INDUSTRY, INVENTION, COMMERCE 



675 



operations. Such were the beginnings of these 

 vast undertakings which now permeate all por- 

 tions of the United States, connect the Atlantic 

 and Pacific oceans, and entirely control the travel- 

 ing interests. All the American lines are con- 

 structed and worked by private companies. The 

 following table, from " Poor's Manual for 1907," 

 the mileage, assets, liabilities, earnings, 

 omenditures, and traffic of all surface steam 

 railroads in the United States.: 



RAILROAD STATISTICS 



Mileage of Railroads 



Second Tracks and Sidings 



Total Track 



;;:iils in Track. . . 

 Iron Rails in Track, . . . 



Locomotives, 



Cars, Passenger 



Cars, Baggage, Mail, etc., 

 Cars, Freight 



2IS.433.4f, 

 88,560.48 



307.002.94 



9,024.70 

 66,439 

 33396 



1 .<i7< f,t,7 



Total Revenue Cars. 



2,026368 



! IAHII.ITIKS 



Capital Stock 



Bonded Debt 



Unfunded Debt 



Current Accounts. . . . 

 Sinking and Other Funds. 



$7,106.408,976 



S.4X7.i:MM 



210,538,466 



722.023,502 



242.256,471 



Total Liabilities $16,768,367,396 



ASSETS 



Cost of Railroad and Equipment, 



Other Investments 



Sundry A .*M-t> 



Current Accounts 



$12.719,736,342 

 3306,782.328 



488,368.638 

 941,399,320 



Total Assets $17,455.286.628 



Excess of Assets over Liabilities, 

 Miles of Railroad Operated, . . 

 Passenger Train Mileage, . . . 



Train Mileage 



ige 



Total 



Passengers Carried, . . 



I'a..>MiirT Mil-:m-. . . 



<( Freight Moved, 



Freight Mileage, . . . 



$686,919,22 



220,633.33 



4ss. .-,:, 4. L><<t 



27,711,651 



TRAFFIC EARNINGS 



Passengers 



.1 



Miscellaneous 



Total Traffic Revenue. . . . 



! ..'irninKfl 



i>ts from Other Sources, . . 



Total Available Revenue. . . 



PAYMENTS 



t on Bonds 



!"*t 



<>n Stock.". 



Miscellaneous 



Rentals Intorrxt 



Ihvi.lrii'l-. . 

 Ml.Hrrlhili. .M-..M. . 



Taxes. . 



1,124.590.399 



815.774,188 



25.842.462.029 



1,610.099,829 



JHJ.f,.->3.7U.->.tiUO 



$ 521,231,337 



1,660,926,643 



166,488,306 



12346,640,286 



|700!lS7.7lL > 

 100,292,369 



$890,480,081 



1960,026306 



13,107,169 

 226,601346 

 70306.024 

 80.612,170 

 27.7 



15.042,783 

 68,160338 



Total Payments, 



; 



* Including, in 1906. 



1730.005308 



$151,474,773 

 I 1904, real estate mort- 



_*<. equipment trust obligations, etc., previously in- 



unfuiMMd il- 

 TIi* capital invested in the railways of tin- world m 



States. 17.455.286.628; other parts of the 

 $5,063.834 



THr^niph. 'I ho term is now usually rr- 



1 to the electric telegraph, whirl . 

 at tin- head of all mediums for rapid and elabo- 



rate communications. As a system, the electric 

 telegraph involves the following apparatus: (1) 

 of a battery or other source of electric power; 

 I (2) of a line- wire or conductor for conveying the 

 electric current from one station to another; (3) 

 of the apparatus for transmitting, interrupting, 

 and, if necessary, reversing the current at pleas- 

 ure; and (4) of the indicator or signaling instru- 

 ment. The line-wires for overhead lines are 

 usually of iron, protected from atmospheric in- 

 fluence by galvanizing or by being varnished 

 with boiled finseed-oil, a coating of tar, or other 

 means, and are supported upon posts, to which 

 they are attached by insulators. In under- 

 ground lines the wires are insulated by a gutta- 

 percha or other non-conducting covering, and 

 inclosed in iron or lead pipes. The battery and 

 line-wire are common to all telegraphic systems; 

 it is in the method of producing the signals that 

 the great variation exists ; but in all of them 

 advantage has been taken of one or other of 

 the three following properties of the current: 

 (1) its power of producing the deflection of a 

 magnetic needle, as in the galvanometer (which 

 see); (2) its power of temporarily magnetizing 

 soft iron ; and (3) its power of producing chemi- 

 cal decomposition. 



The electro-magnetic instrument of Professor 

 Morse, which, however, in its perfected form 

 owed much to the genius of Morse's associates, 

 Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail, is an application 

 of the second of the above properties. By means 

 of an electro-magnet, an armature, which is at- 

 tracted when the magnet is temporarily mag- 

 netized, a lever moved by the armature, and a 

 style which moves with the lever, this instru- 

 ment impresses a message in dots and dashes on 

 a ribbon of moving paper, and by it forty words 

 may be sent in a minute. This "dot and dash " 

 system which was invented by Morse, is now in 

 extensive use. A modification of this instru- 

 ment, called a sounder, in which the lover makes 

 audible sounds by coming in contact with a brass 

 rod, indicates the message by the length of the 

 strokes produced. Frequently the Morse is 

 simultaneously a recorder and sounder. It 

 being necessary thai this instrument should 

 produce sharp and distinct impressions, and the 

 current being weak for stages over fifty miles, 

 a relay, or subsidiary electro-magnetic circuit, 

 is added to it in the case of longer distances. 

 The transmitting instrument is a lever, which, 

 on bring pressed, permits the current from the 

 battery to How into the line-wire during the 

 time tin- contact is ma.le. Both on account of 

 its intrin.-ic merits and for the sake of uniformity 

 the Morse is the most extensm -ly used system, 

 bring that in use in America and on the' conti- 

 nent of I'.uropr. ainl Iwing also largely employed 

 in I'.ritain. \\ heatstpne's" universal* trleur:ipli " 

 is also one in extrusive use. The 



ployed are niau'iielo r'ectric. ami are alternately 

 an. I nr-aliM-. I 'In y | -r xlucc successive 



reversals of polarity in the delicate mirror or 

 reflecting qalivinometer. \\hich Sir \\ . Thomson 

 invented in connection with the Atlantic t.-lr- 

 L'raph. that di-tincuisl -.an has it. . 



ML: in-trument. consisting of a light 

 in . very ilelirately suspended in a mag- 

 netic fid. I. th. 'motions of which coil, when a 



