542 



AVi TURE 



[June 30, 19 10 



had his first experience been an examination. The higher 

 matriculation standard in Germany, and the fact that the 

 German student is older — the average age is twenty to 

 twenty-five years — on entering the university, must be 

 borne in mind when comparisons are made as to. the 

 proper time for specialisation and research to commence. 



If we desire to rival the work of the German universi- 

 ties, we should seriously attempt the better organisation 

 and coordination of our entire educational system. One 

 might imagine a trunk railway with stopping-places and 

 branches. The trunk line might represent pure science, 

 litexature, and philosophy, and be always extending itself 

 further ; the stopping-places to where the scholars or 

 students branch off to apply their training to livelihood 

 occupations. Where exactly these stopping-places should 

 be placed should be fixed after careful deliberation. Most 

 would branch off for the arts and crafts from the primary 

 school ; most of the remainder would branch off after the 

 secondary school ; a small proportion would enter the 

 university, branching off for the professions at places 

 decided upon. Encouragement to enter the university 

 should only be given after careful consideration. Far too 

 many men nowadays are painfully struggling against 

 nature in the university, to the detriment of the occupa- 

 tions for which nature really equipped them. Even in the 

 German Empire only 13 out of every 1000 of the male 

 population enter the university. 



The Times, in a recent leading article, says : — " Germany 

 has built up a chemical industry, worth tens of millions 

 of pounds annually, through the agency of research 

 chemists, methodically trained in her numerous technical 

 schools." This is quite true; but there is one further 

 requirement that must be mentioned : German manu- 

 facturers know the value, in dividends, of the services of 

 trained research chemists ; Irish and English manfacturers 

 do not ; and no matter how many and how well trained 

 our university students become, the effect on the country's 

 industries wili be small unless they find suitable fields 'of 

 operation. This is a serious and fundamental question 

 which might well be taken up by industrial improvement 

 movements and by anyone who has the ear of the public. 



1 



RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TELEGRAPHY 

 AND TELEPHONY.^ 



7 OR rnany years the simple form of Morse apparatus 

 or its equivalents served the requirements of most 

 countries, but as the telegraph service grew and the traffic 

 rendered it imperative to erect long lines directly connect- 

 ing distant cities, the problem of obtaining 'a greater 

 revenue from the large capital expenditure involved became 

 pressing, and progress was made broadly on three distinct 

 lines of development. In the first, means were designed 

 for the transmission of several messages simultaneouslv 

 over the same conductor ; in the second, by the use of 

 suitable mechanical and electrical devices, the" actual speed 

 of transmission was raised in overhead wires to ten or 

 twelve times that possible by manual operating, and, 

 finally, type printing and writing systems were invented 

 with varying degrees of success. 



A method which in theory admits of sending as many 

 as twelve simultaneous messages in one direction, or double 

 that number if duplexed, depends on the superposition of 

 musical vibrations on a telegraphic circuit at one end of 

 a line. To effect this result, a number of electrically 

 driven tuning-forks, arranged to vibrate at different fre- 

 quencies, are connected through telegraphic keys to a line 

 wire, so that on depressing any one key a series of elec- 

 trical vibrations, of the frequency of its companion tuning- 

 fork, are sent through the line. At the far end the 

 receivers are of a type that will respond to musical vibra- 

 tions only, and each receiver is constructed or adjusted 

 to respond to the vibrations of one of the distant tuning- 

 forks alone, and to no others. If any one kev is depressed 

 a simple musical oscillation traverses the line, and the 

 receiver in tune responds. If two or more keys, however, 

 are depressed simultaneously, a series of compound curves 

 IS transmitted, and those receivers that are in tune with 

 the various components of the curves respond, and all the 



1 From the "James Forrest " Lecture, delivered before the Institution o'" 

 Civil tngineers on June 22 by Sir John Gavey, C.B. 



NO. 2122, VOL. 83] 



others remain unaffected. This system originated in 

 America, but it has been developed and improved by 

 Mercardier in France, where it is said to have given good 

 results recently. In the modern apparatus the receivers 

 consist of so-called mono-telephones, each of which is so 

 made and adjusted as to respond to only one frequency. 



The second method of increasing the output of telegraphic 

 wires is the automatic or machine-transmitting instrument, 

 which is typified by the Wheatstone apparatus adopted and 

 perfected by the Post Office in Great Britain. In all 

 instruments of this character a long paper ribbon is per- 

 forated by a suitable machine in an arbitrary manner, and 

 the transmitting and receiving apparatus is so designed 

 as to transcribe these perforations, at the distant end, into 

 Morse signals, into similar perforations, into type-printed 

 messages, or even into written characters. 



This Wheatstone system has been very fully developed 

 in the United Kingdom. It is capable of dealing with 

 traffic at a maximum rate of 450 words per minute, and 

 it is invaluable for the transmission of news. Thus, in 

 the central office in London, items of news may have to 

 be transmitted to fifty or more towns simultaneously. 

 Circuits are made up for news transmission, each pro- 

 viding for a number of towns, some of the circuits being 

 of a permanent character and some formed temporarily to 

 meet special requirements. As many as eight Wheatston-^ 

 slips can be punched simultaneously in one operation, and 

 each length of slip is run through the necessary trans- 

 mitters at the highest speed considered judicious. When 

 long Press messages are received they are divided into 

 sections, and each section handed to a separate telegraphist 

 for perforating, so that the transmitting apparatus can be 

 kept to its maximum capacity. Without this useful and 

 adaptable apparatus, it would be almost impossible to deal 

 satisfactorily with the vast amount of news traffic which 

 is sent daily to every town in the country. 



For ordinary public message traffic on lines of moden 

 length, where each individual message is short, the Wheat- 

 stone has certain disadvantages, namely, the initial delay 

 in perforating the slip, its distribution, and, finally, the 

 re-distribution of the received slip amongst the writing 

 telegraphists, for it is obvious that at the high speed at 

 which Wheatstone is worked, several operators are re- 

 quired at each end of the line to keep pace with tho 

 apparatus. In practice in this countrj', for circuits of 

 moderate length it is generally considered preferable to 

 provide direct Morse apparatus worked simplex, dup! x 

 or quadruplex, as circumstances ma)' dictate. 



With overhead lines the limit of speed in automaiic 

 working is that imposed by the receiving apparatus, which, 

 owing to its self-induction, obstructs the rece^ion of Morse 

 signals at a higher speed than that named. This difficulty 

 has been overcome by substituting a chemical for an 

 electromagnet receiver. In this form the current at the 

 received end passes through a long paper ribbon saturated 

 with a solution which is decomposed by a positive current. 

 The Morse signals appear in blue lines on the received 

 slip. 



It is said that with this method a maximum speed of 

 1000 to 1200 words is possible under favourable conditions, 

 but the difficulty in working at such high speeds, where 

 characters are received in Morse code and have to be 

 transcribed manually, is the division and distribution of 

 the slips amongst the large number of writers necessary 

 to keep abreast of the work, the precautions needed to 

 avoid loss of messages, the injurious effect of brief con- 

 tacts caused by workmen, which result in the loss of 

 several words, and last, but not least, the difficulty and 

 delay in obtaining repetitions w'here errors, false signals, 

 or missing words render this necessary. 



All the foregoirtg methods increase the carrying capacity 

 of the wires ; in other words, they reduce the capital 

 expenditure per message, but none of these increase the 

 output per operator, nor do they diminish the working 

 cost in the instrument-room ; in fact, with high-speed 

 automatic transmission this cost may be higher than with 

 other methods described. The messages have to be pre- 

 pared by the perforation of the punched slip, telegraphists 

 have to control the sending and receiving apparatus, and 

 the Morse slips, as they are reeled off the receiving 

 apparatus, have to be divided and distributed amongst a. 

 number of operators for transcription. The initial pre- 



