Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-09-02


Reay on electricity as an adjunct OF
trade. until to-day fully seventy-hve
per cent Of the transactions OF single
day or representative board or trade
or stock exchange are made by wire.
SO perfect have become telegraphic
methods in this particular, that New
York was queried from Chicago ;e-
Gently and an answer returned in ,h'r-
~ seconds. The humble citizen who
Aas tried to telegraph his wife at some
near suburb that he will not be home
to dinner, and who on his arrival about
bedtime finds the police looking for
him, and is routed out of his comforta'
bie bed several hours later to receipt
fer the message he filed down town
early i'm the morning, will smile with
increduiity when he reads how diffe-.
emily they do things on Change. But
the demands of the commercial world
aad The sharp competition of the rival
companies have resulted in a system so
perfect that impossible feats in the
race OF trade against time are perform
81 GA tho Board of Trade every day.
At fair estimate rs per cent. of the
actual transactions on the board are
executed on Geographic orders. Add
10 these purely "Order" messages the
mass OF gossip in the form of opinions,
crop estimates and reports, and advice
and market letters, and it is easily seen
how the wires are kept hot. The trad
ing on the exchange originates in three
Ways: Orders are given personally by
meInbers present on the floor; they
come over leased lines to the so-called
private wire" houses, or over public
wires from the floors of other CONNER
rial exchanges in different sections of
the country. The character of business
done demands the greatest possible
reierity in every stage of its handling
AMI for this reason ii is generally ar
ranged with the companies to have
afieir Instruments and operators close
to the trading pits in the various cX
changes
On the Chicago Board of Trade. two
eozapictely equipped offices. duplicates
AZ each other in every respect, are
used FiftytwO main line wires cen
ter in each, and force of one hundred
operators may be employed on them.
These lines radiating from the eX-
change floor spread out over the coun-
try in AL directions and bring the prin-
czpaf trading centers under the fingers
OF the telegraph companys clever
young men. Six of the lines take care
Of the New York business, two of the
six terminating on the floor of the pro-
Suce exchange there, one each tapping
che Stock, Cotton and Oil exchanges
and the remaining one working a set
ef instruments i'm the main office of the
eompsny. Minneapolis, st. Louis, Phil
adeiphia, Boston, Cincinnati, Buffalo
and few other important cities have
two wires each, and the remaining
points get along with a single one. The
hong. narrow operating tables. cutting
the space into rows of slender aisles.
have the instruments grouped upon
them according to the cities they
serve. and so contracted are the quar-
terS that the operators shoulders are
wcdSed together as they sit at their
seys
This company of experts is directly
under the chief operator and four as
sAstants. From the opening to the
close Of business the overseers circu.
bate among the men, watching the mes
sage hooks to see that there is no ac-
stimulation Of business or delay in
transmission. Twenty-eight messen-
gers attend to deliveries on the floor,
and rs the operators are the flower of
the office force, so the lads are espe-
ciatly trained for the business and are
the brightest to be had. Their pre-
Gminary education on the floor in
wolves the acquisition of the knowledge
ef the personnel of every firm on the
Noard, and they must know personally
by name every trader operating in the
various pits. If they change from one
6rm 10 another the messenger must
know it and he careful that messages
Gor the old house do not fall into the
hands OF the ex-employe.
Tbe business that this force can han
dc Is simply enormous. Most order
messages are shOrt-generally under
cen words. Three such messages have
been handled by single operator i'm a
naiuute In the ordinary course Of bust
ncss
Eighteen hundred messages in the
sour hours between 0:30 and 100 have
been handled frequently over the two
New York Produce Exchange wires
This is an average of two complete
messages a minute for each of the op
orators. Over the fifty duplexed lines
therefore, IL worked to their limit, twt
hundred messages a minute could b'
handled. Accuracy Is the great thing
A wrong figure might make a differ
ence OF thousands of dollars to thu
sender or receiver of the message, an,
when one considers the high pressure
under which the men work, with scores
cf sounders about them swapping out
ana with a thousand brokers splittin;
the air with trade jargon yelps, tn
percentage Of error is so small and un
important rs to be hardly worth con
siderlng.
Up to n year ago the orders receives
ever the private wires were carries
From the private offices to the floor reT
scsentatives of the firms by corps o