New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-10-24
WIRES TO ALL POINTS.
THE OPERATING-ROOM OF THE WEST
ERN UNION TELEGRAPH BUILDING.

A BUSY AND NOISY PLACE WHERE EIGHT HUN
DRIED OPERATORS woRK-ABoUT THREE
THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED WIRES
ENTER THE BUILDING.
One NJ the SHOW places" OF the lower part OF
New-York is the operating on the elBh'h hooi
OF the Western Union Building. Broadway ana
Dey St The Stock Exchange. the old churches
and the high office buildings can be visited only
NJ certain hours OF the day. but the great room
where messages are received from All points ana
sent out to every part OF the country Is never
closed and the clatter OF the Telegraph Nc! an"
the tvpewriter may be heard at any hour Al
tables Of various sizes arranged so that se'er"i
aisIes are left eight hundred telegraph operators
are at work. OF these abou; one-hfth are "oineii
There are eight hundred sets or Instruments III
Guiding the ouadruplex. duplex and single Morse
Instruments and the automatic and pruning 'eie-
graph apparatus. well as the stocK' gram anu
provision tckers. There are also ABOUT one nun
bred and fifty time repeating relays FOR the trans
mission at noon daily OF the standard tfhe u All
points OF the land
The room as viewed from the entrance. IS an IT.
terestinp picture but il becomes still more so on
closer inspection and the man who stops on the
lower floor 10 send telegram would marNei IL i've
could see with what rapidly his message II
handled The original messages come TO the oper-
ating room through pneumatic tubes. ana arc re-
ceived in the gallery. where corps OF ''erN''
bright intelligent looking girls. Is Kept bnsy as
sorting them and sending them to the Operators
who transmit them to their destination The mes
sages reach the operator by means OF an ingenious
overhead transportation system similar 10 the casn
system In the department stores, but constructor
so that the carriers pick UP message which INC
onerator may have received and at the same time
drop one which Is to be sent by MIN. IL 'ahs'
about twenty seconds for message TO reach the
operator after II has been filed In the receiving
ofrce and then II goes on It's way anywhere from
a mile to thousand miles
The view OF the operatin room which appears
on the cover OF to-day's Tribune supplement SHOWS
d group Of operators at work during the ouS' p"''
Of the day and any part Of the great room shows
.ouaI activity at that hour. The room has not
been closed since 1891 and the large force OF OPP
orators never find lack of business except DC
tween the hours Of and in the morning. VINE"
there Is a lull.
Albert E. Sink Is the manager OF the operating
department. and journey through tho room fuii
OF resounding rattle and catter is like a walk on
great map of the United States. The central part
Of the is devoted TO The south the , Easern a
territory has rs tables on the e@s. a,u ARE licked
off towards the setting sun. Al one end II group
f9rSsr G5 Ba1Se and keep forty
operators busy, and then comes Ncw,Jersey, VIII
SVis,on' which takes in Louisville. Indianapolis.
Cincinnati and Cleveland. Keeps forty-h op''n.
tors busy and the north cnd OF inc TooHii VIZ
Trie division which includes all that part OF the
country which may be reached by the Erie Kan.
road and 10 branches. employs forty-nve opera
tors This includes Eimira, B!nghamton. Scranton
and the coal regions Further on In the room one
reaches the western division. Including Albany
unTaIo Detroit Toledo Toronto and points west
of Chicago. a large part OF the Chicago ana far
where there Is another large operatlng-room 10
which messages are sent by the overhead systcm;
Cnerators become Identified with certain parts OF
no country through their places In the CHATTER
shop' and the distributing clerks know the loca,,
ca Eraneiocn
in the operatng-room as well as the geographer
knows them the map. -, -...
An 9nncx occupied by about one hundred women
ooaratnrs is devoted exclusively 10 the Greater
Tew-York II is a bright. cheerful room, with a
dnc view across the North River. All the short
CITY wires come Ia this room -
One Of the features OF this monster piant - ne
ecries ~ great swltchboards through whicn az inc
connections are made There are six or these
and tbe entire system contains about one thousand
through wires and aggregate OF about tnrr"
thousand five hundred when the local ana SNORT
wires are included.