Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1888 — CONVERSATION BY CABLE. [ARTICLE]

CONVERSATION BY CABLE.

Fresh Wonders of the Telegraph —Time and Space Annihilated. A London Editor Talks Over the Wires with His Correspondent in British Columbia. [Cable dispatch from London.] The Pall Mall which has been called the Ishmael of the London press, the more its editor is attacked, his motives impugned, or his newspaper lampooned, seems to increase what is often called its Americanesque enterprise. This evening’s . issue contains the following instance. It is headed, “Telegraphing Extraordinary— Interviewing by Cable Across the World.” The article begins: “An altogether unprecedented feat in telegraphy was performed last night when an interview took place by cable between our special commissioner, now at Vancouver, and the editor at the offices of the Commercial Cable Company. The arrangements in London were under G. H. Bainbridge, Superintendent of the Mackay-Bennett Company. Mr. Hosmer, manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway Telegraphs, and Mr. Ward, manager of the Commercial Cable Company, superintended on the other side. The origin of the interview was the desire of our special commissioner to afford the Old World a new and striking manifestarion of the extent to which time and space have been annihilated by the electric telegraph and cable. The exact distances traversed by the electric current conveying the messages are as follows by wire: London to Bristol, spur cable, 140 miles; by spur cable to Waterville, Ireland, 329; by cable from Waterville to Canso, Nova Scotia, 2,750; from Canso, New York, and Canadian Pacific Railway telegraph lines to Vancouver, 4,400, making a total 7,619 miles. Conversation was carried on, allowing for breaks produced by a storm that interrupted the wires, first between Ottawa and Montreal, then on west of Winnipeg, consecutively for three hours. The private messages on either side, of course, have been excised from this public record. This unequaled, interview by wire outstripped the sun by eight hours, it being 1 o’clock in the afternoon at Vancouver and 9 o’clock at night in London. The conversation began with a bonjour message from the Pacific upon the Vancouver morning, and in a few minutes only the salutation was returned from London. Next came, within six minutes’ time, the following from the Pacific side:

“There are with me the Mayor of Vancouver, G. Oppenheimer, editor of the Vancouver NewsAdvertiser, and Mr. Cotton, Superintendent of the Pacific Division of the Canadian Pacific Bailroad Telegraph. Mr. Wilson is at the key. “After half an hour of instructions between the editor and correspondent, the latter says: “See the Pacific as I write. In a few aays I shall start for a 4,C00-mile voyage on the English ship Parthia over another ocean, yet I am able to report myself to you and talk as quickly and easily as if we were speaking through the tube in Northumberland street at our office. “During the electric interview Manager Ward in New York told London: “The lines beyond Winnipeg have suddenly given out, but I expect them to be through in a few minutes. The weather was very severe in the north. The thermometer in New York last night was zero. It is now 10 deg. above. I hope the conversation has been satisfactory so far. “During the interview several Vancouverans took part in the electric conversation, thus: “The Mayor and corporation of the city of .Vancouver send greetings to the Pall Mall Gazette. They trust the visit of his commissioner may be beneficial to the Gazette, as it is certain to be profitable to Vancouver and British Columbia. D. Oppenheimer, Mayor. “To which London answered: “Thanks from the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette for the kindly greeting and hospitable welcome. « “The following came from Winnipeg: “Winnipeg, the center of the continent, sends greetings to the Pall Mall Gazette. It is zero here to-day, but we are not freezing to death aa in Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. No blizzards here. Good-night. “This was followed by: “Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette sends hearty thanks for the kind greetings ana congratulations of Winnipeg, her journalistic enterprise, and freedom from blizzards. “ There were established seven points for the current over the continent. There were repeaters at Donald, Winnipeg, Port Arthur, Carter, Montreal, Albany, and New York.” The Pall Mall Gazette adds these comments: “At Waterville, where the cable across the Atlantic connected with the shore, the messages were taken off by Sir W. Thomson’s recorder, which produces a delicate, wavy, penciled litre, utterly unintelligible to all but the initiated. The current on this side was generated by thirty cells, which transmitted messages from London to Waterville. On the American side the line was worked by a similar or greater number, while relays of an equal number of cells were established at seven points en route, the current used in each case having a range of about GOO miles. The current necessary to Cross the Atlantic was much feebler. A single cell will generate enough electricity to carry a message from the Old World to the New. This is owing to the much more perfect insulation of the cable. The messages from the special commissioner, therefore, were transmitted by Morse from New Westminster, read off at Canso, in Nova Scotia, and retransmitted to Waterville, where they were read off by an operator and retransmitted to London, where ' they were recorded on a Wheatstone receiver and read off at the same time by an ordinary sounder, the click of which was almost incessant.”