FRENCH RAILWAY TELEGRAPH. 



engaged in their management, who have been specially instructed 

 and practised, as well in working the instruments as in interpreting 

 their signs. That this is deemed a matter of great practical 

 importance in telegraphic economy is manifested by the fact 

 already mentioned, that the French government, before it resolved 

 to establish the electric telegraph, caused instruments, on the new 

 principle, to be constructed, by which the same system of symbols 

 could be used as that which had been previously adopted in the 

 semaphore. 



Nevertheless, in cases like that of a system of telegraphs in 

 which not only the business of the state, but that of the public, is 

 to be transacted, and where, therefore, a permanent staff is 

 employed exclusively in the management of the apparatus, no 

 very serious difficulty can be encountered, even if the necessity of 

 having a new telegraphic vocabulary is imposed upon these agents. 



For a short time the service will be slow, and less satisfactory, 

 but the inconvenience is temporary, and constant practice in the 

 manipulation of the apparatus, and in the interpretation of the 

 signs, whatever they may be, renders the agents sufficiently 

 expert. 



The case is different with telegraphs used, not for state or com- 

 mercial purposes, but exclusively for railway business. The 

 telegraphs even of principal railway stations, and still less those 

 of secondary stations, are not in that constant requisition, and 

 consequently do not occupy a permanent and exclusive class of 

 agents. They are managed by any persons who happen to be 

 employed in the respective offices : by the station-masters, clerks, 

 railway police, guards, or, in short, by any railway agent who 

 may happen to be at hand. Now it is evident that telegraphic 

 instruments, the use of which would require special instructions, 

 and much previous practice, would not answer such a purpose. 



These considerations have prevailed, with the administrations 

 of the lines of railway in all parts of the continent, and have led 

 them to adopt telegraphic instruments which satisfy the conditions 

 explained above, more completely than do the apparatus which 

 have been adopted for state and public communications. 



In general the railway telegraphs are of the class called " letter 

 or alphabetic telegraphs." The agent who transmits a message is 

 supplied with a hand which moves upon a dial, round which the 

 letters of the alphabet are engraved, as are the hours round the 

 dial of a clock. At the station to which the message is sent, there 

 is a similar dial, having upon it a similar hand, and the mechanism 

 is so contrived that, when properly adjusted, the two hands must 

 always point to the same letter. Thus, if the agent sending the 

 message turns the hand to the letter JE upon the dial before him, 



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