The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-11-06

Quite a number of improvements
have been made in the Western Union
Telegraph Office in this city n there
is now no office in the state nor com
plete in every respect. The business
of the company in Wilmington has in
creased enormously during the past
few years and to handle the business
with rapidity it was necessary to in
stall new apparatus. In doing this it
was thought advisable to make the Of
flee of sufficient capacity to handle all
business that may be the result of q
city much larger than Wilmington at
the present time, for the Western
Union people, as every n else who
is familiar with the way in which the
city is going forward, believe that the
population will increase considerably
during the mex few years.
The new apparatus was installed un-
der the supervision of Mr.. S. r. Crowd
er, of the company's engineering de-
partment, and was turned over TO the
local management yesterday when all
the old apparatus was discarded. Ali
of the primary batteries were changed
to modern storage or secondary bat
terieS which receive energy from q
dynamo located in the building. Power
is supplied by the Consolidated Com
Dany. In addition to this improvement
the old arrangement of loose wires
entering the building has been don
away with and the trunk lines and
local circuits now enter the building
through cables and are protected at
the point Of entrance by lightning
.arrcsters and fuses of the latest design.
All of the wires terminating at the
switchboard are Of 50-wire capacity.
and are so arranged that they can be
manipulated very quickly. There Is
another switchboard which controls the
different storage battery potentials, and
the change from discharge to charge
can be almost INSTANTANEOUS. The bat
teries are discharged continuously Tor
"a hours and are then charged for
about 9 hours. The plant is in du-
plicate SO there is always enough cur
rent in reserve to last for several
days.
There are 1853 storage batteries in the
office and a capacity capable OF sup
plying five times he amount Of cur
rent needed at the present time. Owing
to the rapid growth of the telegraph
business in Wilmington and the estim-
ated life Of the plant is from seven 10
eight years, it was thought best 10
make provision for this growth.
There is table space to accommodate
thirty operators and floor space for as
many more tables. Wilmington is in
direct multiplex communication with
the New York main office, cotton cx-
change, stock exchange and cabl office.
There is also multiplex connection with
Richmond and Washington, and & sim
gle trunk line to Charlotte and Angus
ia, and also local points.
New apparatus has been installed fer
distributing time all over the city and
the equipment of messenger call ser
vice is such that a high degree of ef-
ficiency is assured
During the past few days the messen-
ger boys speeding to all parts of b
city on bicycles have been noticed to
have on neat blue uniforms. When the
improvements were made in the office
the messenger boys were not forgotten.
Manager w. G.. Sale is justly proud
of the office as it is at the present
time. He is a most efficient man in the
position and always uses his every ef-
fort to give the best of service, and
with the new equipment he will be in
"a better position to give good service.