Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-07-28
le Philadelphia Ledger. July IS.

Inaoe ny congress. PrOf Samuel r. b. Morse.
the inventor of the Morse Alphabet was su-
per1ntendent Of the line Alfred Vail was assist
ant superintendent in Washington, Henry ].
Rodgers was assistant superintendent at Balti-
more, Lewis Zantznger was operator at WASH
ingtOn. and was operator at Baltimore. All Of
those have mentioned are now dead, SO that
| am the oldest operator In the United States.
The line was OF copper wire covered or wrapped
with cotton. The instruments were all very
large. the relay magnet being kept in a box
three feet long. which was always kept care
| fully locked the assistant superintendent keep
| ing the key. No insulatOrs were known ct that
| time but sealing-wax, glass, oiled silk and a
| very miserable preparation Of asphaltum. The
| magnates that covered the horseshoe iron were
| covered with sealing-wax, and there were no
such things as thumb-screws to connect two
wires. All connections were made by glass
! tubes filled with mercury. and the operators in
handling these, In case of thunderstorm. held
In their hands large pieces of oiled silk. Our
hours OF service were from 8 to a. m, l too D.
| M, and from to 6 D. m.
II remember the first arrest which the tele-
graph enabled the authorities to make was that
| OF negro, who was a ward-room servant of a
naval officer. The fellow took the train from
baltimore, and was arrested on aighting from
| the cars at Washington by Detective Cook. The
| officer placed his hand on the negrO's shoulder
and said: will take that money and jewelry
| you stole from Commodore - The cOlOred
| man was badly frightened, and. with the anxious
stolen property.
THE Congressman would telegraph from
baltimore to the Washington hotels at which
they had been stopping to know the amount of
wonderful test of the accuracy OF the tele-
graph In fact at first it was little more than
plaything. Our principal business consisted
In sending the names of persons to Washington;
the operator there would write it back and the
paper bearing the indentatiOn would he handed
the marty fODQfhQr a cQr1 vxhc
| the Morse alphabet was printed. The expert
mentor was then expected to decipher the
writing at his leisure"
Capt. Chasteau gave an interesting account Of
the 1rst telegraph news service, and continued:
"After the telegraph had proved successful
between Baltimore and Washington, company
was organized to operate line between New
York and Washington. / left the government
employ in 1S47 and went to New York with
Samuel Colt, the inventor Of the revolver who
was then reduced in means, but who had been
given the use Of the Morse patents by Prof
Morse. young man named Elias Caldwell,
from Virginia. and l constructed a line from
Brooklyn to Coney Island. operated the line
from the latter point. the object being to report
the arrival OF shipping. 1t was on this line that
cable was first used Colt incased wire in
lead pipe, and this was sunk in the East river.
but 1t did not work very well. The anchors of
vessels were constantly dragging it, and re-
member once. when the cable was hauled up by
the anchor of foreign vessel, the captain
thought he had a prize, and pulled half of it
aboard ship before he knew what it was.
then went to Boston and built line from that
place to Hull. for the same object as the New
York and COney island line.
about that time Henry D. O'Reilly took a
contract to construct a line between Baltimore
and Philadelphia. He had for an assistant
James D. Reed, capable man. The scientific
men at that day said that a wire between Phila-
delphia and Baltimore of iron, and of the thick
ness proposed, would not do at all. 1T must be
"copper" they said, and all of the WIRE as well
as the poles, must be insulated O'Reilly COM
menced at Philadelphia and built to Whining
ton; that section was successful, but for two
months no connection could be made between
the two terminal cities. One afternoon l re-
celved the Mexican war news. and went into the
company's office adjoining the government
office, having in my hand the copy of an i'm
portant battle went to the instrument, when
the chief operator, John d. Whitman, asked what
Intended to do. replied that proposed to
send the war news to Philadelphia. 1 called
Philadelphia, and, to my great establishment,
received an answer. gave the signal 1874
that is, Who Is writingY and the answer came
Beatty Iasked Where's, and he replied that
ne was at the Merchants Exchange. Philadel-
phla. then told him to take the message and
ne did so. That was the first message which
passed between Baltimore and Philadelphia.
That operator was Joseph F. Beatty, who is still
alive, and is employed in the Pennsylvania rail-
road cOmpanys Office
"At the commencement" said Capt. Chas-
teau, '.but little business was transacted over
the line, and the first persons to use it were the
stock brokers. B. B. French was president of
the Magnetic telegraph company. and it was
under his management that the first thing look
ing to strike of the operators occurred We
were then paid ESQ month. Major French,
who, remember, had singing tone of voice,
he having been reading clerk of the House of
Representatives, came to Washington. and we
appointed committee of two to ask for an in
crease of pay. Major French went to each ope-
rator and inquired infinitely into his circum-
stances. &c. He appeared very much impressed
by what he learned about Washington boarding
houses and our pay was increased. We had re-
solved to strike if we did not get it.
after the completion of this line, Henry D.
O'Relly built another from Philadelphia to Pitts
burg. and on that David Brooks was engaged
and proved to be a valuable man generally
Other lines began to be built. and the business
increased until it reached its present proper
tons. Most of the old operators are dead now.
There were many brilliant men among them,
but many fell into dissipated ways of living, At
first the telegraph was toy, and, as no charge
was made for exhibiting it IN operation, the
operator was exposed to the temptations to go
and REFRESH and SO 1t was bad arrangement"