The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-07-05

A story Of gilt-edged telegraphing,
when the present old-timers were strug-
Cling young "plugs," and which IL re-
freshing In these days of automatic trans
mitters, abbreviated codes and typewrit-
ing machines, Is thus told: The story is
very exact AZ to names, dates and details,
rs BELTS true story Of remarkable fact.
The operators were famous sender and
man who is now court stenographer In
Bangor, Me-, and the transmission of the
presidents message from New York for
the Bangor papers was the occasion.
When the sender got down to business
the sounder pattered like rain on q tin
roof. But after awhile, as he warmed up,
the sounder ceased to click, hummed like
the bur-r-r of a dynamo and then ceased.
The signals were coming 80 fast they
could not record. The receiver thought
for moment, fshed q quarter from his
pocket, disconnected the wires from the
sounder, tied one around the quarter and
laid the coin on his tongue. Then, tax
ing the other wire between the fingers OF
his left hand, he picked up his stylus and
went on copying the message, and in Q
remarkably short time he had got "30,"
which means "All through, good mig ht."
He got the message because his tongue
was much more sensitive than the
sounder. He received rapid succession
OF shocks, which the sounder could not
record, and he, being star operator, read
them with ease, and as he was practicing
short hand at the time he put the mes
sage down In stenography.
One little point to explain Is what hap
pened while he was joining his tongue
into circuit. The story explains that q
jam of signals was on the wire near Port
land, caused by the characters coming so
fast that they were wedged against the
insulators. After a few seconds the jam
broke, and the characters flowed right on,
little Jumped together, but the receiver
got them without q break.-Electric ical
ARc.
Origin OF the Name America.
Nj. Jules Maroon, of the Paris Geo.
graphical Society, has lately spent great
deal Of time in making researches into
the origin of the name "America." The
popular notion that America was so called
from the Christian name of Amerigo Ves-
pucci Is, he says, wholly unfounded, the
name really being taken from "Amerri-
que," the Indian name of the mountains
between Juigalpa and Libertad, in the
provinces OF Chontales, which separate
Lake Nicaragua from the Mosquito coast.
The name in the Maya language signi-
fies "the windy country" or "the coun-
try where the wind blows always" The
Christian name Of vespucci was Alberico
in Italian and Spanish, and Albericus in
Latin, but IL is subject to great number
OF variations, and consequently M. Mar
con suggests that the name Amerigo is
an adaptation of Amcrrique, added to
Vespucci's name to distinguish 1t (Amer-
rique being q name already known
and applied TO the New WORLDLY in
the same way as we say now "Chi-
nese Gordon" to distinguish this par
ticulsr Gordon by suggesting one OF his
heroic feats. vespucci's claim to the dis
covery Of America is put out Of court by
the fact that he was In Seville when Co
lumbus made his voyage. He did, how
ever, make two or three voyages TO the
New World later on, and being q vain
man and acquainted with map makers, he
would be nothing loath to see his name
associated with the vague splendors Of
the new continent. -Pearson's Weekly.