Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1883 — The World’s Telegraphs. [ARTICLE]

The World’s Telegraphs.

Morse’s telegraph was first publicly exliibite<l in 1&377 fTI ic^f;rst wire over which messages was sent, was stretched between Baltimore and Washington in 1844. On the 27th of May in that year the first message by telegraph, “What hath God wrought - ?” was transmitted from one city to the other. .Since then what an enormous growth has the business had 1 The figures are startling. During the business year 1881-82, the Western Union 'Telegraph Company alone had more than 130,000 miles of line, and almost 375,0(!0 miles of wire. It transmitted during that year elose upon 4 3'.1,000,000 messages. Including the rival companies, it is probably no exaggeration to say that ‘ theEwweie in thlsucouutry 150,000 miles of line, and 400,000 miles of wire, and that 50,000,000 messages were sent. This, however, includes the Canadian business, most of which is done by American companies. The statistics for Europe are still more stupendous. In 1881 there were, in all the countries of Europe, more than 290,000 miles of line, and 700,000 miles of wire. Over these were sent during a single year 112,000,000 messages. As might bekupposed, telegraph lines are more frequent, and the use of them more common, in Gred Britain than anywhere else. No less than 31,346,000 messages were sent over British lines in that year. The figures for the other continents are not so well known, but there are few countries in the world where the system has not a foothold At a rough estimate it may. be said that there are probably 550,000 miles of line in the . world, and 1,300,000 miles of telegraph wire, over which 175,000,000 messages are sent annually. These figures do not include any telephone lines. ? Nor do they include the submarine cables, more than 50,060 —miles’ ofwliivli are in operation. These cables connect all the continents. Shanghai, Melbourne, Havana. Bio de Janeiro, Cairo, New York, London and Paris, can each communicate with either of the otlifijs in a single day. We are, in fact, in almost instant communication with all the rest of the world, and the antipodes, once reached only after long and perilous voyages, •can now, as it were, hear the echo of what lias Happened the same day oh the otiter side of the globe. The telegraph wires in daily use would stretch around the globe at the equator nearly twenty-five times. And this vast system is extending at prodigious rate every day. A comparison of the original Morse telegraph with the most improved "System of to-day showS a wonderful ad-, vance. For “ one thing, a way has been found by which four separate messages

can be sent over the same wire at the same time. This seems quite as jincredible as the telegraph itself would have seemed to the men of the 1830. , By another invention a message to be sent may be copied in a peculiar way by .one operator, and then, by being put in | machine, can be sent over the wires at a speed as great as that of ordinary conversations. No limit can be set, either to the extensions of telegraph lines ot to the improvements which may yet be made. In a certain sense every intelligent operator is an electrician, who is daily learning somethihg about the agent electricity and the implements he uses. New inventions are frequent, and many of them prove highly useful. Who can say how common, how easy and how cheap,telegraphing may be to our grandchildren?-— Youth’s Companion. ..