ISIS."] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



IX 



the objections. To prevent the needle from traversing too far, it 

 is confined by pins on either side. On a recent occasion all the 

 telegraphs throughout England were deflected for so long a period 

 that business was wholly stopped. 



It is to be noticed, that the communication is carried through 

 the instrument, which is a part of the chain of connection. At 

 each station used, must be an instrument ; but where the corre- 

 spondence is small, several instruments may be used «ith the same 

 wires ; but of course two stations cannot be worked together, — 

 one only can use the telegraph at a time. ^Vhere there is larger 

 correspondence, separate wires and instruments are used for each 

 station. An objection at present is that one instrument being dis- 

 ordered, which is not unfrequently the case, the whole set suffer. 



Where several instruments are i)ut on one set of wires, there is 

 an advantage in sending a simultaneous message. Thus, in the 

 case of the Queen's speech and proroguing Parliament next year, 

 it may be sinuiltaneously communicated to sixty stations by one 

 clerk in Lothbury ; and we may conceive the period when a public 

 functionary may simultaneously convey instantaneous instructions 

 to a thousand subordinates, thus surpassing all that the printing- 

 press has ever yet accomplished. Already, the superintendents of 

 railways, seated in their London offices, can give general instruc- 

 tions every morning to their station-masters attending in the 

 telegraph-rooms. For most of the ))urposes of the subscribers'- 

 rooms, the whole system of telegraphs put in communication will 

 allow of one message or list of prices or quotations being used for 

 all, which is a great economy. Thus the price of shares at Man- 

 chester, of cotton at Liverpool, of sugar in Mincing-lane, or of 

 corn at Wakefield, will be simultaneously announced all over the 

 country. 



The bell, or alarum, may be considered at present an essential 

 part of the telegraph system. By setting the alarum in action, 

 notice is given to the telegraph clerk that a message is going to 

 be sent. We question, howe\er, whether the bell will in the future 

 be necessary at large telegraph stations, where clerks are on duty 

 day and night, and the instruments, perhaps, in constant use. At 

 present, the alarum may be set in action from the telegra])h wire, 

 or a separate wire may be used. The defect of the former plan is, 

 that if the clerk, on finishing his message, does not leave his 

 alarum in the circuit, the alarum cannot be set in action, and the 

 only way to attract his attention is the chance of his seeing the 

 needles working. As this contingency virtually neutralizes the 

 use of the alarum, it is considered preferable to have a separate 

 bell for the alarum. The alarum is a jiiece of clock-work, to be 

 set in action by the connection or disconnection of two pieces of 

 soft iron, formed into a horse-shoe magnet, and covered with a 

 coil of fine copper wire insulated with silk or cotton. When this 

 horse-shoe is magnetised, it attracts an armature of soft iron, 

 which moves on an arbor, and lets loose a catch, which sets the 

 clock-work in motion. Formerly, the magnet was made to act 

 directly on the hammer of the bell. Lately, great improvements 

 have been made in alarums by other inventors. 



The single needle telegraph is sometimes used for railway pur- 

 poses, where a limited number of signals is required ; but for all 

 others, the double needle is used, and the difference in price is not 

 sufficient to justify the use of a less effective instrument. As, 

 however, in the case of the double needle instrument, accident 

 may happen to one of the wires, the clerks are taught the use of 

 the single needle signals, so that communications may still be 

 carried on. This is the more necessary from the liability to 

 disorder. We may observe, that in case of injury to a particu- 

 lar line of wires, as that on the old Manchester and Bir- 

 mingham Railway for instance, the communication with Man- 

 chester could still be carried on by forming a circuit with Slieffield, 

 Leeds, Liverpool, or any other of the places remaining in connec- 

 tion with it and the metropolis. Unless all the wires round a ttuvn 

 be disturbed, the communication cannot be stopped, so readUy 

 can a line of correspondence be formed ; and it is at present con- 

 sidered of little importance to sentl a message round by any dis- 

 t.ince, as no perceptible difference in speed or efficiency is found 

 between a direct or a circuitous route in the transmission of elec- 

 tric messages. Hitherto, all corresj)ondence with Manchester has 

 been sent circuitously by Rugby, and over the Midland Railway. 

 In a political, and even in a commercial point of view, this fact is 

 of some importance, as it guarantees the stability of this mode of 

 communication. It is to be noted, however, that the Electric 

 Telegraph Company have hitherto worked their messages by relays, 

 and this is the case on the South Eastern, which argues some de- 

 fects. The company's telegraph is a failure on the South Devon 

 line, and in the Summit Tunnel on the Sheffield and Manchester 



railway. Nott and Gamble's telegraph has also failed in the Box 

 Tunnel. 



The mode of transmitting messages by telegi-aph has already 

 been subjected to re\olutions. When the idea was put forward of 

 spelling words, of course it was suggested that combinations might 

 be formed of signals standing for words. This was not, hoviever, 

 then found to work well, and the competent author of the article 

 on electric telegraphs, writing in " AV^eale's Pocket Book," in the 

 end of the year 18+0, says — " This method has been fully tried, 

 and has been relinquished only upon a conviction of the greater 

 certainty and eventual quickness of the literal communication." 

 At the present moment, the company are again working by sig- 

 nals or words, and with great success, upon JMr. Whishaw's 

 system. It will strike every one who has given his attention to 

 the subject, that each subject relating to shipping, to the stock 

 exchange, to produce markets — will have its own technical 

 language, in the cognate business of short-hand writing, called 

 " arbitraries," and for which signs may be used as they are in 

 short-hand. The merit of Mr. Whishaw's system consists in 

 its special application, while the failure of the previous at- 

 tempts was in tlieir generalization. All successful codes of sig- 

 nals, or telegrajjh communications, have been special ; and the 

 same may be said of short-hand arbitraries. A law short-hand- 

 writer will find constantly recurring — " plaintiff, defendant, affi- 

 davits, plea," and a number of other terms, which it would be a 

 work of supererogati(m to write in full ; and so in each dejiartment ; 

 but this has been left to systematization by the individual rather 

 than made a work of science. Sea signals have been rendered very 

 simple by their application to nautical purposes, though the at- 

 tempts to apply them to more extended communications have 

 faUed. 



In Mr. Whishaw's system for the Electric Telegraph Comjiany, a 

 code of signals is applied to each class of communications. Thus there 

 is a code for slii])ping intelligence, a code for racing, a code for share 

 lists, a code for corn-market prices, and so forth. On the message 

 being commenced, a signal is made what code is used, so that the 

 clerk who receives the message is prepared for the nature of the 

 signals. As the number of signals which can be made in a given 

 time is limited, it is evidently of great importance to economise 

 time by the adoption of arbitraries, instead of spelling every word, 

 letter for letter. Indeed, if an expedient of this kind were not 

 adopted, it would be impossible to carry on the correspondence 

 between the great towns. As it is, it may be reasonably expecte<l 

 that business will so far increase on the organization of the sys- 

 tem, as to require the adoption of more than one line of telegraphs 

 between the metropolis and such towns as Manchester and Glas- 

 gow. ^Ve may note here, that it will be curious to observe 

 whether the number of telegraph messages will bear any corre- 

 spondence with the number of post letters sent to each town. 

 There can be no doubt, however, that to give accommodation to 

 the public new companies will be formed, as in other branches of 

 enterprise. 



On a message being delivered in writing at the telegraph office, 

 it is " translated" into telegraph language, transmitted by a tele- 

 graph clerk, received by a telegraph clerk at the other end, re- 

 translated there, and written out and given to a messenger for 

 delivery. Each message is accompanied by preliminary signals, to 

 call the attention of the clerk to be addressed, and to signify to 

 him the nature of the message, and the code to be used. It may 

 readily be conceived that it is of great assistance to the clerk to 

 know the class of message he is going to receive, as he is thereby 

 better prepared to understand its import. It is like a reporter iii 

 the gallery of the House of Commons understanding the speaker 

 whom he is following, and which enables him more fully to catch 

 and express his meaning, than if the subject were unfamiliar to 

 him. In time, no doubt, the telegraph clerks will divide among 

 themselves the labour of transmitting the several classes of intelli- 

 gence, and this will have a tendency to ensure greater accuracy 

 and rapidity. In order to obtain more accurate delivery of a 

 message, the company offer, on the payment of an advanced 

 price, to have it repeated, so that there may be a security fvr 

 its being fully understood ; and this is necessary, as errors must be 

 expected to creep in from frequent imperfection in the instru- 

 ments, from unintentional error on the part of the sender, and 

 from misinterpretation on the part of the receiver. These 

 kinds of messages will be peculiarly open to those " equivoques," 

 now known as " errors of the press," in printing, where the 

 insertion of one wrong letter alteis the whole meaning of a 

 word or sentence. We may be prepared, therefore, for letters 

 addressed to the great censor of the age, headed, " Shameful Alis- 



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