The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-09

6oou loih ia tuIdlly want -SoIliclHillS
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, rather lavish.
The sum spent per annum is twenty
five thousand pounds, which makes five
pounds per head, or about three and
ne-half pence each per day. What
they get for that modest sum / am not
able to say, but there were no COM
plants
AS to periods when business is most
pressing, I hear they come just before
the Derby and the other big racing fix
lures. But the record of oVerpressure
occurred just before the Diamond Ju-
bilee day, when something like two
! hundred thousand messages had to be
dealt with. However, the average daily
number of London kilograms Is from
eighteen to twenty-five thousand
| For more figures, if any one can care
for them, it seems there are altogether
thirty-three thousand miles of line,
| twenty-six thousand miles of wire, one
hundred and thirty-six cables, between
nine and ten thousand offices-six hun
dred Of them in London-and between
twentys six and twenty-seven thousand
instruments, which can do sir hundred
messages in a minute; while single
Wheatstone transmitter will send from
] three to four hundred words in min
ute.
| Now as to organization With the
exception of the Stock Exchange, which
has it's separate communication with
bo oil IL ic
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 message has to be sent from
the Elephant and Castle to Kilburn, it
would either be wired to the Central Of
flee and rewired to Kilburn, or else per-
form one or both portions of its jour-
ney by pneumatic tube.
These tubes number something like
forty in all, and provide very speedy
means of transit, the pace being about
forty miles per hour, and the time re-
quired for recopying the message being
thus economical. They are worked by
compressed air, which is pumped in by
a powerful steam engine.
In case of telegram dispatched be-
tween two towns like, we will say,
York and Leeds, it is obviously compli-
eating matters to send 1t round by way
Of London, because there are numerous
wires between the two cities which can
carry it direct But in majority Of
cases it Is otherwise. For instance, be-
tween Dover and Yarmouth it vastly
simplifies matters to utilize the central
office In London. London possesses d.
rect communication with nearly all
country head offices, such as those in
large towns like Manchester and Brad
ford; and messages directed to small
out of-the-way country places are
transmitted to the nearest head office
and thence redirected The same meth
Cd holds with regard to continental
capitals, most of which are directly
connected with London. Some curious
mistakes are on record.
A message recently occupied week |
in travelling from Leeds to small town
fifty miles off. Expostulation led to a |
perfect bundle of official documents, !
when the fault was explained and re-
GREETED But aren't you going to re-
turn me my sixpence?" This request
produced second bundle. after which
the sixpence was duly made over.
A gentleman named Lionel was asked
to 60 to meet his son William on his
coming home from school. He wired:
Cannot meet BILL Due 1:50.-L." On
1t read: Cannot meet bill due
1909" Result, a domestic panic.
Another who was stopping In town
met a Frenchman named Abel, who
was we'll known to his family. He sent
q message to say, Il am staying at the
Cecil with NJ. Abel" What his wife
read was. II am staying at the Cecil
with Mabel" Some explanation was
afterwards necessary.
telegram which purported to be pa
.hetic ended with the word Vale"
How in the world this cane tn be trans
nuted into Flats" / cannot, of course.
say but so it was The hidden refer
ance contained in the latter sryptic ex
preston occasioned much bewildered
speculation in the mind of the receiver
As to expense. kilograms have been
known to cost one thousand
pounds. Parliamentary messages are
,ften very lengthy. To dispatch a mil
ion words In single evening is no I'M
Usual feat-London Daily News.