New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-12-27

taken I'm An average Of m minutes But for misunde,
andng which resulted in brief interruption of ono
NJ he wires, the Transmission would have been com
Met. in few minutes less time. To work these eight
tro,, equred eight sending operators at Washington
and oi,, It receiving operators at Nes-York BY the
- n MON or Morse process the acts Of sending and
oot.t,c, a, q simultaneous; ana when all the matter
ha, ho ,. It was all received written out and ready
,or delivery r, 4 the automatic system Involves three
separate and dis;i. 1ct processes
RET. Tho ness go must be translated into teie-
s' ia,D,a~e perfOrations In strips Of paper
bge correspond to the dots and dasbes Of the Morse
alphabet 1870, naner must be wound upon
oi and then made TO pg,, rapidly under steel comb
the teeth Of which dropDiA WITH The receiytno .,r,
, 80 ,bo ,her end ~ fbe q rcuit where the electric
current, acting upon chemically p'PN 'NF''''
e TSe which is the, tsographio char
acters, must be translated and copN speed and M
The first requisite Of the telegraph IN iii ~,
new process entitled to consideratl ,be am" inns
perform or9lnary 'Sespm ro %Ss row N It wiz
not do say that the Western Union COMP y auto
its work with less Number Of wires IL " IA sorS h,
matte or that the automatic can 40 tne Union nss
onger time with fewer wires. The western aod ths
the wires requisite to do all the work demanded a
automatic cannot hopo to compete successfully y" ~
doing It's work with equal promptness' -. thu
AUTOMATIC process involve In order enable II ~ de
liver tho Presidents Message complete IN neN-iN
within co minutes OF It's receipt at washington
Ihaye assumed that its transmission could De accom-
pllshed in 20 minutes Then the perforation at ono
unfair to divide the time equally, ana gave ~ ihu,os
to each Now. one Morse operator VIII SEND N an hour
many words one operative can priofste ~ aee
time. am confident the former can uo - pos
hour to send the message allowing tho sane u ~
perforate II, it would require three mes eig1'' %
a. operators to perforae it in one-third OF an hour.
Assuming that the transmission Is accomplished VIII
9 %n Ss eow ~ 20 minutes and I'D
still confused mass Of paper tape on WHICH ar 20
yyhi ch IN fra Z
demonstrated that operator will not traDsiate,
ana FAST fpp % yvb 1e9 reeeyb By sound Assuming
be trueand the only doubt nave IS whethe. tne %
ing capacity estimated-it would take Twice
as many trnsators and copysts to perform the Work
twenty minutes as 1t did perforatorstnas H. 70. n, $40
least three more to attend the transmitting and recelv
ing Instruments and the perforator making ioIce vi
rs 10 accomplish in an hour the work performed with
l6 operators eight wires by the western On,oh ia e
ence of those connected with the British telegraph hes
that five times as many operators are reareu " a
the automatic process effectively as the Noise. rive
times So five more than my estimate IN ths IN
stance. which is probably too low by at ieast nVe
factOry, very certain that II cannot handle press
matter in the day time 1t is OIL no Tbs pres
this country insist upon having the very sest news
possible to be obtained up to the time 81 going 70
aud they willing to pay what IL VIII cost 10 piocuro
by that process that will give IL to them But the a
sI boaner for Inc Western Union to provide and
tain seven additional wires between washington anu
Nsw-York maintain such force at b9tn places
as would render it possible 10 transmit and deliver Dy
the automatic process words within an hour from
other b9saess passg between the Same places at tho
same time II has sometimes been said that less skilled
aud therefore less expensive labor could DC employed
in the automatic process than Is required uIuer sn9
Morse system. But this is entirely faiaeious Inc skill
and experience required to peglOrate and to translate
and copy promptly and accurately VIII DC certain -
high as arc paid for other telegrapn0
OF every dollar received by the Western Union Com
many are Obliged disburse about 10 cents 70 pay
for the cost OF getting It, About 40 cents OF inc ~ arc
paid for labor To double the cost OF the LABOR aioo
would change the PT0poap1 OF ,e and 100 Il ia not
necessary to pursue the @ nut Se II sba
cost of labor was multiplied by five ,,,
announcement recently made In the English
eerraphc feat transmission TO the press OF an ad-
dress by John Bright to his constituents al
dress were made advance OF its delivery. special
staff was out from the London office 70 reenlorce
rho regular staff Brmin gha and the ordinary equip
ment was augmented by u Wheatstone's Automatic
Transmiters and So perforating machines SIX OK
4dSh perfors 81 Copies at one operation This
gave ,s an Snt WITH this array Of
machines operated BY 60 clerks the British telegraph
81 cities indirectly abridged report TO SIX other
places The address was made IN the evening" ana all
that was required Of the telegraph was to transmit and
deliver i In time for publication In the morning papers
This would give average of i've to SIX hours nave
no information to the number OF clerks required 70
translate and copy at the stations where IL de-
vered but judging by the number required to trans
mit the copying force must have been very large.
Tie Western Union Company received the Presidents
message at the Washington Office Dec. at o'clock p.
N. before stated. 1t was sent to New-fork on elga!
wires and copies dropped at Baltimore and Phlla-
delphla. At NewYork SIX copies were taken four for
delivery to the press and TWO ior use IN retransmsson
From New York 1t was sent 10 Boston and dropped at
all the Intermediate cities which take regular press re-
az intermediate stations. From Philadelphia was sent
Pittsburgh, and west ana soaIh, Win inter,
Francisco aud other western points AT the same tune
that M was oes ssnan9 it south and Southwest 50
that within three hours OF its reception at the Washing
ton station 1t had been transmitted 10 60 other statons
and delivered to than 100 newspapers scattered
over an Of 1000 miles IN extent In one direction ana
1000 miles in another No such telegrarhic perform
ance is possible by any system in any other country
do not wish to be understood as desiring 10 maze
ef,iciency Of the British telegraphs. They most
ably and efficiently managed. Money, energy aud dill
TTbev possess certain decided advantages over the
American telegraphs Their operations are conducted
Material Of ali kinds costs third less there than here.
and labor less than 9a n1e s ese Conditions on
their performance excelled ours Such however Is not
the fsct The American telegraphs perform work
m the same time ana with less labor those of any
other country The results OF the following comparison
between New-York and London fairly represent the
difference between all the principal cities VI the TIVE
At the Central Telegraph Station in London the
ing force consists OF persons including the manager
his assistants but exclusive Of messengers Count
ing repeated messages twice-that is, once when re-
ceyed and once when resent-the number OF MESSAGES
passing daily through thss station Is about S5ooo being
an average OF about % messages for each employe
The working force OF the Western Union Companys
central office in NewYork 23i persons, including the
manager and assistants but excluding messengers The
number OF messages passing daily counted above Is
about OOO being average Of 107 per day for each
employee
The annual compensation paid to male employees Of
the London office $3.50 EACH and to the female
employees Ol98 each The average compensation paid 70
the male employees of tho Western Union Company ~
their central office In New York S9l3 per annum and
OF the females $50 per annum
In view facts herein stated, II Is not probable
that the automatic system will ever become "a FOR
midable rival OF that employed with such satisfactory
results by the telegraph companies IN the United
States. W. U.