CELERITY OF MORSELS TELEGRAPH. 



completely independent telegraphic instruments, with, two inde- 

 pendent conducting wires, and its celerity of transmission is due 

 to their combined powers. 



It is stated by the directors of the administration that the 

 average transmitting powers of these telegraphs is nearly 200 

 letters or signs per minute. 



232. The alphabetical telegraphs, of which the French railway 

 telegraph may be taken as an example, are much slower in their 

 rate of transmission. M. Breguet, who has constructed those 

 worked in France, and superintended and directed their operation, 

 says, that their average rate of transmission, when fairly worked, 

 is about 40 letters per minute. 



233. The writing and printing telegraphs are independent of a 

 receiving agent, the receiving apparatus in all these being 

 automatic. All these instruments have an advantage over the 

 English and French telegraphs, inasmuch as they employ only 

 one conducting wire, and those who print the dispatch in the 

 common letter-press characters, have the further advantage of 

 being wholly independent of the skill of any agent to interpret or 

 decipher them. 



The celerity of transmission attainable with the Morse telegraph, 

 which of" all the forms of telegraphic apparatus hitherto invented 

 is the most extensively used,, is very considerable, but varies 

 perhaps still more than the needle-instruments, with the skill of 

 the telegraphist. 



In this instrument, it will be remembered that the transmitting 

 agent plays upon a key-commutator, the letters being severally 

 expressed by repeated touches of the key succeeding each other, 

 after longer or shorter intervals. At the station receiving the 

 dispatch, the armature of the electro-magnet moves simultaneously 

 with the transmitting key, and at each of its motions towards the 

 magnet, it produces a distinctly audible click. The receiving 

 agent acquires by practice such expertness and quickness of ear, 

 that by listening to this clicking he is able to interpret the 

 dispatch, and to write it down or dictate it to a clerk without 

 using the apparatus for impressing it upon the paper ribbon. 



Different telegraphists acquire this power of oral interpretation 

 of the dispatches with different degrees of facility and precision ; 

 but all are more or less masters of it. So much so, that in most 

 cases on the American lines, it is by the clicking of the magnet 

 that the messages are taken down, being afterwards corrected, if 

 necessary, by comparison with the indented paper ribbon. 



The telegraphist is placed at a table, upon which the instrument 

 stands, having before him the paper upon which the message is to 

 be written, and at his left a provision of blaoklead pencils ready 



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