Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1886-03-18
THE LATEST WONDER.
Telegraphing Through tho Air-Despatch.
es Received on Railroad Trains
While Running at
EuIl Snaad

The announcement made last summer
that Mr. Thomas A. Edison was working
out the details of a system of inductive
telegraphy for sending and receiving
messages on moving trains prepared the
public for taking very lively interest in
the practical trial Of the system recently
made on the Staten Island Railway. The
necessary apparatus was applied to a car
on one of the regular trains. The exper-
iments were made personally interesting
by having each member of the party
leave written message, sealed and di-
rected to himself, with the operator at
Clifton. During the trip, these messages
were received on board the moving train,
and each writer had the satisfaction of
having Lis words correctly returned to
him.
The main feature of the system, that of
using the ordinary telegraph wires strung
on the poles along the track, in place Of
a specially laid wire, as in the Phelps
system, was invented and patented by
Mr.. William Wiley Smith in the fall of
1881, and he and Mr. Z. T. Gilliland nave
been associated with Mr.. Edison in the
development of this idea.
The apparatus on board the train is all
attached to compact operators desk oc-
cupying no more room than an ordinary
car seat. The apparatus consists of an
ordinary Morse key, phonetic receivers,
an electro magnet, a vibrating reed, an
induction coil, and battery. Similar
apparatus is in use at the fixed stations.
The car roofs are covered with tin and
connected electrically by copper wire.
An insulated wire runs from the roof OF
the telegraphing car to switch, at the
operators desk. When message is to
be received on the car, the switch is
turned to connect with wire running to
the phonetic receiver, and thence to the
ground. The receiver may be either an
ordinary telephone, or pair may be US
ed and held to the ears, somewhat after
the manner of ear muffs After coming
from receiver, the wire is carried under
the car and connected with strip of cop
per- which is pressed against copper
cylinder on one of the axles by means of
spring, thus giving a ground connection
by the axle and wheel
When, however, a message is TO be
transmitted from the car, the switch is
connected with wire leading to one end
of secondary coil the other end of which
is connected with the ground wire One
pole of the battery is connected with the
Morse key The other pole of the battery
is connected with metallic reed, which
is made to vibrate 500 times second by
means of small independent battery.
These vibrations produce sharp, clear
musical note, which is very. audible at
short distances from the operators desk.
The Morse alphabet of dash and dot is
employed, and cor s.1vs1 oily any operator
can work the sysieaa. The vibrating reed
breaks the current each second into five
hundred waves, and these electrical
waves pass to the roof, and by
sharp, quick discharge traverse the in
tervening air and reach the telegraph
wires. The series of waves, having been
communicated to the telegraph wires, are
transmitted to every station on the line
and to every train having suitable ap-
paratus. If the key were held down con-
tinuously, simply musical note, cores
p0nding to that produced by the vibrat-
ing reed, would be heard in all the receiv-
ers, 1t is the breaking up of this note in
to dots and dashes, by means of the key,
that transmits the telegram.
Tbs triol pf tha al falarro,Nb fho ntl nr
day, on the st. Paul Railroad, seems to
have been no less successful than its pre-
vious test on the Staten Island road. Its
object is that of sending messages be-
tween moving trains and fixed stations
without the use of any wire attached to
the cars or the track The capacity of
the induction coil for throwing electric
sparks foot or two has long been known;
but Edison found he could throw
strong electric current fifty feet This
discovery was then combined with kin
dred labors of Messrs. Gilliland and W.
W. Smith, and at length Edison made
the current leap $50 feet, so that it could
easily reach the ordinary wires establish
ed on poles along the roadbeds Of rail
ways.
The invention is usually called the rail
way telegraph, but Edison styles it the
air telegraph, since it is the sending Of
messages anywhere through the atmos-
phere; indeed, by the use of balloon
kite, coated with tin foil, soaring far
above a vessels deck, and controlled by
a fine wire, he expects soon to enable
ships, without pausing, to exchange mes
M xx,Ia
sea- Thus, as he explains in the North
American Reuep, news of wrecks and
distress could be rapidly forwarded, or of
the condition of cargoes, and even, by
preconcerted signals, changes of destina-
ton ordered In war, many important
uses of the air telegraph are obvious.
Meanwhile its immediate function in rail
way traffic for promptly and safely Civ
ing orders to move freight trains on sid
ings between stations, which have no
fixed schedule, but must wait till made
up, and in counteracting the delays and
dangers of accidents, snow blockades,
and fogs, is strongly urged. Next and
soon will come, according to Mr.. Edison,
the exchange of information between the
business house and the agent or partner
on the train; the pursuit of the criminal
on the train itself without giving him
chance to drop off al "a slackening of
speed and the news writer's sending of
the information he has already gathered
to the editor, even while he hurries on
the train from one town to another.
"A report on the progress of the leper
settlement at Molokai, one of the Sand
wich Islands, states that the settlement
opened in January, 1866, with 141 lepers.