THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



about mid-day, conveys to England dispatches containing the 

 latest news, which are intended to appear in the whole impression 

 of the morning paper. To this end, it is intended that a copy be 

 delivered to the editor in London about three o'clock in the morn- 

 ing. The dispatches are given in charge to us at Dover soon 

 after the arrival of the boat, which of course depends on the wind 

 and the weather. The officer on duty at Dover, having first hastily 

 glanced through the manuscript to see that all is clear to him and 

 legible, calls 'London' and commences the transmission. The nature 

 of these dispatches may be daily seen by reference to 'The 

 Times.' The miscellaneous character of the intelligence therein 

 contained, and the continual fresh names of persons and places, 

 make them a fair sample for illustrating the capabilities of the 

 electric telegraph as it now is. The clerk, who is all alone, 

 placing the paper before him in a good light, and seated at the 

 instrument, delivers the dispatch, letter by letter, and word by 

 word, to his correspondent in London ; and although the eye is 

 transferred rapidly from the manuscript copy to the telegraph 

 instrument, and both hands are occupied at the latter, he very 

 rarely has cause to pause in his progress, and as rarely also does 

 he commit an error. And, on account of the extremely limited 

 time within which the whole operation must be compressed, he is 

 not able, like the printer, to correct his copy. 



" At London there are two clerks on duty, one to read the sig- 

 nals as they come, and the other to write. They have previously 

 arranged their books and papers : and, as soon as the signal for 

 preparation is given, the writer sits before his manifold book, and 

 the reader gives him distinctly word for word as it arrives ; mean- 

 while, a messenger has been dispatched for a cab, which now waits 

 in readiness. When the dispatch is completed, the clerk who has 

 received it reads through the manuscript of the other, in order to 

 see thai he has not misunderstood him in any word. The hours and 

 minutes of commencing and ending are noted, and the copy being 

 signed is sent under official seal to its destination, the manifold fac- 

 simile being retained as our office copy, to authenticate verbatim 

 what we have delivered. This copy and the original meet together 

 at the chief telegraph office at Tunbridge, early in the day, and are 

 compared. When the work is over, and the dispatches have 

 reached their destination, the clerks count over the number of 

 words and the number of minutes, and find the rate per minute." 



231. The signals adopted to express the letters in the French 

 State telegraph being each made by a single motion of the arms, 

 they necessarily are produced with greater celerity than the multi- 

 plied deflexions of the needle-instruments. Like the double needle- 

 instrument, the French telegraph is composed in fact of two 



