The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-08-10
Velocity of Elcctricify.--The Atlantic
(abJcS.
from the New York Journal of Commerce.l

from the New York Journal OF Commerce.
We have had several anonymous inquiries
lately concerning the time required to trans
nit message by cable from England. Two
OF these inquiries were to the same pur-
port "Could 4 message come from London
to this city by telegraph in four minutes ?'
We threw these letters aside because no re-
responsible name was attached to them. A
day or two since another similar inquiry
came, this time with signature, but while
we have been preparing the answer we have
mislaid the letter. 1t is evident there is
considerable interest in the subject, and
few facts will doubtless interest wide cir
Gle OF readers.
There is no fixed velocity for electricity.
After contact with conductor at the other
end of an ocean cable no effect is percepti-
BILE at this end for about two tenths OF a
second; then q faint force is received,
which increases perceptibly. After four
tcnths of second only about seven per
cel.t. OF the maximum force is ut hand. In
one second it reaches about half its final
strength, and after about three seconds its
full strength is attained. 1t does not there
fore come in single shock, but with in
creasing force for three seconds. 1t takes
four tenths Of n second rs rule to make
any signal felt, but the length OF time it
takes to send word through the cable Is
governed, as it is in writing, by the length
of the word, or the signals necessary to de-
liver it. 1t requires an average OF three ana
half signals to letter. II we take an
average Of six letters to Il word it requires
twenty-onc signals to transmit 1t, ana 2lO
signals to send Il message OF ten words. IL
every signal required four tenths OF Sc
cond. then eighty-iour seconds would be
| nf words
after the electricity has been applied the
succeeding signals do not take rs long as the
first. The cable, therefore, when in good
working order, will send about twelve
words per minute; undcra pressure fifteen
and even seventeen words have been sent in
Il single minute.
Cable messages of twelve words have
been sent all the way from New York to
London inside OF two minutes. The return
service from London is not as prompt. Ihe
attention OF scientific people has been called
to this fact. Most of them laugh at any
suggestion that this difference is due to ln-
peratiye natural causes. They say the Eng
iish clerks are dilatory, full of angularlty
and the spirit Of red tape, not prompt or
pushing-in short, not as Wlde-aWake ana
active as their American competltorS. In!s
may be a partial reason for the delay, but IL
does not account satisfactorily to our NINA
for the indisputable phenomena OF the pass
ace. There seems to be more slugSlshnesS
in the messenger going eastward tllan west
ward, and we await the result OF some III.
vestigation now in progress with view Of
settling this question.
There are many readers who may be glad
TO learn the average time of business over
the cable. Through the kindness of Chief
Operator Downer, in the Western Union,
we have been furnished with the average
OF the entire business OF Saturday, the 10Th
ultimo, taking the messages long and short
together: