

 used ; the messages were spelled out by flashing rays 

 of light back and forth across a standard line, the right 



