Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-10-14
AT HEARTS CONTENT.
The Atlantic Gables How They are
Operated - An Interesting Account.

Correspondence Of the New York Evening Post.
spacious building, looming up like Colos-
| sus over the low dwellings of the fishermen,
contains the apparatus by which the cable
messages are sent or received. Within is q
giitter1ng medley Of brasswork, keys and key
boards, wheels, jars, wires, and general tele-
| graphic paraphernalia- The air huns with the
click of instruments. and the room on a work.
Ing day Is a hive OF industry. First to attract
the eye. and foremost as to interest, is
the recorder" the instrument that receives
the message after its instant Journey
under seventeen hundred miles of water. The
recorder Is a horseshoe magnet. electrified by
the usual circles of fine wire. and attracting a
small metallic coil. The coil is hung between
the magnetic poles and by light lever and a
thread.amOst as fine as the strand of cobweb
is connected with delicate syphOn hung in q
little reservoir OF ink Thenk is electrified so as
to produce repulsOn Of the PARTICLES making
| it flow more readily through the syphOn. which
outside is about the size of earning needle
and the interior tube scarcely larger than hair.
The lower end of the syphOn rests against a
paper tape playing perpendcularly through roll
ers. The whole machine is almost of gOssamer
fnenesS and f1eXibility. SO as to minimize the
electric strain necessary for working the cable
| Let us imagine now that a coming message
| has been signalled from far across the ocean at
Valencia. The operator at first opens the SIM
! pie machinery that works the brass rollers. On
the center of the tape. as it passes between the
rollers. the syphon at first marks only straight
| line. Suddenly the line swery6s to the right or
| LETT. The message has started, and the end Of
the syphOn has begun it's record. Worked by
two keys. and positively or negatively electri-
fled, the coil swings the syphon point now to
| one side. now to the other. along the tape. Re-
spOnsive to the trained hand of the operator. the
| fiament of ink marks out one notch two nOtches,
| three nOtchcs; then suddenly it may be high
1 oil
traced on the tape looks like the tiny outline
| OF mountain range. But 1t is q range
whose every hilltop. peak and valley means an
| alphabetical symbol to the telegrapher's eye.
The recorder is the invention of the famous
| electrician Sir William Thompson. How deli
cate an interpreter it is may be inferred from
the fact that ten jars work 800 miles of cable
between Valencia and Hearts Content, while
twenty-five jars OF the same electric power
would be needed to work $50 miles OF land wire
In other words. the recorder is more than
twelve times as efficient for its purpose as the
ordinary Morse instrument. The recorder
traces its characters on the tape about as fast
as slow penDian copies a letter. Besides its
delicacy of work the recorder as its name i'm
parts, has the merit OF leaving the record of the
message-a point which in a lawsuit involving
an alleged mistake of word might save the
company thousands of dollars.
Superseded by the recorder, but an inStru-
ment still used in emergencies is the reflector
much unlike the process by which child amuses
itself when darling around a room the ray from
a hand-mirror AS the slightest turn of the
mirror will throw the reflection through great
arc, so in the telegraphic instrument distant
movement of a ray follows from q little vibra-
ton of a mirror and corresponding economy of
electric strain The mirror Is set i'm metallic
case. which, when electrified positively or mega
lively. gives a double motion. A bright lamp
shining through slit makes an upright bar of
light which is reflected into dark box a ward
away and plays to one side or the other of
line in the center. Looking into the box-the
layman sees only a flash dartng to right and
left. But these double flashes give the dot and
dash which In various combinations are all the
telegrapher needs to construct his alphabet.
The reflector is less intricate than the recorder
but as it could not register the message it was
discarded. The motive of lessening the strain
on the cable. which prompts the use of both the
recorder and reflector with their gOssamer de-
vices. is also the underlying cause of the es-
Enlistment of the station at Hearts Content.