The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-05-15


total length OF l4s.4 .4is miles are operated
by 30 companies and 1l42 having a
length OF 49, $50 -Jniles. are controlled by
governments. In addition 10 these there
Is held In stock by various governments
of the world Except the United States,
which does not own any cables) about
$4,000 miles OF cable for war purposes,
and which is ready TO be laid at mo-
ment's notice. over a scob of steam
ships are regularly employed in the SER
vice OF laying and repairing cables.
There does not at present exist one
continuous line Of telegraph round the
entire world, owing To the lack OF a ca
BILE i'm the Pacific ocean. The longest
line over which message can be sent
is that between California and New
Zealand, passing ever the American
continent TO New York, across the At
lantic TO London; thence 10 Vienna,
constantinope Bagdad, Calcutta, Sing
apore and Sidney, "A total distance OF
10000 miles. kilograms from Washing
ton To the. Philippine Islands cover in
their Journey. 600 mites. .sthe route be-
ing as follows. Washington to New
York by land. 10 Valentia, Ireland by
cable; TO Brighton. England, cable and
land 10 Hayre, France, cable; 10 Mar
seilles, land: TO Alexandria. Egypt. ca
BILE; TO Suez, Egypt Land; 60 Alden, Ar
abba, cable; 10 Bombay, India, cable;
10 Madras. land; TO Singapore, Mayla-
yan Peninsula, cable; to Saigon Co
chin, China, cable: to Hong Kong.
China. cable: TO Bolinao. Philippine Is
lands, cable; 10 Manila. land. Messages
on this route cost $2.35 per word.
The depth OF the Atlantic cables Is
about 14,e0O feet, or 2A miles, while the
greatest depth at which any cable has
been laid IL that from Haiti To the
Windward Islands, $4,000 feet, or nearly
3A miles. s.f. .t
The telegraph was one OF the first in
. terests to bring the governments OF the
world together To form union--the
first subject on which they sought
mutual understanding and formed a
code Of regulations. which each OF them
have signed and which all OF them
have kept. The International Telegraph
Union was founded i'm Paris i'm May,
1865. II ante dates the Postal Union by
nine years This convention was called
by France with a view 20 put an end
To the annoyances, delays and exorbi-
tant charges experienced for want OF
concerted action. a second conven-
tion was held at st. Petersburg In 1879,
and others ~ London. 1879; Berlin, 1885,
and again al Paris i'm 1890, and at Blu
dapest i'm 1896. The next conference
Will he held i'm London i'm 1901. A CEN
trail office known as the Bureau inter-
ndt1Ondl ueS Administration ifl' y a4'h-
iques, was established at Bern. swift
zerland, and 90 that office. is sent all
notifications OF the tariff, extension and
interruption of routes. statistics, etc.
Rules and regulations governing the
treatment OF cable messages are also
prepared by this bureau. The princi-
pal points I'm these international rules
are az follows: Every address must
contain at least two words and must
be sufficient to secure delivery. Messa-
ges may be written in any language
that can be expressed In Roman letters.
They may be in plain, code or secret
language, plain language being that
whick is composed OF words forming in
telligible phrases. Code language IL
that which is composed OF words mot
longer than tenNletters each) not form
ing Ineligible phrases. and may be ta-
ken only from the following languages:
English, French. German, Spanish ltal-
ian, Dutch, Portuguese and Latin. Ci-
pher language is that which is formed
OF groups or a series of figures havn0g
secret meaning Each group OF five
figures is counted as word plus one
for any excess. I'm plain language words
of over fifteen letters are counted at the
rate of fifteen TO n word plus one for
any excess.
The total number OF telegraph Of
fees i'm the entire world is 1913 Sl2. o.
which 24Sll are In the United States.
q. .455 i'm Germany. II .553 i'm France TO-
1S3 in Great Britain, 1920 I'm Austria
Hungary. and 4623 i'm Russia. The fol-
lowing statistics respecting seven coun-
tries whose volume of business exceeds
10. 600. 600 messages annually are OF in
tereSt.