THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



be best promoted by a still further reduction of price, and a still 

 larger use of this mode of intercommunication. 



It is probable and desirable that something approaching to the 

 uniform postage system may eventually be realised in the telegraph. 

 Already a certain step towards such a system has been made, since 

 for a fixed sum messages of a prescribed length can be transmitted 

 to all distances exceeding a certain limit. 



In the absence of exact statistical reports of telegraphic 

 business, it may not be uninteresting to give some examples of 

 the uses of this mode of communication. 



245. In the management of railway business in all countries, 

 but more especially upon our own ever crowded and over- worked 

 lines, the telegraph has become an indispensable accessory, without 

 which this mode of locomotion would be deprived not only of its 

 efficiency but its safety. Consequently the railways in most 

 countries have been provided with lines of telegraph expressly and 

 exclusively for their own use, independently of those which are 

 appropriated to the public service ; and on the continent such 

 telegraphs are usually alphabetic, that is, such as convey their 

 messages by pointers, which are successively directed to the letters 

 of the words, so that any of the railway officials who can read, 

 may be able to interpret a message which arrives, or to transmit 

 one to a distant station. x 



To illustrate the vast utility of the telegraph to the railway, 

 Mr. "Walker states that on the lines of the South Eastern Company, 

 in the space of three months, upwards of 4000 messages have been 

 occasionally transmitted, being at the average rate of nearly 50 per 

 day. He gives the following as a rough classification of their 

 subjects 



Messages. 

 1. Concerning ordinary trains. ' . 1468 



Special trains . 



Carriages, trucks, goods, sheets, &e 



Company's servants . 



Engines . 



Miscellaneous matters 



Messages forwarded to other stations 



429 

 795 

 607 

 150 

 162 

 499 



Total 4110 



246. It has been already stated that portable telegraphs are pro- 

 vided in some parts of the continent, and in France in particular, 

 with which the conductors are provided. Such telegraphs have 

 also been contrived in this country, but we are not aware of their 

 practical adoption. By these the conductor of a train can, whenever 

 the train is stopped between stations, whether from accident or other 

 78 ' . 



