Smyrna times., 1877-05-30


operators in the United States alone, and
1t may be interesting to inquire where this
army OF skilled labor is recruited. Tele.
graph colleges" as rule, are of little
help in filling the ranks of the profession.
Those who advertise that they "guarantee:
situation to graduates are, to say the least,
well worthy Of suspicion, while those who
guarantee situations at 500 per month"
are downright, shameless frauds. Com
paratlvely few of the present generation of
hrSt-class operators are in the business
through deliberate choice of design-they
drltted thither. Some few frstcIass pro-
tesslona!s have studied and become pro
ticlent under some painstaking monitor,
but the majority of them rise from the
positions of office boys and messengers,
growing up, as it were, in the business A
BOY or girl, fourteen years of age, may be-
come moderate manipulation with six
months or 4 years practice. but for a per
son OF twenty-five or thirty years of age
the task is, incredible as it MAY seem. al.
most impossible
Very few of the professionals, even, who
are IN constant practice, attain perfection.
and it is no unusual experience to find
ninc-tenthS Of the staff schemng to avoid
a particular wire where there is known TO
be an extraordinary fast man. Bat among
the few who do attain perfection, who are
evidently born operators, the rapiditv Of
their work is marvellous. Messrs. n. !.
Snyder, of Philadelphia, and Walter P.
Phillips, Of New York, both earned not
only 1iatterlng but substantial testimonials
from Prof. ). +. b. Morse for their wonder
tuI accomplishments. TO Illustrate the
speed at which ordinary kilograms and
press reports are transmitted it may be
stated, that professional longhand copyists
consider an average of twenty-five words
per minute very rapid pcnmanship; but
on the main wires the operators are found
writing hour after hour at an avaroga
speed Of thirty-fye words per minute. while
IN press reports the average is increased to
forty words. Last winter Mr.. T. c. Boilcau
sent from Philadelphia to New York four
hundred and forty words, chosen at random
from newspaper article in ten minutes.
| being at the rate of torty-four words per
minute. The whole of this was received
I. C., read by sound, and copied as quickly
as sent in neat legiblc hand bv Mr.. Wal.
ter in Now York city. Cases are on record
where over fifty words per minute have
been sent and received, but they were
"picked, that is, words selected for their
breyiety; and the time made by Mr.. Boileau
will never be beaten on the Morse tele-
graph, under like circumstances, except bv
himself
The full working capacity Of single
telegraph wire manned by good operators
has never been precisely ascertained, since
from the ambitious character of the men.
the more work that is put on it the faster
1t Is worked. The following examples will
probably approximate the capacity Of one
wire as nearly as any that can be adyan.
ced The Associated Press special wire
between New York, Philadelphia and
Washington averages $4,000 words every
day in the year, while the receiving opera
tor at Philadelphia labors under the disad
vantage of writing with a stylus on mani.
told paper, thus making nine separate and
distinct copies of the news matter. Now
let any amateur ascertain how LONG If tol,as
hlm to send one of the ordinary messages.
the average of which, including addresses
and 'checks," is about twenty five words,
and the following authoritative statement
will then enable him to judge of the
amount Of work possible to be crowded
over one wire in single day: In the Wcs
tern Union New York office, November H.
1876, the commercial and press messages
transmitted represented a total of 24.3I5.
SiXty-two wires were employed in doing
this work (six Of them being "duplexed"l
which gives total for tho day of 392 mes
sages for each wire!
The salaries of telegraph operators,
which range from $50, to $40 per month.
are unfortunately not paid by any recog-
nized schedule or standard of ability, but
according to the scarcity of help at the
particular time when they were hired, or
the favortism of an official. This will ex.
plain why the pay roll of an office illus
trates the fluctuations of business at differ.
ent times, and why operators who transmit
seventy messages an hour are generally
found receiving the same pay as, and some
times less, than the one who does not per-
form a fourth Of this work. A better
opinion can be formed of a mans salary
by inquiring when he was hired than by
scrutinizing his abilities. Although their
salaries are not large, very few of them
receiving over $50 per month, they have
every reason to be contented. Their work
is steady throughout summers heat and
winters snow; an operator never loses q
days time except by his own act, and his
position is held, in every sense of the word,
pro vita sine cuIpa.
telegraph operator of acknowledged
character and ability has a wide field open
to him in life, and among the prominent
active workers in the busy hives around