Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1891-02-21
As then constructed it was hardly of

As then constructed it was hardly of
any practical utility. Two wires were
thought necessary to complete the cir
cult, and the system of signals en-
ployed was so clumsy and slow that an
ordinary message consumed a most
wearisome amount of time, both in the
transmission and Interpretation, and,
furthermore, the insulation of the wires
was so imperfect that the larger portion
of the electric energy went to waste.
Almost at once, however, improve
ment began. First, young Vail in
vented the dot and dash system, since
in universal use under the name of the
''Morse alphabet, wonderful step be-
yond the old system, which required as
many as thirty impulses to express a
single letter, and when next the same
young man buried the ends of the trans
hitting wire-that is, did away with the
second wire by making old mother
earth complete the circuit-practical
telegrsphy had begun. From that day
until this. says writer in the New
York World, not a year had passed and
hardly month which had not added
some improvement, mole or less i'm
portaGt, to the progress of electrical
transmission. Insulation has been per-
fected, new and powerful elements have
been discovered for the volataic pile,
and finally the dynamo has been substi-
tuted for the galvanic battery. Various
inventions have also been made which
increase the possible length of line I'M
I'll now there is practically no limit to
the distance which message may be
made to traverse on overland lines.
The greatest advance made In the tel
egraphic art after the invention of the
dot and dash alphabet, and second only
IN importance to the original invention
of the telegraph itself, was the multi
pick system of Edison-the marvellous
application of sympathetic instruments
to the transmission of messages by
means of which several may be sent
and received over the same wire stimuli
taneously, so that it is now an ordinary
everyday occurrence for two messages
to be crossing two other messages going
IN an opposite direction ali on the same
wire.
Until short time ago the simple key
and sender, slightly modified from its
original model, were still the only prac-
ticable form of apparatus for the trans
mission of messages of great length or
those requiring any high rate of speed
The first printing telegraph was in
vented by Royal E. House, in 1846,
and was most ingenious apparatus,
which delivered its messages in the form
of complete letters requiring no IN
depreciation, and upon this original IN
yention great advances were made In the
machine of Hughes, in 1856, and later
by Phelps and others. Everybody Is
familiar with one form of this system IN
the little ticking apparatus which stands
now in so many shops aid offices print
ing off stock quotations and other items
of news upon its long paper tape. But
this and kindredmachines are all too
sIow for regular telegraphic use, and
many attempts more or less successful
have been made to produce printing
telegraph instrument capable OF high
speed.
The one great desideratum In all thus
later series of inventions was some
means of securing perfect synchronisnil
that is to say, an absolutely identical
rate Of movement in similar but widely