The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1873-07-26
Our Telegraph System.

When we look at a railroad map Of the
United States, with its intricate network
Of black lines, and in imagination gil il
out with double tracks, It's functions and
busy stations, its depots and engine-houses
and then people and vivify the picture with
its swarming and hurrying life and its
gliding trains, ever making up, traycrsing
the field, breaking and forming new com
binations, necessarily succeeding, passing,
and crossing each other; and when we add
the bands Of pioneers, surveyors, engineers,
laborers, and construction trains which
form the fringe of this network, constant
ly extending its meshes in every direction,
and adding new intricacies to its most
crowded parts-the mind Is almost bewil-
dered with the thought of such an immense
labyrinth, such complex organization.
If we could rise above the surface Of the
earth, and take in the whole country at a
birds-eye view, with visual power to dis
cern all the details, the network Of the
telegraph would be still more curious to
look upon. We should see web spun of
two hundred thousand miles Of wire spread
over the face of the country like cobweb
on the grass, its threads connecting every
important centre Of population, festooning
every great post-road, and marking as with
silver lining the black track Of every
railroad. We should observe men, like
spiders, busily spinning out these lines in
every direction, at the rate of five miles
an hour for every working hour in the
year, If we should trace these threads
back from the circumference, we should
find them converging from every direction
to certain central knots, like Chicago, st.
Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Washington.
and many Others of equal importance, and
thence running in great strands, doubling
and multiplying in number as they ap-
proach the centre, but SO arranged as to
bind every city and town to all It's neigh
bors, near and far. If the eye, seeking 10
analyze this labyrinth, should pursue the
converging lines, Il would at last follow a
great band Of more than two hundred and
fifty wires, from every point Of the COM
pass, running into one great centre in the
city Of New York, in the main Office of
the Western Union Telegraph Company.
Other minor centres would appear, but this
one would Immediately be recognized as
the great core or heart of the system.
II, now, such an observer could be gift
ed with magic power of vision, which
man has not yet dreamed OF attaining. so
as to be enabled to see that unseen and
silent force we call electricity, and discern
its instantaneous actions and reactions from
point to point over this bewildering maze,
she network of the telegraph would pre-
sent spectacle far more amazing than
that Of the railroad system.
As the morning sun sends the hour of
nine across the continent, the Offices are
filed with operators, an army Of nearly
ten thousand persons, engaged in the va
rious functions involved In the service.
The batteries, which we may imagine 10
have been mostly slumbering during the
night, all awake to their work, and the
quiyerings and scintillations Of electric ac-
tiop along the wires would show the whole
network to be now alive. On the great
trunk lines the last Of the night work Is
finished, the morning orders are circulated,
and around the circuit fash the humorous
salutations which the operators exchange
with their unseen fellows, who seem to be
concealed at their elbow, but who are in
reality hundreds or thousands Of miles
away. Ten o'clock finds the Offices full Of
business. Outward-bound messages pour
In to be dispatched, aud messages received
are ticked of BY the talking armaturo, 10