The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-05-29
WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAY 20.
The Telegraph Office. New York.

BY special favor L was Invited few days
since to visit the operating room of the Western
Union Telegraph Co., Broadway, New York.
No one without having seen this can form any
Just notion of the wonderful magnitude and ex
tent OF the telegraphing business in this coun-
try. We see the telegraph stations on our rail-
ways, In our villages and towns and in our
cities, with their solitary instrument or with
two or three, perhaps with dozen, and we
imagine this to be the whole of it.
Bnt the operating room 10 the Western
Union Telegraph Company's building 10 New
York is quite another matter. The building is
very large aud of many stories, running M
higher far than any of the old houses in Edin.
bnrgh, which Seem in the narrow streets to
stretch mp to the sky. Two spacious elevators
In tais building are always in operation from
the basement to the upper stories; in these
many people are constantly going up and down
on the business of the off ,e, business which
goes on incessantly night ami day.
One of the upper stories, occupying the en-
tire floor, is the battery room. This is filed
with strong glass jars-many thous ands of
them-on shelves from floor to ceiling, filling
all the space except the narrow alleyways by
which four men are constantly passing around
among them to keep them properly supplied
with the material necessary for their work.
The floor above this is the ope Grating room, oc-
cupying the VIII lie space within the walls the
immense floor covered entirely with operating
tables These stand as near to each other as
the basiuess of the Off 60 will allow, only mar
row passages ways between.
These tables are all occupied, some BY young
girls Others by men. all busy with their special
work. Thera are ninety girls on this floor; the
rest of the employees are men, perhaps two hun
dred 10 all; every one busy, very busy 10 his
place. Some of them receiving news or mes
sages from all parts OF the world, others send
ing out intelligence Of whatever kind, public or
private, every enc intent on bis own particul ar
work.
At one side of this room come in the wires
form the four corners of the world. They come
down from ceiling to floor in amazing nun ers,
in masses; each wire is insulated to preserve it
from contact with its fellows. A maze Of wires
crowded together in the utmost confusion as d
stranger would think, but all 10 perfect order,
well arranged and ineligible to the expert who
has the care of them.
''Who can tel where all these wires go and
whence they come? They seem 10 me to be
Chaos
81 know them all, and each one from the
other. This one goes oa the great southt IN
route to New Orleans and beyond" pointing
me TO small ny sterous "tsg.' fastened to it,
this one goes west and to the Mississippi and
the Pacific, and this one north and east, land SO
ou and SO on, dd iafnitan Every wire has its
route perfectly known to the expert; they are
as well known TO him as the alphabet Some
OF che tables on this floor are occupied by two
operators each, some of them by four. Many
OF the wires transmit a message IN opposite
directions at the same time
An operator Is senoing out message, long
or short, public or private, as it may happen !;
another at the same table is receiving at the
same time quite a different message by the
same wire. How wonderful bow can it be?
The way of it is explained to me patiently,
clearly, satisfactorily, but marvel at it all the
same. cannot stop to explain it here.
The Instruments talk TO the operator as with
human voice; the vast room resounds with
their chsttering. The operators are busily
writing whatever the Instrument tells them;
the messages perfectly without meaning to me,
but as plain to them as the mother tongue.
Here is new instrument, the Superintend-
eat tells me. The wire runs to Washington
lt is operated by a keyboard, exactly like that
Oh piano, but much shorter. Its messages
ara printed in beautiful Romon capitals on a
narrow INLET OF paper, at either end of the
wire. While the Superintendent is explaining
II 10 me 1t begins to unroll its fillet of paper
aud IN minute have special message from
washington where it is known at this instant
Inat am In the operating room at New York.
Inc message comes in less time than it could
be written by the readiest penman
here is table at which four operators are
sittiog, and two messages are going and two
are coming at the same moment through its
wire The operators aud the messages have
no connection with or relation to each other
How wonderful and yet how simple when the
matter is understood Here is a curious instru-
ment; it Is new; had never heard of it, An
operator sits by it and is sending off important
news in the usual manner, but his message
goes only to this instrument, hardly two feet
away, and this sends it off by a hundred wires
IN as many directions to all points of the COM
pass! THIS little instrument performs the
work OF many operators, but is managed by
one
There are truly more things in heaven and
earth than are dreamed of 10 our philosophy.
We OF our generation have learned many won-
derful things Within the century the area of
human knowledge has been extended amaZ-
ipgly IN every direction. Our instruments of
msoy binds reveal TO us the society of the
heavenly bodies, and unfold to US the mysteries
ways, OF which our fathers had no know ledge
Who can answer whether the ce injury to come
Will not be as fruitful in great discoveries aud
wonderful inventions as the last has been?
whether the most learned man of our day
snail bs thought to have had more than
smsttering OF the mere rudiments of knowl-
edge which our chiidren's children shall pos
sess? ND.