Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-02-08
HOW CABLE MESSAGES ARE RECEIVED.

Until the fOrcpart of November, the French
cable, having its terminus at North East
ham, Mass, employed the flash system of
signaling. Now the cable is worked du-
plex on the Stcrns system, using an auto
matte recorder by which the messages are
received in ink on a narrow, strip of paper.
BY the system which has been displaced,
the messages were spelled out by flashing a
ray of light back and forth across a STAN
dard line, the right and left flashes CORES
ponding with the dots and dashes of the
ordinary telegraphic alphabet.
In this system the light is flashed by re-
Election from an extremely light mirror,
which is turned to right and left by the OPP
posing influences of positive and negative
impulses. This system has the advantage
of being operated with very slight electric
impulses, but also the disadvantages of
leaving no permanent record.
TOsecure the latter very important end the
recording instrument has been adopted.
The press dispatch announcing the change,
states that in the new recorder the ink is dis
charged by the agency of electricity and
"not by capillary attraction as in other ca
BILE recorders" This statement is Incorrect,
electricity being now similarly employed
in the recording instruments used at Hearts
Content, the New Foundland station Of the
Anglo American COmpany's cables.
A recent visitor to Hearts Content de-
scribes as follows the method Of receiving
messages from that point. 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 a light lever and a
thread almost as fine as the strand OF a cob
web, is connected with delicate siphon
hung in little reservoir of ink. The ink is
a. &,,,n nrI TO II
the particles, making it flow more readily
through the siphon, which outside is about
the size of darning needle, and the interior
tube scarcely larger than hair. The lower
end of the Siphon rests against a paper tape
playing perpendicularly through rollers
The whole machine is almost of gOssamer
tneness and fleXibility, so as to minimize
the electric strain necessary for working the
cable.
Let us imagine now that coming mes
sage has been signalled from far across the
ocean at Valentia. The operator at first
opens the simple machinery that works the
brass rollers. On the center OF the tape, as
it passes between the rollers, the siphon at
first marks only straight line. Suddenly
the line swerves to the right or left. The
message has started, and the end OF the
siphon has begun it's record. Worked by
lWO Keys, anu puSlllfClS VI hS S"'i wy WV
trified, the coil swings the siphon point now
to one side, now to the other, along the tape.
Responsive to the trained hand of the opera
tor, the tilament of ink marks out one notch
two notches, three notches; then suddenly
it may be a high elevation or depression
until the delicate line traced on the tape
looks like the tiny outline Of mountain
range. But it is a range whose every hill
top, peak and valley means an alphabetical
symbol to the telegraphers's eye. The re-
corder is the invention of the famous cleo
trician Sir William Thompson. How deli,
cate an Interpreter it is may be inferred
from the fact that ten jars work 1900 miles
of cable between Valentia and Hearts Con-
tent, 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 etfi-
cient for its purpose as the ordinary Morse
instrument. The recorder traces its charac-
ters on the tape about as fast as slow pen.
man copies letter. Besides its delicacy OF
work, the recorder, as its name imports, has
the name of leaving the record of the mes
sage.-Scientifc 4D.ericdn.