The times., 1898-02-28
MOVES ITS OFFICES.
The Western Union Telegraph Com
pany in New Ouarters

of the Western Union Telegraph and
Gable Company from the old quarters
in the COrcoran to the new Wyatt
building, at the corner of Fourteenth
and streets northwest, was ac-
complished last night
The work was an extremely difficult
and tedious one, to say nothing Of the
danger in connecting so many hundred
wires with new boards and receivers
while at the same time the workings of
the office in the old building were to
be continued as usual so as not to
cause any delay whatever in the re-
ceipt and transmission of messages. a
hitch or break of any kind was liable
to throw the whole local system out of
order to say nothing of messages pass
ing through this city on the wire for
other points, and if this We're done it
would mean considerable loss to the
company, so it is easily to be seen that
the moving of large central telegraph
portance
Notwithstanding the difficulties at
tending the change the work was
brought to a final completion about s
o'clock yesterday morning without the
slightest drawback, which speaks well
for the well laid plans of the managers
and electricians having charge of the
business.
The old office of the company in the
Corcoran building presented desolate
and forlorn appearance last night That
which was a complete telegraph bureau
on the night before with facilities for
handling the five million messages
sent to and from the national capital
in the course of year had disappear
ed, and nothing remained but
the vast and vacant room, dark
and disOrdGred. On the other hand
the men, operators and those en-
ployes of the company not con-
nected directly with the moving
process had but to take the elevator to
the fifth floor of the Hyatt building and
walk up a short fight of stairs to the
operating room on the next floor, and
they We're in new quarters, with new
Instruments and every accommodation
that could facilitate their work when
they took their places before the in
struments.
The basement, first, fifth, sixth and
seventh floors are devoted exclusively
to the use of the Western Union Com
pany. The managers Office is located
on the fifth floor, and here MI Marean
has fitted up very coZy room for
himself. The room commands a good
view of the city and even a glimpse of
far away Alexandria may be caught
over the top of Wizards Hotel. Across
the corridor from Mr. Marean's office
are the lockers of the operators OF the
company, two rooms being set apart for
this purpose, one for the men and one
for the women. There are furty-four
lockers in the mems room, each locker
being used by day and night oper-
atiVe. An equal number Of lockers
have been constructed in the ladies
room. The southwest room of the fith
foot is used as a battery room In a
space less than 10X29 feet in dimensions
are arranged on d series Of parallel
shelves more than 100 storage lars
These are all of new and improved pat
term They answer the purpose of the
$500 OLD style gravity jars, which We're
used IN the old building, and which had
to be placed in seven rooms. Each Of
the new storage jars has a duplicate,
so that while one jar is discharging
while in service the Complementary jar
TO it is being charged Three large
smaller ones, are called locals for the
reason that they are used solely in the
work of sounding all the local inStru-
ments.
The sixth floor is very interesting
one and presents very busy appear
ance with its many opera tors handling
the messages.
The switchboard. with 400 wires com
ing to it from every part of the East
the newspapers, political items To out
Of town papers from correspondents.
and matters of import to those in civil
life. is located along the east wall. 1t
is neat and simple enough looking ar
rangement on the outside but behind
1t there is a maze of wires that is
enough to puzzle any but those in
charge. No two of the wires are in
contact with each other, and, though
they are fastened in every conceivable
manner in order to bring them out at
the proper switch on the front of the
board, each is placed so that the elec-
trician in charge can locate ii at Il mo-
ment's notice. The capacity of the
board may be increased to 500.
The greater part of the sixth floor is
devoted to the use of the operators.
There are i44 tables ready for use sim
ultancously and with the reserve force
of the gallery the number may be in
creased as needed by So An interest
ing feature of the whole building Is the
pneumatic tube arrangement, by which
messages are sent from the operating =
room to the delivery room in the base
ment, and vice versa. There is also d
tube into which messages may be
dropped and sent To the lower floor,
and II third chute is arranged for the
use Of newspaper correspondents ocCu-
pYing floors IN the building who may
step into the hall and drop their press
kilograms to the basement from which
floor they are sent by means of the au-
tomato tube to the operating room.
The stock, grain and baseball tickers
are arranged on the gallery, which
forms the greater part of the seventh
floor. NJ
The ground floor is being used as a
receiving and general Office, and all
messages delivered by messenger Will
be sent out from the basement. or un-
derground floor Mr.. Marean is gen
eral manager of the local office. The
chief day operator is ]. w Collins ana
the chief night operator is W. II.
Young.