The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-11-08
Progress of the Electric Telegraph.


very interesting information relative to the
progress of telegraphic enterprise during the
past five years. Perhaps few persons are
aware of the immense advance already made
in this direction. At this moment in our own
country. telegraph lines extend from the Gull
of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and
from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific, while
on the eastern continent, Europe is covered by
perfect network of inter-laeing lines, and
the electric threads extend from London to
Tripoli and Algiers in Africa, to Teheran in
Persia, to Jerusalem, to Cairo, to Bagdad and
Nineyeh in Asiatic Turkey, to Bombay, CAR
cutta and other important cities of India, to
Irkoutsk in Eastern Siberia and to the borders
ofChina. Notwithstanding this immense ex-
tension, Mr.. Prescott is of the opinion thai
the telegraphic systems Of both Europe
and America have as yetbut begun to De deVeis
oped. He anticipates the compieuon az no
very distant day of the Atlantic Cable enter
prise. and speaks in the most hopeful strain OF
ffe nrosnects of the overland line of commu-
rication witt, Europe, ola the Pacific coast
and the Amoor river This line, which the
Western Union Extension Telegraph Compa-
nv. with capital of four millions Of dollars, is
now busy in completing, in its entire length
traverses the immense distance of five thou
sand four hundred miles, and the wild and
rugged surface of the country in many places,
the uncivilized character ofits inhabitants and
the severity of the climate, are circumstances
which invest the enterprise with peculiar diff
Guilty. Mr.. Prescott however, is Of the opin-
ion that none of these difficulties are insur-
mountable. The mountain elevation is mo-
where SO great as that surmounted by the Pa
cific Telegraph line in crossing the Sierra Ne
vada, needful timber is accessible all along the
proposed route, and although the temperature
of the region through which the northern
part of the line would pass is very low, yet the
winter is less severe than ina corresponding
latitude on the Atlantic coast. 1t is also wor-
thy Of Reconsideration that in high ATTITUDES tim.
Der is far less perishable than in low, and less
insulating material is required in cold regions
than in more genial climates. As for the in
habitants, the Indian tribes on the American
continent have been already brought, by the
fur trade into business relations with the civ
ilized world, while the Tartal.s Of Asiatic Rus
STA, accustomed for many years to barter prof
itably with whalers, explorers and government
agents, are Hospitality inclined, and quite
amenable to considerations of selfinterest. 1t
would thus seem that no insuperabie obstacles
either physical or social, lie in the way Of this
great enterprise.
e An interesting account is also given of the
building of the Pacific line, a very important
link in this great chain of inter-continental
communication. This line is now worked by
Morse instruments, usually direct from Chi
cage to Salt Lake, Hicks selfacting repeaters
being kept in the circuit at Omaha and Fort
Laramie. At Salt Lake the messages are re-
written, and thence sent direct to San Fran
cisco. The stations average about one for
each fifty miles, and the whole length of the
lineis inspected twice a week by persons en-
ployed for the purpose.
Mr.. Prescott gives very full system of ta-
bles, from which we learn that there are now
upwards of four hundred and forty thousand
miles Of aerial wire IN operation in the world,
and nearly seven thousand miles of successful
subaqueous cable, while the submarine cables
that worked for time and failed, amount in
the aggregate to more than nine thousand
miles, showing that the present advance has
been attained amid repeated failures
"Tbe establishment Of the electric telegraph
in India presented some curious as well as diff
ficult problems. In the first place. it was dis
covered that the air of India is in a state of
constant electrical perturbation of the stron-
pe5t kind. so that the instruments there
into HI fvI.
to work. Along the north and south lines
current of electricity. was constantly passing
which threw the needles out ofgear and bafled
the signalIers. Moreover, the tremendous thun-
der-storms run up and down the wires and
melted the conductors; the monsoon winds
tore the teak-posts out ofthe sodden ground; ;
the elephants and buffalOes trampled the fall
en- lines into kinks and tangles; the Delta
aborigines carried off the timber supports for
fuel, and the wires or iron rods upon them to
make bracelets and to supply the Hndoo
smitheries; the cotton and rice boats, hedging
up and down the river, dragged the subaque-
Gus wires to the surface. In addition to
these graver difficulties were MANY of an
amusing character. Wild pigs and tigers
scratched their skins against the posts in the
jungle, and porcupines and bandicoots bur-
rowed them out of the ground. Kites, fish
ing-eagles and hooded crows came in hum
dreds and perched upon the line to see what
on earth it could mean, and sometimes after
thunder storm, when the wires were wet
were found dead by dozens, the victims of
their curiosity. Monkeys climbed the posts
and ran along the lines, chattering, and drop
ping an interfering tail from one wire to an
other, which tended to confound the CONVEX
sations of Calcutta. Parrots, with the same
contempt for electrical insulation, fastened up-
on one string by the beak and another by the
legi and in one village, the complacent ma
ttves hung their fishing-li lines to dry upon
them. In 1856 there were four thousand
miles oftelegraph wire stretched over India:
some upon bamboo posts, which bent to the
storms esAd thss aa4iod than; some. as in the
Madras presidency, upon monuments of gran
ite,-these, during the mutiny, proving
worth ten times their cost" h, s. .,t-.,7S, :
Me-. Prescott gives many interesting Incl
dents connected with telegraph working, for
only one or two ofwhich have we space:
"On Wednesday, April 10Th, the day of Mr..
Llncon's funeral, eighty-five thousand words
were transmitted between Washington and
New York, between the hours of p. m, and
a. M, being at the rate of over fourteen
thousand words per hour. Nine wires were
employed lor the purpose. Thirteen thousand
SIX hundred words were transmitted bv the
House printing instruments on a sinoje wire
after half past 7 O'Clock" 1Ir'-''es w.
@At the first battle of Frador;o,r.h,,,.,. e.,,
trains were for the first time in the b;stor .,0 IF
the war used on the battlefield, under The fir "a
OF the enemy's batteries. The moyeme s,J !. ~
be made ON the day of that battle were Of t,,o
first magnitude. The movements Of the ra1
treat were perilous to the whole army. The
trains in use contributed something to the sue
cess of those movements. Many incidents are
recorded of the operators accompanying raid
ing parties into the enemy's territory and tap
ping the telegraph lines, sometimes obtaining
valuble information. One is related by the
Selma Rebel The operator at that place was
called to his instrument by some one up the
tennessee and Alabama road, who desired in
formation as to the number of the forces and
supplies at Coosa Bridge. After gaining ali
tne information he could, regarding the ioca-