The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-14

ceiving insCrument-ths recorder, it is
called is not so creepy. Ii is a very deli
cate piece Of mechanism, which words can
hardly describe to the lsyman. Two mon
strous magnets stand perhaps an inch
| apart, one q positive, the other q neRatiy "a
Between them hangs a little cake OF soft
iron in q tiny helix, As the dots come this
iron core turns TO the left, and as the dashes
come 1t swings to the right The movement is
hardly percepuble. To this core is attached,
by an ingeniously simple multiplying
| device, a minute siphon pen which drinks
ink from a small basin and taps an ever
moving strip of paper SO rapidly as to make
| its little dots seem to be a continuous line.
| This line is drawn straight along the strips
of paper when no message is coming, but
when a dot is sent across the ocean the pen
| swings upward, and when dash Is made IL
swings downward. By these ups and downs
| the practioed receiving operator reads the
message. An upward aud a downward
stroke form the letter A; a downward and
| three upward strokes form b, and 80 on.
The continental telegraphlc alphabet is
used.
Suppose an Atlantic cable should break
Would they have to 60 out and search along
the line Of 1t until they found the fractures
| hles5 you, no; that would be more or q Job
than the laying of new cable. They know
trick worth two of that. They could sit
| comfortably in either OF their terminal
offices and locate the break in ten minutes.
II the cable were severed so that this copper
core were exposed a connection would in
stantly be formed with the earth at the
bottom Of the sea, and the operator at either
terminus would have only TO measure the re-
sistance OF his circuit to know precisely how
much cable lay between him and the ground
connection. IL the break we're of such
character that the core remained insulated,
the operator would find bis circuit broken.
Now, TO make the matter plain, let US sup
| pose the cable to be a tube capable OF hold
| ing pint OF water to the foot. II he
poured 800 pints into It and 1t were filled
he would know that the obstruction was 500
| feet from his end Of the tube. Well the
cable Is a conductor capable of holding let
US say, pint of electricity to the mile.
| What Is the difference whether we call 10
| pints Of electricity or volts or ohms of
resistance. II Is the same principle Of meas
urement.
How far can q Geographic message be
sent In q reasonably direct coursef l put
the question to ]. H. smart, the obliging
superintendento OF the commercial cable in
New York. Look OF your map OF the
world, IL you please, and see what his
answer means. A message may be started
at Victoria, b. c., and keep going In an
easterly direction, by land lines and cables
until it reaches wellington, New Zealand
| more miles away than the circumference Of
the earth at the equator. II everything
were in readiness and the message were
hustled along az tho rate the commercial
cable message went from the stock ex-
change TO the royal exchange aud back It
| would make the journey in less than three
| minutes. II the answere were sent from
Wellington at noon Of Wednesday il might
reach Victoria by 4 o'clock Tuesday after
| noon.
This outstripping of Old Sol played havoc
with the Sabbatarians in the early days of
the cable. The question came up: Shall
messages be sent and received on Sunday
At first 1t Yves decided that they should not
| be, but when 10 was considered that Sunday
In the United States is Saturday In Cal
| cutta, and not a message sent from here on
| Saturday would reach there on Sunday,
while one sent from there on Monday would
reach here on Sunday, ID was concluded
| that three days in the week were too many
to give to religion. so the whole matter was
settled by keeping open for business every
day.
Before the first Atlantic cable was laid,
somebody who didn't know what he was
talking about Ia congressman l believe)
said 1t would take the whole United States
to hold battery enough to charge such e
stretch OF wire. After the cable was laid
they gave banquet 10 New York to Mr..
Field and on that occasion he said: "The
other day Latirner Clark telegraphed
from Ireland, across the ocean and back
again, with battery formed In lady's
thimble, and now Mr.. Collet writes me
from Hearts Content: Il have Just sent my
compliments 70 DR.. Gould of Cambridge
who is at Valencia, with a battery com
| posed Of gun cap, with a strip Of znc ex-
cited by drop Of water, the single bulk Of
| tear'n
At the time OF the great blizzard from
which New Workers. still date events. the
| city had but one slender cord of connection
with the outer world. Telegraphic COM
munication was cut of in every direction
save one. The Commercial cable, which
crosses on the Brooklyn bridge, runs under
| ground TO Sheepshead Bay, crosses the bay
and takes its plunge into the ocean surf
along with the rest Of the divers at Nam
| haitian beech-this cable cared naught for
storms on earth. Boston was almost as
bad Off as New York. The land lines
there were nearly all down. Newspapers
in the two cities tried by evey sort OF
means TO get some word from the
rest of the country, but the effort was a
vain one. At last one OF the New York
| York newspapers hit upon the plan OF open
| ing correspondence with Boston by way of
| London. A message was sent by the Com
| mercial line to London and forwarded by
the other Commercial line, which lands at
| Cape Ann, thirty miles from Boston. II
happened that a wire between Cape Ann
and Boston was still holding up it's weight
| Of snow and ice, so the two cities, which
which were shut away from all their coun-
| try, chatted with each other by way OF
London through more than 1000 miles Of
| "a hla WILLIE r. HAWKINS