ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY. 



They consist of two long narrow vaults, in which upwards of 300 

 batteries are arranged, consisting of various numbers of pairs of 

 plates, six, twelve, and twenty-four, adapted to carry smaller and 

 greater distances. 



The entire amount of voltaic power employed by this com- 

 pany throughout the country consists of 96000 cells composed 

 of 1,500000 square inches of copper, and an equal surface of zinc. 

 These are kept in action by the consumption of six tons of acid 

 annually. 



In the half year ending 31st December, 1851, the paid up 

 capital of the company was augmented, and the tariff for the 

 transmission of messages was reduced in the large proportion of 

 50 per cent, upon its original rate. The extent of the line was 

 increased 8 per cent., and that of the conducting wires nearly 35 

 per cent. The average number of wires upon the lines was 

 augmented by this change from 4 to 5. The effect of this, and 

 the gradual increase from month to month in the next half year 

 was an increase of above 60 per cent, in the amount of business, 

 and nearly 13 per cent, in the receipts, the dividends having been 

 augmented from 4 to 6 per cent. 



Among the more recent improvements in the transaction of 

 telegraphic business which have been made by this company, the 

 following may be mentioned. 



"Franked message papers," pre-paid, are now issued, procur- 

 able at any stationer's. These, with the message filled in, can be 

 dispatched to the office when and how the sender likes ; and the 

 company intend very quickly to sell electric stamps, like Queen's 

 heads, which may be stuck on to any piece of paper, and frank its 

 contents without any further trouble. Another very important 

 arrangement for mercantile men is the sending of " remittance 

 messages," by means of which money can be paid in at the central 

 office in London, and, within a few minutes, paid out at Liverpool 

 or Manchester, or by the same means sent up to town with the 

 like dispatch from Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, 

 Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hull, York, 

 Plymouth, and Exeter. There is a money-order office in the 

 Lothbury establishment to manage this department, which will, 

 no doubt, in all emergencies speedily supersede the government 

 money-order office which works through the slower medium of the 



* Quarterly Review, No. CLXXXIX., p. 149. 



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