THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



Brussels, Berlin, and Vienna, at the same moment and with the 

 same spirit, expression, and precision as if the instruments, at 

 these distant places, were under his fingers, is not only within 

 the limits of practicability, but really presents no other difficulty 

 than may arise from the expense of the performances. From what 

 has been just stated, it is clear that the time of music has been 

 already transmitted, and the production of the sounds does not 

 offer any more difficulty than the printing of the letters of a 

 dispatch. 



238. A great celerity of transmission is claimed for the printing 

 telegraph of House, so great, that if the claim be well founded, it 

 is a matter of surprise that it has not superseded the Morse tele- 

 graph in the United States, where competition is so sharp and 

 action so free. According to Mr. Turnbull, who ought to be con- 

 sidered an impartial assessor, at least between inventors who are 

 both American, the ordinary rate of transmission of the improved 

 House instrument is from 30 to 35 words, printed in full, per 

 minute, which would be from 165 to 200 letters. He adds, that 

 business-messages are sent at the rate of 200 to 250 letters per 

 minute, and that in one case 365 letters, transmitted from 

 New York, have been printed at Utica, distant 240 miles, in 

 one minute. 



In a written estimate supplied by the directors of the House lines 

 to Mr. Jones,* it is also stated that, accidents apart, the average 

 number of words transmitted on a single wire per minute and 

 printed in full by the telegraph at their place of destination, is 

 from thirty to thirty-five ; but when as in newspapers abbrevia- 

 tions are allowed, the rate is fifty. It is stated for example that 

 the proceedings of the democratic state convention in the autumn of 

 1850, containing 7000 words, were transmitted from Syracuse to 

 Buffalo in two hours and ten minutes, being at the rate of 54 

 words per minute. It is evident that in this telegraph, like 

 others, much depends on the ability of the telegraphist, for it is 

 stated that one telegraphist on the line has transmitted 365 letters 

 in a minute, being at the rate of six per second. 



When it is considered that this telegraph delivers its messages 

 printed in the ordinary Roman characters, while all the others 

 in practical operation deliver them either in visible signs or written 

 ciphers, which must be interpreted and taken down in ordinary 

 writing before they can serve any useful purpose, the vast 

 superiority of this system of House must be conspicuously 

 manifest, supposing of course that the reports and estimates above 

 produced are verified by the actual performance of the instrument. 



* Jones. Elec. Tel., New York, 1852, p. 112. 



