Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-22
TALES OF THE TELEGRAPH.
Some Stories OF Early Days Told at the OIL
Timers Reunion.

Some Stories OF Early Days Told at the Old
Timers Reunion.
At the Old Time Telegraphers' reunion at
Armory Hall Mr. W. W. Burhaus, night man.
ager Of the United Press in this city and a vet
ersn telegraph operator read paper giving
interesting points concerning the history Of
telegraphy in this country.
Paul d. Common. our respected townsman,"
said Mr. Burha1s '.ia perhaps the only man
living today in Washington who knows about
these matters as far back J947. when he be-
gan his Geographic career as pole climber
and handy boy about the Morse Office. He can tell
us something about this line. Mr.. Connor has
constructed from pine boards and memory an
exact model Of the cross-arn and insulator in
use on this lire from May, 1914, up to the
spring Of 1918. On this latter point-the date
he Is not certain. but at any rate in the fall Of
1s47 he was employed for a long time on the
line between Washington and Baltimore, i'm
proving It's Insulation by giving the wire and
cloth-coyered joints on the cross-arns a fresh
Goa. OF tar and the poles "a coat of black paint.
Glass insulators, he thinks. were substituted
for tarred canvas cloth in 1S48 on this line.
In this lie is probably correct, as we have on
exhibition in the National Museum here a glass
ins1iator used on the line between Louisville
at the suggestion of Ezra Connell and with the
endorsements OF Prof. Henry, was probably
adopted about 1s47."
Would NOT BELIEVE IT.
After referring to the completion Of the pcle
| line to Baltimore, May "a. 1874. Mr.. Burhans
said: Two days later. when the democratic
national convention at Baltimore nominated
Jas. H. Polk and Silas Wright for President
| and Vice President. VaIi. the operator and
electrician at Baltimore, sent the news Of the
nomination to Prof. Morse. who was holding
| down the Washington end of the wire in the
! Capitol. Prof. Morse promptly carried the
dispatch TO Silas Wright, then United States
Senator from New York Senator Wright
later in the day sent telegram TO Baltimore,
| or rather Morse sent it for him. positively
declining the nomination. but the intelligent
/ democratic convention, thoroughly ilnbued
with the doubts and skeptcism of that day
about the fact Of telegraphy, was too creduious
TO credit the truth OF the dispatch. and APP
pointed a committee TO go to Washington and
| verify it. They returned the next day with
MIR. Wrights written and formal defamation,
and the convention subsequently nominated
Mr.. Dallas for the vice presidency.
This is history, true history, too. and If this
! body of President makers may be taken as a
fair sample of the intelligence of the country in
1874, it goes to show that the people were not
/ quite ripe then for the telegraph, and yet this
happened only few years ago.
INTENDING THE LINES.
'1n 1S45," Mr.. BUREAUS said, "a line was
completed between New York and Wilmington,
Del, but the gap between Wilmington and Bal
timore was not filed in until late In 1876, and
| for some time news Of battles in Mexico re-
ceived here was wired from Washington to
Baltimore, then brought by mail to Whining
ton and thence wired 10 New York, or rather to
Jersey City, for there was no wire communica-
ton between Jersey City and the metropolis of
the new world until late in 1913. In 1S46 lines
from New York to Boston and from Albany
to Buffalo were built and it was not
until 1S47 that New York and Albany
and Philadelphia and Pittsburg were connected.
Washington had extended its wires south only
30 far as Petersburg. Va, late in 1Si7, and New
Orleans was reached by the coast line in 1850.
Early In lS4S Chicago. our worlds fair city,
with more than q million people today but
then burg with less than 80 600 inhabitants,
was first favored with Geographic commune
cation with the PARKWAY east. Cincinnati
reached out to st. Louis in 1SiS and in the
winter Of ls4S-4s line was completed from
Louisville to New Orleans. Boston shook
hands with Portland, Me-, st. Johus and Hall
fax iE 1851.
This ePitOme Of early progress carries the
electric telegraph over its first six years Of ex-
istence in this country. and two years later, in
1852, when there was quite an extensive net
work OF wires extending from Halifax to New
Orleans and from New York to st. Louis the
widest dream Of telegraph engineers and cleo
tricians was only to establish communication
between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Henry
U Reilly, one OF the most energetic and perse-
yering OF telegraph projectors III those early
days, urged Congress by memorials in 1882 to
establish telegraphic and letter mail communi-
cation with the Pacific coast.
THEN CONSIDERED ABSURD.
GAS late a. 1852 the idea Of connecting Amer
lea with Europe by ocean cables was regarded
as utterly absurd, but the Boring sea route was
talked Of by electricians as feasible. See how
forty years have turned the tables. What was
then considered as absurd is now an accom-
plished, easy, cheap fact and what was thought
feasible-the Boring sea or land route-has
been abandoned after a costly but unsuccessful
attempt to reach Europe via Alaska and Sipe-
ria
so far I have only endeavored to give
fair idea Of the primitive efforts Of pioneer
telegraphers who laid the foundation for the
most wonderful and most important business
on earth today. But what marvellous strides
since then We can see an advance since 1874,
from forty-mile line, with instruments capa-
BILE Of transmitting five words a minute, to the
qnadruplex wire, with a capacity of 120
words a minute, from the cumber-
| thirty pounds, to the wonderfully delicate
| quadruplex relays and rheostats of today; from
forty miles Of line in 1874 to more than 200, 900
| miles Of line aud 700, 600 miles of wire in 1890;
from receipts by the different companies in
| 1850 amounting to less than half a million to
| more than ga. 000, 900 by the Western Union
Company alone last year; from q few score
thousand words of press news. transmitted in
| that hrst year OF the telegraph and much of it
! unintelligible by the time it reached the
printer, to millions upon millions of words sent
over the wires during the past twelve months;
and from a delusiye, chimerical eheme lit only
to be classed, as it was forty-seven wears ago by
some congressional solon alongside of mes
merism, to one Of the most important factors
| and vital link in tho chain OF commercial en-
\ terprises and business Of the world TODAY.
An interesting chapter might be written about
the formation OF competing telegraph compa-
nies, telegraph tolls aud press news work i'm
those early days; but the length of this screed
already forbids moro than a mere mention of a
/ few facts aud incidents, which. coutrasted with
| tine methods and work Of today again fo-cibIv
| illustrate the marvellous growth Of this great
business during the past forty years For in
| stance. in 1850 there were more than ifty DIFF
| ferent companies in operation in the United
States. and competition Was SC shprp between
New York and Boston that messages of ten
| words were sent for 20 cents. while al the same
date the rates from New York to N-w Orleans
were S2.40 for ten words for both commercial
business and press dispatches. The press. after
the first telegraph lines were put In operation.
\ soon began to use them for the transmission 81
news. The expenses were heavy, and the blum
ders of the telegraph many. consequently the
dispatches were brief and frequently uninteIli-
gible.