National Republican., 1880-09-20
STENO- TEL EGRIPHY.
A vorv nemnrI,nble AehI.yemsnt.

The first great tolcgraphc feat bitwcen
Washington and tho west was the transmits
sion Of President Polk's annual message. It
was comparatively brief document, contain.
ing only 5000 words, and its transmission oc-
cupied thirty hours. If we are not in error,
Mr. Richard Smith Of tho Cincinnati Gazette
who now leases wire of his own from the
American Union Telegraph company. was ut
that tim, copyist in Cincinnati and assisted
to manifold" the Polk message. In tho inter-
veuing years since the days OF that by-gono
administration the fow hundred miles Of stag
gering poles sustaining single wire have
been replaced by thousands upon thou
sands of miles of line; more than
thirty companies have beon organized
and consolidated, until, with fve competing
organizations in tho field to-day every rail.
road throughout tho land Is ornlmonted by
stately line Of poles, aud our cities are dishg.
ured by perfect network of wires. Tho
commercial world Is as dependent upon the
wires as upon the mails, and journalism would
cease TO be tho greatest wonder of the age but
for the close alliance between tho press aud
tho telegraph. 1t Is a little singular that tho
man who was identified with the first great
telographic achievement should also bn aslO.
ciated intimately with the last. Viewed
either rs y bit of journalistic enterprise or AS
remarkable telcgrsphic feat, tho transmission
to Cincinnati on Friday night of tho full
text Of Senator COnkling's speech at the
academy of music, New York, is worthy of
mention. Tho speech made ten galleys Of the
| New York Iribme'S typ, and was transmit
ted by tho Phillips system of fsteno-tclography
| in flvO hours aud Eve minutes. This is u pro.
cess of Transmission done entirely by hand,
and the dispatches arc received by an ink re.
cordcr of great simplicity, which pays out II
| narrow strip of tnpo, on which the mat tor Is
| plainly printed in linear characters. Upon
| the occasion in question Mr.. Willis j. Cook OF
this city was tho sending operator, and the re.
ceivng was doGo at Cincinnati by Mr.. NJ. j.
| sullivan OF Baltimore. The latter went to
| Cincinnati for tho purpose Of demonstrating
to Mr.. Smith that the Phillips system more
| than doubles tho capacity of any and
| all wires upon which il is used. BY the re-
| cont test that fact Is very conCusvely demon.
| strItcd. Tho wire was worked without q
| repeater" and tho amount of matter trans
| mitted, 10000 words, was fully equal to what
| would bu averaged by tho Morse system on
| three wiros, by three sendors and three re-
ceivcrs Tho speed attained may be more
fully realized when 1t Is remembered that Mr.
| COmkliug spoke for three hours and forty
| minutes, and that his utterance5 were trans
mttcd in five hours and five minutes the
entire speech being in the Cincinnati Ga=eH,
office one hour aud twenty-five minutes after
| MI, NOlkllnG tOHsGI SpcNhluI, HDLNllUNllnu
ing that he had been talking fifteen minute:
when the work of transmission was be
gun. Dispatches transmitted by Mr. Phillips
method require no preparation whatsoever
II the operator sending from the manuscript
and the ease with which the characters on tn,
tape are translated may best be illustrated by
narrative. Mr.. Sullivan was tbs only persol
in the Ga=elte Office who was familiar with thu
Phillips system. He not only dictated thl
| ~ irn snnnnl tp pnpuistg InripV tlin iimn ptt
cupicd in ansmi,siOn-finshng only fiV
words behind tho sGnder-but ho deliberately
abandoned his instrument ~ paltakc OF lunch
and allowed 1000 words of matter to accumu
lato on tho tape, Mr.. Cook sending uniutor
8 rupLodly, meantime, at tho rate of sixt,
words per minute Re5uming his work
Mr.. Sullivan easily caught up will
tho sender in the course of fftoer
minutes, finishing his reading simulto
ncously with tho close Of the transmitting
operators labors, as we have said.
Stcno-telcgraphy Is tho invention of MI
WaltcrP. Phillips the well.kmown telegraph
expert, now agent Of the New York Associate
Press in this city. lie challenges til
D inventors aud opponents of any aud all "phan
| tom circuit ""autOmatic" or other known sys
TENS of tclegraphy, as pucliccl either in thi
country OF in EurOpe, to equal with one MAJ
ON n similar stretch of wire the amount q
work performed by Mr.. Cook us above dc
scribcd, and he ayows his ability to pre-
! duco plentiful supply of manipulaloi
. who can duplicate Mr.. Cooks record wthou
difficulty. Tho inventor further maintain
, thai by tho introduction Of steno.telegraph
; press matter can be handled at treble III
, speed now attained, and consequently ut II
, duccd cost since the system not only in
, creases the capacity Of single wires, but bein
. applicable to "dupleXes and "quadruplexcs
T. renders the former equal to six instead OF tive
= aud the quadrupleS equal to lively
instead of four wires as ut presen
The Phillips system carries ever
punctuation mark used in printing
8 italczes all words from foreign language:
n names of newspapers, etc, and secure
, the delivery of copy properly punctuated an
- edited for the composition. Senator Conklng
speech as printed in Saturdays issue OF til
= Gazette Is II standing indOrsem,ut of tho accu
I. racy of the work performed by tho PHILLIP
q system, which, by the way is equally as va
uablo in the transmission OF commercial to
- eglams OF all kinds rs of press mat CT, its SUI
+ cess in that direction having been fully den
i onstlated at several private exhibitions
J. only romans TO bo added that the art of senr
i ing and reading st1no'telcgaphy can b
!, learned by Morse operators in tho course
Il seven days, while the knack of tramscribiu
!; the lape can be acquired by non'profcssiOna
y in from three to five weeks.
y
TntIarIas and a, Mails kynin