THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



power of each wire with the Morse telegraph is three times as 

 great as with the double needle instrument. 



235. The causes of this greater celerity are twofold : first, the 

 greater celerity with which the ciphers are impressed upon the 

 ribbon of paper, compared with that with which the visible signals 

 are exhibited and succeed each other in the English and French 

 telegraphs ; and secondly, the removal of those delays of trans- 

 mission which arise from the want of attention or quickness of eye on 

 the part of the agent receiving the dispatch, rendering it necessary 

 to repeat words which have been missed or misunderstood. 



In the American offices of the Morse lines, it is stated in the 

 published reports that " there are a number of attendants, each 

 one of whom has his respective department ; they are divided into 

 ' copyists, book-keepers, battery-keepers, messengers, line inspec- 

 tors, and repairers.' The usual charge of transmission is 25 cts., 

 equal to a shilling, for ten words exclusive of the address and the 

 signature sent 100 miles : the messages vary in price from 10 cts., 

 or 5d., to 100 dols., or 20?. The amount of business which a 

 well-conducted office can perform, and the net proceeds arising 

 therefrom, may well excite surprise ; a single office in that country, 

 with two wires, one 500, the other 200 miles in length, after 

 spending three hours in the transmission of public news, tele- 

 graphed, in a single day, 450 private messages, averaging 25 

 words each, besides the address and signature, sixty of which 

 were sent in rotation, without a word of repetition." 



236. All that has been said above relating to Morse's telegraph 

 may mutatis mutandis be applied to other telegraphic instruments, 

 which write in cipher the dispatches by self-acting machinery, 

 such as those described in 191, 192, and 193. 



"When dispatches are transmitted by means of a key- commu- 

 tator, with Bain's telegraph, the operation being precisely similar 

 to that of Morse, the celerity of transmission by operators of equal 

 skill ought to be the same. Nevertheless, as these instruments of 

 Bain's, with some modifications, are at present used on certain 

 lines by the Electric Telegraph Company, Mr. Foudrinier has, 

 at my request, caused a series of messages to be timed, of which 

 the following is the summary of the results : 



63 Messages. Total number of words in the addresses . 456 

 ,, messages . . 991 



Total number of words transmitted . 1447 



Total time of transmission 4454 .seconds. 



Average number of words transmitted per minute . -19s 



It appears, therefore, that as this telegraph is worked in 

 70 



