The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-03-20

tts tcs af its 90 I and
70 The lac also pre-
Ga 1Ig rad uo. yet been
Done.
Day by day he burdened his mind
with this thought, which now, by
strange fascination, engrossed his whole
being. Gradually the conception took
shape and system until at last it had
assumed such form that, at the break
fast table one morning he communities
ted the processes by which he believed
a recording telegraph could be made
serviceable to mankind. Arriving in
America, he bent all his energies to the
accomplishment in practice of what
was, as yet, but an obscurely defined
theory. His struggles and disappoint-
ments and final success belongs no less
to the history of America than to the
mighty force with which his name will
be associated.
In the year 1843 Congress voted the
sum of $4,000 to be used in a series
of experiments to test the expediency
of the telegraph projects of Professor
Morse.' The first wire erected was
between Baltimore and Washington, in
the following year. To Miss Annie
Ellsworth, daughter of the Commission
er of Patents, was given the honor of
sending the first telegram. Its Ian
guage, which has long since become
historic, was in consonance with the
inventors own oft expressed thoughts
respecting the origin of his invention.
Indeed, the inventor may have suggest
ed the language, =" What hath God
wroughtP' The message was at once
passed successfully over the wires, and
the strip of paper on which it was i'm
printed was claimed by Governor Sey-
mour, of Connecticut in honor of the
lady, who was native of his State, and
OF the inventor, who received therein
his collegiate education.
The first stock company organized
for the purpose of a general telegraph
business, was incorporated under the
title of the /" magnetic Telegraph Com
pany," and extended from New York
to Philadelphia. The gross receipts of
the first three months amounted to $685.
Other companies rapidly followed until
the very extremes of the United States
were brought into intimate relations by
the wires of the electric telegraph. In
1866, the Western Union, which was
the most powerful of all the competing
companies succeeded in consolidating,
under their management, the American,
United States, California States and
Southwestern Companies. giving it at
once an absolute monopoly of the tele-
graphic interests of the entire country.
In this connection it is interesting to
compare the annual report of the Presi-
dent of the Western Union Company
for the fiscal year ending June, 1866,
with that of 1879. In 1866 the gross
receipts were, in round numbers, &c.
100000. They had $500 offices, $4,000
miles Of wire, and handled 100000
messages. In thirteen years the gross
receipts had multiplied to 81, ZOO, 900.
The number of miles had increased to
$4,000; almost 5000 offices had been
opened for the convenience of the pub
lie, and 100000 was the number of
messages transmitted during the year.
The salaries paid by the Western
Union Company to its operators in the
large Eastern cities range from $40 to
$110 per month, the latter being paid
to the more skillful operators who
worked the heavy circuits. In the
West the margin of salary is not so ex-
tended, but the labor is unusually severe.
The average salary in the Cincinnati
office for the best men is eighty dollars
per month.
How many who read this article,
even those who are most accustomed to
telegraphing, have the remotest idea of
the manner in which their message is
handled from the time it leaves their
possession until it reaches their CORE
spondent. Entering the office at the
corner of Fourth and Vine, you write
your message and hand it to the good
looking young man sitting at the re-
ceiver's window, whom we will call Mr..
Farmer-not that that is his name, but
because in appearance he is so totally
unlike the genus Granger. Mr.. Nc
CURE (beg pardon, we mean MIR. Farm
cry takes your message and checks it.
That is to say, he counts the words in
the body, places the number on the
margin of the blank, and adds the
words "paid," or "collect," with the
amount. 1t is next whirled into the
operating department through the
pneumatic tubes, when it is taken from
the box by one of number of boys,
called distributing clerks, and placed
on the wire leading to its destination.
Here it is filed in the regular order OF
receipt, and takes its turn in the course
of transmission. If not of unusual
length it is sent in less than a minute.
Every operator has private signal
which they are required to place on
each message they send or receive, with
the exact time. Your telegram, we will
say, was intended for New York, and
has been sent direct. 1t is copied in
ink by the receiver, and by one OF the
swift footed Mercuries is taken from