The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-20
EACH MAN HIS rELEGRAPHRR.
An Invention That VIII Revolutionize
the Telegraph Business.
From the PHILADELPHIA Press

point TO point by means OF electricity, and
named his invention the telegraph. he sim
ply anticipated future events in the misuse
Of the name he adopted. The real tele-
graph has only recently been discovered.
Morse's system, wonderful as it was then.
has been 50 modified and improved that
nothing remains of il in the teleg.
raPhy of to-day except the alphabet of dots
and dashes. The clumsy old register. +"
with its string of tape and cumbrous
weights, gave way TO the neat, compact
"sounder," and mel learned to hear the
language of the wires spoken rather than to
read il as it was written. In the telegraph
of the future even the Morse alphabet will
cease to exist, aud return will be made to
the ancient Roman characters taught in our
schools under the familiar title of 'our A
C's"
Now. in order to read a telegram before
it is copied by the operator one must know
how many dots and dashes make A, how
many make B, etc. In the future. and the
near future, too, any one can read a tele-
gram who can read the Press. In fact, if
you possess the ''open sesame" TO the work
rooms of the Essick Printing Telegraph
Company in this city you can do it now.
And what is more to the point, if you have
ordinary intelligence and know how to spell
correctly you can also transmit your
message or telegraph to distant point as
easily as you can print out letter on a
typewriter.
The name of the man whose brain has
made this possible is Samuel n Essick. He
is by no means the only man who has made
attempts to solve the problem of transmits
sion of roman characters by electricity.
Hundreds have worked at it since Morse's
time, and several have been partially sue
ceSsIul. 1t is not necessary to enumerate
here the reasons which have prevented
others from being entirely successful, but
it is enough to say that, with the exception
of speed the Essick instrument can do any
thing in roman characters that the Morse
instrument can do in Morse characters, and
a little more. In the matter of speed there
is now but little difference, ami in a few
days there will be ESsick instruments in
working order which will transmit and
record as many or more words per minute
than can the most expert Morse operator in
the country.
The Essick machine, briefly described, is
nothing more nor less than an electric type
writer, capable of duplicating the work of
the operator on q similar instrument stu
ated a thousand miles, more or less, distant
from the person manipulating the key
board. In appearance it resembles stock
ticker on top of pedestal, with Reming-
ton typewriter keyboard attached to one
side of the pedestal foot or two from the
top.
The operator places himself before this
keyboard. He strikes the little knobs with
his fingers and whirring sound ensues.
The instrument on top of the pedestal be-
gins to buzz in a bewildering sort of way,
and presently sort of tram car attached
to the left of the instrument begins to move
slowly from right to left, carrying with it
piece of plain white paper, the face of
which is presented to the eye A series of
little hammers thumb upon the face of
the paper, each one making a letter
as it strikes, until by the time the little
car has moved as far to the left as it can go
there is a row of letters upon the paper cor
responding to those which have been
touched upon the key board of the operator.
The same row of letters is duplicated on
every instrument upon that line, no matter
how far away it may be or how many in
struments there are on the line.
When the little car has gone as far to the
left as it can it jumps back again lust as
the car on typewriter does and another
row is begun. Thus row after row is re-
corded, one behind the other, until when
the message is completed, it reads Just as
would the lines on the page of a book or in
a manuscript written by hand The kew
board to be used in the transmission is to be
precisely similar in its arrangement to that
of a Remington typewriter, so that any
expert operator on the latter will be an
expert telegraph operator by the EsSick
system.
A Press reporter, who was invited to the
company's offices in lower Broadway the
other day, was favored with an ocular
demonstration of the practicability of the
system. He inquired for General Manager
Abner Mckinley, but was referred to d. j.
Ludwig. general superintendent. who told
him that Mr.. Mckinley was in Boston.
Would you like to talk with him?" added
Mr.. Ludwig 81 mean by wire,n ne said,
noting the surprised look upon the reporters
face The latter said he would and was
conducted into the private Office. Mr.. Lud-
wig sat down and said to Mr.. Mckinley,
over the wire, that the reported wanted to
know something about the Essick system
The reply came promptly back. A fac
simile of it is given here, SO that readers
may see for themselves just how it looks.
To those persons who for years have been
accustomed to the badly written. badly
blurred and frequently blot he'd and unin-
telligible copies sent out by the various
telegraph companies. such a copy as this
will be in the nature of revelation. In addi-
ton to the advantages already mentioned
the Essick company claim for this system
the following; s.It is news and stock tick
or for the distribution of the current COM
mercial and financial news to public places
The advantage OF the page system over a
tape printer will readily be seen when it is
understood that the entire transactions of