Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1863-06-06
Private Ieiegraphs.


Punch once imagined the messages which
might pass between an atrabillious banker
and his wife on the subject Of dinner, when
I telegraph wires should stretch from office to
dwelling all over London. What Punch
/ thought q pleasant fancy is about to become
faet-has already become fact to certain
extent.
T. "fhe Universal Private Telegraph Com
pany of London undertakes TO put the mer-
chants country house in direct communica-
tioR With his Office, houses of business with
their branches, public offices with public
ofheea"; in fact, its mission is to supply
Teptcrs with SO many miles of prjeate pire to
run between house and house at a given
price and to provide telegraphic apparatus
which can DO worked by persons in the
office or counter or drawing room, as the
case may be, OF course it would be impos-
sthle proAtably to provide separate wire
with its appropriate suspending posts to
every renter, at any reasonable price. Con
sequcntly system of combined action has
been adopted for which Professor Wheat
stone has taken out a patent. For instance,
supposing that a hundred renters of wires
lie On either hand of some great main thor
oughfarc, these hundred wires, for such n
distance as they can be conveniently made
to run together, are enclosed in one cable
carefully inaulated from each other by
lRdiaTubber,
These cables are so arranged, says an
English journal, as to form nearly equila-
teral trisngles, each angle having a.base of
nearly q mile the cable, however, being
supported by wires slung from posts erected
ON the tops Of the houses at every two hun
(hed yards. At the intersection of every
angle a mile apart, straining posts are erect
ed for tightening the wires, and for giving
each Individual wire its direction or dcpar-
ture Ii the spectator only observes one OF
these posts, he will see that it gives off fila
ments Of wire in every direction-these pri-
yate wires, having come along the cable in
eommon with Others for given distance,
and are now making their way down into
the offices and houses of their renters in the
NEST direct way they can consistently with
the triangular system of laying out the lines
We have mentioned. Although hundred
wires are in some instances embedded in the
| aame cable, the company find no difficulty
| in discovering instantly fault that occur in
any one of them, us at every two hundred
yart(, the suspending pole is provided with
| Z connecting box or plate pierced with small
| holes, through which every separate wire,
| going or returning, spreads out from the
cable, aud, having thus passed, is bound
/ together again on the other side and pro
ceeds to the next point
\ These holes are all numbered, consequent
! ~ any Mtlure of the electric current can be
narrowed to q distance of two hundred
| yards, and ut once set right. BY this system
| OF telcgraphy the communication is instan-
tancous; there Is no waiting until other
messages have passed for the simple reason
! that no one else but the renter can possibly
| use it, Its speed is also greatly in its favor {;
/ as many rs one hundred and tifty letters u
minute can be telcgraphcd bya nimble hand
whilst any person can send and read MESA
/ ges 10y it, The needle telegraph used hy the
/ skilled operators on the long lines is per-
( ttCtly uninte,igihlc to the uuinitiated; but
| the child who can spell is as capable of send
/ ng message as the expert when these
simple telegraphs of Wheatstone are en-
! ploycd The manipulation looks like small
clock, with the twepty-six letters of the
alphabet and the nine numerals inscribed on
| its face each of these letters and numerals
is moved by a small lever The person tel
egraphmg, hy pressing down the pedal or
( lever attached to each letter, serds pulse
/ of electricity through the length OF wire,
/ which makes q needle point To similar
/ letter on the face of an indicator at the
other end Of the wire, which is being watch
cd by the person receiving the message
| \ curious improvement made in the re-
| coiying instrument OF Professor Wheatstone
enables that instrument to record messages
without the help of an operator; messages
are printed in ordinary letter type on slips
of tin foil, and no human receiver is ut all
neoossary all that a man has to do when
he comes into his room is to unlock a box
and take out the roll Of tin foil, and read
the message that has been sent in his alb
Sencc,
The journal from which we have quoted
asserts that these private telegraph wires
are already rapidly increasing in number
and will shortly be as common as'bells.