The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-04-03
WRITING WITH LIGHTNING.
Tho New Plan of Cable Telegraphing
Which Is to Guido AL Former Ef-
forts.
From The N. y. World.

Which Is to Guido AL Former Ell
forts.
From the ~ Y. World.
In the Boston Post, of last Tuesday,
appeared an account of plan of cable
telegraph which sets at defiance all the
methods of telegraphic transmission now
known. The news of the Post came from
London and announced that the Ameri-
can Cable company was one of the parties
to contract which would give the COM
pany the exclusive right to process by
means of which at minimum, the mes
sages, each of twenty words, could be
sent each minute from London or Paris
to this city. The maximum of trans
mission was said to be 1000 words per
minute, or ten times the minimum rate.
BY this method, if feasible, an entire
newspaper published on one side of the
ocean could be reproduced in less than one
hour on the other side in fac sin,iLe and
stereotyped at ridiculously small e1-
pense. According to the article in the
Post, the new invention will not only re-
duce the cost of cable telegraphy between
this country and England and the Cont
rent to from three to five cents per word,
but the investment in the company
will pay dividen of from 8 to 20 per
cent. Wonderful as are the capabilities
ola wire and an electric current, these
statements seemed so extravagant that
World reporter called at the Office of the
American Cable Company, on yesterday,
in pursuit of information about the
startling invention" referred to in the
Post, and saw one of the company's Off
GERS, who said:
"The American Cable Company does
not need gratuitous advertising, and I
regret that the Post should have made the
statements which are ridiculed by some
of to-day's papers. 1t does not desire to
announce its plansjust now, and it has no
favors to ask when its line is working to
Europe for FIVE cents the word the news.
papers may compliment us if they will.
The silver wedding of the first cable has
seen q reduction from two dollars per
word to seventy-fye cents. l expect its
golden anniversary will present some
thing better than that. The day has
nearly gone when any corporation may
impose an almost prohibitory transit-tax
upon each word of important news and
urgent commercial correspondence pass
ing between this country and Europe.
concerning the new fac simile process
of telegraphing about which the Post has
spoken, we wish to say nothing. Be it
good or bad we own the exclusive right
to use it across the Atlantic. The power
of performance which the inventor claims
for his system is carefully stated in our
contract with him, and you may scan
that for your own private information,
but not for publication.
"The fact is that few gentlemen
have privately Joined together 10 carry
out certain telegraphic enterprise.
They expect to succeed in their un-
dertaking, and when they have done so
our people will enjoy cheaper cable COM
munication and everybody will know all
about it. We have managed to keep out
of the newspapers; we don't believe in
hunting ducks in company with q brass
band, and shall continue to mind our
own business. This policy has enabled US
GO quietly acquire several important in.
ventions. We own reprater which I
consider the most wonderful instrument
of our group, and yet nothing about it
has yet appeared in the newspapers. I
suppose when I assert it may be used sue
cessfully on q cable at the bottom of the
sea, simply invite all telegraphers to
howl anG pronounce me an idol. We
shall see; the I'm expected often happens"
"But what about your company's other
instruments, without which, the Post sug-
gests, the new fec simik system was una
yailable for cable Z"
"Oh, that instrument enables US to use
printer on a long deep-sea cable; our
ability to do that facilitates the use of the
new fac sianiLe apparatus. Let me e1-
plain that on the new Atlantic cables, as
now worked, the receiving instrument is
Thomson's siphon-recorder. In his sys-
tenn, or rather in the system which is a
combination of the inventions of Jen-
kin, Varley and Thomson, the Morse
code of signals is used, and that you
know is composed of long and short
dashes, and requires three of such signs
10 express tbe average letter. The sip
hon-recorder has to receive from the
cable that number of electrical impulses
and make that number of movements to
represent single letter. 1t moves
in one direction to indicate dash and
when it swings to the opposite side it
means dot. 1t leaves upon moving
paper tape a wavy trail ofink, and as the
sinuosities ofthat mark are to the one side
or other of the middle line of the paper, 80
the operator interprets them as dots or
dashes. The addition of the now du-
plex system adds about twenty per cent.
only to the sending capacity to the cable,
and the conditions essential to that ac-
celeration are so very delicate, and the
electrial balance is so easily disturbed,
that the employment of the duplex ap-
paratus has not justified the slightest re-
duction in the tariff of the Anglo -Ameri.
can combination. Now, remember that
on the average three electrical impulses
traverse the cable, and the siphon-re-
corder makes three movements to signi-
fy single letter at the receiving end.
Substitute our printer for the siphon-re-
corder and then each electrical wave
flowing through the cable will print q
letter Of the alphabet. The existing ca
bles charge to-day rs cents per word.
You can easily reckon that by the use OF
our printer alone we will be able to take
four times as many words at one-quarter
of their tariff. That is, at 81 cents pei
word, using no heavier battery and
transmitting the same number of signals.
we can receive four times as many words
and earn the same quality of dollars pei
day as they can. And all this independ-
ent of the much abused fac simile pro-
cess"
"But is not the use of a printer on an
Atlantic cable of itself wildly alb,
surd, w
ooh, suppose it is. Iapprehend the
gentlemen whose opinions are given in
the papers wouldjudge the use ofa sound
err on a long deep-sea cable quite impos
sible, and as constituting by itself the
-