The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-22

: Of the different items. II is work of this
high order that prevents the Wheatstone
/ system from being more generally
adopted. The machines may, perhaps,
: register a record of 10000 words day,
but TO reach that nigh standard from
/ eight 10 ten perforators and lcopyists will
/ beTequired at each end of the line and
they VIII have to be experts al their bust
ness
The manner Of preparing and transmit
ting a message over the WheatstOne sys-
T TEN is about as follows; The Wheatstone
. ''puncher'' or perforator, as he is known,
is located at the sending end of the wire.
He places the message that is to be sent
before him on box about foot high. in
which is contained a roll of white oiled
paper tape on a roller. Attached to the
( box. and with one end of the oiled tape
/ connected with it, is a small iron ma
chine the perforatOr, on the top of which
are three buttons, one each for ''dot,"
dash" and space The puncher, with
a pair Of small iron or brass mallets tip
ped with rubber, strikes these buttons
alternately, and in so doing perfor-
ates the oiled slip in such way
as to reproduce on the tape the charac-
ters desired. The tape is oiled so that
the holes may be clean cut. When
a button has been struck and the slip per-
forated, small spring wheel pressing
against the tape pushes 1t forward to
make room for another perforation. On
the perforated tape perpendicular lines
representing dots and diagonal lines
dashes have been made. Thus the letter
A is represented by dot and a dash, B
I by dash and three dots. G by two dots,
space and one dOt-the same as iD the
Morse alphabet Other alphabets have
been tried and declared with great en-
thusiasm to be far superior to the original
telegraphic letters, but time proves all
things, and Prof. Morse's conception has
stood the test and comes to be the
standard alphabet of all practical tele-
graph printing machines.
After the tape has gone through with
the operation of having the message
punched through it is now ready for
transmission. 1t is placed IN a small
groove of an instrument attached to the
line and called transmitter. The tape
is pushed through the groove by small
wheels pressing upon it, and kept turning
by means of heavy weight underneath
the machine All this time two small
needles of the finest steel, placed in
the transmitter directly under the
grooves, are moving in and out of the
perforated holes of the slip, thus alter
nately opening and closing the electric
circuit Of the wire and thereby
causing characters, similar to those
on the punched slip, to appear on a
roll of blue paper tape in the re-
ceiving instrument at the other end of the
wire. The receiver contains roll of blue
tape, which, while it rolls out, is tapped
by a small revolving wheel attached to
an ink vessel on the receiver, and so the
characters are formed in ink on the slip.
The action of this revolving wheel is
controlled by the action of the two
steel needles at the sending end of the
transmitter
AN OPERATORS STORY.
In conversation with an old-time opera
tor who has had considerable expert
ence with the Wheatstone system, an
Evening Star reporter was told of the
practical points of the apparatus. He
said:
when the Wheatstone system first
came into use the rank and file of tele-
graph operators thought their days of
usefulness were numbered. During the
first weeks of the trial of the machine we
lost all idea of the useless fringe, so to
speak, attached to il, and were struck
with wonder and dismay at the speed at
tanned. We would see message of 1000
words on a small paper roll placed on the
machine, and in about three minutes
time the expert in charge would notify US
that it was in New York or Baltimore,
as the case may be. The working
force was reduced considerably, and we
all began to consider the ACCESSIBILITY of
tackling a pick and shovel, wnen,
all of a sudden, complaints began to
pour into the of1ce about delays and mis-
takes in messages. Upon tracing the
matter up we found that all the COM
plants were directly caused by the poor
work of the 'puncherS' and copyists.
Then the officials became wary of the ma
chine, and its usefulness took backward
step. Now the machine is principally
| used on early press matter and red mes
sages. The former is class of matter
that is handed in, say about 5 O'Clock in
| the evening, TO be used by the paper for
which it is intended the next morning.
| If that matter gets into the editorial rooms
| by 10 O'Clock there is no kick, and as we
| have about four or five hours TO do the
! Transmitting in, we generally land it at
| its destination on time. A red message
! is one that is handed in during the day to
| be sent during the night the cost of which
| is only half-rate. Thousands of these
| messages are collected each day, as it is a
| cheap way for the business men to trans
| NIT letters that are hardly valuable
enough on which to pay full telegraph
| tolls, and yet important enough to de-
| mand faster transmission than the mails
| afford. As the 'punchers' have all day in
! which to prepare these messages, and the
receivers all night to copy them, it can be
easily seen wherein lies the usefulness OF
| VIC W uSd lStOuo lutd. AJHly one wire Is
required to work set of machines, and
as many wires are idle at night, their
chief employment then takes place. The
! punchers,' copYists and machine men are
all under pay, comparing them with oper
ators, $50 and $50 being about the highest
salaries paid, while the average is about
S35 or $40. In New York the ladies nave
| the call at the business, and the way they
can punch tape is a caution; as to copy
ing, we all know what they can do with Z
typewriter The work is clean and the
i hours reasonable. 1t has become bust.
ness by itself, and the operators no longer
| fear its inroadS upon their ranks.
ONE GOOD FEATURE.
zone good feature of the Wheatstont
machine, and about the most commenda
BILE from commercial point of view, is
that IN case of wires being broken Of
crippled by storms or other causes, mes
sages may be punched as usual, and the
punched slips allowed to accumulate unit
such time as the wire is repaired, wher
transmission is resumed at the rate o
about $50 or 800 words a minute, accord
ing to the capacity of the repaired wire
1t can be easily seen that at this rate con
siderable lost time is regained In the
case of a Morse operator working d re
paired wire, heis making good time if n,
can register speed of thirty words
a minute.