FRENCH TELEGRAPHIC LINES. 



mission in this direct manner would not only be far more dilatory 

 than the process of repetition, but would, in fact, at busy times of 

 the day be totally impracticable. 



301. What has been here stated respecting the Paris and London 

 line will be applicable, mutatis mutandis, not only to all inter- 

 national messages, but in many cases to messages transmitted 

 between home stations, which it is often more convenient and expe- 

 ditious to repeat and retransmit at certain intermediate stations 

 than to send direct by the connection of the wires at those stations. 



302. It will be understood, nevertheless, that the necessity for 

 this circuitous transmission, and intermediate repetition of 

 despatches, arises in all cases from the insufficiency of the number 

 of conducting wires in relation to the quantity of correspondence 

 to be transmitted. In the transmission of each despatch by the 

 English and French instruments, two wires are employed. Now, 

 if the direct correspondence between London and Paris, during 

 the most busy hours of the day, be sufficient to employ one pair of 

 conducting wires, another pair would be necessary to communicate 

 with intermediate places, and if the correspondence with these 

 were very unequal, some engrossing a large share of it, a third 

 pair might be required, and so on. 



303. It must be, therefore, very apparent that great convenience 

 would in such cases be gained by substituting, for the English and 

 French telegraph, that of Morse or Bain, or any other which 

 transmits by a single conducting wire. In that case, the four wires 

 contained in the submarine cable, between Dover and Calais, would 

 do much more than double their present duty. Instead of carrying 

 two streams of messages simultaneously, as they do at present, they 

 would carry four. If one were put in permanent connection with 

 London and Paris, the three others could be reserved, one for direct 

 connection with chief provincial towns, such as Birmingham, Man- 

 chester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, &c., and the two others for 

 messages to less important stations, subject to occasional repetition. 

 These latter would be to the telegraphic line what the second and 

 third class trains are to the railway. It might be found even advan- 

 tageous to fix a higher price of transmission for messages thus 

 sent without intermediate repetition, just as a higher fare is paid 

 for express than for ordinary trains. 



304. The French government has recently re-organised the 

 administration of the telegraphs throughout its entire territory, 

 and besides modifying and reducing the tariff", it has placed 

 the whole upon a more efficient footing. It now constitutes an 

 important department of the state, placed under the superinten- 

 dence of a director-general, four inspectors-general, twelve chief 

 directors, and an hundred inspectors. The director-general 



141 



