Lives of the electricians

One person working a perforator can simultaneously punch duplicate messages, but only one strip of perforated paper can be put into the transmitter, which draws it forward with a continuous motion. Two small pins, one on each side, are underneath the strip of paper, and whenever one of these pins comes to a perforated hole it momentarily rises through it, and imparts sufficient electricity from the battery to the telegraph wire to move a pen at the other end of the wire, so as to make a mark in ink on a clean strip of paper passing through the receiving instrument. The ink marks thus produced in combinations represent letters of the alphabet, namely,

The receiver is thus a recording instrument so exact and sensitive that it mechanically and rapidly imprints on a strip of paper dots, dashes, and spaces, which, in a sense, correspond with the holes perforated in the tape passing through the transmitter, at the other end of the wire. When this apparatus was invented it was represented as capable of forwarding messages at the rate of 500 letters per minute, being five times faster than any other system then in use.

In 1868 the inventor stated that although for rapidity of transmission his automatic instrument had never been surpassed, he did not expect that the existing instruments would in all cases be given up for it. He believed it would be very useful on all “lines of great traffic,” and particularly on those lines over which newspaper intelligence is sent. In 1870 the telegraph lines of the United Kingdom were acquired by the Government—a step which Professor Wheatstone advocated as the best means of cheapening messages and extending the telegraph to places unapproached by the Telegraph Companies. Let us see how his expectations have been realised.

In 1872 Mr. Culley, the engineer-in-chief of the Telegraphic system of the United Kingdom, stated that in order to increase the number of messages which could be sent through the wires in a given time, a very large use had to be made of the Wheatstone automatic instrument, which was in use by the Electric Company before the transfer to the Government. There were only four circuits then; but in the two years following the transfer fifteen circuits were supplied with that apparatus. In addition to these automatic circuits for ordinary business, the Telegraph Department had also fitted up with that system what they called the Western News circuit running from London to Bristol, Gloucester, Cardiff, Newport, Exeter, and Plymouth, the news being then sent to all these places simultaneously, and at the rate of fifty to fifty-five words a minute. A very great improvement had also been effected, at considerable expense, in the single-needle instrument. A very large number of inventions had been brought before the Department, and it might have been hoped that very considerable advantage to the public would have arisen from the breaking up of the monopoly of the Companies and the private interests which almost all the officers had in perpetuating the form of some old instrument. But Mr. Culley had to report that not in any one instance had any apparatus or system of signalling of practical value been laid before him. One system only had been of such a nature as could possibly have any value, and he said that one would have required fully ten years to mature before it could be brought out.

Professor Wheatstone lived to see 140 of his automatic instruments in use. In 1872 he applied to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for a prolongation of his patent; and it being then stated that he had received £12,000 in 1870, when the transfer of the telegraphs took place, the Government agreed to pay him an additional sum of £9,200 in six yearly instalments as compensation for his patent rights.

In 1879 Mr. Preece, the electrician to the Post Office, said that the automatic transmitter “is an instrument of great delicacy and great power; it is now used to an enormous extent in this country, and it is one that we are improving every day. For instance, while about this time last year we were able to transmit all our news to Ireland at the rate of 60 words a minute, we are now doing it with ease at the rate of 150 words a minute; and with the improvements which we have now in hand, we shall be able next year to transmit nearly 200 words a minute.” This expectation was realised. Although experience suggested improvements in nearly every part of the apparatus, the leading principles remained the same. In 1885 Mr. Preece gave the following account of the successive stages of the progress made: it was capable of transmitting in 1877, 80 words per minute; in 1878, 100; in 1879, 130; in 1880, 170; in 1881, 190; in 1882, 200; in 1883, 250; in 1884, 350; in 1885, 420. It thus appears that if three men were speaking at the same time, one of Wheatstone’s automatic instruments could transmit the three speeches in the same time that they were spoken, the instrument transmitting three times as fast as one man could speak.

Towards the close of the first half century of the existence of the telegraph, the Wheatstone automatic transmitter achieved the great feat of transmitting 1,500,000 words from London on the night when Mr. Gladstone explained his plan for giving self-government to Ireland, On that occasion (April 8, 1886) one hundred Wheatstone’s perforators were used in the Central Telegraph Office in London to prepare the messages. Thirty of these perforators punched six slips at once, thirteen punched three slips at once, thirty-one punched two slips at once, and twenty-six punched single slips. The largest number of words previously transmitted in one night was 860,000; and to give some idea of what 1,500,000 words represent, it may be added that if an average quick speaker like Mr. Gladstone were to speak without any stoppage for a week, night and day, that would just be about the number of words that he would utter, or that another person could read aloud.