The record-union., 1897-09-10

poses prisoners Ihey are a nlgnt
! above the highest floor, TO which the
| elevators run, and are guarded by a
| stalwart Stock Exchange janitor. who
| viii not permit any person to go near
! them. The effectiveness with which
| this individual does his work was
proved recently by the Superintendent
! OF the telegraph company, who was
turned back by the jealous guard, and
was not allowed to enter the operating
| room of his own company until he had
! brought the Secretary of the exchange
| to vouch for him. There are in
stances in the history of the institu
| ton where the operators Were offered
some thousands Of dollars to delay
one message merely to the extent of
sending another ahead of it. So far
as Is known. however, there is no in
/ stance in which such an offer was
I accepted. The only way a man could
affect the sending of messages now
would be to give all his kilograms to
one operator, and have a secret un-
derstanding by which the operator
would rush these messages ahead of all
4 others. But such an imposition would
be quickly found out, with conse-
/ quences disastrous to both parties
The whole history of the rise and fall
Of the arbitage or scalping business is
a story Of the peNection of telegraphic
communication. 1t was regularly and
profitably operated between New York
and Boston and New York and Phila-
delphia The arbitage broker required
only private wire between New York
ana Boston, let US say, with terminals
as near as possible to the exchanges in
the TWO cities. The margin of his profit
! was represented by the difference in
time made over his private wire and
that or the public service. An active
! stock, such as Chicago gas perhaps
! opened in New York at 1881. The open
ing bids in Boston might be the same.
A bull movement might develop in Chi
/ cago gas in New York, and the next
sale was l04 The broker knowing that
as soon as Boston heard Of this the
Boston price would rise to 104, rushes
a message over his private wire to his
Boston agents to buy Chicago gas"
| IL this message beat the official an
nouncements of the rise in the stock
the brokers' agent was able to buy Chi
cago gas at 103A in Boston, While the
/ broker himself would be selling the
stock at lO4 in New York, thereby
scalping'' one-quarter and making a
handsome profit at no risk.
1t is possible now to send an order
from the New York Stock Exchange,
have it delivered at the Exchange in
Boston or Chicago, and obtain an
answer announcing that the order has
been filed in the space of two or three
minutes, and in some instances it has
been done in less time. The only arbi
TRACE business now carried on in New
/ York is between that city and London,
and here it is simply a case of getting
the cable first. NJ. T. Harding, the
Western Union Superintendent, says
that it is not unusual to send a business
message to London and to receive an
answer inside of five minutes.
The record for quick cabling was es-
tablished in the recent whist tourna-
ment between the House of Represen-
tatives and the English House of Com
mons, when a message travelled from
! Washington to Westminster Hall and
back in 1874 seconds.
THE TWO RESPONSIVE DIALS.
Much more rapid than this is the Off
cial exchange of prices between the two
exchanges. Formerly the slips record
ing the sale prices of wheat had to be
carried from the wheat pit across the
floor of the exchange to a telegraphic
booth by a messenger, as is done in the
Stock Exchange, but some time ago the
Superintendent of the Western Union
suggested that the service could be i'm
proved by placing an operator directly
in the wheat pit. This saves a trip of
perhaps twenty feet but in slicing the
edges off telegraphic records it is neces-
sary to cut exceedingly fine, and even
inches may count.
At one side of the wheat pit in the
New York Produce Exchange there is a
high pulpit-like desk in which two men
sit side by side. In front of one is a
telegraphic instrument the wire from
which terminates a few feet from the
Chicago wheat pit. The second man
operates a number of keys which con-
troll the dial at the head of the room As
each transaction takes place the opera
tors press the keys of their instru-
ments. The impression from one is in
dicated by a dial a hundred feet away,
that from the other is received by a
telegraph operator in Chicago, thou
sand miles away. and recorded on the
New York Indicator in the Chicago
Exchange. Yet in spite of the distance
between them the TWO indicators work
almost together, and the difference in
time is estimated at not more than
half a second. A similar apparatus in
the Chicago Exchange operates the
Chicago" indicators in the two eN-
changes, so that every transaction IN
the two great wheat marts, thousand
miles apart, is recorded at the same in
stant in both. Thus is the complete an
initiation OF distance brought about by
the omnipotent demands of modern
: / fro do Cleveland Leader