The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1873-03-13
~ LIGHTNING.
Prisdns ~ Kleesrssisy-Wesaerf.l. md All
That

The average number of electrical impulses it
| takes to make . letter is four. Consequently,
fonr ticks Ut strokes of the Morse instrument 20
to the representation of an alphabetical charac-
ter. Even with this slow and clumsy way Of
| transmitting speech, the wire will send news on
| as fast q good writer can note il down upon
| manifold paper. To make electricity thus in
sfanty speak out the thoughts Of men, hundreds
| and even thousands of miles away, over sandy
wastes, lofty and barren mountain ridges, and
| through the dark depths Of the ocean, was u
great and marvellous triumph of intellect over
matter. No philosopher, however, regarded that
the ultimate result of human effort in that
direction. The possibility Of the future would
he considered madness to the people Of the past
not only in tclegraphing but in printing. Tho
Walter press RIMS Of rolls Of paper at the rate Of
ten or twelve miles per hour, printing, cutting
counting and folding the sheets, delivering them
at the other side faster than any tongue can
connt. We shall see rolls Of paper thus run off
and printed by telegraph, if we are lucky enough
to live another quarter of n century.
What has long been desired and anxiously
sought, has ut last been found-that is, a priB-
ting telegraph of easy practical operation. 1t
will print by telegraph four times as fast rs the
Morse system can transmit messages. The rev
instrument when adapted to four lines of wire
can take the Presidents message and deliver
il printed. in San Francisco in half an hour:
The invention belongs to Captain Lindsey, of
Jackson. His operating model upon which the
patent was issued 10 now in the Patent Office Mt
Washington. What think you of y system IF
keys arranged in horizontal lines before the
operators, mnch in the same style that the keys
Of piano are arranged before the player, each
key representing letter upon which the expert
felegrsphst plays, producing, not sweet sounds,
hut printed sheets three thousand miles away!
Captain Lindsey has succeeded in producing a
revelation in telegraphy. His invention makes
every printer at once the must expert of opera
tors. His system Of keys may be arranged infer
the mode Of a printers case, in which the letters
most commonly used being more convenient tn
the hand Of the artist and those least used being
mere remote. Tho invention, in fact, admits of
the production Of a counterpart Of the printers
case. The types not being liable to run out, aud
the operator never having to complain Of want
Of sorts, one character Of each kind being sufi-
cient to last age. The operator can touch
those characters fast n he may, and corres-
pOndng impression is made upon the rapidly
nucoiling slips Of paper at the ether end of the
line. A rapid printer can "distriLuter nearly |
column of type in hour, consequently he could |
operate on the new instrument that fast, and |
even FASTER for in the telegraphc instrument he !
would have no "sPaces' to deal with, and very |
few other marks. 1t will be quite plain to every
printer and newspaper man that when the alpha |
bet is arranged in the order named, and has /
merely to lie touched to make a mark at "the |
other end Of the line" there can hardly be
limit to the quantity of matter which may be
transmitted and the rapidity will he determined
by the expertness of tho operator.
When the message IL received there will he no
for it comes automatically forth on
printed slip, which uncnls itself frsm roller
and when cut into lengths and pasted accross 4
page of paper will read: