The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 7,185 T

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHING BY STEAM.

It might puzzle the most speculative philosopher
or the most profound mechanist to say from which
power, steam or electricity, the greatest amount of
benefit is likely to result to mankind. Steam has
already done wonders, though, in spite of the oft-
repeated saying that "it is still in its infancy,"
there seems reason to believe that already have we
nearly approached the wide limits of what can be
effected by that power. With electricity, on the
contrary, the field that is gradually expanding
before the inquiries of men devoted to that branch
of science seems almost as boundless and as uni-
versal as the electric fluid itself. That electricity
has done something of late may be admitted now,
even though according to all appearances the results
of a few more years of progress on the electric
science and the discovery of its applicability to a
number of uses now only dimly foreshadowed, will
soon make our present attainments appear as
nothing. But though the merits of each agency are
sought on all sides to be carefully developed, and
a rivalry of progress is perpetually being insti-
tuted, yet the greatest achievement of all, a simple
plan to combine both powers, has never been suc-
cessfully attempted until now. With the telegraph
electricity has surpassed steam, and there are wise
and able men in this metropolis now labouring
hard to perfect a grand conception, and by the es-
tablishment of one strong elcctro-motive power su-
persede the use of steam machinery for evermore.
This is a great idea, but perhaps a perfect and har-
monious union between electricity and steam is a
greater still. The first step in that union, which
must yield to mankind and civilisatiox the most
important and valuable results, has been made by
Mr. Beggs, a gentleman whose name has long held
honourable place among our electricians, and who
has now divined a plan by which even the electric
current may be quickened and the speed of the
electrie telegraph stimulated
_a-thousandfold. In
inventions of this kind there is nothing more
difficult than to convey to the general
reader a clear and distinct impression of the value
of an improvement, to understand every step in
the detail of which requires knowledge more or less
intimate of the science of electricity as applied to
telegraphic purposes. We shall therefore merely
state, in the most general manner, the nature of
the plan proposed by Mr. Baggs, withou' at all stop-
ping to inquire into the reason for the effects pro-
duced. Iu order, however, that our readers may
appreciate.the value and nature of the improve-
ment, it is necessary briefly to state, first, the rou-
tine by which telegraphic messages are at present
conveyed, and the difficulties which hourly occur
in their transmission. Electric telegraphs of all
kinds are either worked by voltaic or magnetic
electricity, the current of which along the wire is
alternately transmitted and broken acc )rding as
the circuit is completed or interrupted by means of
a handle, which is worked by a clerk. This alter-
nate transmission and release of the voltaic or
magnetic current deflects the needle at the other
end of the wire either to the right or left or regis-
ters the message by electro-magnetism according
to the nature of the instrument employed. As a
matter of course, while a message is being thus
slowly transmitted as it were by hand the whole
length of the wire is entirely occupied, while, what-
ever the emergency, nothing can be done towards
forwarding the messages which are to follow until
the wire is entirely unoccupied and reported free.
Where noodle instruments are used messages can
ho transmitted with comparative rapidity ; but this
advantage is more than counterbalanced by the
danger of inaccuracy, and which can only be guarded
against by a repetition of all important messages.
Such a repeating process naturally causes a certain
loss of time, though even with this drawback it is
equal in rapidity to the recording telegraph, but
never so certain in its operation. Experience of
these matters enables the telegraph companies
to ascertain to a single word the number of mes-
sages that can bo transmitted daily with wire
in full operation ; and their charges, therefore,
are regulated not according to the cost at
which each message can be sent, but according
to a scale which net onlyrepays the working expenses
of each day, but each day's interest on the whole
amount of capital embarked by the undertaking.
So, then, if any process be discovered by which a
message that now occupies an hour in its transmis-
sion can be sent in five minutes or less, the sender
would gain the difference and only pay for the oc-
cupation of the wire for one-twelfth of the time,
and therefore one-twelfth of the amount at present
charged. To charge by words is only a more certain
method of charging by time, and ofcouree, if any com-
pany suddenly found itself in a condition to transact
one hundred times the amount of business in the
same period and at the same cost that it at present
incurs, the gain to the public would be an imme-
diate reduction to nearly one-hundredth of the rate
now charged for telegraphic messages. It is this
groat change which Mr. B iggs' invention
proposes
to work the electric telegraph by steam,
and so get over the great obstacle which now exists'
against its more general use—namely, its slowness.
It may seem paradoxical to speak of the slowness of
the electric telegraph as being the only bar to its
more general adoption, but in truth such is the li-
teral fact, for the time occupied, and therefore ex-
pense incurred in using the telegraph wire makes a
message rather the resort of commercial domestic
emergency than a thing of daily use, almost rival-
ling the post as a means of daily communication.
The invention, then, which is to supersede these
tedious processes and work the telegraph by steam
instead of by hand is generally asfollows :—" A se-

ries of gutta percha bands, about six inches wide
and a quarter of an inch thick, are coiled on wheels
and drums arranged for tlao purpose. These bands
are studded down both sides with a single row of
holes at short intervals apart. When a message is
to be sent, the clerks wind off these band 4, insert-
ing;in the holes small brass pins, whieb, according to
the;r combinations in twos or threes (with blank
holes between), represent certain words or letters.
In this manner the message is, as it were, " set
up" in the bands with great rapidity, and if
the number of bands employed is sufficiently
large—say as numerous as the compositors em-
ployed in a large printing-
office—messages equal
in length to five or six columns of this
journal could be set up and ready for trans•
mission in the course of a single hour. Of course
this operation in no respect interferes with the tele-
graph wire itself, which continues free for use until
the bands of messages are actually being dispatched.
The gutta percha bands when full are removed to
the instrument-room, a most simple appliance pre-
venting any derangement or falling ant of the pins
while being moved about. In the instrument-room
the bands are connected with ordinary steam ma-
chinery, by which they are drawn in regular order
with the utmost rapidity between the charged poles
of an electrical machine in such a manner that,
during the moment of each pin's passing, it forms
electrical communication between the instrument
and the telegraph, and a signal is transmitted to
the other end of the wire, where the spark perfo-
rates a paper and records the message. The only
limit to the rapidity of the operation is the rate at
which the bands can be drawn, since the electrical
contact of each pin, even for the 20th part of a
second, is more than sufficient to transmit a word
or signal from London and register it in America.
Of course, as the message is recorded, we will say
in America, with the same rapidity as that in which
London,citleirskstrwainlslmbiettreedquinisitein
a
order number
translate
nsloaf reading
clerks il3g
by
dividing it into small portions, with almost as much
facility as it has been sent.

The value and importance of this invention, not
only to the public but to telegraph companies them
selves, must be evident to the least experienced in
such matters ; in fact, without it, long submarine
lines would be all but impracticable from the slow-
ness of the process, and consequently from the ex-
pense attendant upon transmitting the briefest mes-
sage. It is now tolerably well known that, bad the
attempt to submerge the Atlantic cable been suc-
cessful last summer, one submarine wire would not
at the most have• sufficed for the transmission of
more than a small number of messages per diem each
way, and that in fact all that it could have trans-
mitted would not have met 1-20th of the demand from

country.either
i S w
So clearllardywasit thaiss contemplatedforeseenbafore that
even
one cable to
submergeitra'id atl:Tcootnhdercafobrlem,
oesnseagfoers intoesAsamgeesrictao. Elfy-
the new patent for steam telegraphing which we
have mentioned, worked with an efficient staff, it
would be perfectly easy for one wire to transact all
the business between England and America. With
proper arrangements an hour would suffice to trans-
mit intelligence equal in number of words to the
contents o 12 columns of the Times. It is no
exaggeration, therefore, to say that the most im-
portant news in each country, with a price-list ex-
tensive enough to include every staple of trade,
might be exchanged in time for the commencement
of business in the capitals of the Old and New
World. Another of the great advantages which
the
invention possesses is the application of static
electricity to telegraphic purposes. To obtain in-
tensity of the electric fluid without quantity has
always been
regarded among electricians as 11

' great desideratum for the telegraph. In this both
voltaic and magnetic currents are wanting, quan-
tity with them being inseparable from intensity.
In long—and, of course, therefore, in submarine—
wires quantity in the voltaic current becomes a
dangerous obstacle, always creating an induced cur-
rent in an opposite direction to that in which the
message is sent, chargi ogthe wire and generally exer-
cising that dreaded retarding influence about the
real cause for which so many different opinions
exist. To overcome these impediments many efforts
have been made to apply static electricity to the
telegraph, but till now the attempt has always been
unsuccessful. Mr. Beggs produces his power with
ordinary plate machines, which aro turned of course
by the same machinery as that which winds off his
gutta
percha message bands. The most simple and
ordinary plan provides for the poles of the machine
being at all times kept equally and properly
charged, no matter at what speed the pin bands
may be passing between them, and the force of the
discharge being sufficient to pierce the paper and re-
gister the signal at the end of the wire, no electro-
magnetic cod is necessary at the end of the circuit.
It is needless to point out the advantages which this
plan possesses on the score of economical production
of the currenkor its greater certainty ofpassage along
a wire when
(especially in long submarine cables)
it would encounter many slight defects and attenua-
tions almost fatal to the progress of a magnetic or
voltaic current. In these remarks we have merely
pointed out the most prominent features of the new
plan, enough to enable those interested in the sub-
ject to recognise the ease and certainty with which
the improvements may he carried out, and the vast
importance which must result to the community
from their general adoption. In the value of the
invention and the results which it promises it is
second only to the great discovery of the electric
telegraph itself, which can be fully utilised only by
this process. The disco-very has only been a short
time patented, since which Mr. Beggs has been em,
ployed in perfecting by practice the minor details of
his plan. A company is about to be formed to ap-
ply and carry out the invention in a more extensive
manner than can be achieved by the efforts of a pri-
vate individual, however energetic. There is ap-
parently little doubt, from the value of the plan
and the necessity which exists for its adoption, that
the company will be as successful as the improve-
ment it recommends.

AMERICAN CA PTAINS AND BRITISH
SEAMEN.

Another case has occurred at Sunderland of a
murderous attack upon British seamen by Ame-
rican captains and their chief officers, and as they
sailed away ere they could be overtaken by British
justice, the facts have been sent to Lord Clarendon
for submission to the American Minister.
The following is a copy of the depositions made
by the men and forwarded to Lord Clarendon :
"George Telford, of 13, Meling's-rig, Sunder-
land, North Sea pilot.—On Friday, at 11 a.m.,
I was engaged by Charles Brookman, the mas-
ter of the John U. Brookman. barque, of the port
of New York, and then lying in the roads, laden
with a cargo of coals for New York, to pilot the
vessel to the Downs or the Orkney Islands. About
3 p.m. I went on board the vessel :n company with
the master. We took a coble and two coblemen.
There were also three British seamen, who had I
believe agreed to join the vessel, as the crew was
short of hands. Captain Brookman told me he was
two hands short, even with the three men. The
vessel is about 500 tons. There was also a Jew on
board, who .had got the three seamen. When we
got alongside, the Jew and the three seamen, the
captain, and myself, all got on board, leaving the
two coblemen in the cable. I put my things into the
cabin. The Jew came into the cabin and received,
as I thought, 9/. 10s., his charge for getting the
men. The Jew went into the coble. One of the
three men said that the ship was short-handed, and
they did not wish to proceed. This was said to the
captain. The captain, without saying a word,
knocked the man who had spoken down. He used
his fist. He said to the man, D- your eyes, go
to your work.' The captain then seized a small
axe, when I got hold of the axe and got myself cut
slightly. I got i: out of his hand. He then seized
a hammer and felled another of the three men
down. I went aft and called the coble to the side,
as I was determined no;., to go in the ship. When
I looked round I saw one of the three men in the
water. I called the coblemen to take him in ; they
did so. The captain said to me that he would not
allow the coble to come alongside to take me in. I
nailed them to oome under the stern ; they clirl no,
then slid down a rope and got into the ooble. When
I last saw the deck of the vessel the other two sea-
men
were lying on the deck wounded and bleeding.
I was afraid of my life, and would not go in the
ship. e
ship. Tho captain was assisted by three mates in
the ill-usage to the two sailors. Two of the mates
had each a belaying pin in their hands. I don't
know the names of the two seamen ; I never saw
any of the three before I saw them in the boat.
44 peter Mitchell—l am 19 years of age. I
came up from Aberdeen to this port on the 29th
instant. I was on Friday forenoon shipped by
a Jew for the John Brookman, at 3/. a month
wages. I got 30s. in advance. Another seaman,
named Alex. Irving, was shipped at the same time.
I did not see the third man shipped. The captain
was in the Jew's shop at the time I was shipped. I
went on board, as the pilot has already stated.
Before we started from the dock the captain told
us he would get two other hands in addition to us
three. When we got on board Irving went into the
cabin and I at first followed, and then went forward
to the house on deck. In a short time I came out,
and then I saw the captain knock Irving down. 1
saw the captain with a weapon in his hand, and 1
saw him strike Irving with it. Irving fell ; I saw
him bleeding from the back of the head. He got
up. I went to the other side of the vessel and there
I saw the mates striking the third man, whose
name I did not know. Saw the mates knock that
man down, and saw one of the mates strike him
when down on the face with a ballast shovel. I
went round to the other side, and the captain came
up to me and was about to strike me with a
belaying pin. I then jumped overboard. lam no
swimmer, but I was afraid of my life being taken
if I remained on board. I was picked up by the
men in thimoble. I left all my clothes on board,
and the ship sailed with them."

THE PURCHASE SYSTEM.

(From the Daily News.)
"I am not wedded to the purchase system," says
the Duke of Cambridge to the Commissioners, "and
I am not prepared to say that if I started a system
I would start that ; but I have never yet seen any-
thing proposed which in my opinion would make
up for the advantages of that system ; and until
I see some plan propounded that will do so, I think
it would be a great pity to deviate from the purchase
system." "It is not for me," continues the Com-
mander-in-Chief, "to give an opinion as to what
the Commissioners should report, but I am quite
prepared to say this, that any change which must be
propounded must be a complete one, and not a par-
tial one." Such is the view taken of the purchase
system by the chief of the British Army : Show me
a better system, and I will not refuse to adopt it ;
but in any case, make no partial changes—don't
attempt to mix up the utterly incompatible prin-
ciples of promotion by purchase and promotion for
professional merit, but either keep the system intact
or abolish it altogether.
Sir Charles Trevelyan, whose plan we now proceed
to examine, appears to meet both requirements of
the Royal Duke : he sketches a plan which at once
provides for the total abolition of the purchase sys-
tem, and without any increase of expense to the
country, secures that rapid current of promotion
which constitutes the main advantage that even its
most zealous advocates can profess to claim for the
purchase system. Let us briefly state the outlines
of this elaborate system.
Sir Charles proposes that first appointments to
the Army shall be conferred partly on the principle
of nomination, partly on that of competition. It
is contemplated that the Commander-in-Chief shall
keep a list of candidates as he does now, and that
on the occurrence of a vacancy he shall nominate
three from his list, selecting the best of the three
for the, commission by.a competitive examination,
and- permitting- the rejected mizdidtitei 130-46 up :a
second but not a third time. This principle of no-
mination and limited competition has been found
to work admirably well in the Civil Service. Sir
Charles Trevelyan, than whom no man is better
qualified by extensive experience to speak on the
subject, thus explains its practical operation :
" The efficacy of the plan is much greater than
appears at first sight : on the first appearance of it,
it looks as if the only sifting was that produced by
the examination, but it is not so ; there is also a
preliminary self-acting operation, which is even
more valuable. When the principle of examination
is a fixed one, there is hardly any young man so
inferior who does not think he cau cram up to it ;
but when you introduce the competitive principle
it becomes a race, and as in a race you endeavour
to enter a winning horse, so in a competitive ex-
amination you only put forward young men who
are likely to succeed. We find by practical experi-
ence that the standard of the candidates is elevated
by this natural preliminary self-acting process."
The first entry into the army having been thus
effected, the next stop consists in a course of pro-
fessional military training. It is proposed that all
the young men thus selected for commissions shall
be sent, without exception, to a military college
for two years in time of peace, for one year in time
of war. It is further proposed that they shall be
posted in the army according to the way in which
they acquit themselves at the college examinations.
Having thus fairly entered on their regimental
duties as subaltern officers, the plan contemplates
hat their promotion while in the junior ranks shat'

be regulated two-thirds by Seniority, and one-third
by Selection. Before attaining the rank of Captain,
an exclusively professional examination (theoretical
as well as practical) is to be gone through. It is
proposed that this should not be a competitive but
a fixed-standard examination, the young men being
at the same time encouraged to take up as many
extra subjects as possible, or, in Oxford phraseology,
" to go up for honours."
Up to the rank of Captain the promotion, it is
rec ,mmended, should be strictly regimental ;
above that rank it should, as in the Indian ser-
vice, go through the entire branch of the army.
All promotions above the rank of Captain are to
proceed strictly ou the principle of selection, the
basis of selection being the recorded results of pe-
riodical
inspections carefully registered at head-
quarters. Sir Charles Trevelyan recommends that
the system of regimental inspection by general offi-
cers shall, for this purpose, be extended through-
out the Empire, and he conclusively shows that in
order to make such a system of reports a perfectly
safe and satisfactory ground of army promotion,
nothing more is required than a conscientious and
painstaking registration at head-quarters of the re-
sults arrived at from time to time by the Inspecting
Generals.

Having thus provided a method (very similar to
that so successfully practised in the French service)
of selecting the officers most deserving of promo-
tion, Sir Charles goes on to recommend that the
Line should be assimilated to the Guards, Artil-
lery, Engineers, and Marines, by the abolition of
the rank of Major ; that the honorary rank of
Colonel of Regiments shoull be discontinued ; and
there should in future be only two grades of field
officers—full Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels. If

we add to this that all Staff appointments are to be
regulated by examinations strictly competitive, and
that Exchanges are to be entirely abolished, so as to
prevent officers from evading Indian or Colonial
servics, we shall have a tolerably clear outline no
tion of the Assistant-Secretary's scheme, as far as
regards first commissions and subsequent promo-
tion.

A very important part of the plan remains be-
hind. How it it intended to keep up that rapid
current of promotion, the maintenance of which is
the great alleged advantage of the Purchase Sys-
tem ? The answer is, by a scheme of retirement
on full pay—Voluntary at certain fixed periods
in certain ranks—compulsory at certain other
periods more advanced. Field-Marshals, Gene-
rals, and Lieutenant-Generals are to be exempted
from the operation of this rule ; on all lower
ranks it is proposed that the respective periods of
compulsory and voluntary retirements on
full pay should be, for a Major-Geueral, 65 and 60 ;
for a Colonel commanding (now Lieutenant-
Colonel), 60 and 55 ; for a Lieutenant. Colonel
(now Major) 55 and 50 ; for a Captain or Sub-
altern, 50 and 45. It is calculated, upon data
selected with great care and accuracy, that the
combined operation of these compulsory and
voluntary full-pay retirements, of voluntary
retirements before the age entitling to full pay, of
selections for Staff and other permanent appoint-
ments, mid of death vacancies, would keep up the
current of promotion in time of peace at quite the
same rate as the Purchase system.
We have not space to go at any length into the
financial details of the plan, and can only state the
net results. Sir Charles proposes an augmentation
of pay in the junior ranks, and in the rank of
Colonels commanding regiments, which involves '
for Regimental officers an annual increase of up-
wards of 62,0001., and for Staff officers an increase

of upwards of 37,000/. Oa the other hand, the
establishment of General officers is reduced by
more than 66,0001. a-year, and their command pay
and allowances about 1,5001. Of the other
financial charges, the moat considerable are in the
relative proportions of full-pay retirements and

half-pay: the former is increased in round numbers
by 150,0001., the latter diminished by 167,0001.
The net result of the whole calculation is that the

new system would cost the country 113,4781. less
per annum than the existing system.
There remains the question as to compensating
officers who may elect to retire, receiving tho price
of their commissions. Of course if we are to sup-

pose that the whole body of existing officers, on the
abolition of the Purchase System, would give up
the service in disgust, and simultaneously demand
from the Treasury the price of their commissions,
the amount which the country would thus be called
on to disburse would be a somewhat formidable

one—ordinarily, we believe, computed at about
7,000,090/. sterling. But no one really entertains
the absurd belief that anything of this sort is likely
to take place. Sir Charles Trevelyan is probably
pretty near the mark when he takes the annual
number of those officers who retired on sale in the

two years preceding the last war, as affording a very
approximate measure of the annual number likely
to demand compensation in case of the abolition of
the Purchase System. That annual number was
322, and the regulation value of their commissions
was about 521,0001., the customary value about
733,0001. These are surely not formidable sums
to be paid by the richest country in the world for
the sake of getting rid of such a preyed abuse as
the Purchase System. One thing is quite certain,
and that is, that no time could be more favourable
than the present for making the change, for "in
the majority of the Crimean regiments the larger
number of officers have obtained some, if not all
their commissions without purchase, whereas every
month is now adding to the number of the commis-
sions sold, and to the amount which officers who
have not purchased their commissions are entitled
to realise according to their length of service." We
have gone through the outlines of Sir Charles Tre-
velyau'o scheme. Without committing ourselves