The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1909-07-03

+ telegraph. created
new railroad OPP
Grating department, that of train dis
patcher, and appointed Douglas as the
head of the department.
Douglas was the last of the tele-
graph operators who learned the busl-
ness on the pioneer lines constructed
by Ezra Cornell 60 years ago. Hav-
ing learned the printers trade in An
gelica, n. Y, he started out to seek
work elsewhere. He found it in the
office of the Recorder at Dundee. n.
Y. This was in 1S49. Cornell had
recently extended his telegraph line
through that part of the state and
had established an Office in the print
ing shop at Dundee. Douglas learned
to operate the Morse instrument In
1S51-the Erie telegraph line having
been put in oeration, with headQuar-
tiers at Elmira-Douglas, then 10. APP
piled for a place as operator and got
charge of the Erie Office at Addison,
n. Y. Soon afterward the telegraphic
system of running trains was adopt
ed by Minot.
The Morse alphabet characters
were in those early days of telegraph
ing perforated on a tape as the mes
sage came to an operator which un-
wound from a reel, and the operator
| copied the message from the tape as
it unwound. Douglas had not been
| long in the service when he discov-
cred that he could translate the mes
sages by sound, and he ignored the
tape thereafter. One day a conduc-
tor was waiting at Addison for train
orders and he discovered that Doug
las was paying no attention to the dots
and dashes on the tape.
The conductor refused to accept the
order until Douglas had copied it in
his presence from the tape. Although
it corresponded exactly with the mes
sage the operator had taken by sound,
the conductor reported the unheard
of act to telegraph headquarters.
Douglas was called there for repri-
mand. but he gave to the superintend-
ent. who was the late L. o. Tillotson
of New York. such convincing exhibit
ton of his ability to take messages
correctly by sound that he was pro-
NOTED to the general Office. Although
the tape attachment to telegraph in
struments was not abandoned for
years. from that innovation of Doug
las in railroad telegraphy dated the
beginning of the taking of messages
by sound as a requisite of all opera
tors.
No other railroad had yet adopted
the telegraph system of train running
orders and none adopted it for sew.
eral years, the Delaware & Lacka
wanna being the second railroad to
establish it as part of its regular op
Grating system in 1856. The men wins
dispatched trains ON the Erie were
their own operators and no Genital
head had knowledge of the position
of trains anywhere ON the road. The
danger of this arrangement appealed
to Superintendent Minot, and wher
the ability of young Douglas came t.
his knowledge he made him chief dis
patcher of the Delaware division an6
subsequently originated and estab
lished the department of train dis
patching and made Douglas its head
Douglas thus became the first trail
dispatcher in the world.
Douglas rose to be superintendent
of the Delaware division of the Erie
succeeding Hugh Riddle, who succeed
ed Minot as general superintendent il
1869. Douglas and Riddle resigne,
after a quarrel with Jay Gould.
Riddle went west, entered the sery
ice of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pa
cific. and rose to be president of tina
company. Douglas subsequently, be
came general manager of the South
side railroad of Long Island, and late
general superintendent of the Ne,
) York & Oswego Midland, now tn
New York Ontario & Western. Whe
the late Vice-President Carrot A. He
hart was made receiver of the Ne,
York & Greenwood Lake railroad h
appointed Douglas superintendent G
the road. from which place he RI
signed to become part owner and gel
eral manager of the New York & Sc
Beach railroad and the Sea Beach Pa
ace. one of the pioneer show place
and hotels on Coney Island. Whe
those interests were absorbed by oil
ers Douglas became manager of th
Erie Express Company. which was af
erward purchased by the Wells, Fa
go Company. Since then Douglas ha
been engaged in general railroa
work.