The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-10-27

truly marvellous, and amounts to about
! half a penny a head per day. But tea
| and bread and butter are not expensive
| articles.
But at their midday dinner these good
| folk naturally want something more solid.
| They pay for it themselves. but it is all
done on cooperative lines, and SO comes
in very cheap, though, compared TO the
tea is rather lavish. The sum spent per
annum is e250o0. which makes IS per
head, or about SD. each per day. What
! they get for that modest sum 1 am not
able TO say, but there are no complaints:
As to periods when business is most
/ pressing, 1 hear they come just before
I the derby and the other big racing fix
/ lures But the record of Oyerpressure
occurred just before the Diamond jubilee
day, when something like two hundred
thousand messages had to be dealt with
However, the average daily number Of
London kilograms is from Is. 5000 TO $1,000.
For more figures, if any one can care for
them, it seems there are altogether Sc. 600
miles OF line, 26 600 miles of wire 136 ca
bles, between 5000 and 10000 ofices-eOo
Of them in London-and between 26.OO0
q
messages In a minute when a single
Wheatstone uansmitter will send from
three to four hundred words in a minute.
Now as to organization. With the ex-
ception Of the Stock Exchange which has
its separate communication with the pro-
vincial exchanges, it is the rule for all
kilograms to pass through the Central
Office, which thus forms a transmitting
center This rule applies absolutely TO |
London district messages, because there |
is not enough business between any two !
given branch offices to warrant a separate !
wire between them. Thus, if a message |
has to be sent from the Elephant and /
Castle TO Kilburn, it would either be wired |
TO the Central Office and rewired to Kill !
burn, or else perform one or both portions |
OF its journeys by pneumatic tube.
These tubes number something ike forty /
in all, and provide a very speedy means !
of transit. the pace being about forty |
miles per hour, and the time required /
for recopying the message being thus |
economical. They are worked by COM
pressed air which is pumped in by a pow
erful steam engine.
In cases OF a telegram dispatched be-
tween the towns like, we say. York and
Leeds, it is obviously complicating mat
tiers TO send it round by way of London.
because Their are numerous wires between
the two cities which can carry it direct.
But in a majority Of cases It is otherwise.
For instance. between Dover and Var
mouth it vastly simplihes matters to util-
lie the central Office in London. London
possesses direct communication with near
" all country head-ofhces, such as those
in large towns &c Manchester and Brad
ford; and messages directed to small
out-of-the-way country places are trans
mitted to the nearest head-of1ce and
thence redirected. The same method holds
with regard TO Continental capitals. most
OF which are directly connected with Lon
don. Some curious mistakes are on rec
ord.
A message recently occupied a week in
travelling from Leeds to a small town
fifty miles off. Expostulation led to a per
feet bundle of official documents, when
the fault was explained and regretted.
But aren't you going to return me my
As his request produced a
second bundle. after which the sixpence
was duly made over.
a gentleman named Lionel was asked 10
go to meet his son William on his coming
home from school. He wired: Cannot
meet Bill Due $50 l. On delivery it
read: Cannot meet bin due 15oe." Re
suit, a domestic panic.
Another who was stopping in town met
a Frenchman named Abel. who was well
known to his family. lie sent a message
to say: 81 am staying at the Cecil with VI.
Abel" What his wife read was, Il am
staying at ne Cecil with Mabel" Some
explanation was afterwards necessary.
\ telegram which purported to be pa
thetic ended with the word yale" How
in the world this came to be transmitted
into Hats" cannot. Of course, say, but
so it was. The hidden reference con-
tanned in the latter cryptic expression
much bewildered speculation
IN the mind of the receiver.
As to expense, kilograms have men fire.
luently known to cost $1,000 Parlia-
nentary messages are often very lengthy. ,
To dispatch a million words in single
evening is no unusual feat-London Daily
News.