St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-03-20
FROM MOVING TR AIMS.
Another Successful Test OF the New
Edison system.

CHICAGO, March 19.-An exhibition of
the practical working of the Edison system
of te!egraphing between moving trains and
a fixed station was given to-day on a spec
ial train run for that purpose by the Chi
cago, Milwaukee 81 st. Paul company
from Chicago to Milwaukee and return.
leaving here at 1880 a. III. About 200
invited guests were aboard, comprising
officials Of all the railroads entering Chicago,
officers and electricians OF the telegraph
companies and numerous representatives of
the press. Before leaving Chicago each
passenger wrote telegram, which he adj
dressed TO himself and handed to a col
lectOr, who passed through the train. keep
ing a duplicate for comparison. The mes
sages thus picked up were transmitted by
the Morse system to WadswOrth. a
Milwaukee, where the duplicate
set of instruments and condensers
had been located. From there they were
telegTaphed by the induction system to the
operator on the train, which was moving at
the rate of thirty-five miles per hour.
There was no interruption in the working
of the system from the time the train left
the Chicago yards until it arrived in Mil
waukee, and the messages as delivered on
the train We're found To be correct. The
same may he said of the return trip.
THE INSTRUMENTS USED
appear quite simple, consisting of an Undue
ton coil four inches in length and an inch
and a half in diameter, to one end of which
is affixed a metal diaphragm, OH which is a
vibrating arinature. Connecting with this
is light key for sending. this being be-
tween the vibrator and battery. The bat
lery used going to Milwaukee this
morning consisted Of twenty -four
cells of Fuller. On the return
trip this was reduced one-half and wrOked
quite as well. From the metallic roof of
the car wire passed down to two pho
netic receivers, which are very similar to
the end OF q telephone receiver, being cup
shaped, and are fastened over each ear by
straps and the vibrations coming into them
are read by the operator. The ordinary
Morse alphabet is used, the only difference
being the absence of the back stroke. (which
completes the letter TO the ordnery
telegrapher. In this system the length of
the vibration determines the difference be-
tween the dot and dash. From the two re-
ceivers a wire passes through the car floor
to the axles of the trucks, thus forming a
ground connection and completing the cir
cult from the wire outside. The battery. It is
claimed. is used only from the key to the vi
orator, the passage from there to the roof and
to the wires being accomplished by the
mysterious process called induction. There
were four wires OH the poles, which were
at an average distance of
THIRTY FEET
from the track. At the station the Edison
instrument was connected with all these
wires To guard against an interruption by
the falling of any one. The use
of the four wires in interchangng
messages had no effect OH the
Morse operators at the regular stations, and
the Edison men could find no difference be-
tween the use of fom and one. They claim
that the only thing liable to trouble them
is where the telegraph line gets more than
fifty feet away from the track. This
spells their induction to a large degree,
and If the system were introduced
permanently would have to be remedied by
placing one or more wires closer to the
track. In reply to the question prOpounded