The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-29
other, n by an arbitrary arrangement Of
'lefts" and rights" letters are formed and

"lefts" and "rights'' letters are formed an,
read Of by the operator.
The Commercial Gable company uses tn
recorder" on all its cables. The "re
corder' 10 an instrument which writes tn
following ingenious means: The needl
part of q powerful and sensitive galvano.
meter is replaced by a fine siphon of glas
suspended by q silk fibre, one end of whiot
dips into an ink vessel. The ink is spurted
without friction, upon a strip of paper
(moved by clookwork vertically past tn,
%siphon,) the squirting being accomplished
electrically.
Tn ends of a cable, when landed, are
generally buried in q trench running from
the sea up to the cable 'hut." This hut ii
only used for testing purposes, and is gen
orally at some distance from the operating
station. From the hut the cable ia apair
trenched in the operating station itself.
cross section of ar American cable may
be described as follows: In the centre is 8
copper strand of seven wires; around this
a .gutta-psrch4 envelope covered by a SER
vice OF jute, outside which there are ten
wires OF what is called homogeneous iron,
sach enyeioped IN fine strands of manila
hemp. The average weight in air of an
Atlantic cable is about thirty hundred
weight per nautical mile; in water, about
fourteen hundredwen'ht per nautical mile.
A cable would probably bear eleven knots
OF itself in water without breaking. The
The average length of an Atlantic cable is,
roughly, 1870 knots.
All the Canso cables are st%duplexed" and
the Western Union land lines '.quadru-
picked" This arrangement doubles the
capacity of each cable and qu~adruples that
OF each land line. When working "duplex
mirror" two experienced men are required
at each lnstrument-one transmitting ca
Diagrams, the other receiving them. The
work of receiving is of a more than ordi-
narily trying nature, and the two men in
consequence take hour about.
Seated beside the receiving operator is
another employe, whose duty It is to write
down the messages, the receiver spelling
out, carefully and distinctly, each letter as
it is transmitted to him by the distant
doubt as to the accuracy of a letter or a
word, ~whlch-owing to indlstinct signals
occasioned by lightning or other cause be-
yond the electricians controls sometimes
the case, the sending station is immedi-
atsly notified and the doubtful word at once
repeated,
Although five companies are ostensibly
engaged in Atlantic cabling, there are at
present practically only two-the Western
Union and the Commercial. or the other
organizations the Anglo-American and the
Direct United States have pooled" with the
Gould cables, and work under a kind of
Joint purse arrangement. The French COM
pany broke loose from the pool sometime
ago and joined fortunes with the Mackay-
Bennett Commercially.
STOCK brokers, both in New York and
London, arc fully alive to the advantages
to be gained by Il liberal use of the cables.
How literally these gentlemen do use them
may be understood from the fact tina small
are daily paid to the different
cable COmpapleR nv their AmaricaD up1
stock exchange patrons alone. The
speed and accuracy attainable to-day would
few years ago have been deemed impos-
slbls. 1t ID no rare thing-is is, in fact, a
common daily oocurrence-for a message to
ssnt from New York to London, or vice
versa, and answered inside of three min
utes.
On entering tho Western Union ''operat-
ing ROOM at, say, II a. M, the visitor
might be pardoned the error of surprising
that he had fallen foul of some private lun-
attic Asylum: for hurry, scurry. hustle md
confusion would probably, to his unaccus-
toned vision, appear to reign sul j.
Boys technically ''checkers') are running
from Morse" to Mirror" from Mirror,
to "Recorder.' O doris are being given
here. instructions there-noise and ACTIVITY
Only ten words in that message. Hurry
up"
Look out-here's a Smith coming"
London wants a reply to 'Watson's'
message quick. Party waiting.'
Don't make such a blessed row therer'
MI. Jones, just touch up this balance
please.n
II wish these COMPOUNDED stocks would
lot up some time.'
watson wants to know what DELAYED
his message" Message in question prob
aoiy occupied thee minutes in transmits