The Mena weekly star., 1909-03-11
TELEPHONE DIsPATCHING FAVORED
Railroad Men in Convention at St. Louis says 1t is Superior to Telegraph.

Railroad Men in Convention at St.
 Louis says 1t is Superior to Telegraph.
 That the tele ephone will, in the near future, supplant the tele- graph in the dispatching of trains was the prediction of promi- nent railroad men at meeting of the St. Louis Railway club in St. Louis the other night. The discussion followed the paper read by MT. w. E. Hardness, an expert telephone engineer of the of the Western Electric Company. whose able discourse on the superiority of the telephone for despatchiug purposes earned the hearty endorsement of tue thirty five members of the Western Division of superintendents of telegraph who attended the ton- vention, and also a number of operating officials of the Western railroads.
 To add zest to the meeting, and to enable MT. Hardness to demonstrate his talk, an arrange meut of despatching telephones and selective devices were erected iu the dining room of the hotel in which the meeting was held.
 Among those present who ap- proved of what MT. Hardness said were W. w. Rider. Superin- teudent of Telegraph of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; G. H. Groce ot the Illinois Gen. tral; c. c. Rhodes, Big Four; C. A. Cellar, Pennsylvania Lines; Millingtou, Michigan Central and E. H. Chenery of the Mis- souri Pacific.
 A number of roads, through practical operation have demou- strated the superiority of the telephone over the telegraph for despatchlug purposes, among these being the New York c h. tral & Hudson River; Lake Shore & Michigan Southern; Chicago & Northwestern; Michigan Gen. tral; Chicago Milwaukee & St Paul; Northern Paciffic; Della ware, Lackawauna X Western Great Northern; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; Union Pacific; Illinoss Central; Canadian Pacif- ic; Atchisou, Topeka & Santa Fe; Erie Railroad; Virginia Rail- way and Western & Seashore. 1 During the past year the adsp- tatiou of the telephone for des- | patching purposes has interested op rating officials of every rail- road in the country.
 The only important difference in operation between the new method and the old IS that orders are given by telephone instead of by telegraph, and stations are called selectively and distinctive ly in place of by telegraph code.
 Among the reasons put forth by the adherents of the.telephonic methods, for its superiority over the old methods, are that it great ly reduces both the mental and physical strain on the operators; that several stations can now be called in much less time than was required by the old way and that in issuing and reporting orders speed is increased 30 per cent, while at the same time, through | q careful system of checking, the | chances of an error are greatly re- duced. Again, when an error is discovered, it can be much more 1 quickly corrected by means of | this telephonie method than in the old manner of despatchiug.
 It is also claimed that the | amount saved by the telephonic | system through the prompt re- porting of delays, and the reduc- tion in the loss of time, will more | than offset the expense which the construction and maintenance of thls new system will cost.