The morning call., 1893-12-10

knows that there are two kiuds of the
subtle f1uid-a positive and a negative.
Around the magnets of A and b are cOied
wires and they are so placed that b Is at
fected by different current from A-that
Is. the polarization is changed, 20 that the
strong current that affects has no nf1u-
ence upon b. The same arrangement is
observed al the other end of the line. and
this is what enables US TO send more than
one message over the same wire."
In the Wheatstone instrument the kew
and the sending operator are dispensed with
at one end and The sounder aud receiver al
the other. A message say to Sacramento
is sent up to the operating-rOom. IL is
several of whom are seated before instru-
ments that resemble typewriters, but
which have only three keys instead of
many. One OF these keys when pressed
punches round hole or dot on narrow
slip of paper that is being fed through
the instrument.
The second punches small rectangular
shape or dash and the third marks a
space. So when the long strip of paper
| comes from the machine 1t is dotted and
dashed with the characters Of the Morse
alphabet. Then it is fed into the Wheat
stone, and as it is passed along the mag
nets are attracted or repelled as The differ
ent holes pass between them, the period of
contact being short for dot and long for a
dash. Simultaneously at Sacramento a
slip of paper is running through
the receiving Wheatstone there and the
current acts upon pencil. A dot passed
| in San Francisco, a dot Is made in Sacra-
mento; a dash made here, dash is re-
corded there. Then this dotted and dashed
| strip of paper is handed to young
woman, who translates the Morse charac-
| tiers into English aud transeribes them on
the little yellow blanks that day and night
| are being carried to business offices and
| waving nf n
failures, of marriages, deaths and births.
Rapidly the wheels OF the WheatstoDe re-
volye, and at each revolution something is
being framed that may change the entire
future of man or woman, or perhaps
alter the policy OF a nation.
The amount of matter which the
Western Union Office can handle can hard
ly be estimated, considering the number
| of Wheatstone, Quadruplex and duplex
instruments they can call into service.
During the Hawaiian excitement early
last year there were busy times when a
steamer arrived from Honolulu late at
night, and press and Government dis
patches had to be rushed to the East.
| But the Office never failed TO "clear the
matter up," and the pace has never yet
been too lively for them.
In receiving the Presidents message
this year the Wheatstone was not used,
and he 10000 words of matter came into
this city clicking away over the regulation
Morse sounder, and were reduced TO writ
| ing by the hand. Early last Sunday even
/ ing the Washington office notified the ma n
Offices in the United States THAT the docu-
ment would be ready TO send over the
wires some time that evening, ana they in
turn gave the Information to smaller
places. New York cabled the get
ready" signal TO London, land by
| 9 o'clock (San Francisco time) every
thing was In shape. In this city ten
special operators were engaged. 1t was
! exactly 1854 o'clock that night when the
| first sentence, "To the Congress of the
| United Staies." came into the main of1ce
| and at 2:51 A. NJ. Monday the sgUature.
"Grover Cleveland" was licked off. 1t
| had occupied exactly three hours and fifty
| seven minutes in transmission.
Only four OF the operators were busy
receiving this over the Washington wires,
however, the other six specials telegraph
ing the document to Los Angeles,
Portland, Sacramento and San Diego.
aud sending out condensed reports
of 1000 words each TO smaller towns.
By o'clock A. NJ, therefore, the
either in full or condensed form to dozen
! places, so that In six hours and six min
utes ten men bad received and distributed
11S 600 words. When the sun rose Monday
| morning the message was in every impor-
tant Western Unon Telegraph Office in
tbe country. Yet not word of il was
whispered abroad until noon time, when
the state paper was laid before Congress.
Then over all the wires that radlate from
Washington was flashed The word. RE
lease" and the message was given to the
people through the medium Of the news
papers.
ssOperators get hold of some choice Sc
crets at times. do they not?"
Indeed they do" sir. Martin replied.
"and considering the number of messages
the information contained in which is
really valuable, it is surprising the few in
stances in which the public's confidence
has been betrayed. This is due to
two causes. In the first place such be-
trayal is penal offense. and would
also result in instant dismissal and
the placing OF the culprirs name