The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-01-22

feat, the skilful operators of the American tele
graph in the United States, are in the daily habit
Of transmitting four times the amount in the
sSow '' TIE ~ G s message from Albany
consisting of 5000 words, was sent to this paper
in Two hours and an half, making the difference
as 5000 to 700 in favor of the Morse system.
One of the peculiarities OF the Morse system is
his conventional alphabet for the telegraph, com
posed of the simplest conceisAhle elements Of
signs, to wit dot or point, and Alne the simple
prolongation of point. 1t Is thiApArt OF his In
vention which enables HIM to accomplish so
much We have not space to exps the emil
nent advantages which are the result OF this I'M
prOvement on the common alphabetlc letter, fur
ther than to say, that the remarkable simplicity
OF The teiegraPnic machinery is one consequence,
and another Of great practical use is the faculty
OF speech-actually speech-with which the IN
animate machine is endowed Morse's telegra-
phc instruments speak, as well as write, their
messages Nothing In the least analogous to
this belongs to any system OF electric tele-
graphs, as yet devised. 1t Is the result OF the
mechanical impressng of the conventional al
phabet.. Prof Morse has often alluded to this
magical effect in private conversation; but we
following extract from an article " on the Elec-
trio Telegraph of Professor Morse. by c. I.
Chester" in the January number of SiHiman's
Journal.
whom the line in order immediate response Is ex
pected Thus N expresses New York. The sound 10 30
familiar instantly to srrsst tho operators attentions
though he sho ud DO ata distance from the instrument
Thus the American telegraph is phonetic appeAh to
two senses Long messages have been faithfully record
nstrumsns There are System: q ses5s,isiions too,
many ordinary words and sentences bong txxsDed BY
single letter or numsrsl By the Aid Of thee and
quick may be carried between ope
rstors with wonderful celebrity To the skfu operator
the little brass instrument becomes articuats crea
presses his passing emotions He detects individual
with whom he and recognize the effect Of
his own conversation, ~ producing pleasure vexaton
The tariff Of charges for transmitting messages
differs slightly in their prices, on the various
lines, for the same distance. These prices are
easily ase seer st any Of the teeg1qaIn
line has the lowest rates When the hume
rous lines which are now threading the country
shall have been completed, and in full operation,
a convention of the various companies Will
doubtless settle uniform tariff of postage. Ii
cheap postage in the mail system; is most profit
able, there is ne reason to doubt that the same
effect Twill hold good In the telegraph and, there
fore, 1t Is tor the interest OF the companies TO
reduce the charges to as low standard as pos
slbIe but it is doubtful if mucn reduction can
take place However high the charges on any
OF the American telegraph lines may seem, they
are tritilng, indeed, when compared with the
charges on the English telegraphs To make
this plain we give a single example. The charge
TOR sending twenty words from New York to
Poughkeepsie, distance OF about eighty miles,
Is 37a cents; while for twenty words from Lon
don 10 Dover, eighty-eight miles, the English
charg 8 are is. sterling, or 81 AZ.
From the facts we have stated, it is evident
that the Morse system OF electric te!egraphs is
most likely to be universally adopted and that
sooner or later, by fair means or foul, the sub
stantal characteristics of the American tele-
graph must be adopted in Europe. Already
there are indications in England which point TO
this result. Whcatstone's and all the needle
telegraphs in operation there, are so inefficient,
and so expensive, compared with Morse's, that
the Electric Telegraph Company of London, who
are monopolzlng all the Geographic inventions,
are about to adopt new invent on OF BAN,
which is nothing more nor less than the dot and
line alphabetc system of Morse and from
which they are already anticipating such results
as shall throw into dlsuse all the former systems
used in Britain.
There is in the history Of the telegraph, If we
have been rightly informed, chapter of injustice
enacted towards Professor Morse In England, IN
1885, which, when II sees the light, will not re-
fleet much credit on the acumen, the sense OF
Justice, or the lmpartlality of one OF England's
Attorney Generals.
We give below the list of the places already
connected, or soon to be nected, on all the
lines OF telegraph, and refer our readers to the
map for their position.
The great Southern Atlantic line, from New
York to New Orleans, 10 1896 miles In length,