Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-07
One Good Feature.

"One good feature in the Wheatstone
machine and about the most commtidable
from a commercial point of view, is that
in case Of wires being broken or crippled
by storms, or other causes. messages may
be punched as usual, and the punched slips
allowed to accumulate until such time as
the wire is repaired. when transmission is
resumed at the rate of about $50 or 500
words a minute. according to the capacity
of the repaired wire. 1t can be easily seen
that at this rate considerable lost time is
reSafned. In the case of a Morse operator
working a repaired wire, he is making good
time if he can register a speed of thirty
words d minute.
Il recall a humorous case wherein the
two systems were put to a test about the
time the Wheatstone first came into promi-
nence. n newspaper correspondent, who had
graduated from the telegraph ranks, where
in he had been one of the best, one day
rushed into Western Union office with a
special which he particularly wanted to get
off promptly. The young lady at the win
dow received his message with smile, and
with additional sweetness added thereto,
grasped rubber stamp ana with a flour
ish of the arm marked in letters of red
across the left-hand corner 'Wheatstone. >
Now the correspondent was thoroughly ac-
quainted with the system, and in a tone of
disgust protested against having his mat
ter punched At the time there was seat
ed behind the counter an expert Wheatstone
operator who took offense at the CORES
pondent's words, and blurted out: You
don't know what you are talking about.
The Wheatstone system will handle your
message in one-half the time it takes a
Morse operator
That's all rot replied the correspon-
dent. I'm little stiff now but I'll bet you
$40 can send that matter to New York and
have 1t on my boss table before your ma
chine gets started
"Of course this was exaggerated SOME
but they finally bet the money, and each
adjourned to the operating room. where the
night chief was made stakeholder. Each
man was given five minutes to make his
arrangements, ana the Wheatstone expert
picked out the best 'puncner' in the office,
while the Morse man secured a rafting
good man for the other end of the wire to
take the stuff from him. The five minutes
were quickly up, and in the presence of
about two dozen excited onlookers the con-
test started. The lady punCher was very
nervous, and her apparatus refused to
work satisfactorily, but she had a COM
panon in trouble, for the old operator was
equally timid, and several times made bad
breaks. Then both parties struck their
gait, and how their hands did work. The
lady was able to knock off about slxty-five
words a minute, while the Morse operator
was doing an average of forty. without alb
breviations.
THE little lady finished up the message
with a tremendous squirt of speed. while
her opponent had about 200 words yet on
hanQ. Inc w ne2ISIOne expert was JUDI
liant, and springing to the machine prepar-
ed to send 1t buzzing over the wire. But for
some reason the wire wouldn't work. In
nervous haste the wire chief placed another
wire at his disposal-i it was no good. Then
another and another wire was tried, but
all refused to do their work, and several of
the circuits were thrown into confusion in
the endeavor to get a clear wire. All this
time the Morse man was humping himself
and sending as he never sent before. The
little lady that did the punching was a
picture of dismay. she saw all her good
work go for naught and the words roll off
to New York under the quivering hand of
the correspondent.
Finally with a swoop of dots and dash
es, the correspondent rounded up his work.
the receiving operator gave %. k and he
arose from his chair with look of anxiety
on his face-he having been too busy to
notice the confusion around the switch
board. The Wheatstone message was still
in the local office, and, of course, he had to
smile. Then the wires, all OF a sudden,
came all right, and the machine message
went spinning toward New York, but ar
rived there half an hour behind the Morse
message and the correspondent won his
money Several of the working force up in