114 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OP 



staff of electricians and with good instruments, there would be no 

 difficulty in working through from London to Calcutta in the 

 course of an hour. He had worked through from London to 

 Omsk, in Siberia, without any hand transmission ; there had been 

 mechanical transmissions, but the moment the signal was given in 

 London it was received in the middle of Siberia. 



"With regard to the messages arriving in a mutilated condition, 

 he might state, that on the continent there were many through 

 lines working with a mechanical transmitter, which might be used 

 with advantage for these great lines. The message was put into 

 type, passed through the instrument, and transmitted mechanically 

 through the line ; it was received in a printed form, according to 

 the Morse alphabet, at the rate of from 60 words to 80 words per 

 minute. With such a system, well organized, there would be no 

 difficulty in keeping up an immediate communication with India ; 

 or if there was any difficulty in the way of such a system, it would 

 arise from political causes. 



In the discussion of flie Paper, 



" DESCRIPTION OF THE PAYING-OUT AND PICKING- 

 UP MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN LAYING THE 

 ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE," by Mr. GEORGE 

 ELLIOT, of London, 



MR. C. W. SIEMENS * considered they were much indebted for 

 the very interesting and valuable particulars given in the paper 

 respecting machinery which had been successful in achieving 

 such an important work as the laying of the Atlantic telegraph 

 cable, and which appeared in all its details to have been most 

 carefully arranged. In the previous expedition of 1865 there was 

 no doubt that a great mistake had been made in having the 

 picking-up machinery separated by a distance of more than 600 

 feet from the paying-out machinery, the two being at opposite 

 ends of the great ship ; and this he considered had caused the loss 



* Excerpt Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 

 1 867, pp. 35-41. 



