Evening journal., 1893-04-04
TELEGRAPH TAPPING
ADVICE AS TO A COMPARATIVELY
MODERN INDUSTRY.

Speaking of schemes, there is one man
In Chicago who has caused the board of
trade more bother than all the other al
legged electricians put together. His
name is D. M. Stone, a past master in
electrical matters, who has spent years
In patient study of electricity, and whose
fertile brain has evolved so many
schemes to circumvent the powers that
be that he has been called the king of
wire tappers. Mr.. Stone is modest
man. He looks like granger, but any
one who tries to sell him a gold brick
will surely get worsted in the transac-
hon. Believing that disquisition on
wire tapping would be incomplete with
out few words on the subject from
this patriarch Of the profession, repre-
sentative from The Herald asked the cleo
trician whether he thought wire tapping
could be accomplished.
Mr.. Stone could not vouch for it from
personal experience, but from an cleo
trical point Of view he was decidedly OF
the opinion that he could. He thought,
however, that it would rSNtire, in this
city at least, a knowledge v electricity
which not one in a hundred possesses.
''In the past three years." observed Mr..
Stone, ~ suppose that upward of 100 diff
ferent parties, each representing coterie
of amateur sports, operators and others,
have approached me for information on
this subject. And it has invariably been
In regard to horse racing that they want
ed enlightenment. Were l to mention the
names Of some Of these visitors the rae
ing department of a telegraph company
would be Mortified. Operators as a rule
do not get princely salaries, nothing near
what they should be paid, 80 that when
proposition is made to them whereby
they may clean up a big stake in day
they naturally have an itching to give 1t
trial. But to all these young fellows
who have been inclined to test their luck
in this way have seriously advised
against making the attempt.
"a large proportion Of those who do
attempt to tap wires make miserable
failures. And it is because of their
gross ignorance. / will venture the as
sertion that go per cent of the operators
in all large offices cannot set up and
work a common set Of telegraphic ap-
paratus, taking the wires from the time
they come into the Office until they take
the battery or go out again. Yet with
great part of this class the idea of
wire tapping emanates. They think they
know all about it, and when some Of
them come to see me and unfold their
schemes 1 have to smile at their sim
plicity. They do not recognize the diff
ference between an instrument Of four
ohms and one of 100 ohms, and upon the
subject of galvanometers and Wheat
stone bridges they are completely lost. :"
It was suggested to the veteran cleo
hician that recital of his experiences
with the Chicago board of trade in get
ting quotations would be interesting,
and he was asked if he could say how he
received the markets during the time
the quotations were withheld from the
bucket shops.
I'm the first place, said he, ''the board
Of trade had detectives innumerable all
hunting for taps supposed to furnish
me information. fooled 'em dreadfully
on that point, however. Now that the
fight IS all over / will say that not only
had no wire tapped, bat had no necessity
for tapping one. I had better scheme
than that"
''But didn't you ever lose your con-
tinuous quotations."
''Never. They had man who chopped
everything in the shape of wires he could
fnd, and occasionally he nipped other
wires, but he never succeeded in tracing
the source of my information. At one
time he cut everything he could lay
hands on and then firmly believed he had
me in a corner. That made me hot. My
Office was then in the Traders building
facing the board of trade rooms. The
windows of the exchange floor were al
soaped over, the directory foolishly be
heving received quotations that way
and they thought they had me sure
Well, that morning, with my wire al
cut as they supposed, as soon as the mar
kets opened seized a bar Of soap anC
scored every eighth change on my win
dow, giving in addition the buyer an(
seller sign. 1t dumfounded them. 4
big crowd stood below on the wall
watching my quotations, and / neve
missed a turn. In spite OF the cut wires
too. had my customers supplied within
half an hour after the board opened, an'
was furnishing II bucket shops at th
time"
II suppose you had some funny expe
riences during the fghtY
"Well, yes. At one time I had 10
lot Of old dead wires connected up tina
ran from anywhere to nowhere, simila
to what is commonly luaN7n as tire
circuit-that is to say, fSs main wir
had legs scattered in all directions, eac
of which ran in some dark hole, chin
ney, vacant basement or the like, an
there grounded. then put a heavy bal
terry on the main circuit and sent ful
line Of markets over it. There wasn't
single Office on the wire, but the mystC
rious ends made the 'sleuths' believe
was hot trail. and they would follo'
lead after lead, cutting each to pieces a
soon as discovered. To further bottle
them had my man trail them in tur
and connect the wires again to keep u
the illusion. 1t was three weeks befoI