The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-03-06
Worked.

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i - ~H#N#E - SAN
UaoRR 49, New York Electro
,GsYHA cal Society at Co
EA%TA RM lumbia College a
SssfQpA few days ago, sue
WISH cessfully demon
win Il strated that his
HN new telegraph in
~ strument could de-
liver a message at
the rate of 1000 words a minute, say
New York World.
This means that $4,000 messages of
70 words each can be sent every day
from New York to Chicago. Mr.. De-
lany has figured it out that at five cents
for each message of seventy words
there would be a satisfactory profit to
the telegraph companies. The two
cents which the government receives
for forwarding a letter is almost equal
ly divided between the cost of railway
conveyance and local delivery of the
letter. The cost of transmitting the
words of letters at the rate of 1000
words a minute, if the government
should do the telegraphing, would be
insignificant, and therefore the outlay
of the government would not be lin
tied to n cent for local delivery. This
being so, the possibility of a 70 word
letter delivered 1000 miles away in
n hour for n cent at once becomes
attractive.
Mr.. Delany's instrument is known as
the chemical telegraph and has been
in existence in a crude form for many
years. 1t has long been known that a
sensltlzed ribbon would indicate an
electrical impulse fifty times quicker
than an electromagnetic such as is used
in an ordinary telegraph receiver. A
practical application of this knowledge
had not hitherto been made to any ex-
tent.
The instrument, which was exhibited
before the New York Electrical Society,
spelled u a message sent from the
t~ransmitter at the rate of over 1000
words a minute. When an artificial
resistance was put in which represent
ed the resistance Of the wire between
New York and Chicago a speed of 1000
words a minute was attained. The
greater the distance between the send
ing and receiving point the slower, Of
course, is the speed.
Mr.. Delany obtained a speed of 1000
words a minute over the telegraph wire
between Philadelphia and Harrisburg,
Pa, some time ago. The wire between
these two points is very thin and the
resistance as great as between New
York and Chicago.
The reason that a telegram is now
comparatively costly is the impossible
ity of sending more than a very limited
number Of messages over the line in a
day. Time is the all important thing
IN sending matter over a telegraph wire
and a high price must be charged by
the companies in order that the limited
number of messages may recoup them
for the large force employed and the
heavy working expenses. When the ca
pacity Of the line is increased twenty
fold without working expenses being
raised the price of kilograms will drop
to one-twentieth of their present prices.
The principle of the new chemical
telegraph is the recording of the mes
sage in the Morse code on a long strip
of sensitized paper of the same size and
shape as that seen in the familiar stock
ticker. An operator in New York, fol
instance, sending a message to Chicago
just p~erforates the message in tho
Morse code upon a long strip of ordi.
nary paper. He does this by putting
the paper in a preparatory machine
which he works by three ordinary tele.
graph keys. One key is for the dots
another for the dashes and the thirc
for spaces between words. The keys
actuate powerful electric bolts which
: punch small round holes in the striI
of paper at the direction of the keys
The space key works by moving the
strip along and thus making the re.
quired spaces. These keys can be op.
4 Grated very rapidly and the message
i is soon perforated in the strip of paper
The strip is then handed to the
a transmitting operator, who places it il
S the transmitting machine, between twt
b revolving rollers, and in contact will
) two sets of fine wire brushes which
connect with the line. These brushes
have a tendency to come together, blu
are kept apart by the paper. AS tn,
y paper is reeled off the brushes com
together, when mi OF the perforated
holes is reached, and by doing so clos
the circuit. Thus the circuit is alter