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 POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS.
 
 POSTS & TELEGRAPHS, 
 
 PAST AND PRESENT: 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE TELEPHONE, 
 AND PHONOGRAPH. 
 
 " Ou/r English Post-Office is a splendid triumph 
 
 of civilization." — Loed Macahlat. 
 " Const thou send lightnings, that they mat/ 
 
 go, and say unto thee, Here we are?" — 
 
 Job xxxviii. 35. 
 •• Thou hringeat certain strange things to ouir 
 
 ears." — Acts xvii. 20. 
 
 By WILLIAM TEGG, F.R.H.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 ' Meetings and Greetings," " One Hour's Reading," " The Knot Tied," 
 &c., &c., &c. 
 
 LONDON : 
 WILLIAM TEGG & CO., PANCRAS LANE, CHEAPSIDE. 
 
 1878.
 
 HB 
 
 t 
 
 THIS WORK 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, 
 
 SECRETARY 
 
 TO THE GENERAL POST OFFICE, 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 BY WILLIAM TEGG, F.R.H.S. 
 
 tr" f^ <r> <r^ O <~^
 
 '^ ■■ " ■■ " " ■■ ■■ ' " '^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 mm 
 
 LL must admit that the long-sighted views 
 of Rowland Hill, when, in 1839, ^^ projected 
 
 the idea of an universal penny postal system, have 
 now been more than fully realized. Previous to that 
 time, the cost of conveying a letter from one part of the 
 United Kingdom to another was greater than the majority 
 of the common people could bear. Rowland Hill, with an 
 innate practical knowledge of what was required by the 
 general public, proposed an universal rate of a penny 
 postage. The idea propounded by Mr. Hill was at first
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 repudiated by the public generally as chimerical ; but, 
 after the strongest opposition had been met with and over- 
 come, what was the result ? That the poorest persons 
 in any part of the world may communicate with their 
 friends and relations at a cost which affects their means 
 only in the very slightest degree. 
 
 In the present work, I have attempted to throw together 
 a few paragraphs relating to the early and recent history 
 of the Post-office. The information has been derived 
 from the best and most recent authorities, and may be 
 confidently relied upon. 
 
 Following the advantage of the penny postal system 
 of 1840, there came a greater one. The Telegraphic 
 System of the Nation is well known, but how very few 
 people know how it came about! Well, it came about 
 in this way. When the Electric and Magnetic Telegraphic 
 Intercommunication were in the hands of private companies
 
 PREFACE. Xi 
 
 the traffic was small, the expenses large, and the profits 
 infinitesimal. 
 
 The shareholders of the Telegraph Companies were there- 
 fore glad to hail a proposal made in 1854 by Mr. Allen, that 
 the Nation should acquire the telegraphs of the country at 
 a fair assessment of their estimated value. 
 
 Two years afterwards, Mr. Baines, who was then of the 
 Post-office, advocated the same idea. In 1861, Mr. Ricardo, 
 who was at that time Chairman of the Electric and Inter- 
 national Telegraph Company, proposed that the Government 
 should acquire the telegraphic system of the country. 
 
 The suggestion recommended itself to the public, and a 
 general agitation ensued. The result of this movement was, 
 that in 1 865 the Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh, under 
 the Presidency of Mr. George Harrison, an eminently public- 
 spirited gentleman of that great city, brought the matter 
 before Government in a tangible and vigorous manner,
 
 XU PREFACE. 
 
 and the support of the views then advocated, by other 
 pubHc bodies, finally conduced to the success of the system 
 as it at present exists. 
 
 This work . would not be complete without an account 
 of the Telephone. I have therefore placed before the reader 
 the most recent information on this most important discovery, 
 and also append a description of the Phonograph or Phon- 
 autograph. 
 
 WILLIAM TEGG, F.R.H.S. 
 
 1878.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Post among the Ancients 1 
 
 Passages in the Bible in which the 
 
 word "Letter" is mentioned 4 
 
 Passages in the Bible in which the 
 
 word "Letters" is mentioned 6 
 
 Passages in the Apocrypha in which 
 
 the word " Letters" ia mentioned 8 
 Early History of the Post on the 
 
 Continent and in Great Britain ... 8 
 
 Post-Office Proclamation 16 
 
 „ TimeBiU 17 
 
 The Penny Post of 1683 21 
 
 EstabUshment of Cross Posts 25 
 
 Waggons, Stage Coaches, and Mail 
 
 Coaches 27 
 
 Annual Procession of Mail Coaches 35 
 
 The Post in Ireland 37 
 
 The Scottish Penny Post 39 
 
 Letter Franking 40 
 
 The Ancient Superscription of 
 
 Letters 43 
 
 Origin of Ship Letters 44 
 
 Instructions to Captains in the 
 
 Packet Service 45 
 
 The First General Post-Offices 45 
 
 Opening of the General Post-Office, 
 
 St. Martin's-le-Grand 47 
 
 The New General Post-Offlca 49 
 
 Page 
 The Circulation Department at 
 
 Work .54 
 
 The Travelling Post-Offlce 58 
 
 Dead Letters 61 
 
 "The Blind Man" «2 
 
 Opening Letters at the Post-Office... 66 
 
 The Secret Office 67 
 
 The Mail Packet Service 71 
 
 The Overland Eoute to India 75 
 
 The Penny Post of 1840 77 
 
 Packets by Post 88 
 
 Establishment of District Post- 
 Offices 86 
 
 Postal Rates and Regulations (8^ 
 
 Introduction of Post Cards 93 
 
 Newspaper Post 94 
 
 Book Post 97 
 
 Colonial and Foreign Book Post ... 98 
 Colonial and Foreign Pattern and 
 
 Sample Post 98 
 
 Indian Parcel Post 98 
 
 Introduction of Postage Stamps and 
 
 Envelopes leo 
 
 Postage Stamps Exchanged for 
 
 Money 103 
 
 Town Deliveries of Letters Iwt 
 
 Suburban Deliveries of Letters 104 
 
 Registration, InUnd and Foreign ... 105
 
 Page 
 
 Pillar Boxes 108 
 
 The General Postal Union 108 
 
 Enclosures in Newspapers 109 
 
 The Tost-Office Library Ill 
 
 Curious Postal Statistics 112 
 
 Is the School Board an Unnecessary 
 Institution? 114 
 
 Page 
 
 Post-OfiQce Despatch 117 
 
 Poetry of Post Office Life 118 
 
 The Money-Order Offlco 122 
 
 Post-office Savings Banks 129 
 
 Post-Office Savings Banks, Life 
 
 Afisurance, and Annuities 134 
 
 A Pneumatic Post 136 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Page 
 Telegraphy among the Ancients ... 143 
 
 Semaphores 144 
 
 The Telegraph Prophesied 145 
 
 General Description of Electric Tele- 
 graphs for Land and Sea 149 
 
 Telegraph Cables — their Mainte- 
 nance and Durability 152 
 
 Telegraph Instruments IGO 
 
 The Early Days of Telegraphy 164 
 
 Telegraphic Progress 170 
 
 Tawell and the Telegraph 182 
 
 The Development of Telegraphy ... 187 
 
 The First Telegraph 188 
 
 The Telegraph and the Thieves 191 
 
 The First Submarine Telegraphs ... 193 
 
 The First Atlantic Telegraph 198 
 
 Acquisition of the Telegraphs by 
 
 the Post-Office Authorities 204 
 
 Telegraphic Press News 218 
 
 Difficulties in the Way 221 
 
 Private Telegraphs 230 
 
 Page 
 
 Post-Office Telegraphs 238 
 
 Eeuter's Telegrams 238 
 
 Inside a Telegraph Office 242 
 
 Ciphering in Telegraphy 244 
 
 Telegraphic Errors 245 
 
 Varieties of Telegraphic Messages . 248 
 Catastrophes averted by the Tele- 
 graph 249 
 
 A Novel Meeting and a Good Sug- 
 gestion 251 
 
 Persons Unqualified for Telegraphy 254 
 Mr. Bennett's Employment of the 
 
 Telegraph 256 
 
 Brevity in Telegraphic Despatches . 257 
 
 An Improved Speech 259 
 
 Reading Telegraph Signals by Sound 260 
 
 Telegraphy in Europe in 1875 2G1 
 
 Germany's Share in the Develop- 
 ment of the Telegraph 265 
 
 Bather Awkward 263
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART IIL 
 
 Page 
 Public Interest in the Telephone ... 271 
 
 What is the Telephone? 273 
 
 The Antecedents of the Telephone... 274 
 
 Natural Magnetism Tih 
 
 Electro-Magnetism 276 
 
 Electricity and Magnetism 277 
 
 Early Applications of Electro-Mag- 
 netism 278 
 
 The Telegraph and the Telephone... 279 
 
 Sound 282 
 
 Hehnholtz's Experiments 286 
 
 Sir Charles Wheatstone and the 
 
 Telephone 288 
 
 First Experiments before Queen 
 Victoria 290 
 
 Pag« 
 
 The First Telephone 292 
 
 Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone 204 
 Sir William Thomson's Report, &c. 295 
 Professor Bell's Study of Speech ... 297 
 The Conception of the Telephone ... 300 
 The Second Form of Bell's Ap- 
 paratus 302 
 
 Public Exhibition of a Telephone... 305 
 
 The Power of the Telephone 306 
 
 Experiments before the Queenin 1878 308 
 
 The Phonograph 311 
 
 Mr. Edison's new Phonograph 316 
 
 The Telephone at home and abroad 317 
 The Future of the Telephone and 
 Phonograph 318
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 THE POST AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 The establishment of runners for the purpose of con- 
 veying letters of State, was originated in the East long 
 before the Christian era. Herodotus mentions that, 
 amongst the ancient Persians, stations were appointed 
 at intervals along the great roads of the empire; where 
 couriers were constantly kept in readiness to bear 
 despatches.* Similar provision was made in the 
 Roman empire in the time of Augustus, according to 
 Suetonius, and probably existed at an earlier period. 
 It is from the Latin word positns (a fixed place) that 
 our word post is derived. Amongst the Romans, how- 
 ever, the use of the post was entirely confined to the 
 purposes of the State. 
 
 * Cyrus, when engaged in the Scythian Expedition, caused it to be 
 tried how far horses could go in a day without baiting, and at that 
 distance along his route, appointed stages and men to keep horses in 
 constant readiness.
 
 J! TIJE POST OFFICE. 
 
 The earliest mention of the "post" in the Bible, is" 
 in 2 Chronicles xxx. when Hezekiah wrote letters 
 to all Israel and Judah to keep the Passover. In 
 verse 6 we read : — " So the />osts went with the letters 
 from the king and his princes throughout all Israel 
 ■and Judah." The word translated "posts" signifies 
 '"runners," that is, men specially trained and kept to 
 Klclivcr despatches speedily by running. In the Book 
 of Job, ix. 25, the patriarch is represented as com- 
 paring the brief tenure of his life to the celerity of 
 these runners : — " Now my days are swifter than a 
 post." Particular mention is made of these posts in 
 the Book of Esther. Haman having obtained the 
 authority of King Ahasuerus, the king's scribes wrote 
 to the " king's lieutenants, and to the governors that 
 'Were over every province, and to the rulers of every 
 ■ people of every province, according to the writing 
 I thereof, and to every people after their language : 
 i.in the name of King Ahasuerus Avas it written, 
 iiand sealed with the king's ring. And the letters 
 \Tccre sent by posts into all the king's provinces, 
 todie*troy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, 
 .both young and old, little children and women, in 
 foiae-day." And "the posts went out, being hastened 
 Iby the king's commandment" (Esther iii. 12 — 15). 
 .Eleven months intei-vened between the date of the 
 decree and the day of execution ; a proof of the slow- 
 r-ess of conveyance in those days, as well as of the
 
 THE POST AJIONG THE ANCIENTS. 3 
 
 ■great extent of the empire of the Medes and Persians. 
 "When Haman's evil design was discovered by Mor- 
 decai, he obtained the king's permission (through the 
 influence of Queen Esther) to send letters in the 
 king's name, to the Jews, and the governors of the 
 provinces, from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and 
 twenty-seven in number, giving permission to the 
 Jews to stand for their lives and to slay their enemies; 
 and these letters were sent by "posts on horseback, 
 and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries." 
 The posts were also hastened and pressed on by the 
 king's commandment (Esther viii. 9 — 14). 
 
 In the fearful picture drawn by the prophet Jere- 
 miah of the predicted fall of Babylon, he alludes to 
 the terrible message sent to the king, and the manner 
 of its delivery : — " One post shall run to meet another, 
 and one messenger to meet another, to show the king 
 of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that 
 the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have 
 burned with fire, and the men of war are afrighted " 
 (Jer. li. 31, 32). 
 
 The post is not alluded to in the New Testament, 
 but the Grecian games afforded to the inspired 
 writers much more striking images of swiftness. 
 
 There is one reference to it in the Apociypha, 
 Wisdom v, 9 : " Passed away as a" post that hasted 
 by." 
 
 Letters are frequently mentioned in the Bible, as
 
 4 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 may be seen from the following list of the various 
 passages in which the word occurs either in the 
 singular or plural : — 
 
 PASSAGES IN THE BIBLE IN WHICH THE WORD 
 " LETTER " IS MENTIONED. 
 
 2 Sam. xi. 14. David wrote a letter to Joab. 
 
 2 Kings V. 5. I will send a letter to the king of 
 
 Israel. 
 2 Kings V. 6. Now when this letter is come unto 
 
 thee. 
 2 Kings X. 2. Now as soon as this letter cometh 
 
 to you. 
 2 Kings X. 6, 7. Then he wrote a letter. 
 
 T . , ^ ' ' .*. !- Hezekiah received the letter. 
 Isaiahxxxvn.14. ) 
 
 Ezra iv. 7. The letter was written in the Syrian 
 
 tongue. 
 Ezraiv. 8,17,18,23. Rehum the chancellor, and Shim- 
 
 shai the scribe, wrote a letter 
 
 against Jerusalem. 
 Ezra V. 6. The copy of the letter that Tatnai 
 
 .... sent unto Darius. 
 Ezra V. 7. They sent a letter unto him. 
 
 Ezra vii. ii. Now this is the copy of the letter. 
 
 Neh, ii. 8. A letter unto Asaph, the keeper of 
 
 the king's forest.
 
 THE POST AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 5 
 
 Neh. VI*. 5. Then sent Sanballat his servant 
 
 unto me .... with an open letter 
 
 in his hand. 
 Esther ix. 29. Wrote to confirm this second letter 
 
 of Purim. 
 Jer. xxix. I. Now these are the words of the 
 
 letter that Jeremiah the prophet 
 
 sent. 
 Jer. xxix. 29. Zephaniah the priest read this letter 
 
 in the ears of Jeremiah. 
 Acts xxiii. 25. And he (Claudius Lysias) wrote a 
 
 letter (to Felix) after this manner- 
 Acts xxiii. 34. When the governor had read the 
 
 letter, he asked of what province 
 
 he (Paul) was. 
 2 Cor. vii. 8. For though I made you sorry with 
 
 a letter. 
 Gal. vi. 1 1. Ye see how large a letter I have 
 
 written unto you. 
 2 Thess. ii. 2. Be not soon shaken in mind .... 
 
 neither by spirit, nor by word, 
 
 nor by letter. 
 Heb. xiii. 22. For I have written a letter unto you 
 
 in few words. 
 
 In the Apocrypha. 
 
 Esther xvi. 19. Copy of this letter in all places. 
 
 2 Maccabees ix. 18. The letter underwritten.
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 PASSAGES IX THE BIBLE IN WHICH THE WORD' 
 " LETTERS " IS MENTIONED. 
 
 1 Kings xxi. 8, g. Jezebel wrote letters in Aliab's- 
 
 name. 
 
 2 Kings X. I. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to 
 
 Samaria. 
 2 Kings XX. 12. The King of Babylon sent letters to 
 
 Hezekiah. 
 2 Chron. xxx. i. Hezekiah wrote letters also to 
 
 Ephraim and Manasseh. 
 2 Chron. xxx. 6. So the posts went with the letters 
 
 from the king. 
 2 Chron. xxxii. 17. Sennacherib wrote letters to rail on 
 
 the God of Israel. 
 Neh. ii. 7. Let letters be given me to the 
 
 governors beyond the river. 
 Neh. ii. 9. And gave them the king's letters. 
 
 Nch. vi. 17. The nobles of Judah sent many 
 
 letters to Tobiah, and the letters 
 
 of Tobiah came unto them. 
 Nch. vi. 19. And Tobiah sent letters to put me 
 
 in fear. 
 Esther i. 22. For he (Ahasuerus) sent letters into- 
 
 all the king's provinces. 
 Esther iii. 13. The letters were sent by posts into 
 
 all the king's provinces.
 
 THE POST AMOXG THE ANCIENTS. ' J, 
 
 Esther viii. 5. To reverse the letters devised by: 
 
 Haman to destroy the Jews. 
 
 Esther viii. 10. And sent letters by posts on horse- 
 back. 
 
 Esther ix. 25. He (the king) commanded b\^ 
 
 letters. 
 
 Esther ix. 20 & 30. Mordecai sent letters to all the 
 Jews. 
 
 Jer. xxix. 25. Because thou hast sent letters in thy 
 
 name. 
 
 Acts ix. 2. And desired of him (the high priest), 
 
 letters to Damascus. 
 
 Acts XV. 23. And they (the apostles) wrote- 
 
 letters . . . after this manner. 
 
 Acts xxii. 5- From whom also I received letters. 
 
 unto the brethren. 
 
 Acts xxviii. 2i. We neither received letters out of 
 Judaea. 
 
 1 Cor. xvi. 3, Whomsoever ye shall approve by 
 
 your letters. 
 
 2 Cor. iii. I. Or need we letters of commen- 
 
 dation from you .'' 
 2 Cor. X. 9. That I may not seem as if I wouldl 
 
 terrify you by letters. 
 2 Cor. X. 10. For his letters, say they, are weighty 
 
 and powerful. 
 2 Cor. X. II. Such as we are in word by letters- 
 
 when we are absent.
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 I Maccabees xii. 2 
 
 I Maccabees xii. 
 
 5- 
 
 I Maccabees xii. 
 
 7- 
 
 I Maccabees xii. 
 
 8. 
 
 I Maccabees xii. 
 
 17 
 
 I Maccabees xii. 
 
 19 
 
 I Maccabees xiv. 20. 
 
 1 Maccabees xv. 
 
 2 Maccabees xi. 
 
 Jjt the Apocrypha. 
 
 He (Jonathan) sent letters to 
 the Lacedaemonians. 
 
 This is the copy of the letters. 
 
 There were letters sent in time 
 past. 
 
 And received the letters. 
 
 To deliver you our letters. 
 
 And this is the copy of the 
 letters. 
 
 And this is the copy of the 
 letters that the Lacedaemo- 
 nians sent. 
 
 Moreover Antiochus son of De- 
 metrius the king sent letters. 
 
 For there were letters written 
 unto the Jews. 
 
 16, 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE POST 
 ON THE CONTINENT AND IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 The post was first organized in Europe by Charle- 
 magne in 807, but it fell into disuse at his death. In 
 the latter half of the fifteenth century, however, it was 
 revived by Louis XL, who established a body of 230 
 couriers for State purposes. 
 
 The first letter-post seems to have been established
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE POST. ' 9 
 
 in the Hanse towns in the early part of the thirteenth 
 century. A hne of such posts, connecting Austria 
 with Lombardy, followed in the reign of the Emperor 
 Maximilian. They were organized by the Princes of 
 Thurn and Taxis, who also established another line 
 from Vienna to Brussels. These princes (says Lewin 
 in " Her Majesty's Mails ") " have always held pe- 
 culiar rights and privileges in relation to the postal 
 systems of Germany, and, up to this date (1864), their 
 posts are entirely distinct from the existing Crown 
 establishments, and, in fact, maintained in rivalry to 
 some of the German States." This has ceased since 
 the consolidation of the German Empire. 
 
 In the Wardrobe Accounts of the Kings of England, 
 entries of payments to royal messengers for the con- 
 veyance of letters to various parts have been found 
 as far back as the middle of the thirteenth century. 
 In the supervision of these royal messengers may be 
 traced the origin of our Postmasters-General. 
 
 The first person appointed to this duty was Sir 
 Brian Tuke, who is described in the records as " Ma- 
 gister Nunciorum Cursorum sive Postarum." Secre- 
 tary Thomas Cromwell wrote to him in August, 1533, 
 complaining of " great default in conveyance of 
 letters," and signifying the king's pleasure "that posts 
 be better appointed." The worthy functionary, in 
 reply, states that : — 
 
 ** The Kinge's Grace hath no moo ordinary postes,
 
 ip THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 ne of many days hathe had, but betwene London and 
 Calais, . . . For, sir, ye knowe well that, except 
 the hackney horses betwene Gravesende and Dovour, 
 there is no suche usual conveyance in post for men in 
 this rcalme as in the accustomed places of France 
 and other parties ; ne men can keepe horses in redy- 
 nes withoute some way to bere the charges ; but when 
 placardes be sent for suche cause (to order the imme- 
 diate forwarding of some State packet) the constables 
 many tyvies be fayne to take horses oiite of plow es and 
 cartes, zvhcrein can be no extreme diligence^ 
 
 We should think not. Master Tuke. The worthy 
 postmaster further shows how simple and rude were 
 the arrangements of that day, by detailing the manner 
 in which the royal letters were conveyed in what we 
 should have considered to be one of their most 
 important stages : — 
 
 " As to postes betwene London and the courte,. 
 there be nowe but two ; wherof the one is a good 
 robust felowe, and was wont to be diligent, evil in- 
 treated many tymes, he and other postes, by the her- 
 bigeours,* for lack of horse rome or horse mete, with- 
 oute which diligence cannot be. The other hath been 
 the most payneful felowe, in nyght and daye, that I 
 have knowen amongst the messengers. If he nowe- 
 slak he shal be changed, as reason is." 
 
 In 1545 Sir Brian Tuke was succeeded by Sir 
 
 * Chaucer, Herberjoiirs, providers of lodgings, innkeepers.
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE POST. IT 
 
 William Paget and John Mason. Esq., as joint Post- 
 masters-General, the grant of office being under the 
 same designation as their predecessors. They were 
 to receive as wages £66 13s. 4d. a year, besides their 
 expenses. Money, however, was then worth twelve 
 times as much as now. 
 
 In the library of the Society of Antiquaries is a 
 proclamation of Philip and Mary, without date, but 
 probably issued in 1555, regulating the supply of 
 horses for the conveyance of letters to Dover. 
 
 Soon after the arrival of the Flemings in this 
 country, they established a post of their own between 
 London and the Continent, appointing one of their 
 body postmaster. "Afterwards," says Stowe, "by 
 long custom they pretended a right to appoint a 
 master of the Strangers' Post, and that they were in 
 possession of it from the year 15 14." They retained 
 the privilege till 1558, when the foreign merchants 
 fell out about the appointment. The P^lemings, aided 
 by the Spanish Ambassador, chose one Raphael van 
 den Putte, and the Italians one of their own body- 
 The case was referred to the English Council, when 
 the right of appointment to the office by foreigners 
 was disputed by the English merchants, who asserted, 
 in their petitions to the Privy Council, "that the post- 
 master's place was one of great trust and credit in 
 every realm, and therefore should be committed to the 
 charge of the national subjects, and not to strangers."'
 
 12 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 They also complained of the "strangers" keeping 
 back letters to gain advantage in the markets. In 1581 
 it was finally settled that the master of the post should 
 have the charge of both the English and foreign 
 offices, and that the title should be changed to Chief- 
 Postmaster. The first who bore this title was Thomas 
 Randolph, who succeeded Sir John Mason in 1567, 
 
 Thomas Randolph was followed by Sir J. Stanhope 
 in 1591, in which year a royal proclamation was issued 
 for " redress of disorders in postes which convey and 
 bring to, and out of, the parts beyond seas, packets of 
 letters .... particularly to prevent the incon- 
 venience both to our service and the lawfull trade of 
 honest merchants, by prohibiting that no persons 
 whatsoever should take upon them publicly or pri- 
 vately to procure, bring to, or carry out any packets 
 or letters to or from the countries beyond the seas, 
 except such our ordinary posts and messengers for 
 these parts, as either by our master of the posts, or 
 the masters of the posts-general of those countries 
 reciprocally, should be found nominated for that kind 
 of service." Prohibition is renewed in more stringent 
 terms, and command given to all mayors, sheriffs, 
 justices, officers of Customs and of the posts, "to 
 make diligent search of all mails, budgets, and other 
 carriages of all such disavowed carriers, messengers, 
 or suspected persons ; and all such so discovered to 
 apprehend and stay." Before the accession of James I.
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOST. IJ 
 
 some of the Scotch towns appointed special mes- 
 sengers to convey despatches to and from Court. 
 One was appointed in Aberdeen in 1590, called the 
 Council Post, dressed in blue cloth, embroidered with 
 the town arms. 
 
 In 1603 royal orders were issued regulating the 
 supply of horses "to all riding in post," authorizing 
 the owners to charge 2|d. per mile for the hire of each 
 horse of all such as ride on public affairs, besides the 
 guide's groats. Each post officer was directed to keep 
 three horses expressly for the conveyance of govern- 
 ment letters, and such letters were to be forwarded 
 within a quarter of an hour of their receipt, and to 
 travel at the rate of not less than seven miles an hour 
 in summer, and five in winter. 
 
 It was in 1619 that the new office of Postmaster- 
 General of England, for foreign parts, was created by 
 letters patent. Rushworth says (vol. ii. p. 145), 
 "James I. constituted the office of the Postmaster of 
 England for foreign parts, who should have the sole 
 taking up, sending and conveying of all letters into 
 those parts, with power to take moderate salaries ; 
 and did appoint, first, Matthew de Ouester to execute 
 that employment ; afterwards William Frizel and 
 Thomas Witherings and their deputies, to do all 
 things appertaining to the same. The merchants of 
 the English nation praying his then Majesty to 
 continue them in that office ; his most excellent
 
 4 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 Majesty that now is (1632), affecting the welfare of his 
 people, and considering how much it imports his 
 state and this realm, that the secrets thereof be not 
 disclosed to foreign nations by a promiscuous use or 
 taking up of foreign letters, was pleased to appropriate 
 the said office to Frizel and Withering, aforesaid, with 
 prohibition to all others to intermeddle therewith." 
 
 The year 1635 is memorable as the date of the first 
 establishment of a regular, though limited, system of 
 internal postage. Up to this time, observed Charles I., 
 in a proclamation, on the subject, there had been no 
 certain intercourse between the kingdoms of England 
 and Scotland ; wherefore he now commands his post- 
 master of England for foreign parts, to settle a 
 running post or tw^o, to run night and day between 
 Edinburgh and London, to go thither and come back 
 again in six days ; and to take with them all such 
 letters as shall be directed to any post town in or near 
 that road. Bye-posts are, at the same time, ordered 
 to be established ; and it is promised that as soon as 
 possible the like conveyances should be settled for the 
 Oxford and Bristol road, and also for that leading 
 through Colchester and Norwich. The rates of 
 postage are fixed at 2d. the single letter for any 
 distance under 80 miles ; 46. up to 140 miles ; 6d. for 
 any longer distance, and 8d. to any place in Scotland. 
 It is ordered that no other messengers nor foot posts 
 shall carry any letters, but those alone which shall be
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE POST. 15 
 
 employed by the King's Postmaster-General, unless 
 to places to which the King's posts do not go, with 
 the exception of common carriers, or messengers par- 
 ticularly sent on purpose, or persons carrying a letter 
 for a friend. The mode of conveyance contemplated 
 in this scheme was by persons riding on horseback, 
 which continued to be the general post system until 
 the introduction of mail coaches in 1784. The pro- 
 clamation directs that 2|d. per mile shall be paid 
 on the roads to the several postmasters for every 
 single horse carrying the letters. If this post actually 
 performed thedistancebetween London and Edinburgh 
 in three days, it was quicker than the conveyance of 
 letters a century later, which, according to Giles Jacob, 
 in his "Law Dictionary," second edition, published in 
 1732, then extended to every considerable market 
 town, " and is so expeditious that every twenty-four 
 hours the post goes sixty miles." It is believed, 
 however,- that the rate appointed in Charles's proclama- 
 tion (which was about 140 miles in the twenty-four 
 hours) was never accomplished. 
 
 Witherings (who was both inland and foreign Post- 
 master) was superseded, in 1640, for abuses in the 
 execution of both his offices ; and they were se- 
 questered into the hands of Philip Burlamachy, to be 
 exercised henceforth under the care and sight of the 
 King's principal Secretary of State. Prideaux, who 
 was appointed in 1644, was a very able Postmaster,
 
 1 6 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 and established, says Blackstone, "a weekly con- 
 ve}'ance of letters to all parts of the country, thereby 
 saving to the public the charge of maintaining post- 
 masters, to the amount of £'j,ooo per annum." In 1649 
 the revenue amounted to;^5,ooo. Farmingcommenced 
 the following year, and continued, as regards some of 
 the bye-posts, to the end of the last century. The 
 revenue was at first farmed for ;^5,ooo.* 
 
 The Corporation of London, in 1649, started an 
 inland post in opposition to that of Parliament, but it 
 was soon afterwards suppressed by the Council of State. 
 
 The old records of the Masters of the Posts show the 
 posting arrangements which, in many respects, lasted 
 till the introduction of Railways : — 
 
 Route from London to Berwick in Queen Eliza- 
 beth's time. I. London. 2. Waltham. 3. Ware. 
 4. Royston. 5. Caxton. 6. Huntingdon. 7. Stilton, 
 8. Stainford. 9. Grantham. 10. Newark. 11. 
 Tookesford (Tuxford). 12. Foroby (Ferriby). 13. 
 Doncaster. 14. Ferry Bridge. 
 
 Letters, even as early as Edward IL's time, had the 
 words, " Haste, Post Haste ! " written on the backs. 
 Stowe gives the following copy of a Post Office Pro- 
 clamation to the various Postmasters : — 
 
 " Whereas the management of the post of the letters- 
 of Great Britain and Ireland is committed to our care 
 
 * In 1663 it was farmed for ;^2i,500 to Daniel O'Neal, and in 1674 
 to Sir William Petty for ;^43;000.
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE POST. 
 
 17 
 
 ^nd conduct ; these are therefore in His Majesty's 
 name to require you in your respective stages to use 
 all diligence and expedition in the safe and speedy 
 conveyance of this mail and letters : that you ride 
 five miles in an hour, according to your articles, from 
 London to East Grinstead, and from thence to return 
 accordingly. And hereof you are not to fail, as you 
 will answer the contrary at your perils. 
 
 (Signed) "Cornwallis. Jas. Craggs." 
 
 Time Bill. 
 ^* To the several Postmasters between London 
 East Grinstead. 
 
 "Haste, Haste, Post Haste! 
 
 and 
 
 MILES. 
 "16 
 
 "8 
 
 "16 
 
 " From the London Office at Half-an-hour 
 past Two in the Morning, July 17, 17 19. 
 Received at Epsom Half-an-hour past Six, 
 and sent away Three-quarters past. 
 
 Alexander Findlater. 
 Received at Dorking Half-an-hour after 
 Eight, and sent away at Nine. 
 
 Chas. Castleman. 
 Received at Rygate Half-an-hour past Ten, 
 and sent away again at Eleven. 
 
 Jno. Bullock. 
 Received at East Grinstead at Half-an- 
 hour after Three in the Afternoon."
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 This was a quicker rate than in use in other parts 
 of the country, as the post-boys were usually only 
 required to go at the rate of three miles an hour. 
 
 The post-boys in the "good old times" appear to 
 have been a very disorderly, loitering set of fellows. 
 The surveyors complained that " the gentry doe give 
 much money to the riders, whereby they be very sub- 
 ject to get in liquor, which stopes the mails." 
 
 Harley (Earl of Oxford) remonstrated with the 
 authorities on the delay in an express sent to him, 
 but the Postmaster-General replied that he had no 
 ground for complaint, as it had travelled 136 miles in 
 thirty-six hours (less than four miles an hour) which, 
 he added, " is the usual rate of expresses ! " 
 
 Campbell, in his " Tales of the Highlands," relates 
 the following incident, which shows that matters were 
 not much improved nearly a century later : — 
 
 " Near Inverary we regained a spot of comparative 
 civilization, and came up with the post-boy, whose 
 horse was quietly grazing at some distance, whilst 
 red-jacket himself was immersed in play with other 
 lads. 'You rascal!' I said to him, 'are you the 
 post-boy, and thus spending your time ? ' ' Na, na^ 
 sir,' he answered, ' I'm no the post, I'm only an 
 Express ! ' " 
 
 A Penny Post for London and its suburbs was first 
 started by Mr. Robert Murray, an upholsterer, in 
 1683, of which a full account will be found in the next
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE POST. 1 9; 
 
 chapter ; but the following year, several charges ■ 
 having been brought against him, he was removed.. 
 One of these charges was as follows: — "He stops 
 under specious pretences most parcells that are taken 
 in, which is great damage to tradesmen, by losing 
 their customers or spoiling their goods, and many 
 times hazards the life of the patient, when physic is. 
 sent by a doctor or apothecary." 
 
 In 1708, Mr. Povey established a foot-post, called 
 the " Halfpenny Carriage," for the conveyance of 
 letters in London for a halfpenny. The authorities,. 
 however, soon compelled him to desist. 
 
 The London Penny Post was much improved in 
 July, 1794, and a few years later became the "Two- 
 penny Post," an institution which continued its name 
 till the introduction of the Penny Postage. It still 
 continued on a separate footing till the division of the 
 Metropolis into postal districts, when it was amalga- 
 mated with the General Post Office, the red coats of 
 the General Postmen being superseded by the blue 
 liveries still in use. The establishment of cross-posts 
 and the introduction of mail coaches, will receive 
 notice in separate chapters. A great abuse was swept 
 away on the introduction of the penny postage. The 
 commercial houses and other firms who wished to pay 
 for the privilege had their letters picked out from tlie 
 general heap, and delivered by special postmen, and 
 were thus enabled to get their correspondence an hour
 
 20 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 earlier than those who could not, or would not pay 
 the black mail ("quarterage" it was termed) of 5s. 
 per quarter. The postage on these letters, for which 
 the postmen were responsible, was collected monthly, 
 the quarterage — their own fee — being an ample re- 
 compense for the risk — for many of these men 
 made incomes of ;^300 to ;^400 per annum. This 
 selfish system served, of course, to delay the delivery 
 of ordinary letters, which could not be sorted till the 
 others had been sent out. 
 
 It seems almost incredible that so late as a century 
 ago, the letters for a large number of towns were 
 packed in the valise of a single post-boy, whose 
 average progress was three and a-half miles an hour. 
 On the 22nd February, 1779, an advertisement ap- 
 peared, stating that the post-boy carrying the mail 
 had been robbed, by two footpads, with crape over 
 their faces, of the whole mail, containing bags for 
 Liverpool, Manchester, Wigan, Chester, and thirty 
 other towns, besides the Irish Mail ! 
 
 These post-boys were rough and ready little 
 fellows, but not so rough as the animals they rode, 
 the strangest collection of horseflesh ever seen — and 
 played an important part in conveying letters to the 
 outskirts of the metropolis and the districts beyond, 
 so late as thirty or forty years ago. The letters were 
 packed into a leather portmanteau strapped on to the 
 horse's back, behind them. On the birthday of the
 
 THE PENNY POST OF 1683. 21 
 
 reigning sovereign, they each received a scarlet jacket 
 and waistcoat — nothing more. Sam Weller has asked 
 two puzzhng queries respecting them : — " Who ever 
 knowed a churchyard where there was a post-boy's 
 tombstone, or ever seed a dead post-boy ? " 
 
 It may be useful to insert here the derivation of the 
 word " mail." It is derived from the French word 
 " maille," meaning a bag or sack, but literally the 
 mesh of a net, a most appropriate and comprehensive 
 term for the heterogeneous contents of post-bags. 
 The term " mail " is, perhaps, strictly the packets or 
 boxes of letters, &c., made up for dispatch by the 
 post, though the word has been and is frequently used, 
 for the sake of brevity, for the vehicle or vessel carry- 
 ing them ; to travel " by mail " being a term long in 
 vosrue. 
 
 THE PENNY POST OF 1683. 
 
 As we have before stated, a penny post was esta- 
 blished in London, in 1683, two years before the death 
 of Charles 11., for the conveyance of letters and parcels 
 within the City, by Robert Murray, an upholsterer by 
 trade, who, like a great many others, was dissatisfied 
 with the Government, which, in its anxiety to provide 
 for the postal requirements of the country, had entirely 
 neglected the City and suburbs. 
 
 The post, established by Murray at a vast expense,
 
 :22 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 was ultimately handed over to a William Docwray, 
 Avhose name is now well known in the annals of Post 
 ■Office history. The arrangements of the new penny 
 post were simple, and certainly liberal enough. All 
 letters or parcels not exceeding 2. pound weight, or any 
 ■sum of money not exceeding ^10 in value, or parcel 
 not worth more than £\o, could be conveyed at a cost 
 of one penny ; or within a radius of ten miles from a 
 given centre, for the charge of twopence. Several 
 district offices were opened in various parts of London, 
 and receiving houses were freely established in all the 
 leading thoroughfares. Stowe, in his Aimals says, 
 tliat in the windows of the latter offices, or other pro- 
 minent place, were large printed placards intimating, 
 " Penny post letters taken in here." " Letter Carriers," 
 he continues, " gather them each hour, and take them 
 thence to the grand office in their respective circuits. 
 xA.fter the said letters and parcels are duly entered in 
 the books, they are delivered at stated periods by other 
 carriers." The deliveries in the City were from six to 
 eight daily, while from three to four were found suffi- 
 -cient to supply the wants of the suburbs. 
 
 The public appreciated and supported the new 
 venture, and it soon became a great commercial 
 .success, useful to the citizens, and profitable to the 
 proprietor. No sooner, however, did a knowledge of 
 this f^ict reach the ears of those in authority over the 
 •General Post Office, than the Duke of York, acting
 
 THE PENNY POST OF 1683. 2^ 
 
 under instructions, and by virtue of the settlement 
 made to him, objected to its being continued, on the 
 ground that it was an invasion of his legal rights. 
 Party spirit began to rise in the matter, and sides 
 were taken as to whether such an important enter- 
 prise should not be in the hands of the Government, 
 instead of a private person. It was denounced 
 by the Protestant party as a means for the Papists 
 disseminating their views among the middle and 
 lower orders ; and, according to Lord Macaulay, 
 Titus Oates himself hinted that the Jews were at the 
 bottom of the whole concern, and expressed an 
 opinion that, if the bags were opened and examined, 
 they would be found to be full of treason ! The 
 messengers and porters of the City likewise joined in 
 the common cavil, and declared that the penny post 
 was an infringement of their rights, and frustrated it in 
 every way they possibly could, such as tearing down 
 the placards, assaulting the carriers, and otherwise. 
 
 At length, therefore, the authorities, alarmed at the 
 rapidly-growing success of the undertaking, applied 
 to the court of King's Bench, wherein it was decided 
 that the new or so-called penny post was an infraction 
 of the privileges of the authorities of the General Post 
 Ofiice, and the royal interest, and that consequently it, 
 with all its organization, profits, and advantages, should 
 be handed over to, and remain the property of, the 
 .royal establishment. Damages, together with slight
 
 24 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 costs, were at the same time awarded against Docwray ; 
 but it is gratifying to know that in about a year 
 after he had been thus forcibly dispossessed of his 
 useful and valuable scheme, he was appointed to the 
 office of the Controller of the District Post. As this 
 was conferred upon him by the Duke of York, it 
 is reasonable to suppose that this appointment 
 was chiefly made as a recompense for the losses 
 he had suffered, and the misfortunes he had met 
 with. " Under William and Mary," says Mr. Lewin, 
 " Docwray was allowed a pension, differently stated 
 by different authorities, of ^^500 or ;^200 a year." 
 This pension, however, he was only allowed to enjoy 
 for four years, when it was withdrawn, and he was 
 discharged from his position, on account of several 
 charges of malversation and mismanagement having 
 been brought against him. The officers and others 
 under his control petitioned the Commissioners of the 
 Treasury to the effect, " that the Controller doth what 
 in him lyes to lessen the revenue of the Penny Post 
 Office, that he may farm it, and get it into his own 
 hands ; " also that " he had removed the Post Office 
 to an inconvenient place to forward his ends." There 
 certainly appears to have been no practical limit as to 
 the size or weight of parcels transmitted through the 
 post during the time of Docwray's management, and 
 the memorial further says, " He forbids the taking 
 in of any band-boxes — except very small — and alL
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF CROSS-POSTS. 25" 
 
 parcels above a pound ; which, when they were taken 
 in, did bring a considerable advantage to the Post 
 Office ;" that these same parcels were taken by porters 
 and watermen at a far greater charge, " which is a loss 
 to the public," as the penny post messengers did the 
 work much cheaper and more satisfactorily. It 
 was insinuated, says Mr. Lewin, " that the parcels 
 were not only delayed, but misappropriated ; that 
 letters were opened and otherwise tampered with : 
 and these charges being partially substantiated, 
 Docwray, who deserved better treatment, was re- 
 moved from all connection with the department." 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF CROSS-POSTS. 
 
 In 1 7 10 the whole establishment was remodelled, and 
 additional powers given to the Post Office authorities,. 
 The revenue was considerably increased in con- 
 sequence. Power was given by the Act of Parliament, 
 passed in the above-mentioned year, to establish cross- 
 posts, for the accommodation of those parts of the 
 country lying out of the line of the great post roads. 
 Nothing, however, was done till 1720, when, singular 
 to relate, an official connected with the Post Office 
 made proposals to the Government to establish cross- 
 posts between Exeter and Chester, via Bristol, 
 Gloucester, and Worcester, thus connecting the West
 
 26 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 of England with the Lancashire districts and the Irish 
 mail route. This official was Mr. Ralph Allen, Deputy 
 Postmaster of Bath, whom Fielding has immor- 
 talized as Allworthy, in Tom Joncs.^ Having 
 satisfied the Treasury that his scheme would be not 
 only a great public benefit, but also increase the 
 revenue, they granted him a lease for life of all the 
 cross-posts that should be established. He undertook 
 to pay a fixed rental of ;^6,ooo a-year, as well as 
 bear all the costs of the new service, he receiving 
 the surplus revenue for his own profit. The enterprise 
 soon proved remunerative ; and the Government re- 
 newed the contract with Allen from time to time, at 
 the same rental, but exacted from him, each time, the 
 establishment of new routes, so that before his death, 
 they extended to all parts of the country. 
 
 From the accounts which he left behind him it 
 appeared that his net profits amounted to ^10,000 a- 
 year, or nearly half a million in all. He made a very 
 liberal use of his money, and bequeathed, by a codicil 
 to his will, ;£'i,ooo to the Hon. William Pitt (afterwards 
 the great Earl of Chatham), with whom he was on 
 terms of friendship. 
 
 On Allen's demise the postal authorities undertook 
 
 * Pope alludes to him in the well-known lines, 
 
 " Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, 
 Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."
 
 WAGGONS, STAGE COACHES, MAIL COACHES. 2/ 
 
 the work themselves, and in two years quadrupled the 
 amount of the proceeds. 
 
 Previous to the introduction of the cross-posts, 
 letters from one part of the country to another had to 
 be brought to London, causing- considerable delay in 
 forwarding them to their destination ; and Allen is 
 entitled to be ranked as one of the greatest of our 
 post-office reformers, for the ability, skill, and enter- 
 prise which he showed, in devising and carrying out 
 his plans for remedying this very serious defect in the 
 post-office system. 
 
 WAGGONS, STAGE COACHES, MAIL COACHES. 
 
 The only modes of travelling in this countr}- three 
 centuries ago, were riding on horseback or walking. 
 Ladies rode on pillions {i.e. soft saddles) which Mcrc 
 fixed on the horses' backs, behind a relative or serving- 
 man. Queen Elizabeth used thus to ride into the 
 City from her palace at Greenwich, behind her Lord 
 •Chancellor. 
 
 Waggons, without springs, first came into use to 
 convey passengers in her reign, and she drove in one 
 on the occasion of her Fifth Parliament. The state of 
 the roads was execrable ; the best being that from 
 Dover to London, though four days were spent on 
 this short distance, by Queen Henrietta and her
 
 28 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 household. About 1650 waggons started from the 
 "Axe Inn," Aldermanbury, every Monday and 
 Thursday, taking ten da}-s for the journey in summer 
 and twelve in winter. 
 
 Stage coaches were first used, early in the seventeenth 
 century, and became pretty general in the metropolis 
 and suburbs, the rate of travelling being not more 
 than two or three miles an hour. By the end of this 
 century they were placed on three of the principal 
 roads in the kingdom. The following is a copy of the 
 original announcement for the coach between London 
 and York : " Whoever is desirous of going between 
 London and York, or York and London, let them 
 Repair to the Black Swan, in Holborn, or the 
 Black Swan, in Coney Street, York, where they 
 will be conveyed in a stage coach (if God permits) 
 which starts every Thursday, at Five in the 
 morning." This coach, however, only ran in the 
 summer, and, even during that period, passengers had 
 frequently to get out and walk, owing to the wretched 
 state of the roads, and, when the floods were out, had 
 to put up at some inn on the road till the water had 
 subsided. 
 
 The introduction of stage coaches was denounced 
 by some as a great evil, tending to slothfulness, and 
 rendering persons unable or unwilling to travel on. 
 horseback, and not able to endure frost, snow, or rain, 
 or to lodge in the field ! Another writer thus argued
 
 WAGGONS, STAGE COACHES, MAIL COACHES. 29 
 
 in their favour : " Besides the excellent arrangement 
 of conveying men and letters on horseback, there is 
 of late such an admirable commodiousness, both for 
 men and women, to travel from London to the principal 
 towns of the country, that the like hath not been 
 known in the world, and that is by stage coaches, 
 wherein any one may be transported to any place, 
 sheltered from foul weather and foul ways ; free from 
 endamaging of one's health and one's body by the 
 hard jogging or over-violent motion ; and this not 
 only at a low price (about a shilling for every five 
 miles) but with such velocity and speed in one hour, 
 as that the posts in some forraign countreys make 
 in a day." Outside seats, and that place of honour, 
 the box seat, were improvements of a later age. 
 
 Travelling in Scotland was even slower than in 
 England. The carrier between Selkirk and Edin- 
 burgh occupied a fortnight in going and returning, the 
 distance being only thirty-eight miles. In 1678 the 
 coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of 
 forty-four miles, drawn by six horses, took six days 
 to complete its journey, to and fro. So recently as 
 1750, thirty-six hours were required for the journey 
 between these two places. How little passenger traffic 
 there was between London and Edinburgh may be 
 gathered from the fact that, in 1763, there was only 
 one stage coach, which started once a month from 
 each of these cities, taking a fortnight to perform the
 
 30 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 journey. At the same time the journey from London! 
 to York took four days. In 1835 seven coaches started 
 daily between London and Edinburgh, doing the 
 distance in forty-eight hours. 
 
 In 1763 it is estimated that the number of passengers; 
 between these two cities, by all kinds of conveyance, 
 did not exceed fifty, of which twenty-five travelled by 
 the stage coach. In 1835 the coaches alone conveyed 
 about 140 persons daily. 
 
 In 1754 a "flying coach" (as it was termed) was 
 started by a company of merchants, at Manchester, 
 to travel at what was then considered a very 
 rapid rate — four or five miles an hour. In the 
 company's prospectus it was stated that, " However 
 incredulous it may appear, this coach will actually 
 (barring accidents) arrive in London in four days and' 
 a-half after leaving Manchester." Three }-ears later a 
 rival coach was started from Liverpool, which con- 
 veyed passengers between Warrington and London in. 
 three days. Each passenger had to pay two guineas — 
 one guinea as earnest, and the other on taking coach ; 
 only 14 lbs. of luggage free of charge were allowed,, 
 and 3d. per lb. for any excess. 
 
 These "flying coaches" were the means of suggest- 
 ing one of the greatest reforms in the history of 
 the General Post Office — the establishment of mail 
 coaches, which owed their origin to the energy and 
 perseverance of jNIr. John Palmer, a resident of Bath,
 
 WAGGONS, STAGE COACHES, MAIL COACHES. 3 1 
 
 and founder and manager of a theatre in that city. 
 The dilatoriness of the post as well as of coach 
 travelling had frequently deprived him of the services 
 of some London star. Having travelled over the 
 country, and thus acquired personal knowledge of the 
 deficiencies that existed in all parts, for the conveyance 
 of passengers and letters, he published pamphlets 
 and memorialized the Government. The Post Office 
 authorities (as might be imagined) strenuously opposed 
 him ; some considered him an enthusiast, others a 
 bore ; but, through the valuable countenance of Mr. 
 Pitt, he succeeded in starting his first mail coach on 
 the 24th of August, 1784. It left London at eight in 
 the morning, and arrived at Bristol at eleven at night. 
 The advantages to be derived from Palmer's plan were 
 quickly apparent, and the Government entered into a 
 contract with him, engaging to allow him 2h per cent 
 commission on the saving effected in the transmission 
 of the letters. But when it was discovered that this 
 saving amounted to ^^ 20,000 a year, Parliament refused 
 to vote this sum to carry out the agreement, but 
 cJicated him with a grant of ;^50,ooo. Palmer lived 
 till 18 18, and consequently must have been known to 
 many persons still living, while to many more the 
 recollections of mail coaches (only superseded by the 
 superior facilities of railway travelling) will recall many 
 pleasing recollections. 
 
 It may here be added that Mr. Palmer's avocations
 
 32 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 as manager of the Bath theatre made him familiar 
 with that great western road, which was still in such 
 public favour, alike with people of fashion and with 
 gentlemen of the highway. No road in England 
 was so much travelled by the wealthy, and on none 
 were they eased of their superfluities with so polite an 
 air. In the intervals of this more agreeable depart- 
 ment of their calling, the highwaymen relieved their 
 ainui by a sedulous attention to the mails. So habitual 
 were the robberies of the post that they came to be 
 regarded by its officials as among the necessary con- 
 ditions of human affairs. They urged on the public 
 the precaution of sending all bank notes and bills of 
 exchange in halves, and pointed the warning with a 
 philosophical remark, that " there are no other means of 
 preventing robberies with effect, as it has been proved 
 that the strongest carts that could be made, lined and 
 bound with iron, were soon broken open by a robber." 
 Another functionary, who had reflected upon this 
 matter still more deeply, suggested that " when 
 desperate fellows have once determined on a mail 
 robbery, the .consequence would be murder in case of 
 resistance." 
 
 At this period, in addition to the recognized perils 
 of the roads, the postal service was characterized by 
 extreme irregularity in the departure of mails and the 
 delivery of letters ; by an average speed of about three 
 miles and a-half an hour ; and by a rapidly increasing
 
 WAGGONS, STAGE COACHES, MAIL COACHES, 3J 
 
 diversion of correspondence into illicit channels. Yet, 
 when Mr. Palmer suggested that by building mail 
 coaches, of a construction expressly adapted to run at 
 a good speed, by horsing them liberally, and attaching 
 an armed guard to each coach, the public would be 
 greatly benefited, and the post-office revenue con- 
 siderably increased, one official person expressed 
 his regret, " that the author of the plan should not 
 first have been informed of the nature of the business," 
 and boldly asserted that the constant endeavours 
 which had long been directed towards the improve- 
 ment of postal affairs, " in all situations and under all 
 circumstances, has made them now almost as perfect 
 as can be, without exhausting the revenue arising there- 
 from." Another predicted, that the new methods, if 
 adopted, " will fling the whole commercial corres- 
 pondence of the country into confusion, and will justly 
 raise such a clamour as the Postmaster will not be 
 able to appease." 
 
 At one time this pertinacious opposition seemed 
 likely to succeed, but Mr. Pitt said the scheme ought 
 to have a trial. 
 
 Its success in one year exceeded the expectations 
 of even Mr. Palmer, notwithstanding the fact that he 
 met with every opposition from the office. 
 
 The "Picture of London," 1825, thus describes the 
 introduction of the mail coach system. " The mode 
 of carrying letters by the General Post was greatly 
 
 D
 
 34 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 improved a few years since, by an admirable plan, 
 invented by Mr. Palmer. Previously to its adoption, 
 letters were conveyed by cart, without protection from 
 robbery, and subject to frequent delays. At present, 
 they are forwarded, according to Mr. Palmer's plan, 
 in coaches, distinguished by the name of 7jmil coaches, 
 provided with a well-armed guard, and conducted at 
 the rate of eight miles an hour, including stoppages. 
 Government contract with the coach-keepers merely 
 for carrying the mail, the owners making a con- 
 siderable profit besides, by the conveyance of 
 passengers and parcels. It is not easy to imagine a 
 combination of different interests to one purpose more 
 •complete than this. The wretched situation, however, 
 •of the horses, on account of the length of the stages 
 which they are frequently driven, is a disgrace to the 
 ^humane character of the British nation, and requires 
 the. interference of the Legislature ; no stage should 
 be allowed to exceed twelve miles in length. The 
 •rapidity of this mode of conveyance, considered as 
 .embracing the leading routes of an entire kingdom, is 
 1 unequalled in any country ; and the present rate of 
 'Charge for each passenger is little more than sixpence 
 per mile."
 
 ANNUAL PROCESSION OF MAIL COACHES. 35 
 
 ANNUAL PROCESSION OF MAIL COACHES. 
 
 It was an annual custom for the mail coaches to go 
 in procession from Millbank to Lombard Street on the 
 King's birthday. At about twelve o'clock, the horses 
 belonging to the different mails, with new harness, and 
 the postmen and postboys on horseback, arrayed in 
 their new scarlet coats and jackets, proceeded from 
 Lombard Street to Millbank, and there dined. At this 
 place the coaches were fresh painted ; from thence the 
 procession, being arranged, began to move about five 
 o'clock in the afternoon, headed by the general foot- 
 men, on horseback. The mails followed them, filled with 
 the wives and children, friends and relations of the 
 coachmen and guards ; while the postboys sounding 
 their bugles and cracking their whips, brought up the 
 rear. From the commencement of the procession, the 
 bells of the different churches rang out merrily, and 
 continued their rejoicing peals till it arrived at the 
 General Post Office, in Lombard Street, from Avhencc 
 they sparkled abroad to all parts of the kingdom. 
 Great crowds assembled to witness the cavalcade as it 
 passed through the principal streets of the metropolis. 
 The clean and cheerful appearance of the coachmen 
 and guards, each with a large bouquet of flowers in 
 his bright scarlet coat, the beauty of the cattle, and 
 the general excellence of the equipment, presented a
 
 36 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 most agreeable spectacle to every eye and mind, that 
 could be gratified by seeing and reflecting on the ad- 
 vantages derived to trade and social intercourse by 
 the magnificent establishment.* 
 
 The " Post-Office London Directory" for 1826 gives 
 the following list of mail coaches from London : 
 Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Carlisle and Leeds ; 
 Carmarthen, by Gloucester ; Chester, Dover ; Dover 
 (Foreign Mail Coach) ; Edinburgh, by York ; Edin- 
 burgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, and Thurso ; Falmouth, 
 by Exeter ; Glasgow and Carlisle, by Manchester ; 
 Harwich (Foreign Mail Coach) ; Hastings, Holyhead, 
 Liverpool, Louth, by Boston ; Ludlow, by Worcester ; 
 Norwich, by Ipswich ; Norwich, by Newmarket ; Poole, 
 by Southampton ; Portsmouth, Yarmouth and Ipswich. 
 Twenty-four in all. This number was afterwards in- 
 creased to twenty-seven, at which it remained till they 
 were rapidly superseded by the railways. The total 
 number of mail coaches in England, in 1836, was fifty 
 four-horse, and forty-nine two-horse; thirty in Ireland, 
 and ten in Scotland. 
 
 The post of mail guard was highly lucrative, for 
 though the Government allowance was merely nominal, 
 yet the gratuities from bankers for carrying their 
 money parcels, and the passengers* fees, made up a 
 very handsome income. 
 
 * Hone's Everyday Book.
 
 THE POST IX IRELAND. 37 
 
 In times of great political excitement, such as the 
 trial of Queen Caroline, and the passing of the first 
 Reform Bill, crowds of persons would line the mail 
 routes, anxiously waiting to learn the news, which 
 was shouted to them by the guards as the mails 
 passed rapidly on. 
 
 THE POST IN IRELAND. 
 
 During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
 the postal service in Ireland was more remunerative 
 than that of Scotland. Previous to the introduction 
 of mail coaches, the mails were conveyed by post- 
 runners, to whom special allowances were made for 
 each particular service, but there were no contracts 
 nor fixed rules as to time ; but three and a-half miles 
 an hour seems to have been the average pace. The 
 bags were usually conveyed by boys. In the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of the metropolis some kind of 
 cart was employed in the service ; in other parts the 
 bags were carried on the backs of ponies or mules, or 
 were conveyed on foot. 
 
 At this time, there were mails to Cork, Belfast, 
 Limerick, and Waterford, six days a-week, and to 
 Galway, Wexford, and Enniskillen, three days a-week. 
 There were also three posts a-day to Killarncy, but 
 ■the letters were conveyed by foot-messengers at the
 
 38 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 cost of the inhabitants, and of the newspaper printers 
 in Cork. 
 
 The introduction of mail coaches into Ireland did 
 not render the conveyance of letters more secure, as 
 the mail, it was stated, was robbed quite as often as 
 before, though frequently accompanied by four armed 
 guards. 
 
 As early as the time of Queen Elizabeth packets sailed 
 from Holyhead and Liverpool to Dublin. Cromwell 
 kept up both lines, but, at the Restoration, only that 
 between Chester and Dublin was maintained. Anew 
 line was afterwards substituted for that which was 
 discontinued, between Port Patrick and Donaghadee, 
 a short and easy route. The postage to Dublin 
 was 6d. 
 
 The late Mr. Bianconi, who did so much to improve 
 passenger traffic in Ireland by the introduction of his 
 long cars, in 1830, induced the authorities to allow 
 him to cany the mails, which he did at a cheap rate,, 
 only stipulating that he should not be bound to carry 
 them at times which would interfere with his passenger 
 traffic. In 1848, he had fourteen hundred horses 
 engaged in his business. On the introduction of 
 railways, Bianconi directed his energies to the creation; 
 of new districts, and is said to have been ready at a 
 moment's notice to move his cars, men, and horses, to 
 any part of the country, however remote, wherever 
 there was a chance of remuneration for his capital..
 
 A SCOTTISH PENNY POST. J^i 
 
 In i860, he possessed a thousand horses, which were- 
 employed in drawing sixty or seventy cars daily,, 
 traversing twenty-two counties, the distances travelled 
 amounting to between three and four thousand miles. 
 This remarkable man continued his business till! 
 within a short time of his death, which took place at 
 his seat in Ireland, on the 22nd September, 1875. He 
 had reached the venerable age of eighty-five. 
 
 A SCOTTISH PENNY POST. 
 
 In the year 1766 a penny post was established by- 
 one Peter Williamson, a native of Aberdeen. He had' 
 been in captivity among the Indians for many years^. 
 and after his return he settled down in Edinburgh as 
 keeper of a coffee-stall or shop, in the hall of the 
 Parliament-house. Being frequently employed by the 
 advocates and "writers" frequenting the Scottish, 
 forum to carry letters and messages to different parts 
 of the city, and, as he had doubtless heard of the 
 English penny posts, he began a regular post with 
 hourly deliveries, and established agents at different 
 parts of the city to collect letters. He employed four 
 carriers, who appeared in uniform, to take the letters- 
 from the different agents, and then to deliver them as 
 addressed. For both these purposes they were accus- 
 tomed to ring a bell as they proceeded, in order to
 
 40 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 give due notice of their approach. The undertaking 
 v/as so successful that other speculators were induced 
 to set up rival establishments, which of course led to 
 great confusion. The authorities saw the success of 
 the undertaking, and, aware of its importance, they 
 succeeded in prevailing upon Williamson to accept a 
 pension for the goodwill of his venture, and then 
 merged it into the general concern. 
 
 LETTER FRANKING. 
 
 The privilege of franking letters by the knights, &;c., 
 chosen to represent the Commons in Parliament, 
 began, according to a report of the Committee of the 
 House of Commons in 1735, "with the creating of a 
 post-office in the kingdom by Act of Parliament." 
 The Bill referred to was introduced in 1660, and con- 
 tained a proviso securing the privilege. Sir Walter 
 Earle proposed the following clause, that " members' 
 letters should come and go free during the time of 
 their sittings." It encountered considerable opposi- 
 tion. Sir Heneage Finch (afterwards Lord Chancel- 
 lor) called it "a real poor mendicant proviso, and 
 below the honour of the House." Serjeant Charlton 
 urged in its favour that " letters for counsel on circuit 
 went free." The Speaker, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, 
 refused for some time to put the question, saying he
 
 LETTER FRANKING. 4I 
 
 felt ashamed of it. It Avas, however, eventually put, 
 and carried by a large majority. On the Bill being 
 sent up to the Lords, they threw out this clause, as 
 there was no mention made in it that their letters 
 should pass free. This omission was supplied some 
 years later, when both Houses had the privilege 
 secured to them. How this privilege was exercised 
 to convey not only letters, but goods, servants, dogs, 
 &c., may be seen in official documents still in exist- 
 ence among the Post Office records. " Two maid- 
 servants going as laundresses to my Lord Ambas- 
 sador Methuen." " Doctor Crichton carrying with 
 him a cow, and divers necessaries." " Fifteen couples 
 •of hounds going to the King of the Romans with a 
 free pass." "Three suits of cloaths for some noble- 
 man's lady at the Court of Portugal." " Two bales of 
 stockings for the use (!) of the Ambassador to the 
 Crown of Portugal." The control of the packet- 
 service having been taken away from the Post Office 
 authorities, the privilege of franking was no longer 
 permitted to be abused in this manner, but was con- 
 fined to letters endorsed on the cover with the sig-na- 
 ture of a member of either House. The privilege was, 
 however, allowed to be exercised all the year round, 
 instead of being confined to the time when Parliament 
 was sitting ; nor was it restricted to letters on the 
 business of the nation (the original intention of the 
 privilege), but was extended to letters of all descrip-
 
 42 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 tions, and apparently with scarcely any limitation as 
 to numbers. Members supplied their friends, either 
 gratuitously or for a consideration, with w^hole packets 
 of franks at once. Some even paid their servants' wages 
 with them, the servants disposing of them to the 
 highest bidder. Forgeries of members' signatures, as 
 might be expected, were carried on wholesale. The 
 amount of franked correspondence increased from 
 ;^24,ooo in 17 1 5, to ^170,000 in 1763. Parliament in 
 the following year enacted, as a means to cure the 
 evil, that the v/hole address of the letter should be in 
 the handwriting of the member, and his signature to 
 be also appended. But this was only partially suc- 
 cessful ; and in 1784 it was ordered that all franks 
 should be dated, the month to be written in full, and 
 the letters to be posted on the day they bore date. 
 
 The estimated value of franked letters from this 
 date till the establishment of the penny postage 
 (when the privilege was taken away), was iJ^8o,ooo- 
 per annum. 
 
 The following remarks on the restrictions on frank- 
 ing are taken from a letter written by the poet 
 Cowper to the Rev. W. Unwin, October 2nd, 1784 : — 
 
 " The privilege of franking having been so cropped, 
 I know not in what manner I and my bookseller are 
 to settle the conveyance of proof-sheets hither and 
 back again. They must travel, I imagine, by coach, a 
 large quantity of them at a time; for, like other
 
 THE ANCIENT SUPERSCRIPTION OF LETTERS. 43 
 
 authors, I find myself under a poetical necessity of 
 being frugal." 
 
 A story is related of Coleridge the poet, which 
 reveals an ingenious method of obtaining information 
 from a letter without paying the postage ; and thus it 
 may be called franking it without the aid of a Peer or 
 M.P. When a young man he visited the Lake dis- 
 trict, and halted at the door of a wayside inn while 
 the postman was delivering a letter to the barmaid. 
 The postage was a shilling, which the girl, sighing 
 deeply and handing back the letter, said she was too 
 poor to pay. The poet, in spite of the girl strongly 
 objecting to accept his kindness, insisted on paying 
 the postage for her. When the postman had left she 
 told him that the letter was only blank paper, but, by 
 a few hieroglyphics at the back of it, which had been 
 arranged between her and her brother (the sender of 
 the letter) she was enabled to find out all she wanted 
 to know. "We are so poor," she added, " that we 
 have invented this manner of corresponding and 
 franking our letters." 
 
 THE ANCIENT SUPERSCRIPTION OF LETTERS. 
 
 The custom of adding to the direction of letters the 
 word, " These," as was formerly done, arose from the 
 original usage having been to add the words, " Hasten, 
 these." See, in the Gentleman's Magazine for May,.
 
 44 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 1/99, 3. letter from Jeremy Taylor so addressed. 
 
 Some old letters have this inscription : — " To , 
 
 Give these with speed ; " but a common address of the 
 letters preserved in the State Paper Office, on the 
 Gunpowder Plot of the 5th November is, " Hasten 
 these," meaning " these presents ; " while one of them 
 is endorsed, " Haste ! haste ! haste ! " 
 
 ORIGIN OF "SHIP LETTERS." 
 
 The Statute of Queen Anne sanctioned the convey- 
 ance of letters from abroad by private ships, but it 
 was not till 1799, that an Act was passed to enable 
 the Postmaster-General to forward letters by them. 
 Masters of vessels refusing to take the bags were 
 subjected to heavy penalties. The postage was half 
 the ordinary rates. 
 
 At the present time letters may still be forwarded 
 by private ships, if so addressed, and if by a particular 
 vessel the name of the ship must be added. There is, 
 however, now no saving in postage by this convey- 
 ance, nor can letters be forwarded by private ships 
 sailing for New York. 
 
 The small number of letters now conveyed by 
 private ship is shown by the Government estimate for 
 1875-6. England, £1 ; Scotland, £^0 ; Ireland, £'Ji,
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO CAPTAINS. 45 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO CAPTAINS IN THE PACKET 
 SERVICE. 
 
 In the beginning of the last century, the following 
 were the Government instructions to captains of 
 vessels carrying the mails : — " You must run while 
 you can, fight when you can no longer run, and throw 
 the mails overboard when fighting will no longer 
 avail." As the service involved considerable risk to 
 life and limb, a scale of pensions was awarded accord- 
 ing to the amount of injury received. For every 
 arm or leg amputated above the elbow or knee, £8 
 per annum ; below the arm or knee, twenty nobles. 
 Loss of sight of one eye, £4 ; pupil, ;^5 ; sight of 
 both eyes, iJ^i2 ; pupils, ;^I4; and according to these 
 rules we consider also how much the hurts affect the 
 body, and make the allowances accordingly. 
 
 THE FIRST GENERAL POST OFFICES. 
 
 The first General Post Ofifice was in Cloak Lane, 
 near Dowgate Hill. It was afterwards removed 
 to the " Black Swan," in Bishopsgate Street. After 
 the great fire of 1666, it found an habitation in 
 Brydges Street, Covent Garden, at the " Two Black 
 Pillars." About 1690 it was transferred to Sir Robert
 
 46 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 Viner's mansion in Lombard Street, which continued 
 to be the chief office until the erection of the building 
 in St. Martin's-le-Grand, which was completed 23rd 
 September, 1829, Nothing can better serve to show 
 the difference between the growth of the postal busi- 
 ness of the country before and during the last half- 
 century, than the fact that the Lombard Street Office 
 existed nearly one hundred and forty years, while 
 that in St. Martin's-le-Grand was found so unequal to 
 the continually increasing demand for space, as to 
 require in less than forty years to be supplemented 
 by an addition, as large as the original building. 
 The "Picture of London" (1808), thus describes the 
 importance of the Post Office, and the wretched ac- 
 commodation provided for carrying on its duties : — 
 " The Post Office is the most important spot on the 
 face of the globe. It receives information from the 
 Poles ; it distributes instruction to the Antipodes ; it 
 connects together more numerous and distinct col- 
 lections of men than any other similar establishment. 
 It is, in the highest degree realized, the seat of terres- 
 trial perception and volition — the brain of the whole 
 earth ; and this is hidden in a narrow alley, misshapen 
 even to deformity, and scarcely accessible to the very 
 mail coaches which collect there for their nightly 
 freight." Many years, however, elapsed before the 
 St. Martin's-le-Grand office was opened, of which an 
 account will be found in the next chapter.
 
 THE GENERAL POST OFFICE, ST. MARTIN S-LE-GRAND. 47 
 
 OPENING OF THE GENERAL POST OFFICE, 
 ST. MARTIN'S-LE-GRAND. 
 
 An Act for the removal of the Post Office establish- 
 ment from its old and confined quarters in Lombard 
 Street was passed as far back as 1815, but it was not 
 till September 23rd, 1829, that the new building 
 (designed by Sir R. Smirke, R.A.) was completed. 
 Its dimensions are about 398 feet long, 130 broad, 
 and 60 feet high. The principal feature in it, originally, 
 was the grand public hall, long since, through want of 
 space, appropriated to the ordinary postal business. 
 This hall was 80 feet long, by about 60 wide, and was 
 divided by Ionic columns into a centre and two aisles, 
 the centre rising to the height of about 53 feet. In the 
 northern aisle, were the Inland, American, Ship-letter, 
 and newspaper offices ; and in the southern, the 
 Foreign and Twopenny-Post departments, and the 
 offices of the Receiver-General and Accountant. On 
 the second and third stories were lodging-rooms for 
 the clerks of the foreign office, it being then considered 
 necessary, from the uncertainty of the time of arrival 
 of the mails, that they should be always on the spot. 
 At this time, and for many years subsequently, the 
 foreign mails were made up on Tuesdays and Fridays 
 till 1 1 p.m. : those nights, in the mercantile world, being 
 termed the " Foreign-Post Nights." The following
 
 48 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 was the strength of the establishment in 1829. In- 
 land Office — morning duty, 113 clerks, &c. — evening 
 duty, 119. Returned Letter Office, an inspector and 
 9 clerks ; Foreign Office, a comptroller, deputy, and 
 16 clerks and sorters, including the West India Office;. 
 the Letter-Bill Office, a superintendent and 7 clerks ; 
 the Bye-Letter Office, an accountant and 4 clerks ; 
 besides the offices of the Receiver-General, Account- 
 ant-General, Surveyor and Superintendent of mail 
 coaches, and the Secretary, which employed nearly 
 fifty persons, making a staff of less than 350, in all. 
 
 The principal offices of the Twopenny (or London 
 District) Post, were at this time in St. Martin's-le- 
 Grand, and Gerrard Street, Soho. The average 
 number of letters passing through them in the month 
 of May, Avas 40,000. There were six collections and 
 deliveries in town daily, and two despatches from it, 
 and three deliveries at most places in the country 
 within the limits of these offices. 
 
 The number of receiving-houses at this time, for 
 the General Post Office, was about 50, and for the 
 Twopenny Post upwards of 100. The building, soon 
 after it was erected, was found unequal to the con- 
 tinually increasing business, and a new gallery had to 
 be built. As pressure increased, especially after the 
 adoption of the penny postage, additional rooms were 
 added, the public hall was utilized, and many officials 
 Vv'ere located at different houses in the vicinity.
 
 THE NEW GENERAL POST OFFICE. 49 
 
 THE NEW GENERAL POST OFFICE. 
 
 It was not alone on account of the Government taking 
 the telegraph service in hand that a larger building 
 had to be provided. The Post Office work proper had 
 so increased, that additional accommodation had to be 
 contemplated before the telegraph department was 
 thought of. The new General Post Office is a hand- 
 some structure, built of Portland stone ; and covers an 
 acre of ground, it contains nearly two hundred rooms. 
 The building was erected during the period when 
 Mr. Ayrton was First Commissioner of Works, from 
 the designs of Mr. James Williams, of the Board of 
 Works, no outside architect being employed in connec- 
 tion with it. Its erection was begun in December, 1 869, 
 the first stone being laid by Mr. Ayrton on the i6th' 
 December, 1870, and it was formally opened early in 
 1874- The site cost about ^^50,000, and the building 
 about ;^ 1 50,000. 
 
 The building contains the Postmaster-General's 
 rooms, the Secretary's office, the Solicitor's office, the 
 Receiver and Accountant-General's office, and the 
 Telegraph Engineer's office. The third and fourth 
 floors are used principally for the Telegraph instru- 
 ments, and are occupied by the officers who work them, 
 while in the basement is the " Battery-room," which 
 extends right across the building, and is fitted up with 
 
 E-
 
 50 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 tiers of shelves on which the " Daniel " batteries are 
 ranged. The shelves are three miles in length, and 
 are capable of accommodating 40,000 cells ; but at 
 present, there are in them only 24,000. From the 
 entrance hall, access is gained to a spacious corridor 
 extending all round the building, and communicating, 
 by wide staircases, with similar corridors on the upper 
 floors. On the outside are the different offices, and 
 through the windows on the inside may be seen two 
 small open quadrangles, in one of which is the boiler 
 house with a chimney-stack rising to the height of 130' 
 feet. In this quadrangle also are placed the steam 
 engines for pumping water from an artesian well, and 
 for other important purposes. The large engines for 
 working the air pumps in connection with the pneu- 
 matic tubes are in the other quadrangle. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features of this depart- 
 ment is the pneumatic service. This is carried on by 
 means of a large number of leaden tubes with iron 
 casings, through which, by the creation of a vacuum, 
 the forms on which the messages are written are blown. 
 These tubes not only communicate from one part of 
 the building to another, and from one part of the 
 room to another, but also with about twenty of the 
 principal telegraph stations in London. The mode 
 of working is as follows : The telegram is folded up 
 and placed in a small guttapercha case, called a carrier^ 
 and inserted in the tube. A telegraphic signal is sent
 
 THE NEW GENERAL POST OFFICE. . 5! 
 
 to the attendant at the other end of the tube, and the- 
 message quickly reaches its destination. The tubes, 
 for this service in the building are i^ inch in diameter,, 
 the outside tubes from 2|- to 3 inches. The longest 
 tube is that to Charing Cross, about a mile and a half 
 distant, the time occupied in the passage of the message 
 being four minutes. There is between Paris and 
 Versailles, a tube twelve miles long. The " carriers " 
 occasionally stick fast in this tube, and it is then neces- 
 sary to open it to remedy the defect, the difficulty* being 
 to find the exact spot where the stoppage occurs. 
 Several ingenious methods have been devised with this 
 object, of which the following specially deserves notice.. 
 A delicate elastic skin is stretched over the end of the 
 tube, so that any motion of the air within it will cause 
 a slight vibration of the skin at the end. A pistol 
 is then fired near this membrane, and the explosion, 
 causes a great wave of air to roll along inside the tube,, 
 until it strikes the " carrier." It is then turned back 
 again, and produces a tremulous motion in the skin.. 
 The number of seconds that elapse between the report 
 of the pistol and the return of the wave are carefully 
 noted, and as sound travels at the rate of 1,142 feet 
 per second, the position of the message in the tube 
 can be easily ascertained. The tubes at St Martin's- 
 le-Grand being lined with lead, have, we believe, been 
 hitherto free from these stoppages. 
 
 The instrument-galleries resemble two long rooms
 
 52 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 united by a large square central space, so as to form 
 one great apartment. There is nearly a mile of 
 tables, on which are the instruments for receiving 
 and sending the messages. The number of hands 
 (male and female) employed in this room, in the 
 busiest part of the day, is nearly a thousand. The 
 night staff amounts to three hundred. 
 
 Various kinds of instruments are here at work, some 
 doing single duty, and others both sending and re- 
 ceiving messages at the same time. The process of 
 sending and receiving messages by one wire is called 
 " duplex telegraphy." The "Wheatstone Automatic" 
 is capable of transmitting 120 words a minute ; but 
 the messages for this instrument have previously to 
 be prepared at another instrument, which has a key- 
 board with three or four keys, at which the operator 
 sits. By merely touching the keys, he is enabled, by 
 pneumatic pressure, to punch holes in a long strip of 
 paper, half an inch wide — a certain number of holes 
 made at different widths and positions representing 
 different letters. The principle of the " Wheatstone 
 Automatic " is, that the current of electricity is broken, 
 so that certain parts of the paper are not punctured, 
 and it is only transmitted through the holes ; and the 
 same effects are, of course, produced on the strip at the 
 receiving instrument. 
 
 Messages for the " Press " are attended to by a 
 special staff of the most experienced operators, who
 
 THE NEW GENERAL OFFICE. 53 
 
 are engaged exclusively upon them from five in the 
 evening till two in the morning. In the official Report 
 for 1875, it is stated that on the occasion of an im- 
 portant debate in Parliament, and an unusual number 
 of interesting occurrences in different parts of the 
 country, nearly 440,000 words — equal to about 220 
 columns of the Times, were transmitted from the 
 central station in London in a single night 
 
 The total number of post-offices in the United 
 Kingdom now (1877) is 13,447, of which number 896 
 are head offices. 
 
 The total number of officers employed by the Post 
 Office in 1876 was 45,024, of whom 11,654 ^^^ em- 
 ployed on telegraph work. In London alone the 
 staff employed is 10,380, of whom 5,500 are attached 
 to the Chief Offices in St. Martin's-le-Grand. 
 
 The gross postal revenue in the year ending the 
 31st of March, 1877, was ^6,017,000; the net revenue 
 i; 1, 947,000.
 
 54 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 THE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT AT WORK. 
 
 In this department, as its name implies, the business 
 of sorting and making up the mails, both inland and 
 foreign, is carried on. 
 
 The first business, which commences at 5 o'clock 
 •a.m., or even earlier, is to prepare for the early morn- 
 ing mails and deliveries in town and suburbs. The 
 letters are collected from the various pillar-boxes, in 
 some districts as early as 3 o'clock a.m. The bags, 
 as they are brought in, are turned out upon long 
 tables ; the letters are then placed face upwards, 
 those that appear to have an insufficient number of 
 stamps affixed being quickly picked out, and marked 
 with the amount of the extra (double) postage. Little 
 letters are frequently found intruding into the larger 
 ones; in one week 727 letters had "pigged" into 
 larger envelopes. These are picked out (an opera- 
 tion called piggijig). Torn and unfastened letters 
 are also picked out. The stamps are now obliterated, and 
 the letters distributed among the various sorters. The 
 sorters' tables are three rows of shelves divided intocom- 
 partments, and labelled with the names of the principal 
 main lines of Railway, and of certain large towns such 
 as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham ; or marked 
 Scotch, Irish, London District, Foreign, and Blind. 
 These last, as elsewhere more fully explained, are letters 
 with apparently illegible or insufficient addresses.
 
 THE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT AT WORK. 55 
 
 In this work hundreds are engaged simultaneously, 
 but with little noise or apparent bustle. Now and 
 then a sorter may be observed to place letters on one 
 side. This is frequently on account of their containing 
 coin, which ought only to be placed in registered 
 letters, and the parties to whom they are delivered 
 will be charged special fees. During the six months 
 following the compulsory registration of these letters, 
 58,000 of them were thus charged. Unpaid letters 
 entail a large amount of extra trouble, as many officers 
 through whose hands they pass have to keep an 
 account of the postage chargeable upon them. 
 
 From 6 to 8 o'clock p.m., when the night mails are 
 made up, is the busiest time of this department The 
 showers of letters and newspapers that fall into the re- 
 ceiving-boxes at St. Martin's-le-Grand during the last 
 half or quarter-of-an-hour before closing are a sight to 
 be witnessed; though, since they have been received at 
 the back of the Post Office in Foster Lane, as well as 
 in the front of the building, it is not so astounding as 
 it was when drawn to one focus. The able pens of 
 Sir F. B. Head, Charles Dickens, and other celebrated 
 authors, have depicted the scene most admirably. Sir 
 F. B. Head thus describes it. On the night he wit- 
 nessed it, the India Mail newspapers were added to 
 those of the heaviest night of the week. At five 
 minutes to six o'clock the receiving-men on duty were 
 so ovenvhelmed with bags of all colours and sizes that
 
 56 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 most of those who had brought only large bundles 
 chucked the bundles themselves into the Office. As 
 fast as the bags were emptied into baskets (each holding 
 about five hundred newspapers), they were dragged by 
 scarlet postmen into the lifting-machine, in which on 
 its platforms they were to be seen through the bars of 
 their respective cages, one set after another rising 
 towards the sorting-halls. " The window was jammed 
 down precisely at six o'clock by the two lean janitors, 
 whom, apparently exhausted by their extraordinary 
 exertions, we observed instantly to sit down on a bar 
 behind them, in order in peaceful quietness to wipe 
 with their shirt-sleeves the perspiration which stood 
 in dewdrops on their pale, honest faces." 
 
 The following account, written by Charles Dickens 
 and Mr. W. H. Wills, appeared in the first volume of 
 Household Words : — 
 
 They crossed the hall at a quarter before six ; " it 
 was just then drizzling newspapers. The great 
 window of that department being thrown open, the 
 first black fringe of a thunder-cloud of newspapers, 
 impending over the Post Office, was discharging itself 
 fitfully, now in large drops, now in little ; now in 
 sudden plumps, now stopping altogether. By degrees 
 it began to rain hard ; by fast degrees the storm 
 came on harder and harder, until it blew, rained, 
 hailed, snowed newspapers. A fountain of news- 
 papers played in at the window. Waterspouts of
 
 THE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT AT WORK. 57 
 
 newspapers broke from enormous sacks, and engulfed 
 the men inside. A prodigious main of newspapers, at 
 the Newspaper River Head, seemed to be turned on, 
 threatening destruction to the miserable Post Office. 
 The Post Office was so full already that the window 
 foamed at the mouth with newspapers. Newspapers 
 flew out like froth, and were tumbled in again by the 
 bystanders. All the boys in London seemed to have 
 gone mad, and to be besieging the Post Office with 
 newspapers. Now and then there was a girl ; now 
 and then a woman ; now and then a weak old man ; 
 but as the minute hand of the clock crept near to six, 
 such a torrent of boys and such a torrent of news- 
 papers came tumbling in together pell-mell, head 
 over heels, one above another, that the giddy head 
 looking on chiefly wondered why the boys springing 
 over one another's heads, and flying the garter into 
 the Post Office, with the enthusiasm of the corps of 
 acrobats at M. Franconi's, didn't post themselves 
 nightly along with the newspapers, and get delivered 
 all over the world. Suddenly it struck six. Shut, 
 sesame !" 
 
 Large vans, called " accelerators," now fill the post- 
 office yard, and are loaded with the mail-bags as they 
 are made up, to be conveyed to the various railway 
 termini, where on arrival they are quickly transferred 
 to the "travelling post-office" attached to the mail 
 train.
 
 fSS THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 
 
 A VERY short time elapsed after the first conveyance 
 of the mails by railway before it was found necessary 
 to construct a special carriage for the conveyance of 
 the letters and post-office servants in charge, so that 
 sorting might be carried on during the journey. The 
 first travelling post carriage was used on the Grand 
 Junction Railway, between Liverpool and Birming- 
 .ham, on the ist July, 1837; and, on the completion 
 of the line from London to Birmingham was employed 
 for the postal traffic on that line also. Its appearance 
 must be familiar to most persons, from the models 
 which have been shown at the great Exhibitions, 
 as well as at the Art Loan Collection at South 
 Kensington, (1876). It is similar. in appearance to an 
 ordinary saloon carriage, and is about 22 feet long, 
 and well lighted with lamps. Along the whole length 
 of one side are tiers of boxes or pigeon-holes, the 
 larger being for newspapers and packets, and the 
 smaller for letters. On the other side are sunken 
 recesses with upright pegs, on which are hung canvas 
 bags with the names of the different post towns on 
 the route marked upon them. These recesses, ars 
 well as the ends of the carriage, are padded, as a pro- 
 tection against accidents. Under the counters or 
 desks, which extend the whole length of the carriage,
 
 THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 59 
 
 bags are packed ready for delivery as the train arrives 
 at the different stations. The original bags being 
 opened and turned out, the business of sorting and 
 resorting commences. The registered letters are 
 taken care of by one clerk, while bundles of ordinary 
 letters are distributed among the sorters who stand 
 opposite the sets of boxes bearing the names of 
 the various towns for Avhich they have to make up 
 mails. The newspapers, books, and other packets 
 have also to be similarly dealt with. But how are 
 these bags delivered, and others received, as the train 
 flies past many stations without stopping.^ This 
 brings under our notice the apparatus which solves 
 the difficulty. 
 
 The machineiy by which this feat is so admirably 
 accomphshed is worked from a van adjoining the 
 travelling post-office, with which it is connected by a 
 strong iron gangway. The arrangement provides for 
 the simultaneous receipt and despatch of bags. For 
 the purpose of receiving the letters a large strong net 
 is fixed on one side of the van, ready to be drawn at 
 the proper moment. Close to the door, and on each 
 side of it, are hollow iron bars, inside each of which, 
 and worked by a rope and pulley, is an iron arm 
 fixed, on which the bags to be delivered, now secured 
 in leathern pouches, are suspended. The apparatus 
 at the stations is, as may be supposed, the exact 
 counterpart of this ; a net being spread to catch
 
 6o THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 each pouch as it drops from the extended arm, and 
 the bags to be taken in the train-net are hung from 
 iron standards of a sufhcient height fixed in the 
 ground. On nearing the spot where the bags are 
 exchanged, the door is pushed back into the groove 
 in which it works, the sorter touches a spring which 
 holds up the net, so that it is loosened from its sup- 
 ports, and projects over the sides of the carriage. 
 The iron arm worked by the pulley-rope is drawn 
 round into the carriage, where the pouch is imme- 
 diately fastened to it by means of a catch or spring, 
 but so lightly that a touch from the net apparatus at 
 the station will bring it off; it is then let down, 
 remaining by virtue of its own weight at right angles 
 to the door. The pouch quickly disappears from the 
 arm, and at the same moment another falls into the 
 carriage-net. The process of sorting the new arrival 
 of letters is then carried on as before. 
 
 From the returns of the medical authorities of the 
 Post Office it does not appear that a greater amount 
 of sickness prevails among the travelling sorters 
 than there is among the staff engaged in the general 
 offices. Many of the men who have travelled one 
 hundred miles a day (Sundays included) for several 
 years, have stated that they find themselves better for 
 the change from stationary work.
 
 DEAD LETTERS. 6 1 
 
 DEAD LETTERS. 
 
 Dead letters and dead newspapers are such as cannot 
 be delivered to the persons to whom they are written 
 for one or more of the following cogent reasons : — 
 
 1. Because they have no addresses at all. 
 
 2. Because their addresses are — even to the " blind 
 man " — illegible. 
 
 3. Because the persons to whom they are addressed 
 refuse to receive them. 
 
 4. Because the persons to whom they are addressed 
 cannot be found. 
 
 5. Because the person to whom they are addressed 
 is found to be really dead and gone ! 
 
 The dead-letter department is, undoubtedly, one of 
 liigh trust and honour ; and, in accordance with the 
 principles by which it should be governed, it is a rule 
 in the Office never to open a letter if it can possibly 
 be returned to the writer without doing so. The seals 
 of chartered companies and of noblemen are usually 
 sufficient to effect this object ; and if the public, 
 especially men of business, would inscribe upon their 
 seals or print upon their envelopes their addresses, 
 instead of their monograms, crests, or coats-of-arms, 
 they would in any of the cases we have mentioned, 
 including that of sending money in undirected 
 envelopes, enable the inspector of the dead-letter
 
 62 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 office to return them their letters, packets, &c., 
 iuwpcncd. 
 
 THE "BLIND" MAN. 
 
 The duty of solving all the enigmas, and of decipher- 
 ing the astonishing specimens of writing that are 
 continuously afflicting the Inland Post Office, is 
 imposed upon several gentlemen selected from the 
 sorting clerks, who, from being gifted with extra- 
 ordinary memory, very sharp wits, and above all, with 
 what Sam Weller termed " a pair of patent double- 
 million-magnifying-gas-microscopes-of-hextra-power 
 eyes," arc gravely distinguished throughout the depart- 
 ment, as well as in its books, by the title of "The 
 Blind Men." Accordingly, to his little desk, five feet 
 long, two broad, modestly leaning against the wall of a 
 small chamber close to the "Foreign" room, and 
 adjoining the large double sorting-hall, are brought all 
 the letters which every sorter has, in despair, chucked 
 into the "blind " pigeon-hole ; and as, gazing for several 
 minutes at nothing but the blind man's back, we beheld 
 one basketful of botherations after another brought 
 to him, we could not — when we considered that this 
 badgering is mercilessly continued throughout every 
 day, week, month, and year of the gentleman's life — 
 help wondering why the Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals has not yet come to the rescue !
 
 THE " BLIND " MAN. ' ,63; 
 
 No one, however, who has watched the facihty 
 with which every compositor in a printing-office can 
 read bad writing, would be much surprised at the ease 
 with which the bHnd man gets over that portion of 
 his troubles. And, again, as almost any person can 
 readily learn to understand " broad " Yorkshire, 
 broad Devonshire, broad Scotch, or any other patoisy 
 so it is not, on reflection, surprising that a gentleman 
 of ready abilities should, in due time, learn to decipher 
 " broad wTiting " — such as " sromfredavi," for Sir 
 Humphrey Davy; " Ner the Wises," for near Devizes ; 
 " Biley Rikey," for Billericay ; " Steghelhesler Sus- 
 sexese," for Chichester, Sussex; "Wardling Street, 
 Noher Londer Brutz Schibseed," for Watling Street, 
 near London Bridge, Cheapside ; " Wharan Que ner 
 Ne Veasal Pin Tin," for Wareham Quay, near New- 
 castle-upon-Tyne. 
 
 The following are a few of the most curious and 
 vague addresses of letters taken to this department : — 
 
 Uncle John 
 
 Hoppositc the Church 
 
 London. Hengland. 
 
 Coneyach lunentick 
 a siliam 
 
 To my Sister Bridget, or else to my Brother Tom 
 Burke, in care of the Praste, who lives in the Parish
 
 64 ■ THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 of Balcumbury in Cork, or if not to some dacent 
 neighbour in Ireland, 
 
 Obern Yenen 
 
 [Holborn Union] 
 
 Ann M 
 Olleywhite 
 
 [Ijle of iright] 
 
 Amshire. 
 Ash Bedles in such 
 
 lAMy-de-ta-Zouch'\ 
 
 for John Hasel, Grinder 
 in the County of Lestyshur 
 
 For Mister Wiley wot brinds de Baber in Lan- 
 caster ware te gal is. 
 
 This last was too great a puzzle for the blind man 
 of a past generation, but it has been deciphered by 
 the present as addressed to Mr. Wiley, who prints the 
 Paper in Lancaster, where the Gaol is. The com- 
 munication enclosed was from a foreigner against 
 public schools. 
 
 ADDRESSES OF LETTERS TO ROYALTY. 
 
 Keen Vic Tory r.t 
 
 Winer Castle
 
 THE "blind" man. 65 
 
 Miss Queene Victoria 
 
 of England 
 
 To the King of Rusheys 
 Forren, with speed. 
 
 But where the direction is incorrect, or, as in the 
 generality of cases, the post-towns are omitted, the 
 difficulty is not only clearly evident, but it at first 
 appears to be insuperable ; nevertheless, in attentively 
 watching the blind man's back, it is astonishing to 
 observe how easily and fluently he does his work. 
 For a considerable time he is to be seen, apparently 
 from memory, writing post-haste the omitted post- 
 towns on each letter as rapidly as he can handle 
 them. Now and then, as if his gas-lamp had, without 
 any apparent reason, half fainted away, he holds a 
 letter before him for a few moments, turning it a little 
 on this side, and then on that, until he suddenly 
 deciphers it. 
 
 In extreme cases, he is occasionally obliged con- 
 vulsively to scratch the side of his head, just above 
 his right ear, for half-a-second with the sharp-pointed 
 black holder of his iron pen ; however, on he goes, 
 placing occasionally beside him, at the left extremity 
 of his desk, those letters for which reference to his 
 little library, arranged before him, is necessary ; and 
 thus, with the heli3 of about half-a-dozen thick well- 
 thumbed books, and of an intelligent assistant who 
 
 F
 
 ,66 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 sits beside him, he usually manages by the evening 
 mail, or, at all events, by that of the following day, to 
 despatch the mass of mysteries which have been so 
 mercilessly imposed upon him. 
 
 OPENING LETTERS AT THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 Opening or detaining letters at the Post Office except 
 under a warrant from one of the principal Secretaries 
 of State was prohibited by a Statute of Queen Anne, 
 which has been confirmed by more recent acts. 
 These warrants, during the last centurj^, were frequently 
 granted, and in 1735 a very strict examination, both 
 of Home and Foreign correspondence, was carried out. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell made many improvements in the 
 Post Office, thinking, as he stated, that they would 
 be " the best means to discover and prevent many 
 dangerous and wicked designs against the common- 
 wealth." 
 
 In 1806 Lord Spencer introduced the custom of 
 •recording the dates of all warrants granted for the 
 opening of letters, and the grounds on which they 
 were issued. Since 1822 these warrants have been 
 kept at the Home Office. From a return made to the 
 House of- Commons, in 1853, it appears, that in the 
 preceding ten years only six letters had been opened ; 
 four of them related to cases of felony, the remaining
 
 THE SECRET OFFICE. 6/ 
 
 two being of so innocent a character as to be returnable 
 to those entitled to them. 
 
 The exercise of this power by Sir James Graham 
 in 1844, in causing the letters of the Italian patriot, 
 Mazzini, to be opened, and some intelligence con- 
 tained in them to be forwarded to the Austrian Govern- 
 ment, created great commotion in this country, and 
 Committees of both Houses were appointed to inquire 
 into the matter. Nothing, however, was elicited to 
 show that the liberty of the subject was in danger, 
 and the privilege of opening letters by the Govern- 
 ment authorities was left pretty much as before. 
 Since that time its exercise has not created any public 
 .interest. 
 
 The " Secret Office," as it was termed, in which the 
 letters were opened, has been well described in a 
 paper by Dr. Wynter, from which the following 
 account is taken. 
 
 THE SECRET OFFICE. 
 
 Tiierp: is one room in the Post Office which visitors 
 should not fail to inquire for — the late Secret Office. 
 When Smirke designed the building he must have 
 known the particular use to which this room would be 
 put ; a more low-browed, villanous-looking apartment 
 -could not well be conceived. It looks the room of a
 
 68 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 sneak, and it was one — an official sneak, it is true, but 
 none the less a sneak. As we progress in civilization, 
 force gives place to ingenious fraud. When Wolsey 
 wished to gain possession of the letters of the 
 Ambassador to Charles V. he did so openly and 
 dauntlcssly, having ordered, as he says, 
 
 " A privye watche shoulde be made in London, and 
 by a certain circute and space aboutes it ; in the which 
 watche, after mydnyght, was taken passing between 
 London and Brayreford, be certain of the watche 
 appointed to that quarter, one riding towards the said 
 Brayreford ; who, examyned by the watche, answered 
 so closely, that upon suspicion thereof, they searched 
 hym, and founde secretly hyd aboutes hym a little 
 pacquet of letters superscribed in Frenche." 
 
 More modern ministers of state liked not this rough 
 manner, but turning up their cuffs, and by the aid of 
 a light finger, obtained what they wanted, without the 
 sufferer being in the least aware of the activity of their 
 digits. 
 
 Li this room the official letter-picker was appro- 
 priately housed. Unchallenged, and in fact unknown 
 to any of the army of a thousand persons that 
 garrisoned the Post Office, he passed by a secret stair- 
 case every morning to his odious duties ; every night 
 he went out again unseen. He was, in short, the Man 
 in the Iron Mask of the Post Office. 
 
 Behold him, in the latter day of his pride, in 1842^
 
 THE SECRET OFFICE. 69 
 
 when the Chartists kept the North in commotion, and 
 Sir James Graham issued more warrants authorizing 
 the breaking open letters than any previous Secretary 
 of State in the present century. — Behold him in the 
 full exercise of his stealthy art ! 
 
 Some poor physical-force wretch at Manchester or 
 Birmingham has been writing some trashy letters 
 about pikes and fire-balls to his London confederates. 
 See the springs a powerful Government set to catch 
 such miserable game ! Immediately upon the arrival 
 of mails from the North, the bags from the above- 
 mentioned places, together with one or two others to 
 serve as a blind to the Post Office people, are im- 
 mediately taken, sealed as they are, to the den of this 
 secret inquisitor. He selects from them the letters he 
 intends to operate upon. Before him lie the imple- 
 ments of his craft — a range of seals bearing upon them 
 the ordinary mottoes, and a piece of tobacco pipe. If 
 none of the seals will fit the impressions upon the 
 letters, he carefully takes copies in bread ; and now 
 the more serious operation commences. The tobacco 
 pipe red-hot pours a burning blast upon the yielding 
 wax ; the letter is opened, copied, resealed, and re- 
 turned to the bag, and reaches the person to whom 
 it is directed, apparently unviolated. 
 
 In the case of Mazzini's letters, however (the opening 
 of which exposed the whole concern), the dirty work 
 was not even done by deputy ; his letters were
 
 JO' THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 forwarded unopened to the Foreign Office and there 
 read by the Minister himself. The abuses to which 
 tlie practice was carried during the last century were 
 of the most flagrant kind. Walpole used to issue 
 warrants for the purpose of opening letters in almost 
 unlimited numbers, and the use to which they were 
 sometimes put might be judged by the following : — 
 
 "In 1741, at the request of A., a warrant issued ta 
 permit A's eldest son to open and inspect any letters 
 which A's youngest son might write to two females,, 
 one of whom that youngest son had imprudently 
 married." 
 
 The foregoing, says Dr. Wynter, is from the Report 
 of the Secret Committee appointed to investigate 
 the practice in 1844, which contains some curious 
 matter. Whole mails, it appears, were sometimes 
 detained for several days during the war, and all the 
 letters individually examined. French, Dutch, and. 
 Flemish enclosures were rudely rifled, and kept or sent 
 forward at pleasure. There can be no doubt, that ia 
 some cases, such as frauds upon banks or the revenue,, 
 forgeries, or murder, the power of opening letters was 
 used, impartially to individuals and beneficially to the 
 State ; but the discoveries made b)' this means were so 
 few that it did not in any way counterbalance the 
 great public crime of violating public confidence and 
 perpetuating an official immorality.
 
 THE MAIL-PACKET SERVICE. 7I 
 
 THE IMAIL-PACKET SERVICE. 
 
 This is one of the most expensive and important 
 branches of the postal service. In the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries it was under the control of 
 the Post Office authorities. It was then removed to 
 the Admiralty till i860, when it once more came into 
 the hands of the Postmaster-General. 
 
 In 1853 a Treasury Committee was appointed to 
 inquire into the contract packet service, and they 
 reported that, " It is unreasonable to expect that any 
 person, or association of persons, should incur the 
 expense and risk of building vessels, forming costly 
 establishments, and opening a new line of communica- 
 tion at a heavy outlay of capital, without some security 
 that they would be allowed to continue the service 
 long enough to reap some benefits from their under- 
 taking. It must be borne in mind that the expensive 
 vessels built for the conveyance of the mails, at a high 
 rate of speed, are not in demand for the purposes of 
 ordinary traffic, and cannot therefore be withdrawn 
 
 and applied to another service at a short notice 
 
 The value of the services thus rendered to the State 
 cannot, we think, be measured by a mere reference to 
 the amount of the postal revenue, or even of the 
 commercial advantages accruing from it. It is un- 
 doubtedly startling at first sight to sec that the
 
 72 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 immediate pecuniary result of the packet system is a 
 loss to the revenue of about ;^325,ooo a year; but 
 although this circumstance shows the necessity for a 
 careful revision of the service, and though we believe 
 that much may be done to make the service self- 
 supporting, we do not consider that the money thus 
 expended is to be regarded, even from a fiscal point 
 of view, as a national loss.'' 
 
 The conveyance of mails in steamers was first 
 adopted by the British Post Office in 1821. The 
 Holyhead Station for Ireland, and the Dover Station 
 for the Continent, were selected for the first experi- 
 ments. Heretofore, the practice had been to engage 
 sailing vessels, under agreements with their owners 
 and commanders, at fixed annual payments, for the 
 carriage of the mails ; the proceeds of passengers and 
 freight accruing, of course, to the owners. After 
 various fruitless negotiations with steam packet 
 companies, it was determined to build vessels at the 
 cost of the Government. Eventually six such vessels 
 were stationed at Holyhead, and several others at 
 Dover and elsewhere. The Report of the Com- 
 missioners of Revenue Inquiry led to the gradual and 
 advantageous introduction of commercial contracts for 
 this service, the first of which was made by the Post- 
 master-General, in 1833, with the Mona Isle Steam 
 Company, to run steamers twice a-week between 
 Liverpool and Douglas, In the following year the
 
 THE MAIL-PACKET SERVICE. 73 
 
 •General Steam Navigation Company contracted to 
 carry the mails twice a-week between London and 
 Rotterdam and London and Hamburg, for ;!{^ 17,000 
 a-year. This contract remained in force until 1853, 
 when these mails were transferred to the Ostend route. 
 In 1837 a contract was made with Mr. Richard 
 Bourne to convey the mail weekly from Falmouth to 
 Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, and Gibraltar, for ;^29,6oo per 
 annum. This contract was transferred, in 1843, to the 
 Peninsular and Oriental Company, the port of South- 
 ampton was substituted for Falmouth, and the trips 
 limited to three, monthly, the subsidy being pro- 
 portionally reduced. In 1839 ^^ epoch was marked 
 in world-history, as well as in postal affairs, by the 
 establishment of a fortnightly mail line between 
 Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston, by contract between 
 the Postmaster-General and Samuel Cunard, of 
 Halifax, at ;^6o,ooo a-year. Soon the port was made 
 alternately Boston and New York ; and, with this 
 change the contract had greater activity, weekly trips 
 being required instead of fortnightly, and the subsidy 
 being raised by the renewal contract of 1850 to 
 ;^I73,340 a-year, with certain contingent allowances in 
 addition. In 1840 a contract was made for mail 
 steamers to Malta, Corfu, and Alexandria, and extended 
 in 1845 to Suez, Bombay, Ceylon, Calcutta, Hong Kong, 
 and Shanghai. This contract was renewed in 1853, and 
 made terminable in 1862, on twelve months' notice.
 
 74 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 By its terms the Peninsular and Oriental Company 
 was bound to provide two packets for the conveyance 
 of the Indian mails, one to steam between South- 
 ampton and Malta ; and another between Marseilles 
 and Malta ; then one between Malta and Alexandria, 
 and one between Suez and Aden ; one between 
 Aden and Bombay, and another between Aden 
 and Calcutta. But owing to the rapid increase of 
 Indian traffic, the Company, of its own accord, 
 doubled the service between Malta and Alexandria, 
 and also between Suez and Aden. The terms of 
 the contract with the Post Office secured its per- 
 formance for a subsidy of ;^244,Soo a-year ; but the 
 communication having now become double during 
 the greater part of the route, the amount was increased 
 in 1857, which insured an additional packet between 
 Marseilles and Malta, and thus made the most im- 
 portant mail service double throughout. In 1856, a 
 new contract was made for a monthly service between 
 Southampton, Marseilles, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, and 
 Sydney, with the European and Australian Mail 
 Steam Packet Company, at ;;^ 185,000 a-year. Under 
 this contract the Company runs 336,000 miles a-year, 
 at IIS. per mile. In 1850 a contract was made with 
 the West India Royal Mail Packet Company for the 
 service of the West Indies, and of Central America, 
 Mexico, and Brazil. The Company runs steamers,, 
 under that contract, twice a month, over an aggregate
 
 THE OVERLAND ROUTE TO INDIA. ^j; 
 
 annual mileage of 547,296 miles, and the average 
 pay is 9s. lod. per mile. 
 
 "The objects which appear to have led to the forma- 
 tion of these contracts," to quote the words of the 
 report of the Committee of 1853, already referred to, 
 "and to the large expenditure involved, were — to 
 afford a rapid, frequent and punctual communication 
 with those distant ports which feed our main arteries 
 of British commerce, and with the most important of 
 our foreign possessions ; to foster maritime enterprise ; 
 and to encourage the production of a superior class of 
 vessels which would promote the convenience and 
 wealth of the country in time of peace and assist in 
 defending its shores against hostile aggression. These 
 expectations have not been disappointed. The ocean 
 has been traversed with a precision and regularity 
 hitherto deemed impossible ; and steam ships have 
 been constructed of a size and power that, without 
 Government aid, could hardly — at least for many 
 years — have been produced." 
 
 THE OVERLAND ROUTE TO INDIA. 
 
 The introduction of this route which, till the opening 
 of the Suez Canal, so greatly facilitated the convey- 
 ance both of letters and passengers to the East Indies 
 and China, owed its origin to the enterprise and
 
 76 THE POST OFFICE, 
 
 courage of the late Lieut. Thomas Waghorn, R.N., 
 who was born at Chatham in the year 1800. At the 
 age of twelve he was appointed a midshipman in the 
 Royal Navy, and before he was seventeen was pro- 
 moted to lieutenant. After a short cruise he volun- 
 teered for the Aracan war, and having received the 
 command of the East India Company's cutter Match- 
 less, and seen much service both on land and at sea, 
 he returned to Calcutta in 1827. 
 
 At this time he first proposed a plan, to which he 
 had for a long time turned his attention, for a steam 
 communication between England and India. He 
 made proposals to the directors of the Peninsular and 
 Oriental Steam Company, the Board of Control, and 
 the East India Company ; but he was opposed in 
 nearly every quarter. He was, however, successful in 
 gaining the patronage of the late Lord Ellenborough, 
 and received permission to carry Government des- 
 patches through Egypt for the Governor of Bombay ; 
 and, in spite of every difficulty, succeeded in his 
 mission. With assistance from the Bombay Steam 
 Committee he commenced establishing the Overland 
 route, built hotels and halting-places in the desert 
 between Cairo and Suez, and placed steamers upon 
 the Red Sea. After the Government had taken up 
 the project he did not cease his activity, and con- 
 tinued to explore other routes than that through 
 France; and in 1847 found that journeying by
 
 THE PENNY POST OF 184O. -77- 
 
 Trieste saved thirteen days. Unfortunately, the heavy 
 expenses he incurred in the prosecution of this route 
 brought him to ruin, and, worn out by his labours 
 and disappointments, and the ingratitude of the 
 Government and the great commercial bodies, his 
 health gave way, and he died in 1850. A small 
 pension was granted to his widow ; and it is but the 
 other day that the straitened circumstances of one of 
 his relatives were brought before the public. Such is 
 the manner in which the Government of this country 
 and other public bodies show their obligation to those 
 who have sacrificed life and fortune in promoting the 
 commercial interests of this great Empire. 
 
 THE PENNY POST OF 1840. 
 
 It would, we believe, have been impossible, even for 
 the comprehensive mind of Rowland Hill, to have 
 formed any adequate idea of the enormous increase 
 in the postal service which his reform, by the re- 
 introduction of the penny post, was destined to 
 effect. We find the matter thus mentioned in that 
 most useful work of reference. Chambers s Book of 
 Days : — "The loth of January, 1840, will be a memor- 
 able day in the history of civilization, as that on 
 which the idea of a penny postage was first* exem- 
 
 * It will be seen by a previous article that althuugh Rowland Hill
 
 78 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 plified. The practical benefits derived from this 
 reform are so well known that it is needless to dwell 
 upon them. Let us rather turn attention to the 
 remarkable yet modest man, whom we have to 
 thank for this noble invention. Rowland Hill, born 
 in 1 795, was devoted through all his early years, 
 even from boyhood, to the business of a teacher. At 
 the age of forty we find him engaged in conducting 
 the colonization of South Australia upon the plan of 
 Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, for which his powers 
 of organization gave him great advantage, and in 
 which his labours were attended with a high degree 
 of success. It was about the year 1835 that he 
 turned his attention to the postal system of the 
 country, with the conviction that it was susceptible of 
 reform. He continued, under enormous difficulties, 
 to collect information upon the subject, so as to 
 satisfy himself, and enable him to satisfy others, that 
 the public might be benefited by a cheaper postage, 
 and yet the revenue remain ultimately undiminished. 
 The leading facts upon which he based his conclu- 
 sions have been detailed in an authoritative docu- 
 ment. The cost of a letter to tlie Post Office, he saw, 
 was divisible into three branches : first, that of re- 
 
 reformed the postal system of his time he did not first introduce it, but 
 profiting, no doubt, by what he knew of Docwray's invention, he deter- 
 mined to adopt his plan to modern times, when education was more 
 general.
 
 THE PENNY POST OF 184O. 79 
 
 ceiving a letter and preparing it for its journey, 
 which, under the old regime, was troublesome enough, 
 as the postage varied first in proportion to the 
 distance it had to travel ; and again, according as it 
 was composed of one, two, or three sheets of paper, 
 each item of charges being exorbitant. For instance, 
 a letter from London to Edinburgh, if single, was 
 rated at is. i^d. ; if double, 2s. 3d. ; and if treble, at 
 3s. 4|d, ; and any — the minutest enclosure — being 
 treated as an extra sheet. The duty of taxing letters, 
 or writing upon each of them its postage, thus became 
 a complicated transaction, occupying much time and 
 employing the labour of many clerks. This, and 
 other duties which we will not stop to specify, com- 
 prised the first of the three branches of the expense 
 which each letter imposed on the office. The second 
 was the cost of transit from post-office to post- 
 office ; and this expense, even for so great a distance 
 as from London to Edinburgh proved, upon careful 
 examination, to be no more than the ninth part of a 
 farthing ! The third branch was that of delivering 
 the letter and receiving the postage — letters being, 
 for the most part, sent away unpaid. Rowland Hill 
 saw that, although a considerable reduction of postage 
 might and ought to be made, even if the change 
 rested there, yet that, if he could cheapen the cost to 
 the Post Office, the reduction to the public could be 
 carried very much further, without entailing on the
 
 80 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 revenue any ultimate loss of a serious amount. He 
 therefore addressed himself to the simplification of 
 the various processes. If, instead of charging accord- 
 ing to the number of sheets or scraps of paper, a 
 weight could be fixed below which a letter, whatever 
 might be its contents, should only bear a single 
 charge, much trouble to the office would be spared ; 
 while an unjust mode of taxation would be abolished. 
 For certainly a double letter did not impose double 
 cost, nor a treble letter threefold cost, to the Post 
 Office. But if the alteration had rested there, a great 
 source of labour to the Office would have remained ; 
 because postage would still have been augmented 
 upon each letter according to the distance it had to 
 travel. In the absence of knowledge as to the very 
 minute cost of mere transit, such an arrangement 
 would appear just ; or, to place the question in. 
 another light, it would seem unjust to charge as much 
 for delivering a letter at a distance of a mile from the 
 office at which it was posted as delivering a letter at 
 Edinburgh, transmitted from London. But when 
 Rowland Hill had, by his investigation, ascertained 
 that the difference of cost of transit in the one 
 instance and the other was an insignificant fraction of 
 a farthing, it became obvious that it was a nearer 
 approximation to perfect justice to pass over this 
 petty inequality than to tax it even to the amount of 
 the smallest coin of the realm. With res^ard to the
 
 THE PENNY POST OF 184O. 81 
 
 third head, all that could be done for lessening the 
 cost attendant on delivering the letters from house to 
 house, was to devise some plan of prepayment which 
 should be acceptable to the public (so long accus- 
 tomed to throw the cost of correspondence on the 
 receiver of a letter instead of the sender), and which, 
 at the same time, should not entail the task of collec- 
 tion to the receiving-office, while it relieved the letter- 
 carriers attached to the distributing-office ; otherwise, 
 comparatively little would have been gained by the 
 change. This led to the proposal for prepayment by 
 stamped labels, whereby the Post Office is altogether 
 relieved from the duty of collecting postage. Thus, 
 one by one were the impediments all removed to the 
 accomplishment of a grand object — uniformity of 
 postage throughout the British Isles. 
 
 " It necessarily followed, from the economy thus 
 proposed, that the universal rate might be a low one, 
 which again might be expected to react favourably 
 on the new system, in enabling a wider public to send 
 and receive letters. A brother of Mr. Hill, a few 
 years before, suggested the Patny Magazine. Per- 
 haps this was the basis of Mr. Hill's conception, that 
 each letter of a certain moderate weight should be 
 charged one penny. The idea was simple and intel- 
 ligible, and, when announced in a pamphlet in 1837, 
 it was at once heartily embraced by the public. 
 Neither the Government nor the Opposition patron- 
 
 G
 
 82 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 ized it. The Post Office authorities discountenanced 
 it as much as possible. Nevertheless, from the mere 
 force of public sentiment, it was introduced into Par- 
 liament, and ratified in 1839. 
 
 "The Whig ministry of the day were so far just to 
 Mr. Hill that they gave him a Treasury appointment, 
 to enable him to work out his plan ; and this he held 
 till the Consei'vative party came into power in 1841. 
 Having been by them turned out of office, on the 
 allegation that his part of the business was accom- 
 plished, he might have shared the fate of many other 
 public benefactors, if the community had not already 
 become profoundly impressed with a sense of the 
 value of his scheme. They marked their feeling 
 towards him by a subscription, which amounted to 
 ^15,000. On the replacement of the Whigs in 1846, 
 he was brought back into office as the Secretary to 
 the Postmaster-General ; in which position, and as 
 Secretary to the Post Office (to which honour he 
 attained in 1854), he has been duly active in effecting 
 improvements. Of these, the chief has been the 
 organization of the Money-Order Office, by which up- 
 wards of thirty millions sterling are annually trans- 
 mitted from hand to hand at an insignificant expense. 
 Thirty-seven years have now fully proved the virtues 
 of the penny postage, the number of letters transmitted 
 by the Office annually having advanced from seventy- 
 seven, to six hundred, millions, with an additional
 
 " PACKETS " BY POST. 83 
 
 outlay, on the part of the public, of only 50 per cent. 
 Nor has England alone to thank Rowland Hill, for 
 there is no civilized country which has not adopted 
 his scheme. It was surely by a most worthy exercise 
 of the Royal power that the inventor of penny 
 postage received, in i860, the dignity of Knight Com- 
 mander of the Bath." 
 
 " PACKETS " BY POST. 
 
 On its being notified by the Postmaster-General, 
 immediately after the establishment of Mr. Rowland 
 Hill's Penny System, that, at progressive rates of 
 postage, letters and " packets " of any description 
 might be forwarded by post— provided they did not 
 exceed sixteen ounces in weight — it was no doubt ex- 
 pected that there would suddenly appear a crowd of 
 rectangular parcels of various lengths, breadths, and 
 thicknesses — some sealed, some wafered, some tied, 
 but all containing written or printed documents of 
 more or less importance. 
 
 It appears, however, from a certain most extra- 
 ordinary ledger, that a portion of the public availed 
 themselves of this inestimable literary indulgence 
 with about as much consideration as a herd of very 
 hungry pigs might be expected to evince on being 
 allowed, for recreation,, to walk in a garden of beauti-
 
 84 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 ful tulips ; and certainly, if the ghost of our excellent 
 old friend, the late Sir Francis Freeling could but, by 
 conjuration, be made to read the list of the "packets" 
 which have been transmitted and delivered by post, 
 like that of Hamlet, it would exclaim to the Post- 
 master-General, 
 
 " O, horrible ! O, horrible ! most horrible ! 
 If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not." 
 
 For instance, it appears that there have been trans- 
 mitted as " packets," from Blackburn, in Lancashire, 
 to Spitalfields, London, two canary-birds, delivered 
 by the postman alive and well. From Devonport to 
 London, a pork pie. To London, a woodcock, also 
 a pair of piebald mice, which were kept in the Post- 
 Office a month, fed, and at last delivered to the owner, 
 Avho called for them. From Manchester to Castle 
 Street, Borough, two rabbits and one bird, and fifteen 
 parcels of plum pudding. From Bognor to Plymouth, 
 a lobster. In one day thirty-one letters containing 
 wedding cake was transmitted. On more than one 
 occasion, without any envelope, a bank note was sent, 
 of which (one was for no less than ;i^5o) the two ends 
 were merely folded upon each other, and wafered, the 
 back of the note being directed ! Innumerable leeches 
 were also posted in bladders, several of which burst, the 
 water having wetted the letters, and many of the poor 
 creatures were found crawling over the correspondence
 
 "packets" by post. 85 
 
 of the country. From Plymouth to " Hunmanby " a 
 bottle of cream was sent. From a mother to her son 
 was posted a pottle of strawberries which, being 
 smashed in the bag, completely destroyed a " packet" 
 full of very valuable lace addressed to an eminent 
 royal personage. A ship-biscuit was found, the address 
 of which was on a very small piece of paper pasted 
 thereon. From Totnes to Dublin was sent an uncovered 
 bottle full of liquor, merely labelled with an address, 
 and the words " sample of cyder." From Exmouth to 
 Hastings half-a-pound of soft soap was posted in thin 
 paper. From Bishop's Stortford to Brunswick Square 
 a fish, also several packages of plants, in wet moss. 
 From Hastings to Bath a bunch of grapes, and also 
 shrimps. From Kingston to Mrs. , West- 
 minster Bridge Road, a roast duck. A flask of gun- 
 powder. Fifty-three separate "packets," containing 
 each a box of lucifer matches, one of which, on being 
 handled, exploded in the post-office. A traveller, or 
 bagman, wrote to his beloved wife for his pistol : she 
 affectionately sent it, merely labelled — loaded to the 
 mouth with powder, ball, and slugs. To the Countess 
 
 of a pair of flesh brushes ; the mail cart in 
 
 coming from the West was upset into a brook, which 
 dissolving the paper-covering of these brushes, they, 
 probably fancying they had arrived at their journey's 
 end, instantly set to work and destroyed a consider- 
 able portion of the epistolary contents of the bag.
 
 86 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 To Mr. a live snake. From London to 
 
 Wellington a very long cucumber. To a naturalist 
 in London a live mouse, two china tea-cups, and a 
 box of live spiders. From Oxford Street to Merrion 
 
 Square, Dublin, addressed to Miss , a most 
 
 beautiful head-dress, of the genus Tigamaree. From 
 
 London to Sudbury two sweetbreads. To 
 
 a human heart, a partridge, a mackerel, a paper of 
 fish-hooks — and last, but not least, a human stomach ! 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF DISTRICT POST-OFFICES. 
 The division of the metropolis into different postal 
 districts was carried out in 1854. There were originally 
 ten of these divisions, the eastern-central (E.G.), 
 western-central (w.c), north (N.), north-east (N.E.), 
 north-west (N.W.), south (s.), south-east (S.E.), south- 
 west (s.w.), east (e.), and west (w.j. Several 
 of these districts have since been amalgamated, viz., 
 the N.E. with the E., and the S. with the S.E. and S.W. 
 district, thus reducing the number to eight. Each of 
 these districts has its head-office and receiving-houses, 
 pillar-boxes, and distinct staff 
 
 Previous to the establishment of these district 
 offices, the General and London District post-offices 
 retained their separate organization. They were now 
 amalgamated, and the red-coats of the General Post 
 letter carriers finally disappeared.
 
 ESTABLISHMEXT OF DISTRICT POST-OFFICES. 8/ 
 
 The effect of the change in lessening the work at 
 St. Martin's-le-Grand was very great. All London 
 letters, instead of being forwarded to the central 
 office, are now distributed in the district in which they 
 are posted, or forwarded at once to the district to 
 which they belong. 
 
 The mode of carrying on business at a head district 
 office is somewhat of this kind. The collectors bring" 
 in the bags of letters from the different receiving- 
 houses and pillar-boxes. These bags, on arrival, are 
 opened only by persons specially appointed, and their 
 contents checked with the " Bill " which accompanies 
 them. These bills are Avhite when they come from a 
 liead receiving-office, blue from a subordinate one, and 
 green from a pillar-box. 
 
 The room in which the principal business is con- 
 ducted is very long and spacious, with rows of tables 
 partitioned off into spaces of about a yard, over each 
 of which are two shelves. 
 
 The bags being turned out, and their contents 
 checked, the collector arranges the letters with their 
 faces upwards, and the stamper, after obliterating the 
 stamps, transfers them to the sorting tables. At the edge 
 of each of the two shelves above the tables are three- 
 sided strips of wood, which can be turned so as to 
 display lables on which arc printed the eight postal 
 districts, and fifteen provincial districts, towns, rail- 
 ways, &c. The letters are now sorted according to
 
 88 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 these labels. The bags containing the Scotch, Irish, 
 Continental, and Colonial letters, are forwarded by 
 cart to the General Post Office, while the packages 
 of country letters are sent off direct to the railway 
 station, if it happen to be in the locality of the 
 district office. 
 
 The letters for each postal district are also put into 
 separate bags, and forwarded to the other different 
 stations, thus effecting a great saving of time in the. 
 delivery, and easing the work of the main establish- 
 ment. 
 
 POSTAL RATES AND REGULATIONS. 
 
 The following is an exact copy of the regulations of 
 the Penny Post in 1797 : — 
 
 Penny Post Regulations, January ist, 1797.. 
 — There are two principal offices, one in the General 
 Post Office Yard, Lombard Street, and the other in 
 Gerrard Street, Soho. There are, besides, numerous 
 receiving-houses for letters, both in town and country. 
 
 There are SIX collections and deliveries of letters 
 in town daily (Sundays excepted), and there are two. 
 despatches from and three deliveries at most places 
 in the country, within the limits of the penny post. 
 
 The hours by which letters should be put into the
 
 POSTAL RATES AND REGULATIONS. 
 
 89 
 
 receiving-houses in town, for each delivery, are as 
 follow : — 
 
 For delivery in 
 
 Tozvn. 
 
 For delivery in the 
 
 Country. 
 
 Over Night by 8 
 
 Delivery. 
 
 The preceding 
 
 Delivery. 
 
 o'clock for the 
 
 First. 
 
 evening, by 5 
 
 
 Morning, 8 „ 
 
 Second. 
 
 o'clock for the 
 
 First. 
 
 10 „ 
 
 Third. 
 
 Morning, 8 „ 
 
 Second. 
 
 12 „ 
 
 Fourth. 
 
 Aftern'n, 2 „ 
 
 Third. 
 
 Aftern'n, 2 „ 
 
 Fifth. 
 
 
 
 5 „ 
 
 Sixth. 
 
 
 
 But letters, whether for town or country, may be 
 put in at either of the two principal offices, at least 
 half-an-hour later for each dispatch. 
 
 Letters put in on Saturday evenings are delivered 
 in the country on Sunday morning. 
 
 The dated stamp, or, if there are two, that having 
 the latest hour, shows also the time of the day by 
 Avhich letters are despatched for delivery from the 
 principal offices. 
 
 The postage of a letter going from one part of 
 the town to another is id. 
 
 To or from the country, or from one part of the 
 country to another, 2d. 
 
 To or from general or foreign post-offices, id. 
 
 The postage of penny post letters may, or may 
 not, be paid on putting in, at the option of the sender,
 
 90 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 but the penny postage for letters to go by the general 
 •or foreign mails, must be paid on putting in, and is 
 not optional. 
 
 No penny post letter must weigh more than four 
 •ounces. 
 
 The penny post delivery includes all places within 
 the following circle, which is also inclusive : — 
 
 In Kent — Plumstead, beyond Woolwich ; Shooters' 
 Hill, Eltham, Mottingham, South End, beyond Lewis- 
 ham, and Sydenham. In SURREY — Dulwich, part of 
 Norwood, Streatham, Mitcham, Morden, Merton, 
 Wimbledon, Putney Heath, and Ham and Petersham, 
 beyond Richmond. In Middlesex and Herts — 
 Brentford, Ealing, Hanwell, Wembly beyond Willes- 
 den; Kingsbury, The Hyde, Mill Hill, and High- 
 wood Hill beyond Hendon ; Totteridge, Whetstone, 
 and East Barnet beyond Finchley ; Southgate, 
 Winchmore Hill, and Enfield. In Essex — Ching- 
 ford and Loughton beyond Walthamstow, and Wood- 
 ford, Chigwell and Chigwell Row ; Barking Side, 
 Chadwell beyond Ilford, and Ripple Side beyond 
 Barking. 
 
 Cash, in gold or silver, or other articles of value 
 enclosed in letters (notes or drafts for money excepted), 
 to be mentioned to the office-keeper at putting in ; 
 but bank-notes, or others payable to bearer, to be cut 
 in half, and the second part not to be sent till the 
 j-eceipt of the first is acknowledged.
 
 POSTAL RATES AND REGULATIONS. 9 1 
 
 This office is not liable to make good the loss of 
 any property sent by post. 
 
 N.B. — Penny post letters are frequently by mis- 
 take put into the general post, by which means they 
 are unavoidably delayed in the delivery : it is there- 
 fore recommended that they be put into the penny- 
 post offices, or receiving-houses, in order that they may 
 be regularly forwarded by their proper conveyance. 
 
 Persons having occasion to complain of delay in 
 the deliver}'- of their letters, are requested to send 
 the covers inclosed, in a line to the Comptroller or 
 Deputy-Comptroller, stating the precise time of de- 
 livery, as the dated stam.p will assist materially in 
 discovering with whom the neglect lies. 
 
 By the Act ij George III. c. i8, the rates of post- 
 age for country and foreign letters were again raised, 
 and the following were directed to be taken from and 
 after the 5th day of January, 1797 : — 
 
 For every letter conveyed by post, not exceeding 
 15 miles from the office where such letter was put in, 
 to the office where such letter may be delivered, 
 single, 3d. ; double, 6d. ; treble, Qd. ; and for every 
 ounce in weight, is. 15 miles and not exceeding 30, 
 4d. ; 30 to 40, 5d. ; 40 to 90, 6d. ; 90 to 150, 7d. ; 
 150 or upwards, 8d. ; double, treble, and ounce weight 
 letters being respectively charged twice, thrice, and 
 four times the single rates. Letters to Scotland were
 
 92 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 to be charged, in addition — single, id. ; double, 2d. ; 
 treble, 3d. ; ounce, 46. Letters to or from Great 
 Britain and Lisbon, or any other part in Portugal, 
 IS. single, and to or from the British dominions in 
 America, is., the inland rate of postage, according to 
 the distance the letters were conveyed, being charged 
 in addition. 
 
 No letter was to be rated higher than as a treble 
 letter, unless it should be i oz. in weight ; and all 
 letters of i oz. to be rated as four single letters, and 
 every I oz. in excess to be reckoned as a single letter. 
 These rates were still further augmented a few years 
 later, which continued to be in force till the 5th of 
 December, 1839 • — 
 
 In Great Britain. 
 
 Postage of a 
 Single Letter- 
 From any Post Office in England or Wales 
 
 to any place not exceeding 15 miles 
 
 Above 15 miles and not exceeding 20 miles 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 50 
 
 80 
 
 120 
 
 170 
 
 230 
 
 And so in proportion ; the postage increasing pro- 
 
 lues 
 
 ■• 20 miles 
 
 4a. 
 5d. 
 
 30 ,, 
 
 6d. 
 
 50 „ 
 
 7d. 
 
 80 „ 
 
 8d. 
 
 120 „ 
 
 9d. 
 
 170 „ 
 
 lod. 
 
 230 „ 
 
 I Id. 
 
 300 „ 
 
 1 2d.
 
 POSTAL RATES AND REGULATIONS. 93 
 
 gressively id. for every single letter for every like 
 distance of lOO miles. 
 
 On the 5th of December, 1839, a uniform rate of 
 4d. per letter was introduced, as an experiment to- 
 wards testing the advisability of reducing the postage 
 by degrees to the penny rate, and probably to ascer- 
 tain the capabilities of the establishment in collecting 
 and delivering a considerably increased number of 
 letters. 
 
 The lOth of January following (1840) was the day 
 which witnessed the most beneficent and useful 
 of all postal reforms, viz., the adoption of a uniform 
 rate of id. per half-ounce, for all letters to or from 
 any part of the United Kingdom and the Channel 
 Islands. A further reduction to id. an ounce for 
 every ounce above the first, came into operation in 
 April, 1865. Another important improvement and 
 reduction, for many business purposes, was the adop- 
 tion and issue of the halfpenny post-cards, on the ist 
 of October, 1870. In consequence of the urgent re- 
 monstrances of the wholesale stationers against 
 these cards being sold without any charge beyond 
 the postage, the Government subsequently restricted 
 their sale to packets of 12, at yd. a packet, or 
 8d. for those of a superior quality, thus depriving 
 poor persons of the privilege of communicating 
 with their friends by the purchase of a single card. 
 This restriction has been recently relaxed, and the
 
 94 
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 following scale of prices fixed by the Postmaster- 
 General : — 
 
 Stout Post Cards. 
 
 TJiin Post Cards. 
 
 
 d 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 .. 2 
 
 d 
 
 4 ... 2f 
 
 5 ... 3i 
 
 6 ... 4 
 
 d 
 
 1 ... 1 
 
 2 ... l\ 
 
 3 ... If 
 
 4 ... 
 
 5 ... 
 
 6 ... 
 
 3 
 3^ 
 
 Foreign, ild. each. 
 
 This may be looked upon as tending in the right 
 direction to revert to the original tariff of a halfpenny 
 post-card. It is also to be hoped that the double 
 post-cards now in use in some parts of the Continent, 
 to enable the receiver to send back an answer free of 
 expense, will speedily be introduced in this country. 
 
 It should be noted that there is no card-post to 
 British India. 
 
 Newspaper Post. — It may be useful here to give 
 the definition of a newspaper according to the " Post 
 Office Act, 1870." The following are the conditions 
 required to be fulfilled by a publication before it is 
 entitled to be registered at the General Post Office, 
 and for which an annual fee of 5 s. is charged. 
 
 1st. The publication must consist wholly or in 
 great part of political or other news, or of articles 
 relating thereto, or to other current topics, with or 
 without advertisements.
 
 POSTAL RATES AND REGULATIONS. 95 
 
 2nd. It must be printed and published in the 
 United Kingdom, must be published in numbers at 
 intervals of not more than seven days, and must be 
 printed on ta. sheet or sheets unstitched. 
 
 3rd. The full title and date of publication must be 
 printed at the top of the first page, and the whole or 
 part of the title and the date of publication at the top 
 of every subsequent page. 
 
 4th. A supplement must consist wholly or in great 
 part of matter like that of a newspaper, or of adver- 
 tisements, printed on a sheet or sheets, or on a piece 
 or pieces of paper unstitched ; or wholly or in part of 
 engravings, prints, or lithographs illustrative of articles 
 in the newspaper. The supplement must in every 
 case be published with the newspaper, and must have 
 the title and date of publication of the newspaper 
 printed at the top of every page ; or, if it consists of 
 engravings, prints, or lithographs, at the top of every 
 sheet or side. 
 
 During the time when newspapers paid a stamp 
 duty, they were conveyed free by post. The first 
 duty of one penny was imposed in June, 17 12, for 
 the purpose of checking seditious papers. In 1724, a 
 penny was charged for every sheet, and a half-penny 
 for every half-sheet. In 1761, the duty was one 
 penny, or £4 is. 8d. per thousand. In 1776, the duty 
 was raised to i^d. ; in 1789, to 2d. ; in 1794, to 2id. ; 
 in 1797 to Shd. ; and in 1815, to 4d. In 1836 it was
 
 96 
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 reduced to id. and id. for supplements, and was 
 finally abolished (with the exception of the com- 
 pulsory stamp being retained for postal purposes) in 
 1855. On the 30th September, 1870, the impressed 
 stamps were done away with entirely, and hd. stamps 
 affixed to the covers came into use on the following 
 day. Stamped wrappers were subsequently issued. 
 
 The half-penny stamp serves for a newspaper of 
 any weight, but if a packet containing two or more 
 papers, weighs under 2 oz., it will be charged as if it 
 were a box packet of the same weight, viz. |d. 
 
 Formerly newspapers (when stamped) might be 
 transmitted free more than once, but this privilege is 
 now withdrawn. 
 
 The last regulations for transmission and retrans- 
 mission of stamped newspapers contained the 
 following scale of stamps and dimensions of news- 
 paper : — 
 
 Impressed Stamp. 
 
 Number of Slieets. 
 
 Superficial Extent of 
 Letter-Press on one side. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 incJies. 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 2-295 
 
 li 
 
 3 
 
 3-445 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 4-590 
 
 For transmission abroad, newspapers may be pub- 
 lished at intervals of 3 1 days, and the postage must
 
 POSTAL RATES AND REGULATIONS. 97 
 
 in all cases be prepaid in stamps. All newspapers 
 for transmission abroad must be posted within eight 
 days from the day of publication, or they will be 
 charged at the rate of book postage. 
 
 No packet of newspapers must be above two feet 
 in length, or one in width or depth. For inland 
 postage it must not exceed 14 lbs. in weight, but for 
 abroad, the weight varies in different countries. The 
 postal rate to the different European countries, the 
 United States, and our principal Colonies, is id. for 
 every 4 oz., and to British India 2d. for the same 
 weight, via Brindisi, and id. vid Southampton. 
 
 Book Post. — A Treasury Warrant was issued on 
 the 5th June, 1855, providing for the carriage by post 
 of books, pamphlets, &c., at the rate of 4 oz. for id. 
 This rate was altered on the 7th October, 1870, to|d. 
 under 2 oz., and |d. for every additional 2 oz. 
 
 Circulars — i.e., letters which, according to internal 
 evidence, are being sent in identical terms to several 
 persons, and the whole or the greater part of which is 
 printed, engraved, or lithographed, may also be sent 
 by book post. 
 
 No Book Packet may be above 5 lbs. in weight nor 
 above i ft. 6 in. long, 9 in. wide, or 6 in. deep. 
 
 H
 
 ^8 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 COLONIAL AND FOREIGN BOOK POST. 
 
 The rate in the European countries, the United 
 States, and our principal colonies, is id. for every 2 oz., 
 and to British India {vice Brindisi) 3d. for every 2 oz., 
 and 2d. for the same weight via Southampton. 
 
 COLONIAL AND FOREIGN PATTERN AND 
 SAMPLE POST. 
 
 There is a Pattern and Sample Post to most of our 
 Colonies, as well as the principal Foreign Countries ; 
 but it is restricted to dona fide trade patterns or 
 samples of merchandise. The rates of postage are 
 the same as for book packets. The packet must not 
 .exceed 24 inches in length, or 12 inches in width or 
 d.epth. 
 
 INDIAN PARCEL POST. 
 
 Parcels to any part of British India can be sent 
 through the Indian Parcel Post Agency, at 22, 
 Leadenhall Street, and (Branch Office) at 25, Cockspur 
 Street. 
 
 The charge is is. per lb., prepayment optional.
 
 INDIAN PARCEL POST. 
 
 99 
 
 Insurance may be effected, if desired, at the rate (to 
 be prepaid) of is. up to ^3 value, 2s. 6d. up to ;^io 
 value, and 5s. up to £20 value. The maximum 
 weight, size, and value of a parcel are : — Weight 50 lbs., 
 size 2 feet long by i foot broad, and i foot deep, 
 value £20. 
 
 The following are forbidden contents : — Jewelry, 
 watches, precious stones, liquids, or articles of a 
 dangerous or damaging nature. 
 
 The above information is as much probably as will 
 be useful to the general reader. The regulations and 
 charges of the Post Office are constantly changing, 
 but the fullest and latest particulars are to be found 
 in the British Postal Guide. 
 
 This useful little book, which (as is stated on the 
 title-page) contains the chief public regulations of 
 the Post Office, with other information, is published 
 quarterly by command of the Postmaster-General. 
 It is issued at the small price of 6d. and contains full 
 particulars of Rates of Postage, British and Foreign 
 list of Mails, Post Offices in the United Kingdom, 
 Telegraph Stations and Regulations, a list of the 
 principal streets in the London postal district, and 
 the districts in which they are situated, the regulations 
 of the Savings Bank Department, and list of the 
 different branch offices, Tables of Life Insurance and 
 Annuities, and many other matters connected with the 
 various departments of the Post Office. Any person
 
 100 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 may prevent delay in obtaining a copy of the Guide, 
 by giving his name to a postmaster as a regular 
 purchaser, and paying the cost in advance. 
 
 The other publications of the Post-Office are : — 
 
 1. The Postmaster-General's Annual Report, to 
 be had at Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode's, East 
 Harding Street, Fetter Lane, E.G., and at Mr. 
 Hansard's, 13, Great Queen Street, W.C. — Price 3d., 
 by post, 4d. 
 
 2. List of Places Abroad, containing about 8,000 
 places not mentioned in the Postal Guide, to be had 
 of all Postmasters. 
 
 3. Foreign Telegrams, including Tariff and List of 
 Foreign Telegraph Offices, prices 2s., or 2s. 3|d. by 
 post, on application to the Storekeeper, General Post 
 Office, London. 
 
 4 Local Postal Guides. 
 
 5. Post-office Daily List, single numbers i|d. each, 
 or £1 per annum, weekly edition, 5s. per annum. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF POSTAGE STAMPS AND 
 ENVELOPES. 
 
 Post-paid envelopes were in use in France in the 
 time of Louis XIV. Pelisson states that they origin- 
 ated in 1653 with M. de Velayer, who established,
 
 INTRODUCTION OF POSTAGE STAMPS AND ENVELOPES. lOI 
 
 under royal authority, a private penny-post in Paris. 
 He placed boxes at the corners of the principal streets 
 to receive the letters, which were obliged to be 
 enclosed in these envelopes. 
 
 They were suggested to the Government by Mr. 
 Charles Whiting in 1830, and the eminent publisher, 
 the late Mr. Charles Knight, also proposed stamped 
 covers for papers. Dr. T. E. Gray, of the British 
 Museum, claimed the credit of suggesting that letters 
 should be prepaid by the use of stamps as early as 
 1834. 
 
 The subject was, very naturally, discussed by the 
 authorities on the proposed introduction of the penny- 
 postage ; and on the 23rd of August, 1839, Govern- 
 ment issued an advertisement, inviting " all artists, 
 men of science, and the public in general," to offer 
 proposals " as to the manner in which the stamp may 
 best be brought into use." Two prizes were offered, 
 one of ;^200, and the other ;^ioo, and three months 
 allowed for sending in plans. Mr. Mulready's (R.A.) 
 design for envelopes was accepted. It was an alle- 
 gorical drawing, intended to represent the benefits of 
 the circulation of letters all over the world. Those 
 printed in black represented id. postage, and the 
 blue 2d. They were received by the public with an 
 immense amount of ridicule, and were withdrawn 
 after having been in use six months. Government 
 now offered ^500, for the best design and plan for a
 
 102 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 simple postage label. Although a thousand were 
 sent in, not one of them was chosen. The Post Office 
 and Stamp Office authorities then jointly concocted 
 the postage stamp now in use. They were originally 
 printed with black ink, but it being found that the 
 red cancelling marks were easily removed without 
 defacing the stamp, the colour was changed to brown, 
 and afterwards to red. Blue was adopted for the 2d. 
 stamp, and has never been changed. Other colours 
 have been added as fresh stamps have been intro- 
 duced. The present style of envelope, with the 
 medallion printed on a peculiar kind of paper with 
 lines of thread or silk stretched through it, quickly 
 followed. 
 
 Eight years elapsed before any foreign country 
 followed our example in using stamps, which were 
 introduced into France only in 1848. They were 
 soon afterwards adopted by the principal European 
 States and in America. 
 
 The perforating machine, Avhich was invented by 
 Mr. Henry Archer, was purchased by the Government 
 in 1852, for ;^ 4,000, for the double purpose of guarding 
 against fraud, and facilitating the task of separating 
 one stamp from another.* 
 
 * We may here suggest a great improvement in the perforation of 
 stamps. Were they oval, thus O O, the separation would be 
 quicker, bettei", and less likely to tear them, than is now so often the 
 case.
 
 POSTAGE STAMPS EXCHANGED FOR MONEY. IO3 
 
 POSTAGE STAI\IPS EXCHANGED FOR MONEY. 
 
 To discourage the transmission of coin by post, all 
 postmasters in the United Kingdom at whose offices 
 money-order business is transacted, and all letter 
 receivers in the London district, are permitted, though 
 not compelled, to purchase postage stamps from the 
 public, if not soiled or damaged, at a charge of 2I- 
 per cent, the charge, however, never being less than 
 ^d. Under this arrangement the payments are as 
 follows : — For stamps not exceeding is. 8d. in value, 
 the full price, minus -id. Above is. 8d. and not 
 exceeding 3s 46, the full price, minus id., and so in pro- 
 portion for larger amounts. 
 
 TOWN DELIVERIES OF LETTERS. 
 
 The portion of each postal district within about three 
 miles of the General Post Office is designated the 
 town delivery, and the remainder the suburban. 
 
 Within the limits of the east-central district there 
 are daily twelve deliveries, and within the town limits 
 of the other districts eleven deliveries : — The first, or 
 general post delivery, including all Inland, Colonial, 
 and Foreign letters arriving in sufficient time, com-
 
 104 "THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 mences about 7.30 a.m., and, except on Mondays, or 
 on other days when there are large arrivals of letters 
 from abroad, is generally completed throughout 
 London by nine o'clock. In the eastern-central 
 district the second delivery begins about 8.40 a.m. 
 and includes the correspondence received by night 
 mail from Ireland, and by the North mails arriving 
 at 6.40 and 8.0 a.m. ; and the third delivery in this 
 district, corresponding with the second in other dis- 
 tricts, is made at about 10 a.m. and includes the 
 letters collected in London generally at 8.45 a.m., and 
 the correspondence by the Scotch mail arriving about 
 9 a.m. The next nine deliveries are made in every 
 district hourly, and include all letters reaching the 
 General Post Office, or the district offices, in time for 
 each despatch. The last delivery, extending to all 
 the districts, begins at about 7.45 p.m. Each delivery 
 within the town limits occupies one hour. 
 
 SUBURBAN DEUVERIES. 
 
 There are six despatches daily in the suburban 
 districts. The first (at 6.30 a.m.) is to all places 
 within the London district, and includes the cor- 
 respondence by the night mails from the provinces, 
 and any Colonial or Foreign mails arriving in sufficient
 
 REGISTERED LETTERS. IO5 
 
 time. This delivery is generally completed in the 
 nearer suburbs by 9 a.m., and at the more distant 
 between 9 and 10 a.m. The second despatch (at 9.30 
 a.m.) is to the nearer suburban districts only. The 
 third despatch (at 11.30 a.m.) comprises, with a few 
 exceptions, every part of the London district. The 
 fourth despatch (at 2.30 p.m.) is to most of the subur- 
 ban districts. The fifth (at 4.30 p.m.) extends to the 
 whole of the suburban districts, and, except in the 
 remote rural places, the letters are delivered the same 
 evening. The sixth despatch is at 7 p.m. Letters 
 for this despatch posted at the town receiving-houses 
 and pillar-boxes by 6 p.m., or at the chief office of the 
 district to which they are addressed by 7.30 p.m. are 
 delivered the same evening : except at a few distant 
 places, where the delivery is made early the following 
 morning. The deliveries begin from one to two hours 
 after the stated time of despatch, according to the 
 distance from London. 
 
 REGISTERED LETTERS. 
 
 The fee for registering a letter, newspaper, or book- 
 packet, passing between any two places in the United 
 Kingdom, was reduced, on the ist of January in the 
 present year, from 4d. to 2d. The fee chargeable for
 
 I06 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 registration to places abroad will be found in the 
 " Postal Guide." 
 
 Besides the reduction of the registration fee, the 
 public will be much benefited by rural post messengers 
 being now permitted to register letters on their rounds; 
 by compensation up to ^2, in the event of a letter con- 
 taining an enclosure of intrinsic value being lost in 
 the post ; and by the sale at all post-offices and by 
 the rural post messengers, of registered-letter envelopes, 
 bearing a 2d. stamp for the payment of the registra- 
 tion fee. These envelopes (of which at present only 
 two sizes are issued) are 5|in. by 3 in. and 6 in. by 
 3-4- in. They are sold for 2-^-d. each, or 2s. 2hd. per 
 packet of 12. The ordinary postage fee must be pre- 
 paid by affixing the necessary stamps. 
 
 The following conditions must be complied with tO' 
 enable persons to recover compensation for the loss of 
 a registered letter. That the sender duly observed all 
 the conditions of registration required ; that it was 
 enclosed in a reasonably strong envelope ; and, if it 
 contained money, that it was enclosed in one of the 
 special registered-letter envelopes sold by the Post 
 Office. Application must be made to the Secretary of 
 the Post Office immediately on the loss of a registered 
 letter being discovered ; and when the complaint is that 
 the contents of a letter have been abstracted, the 
 envelope must accompany the application, otherwise 
 the question of compensation will not be entertained..
 
 REGISTERED LETTERS. lOT" 
 
 The Postmaster-General, Avhose decision shall be final, 
 must be satisfied that the loss occurred while the letter 
 was in the custody of the British Post Ofiice, and was 
 not caused by any contributory negligence on the part 
 of the sender. A letter intended to be registered 
 must not be dropped into a letter-box, but must be 
 given to an agent of the Post Office, whether a post- 
 master, his assistant, or a rural post messenger. Inland 
 letters containing coin, jewelry, or watches cannot 
 be sent unregistered, and if dropped into a letter- 
 box they will, as heretofore, be compulsorily regis- 
 tered by the Post Office, and charged on deliveiy 
 with a registration fee of 8d., four times the fee proposed 
 to be charged under the new system. A similar fee of 
 8d. will be charged on letters, without regard to the con- 
 tents, marked with the word " Registered," but dropped 
 into the ordinary letter-box instead of being handed 
 to an agent of the Post Office, in accordance with the 
 regulation above mentioned. Under the regulations 
 of the General Postal Union, no letter containing coin, 
 jewelry, or watches can be sent, even if registered, to 
 any foreign country ; and this regulation, which 
 appears to be hardly sufficiently well understood, will 
 hold good under the new system. The Postmaster- 
 General hopes that now registration is made so cheap 
 and so easy, the public will altogether abstain from 
 sending letters containing enclosures of value through 
 the post unregistered.
 
 I08 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF PILLAR BOXES. 
 
 The first pillar-post was erected at the corner of 
 Farringdon Street and Fleet Street and came into 
 use in March, 1855. They were soon extended to all 
 parts of the metropolis as well as to many country 
 districts. In i860 they numbered 1,958 ; 1862, 3,460 ; 
 1875, 10,186; 1876, 10,835. 
 
 These boxes are intended for letters only, and 
 newspapers and book-packets when placed in them 
 are liable to detention. 
 
 On the inside of the door of one of these boxes is a 
 hook on which is suspended a green paper which 
 states on it the time of clearance. This is called the 
 bill, and the postman has to bring it away with him, 
 and tie it up with his bundle of letters. Its production 
 at the receiving office is the proof that the box has 
 been duly cleared. 
 
 THE GENERAL POSTAL UNION. 
 
 A Postal congress was assembled at Berne, on the 
 invitation of the German Government, in the month 
 of September, 1874, at which a draft article of Treaty 
 to establish a General Postal Union was discussed by
 
 ENCLOSURES IN NEWSPAI'EKS. IO9 
 
 representatives from all the States of Europe, as well 
 as from the United States of America and Egypt. A 
 treaty was concluded and signed on the 9th October, 
 by all except France ; but she joined at a subsequent 
 meeting, it being stipulated that while it should take 
 effect in other countries on the ist July, 1875, it 
 should not come into operation in France till the 
 ist of January, 1876. 
 
 Under this treaty it was arranged that the |- oz. 
 should be the uniform weight for a single letter, for 
 which the postage, prepaid, should be 2|d. and postage 
 cards half that amount. Unpaid letters to be charged 
 double. Newspapers at the rate of 6d. for 4 oz. Books 
 and pattern packets id. for 2 oz. 
 
 The adoption of this plan has been a great boon to 
 commerce. The latest countries who have joined the 
 Union are Japan, Brazil, and the Portuguese Colonies. 
 Their rates are, however, twice as heavy as those above 
 mentioned — at least for letters and post -cards. 
 
 ENCLOSURES IN NEWSPAPERS. 
 
 About a quarter of a century ago the Post Office 
 made strenuous efforts to suppress a species of petty 
 fraud which was then very common, i.e., the inser- 
 tion of letters in newspapers, or writing on the
 
 mo THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 wrapper or inside of the paper itself. The public 
 .may not be aware that the Post Office authorities 
 possess a very ingenious means, which, however, it 
 would not be proper for us to reveal, for the detection 
 of such petty frauds. At the time we mention, the 
 following are a few samples of the punishments in- 
 flicted upon the offenders, or rather, we should say, 
 the friends of the offenders, because in all such cases 
 the penalty had to be paid by the receiver of the 
 paper : — 
 
 For writing on the Envelope. 
 
 Postage charged by weight. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 "AVith speed" i 2 
 
 " Send soon " ... ... ... .... i o 
 
 " To be punctually forwarded " ... ... i 4 
 
 "With my Compliments"... ... ... i 2 
 
 " It is requested that this paper be de- 
 livered without delay, otherwise a 
 complaint will be made to head- 
 quarters ... ... ... ... I o 
 
 " Postman, you be honest and true " ... i 2 
 
 For merely writing in the Inside. 
 Postage charged by weight. 
 
 'From John (not Lord John)" i 
 
 s. d. 
 
 o
 
 THE POST OFFICE LIBRARY. 
 
 11 I 
 
 
 s. 
 
 (Y. 
 
 ^* My love to Jessie " 
 
 ... I 
 
 n 
 
 "My sweetest" 
 
 ... I 
 
 4 
 
 "All's well" 
 
 ... I 
 
 
 
 "Do come" 
 
 ... I 
 
 '7 
 
 "One o'clock on the loth" 
 
 ... 
 
 10 
 
 " No news yet" 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 "Mrs. B. is suckling" 
 
 ... I 
 
 4 
 
 THE POST OFFICE LIBRARY. 
 
 The Post Office Library and Literary Association was 
 formed in 1858, and is now very useful and flourish- 
 ing. There had previously been a small library 
 attached to one of the minor branches in London ; 
 but in the above year it was decided to establish one 
 on a larger and broader basis, to include the higher 
 officers and clerks in all the departments. After 
 doing all they could themsjlves (and we miss no 
 prominent official name among the very liberal donors 
 of money and books on the occasion), the promoters 
 appealed to the public, and met with many cordial 
 and handsome responses. The late Prince Consort 
 sent the sum of ;^5o, and the Postmaster-General 
 (Lord Colchester) gave ;^25. Many well-known 
 names in the world of literature, and many of tlire
 
 112 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 London publishers sent books. Messrs. Smith and 
 Son sent 300 volumes, with the message that "the 
 Post-Office does so much for us, and does it so 
 well, that we feel it a privilege to take part in this 
 undertaking." The institution possesses a fine reading 
 room.* 
 
 I 
 
 CURIOUS POSTAL STATISTICS. 
 
 The total estimated number of letters which passed 
 through the Post-Office in 1876 throughout the United 
 Kingdom was 1,018,955,200, of which, in round num- 
 bers, 856,000,000 are credited to England and Wales, 
 71,792,000 to Ireland, and 91,120,000 to Scotland. 
 The total number of post-cards passing through the 
 Post-Office in the same period was 92,935,700, and the 
 number of book-packets and newspapers 298,790,000, 
 the total estimated number of newspapers being 
 125,065,800. There was only an increase of i per 
 cent, in the number of letters posted as compared 
 with the previous year ; but the increase in the use of 
 post-cards was 67 per cent, and in the number of 
 book-packets and newspapers transmitted &8 per 
 cent. The proportion of letters to population is as 
 35 to one in England, 13 to one in Ireland, and 26 ta 
 
 * Lewin: Her Majesty's Mails.
 
 CURIOUS POSTAL STATISTICS. II3 
 
 one in Scotland — an average of 31 per head of the 
 population throughout the United Kingdom. The 
 number of registered letters during 1876 was 5,095,1 16, 
 but of these ^Gjydi^S were official remittance letters. 
 Excluding these, the ratio of registered to ordinary- 
 letters is as I to 241. This is the first time for 
 several years that the number of registered letters has 
 been ascertained by actual counting. 
 
 The average daily number of remittances from the 
 head office to postmasters, of postage and telegraph 
 stamps, post-cards, newspaper wrappers, and embossed 
 envelopes, which are forwarded as registered packets, 
 is 700, weighing in the aggregate from 3 to 3 tons, 
 and occasionally exceeding 4 tons, in weight. A 
 registered letter addressed to a bank was observed to 
 be altogether unfastened, and it contained bank notes 
 ■of the value of ;^ 3,000. During the fifteen months 
 ended the 31st of March, 1877, the number of letters 
 received in the Returned Letter Office was 5,897,724, 
 being an estimated increase per annum upon the 
 numbers of 1875 of 371,890. The number of letters 
 sent to the Returned Letter Office was about one in 
 every 216 of the total number of letters. It was 
 found possible either to return to the writers or re- 
 issue nearly nine-tenths of the whole number re- 
 ceived. Other instances of carelessness are given. 
 Upwards of 33,100 letters were posted without ad- 
 dresses, and Z2>2 of these letters were found to contain 
 
 I
 
 114 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 altogether nearly ;^ 390 in cash and bank notes, and 
 nearly ;^ 5,000 in cheques. In different post-offices 
 78,575 postage stamps were found loose, through 
 being insecurely affixed by the senders. The number 
 of newspapers for places abroad, detained for insuffi- 
 cient postage or other cause, was 203,335 ; and 14,346 
 miscellaneous articles reached the Returned Letter 
 Office wholly destitute of covers, chiefly through the 
 use of flimsy covers quite unsuitable for the purpose. 
 Then, in spite of money-orders and registration, the 
 public will continue to send money by unsafe means. 
 Four sovereigns were found in one newspaper in the 
 Returned Letter Office ; a gold locket Avas in another; 
 and a large seal on the back of a letter becoming 
 chipped,;!^! los. in gold was found embedded in the 
 wax. Shabby people try to defraud the Post Office 
 by concealing in the folds of newspapers such things 
 as cigars, tobacco, collars, seaweed, ferns and flowers, 
 gloves, handkerchiefs, music, patterns, stockings, 
 money, postage stamps, and, worse than all — perhaps 
 a pious fraud — sermons. 
 
 IS THE SCHOOL BOARD AN UNNECESSARY 
 INSTITUTION ? 
 
 Will it be believed that in the Report of the Post- 
 master-General for 1875, he has occasion to write as
 
 IS THE SCHOOL BOARD AN UNNECESSARY INSTITUTION ? 1x5 
 
 follows ? — It seems to us so astonishing that a large 
 portion of the public are so ignorant, that they cannot 
 understand the simplest forms of the English language. 
 The rules for the transmission of letters, newspapers, 
 and small parcels are published by the Post Office 
 authorities in very plain and sensible terms; neverthe- 
 less, the people do not seem to be able to keep them- 
 selves free from errors. 
 
 The Post Office, while fulfilling its first duty to the 
 public by affording means for the rapid transmission 
 of correspondence, is also made the vehicle of convey- 
 ance for small articles of almost endless variety ; and 
 the following were observed passing through the post 
 during the year, vi::., silkworms and gentles ; flowers, 
 fruits, and vegetables ; various kinds of game ; wear- 
 ing apparel ; models of metal fittings and toys ; 
 leeches, snails, eggs, six white mice, a sparrow, two 
 snakes, a crayfish, and a dog. Several of these being 
 prohibited articles were sent to the Returned Letter 
 Office. 
 
 The dog was posted at the Lombard Street office, 
 and, having fallen into the bag affixed to the letter- 
 box, was not discovered until the contents were turned 
 out at St. Martin's-le-Grand. 
 
 The failure of letters to reach the persons for 
 whom they arc intended is not always attributable to 
 the Post Office. 
 
 An unregistered letter v/as recently received at
 
 Il6 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 Liverpool In a very thin cover bearing an almost 
 illegible address, and was delivered to a firm to whom 
 it was supposed to be directed. On being opened, 
 the letter and its enclosures, five ;^ioo notes, were 
 found to be intended for another firm, to whom 
 they were eventually delivered. 
 
 The following is a copy of the address of a letter 
 which also reached Liverpool, the names of persons 
 and places being here omitted. " This letter is for 
 
 Mrs. M. , she lives in some part of Liverpool. 
 
 From her father John , a tailor from ; 
 
 he would be thankful to some postmaster in Liverpool 
 if he would find her out." The addressee, unfortunately, 
 could not be found, and the letter was sent to the 
 Returned Letter Office. 
 
 It happens not unfrequently that complaints are 
 made of the failure both of letters and telegrams, 
 which, after inquiry has taken place, are found in the 
 waste-paper baskets or pockets of the addressees. 
 
 Superstition rarely stands in the way of the ex- 
 tension of postal accommodation or convenience ; but 
 a case of the kind recently occurred in the west of 
 Ireland. Application was made for the erection of a 
 wall letter-box, and authority had been granted for 
 setting it up ; but when arrangements came to be 
 made for providing for the collection of letters, no one 
 could be found to undertake the duty, in consequence 
 of a general belief among the poorer people in the
 
 POST OFFICE DESPATCH. II/ 
 
 neighbourhood that, at that particular spot, " a ghost 
 went out nightly on parade." The ghost was stated 
 to be a large white turkey without a head. 
 
 POST OFFICE DESPATCH. 
 
 Under date of December 8, 1839, the following cir- 
 cumstance is recorded in the Annual Register : — An 
 amusing incident occurred at Windsor this evening. 
 A carriage-and-four drove up to the palace, and 
 out stepped a personage attired like a foreigner of 
 distinction, on his travels ; with a foraging-cap, a 
 boa wound round his neck, and furred gloves. 
 He announced himself as the bearer of important 
 despatches, which must be delivered immediately into 
 the Queen's own hands. Her Majesty, on receiving 
 a communication to this effect, sent orders to the 
 foreign gentleman to deliver up his packets. This he 
 sturdily refused to do. An officer of the household was 
 deputed to obtain the documents, but with no better 
 success. Colonel Grey, equerry in waiting, went on 
 the same errand ; but was assured that the Queen's 
 autographical command would alone procure the 
 precious deposit. An inspector of police, stationed 
 at the castle, then received orders to convey the furrecf 
 gentleman to the station-house. There he displayed 
 some newspapers addressed to the Queen, v.ith a
 
 Il8 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 foreign postmark ; declaring that he could not, con- 
 sistently with the oath he had taken, deliver them up 
 without the Queen's command in her own hand-writing. 
 Persuasion being useless, the papers were taken from 
 the man by force. 
 
 It turned out that this mysterious personage was a 
 Mr. Saunders, a clerk in the Post Office, St. Martin's- 
 le-Grand ! The same morning, being Sunday, after 
 the usual despatch had been forwarded to Windsor 
 it was discovered that one parcel had been left 
 behind ; the clerks were told by their superior, that 
 they must bear among themselves the expense of 
 sending the packet to Windsor : Saunders said he 
 was going past Buckingham Palace, and would see 
 whether it could not be forwarded thence to the 
 Queen ; but instead of this, he preferred making the 
 ridiculous expedition to Windsor, in the hope of 
 obtaining an interview with royalty. 
 
 After passing Sunday night in the station-house, 
 Saunders was taken in custody to London, and for a 
 time suspended from his employment at the Post Office. 
 
 THE POETRY OF POST OFFICE LIFE. 
 
 Scarcely a day passes in any of our provincial 
 post-offices without some incident occurring calcu- 
 lated to surprise, amuse, or sadden. Very probably
 
 THE POETRY OF POST OFFICE LIFE. II9 
 
 within a few minutes one person will have come to 
 make a complaint that a certain letter or letters ought 
 to have arrived, and must have been kept back ; 
 another will make an equally unreasonable request, 
 or propound some strange inquiry, which the poor 
 post-office clerk is supposed to be omniscient enough 
 to answer. Most often, however, the cases of inquiry 
 disclose sorrowful facts, and all the consolation which 
 can be offered — supposing that the clerk has any of 
 "the milk of human kindness" in him, a quality of 
 mind or heart much too rare, we confess, in the Post 
 Office service — will likely be the consolation of hope. 
 Amusing circumstances are often brought out by re- 
 quests tendered at the post-office, that letters which 
 have been posted may be returned to the writers. 
 A formal but most essential rule makes letters once 
 posted the property of the Postmaster-General until 
 they are delivered as addressed, and they must not be 
 given up to the luritcrs on any pretence whatever. 
 One or two requests of this kind related to us we are 
 not likely soon to forget. On one occasion, a gentle- 
 manly-looking commercial traveller called at an office 
 and expressed a fear that he had enclosed two letters 
 in wrong envelopes, the addresses of which he fur- 
 nished. It appeared from the account which he re- 
 luctantly gave, after a refusal to grant his request, 
 that his position and prospects depended upon his 
 getting his letters, and correcting the mistak-es, inas-
 
 I20 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 much as they revealed plans which he had adopted 
 to serve two mercantile houses in the same line of 
 business, whose interests clashed at every point. He 
 failed to get his letters, but we hope he has retrieved 
 himself, and is now serving one master faithfully. 
 
 Another case occurred in which a fast young 
 gentleman confessed to carrying on a confidential 
 correspondence with two young ladies at the same 
 time, and that he had, or feared he had, crossed two 
 letters which he had written at the same sitting. We 
 heartily hope a full exposure followed. Writing of 
 this, we are reminded of a case where a country post- 
 master had a letter put into his hand through the 
 office window, together with the following message, 
 delivered with great emphasis : — " Here's a letter ; 
 she wants it to go along as fast as it can, 'cause there's 
 a feller wants to have her here, and she's courted 
 by another feller that's not here, and she wants to 
 know whether he is going to have her or not." 
 
 These cases, however, are uninteresting compared 
 with one related by another postmaster. A tradesman's 
 daughter, who had been for some time engaged to a 
 prosperous young draper in a neighbouring town, 
 heard from one whom she and her parents considered 
 a credible authority, that he was on the verge of 
 bankruptcy. " Not a day was to be lost in breaking 
 the bond by which she and her small fortune were 
 linked to penury." A letter, strong and conclusive in 
 
 I
 
 THE POETRY OF POST OFFICE LIFE. 121 
 
 its language, was at once written and posted, when 
 the same informant called upon the young lady's 
 friends to contradict and explain his previous state- 
 ment, which had arisen out of a misunderstanding. 
 " They rushed at once to the post-office, and no 
 words can describe the scene ; the reiterated appeals, 
 the tears, the wringing of hands, the united entreaties 
 of father, mother, and daughter, for the restoration of 
 the fatal letter." But the rule admitted of no excep- 
 tion, and the young lady had to repent at leisure her 
 inordinate haste. 
 
 We close with a graphic extract from the reminis- 
 cences of a Post Office official, in which the every-day 
 life of a country post-office is admirably described : — 
 " For the poor we are often persuaded both to read 
 and write their letters ; and the Irish especially, with 
 whom penmanship was a rare accomplishment, seldom 
 failed to succeed in their eloquent petitions ; though 
 no one can realize the difficulty of writing from a 
 Paddy's dictation, where 'the pratees, and the pig, and 
 the priest, God bless him !' become involved in one long, 
 perplexed sentence, without any period from begin- 
 ning to end of the letter. One such epistle, the main 
 topic of which was an extravagant lamentation over the 
 death of a wife, rose to the pathetic climax, ' and now 
 I am obleeged to wash meeself, and bake meeself !' "* 
 
 * Lewin : Her Majesty's Mnils.
 
 122 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 THE MONEY-ORDER OFFICE. 
 
 This ofifice was originally founded in 1792. No Order 
 could then be issued for more than five guineas, and 
 the charge for that amount was 4s. 6d,, or nearly five 
 per cent. It was, in fact, a private speculation of three 
 of the Post Office officials. In 1838 it was made a 
 branch of the general Institution, and two rooms and 
 a staff of three clerks were considered a sufficient pro- 
 vision for carrying on the business of the department. 
 Before the establishment of this branch the following 
 were the postal directions as to the transmission of bank 
 notes, money, and other valuables through the Post : — 
 
 BANK NOTES AND DRAFTS. 
 Persons wishing to send bank notes or drafts by post, 
 are advised to cut such notes or drafts in halves, and 
 send them at two different times, waiting till the receipt 
 of one half is acknowledged before the other is sent. 
 
 MONEY, RINGS, OR LOGKETS, ETG. 
 
 When money, rings, or lockets, &c., are sent by the 
 post from London, particular care should be taken to 
 deliver the same to the clerk at the window at the 
 General Post Office ; and when any such letter is to be 
 sent from the country, it should be delivered into the 
 hands of the postmaster ; but it is to be observed that 
 .this office does not engage to insure the party from loss.
 
 THE MONEY-ORDER OFFICE. 1 23 
 
 The public were not slow to take advantage of tile 
 new facility for sending small amounts by means of 
 the Post-Office Orders. In 1839, 188,291 Orders were 
 issued for ;^3i3,i24; in i86r, 7,580,455 Orders were 
 issued for ^14,616,348 ; and in 1865 they had in- 
 creased in amount to ^17,829,290. 
 
 The following table gives the progress of this branch 
 from 1870 to 31st March, 1877. 
 
 Year. A mount. 
 
 1870 - - - i: 19,993.987 
 
 1871 - - - 22,098,589 
 
 1872 - - - 24,013,747 
 
 1873 - - - 25,600,069 
 
 1874 - - - 26,296,441 
 1S75 - - - 26,497,918 
 1877 - - - 27,516,698 
 
 ( Year ending "1,151 3 larch.) 
 
 The number of inland orders in the last-mentioned 
 year was 17,822,921. 
 
 The business soon outgrew the little accommodation 
 provided for it in St. Martin's-le-Grand, and a new 
 building was consequently erected in Aldersgate Street 
 
 The Orders were only issued at first for sums not ex- 
 ceeding^ 5, the charge being 3d. under £2, and 6d. be- 
 yond that amount. In 1862 they were extended to sums 
 not exceeding £ 10, the charges being 9d. for sums be- 
 t\veen^5 and £'/,^.\\d is. for sums between £"/ and £ 10.
 
 124 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 The amount of commission in 1863 was ;^ 144,000, 
 and for the financial year ending March 31st, 1876, 
 £ 222, 66g. 
 
 The commission on Inland Money Orders was for 
 some years past on the following scale : — 
 
 For sums under los. ... ... ... id. 
 
 „ of los. and under £1 ... 2d. 
 
 „£i „ £2 ... 3d. 
 
 ,,£2 „ £2, ... 4d. 
 
 and id. per ^ or fractional part up to ;^io. 
 
 On the 1st January, in the present year, the rate 
 for Orders under los. has been raised from id. to 2d., 
 and for Orders for los. and under £1 from 2d. to 3d. 
 The rate has been increased on account of the cost of 
 the Money-Order Office exceeding the revenue by 
 about ^10,000 a-year. The new tariff for registered 
 letters coupled with compensation, in the event of loss, 
 up to £2, will no doubt tend largely to diminish the 
 number of Orders for small amounts. 
 
 A Money Order, at the expiration of twelve months, 
 from that in which it was issued becomes legally void, 
 but when a good reason can be given for the delay in 
 presenting it, an application for payment, subject to a 
 certain deduction, is entertained. No application can 
 be entertained for compensation for alleged injury for 
 the nonpayment of a Money Order at the expected 
 time.
 
 THE MONEY-ORDER OFFICE. 1 25 
 
 After once paying a Money Order, by whomsoever 
 presented, the Office is not liable to any further claim. 
 
 To guard against any person who has become wrong- 
 fully possessed of a Money Order getting it cashed, the 
 authorities recommend the following precautions : — 
 
 1st. When the remitter is well known to the payee, to 
 sign the letter enclosing the order with his initials only. 
 
 2nd. When this is not the case, either to make the 
 Order payable ten days after date, or to register the 
 letter enclosing it, or to make the Order payable 
 through a bank by crossing it like an ordinary cheque. 
 
 3rd. When it is not considered expedient to adopt 
 •either of these courses, to send the remitter's name 
 (without a knowledge of which payment cannot be 
 obtained) in a separate letter from that containing the 
 Money Order ; although this latter precaution is much 
 less effective than either of the others. 
 
 Payment of an Order cannot be demanded the same 
 <3ay as that on which it was issued. 
 
 In case of the miscarriage, or loss, of an Inland 
 Money Order in transmission through the post, a 
 duplicate will be granted, free of charge, on a written 
 application, with the necessary particulars, being 
 forwarded to the Controller of the Money-Order Office 
 in England, Scotland, or Ireland, according to the 
 country in which the original Order was issued. 
 Should an Order be lost after the delivery of the letter 
 in which it was enclosed, an additional commission,
 
 126 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 ^vhich should be forwarded in postage stamps, together 
 with the appHcation for a dupHcate Order, will be 
 charged, This charge, for orders not exceeding £^, 
 will be IS. ; not exceeding ;;^io, 2s. If it be desired 
 to stop payment of an Inland Order, appHcation must 
 be made at the office where the Order is payable, and 
 a second commission must be paid. If alteration in 
 the name of a payee or remitter of an Inland Money 
 Order should be required, application, accompanied 
 by the payment of a second commission, must be 
 made by the remitter to the postmaster of the office 
 at which the order was issued. Should transfer of 
 payment of an Inland Order from one office to another 
 in the United Kingdom, or repayment of the amount 
 of an order, be required, an application, enclosing the 
 Order, must be made to the postmaster at whose office 
 the Order is payable, who will transmit in exchange a 
 new Order, payable at the place desired, but for a less 
 sum than the original Order by the amount of the 
 second commission charged for the re-issue. Proper 
 printed forms for making applications in all these 
 cases may be obtained at any Money-Order Office ; 
 and postmasters are required to give information how 
 to apply for duplicate Orders, &c. 
 
 No letter carrier, rural messenger, or other servant 
 of the Post Office is bound to procure a Money Order 
 for any person or to obtain payment for one, but such 
 services are not forbidden.
 
 THE MONEY-ORDER OFFICE. 
 
 127 
 
 On Auc^ust 5th, 1870, by virtue of a convention 
 with France, the system was brought into use with 
 that country. 
 
 Money Orders are now issued on the following. 
 Colonies, British Agencies and Foreign Countries : — 
 
 Alexandria 
 
 Berbice (New Amster- 
 dam) 
 Belgium 
 
 Belize (Brit. Honduras) 
 British Columbia 
 Cape of Good Hope 
 Canada 
 
 Ceylon (Colombo) 
 Constantinople 
 Coquimo 
 Demerara 
 Denmark 
 Egypt 
 
 Falkland Isles 
 France 
 
 German Empire 
 Gibraltar 
 <jold Coast 
 Heligoland 
 Holland 
 Honcr Kon^r 
 
 India 
 
 Italy 
 
 Malta 
 
 Mauritius 
 
 Natal 
 
 New Brunswick 
 
 Newfoundland 
 
 New South Wales 
 
 New Zealand 
 
 Norway 
 
 Nova Scotia 
 
 Panama 
 
 Prince Edward Island 
 
 Queensland 
 
 St. Helena 
 
 Seychelle Islands 
 
 Shanghai 
 
 Smyrna 
 
 South Australia 
 
 Straits Settlements 
 
 Suez 
 
 Switzerland
 
 128 
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 Tasmania 
 United States 
 Valparaiso 
 Victoria 
 
 West Coast of Africa 
 West Indies 
 Western Australia 
 Yokohama 
 
 It will be observed that neither with Russia, Austria, 
 Spain, Portugal, nor Sweden, is this safe and convenient 
 mode of transmitting small sums of money at present 
 established, although we have this privilege at Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 The scale of commission for Orders payable abroad 
 is as follows : — 
 
 For sums not exceeding... 
 
 O 
 
 /5 
 
 £i 
 
 /lO 
 
 If payable in Belgium,^ 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Denmark, France, the 
 
 
 
 
 
 German Empire, Heli- 
 
 
 
 
 
 goland, Holland, Italy, 
 
 9 
 
 I 6 
 
 2 3 
 
 3 
 
 Norway, Switzerland, 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gibraltar, Malta, Con- 
 
 
 
 
 
 stantinople, or Smyrna 
 
 
 
 
 
 Any other place abroad^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 on which Orders are 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 O 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 drawn (including most 
 
 
 
 
 i^ ^^ 
 
 of our Colonies) ^ 
 
 
 

 
 POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS. I29 
 
 POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS. 
 
 Early in November, 1856, Mr. John Bullar, the 
 eminent counsel, — whose attention had been directed 
 to the subject by the working of the Putney Penny 
 Bank, — suggested the employment of the Money-Order 
 department of the Post Office as an additional Savings 
 Bank agency ; and the subject was brought under 
 the notice of the Post Office authorities, but the 
 suggestion did not meet with approval at the time, 
 and nothing came of it. However, the subject was 
 revived by Mr. Charles W. Sikes, of the Huddersfield 
 Banking Company, in a letter to the Right Hon. W. E. 
 Gladstone, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 1859, 
 who, unconscious that the idea had occurred to others, 
 was struck by the facilities which the Money-Order 
 Office presented for the purpose. In his letter he 
 pointed out that one of the principal adv^antages of 
 the scheme was, that the organization of the Money- 
 Order department of the Post Office was in full 
 working efficiency, and was already extended to every 
 city and town, and to many villages of the United 
 Kingdom, He showed that wherever the local in- 
 spector of the Post Office had evidence that as many 
 as five Money Orders would be required in a week, the 
 practice was to make that branch of the Post Office a 
 money-order office. It was then estimated (1859), 
 
 K
 
 130 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 that such an Office was established, on an average, 
 within three miles of every working man's door in the 
 kingdom. These offices were open daily ; they re- 
 ceived money from all comers, and gave vouchers for 
 the amount transmitted through them ; they held 
 the money until it was dra^^•n, and paid it out on a 
 proper voucher being presented. The Post Office was, 
 in fact, a bank for the transmission of money, holding 
 it from periods of from twenty-four hours to weeks 
 and months. Mr. Sikes argued that the Post Office 
 should be enabled to hold more money from more 
 comers, and to increase the time of holding it, allow- 
 ing the usual interest ; and it would become, to all 
 intents and purposes, a national bank of deposit. 
 
 Mr. Sikes' plan was briefly this : that the money- 
 order offices be constituted receivers for a chief bank 
 in London ; that Commissioners of Savings Banks be 
 authorized by the Legislature to issue through them 
 savings bank interest notes, such notes, or receipts, to 
 bear interest at the rate of 2i- per cent, per annum ; 
 that the interest notes should be for exact pounds, 
 from one to thirty — the latter sum being the maxi- 
 mum allowed to be deposited in a savings bank in 
 one year. The interest notes would resemble the 
 deposit receipts, bearing interest, issued by joint stock 
 banks in England and Scotland, and would only be 
 negotiable at the money-order office by which they 
 were issued. The payment of 6d. on each transaction
 
 POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS. I3I 
 
 would leave a considerable profit to the Post Office. 
 Mr. Sikes carefully worked out his scheme in detail, 
 and it is to him more especially, and to Mr. Gladstone, 
 that we are indebted for the introduction of the Post 
 Office Savings Bank. With regard to the practical 
 working out of this scheme, and its adaptation to the 
 machinery of the Post Office, the public are chiefly 
 indebted to Mr. Scudamore, C.B., who first became 
 famous on account of the services he rendered in this 
 matter, and to Mr. Chetwynd, who was the first 
 Comptroller of the Post Office Savings Banks. 
 
 Though, as a general rule, the old Savings Banks 
 were in a sound condition, yet, through the frauds of 
 the actuaries and managers, it frequently happened 
 that one or other of them was broken up, which in- 
 flicted severe losses upon those who were least able 
 to bear it. There were also many places (more espe- 
 cially the rural districts) where Savings Banks did not 
 exist, or, if they did, where they were open only for an 
 hour or two, once a week. 
 
 It was thought that, by establishing a system of 
 Savings Banks connected with the Post Office, any 
 person might open an account any week-day, and 
 his money would be safely lodged with the Government. 
 He would also be able to make deposits, or to give 
 notice to withdraw the whole or part of his money at 
 any of these banks, in whatever part of the country 
 he might happen to be.
 
 13^ 
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 In order to prevent too great a rivalry with the old 
 banks, it was directed that the rate of interest to be 
 allowed to depositors should be only £2 los. per cent, 
 per annum, while many of the old banks were enabled, 
 from their large business and the liberal interest granted 
 by Government, to allow their customers 3 per cent. 
 
 The new system came into operation on the i6th 
 of September, 1861. 
 
 Business soon began to flow into this new channel, 
 as will appear from the Parliamentary Return on the 
 31st March, 1862 : — 
 
 Number of Banks, 
 
 England i,795 
 
 129 
 
 ••• 299 
 
 ... 300 
 
 9 
 
 Wales 
 
 Scotland 
 
 Ireland 
 
 Channel Islands 
 
 2,532 
 
 Deposits. 
 
 
 ;^668,879 10 
 
 2 
 
 . 28,392 2 
 
 10 
 
 . 10,237 9 
 
 8 
 
 . 26,064 18 
 
 8 
 
 . 1,679 IS 
 
 
 
 ^^735.253 16 
 
 _4 
 
 London District ;f267,309 13 8 
 
 In 1866, the capital held in the United Kingdom 
 had increased to ;^ 8, 12 1,1 7 5. 
 
 In December, 1870, the number of depositors in the 
 United Kingdom amounted to 1,183,153, and the 
 total sum held to ;^I5,099,I04 : on the loth Decem- 
 ber, 1 87 1, it had increased to ^17,303,815. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Number of 
 Depositors. 
 
 Amount of 
 Deposits. 
 
 Deposited during 
 the year. 
 
 Witlidrawn. 
 
 1874 
 1875 
 1876 
 
 1,670,000 
 
 1,777,103 
 
 1.702,374 
 
 £ 
 
 23,000,000 
 25,187,000 
 26,996,550 
 
 £ 
 8,300,000 
 
 8,982,350 
 
 £ 
 6,900,000 
 
 7,792,477
 
 POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS. I33 
 
 The cost of management and expenses for the last- 
 mentioned year was ;^ 125,912 ; and each transaction 
 is supposed to cost the State 8d. 
 
 The Post Office Savings Bank department also 
 receives money to purchase life annuities through the 
 medium of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the 
 National Debt. Mr. Gladstone introduced, besides, a 
 system of Life Insurance for small sums, the premiums 
 being paid by instalments at short periods, as an 
 encouragement to the working classes to insure their 
 lives. A very small business has hitherto been done ; 
 some of the insurance offices (notably the Prudential) 
 being able by means of a large army of canvassers, 
 Avho go from house to house to receive the subscriptions, 
 and by lower premiums, successfully to compete with 
 the Government. 
 
 Noaccommodation couldbe found in the newbuilding 
 at St. Martin's-le-Grand for this department. It has 
 been for some years past located in St. Paul's Church- 
 yard, and Carter Lane, Doctors' Commons. A perma- 
 nent building is, however, now being erected on the site 
 of the old Probate Registry, in Queen Victoria Street. 
 
 In the Post Office savings banks the number of 
 accounts open at the end of 1876 was 1,702,374, as 
 against 1,777,133 at the close of 1875, but the decrease 
 is more than explained by the special treatment of 
 many small accounts. The total amount of the 
 balances at the credit of depositors, together with
 
 134 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 interest accrued at the close of 1876, was ;^ 26,996, 5 50^ 
 being an increase of i^ 1^809,550 on the total of the 
 previous year. 
 
 rOST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS, LIFE INSURANCE, 
 AND ANNUITIES. 
 
 The Postmaster-General desires to call attention 
 to the advantages offered by the Post Office : — 
 
 I St. — For investing savings and small sums of 
 money, with Government security for repay- 
 ment. 
 2nd. — For life insurance. 
 
 3rd. — For making provision for old age by means 
 of an annuity. 
 Savings Bank. — You can commence an account by 
 depositing a shilling ; and you can pay in your money or 
 take it out at any Post Office savings bank in the king- 
 dom, no matter where you open }-our account. Interest 
 is given on deposits at the rate of 6d. a-year for each 
 complete £1. Married women and children equally 
 with other people can have separate deposit accounts. 
 Life Insurance. — You can insure your life for 
 any amount between;^ 20 and i^ioo; and you can 
 pay the premiums either in one sum or in periodical 
 amounts of not less than two shillings. 
 
 For instance, a man in his thirtieth year can insure 
 his life for ;^5o by a single payment of ;;^2i lis. lod.,. 
 or by monthly payments of 2s. 2d.
 
 POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS. I35 
 
 Annuities. — You can buy an Annuity, immediate 
 or defer't-ed,* of not more than £S^> or a deferred 
 monthly allowance of not more that £4. 3s, 46., either 
 for yourself or for any person above ten years of age. 
 
 The purchase money for an immediate annuity 
 must be paid down in one sum. For a deferred 
 annuity it may be paid by annual instalments. And 
 for a deferred monthly allowance it may be paid by 
 monthly or more frequent instalments. 
 
 FURTHER INFORMATION. 
 
 There is a Post Office savings bank in every town 
 and in most villages, and at most savings banks there 
 is an insurance and annuity office. A list of them is 
 kept at all post-offices. 
 
 You can obtain at any post-office printed papers 
 containing the principal rules either of the Post Office 
 Savings Bank, or of the insurance and annuity offices; 
 and if, after reading these, you wish for further inform- 
 ation, you can obtain it by writing a letter on the 
 subject, the postage of which need not be paid, to — 
 
 The Secretary, 
 
 General Post Office, 
 
 London. 
 General Post Office. 
 
 * Note. — A deferred Annuity is one which is payable at some 
 future period.
 
 136 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 A PNEUMATIC POST. 
 
 In the report of the Telegraphs Select Committee 
 there is a very distinct and definite recommendation 
 with regard to the extended use of pneumatic tubes 
 in London and large towns generally. The use of 
 such tubes need not be confined to the transmission 
 of telegrams, technically so called, it having been 
 explained in evidence how persons wishing for speedy 
 postal communication might write their communica- 
 tions on a prescribed form, fold them up, address 
 them, and hand them in at any telegraph office having 
 the means of pneumatic communication with the 
 central office. The idea was even so far elaborated as 
 to point to the establishment of a sub-central pneu- 
 matic station at Charing Cross, which should hold the 
 same relation to the West-end as St. Martin's-le- 
 Grand holds to the City. Seizing upon the main 
 idea, the committee showed how, by means of such 
 tubes, "pneumatic letters" might be transmitted to 
 various parts of a city and delivered with the same 
 speed as a telegraph message ; also, that although 
 these pneumatic tubes are costly in construction, they 
 are cheaply worked, because they do not require 
 clerks, as in the case of wires, nor do they need fre- 
 quent renewals ; while they can be worked with sim- 
 plicity, delivering the letter by a single operation,
 
 A PNEUMATIC POST. 1 37 
 
 without the re-transmissions and duplicate copying 
 required in ordinary telegrams. Whether the German 
 Post Office offiicals have been studying a report in- 
 tended for our own postal authorities we do not 
 know, but it would appear that the pneumatic letter 
 system, or "blow-post," as it is characteristically 
 termed, is in operation in Berlin at this moment, and 
 is in course of being considerably extended. The 
 system, when complete, will comprise 26 kilometres 
 of tubing and fifteen stations. The tubes will be of 
 wrought iron, having a bore of 65 millimetres, and 
 they will lie about one metre below the surface of the 
 ground. Wrought-iron tubes are the exception in our 
 pneumatic system, the method generally adopted 
 being a leaden tube enclosed in a cast-iron pipe. We 
 are, of course, unable to pronounce upon the merits 
 of the two systems, although it would appear on the 
 face of the matter that the freedom from corrosion 
 and the smoother surface afforded by such a workable 
 metal as lead are all in favour of an easier and more 
 rapid working. The exhausting machines and appa- 
 ratus required for working the Berlin system are 
 situated at four of the fifteen stations. Both com- 
 pressed and rarefied air, or a combination of the two, 
 are employed in propelling the "carriers" or boxes, 
 into which the telegrams or letters are placed, and 
 steam engines of about 12-horse power are used in 
 •condensing and rarefying the air. Each of the four
 
 138 THE POST OFFICE, 
 
 main stations has two engines, which drive a com- 
 pressing and an exhausting apparatus, and large con- 
 tainers, or reservoirs, are used for the condensed and 
 rarefied air. The tension of the condensed air is 
 about three atmospheres, and that of the rarefied 
 about 35 milHmetres of mercury ; and the former, 
 heated to 45 deg. C. by the act of compression, is 
 cooled in the reservoirs, which are surrounded with 
 water. The letters and cards which have to be for- 
 warded are of a prescribed size, twenty being the com- 
 plement assigned to each " carrier," From ten to 
 fifteen carriers are packed and forwarded at a time — a 
 sort of pneumatic " train," in fact ; and behind the 
 last "vehicle" is placed a box with a leather ruffle, in 
 order to secure the best closure of the tube. The 
 velocity of the carriers averages 1,000 metres per 
 minute, and a train is despatched every quarter of an 
 hour, each of the two circuits or routes into which the 
 system is divided being traversed in twenty minutes, 
 including stoppages. The entire cost of this novel 
 and apparently complete system is estimated at 
 1,250,000 marks ; and it is always well to remember,, 
 in speaking of the cost of a pneumatic system as 
 compared with that of an ordinary telegraph, that the 
 outlay is as nearly final as possible, there being 
 practically no limit to the "life" of a pneumatic tube, 
 especially if it be constructed of lead and protected 
 from external injury by an outer coating of iron. A
 
 A PNEUMATIC POST. 1 39 
 
 " blow-post" letter appears to cost 3d. in Berlin, or 
 about one-fourth of the cost of a telegram ; and the 
 average time of delivery in any quarter of the city is 
 stated to be one hour. Admitting our own metro- 
 politan telegraphic system to be perfect as far as it 
 goes, it is perfectly clear from the report of the Select 
 Committee already referred to that a cheaper rate 
 than IS. for local telegrams is not to be hoped for so 
 long as the costly machinery of wires, instruments, 
 and clerks is maintained for telegraphing over dis- 
 tances readily compassable by the pneumatic system. 
 What strikes us on reading an account of the Berlin 
 system is that these pneumatic tubes afford an oppor- 
 tunity of combining the postal and telegraph services 
 in such a way as to confer a maximtim benefit on the 
 public at a minimum of cost. At all events, it will 
 hardly be doubted that what is necessary and possible 
 in Berlin is more necessary and should be equally 
 possible in London ; and it would seem to be positive 
 economy to replace the wires which are now happily 
 being removed from our housetops in all directions 
 by leaden tubes to be filled with air, which costs next 
 to nothing, rather than by iron pipes full of a costly 
 and perishable combination of copper and gutta- 
 percha. 
 
 Pneumatic Tubes. — We observe from operations 
 in progress in Parliament Street that the House of 
 Commons Telegraph Office is about to be connected
 
 I40 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 with the Central Telegraph Office by means of a 
 pneumatic tube. Hitherto all communications be- 
 tween the House of Commons and St. Martin's-le- 
 Grand have been carried on by means of wires, so 
 that there must necessarily have been a limit to the 
 carrying capacity of the telegraphs, which must have 
 been soon reached. The pneumatic tube now being 
 laid is of large capacity, and is of lead enclosed in an 
 iron pipe, in accordance with the method usually 
 adopted in the City and some of our larger provincial 
 towns. The more these tubes are extended the 
 sooner shall we be in a position to realize the idea of 
 a " blow-post."
 
 PART 11. 
 
 TELEGRAPHS, 
 
 LAND AND SUBMARINE.
 
 PART 11. 
 
 TELEGRAPHS, LAND AND SUBMAPJNE. 
 
 TELEGRAPHY AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 The importance of a means of rapid and efficient 
 communication between distant places is sufficiently 
 obvious, and was recognized at a very early period. 
 The simplest and most effective of these were "beacon- 
 fires," — that is, cradles of consumable materials placed 
 in an elevated position, by lighting which, some 
 intelligence, either for good or for evil, might be con- 
 veyed over an extensive district of country in a short 
 space of time. 
 
 Illustrations of the use of fire-signals are abundant. 
 Lord Macaulay alludes to them in the " Armada." 
 
 " Forthwith a guard at every gun was placed along the wall ; 
 The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecombe's lofty hall, 
 
 * * * * * if 
 
 From Eddystone to Berwick bound, from Lynn to Milford Bay, 
 That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day ;
 
 144 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 For swift to east, and swift to west, the ghastly war-flame spreadr 
 High on St. Michael's Mount it shone ; it shone on Beachy Head. 
 Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, 
 Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire." 
 
 Reference is also made to this means of communi- 
 cation in Sir Walter Scott's " Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel," when the approach of the English from the 
 border-stations along 
 
 "Height, and hill, and cliff" 
 
 is announced : — 
 
 " Till high Dunedin the blazes saw. 
 From Soltra and Dumpender Law ; 
 And Lothian heard the Regent's order, 
 That all should bowne them for the border," 
 
 In a note illustrative of this matter, the author 
 refers to an enactment of the Scottish Parliament, in 
 1455, which directs that "one bale or faggot, shall be 
 the notice of the approach of the English in any 
 manner ; two bales that they are coming indeed ; and 
 four bales blazing beside each other, to say that the>r 
 are costing in earnest T 
 
 SEMAPHORES. 
 
 The word is derived from senia, a sign, and pJiero, I 
 bear. They were first established in France in 1795,
 
 THE TELEGRAPH PROPHESIED. 145 
 
 for the purpose of conveying intelligence to and from 
 the capital to the armies in the field. For this 
 purpose towers were built at distances from five to 
 ten miles apart, on high ground. The apparatus for 
 telegraphing was composed of six shutters arranged 
 in two frames, by opening and shutting which in 
 various combinations, sixty-three distinct signals could 
 be forwarded. 
 
 In 1816 Sir H. Popham improved upon this plan 
 by substituting a mast with two arms, bearing some 
 resemblance to a railway signal. These arms were 
 worked by winches placed in the look-out room of the 
 tower. A powerful telescope was fixed in the direc- 
 tion of the mast at the next station. By these means 
 communications were made with great rapidity, the 
 time taken in telegraphing the fall of the ball at 
 ■Greenwich Observatory at i o'clock to Portsmouth, 
 not exceeding forty-five seconds. 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH PROPHESIED. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that there were many astute 
 philosophers in the seventeenth century, foremost 
 amongst whom was Sir Kenelm Digby, a son of one 
 ■of the Gunpowder Conspirators. Such were his natural 
 gifts and acquirements, that there seemed to be no 
 
 L
 
 146 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 post in literature, politics, or warfare that he could 
 not undertake with credit. He was a philosopher, a 
 theologian, a metaphysician, a mathematician, a poli- 
 tician, a commander by land and by sea, and distin- 
 guished himself in each capacity. But it was a mania 
 with Sir Kenelm and the philosophers of his day — 
 and perhaps it is of our day too — to expect too much 
 from science. He professed great faith in "sympa- 
 thetic powder," which Butler, who keenly satirizes the 
 philosophical credulity of his day, thus ridicules : — 
 
 " Cure warts and corns with application 
 Of medicines to the imagination ; 
 Fright agues into dogs, and scare 
 With rhymes the tooth-ach and catarrh ; 
 And fire a mine of China here 
 Witli sympathetic gunpowder." 
 
 Glanvll, whose faith in the powers of witches was as 
 firm as Sir Kenelm's in sympathetic powder, among 
 many ridiculous conjectures of the possible achieve- 
 ments of science, hit upon a very remarkable one, 
 which cannot but be striking to us. In a work ad- 
 dressed to the Royal Society more than two centuries 
 ago, he says : — " I doubt not but that posterity will 
 find many things that now are but rumours verified 
 into practical reality. It may be, some ages hence, 
 a voyage to the Southern unknown tracts — yea, pos- 
 sibly to the moon — will not be more strange than one 
 to America. To those that come after us, it may be
 
 THE TELEGRAPH PROPHESIED. I47 
 
 as ordinary to buy a pair of wings to fly with into the 
 remotest regions, as now a pair of boots to ride a 
 journey. And to confer at the distance of the Indies 
 by sympathetic conveyances may be as usual to future 
 times as to us in literary correspondence." This 
 last conjecture, the possibility of which has now 
 been realized, doubtless appeared, when hazarded two 
 centuries ago, as visionary and impossible as a flight 
 to the moon. Even Butler, were he living in these 
 days of electric communication, would not have 
 thought it so impossible to fire a mine in China by 
 touching a wire in Britain. Glanvil, with much per- 
 tinency, further remarks: — "Antiquity would not have 
 believed the almost incredible force of our cannons, 
 and would not have as coldly entertained the won- 
 ders of the telescope. In these we all condemn an- 
 tique incredulity. And it is likely posterity will 
 have as much cause to pity us. But those who are 
 acquainted with the diligence and ingenious endea- 
 vours of true philosophers will despair of nothing." 
 
 A still more minute foreshadowing of the Telegraph 
 is to be found in the " Prolusiones Academicae" of 
 Famiano Strada, a learned Jesuit, who was born at 
 Rome in 1572. It is referred to by Addison in the 
 Spectator (No. 241), from which the following extract 
 is taken : — 
 
 " Strada, in one of his prolusions, gives an account 
 of a chimerical correspondence between two friends
 
 148 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 by the help of a certain loadstone, which had such 
 virtue in it, that if it touched two several needles, 
 when one of the needles so touched began to move, 
 the other, though at never so great a distance, moved at 
 the same time, and in the same manner as the hours of 
 the day are marked upon the ordinary dial-plate. 
 They then fixed one of the needles on each of these 
 plates in such a manner, that it could move round 
 without impediment, so as to touch any of the four- 
 and-twenty letters. Upon their separating from one 
 another into distant countries, they agree to withdraw 
 themselves punctually into their closets at a certain 
 hour of the day, and to converse with one another by 
 means of this their invention. Accordingly when 
 they were some hundred miles asunder, each of 
 them shut himself up in his closet at the time 
 appointed, and immediatly cast his eye upon his 
 dial-plate. If he had a mind to write anything to his 
 friend, he directed his needle to every letter that 
 formed the words which he had occasion for, making 
 a little pause at the end of every word or sentence, to 
 avoid confusion. The friend in the meanwhile, saw 
 his own sympathetic needle moving of itself to every 
 letter which that of his correspondent pointed at. By 
 this means they talked together over a whole Conti- 
 nent, and conveyed their thoughts to one another in an 
 instant over cities or mountains, seas or deserts." 
 If the science of electricity had be^n a little better
 
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 1 49 
 
 known to Strada, he could scarcely have failed to have 
 given the world the advantage of telegraphic commu- 
 nication two centuries ago. 
 
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ELECTRIC TELE- 
 GRAPHS FOR LAND AND SEA. 
 
 The first requisite for electro-telegraphic communica- 
 tion between two localities is an insulated conductor 
 extending from one to the other. This with proper 
 apparatus for originating electric currents at one end, 
 and for discovering the eftects produced by them at 
 the other end, constitutes an electric telegraph. Fara- 
 day's term " electrode," literally a way for electricity 
 to travel along, might be well applied to designate 
 the insulated conductor along which the electric mes- 
 senger is despatched to bear tidings of the distant 
 intelligence. It is, however, more commonly called 
 " the wire " or " the line." 
 
 The apparatus for generating the electric action at 
 the one end is commonly called the tyansmitting 
 apparatus, the transmitting itistrument, or the sending 
 apparatus or instrument, or sometimes simply the 
 sender. The apparatus used at the other end of the 
 line to render the effects of this action perceptible to 
 any of the senses — eye, ear, or taste (all have been
 
 1 50 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 used in actual telegraph signalling) — is called the 
 receiving apparatus or instrument. In land telegraphs 
 the main electrode consists generally of galvanized wire 
 stretched through the air from pole to pole, at a sufficient 
 height above the ground for security. The supporters 
 or insulators, as they are called, by means of which it 
 is attached to the poles, are of very different form and 
 arrangement in different telegraphs, but involve essen- 
 tially a stem of glass, porcelain, coarse earthenware, 
 or other non-conducting substance, protected by an 
 overhanging screen or roof from falling rain, one end 
 of the stem being firmly attached to the pole, and the 
 other bearing the wire. The best idea of a single tele- 
 graph insulator will be formed by considering a com- 
 mon umbrella with its stem of insulating substance, 
 attached upright to the top of a pole, and bearing the 
 wire supported on a notch on the top outside. The 
 umbrella may be of either one substance with the stem 
 — as glass, or glazed earthenware, for instance — or it 
 may be of a stronger material, such as iron, with an insu- 
 lating stem fitted to it, to support it below. The best 
 insulators undoubtedly are those of continuous glass, but 
 well-glazed earthenware, which is cheaper, and insulates 
 well so long as the glazing is sufficient to prevent the 
 porous subject within from absorbing moisture, may 
 be used with economical advantage in some cases. In 
 all submarine telegraphs hitherto made, the conductor 
 is of copper, either solid wire, as in earlier lines, or a
 
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. I5I 
 
 little rope or " strand " laid together spirally. This 
 conductor is insulated by a continuous coating of 
 gutta-percha enclosing it. A layer of tarred yam, 
 forming round the gutta-percha a soft, tough bed, and 
 strong iron wires laid firmly and close to one another, 
 round it in spirals, but slightly inclined to the longi- 
 tudinal direction, are added for protecting the gutta- 
 percha from external injury, and complete what is 
 called an electric cable. This iron sheath ought to be 
 extremely strong in cables that lie in shallow water or 
 rocky bottoms, in situations exposed to the disturbing 
 influences of waves or currents, or to accidental rough 
 usage from ships' anchors or otherwise. On the 
 other hand, for cables which lie on a soft bottom under 
 very deep water, the iron sheath need not be stronger 
 than' to afford the necessary protection to the copper 
 and gutta-percha during the process of submerging, 
 the extremely tranquil condition of the great ocean 
 depths, in most localities, affording complete immunity 
 both from continued wear and tear and from accidental 
 damages, to an electric cable once submerged in good 
 condition. 
 
 In some submarine cables several separate insu- 
 lated conductors are enclosed in a common iron 
 sheath for the sake of economy ; but as each is 
 separately insulated in its own gutta-percha, and as 
 each gutta-percha is separately sheathed in tarred 
 yarn, which, under sea-water, becomes thoroughly
 
 152 
 
 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 moist, and keeps the cylindrical surface of the gutta- 
 percha round each wire at the earth's electric potential, 
 we may regard such an arrangement as equivalent, 
 in electrical circumstances, to so many independent 
 electric cables laid side by side. It will be a question 
 whether any kind of mutual influence can sensibly 
 affect the electric action through a number of con- 
 ductors so placed. It cannot be overlooked that in 
 reality there is an effect produced by electro-magnetic 
 induction (one of Faraday's first electrical discoveries), 
 according to which the rising and falling of a current 
 through one of the conductors, must give rise to cur- 
 rents respectively in the similar ones, and in contrary 
 directions in the others ; but it has been theoretically 
 demonstrated that this influence is so small in an 
 extended cable, as to be insensible in ordinary tele- 
 graphic work, through any considerable length of 
 wire.* 
 
 TELEGRAPH CABLES— THEIR MAINTENANCE 
 AND DURABILITY. 
 
 In a discussion at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 
 in 1 86 1, a discussion took place on the maintenance 
 and durability of submarine cables, and although the 
 
 * Encyclopedia Britannica.
 
 TELEGRAPH CABLES. I 53 
 
 most learned men took part in the proceedings, it was 
 found impossible to notice the effect of temperature 
 upon wires, the comparative advantages of screw and 
 paddle steamers in laying and repairing cables, and 
 other important circumstances which regulated this 
 complicated problem. The two great points, how- 
 ever, which mainly affect the question were much 
 dwelt upon : first, the necessity of thoroughly surveying 
 a route before laying down a cable ; and, secondly, the 
 application of some exterior protective covering for 
 cables in all waters — shallow or otherwise. 
 
 The old soundings and surveys were, perhaps, suffi- 
 cient for the purposes of navigation, but they are quite 
 inadequate for the submergence of a telegraph. The 
 mean interval of such soundings in deep water, it 
 seems, was twenty miles. Now, on the Valentia side 
 of the Atlantic, there has been ascertained to be a 
 dip of 7,200 feet in ten miles, and near the coast of 
 Greenland of 3,468 feet in three miles ; while the 
 recent examinations of the line from this country to 
 Labrador show that near Iceland there is a series of 
 abrupt elevations and depressions at short intervals,^ 
 producing a saw-like surface composed of volcanic rock, 
 which never loses its abrasive character. It is stated 
 that in selecting a route for a submarine telegraph, 
 deep water should be avoided, wherever that is pos- 
 sible, even if a considerable detour has to be made. 
 In a depth of 100 fathoms, a cable is beyond the
 
 154 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 reach of attrition, and as little likely to be injured as 
 when laid at a depth of 200 or 300 fathoms, whilst it 
 can be repaired almost as easily as if it lay in water 
 of 30 or 40 fathoms deep. The nature of the bottom 
 is most important, as, where rough ground or rocks 
 exist, the cable cannot be grappled. To ascertain 
 this correctly, the use of the sounding-lead alone is 
 not sufficient ; a mushroom anchor, which will bring 
 up a bucketful of surface material, and occasionally 
 deep-pronged grapnels, ought to be employed. The 
 line should be divided into short sections of, say, 100 
 miles in length ; for although it might be possible to 
 "work" through 500 or 1,000 miles in length, yet 
 when one section is damaged, the consequences are 
 more serious. 
 
 The submarine cables for shallow water are four : — 
 I, the hempen cable ; 2, galvanized iron ; 3, unpro- 
 tected iron cable ; 4, iron cable with protective cover- 
 ing. The first is commonly destroyed in a few days 
 by abrasion ; the second is durable when buried in 
 mud or sand, but, if exposed to the free action of the 
 tide, it is liable to corrode. It possesses, however, a 
 durability of about three years over No. 3, but after 
 that period the zinc generally disappears. Indeed, all 
 undersea cables, whether galvanized or not, are subject 
 to corrosion — a defect supposed to result from lying 
 upon protruding veins of copper ore, or other material 
 electro-negative with respect to iron. The first cable
 
 TELEGRAPH CABLES. 155 
 
 laid between Hurst Castle and the Isle of Wight 
 became so deeply corroded in eighteen months, that 
 a ship's anchor broke it. This was replaced by a 
 smaller cable, which did not last a year, and subse- 
 quently by a third of stronger construction, ^^■hich 
 has been superseded by a fourth. 
 
 Submarine telegraphs have foes more numerous 
 and insidious than other marine creatures of the eel 
 species. It frequently happens, in repairing a cable, 
 that on the surface of the gutta-percha there is found 
 a small lump, a little hole, or a piece blown out, as if 
 burned by a flash of lightning. These effects have 
 been attributed to lightning. On the other hand, it 
 is contended that the great enemy to the working of 
 a cable is ozone. When the smallest puncture admits 
 the least drop of water in connection with the cable, 
 the decomposition which takes place generates ozone, 
 ■which is known to attack, in a rapid manner, all in- 
 organic substances like india-rubber or gutta-percha. 
 As to the comparative merits of india-rubber and 
 gutta-percha as insulating materials, the electrical 
 qualities of the former have been proved to be far 
 superioi- to the latter, and the only thing wanting 
 to justify the use of india-rubber for long deep-sea 
 cables is positive proof of its durability. 
 
 The submarine cables laid in 1852, for connecting 
 Hampshire with Hurst Castle, also crossing the Yar- 
 mouth river in the Isle of Wight, were coated with
 
 156 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 india-rubber, and were found to be very durable. The 
 great thing needed for a submarine telegraph is 
 continual attention ; nor does there seem any reason 
 why cables should not be taken up, examined and 
 repaired periodically, and the communication main- 
 tained uninjured for almost an indefinite period. 
 However, deep-sea cables will rarely bear much lift- 
 ing ; and that between Toulon and Algiers, which per- 
 mitted itself, upon the occurrence of a "kink" in its 
 paying out, to be hauled back for three miles out of 
 water 1,600 fathoms deep, is considered exceptionally 
 tensile. 
 
 The cable in question had a covering of hemp and 
 steel, like the more celebrated Rangoon one, with 
 which more pains have been taken perhaps, than any 
 other of its snaky sisterhood. One of the chief 
 causes of failure in laying submarine cables has been 
 neglecting to thoroughly test cables under water before 
 they are deposited in the ocean. In the Rangoon 
 case, a complete record was obtained of the copper 
 and gutta-percha resistances of each mile of cable, so 
 that when the core was joined together, it was possible 
 to detect the slightest defect, which, if allowed to pass, 
 might afterwards develop itself into a fault. More- 
 over, in laying the cable, or afterwards, any decrease 
 of the insulation was immediately known. It was 
 originally intended that the Rangoon cable should 
 never leave the water; that it should be kept in tanks.
 
 TELEGRAPH CABLES. 1 57 
 
 during the progress of manufacture, and be paid out 
 from tanks into the sea. As, however, the tanks 
 could not bear the great pressure, the cable became 
 exposed to atmospheric influences. It was soon 
 observed that there was a decrease of insulation, 
 indicating a considerable increase of temperature. 
 Subsequently this became so great, that it was neces- 
 sary to test the coil of cable in every part. For this 
 purpose a peculiar thermometer was used, constructed 
 upon the principle of the resistance of copper-wire to 
 the electric current, or tube of metal. In coiling the 
 cable on board, several of these thermometers were 
 inserted at different layers of the coil. When tested, 
 after being on board only one week, it was discovered 
 that a spontaneous generation of heat had taken place, 
 and that the heat developed itself unequally through- 
 out the mass, the highest temperature being about 
 three feet below the upper surface of the coil. A large 
 quantity of water, at a temperature of 42 degrees 
 Fahrenheit was poured upon the cable, and this was 
 observed to issue from the bottom of the hold at 72 
 degrees Fahrenheit. This occurrence seemed to show, 
 that other cables, more particularly the Atlantic cable, 
 which had been coiled on board wet, might have been 
 ruined from the same cause. If the heating had been 
 allowed to continue a few days longer, the gutta- 
 percha would have been softened, and the copper 
 conductor would have become eccentric to the insu-
 
 158 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 lating material. It was considered probable that this 
 generation of heat was due to fermentation of the 
 hemp covering, whilst it had also been attributed 
 simply to the rusting of the iron. 
 
 The failures of deep-sea telegraphy have been, in- 
 deed, exceedingly disheartening, and, as already 
 pointed out, the cable which lies ghost-like at the 
 bottom of the Red Sea, and of no earthly advantage 
 to any one, except the zoophytes, who are said to be 
 so closely attached to it, cost the public many 
 thousands a-year. It has been noticed elsewhere in 
 this book, that one Atlantic cable conveyed only a 
 single complete message and answer between* the Old 
 world and the New, and then began to babble isolated 
 words — for want of insulation. Now, we know all 
 about the causes of that failure ; but at the time it 
 did seem strange that a single interchange of civility 
 between the Queen and the President should have 
 arrived at each end so fortunately without the loss of 
 a word, and that the poor cable should so soon after 
 turn idiotic. At all events, those messages cost con- 
 siderably more than a quarter of a-million, which 
 appears to be a good deal of money for a couple of 
 compliments. 
 
 The men of science say, that the details of the 
 Atlantic cable were arranged before anything was 
 practically known about deep-sea cables ; but the 
 cable was designed on enlightened principles. Great
 
 TELEGRAPH CABLES. I 59 
 
 mistakes were, however, made in organising the under- 
 taking — the radical fault being the precipitate manner 
 in which the contracts were let, precluding any pre- 
 liminary practical experiments. The Red Sea cable 
 was another instance in which a disastrous waste of 
 public money had its origin in causes entirely apart 
 from scientific difficulties. After the concession had 
 been purchased, it was found that, owing to a com- 
 plication of arrangements, the directors had also ac- 
 quired an engineer and a contractor ; that, practically, 
 the form of cable was decided upon ; and that little 
 remained for the board to do but pay. Some of the 
 chief causes of telegraphy do really, therefore, seem to 
 fall more within the scope of the moralist, and the 
 man of the world, than the man of science. If a tele- 
 graph could be established to-morrow between this 
 earth and the very purest of the heavenly bodies, 
 people would be found to make a job of it. It has 
 been made perfectly plain long ago, that there are in 
 electric telegraphy other considerations beyond scien- 
 tific knowledge and mechanical skill, and those who 
 have to deal with the subject must be prepared to 
 cope with difficulties arising from other, and far 
 different causes. 
 
 At the meeting of civil engineers referred to at the 
 beginning of this article, a piece of cable on the table 
 was an instance in point. It was taken from a line 
 laid between England and the Continent, for the In-
 
 l60 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 ternational Telegraph Company. It contained four 
 conducting wires, and whilst the cable was coiled, the 
 whole acted perfectly ; but when it was laid, only 
 three of the wires were capable of performing their 
 duty. The contractors expended a large sum in in- 
 effectual attempts to raise the cable, and to discover 
 the cause of the failure, during the stormy season. On 
 the return of propitious weather they were more suc- 
 cessful, and they then discovered that a nail had been 
 skilfully inserted into the cable, in such a manner as 
 to destroy the action of one wire. A person who had 
 been on board during the submersion of the cable, at 
 length confessed that he had been in the pay of other 
 persons, and had, at their instigation, sought for em- 
 ployment under the contractors, and had, under 
 instruction, inserted the nail. It will, therefore, be 
 seen that the obstacles which have to be combated in 
 laying, and maintaining submarine telegraphs, have 
 been more of a moral than of a mechanical nature, 
 and that there has been underhand work under the 
 sea. 
 
 < 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 It must not be imagined, says Dr. Wynter, in his 
 " Curiosities of Civilization," that Mr. Wheatstone's 
 was the only patent for a telegraph in the year 1837.
 
 TELEGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS. l6l 
 
 A number of inquiring minds were, simultaneously 
 with the professor, wandering in the tangled wood of 
 doubt ; and when he burst his way through, others 
 speedily emerged at different points, one after another. 
 Consequently, the year 1837 was distinguished by a 
 complete crop of telegraphs, any one of which would 
 perhaps have held its ground had it stood alone. But 
 not one of them was practically equal to the first, and 
 they have long since departed to the tomb, already 
 stored with abortive schemes of so many merely inge- 
 nious minds. The rapidity with which the needle 
 instrument transmits messages, the small amount of 
 electricity required to work it, and the simplicity of 
 its construction, are its chief recommendations. Up- 
 wards of two hundred letters can be forwarded by it 
 within a minute. Its great drawback — a drawback 
 that will appear greater every year — is, that it can 
 only be worked by a system of signs, which it requires 
 some practice to understand. As long as the public 
 is content to send its messages open to the daylight, 
 this plan will hold its ground, as a practised manipu- 
 lator can indicate the letters as fast as it is possible to 
 read, much less to transcribe them, at the other end 
 of the v/ire ; but immediately that the public come to 
 demand secrecy — to put a seal, as of old, on its let- 
 ters — this telegraph will, we predict, fall into public 
 disuse ; and the revolving dial telegraph, invented by 
 Mr. Wheatstone in 1840, or the recording telegraph 
 
 M
 
 1 62 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 of Bain or Morse, or, more likely still, the Americam 
 printing telegraph of House, will come into play. 
 This latter instrument appears to contain within itself 
 capabilities of ver}'- high excellence ; for instance, it 
 requires no one to interpret and then to re-write its- 
 messages — this it does itself In fact, it extends the 
 compositors' fingers as far as the wire can be stretched. 
 Messages are thus printed at the rate of fifty letters a 
 minute, say at five hundred miles distance, in common 
 Roman characters, in long slips of paper similar to , 
 those used on the recording instrument. Any descrip- 
 tion of its complicated mechanism would be altogether 
 unintelligible to general readers. " While the arrange- 
 ments of the telegraph of Morse," said Mr. Justice 
 Woodbury, of America, in giving judgment in a patent 
 case, " can be readily understood by most mechanics 
 and men of science, it requires days, if not weeks, with 
 some, thoroughly to comprehend all the parts and 
 movements of the telegraph of House." His system 
 is in use for thousands of miles on the American lines. 
 Bakewell's copying telegraph is naturally suggested 
 by the telegraph of House, from the fact that it re- 
 produces its messages, although in a different manner. 
 The sender of the message may be said to write with 
 a pen long enough to stretch to the most distant cor- 
 respondent ; that is, he not only forwards instanta- 
 neously the substance of a message, but it is conveyed 
 in his own handwriting. The principle is similar to
 
 TELEGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS. 163 
 
 that of Davy's chemical recording telegraph. The 
 person sending the message writes it on a piece of 
 tinfoil, with a pen dipped in varnish or any other 
 non-conducting substance ; this message is then placed 
 round a metal cylinder, which is made to revolve at a 
 certain regulated pace. In contact with this cylinder 
 is a blunt steel point, which, by the action of a screw, 
 makes a spiral line from the top to the bottom of the 
 cylinder, thus touching every portion of the written 
 message enveloping it. In connection with the steel 
 point is the conducting wire, and at the end of the 
 wire is a similar steel point working spirally upon a 
 like cylinder. It will be at once seen that the current 
 will always be transmitted, except at those portions 
 of the tinfoil which are covered with the non-conduct- 
 ing varnish, and which, therefore, cut off the flow of 
 electricity, and the handwriting will appear at the 
 other end of the telegraphic wire upon a piece of 
 chemically-prepared paper rolled upon its cylinder, 
 and moving synchronously with it. The transmitted 
 letter appears to have been written in white upon a 
 dark ground, the white parts, of course, indicating 
 where the current has been broken, and where, con- 
 sequently, no decomposition of the chemically-pre- 
 pared paper has taken place.
 
 164 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 In most of our manufactories it may be too truly said, 
 that " the workmanship exceeds the materials." Be- 
 fore a common coffin-nail can be made, the bowels of 
 the earth must be ransacked, ores made in Cornwall 
 must be smelted in Wales, by coals which have been 
 excavated, raised, carted, re-carted, &c. The amount 
 of labour which has been expended in the fabrication 
 of every trifling commodity exhibited in our shops is, 
 in a similar manner, almost incalculable. Indeed, if 
 our countrywomen did but know how many hours of 
 unwholesome and unremitting application have been re- 
 quired — nay, how many constitutions have been ruined 
 — in the fabrication of light beautiful dresses and trin- 
 kets that adorn their persons, they would surely feel 
 that their dance, delightful as it may have appeared to 
 them, has been that of death to many of the poorest of 
 their sex. Even the tedious details of the trifling 
 volume we are now writing prove that, while the pub- 
 lic are luxuriously flying along the rails of only one 
 arterial railway, an army of upwards of ten thousand 
 workmen are labouring in a variety of ways for the 
 management, protection, and maintenance of the way; 
 and as we were not insensible of the usual necessity 
 of these details, we certainly did expect to find that a 
 proportionate amount of labour would be requisite for
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF TELEGRAPHY. 1 65 
 
 the simultaneous transmission of messages, with extra- 
 ordinary velocity, to distances of from one to upwards 
 of four hundred miles. Simplicity, however, is the cha- 
 racteristic of science, and certainly the attics or garrets 
 of the London Central Telegraph Station strikingly 
 illustrate the truth of the axiom ; for the whole of 
 the Company's stock-in-trade which we found therein, 
 consisted of four or five intelligent looking boys, from 
 fourteen to fifteen years of age, and eight little " ifi- 
 struinents," each about half the size of those which 
 German women and Italian men carry on their backs 
 through our streets. Indeed, as our advertising horse- 
 dealers in offering, or, as it is technically termed, in 
 chauntifig their cob to the notice of " a heavy timid 
 gentleman," invariably assure him that "a child can 
 ride it," so it may truly be said of the electric tele- 
 graph, which transmits its intelligence at the incom- 
 prehensible rate of 280,000 miles per secofid, that a boy 
 can guide it ! 
 
 Although the ordinary rate at which electric com- 
 munication is now effected has been easily expressed 
 above by a few figures, it is evident that it is a velocity 
 which the human mind has not power to comprehend. 
 
 When Shakespeare, in the exercise of his un- 
 bounded imagination, made Puck, in obedience to 
 Oberon's order to him — 
 
 " Be thou here again 
 Ere the leviathan can swim a league "
 
 l66 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 reply — 
 
 "I'll put a girdle round about the earth 
 In forty minutes." 
 
 how little did our immortal bard think that this light, 
 fanciful offer of a "fairy" to the "king of fairies'" 
 would, in the 19th century, not only be substantially 
 realised,butsurpassed, since the electric telegraph would 
 convey intelligence more than twenty-eight thousand 
 times round the earth, while Puck, at his vaunted 
 speed, was crawling round it only ojice ! 
 
 On every instrument there is a dial, on which are 
 inscribed the names of six or eight stations with which 
 it usually communicates. When much business is to 
 be transacted, a boy is necessary for each of these 
 instruments. Generally, however, one lad can, without 
 practical difficulty, manage about three ; but as the 
 whole of them are ready for work by night as well as 
 by day, they are incessantly attended, in watches of 
 eight hours each, by these satellite boys by day, and 
 by men at night. 
 
 As fast as the various messages for delivery, flying 
 one after another from the ground floor, up the chim- 
 ney, reach the level of the instrument, they are 
 brought by the superintendent to the particular one 
 by which they are to be communicated, and its boy, 
 with the quickness characteristic of his age, then in- 
 stantly sets to work. 
 
 His first process is, by means of the electric current.
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF TELEGRAPHY. 1 67 
 
 to sound a little bell, which simultaneously alarms all 
 the stations on the line ; but although the attention 
 of the sentinel at each is thus attracted, yet it 
 almost instantly subsides in all, except in that to 
 the name of which he causes the index needle to 
 point; a signal by which the clerk at that station 
 at once knows that the forthcoming message is ad- 
 dressed solely to him. He, therefore, by a cor- 
 responding signal, announces to the London boy 
 that he is ready to receive it. By means of brass 
 handles, fixed to the dial, which the message-sender 
 grasps with each hand, he now begins rapidly to spell 
 off his information by certain twists of his wrists, each 
 of which imparts to the needle on his dials, as well as 
 on the dials of his distant correspondent, a convulsive 
 movement, designating a particular letter of the 
 telegraphic alphabet. 
 
 By this arrangement he is enabled to transmit a word 
 of ordinary size in three seconds, or about twenty per 
 minute. In case of any accident to the wire of one of 
 his needles, he can, by a different alphabet, transmit 
 his messages by a series of movements of the single 
 needle, at the reduced rate of about eight to nine 
 words per minute. 
 
 While a boy at one instrument is thus engaged in 
 transmitting to — say Liverpool — a message Avritten 
 by its London author, in ink which is scarcely dry, 
 ..another boy at the adjoining instrument, by the reverse
 
 1 68 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 of the process, is attentively reading the quivering 
 movements of his dial, which, by a sort of St. Vitus' 
 dance, are rapidly swelling into a message, via the wire 
 of the South Western Railway — say from Gosport, 
 These, word by word, he repeats aloud to an assistant, 
 who, seated by his side, receives them about as fast 
 as his attendant can conveniently write them 
 on a sheet of paper, which, as soon as the message 
 is concluded, descends to the "Booking Office," where, 
 inscribed in due form, it is, without delay, despatched 
 to its destination by messenger, cab, or express, ac- 
 cording to order. The following trifling anecdotes 
 will not only practically exemplify the process we 
 have just described, but will demonstrate the rapidity 
 with which the Company are enabled to transmit 
 messages. 
 
 Some time ago, a gentleman, walking into the re- 
 ception-hall of the London Office, stated that he had 
 important business to communicate to a friend at 
 Edinburgh, who by appointment was, he knew, at 
 that moment waiting there to reply to it in the Com- 
 pany's Telegraph Office. On being presented with 
 the half-sheet of paper, headed with its printed form, 
 as prescribed, he wrote his query, which, after passing 
 through the glass window to the " Booking Office," 
 flew upwards to the instrument department. From 
 this, with the utmost despatch, it was transmitted to 
 Edinburgh, and a brief reply having been almost in-
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF TELEGRAPHY. 1 69 
 
 stantly returning to the instrument, and committed 
 to writing, it was lowered to the " gentleman in wait- 
 ing." He thus quietly walked off with his answer, 
 which, we were informed at the office, he obtained 
 within the space of five minutes, including the time 
 consumed by himself and his friend in writing the 
 few words which had passed between them ; for, 
 during their passage and return, the electric wires 
 had only detained them exactly the three hundred 
 and fiftieth part of a second ! 
 
 In a dull foggy day an engine on the London and 
 North Western Railway, tired of standing idly with 
 its steam up, suddenly ran away, and, without any- 
 one to guide it, proceeded at a rapid rate towards the 
 Euston Station, where everyone who witnessed its 
 start expected it would cause an amount of damage 
 almost incalculable. The electric telegraph, however, 
 soon overtook and passed the fugitive, and conveyed 
 intelligence to Camden Station in abundant time for 
 full preparations to be made there for its reception, 
 by turning the points of the rails into a sideway 
 containing only a few ballast waggons. 
 
 In like manner a " gentleman " who had taken for 
 himself and his family only second-class tickets, but 
 had been comfortably enjoying a first-class carriage 
 with them, was greatly astonished on arriving at 
 his destination to see standing at the window of his 
 carriage, almost before the train had stopped, the
 
 170 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 Company's station-clerk, who very loudly said to him, 
 
 in presence of his fellow-travellers, " Mr. , I'll 
 
 tro^ible you for excess of fare for yourself and party!" 
 The first murderer who was apprehended , through 
 the use of /the telegraph was the notorious Tawell, a 
 Quaker, who poisoned his paramour. The description 
 of his flight and capture are admirably told by Sir 
 F. B. Head, in " Stokers and Pokers," from which we 
 have taken the liberty of transferring it to our pages. 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PROGRESS. 
 
 It was announced a few weeks ago that experiments 
 had been successfully made between London and 
 Liverpool, whereby four messages — two in each direc- 
 tion — could be passed through a single telegraphic 
 wire at the same time. The system is that known as 
 the " Quadruplex," and is of American invention or 
 adaptation. Probably very few persons who read the 
 announcement altogether realized that it is ten years 
 short of half a century since the first really practical 
 telegraph was introduced into this country. It is true 
 that in 1756 one Charles Morrison, a "clever Scotch- 
 man of obscure position," invented what he was 
 pleased to describe in the Scots Magazine of that day 
 as "An Expeditious Method of Conveying Intelli-
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PROGRESS. I71 
 
 gence." The world was comparatively young 125 
 years ago, and there was not a very great deal of 
 " intelligence " to convey. But Morrison's telegraph, 
 if it might be dignified by the name, was too little 
 expeditious, and too clumsy, even for the wants of that 
 time, for it required a separate wire for each letter of 
 the alphabet, and was otherwise somewhat intricate in 
 its operations. It came to nothing, and its attempted 
 revival some twenty years later by one Le Sage, a 
 Frenchman, was attended with as little success abroad 
 as at home. The labours of Mr. — afterwards Sir 
 Francis — Ronalds, of Hammersmith, in 18 16, have 
 been alluded to in the public journals oftener than once 
 in recent years, although it is doubtful whether they 
 have met with their due meed of recognition at the 
 hands of the telegraphing public. Ronalds, it is true 
 can hardly be said to have invented any complete 
 system of telegraphic communication ; but he fore- 
 shadowed the various uses of the telegraph in the 
 most extraordinary manner, and may be said almost 
 to have laid down some of the principles of its con- 
 struction and maintenance, which have since been 
 followed out. He met with the usual reward of in- 
 ventors of that day — he was snubbed by the Govern- 
 ment officials to whom he attempted to explain his 
 discovery, and told in almost as many words that 
 telegraphs were wholly unnecessary, and that the 
 semaphore was all that was likely to be required. It
 
 172 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 is useful to remember that this happened only sixty 
 years ago. Disheartened, and probably disgusted, 
 Mr. Ronalds retired from the field, although not before 
 he had brought together a most interesting and valu- 
 able collection of works relating to electrical science 
 and the electric telegraph. 
 
 Theyear 1837 — alittle over forty yearsago — witnessed 
 the introduction of the first really practical telegraph. 
 With this year the name and fame of W. Fothergill 
 Cooke and Charles Wheatstone are imperishably asso- 
 ciated. These earlier telegraphs were of the "Needle" 
 type, and the story is still good enough to relate, how 
 one of them, with no fewer than five needles and an 
 equal number of wires, was unable to make the letter 
 "Q," and how the word "Quaker," as applied to 
 Tawell the murderer, had to be spelt " Kwaker " in 
 the message sent from Slough to Paddington, ordering 
 his arrest. The Double Needle telegraph, however, 
 may be said to be the first which was really employed 
 for commercial purposes ; and we are under the im- 
 pression that its use is still continued by certain rail- 
 way companies to this day. As a " hand " telegraph, 
 with vanishing signals, the Double Needle has proba- 
 bly never been surpassed for rapidity of communica- 
 tion, under favourable conditions. But it required twO' 
 wires, and was ill-adapted for working long distances, 
 and its use speedily became confined to the secondary 
 purpose of train signalling, which is usually carried on
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PROGRESS. 173 
 
 over short sections of line. Just about the time when 
 the Double Needle telegraph was beginning to be felt 
 unequal to the pressure of commercial wants, Alex- 
 ander Bain, another " clever Scotchman," came on the 
 scene with his chymical printing telegraph, which, so 
 far as the perforating process was concerned, may be 
 said to have contained the germ of the Wheatstone 
 system, to be presently dealt with. The Bain method 
 was exceedingly simple. Chymically prepared paper 
 in a long, narrow strip was unwound from a roller 
 driven by clockwork and a weight. A needle or pen 
 — generally a piece of thin steel wire — was so adjusted 
 as to press on the paper in a slanting direction, and 
 as currents of electricity were sent from the distant 
 station, by depressing a " key " or lever in connexion 
 with the battery, blue marks of long or short duration, 
 the result of chymical decomposition, were produced 
 on the strip of paper. There was no mechanical 
 action, as in the needle instrument, or indeed in the 
 more modern forms of printing and acoustic tele- 
 graphs ; and the " Bain Receiver " is probably the 
 most sensitive form of apparatus which has yet been 
 introduced. The inventor died less than a year ago 
 in comparative poverty. Like many of his class, he 
 lived before his time ; for it is not at all certain that 
 an important revival of the Bain method may not be 
 witnessed in these days of high-speed telegraphs. 
 So far, the telegraph had been a matter of purely
 
 174 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 British invention. Certainly its infancy, and probably 
 its childhood, were fostered by British genius and 
 British industry. _But__i;uriously enough, it trans- 
 planted itself to the New World very early in youth, 
 and in its present stage of manhood — if, indeed, it has 
 reached that stage — it seems to thrive best in the 
 land of its adoption. In 1844, only seven years after 
 the introduction of the invention of Messrs. Cooke 
 and Wheatstone, the Morse printing telegraph was 
 invented, or rather perfected ; the first experiment 
 with the system having been made in that year be- 
 tween Washington and Baltimore. It was probably 
 ten years or more before the system was adopted to 
 any extent in this country. Since then, it has become 
 universal, and the Morse Alphabet is probably the 
 only language about which all the nations of the 
 world are agreed. Dots and dashes are as well under- 
 stood at Teheran as in New York or London : and if 
 the combinations are slightly different in different 
 countries, the principle is the same. The original 
 form of Morse instrument embossed the marks or 
 signs on a strip of paper by means of a pointer or 
 stile. Later forms have been improved by the addition 
 of the Siemens ink-writing principle ; while the latest 
 form of all may be said to be the " Morse Sounder," 
 which discards both paper and ink, and appeals to the 
 ear of the " reader," instead of the eye. It will be 
 important to note by-and-by that this is the method
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PROGRESS. 175", 
 
 adopted in connexion with the Quadruplex system. 
 Of the systems in use contemporaneously with the 
 Morse, the Hughes Type Printing instrument may be 
 said to have been the most important, as it is certainlythe 
 most ingenious. By its means the leading journa-ls are 
 able to present their readers daily with several columns 
 of Foreign News, telegraphed direct from Paris and 
 Vienna, and " set up " from the printed slip of paper, 
 without previous transcription or preparation of any 
 kind. The Hughes instrument differs from all others in 
 that it is mainly mechanical, the electrical action being 
 confined to the sending a single short current at the 
 instant the type-wheel is in the proper position, and 
 only a single wave is needed to produce a letter. The 
 sending and receiving instruments are exactly alike,.. 
 and are manipulated by means of a keyboard some- 
 what resembling that of a pianoforte, of as many keys 
 as there are letters, figures, and signs to be printed. 
 For every depression of the piano-like key of the 
 Hughes instrument a letter is jerked out at the dis- 
 tant end, while under certain conditions combinations 
 of as many as five letters can be produced during a 
 single revolution of the type-wheel. Perhaps no 
 greater contrast to the Double Needle telegraph, 
 which required numerous combinations for almost 
 every letter, and often a second operator to write the 
 messages down, could be found than the nimble 
 though noisy " Hughes," the use of which is now
 
 176 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 almost solely confined to the Continental systems. 
 The " Bell " telegraph of Sir Charles Bright, worked 
 almost exclusively by the late Magnetic Telegraph 
 Company, has probably never been excelled for speed 
 by any acoustic system of telegraphy, in addition to 
 which it may be worked interchangeably with the 
 Single Needle telegraph, now so commonly used at 
 the smaller post-offices and on railways. Curiously 
 enough, however, it has almost dropped out of use. 
 Among the minor inventions which have contributed 
 in no small degree to the success of practical tele- 
 graphy in England, must be mentioned those of Mr. 
 Cromwell F. Varley, at one time electrician to the 
 late Electric and International Telegraph Company. 
 At this moment the Varley Insulator is probably the 
 most perfect form of insulator in use. 
 
 In dealing with the next phase of telegraphic pro- 
 gress we are carried back to first principles, so to 
 speak. Just as Sir Charles Wheatstone was prac-_ 
 tically the first inventor in the English telegraphic 
 field, so he may be said to have been the latest ; the 
 Automatic telegraph, which bears his name, being 
 probably the latest English invention which has been 
 adopted into our postal system. The working of 
 the Wheatstone system may be roughly set down 
 as a fast-speed application of the Morse system. 
 The Double Needle method might, under favour- 
 able conditions, be worked up to a speed of forty
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PROGRESS. J 77 
 
 words, or 200 letters, per minute. The Wheatstone 
 method is capable of producing and recording no 
 fewer than 120 words, or 600 letters, per minute; 
 and inasmuch as the former required two wires, and 
 the latter only requires one, the carrying power of the 
 telegraph may be said to have increased sixfold be- 
 tween the earliest and latest inventions of the great 
 founder of the automatic system. It is doubtful 
 whether, but for this invaluable method of trans- 
 mission, the Post Office could have coped efficiently 
 with the great service of news distribution which its 
 increased facilities have practically created.^ ''T'^r it 
 has to be borne in mind that not only in the matter 
 of speed but in the adaptability of the preparatory 
 process to a large number of transmitting machines, 
 the automatic system is perfectly unique, and is as 
 yet unsurpassed as a " single " system. Necessarily 
 complex and delicate in its arrangements, the auto- 
 matic telegraph is a curious contrast to that other in- 
 vention of Wheatstone's, the Alphabetical, or "A,B, C" 
 telegraph, which, as its name implies, is the very alpha- 
 bet of practical telegraphy. Next to the automatic, 
 in point of time, comes the " Duplex," or double- 
 working system ; and here we take leave of English 
 inventiveness, just as we took leave of it in 1844 to 
 cross the Atlantic in search of the Morse. It is not 
 altogether clear whether the system of double or 
 " two-way " working is to be regarded in the light of 
 
 N
 
 178 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 an invention involving patent rights, as in the case of 
 the Wheatstone system. But it is certain that its 
 application to long lines of telegraph must be so 
 regarded, and equally certain that the honour of first 
 introducing it in this way belongs to America. A 
 good many years ago one Gintl, an Austrian tele- 
 graph director, made an attempt to send messages in 
 opposite directions on the same wire at the same 
 time, and a similar experiment was made in England, 
 with tolerably satisfactory results. But somehow the 
 matter remained in abeyance, until Mr. Stearns, an 
 American inventor, resolved the difficulty, and in- 
 duced the British Post Office to adopt his method of 
 double-working, as he had previously induced the 
 great American telegraph companies to adopt it. The 
 Stearns method may be said to be a combination 
 method, in which the principles laid down by one 
 Frischen, an early inventor, have been combined with 
 the practical experience of later years. 
 
 Out of the Duplex sprang the Ouadruplex system, 
 the latest, as it is the most lively, instance of tele- 
 graphic progress. Very little appears to be known 
 about the system as yet, except that it comes to us 
 from America, where it is said to have been adopted 
 with the most perfect success on the great telegraph 
 lines. It is the invention, so far as we can make 
 out, of Messrs. Prescott and Gerritt Smith, electricians 
 to the Western Union Telegraph Company, of New
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PROGRESS. I 79 
 
 York, and may be briefly and popularly described as 
 the Duplex doubled. The clerks work in pairs at 
 either end of the wire, through which a double stream 
 'of messages is sent in both directions simultaneously, 
 and the method of receiving signals affords a striking 
 exemplification of that which has made American 
 telegraphy notable among the systems of the world 
 — sound reading. It has been frequently stated that 
 the average speed of the ordinary Morse telegraph is 
 from 30 to 40 words a minute, and we assume, there- 
 fore, that the speed of the Ouadruplex method is about 
 four times as great, or something more than the speed 
 of the Automatic system worked singly as it now is. 
 We are not aware of any attempt having been made 
 to " double " or duplex this system ; but we appre- 
 hend that there need be no difficulty in carrying out 
 such a plan, and this being so, an improvement on the 
 Quadruplex method would necessarily at once ensue. 
 It is very desirable in the interests of the telegraph 
 service, as well as those of the public, that too much 
 stress should not be laid on these undoubtedly impor- 
 tant improvements in the methods of telegraphic 
 communication. High-speed systems of telegraphy 
 necessarily involve high skill on the part of the oper- 
 ators, a high state of perfection in the lines, and a 
 steadiness of climate which unfortunately does not 
 belong to this England of ours. It is always well tO' 
 remember that what is possible in America, with its
 
 l8o TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 fine dry climate and long lengths of single telegraphic 
 line, is not always or even mostly possible in England, 
 where the weather is "variable as the shade," and the 
 wires on most trunk lines are as thick and close as the 
 yarns of a rope-walk. If the Quadruplex Telegraph 
 does nothing more than enable us to keep down the 
 increase of wires on these already over-weighted 
 routes, it will not have come in vain ; although we 
 should prefer to see an attempt made to exhaust the 
 possibilities of our own Wheatstone system, before 
 adopting a method which may, after all, only prove 
 partially successful in our fickle climate. The Wheat- 
 stone probably stands alone among the fast-speed 
 methods in its freedom from interruption from atmo- 
 spheric causes, and, being automatic, it does not, of 
 course, necessitate the employment of highly-skilled 
 operators. 
 
 It is impossible to quit the interesting subject of 
 telegraphic progress without feeling that England 
 hardly stands where she did in relation to this impor- 
 tant matter. The cradle of the electric telegraph, so 
 to speak, she has gradually fallen behind the younger 
 country, which thirty years ago sent us the Morse 
 instrument, and in these later years has sent us the 
 Duplex and the Quadruplex Telegraph. The tele- 
 phone, too, although the invention of a Scotchman, 
 comes to us from America, as also does the Exchange 
 Telegraph ; while the type printing instrument is the
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PROGRESS. Ibl 
 
 invention of Mr. David E. Hughes, of Kentucky, a 
 gentleman who is well known in this country and on 
 the Continent. Even in that all-irriportant matter for 
 English telegraphy, the construction of underground 
 lines over long distances, it would seem that we are 
 about to take a lesson from Germany, a recent an- 
 nouncement in the Berlin newspapers informing us 
 that a prominent English official has been there recently 
 for the purpose of studying the system of subterranean 
 telegraphs which the German Post Office is developing. 
 All this is the more remarkable when we consider 
 that English capital and English brains have been 
 mainly instrumental in laying down and working 
 the great telegraphic lines of the world. , What are 
 our English electricians about, and what are the 
 functions of our so-called " Society of Telegraph 
 Engineers," in relation to the great question of prac- 
 tical telegraphy ? It was only the other day, in con- 
 nexion with Mr. Graham Bell's paper on the Telephone, 
 that a past President of the Society, lamenting the 
 decadence of English telegraphy, reminded English 
 electricians that they must look to their laurels if they 
 ■were to hold their own against foreign competitors. 
 The state of matters is very different in regard to 
 the science of civil and mechanical engineering, in 
 which England still leads the world.* 
 
 * Times, Nov. 22nd, 1877.
 
 1 82 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 TAWELL AND THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 In cases where crimes have been committed, the 
 astonishing detective powers of the electric telegraph; 
 have already proved most valuable to the community. 
 As, however, the numberless instances which might 
 be cited are but endless exemplifications of the same 
 principle, we will merely offer to our readers the frag- 
 ment of one of them. 
 
 He never expected that ! . . . . He had made up 
 his mind to give her the stuff, he had deliberately 
 bought it, had paid for it, had put it into his pocket, 
 had driven with it to the terminus of the Great 
 Western Railway, had flown Avith it along the line to 
 Slough, had walked with it to the cottage. 
 
 He had already deprived the poor creature of her 
 character, and now, on the first day of the year 1845, 
 he had come down to her on purpose to deprive her 
 of her life. 
 
 With affected kindness he had offered her refresh- 
 ment, had waited while, with his money, she went to 
 buy it, he had summoned up courage ? . . . . no, 
 cowardice and wickedness .... enough secretly to 
 pour the stuff from a tiny phial into her glass ; he had 
 seen her, with feelings of gratitude to him, raise the 
 mixture to her faded lips ; he had watched her swallow
 
 TAWELL AND THE TELEGRAPH. 1 83 
 
 the first mouthful, then another, then drink; he had 
 expected every instant, as she reached the dregs, to 
 see his degraded victim drop down dead before his 
 eyes ; he could bear all this, but he did not know that 
 it was the nature of the horrid poison he had pur- 
 chased, to betray the hand that had administered it. 
 Oh ! he never expected that loud, horrid, piercing 
 convulsive scream ! As, terrified and scared he opened 
 the door to escape, the inhabitants of the neighbour- 
 ing cottages, alarmed by the frightful noise they had 
 just heard, sympathetically opened theirs. They saw 
 him leave the house with hurried steps, observed him 
 make for the Slough road, where by another party he 
 was observed to be " confused — to tremble — and on 
 being addressed, he made no reply." And yet he had 
 only done what he had deliberately intended to per- 
 petrate ; he knew there was no rest for the wicked ; 
 but, oh ! he had never expected that shrill, fearful, 
 haunting scream ! On reaching the station he took 
 his place in a departing train, and in a few minutes 
 he apparently had effected his escape ! 
 
 Everybody who has travelled by the Great Western 
 Railway knows how joyously its Avell-appointed trains 
 skim along the level country between Slough and 
 London. He no doubt appreciated the speed, valued 
 the wings with which he w^as flying, more than any of 
 his fellow-passengers. He probably felt that no 
 power on earth could overtake him, and that, if he
 
 1 8+ TELKGRAPHS. 
 
 could but dive into the mass of population in London, 
 he would in perfect security flow with its streams 
 unnoticed. 
 
 But whatever may have been his fears, his hopes, 
 his fancies, or his thoughts, there suddenly flashed 
 along the wires of the electric telegraph which were 
 stretched close beside him, the following words : — 
 
 "A Murder has just been committed at Salt 
 Hill, and the suspected murderer was seen 
 
 TO TAKE A first-class TICKET TO LONDON BY 
 THE TRAIN WHICH LEFT SLOUGH AT yh. 42m. P.M. 
 He is IN THE GARB OF A QUAKER, WITH A BROWN 
 
 Great Coat on, which reaches nearly down 
 TO his feet. He is in the last compartment 
 
 OF THE SECOND FIRST-CLASS CARRIAGE." 
 
 And yet, fast as these words flew like lightning past 
 him, the information they contained, with all its 
 details, as well as every secret thought that had pre- 
 ceded them, had already consecutively flown millions 
 of times faster; indeed, at the very instant that, within 
 the walls of the little cottage at Salt Hill, there had been 
 uttered that dreadful scream, it had simultaneously 
 reached the judgment seat of Heaven ! 
 
 On arriving at the Paddington Station, after min- 
 gling for some moments with the crowd, he got into 
 an omnibus ; and as it rumbled along, taking up one 
 passenger and putting down another, he probably
 
 TAWELL AND THE TELEGRAPH. 1 85 
 
 felt that his identity was every minute becoming 
 confounded and confused by the exchange of fel- 
 low-passengers for strangers that was constantly 
 taking place. But all the time he was thinking, the 
 cad of the omnibus — a policeman in disguise — knew 
 that he held his victim like a rat in a cage. Without, 
 however, apparently taking the slightest notice of him, 
 he took one sixpence, gave change for a shilling, 
 handed out this lady, stuffed in that one, until, arriving 
 at the Bank, the guilty man, stooping as he walked 
 towards the carriage door, descends the steps, paid 
 his fare, crossed over to the Duke of Wellington's 
 statue, where pausing for a few moments, anxiously 
 to gaze around him, he proceeded to the Jerusalem 
 Coffee House, thence over London Bridge to the 
 Leopard Coffee House, in the Borough, and finally to 
 a lodging-house in Scott's yard. Cannon Street. 
 
 He probably fancied that, by making so many 
 turns and doubles, he had not only effectually puzzled 
 all pursuit, but that his appearance at so many coffee- 
 houses would assist him, if necessary, in proving an 
 ■alibi ; but, whatever may have been his motives or 
 his thoughts, he had scarcely entered the lodging 
 when the policeman, who, like a wolf, had followed 
 him every step of the way, opening his door, very 
 calmly said to him (the words no doubt were infinitely 
 more appalling to him even than the scream that had 
 been haunting him) —
 
 l86 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 "Haven't you just come from Slough?" The 
 monosyllable " NO," confusedly uttered in reply, sub- 
 stantiated his guilt. 
 
 The policeman made him his prisoner; he was 
 thrown into jail, — tried, found guilty of wilful murder, 
 and Hanged. 
 
 A few months afterwards, we happened to be 
 travelling by rail from Paddington to Slough, in a 
 carriage filled with people, all strangers to one another. 
 Like English travellers they were all mute. For 
 nearly fifteen miles no one had uttered a single word,, 
 until a short-bodied, short-necked, short-nosed, exceed- 
 ingly respectable-looking man in the corner, fixing his 
 eyes on the apparently fleeting posts and rails of the 
 electric telegraph, significantly nodded to us as he 
 muttered aloud — 
 
 " Them's the Cords that hung John Ta- 
 WELL ! "* 
 
 * " Stokers and Pokers." 
 
 The editor was well acquainted with John Tawell. He formerly 
 carried on a large business in Sydney, as a chemist ; and by great 
 perseverance and attention he realized a large fortune. Our house 
 received very large remittances from him for investments, and for 
 the distribution of charitable gifts. Upon his return to England he 
 was a daily visitor at 73, Cheapside. From his general kind manner 
 no one would have supposed him to be guilty of the crime for which 
 he suffered. The day before he committed the murder, we dined 
 together ; and his manner on that occasion was what it always was — 
 quiet.
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEGRAPHY. 1 87 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 It is a surprising fact that the system of telegraphing- 
 has attained to its present state of perfection only 
 within the past few years ; and it is still more so because 
 since the year 1821 the principles of the action of two 
 working telegraphs have been known to scientific 
 men. But for years practical men saw no benefit 
 that could arise from the dreams of philosophers, and 
 the statements of the philosophers were regarded 
 only as dreams. No one imagined that the tele- 
 graph would ever be necessary as a social engine, or 
 that a Company would ever find it a paying invest- 
 ment, much less that the Postmaster-General should 
 see, in a few years, that its possession was an absolute 
 necessity in connection with his department ; that the 
 interests of all the Companies should be bought by 
 the Government, and that the telegraph should be- 
 come the sole property of the nation. Before this 
 was effected, however, a great change had been 
 wrought in the public as well as the official mind, for, 
 some years ago, when Mr. Ranaldo attempted to draw 
 the attention of some of the Government officials to 
 the working of his instrument, he received for an 
 answer that " The telegraph is of no use in time of 
 peace, and the semaphore in time of war answers all 
 the required purposes." It often so happens, that in
 
 1 88 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 order to develop an invention of importance and value 
 fully, another gigantic scheme has to be entered 
 upon, so that the two may work in harmony. Such 
 was the case with regard to the telegraph and the 
 introduction of railways. The vast advantage to a 
 railway of a method of conveying signals instantane- 
 ously throughout its entire length was at once seen, 
 and the continuity of its property, together with the 
 protection afforded by its servants, presented facilities 
 for its introduction and maintenance which had never 
 before occurred. 
 
 THE FIRST TELEGRAPH. 
 
 It is well known that some interesting experiments 
 were made on Shooter's Hill in the middle of the last 
 century, but it was not until Professor Wheatstone, in 
 conjunction with Mr. Cook, in 1837, took out a patent 
 for their instrument, that anything practical was done. 
 The directors of the London a,nd Birmingham Rail- 
 way sanctioned the laying down of wires between 
 the Euston Square and Camden Town stations, and 
 towards the end of July the telegraph was ready for 
 work. Late in the evening of the 25th of that month, 
 in a dingy little room near the booking-office at 
 Euston Square, by the light of a flaring dip-candle, 
 which only made the surrounding darkness visible,
 
 THE FIRST TELEGRAPH. 1 89 
 
 sat the inventor, Professor Wheatstone, with a throb- 
 bing pulse and a heart full of hope. In a similar 
 room at the Camden Town station sat Mr. Cook, his 
 co-patentee, and among others, two witnesses, well 
 known to fame, Mr. Charles Fox and Mr, Stephenson. 
 These gentlemen listened to the first word spelt by 
 that trembling tongue of steel, and then came the 
 answer from Mr. Cook. The feelings of the inventor 
 can be better imagined than described, but this is 
 what Professor Wheatstone says himself on the sub- 
 ject : " Never did I feel such a tumultuous sensation 
 before, as when, all alone in the still room, I heard the 
 needles click, and as I spelled the words, I felt all the 
 magnitude of the invention, now proved to be prac- 
 tical without cavil or dispute." The telegraph, thence- 
 forward, as far as its mechanism was concerned, went 
 on without a check, and the modifications of Professor 
 Wheatstone's instrument were made for the purpose 
 of rendering it more economical in its construction 
 and working. 
 
 After the successful working of the mile-and-a- 
 quarter line, the directors of the London and Birming- 
 ham Railway proposed to lay it down to the latter 
 town if the Birmingham and Liverpool Directors 
 would continue it on their line, but they objected, and 
 the telegraph received notice to quit the ground it 
 already occupied. However, in 1839, ^^- Brunei, the 
 eminent engineer, determined to adopt it on the Great
 
 igO TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 Western line. Accordingly, it was at first carried as 
 far as West Drayton, a distance of thirteen miles, and 
 afterwards to Slough, eighteen miles. The wires were 
 insulated and encased in an iron tube or box, and 
 placed below the ground — not suspended upon posts 
 as at present. The telegraph had, up to this time, 
 been strictly confined to railway business, and in 
 furtherance of this object Mr. Brunei proposed to 
 continue it to Bristol, but this proposal was nearly 
 fatal to the project. At a general meeting of the 
 Great Western Railway Company at Bristol, when 
 the report of the directors, including the recommen- 
 dation of Mr. Brunei, was submitted, a Mr. Hayward 
 of Manchester, — of all places in the world, — got up 
 and denounced the invention as a " new-fangled 
 
 o 
 
 scheme," and proposed a resolution repudiating the 
 agreement entered into with the patentees, which was 
 adopted. 
 
 This was, for the moment, a serious drawback, but 
 it led to the application of the telegraph to public 
 purposes. In order to keep the wires in the ground, 
 Mr. Cook proposed to maintain the telegraph at his 
 own expense, and the Railway Directors agreed to 
 this on the condition that he would send their railway 
 signals free of charge ; and in return he was to be 
 allowed to transmit messages for the public. Here, 
 then, is the first popular use made of the telegraph.
 
 THE TELEGRAPH AND THE THIEVES, 19I 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH AND THE THIEVES. 
 
 The first application of the telegraph to police 
 purposes took place about this time on the Great 
 Western Railway, and, as it was the first intimation to 
 thieves of the existence of such a wily detective, we 
 may quote the following extract from the telegraph 
 book kept at Paddington Station : — 
 
 " Eton Montem day, August 28, 1844. The Com- 
 missioners of Police have issued orders that several 
 officers of the detective force shall be stationed at 
 Paddington to watch the movements of suspicious 
 persons going by the down train, and give notice by 
 the electric telegraph to the Slough Station of the 
 number of such suspected persons, and dress, their 
 names if known, also the carriages in which they 
 are." 
 
 "Paddington, 10.20 a.m. Mail train just started. It 
 contains three thieves, named Sparrow, Burrell, and 
 Spurgeon, in the first compartment of the fourth first- 
 class carriage." 
 
 " Slough, 10.48 a.m. Mail train arrived. The 
 officers have cautioned the three thieves!' 
 
 " Paddington, 10.50. Special train just left. It con- 
 tained two thieves ; one named Oliver Martin, who is 
 dressed in black, cra/^e on his hat ; the other named 
 Piddler Dick, in black trousers and light blouse. Both
 
 192 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 in the third compartment of the first second-class 
 carriage." 
 
 " Slough, 1 1. 16 a.m. Special train arrived. Officers 
 have taken the two thieves into custody, a lady having 
 lost her bag, containing her purse with two sovereigns 
 in it ; one of the sovereigns was sworn to by the lady 
 as having been her property. It was found in Fiddler 
 Dick's watch fob." 
 
 This, it would appear, is the manner in which the 
 telegrams were obeyed. When the train arrived, a 
 policeman opened the door of the third compartment 
 of the first second-class carriage, and asked the pas- 
 sengers if they had missed anything .-' A search in 
 pockets and bags accordingly ensued, and one old lady 
 called out that her purse was gone. The policeman,, 
 without a moment's hesitation, said, " Fiddler Dick, 
 you're wanted ;" at the same time beckoning to the 
 individual who rejoiced in such a suggestively mirthful ' 
 cognomen. The culprit, thunderstruck that he should 
 be known, came out of the carriage and gave himself 
 up as well as the stolen property, with the air of a beaten 
 man. The effect of the capture so cleverly brought 
 about is thus spoken of in the telegraph book : — 
 
 " Slough, 1 1.5 1 a.m. Several of the suspected 
 persons who came by the various down trains are 
 lurking about Slough, uttering bitter invectives against 
 the telegraph. Not one of those cautioned has ven- 
 tured to proceed to the Montem."
 
 hi ""' 
 
 THE FIRST SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS. 1 93 
 
 THE FIRST SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 The following interesting details relating to early 
 submarine Telegraphy are extracted from the letters 
 of Dr. W. H. Russell, which originally appeared in the 
 Times during the laying of the Atlantic Telegraph : — 
 
 " If any person takes an interest in determining who 
 was the inventor of electric telegraphy, he should study 
 the works and mark the improvements of the natural 
 philosophers of the last as well as of the present cen- 
 tury, and he can then arrive at some result without 
 exciting national jealousy, or injuring individual sus- 
 ceptibilities. Humboldt assigns the credit of making 
 the first electric telegraph to Salva, who constructed 
 
 line 26 miles long, from Madrid to Aranjuez, in 
 1798. Russia claims the honour of having invented 
 aerial lines, because Baron von Schilling proposed a 
 line for the Emperor from St. Petersburg to PeterhofF, 
 below Cronstadt, in 1834, and was laughed at by 
 scientific Muscovites for his pains. But the Baron 
 certainly did transmit messages along wires supported 
 by poles in the air. The Count du Moncel, in his 
 * Traitc de Telegraphic Electrique,' gives to Mr. 
 Wheatstone the palm as the original inventor of 
 submarine cables, to which award, no doubt, there 
 will be some dissent. Mr. Wheatstone, however, as 
 early as 1840, brought before the House of Commons 
 
 o
 
 194 
 
 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 the project of a cable, to be laid between Dover and 
 Calais, though he does not seem to have had at the 
 time any decided views as to the mode in which insula- 
 tion was to be obtained. In 1843, Professor Morse, de- 
 tailing the results of some experiments with an electric 
 magnetic telegraph between Washington and Baltimore, 
 in a letter to the Secretary of the United States, 
 wrote : ' The practical inference from this law is that 
 a telegraphic communication, on the electric-magnetic 
 plan, may with certainty be established across the 
 Atlantic Ocean. Startling as this may seem now, I 
 am confident the time will come when this project 
 will be realized.' 
 
 " But for the experiments and discoveries of Oersted, 
 Sturgeon, Ampere, Davy, Henry, and Faraday, and a 
 long list of others, such suggestions would have 
 remained as little likely to be realized as the Bishop 
 of Llandafif's notions of a flying machine, or the crude 
 theories of the alchemists. He who first produces a 
 practical result — something which, however imperfect, 
 gives a result to be seen and felt, and appreciated by 
 the senses — is the true 71017^x779, the maker and inventor, 
 whom the world should recognize, no matter how 
 much may be done by others to improve his work ; 
 each of these improvers being, after his kind, deserving 
 of recognition for what he does. A year before Pro- 
 fessor Morse wrote the letter to Mr. Spencer, he took 
 some steps to show that what he prophesied was
 
 I 
 
 THE FIRST SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS. 1 95 
 
 •practicable. In the autumn of the year 1842, he 
 stretched a submarine cable from Castle Garden to 
 Governor's Island, in the harbour of New York ; 
 demonstrated to the American Institute the possi- 
 bility of effecting electric communication through the 
 sea, and submitted, that telegraphic communication 
 might with certainty be established across the Atlantic. 
 Later in the same year he sent a current across the 
 canal at Washington. But that was not the first 
 current transmitted underwater, for, as early as 1839, 
 Sir W. O'Shaughnessy, the late Superintendent of 
 Electric Telegraphs in India, hauled an insulated wire 
 across the Hooghly at Calcutta, and produced electrical 
 phenomena at the other side of the river. In 1846, 
 Colonel Colt, the patentee of the revolver, and Mr. 
 Robinson, of New York, laid a wire across the river 
 from New York to Brooklyn, and from Long Island 
 to Coney Island. In 1849, Mr. Walker sent messages 
 to shore through two miles of insulated wire from a 
 battery on board a steamer off Folkestone. 
 
 "It was not till 1851 that an electric cable was actu- 
 ally laid in the open sea, and worked successfully ; and 
 the wire which then connected Dover with Calais was, 
 beyond question, the first important line of submarine 
 telegraph ever attempted. In the year 1850, Mr. 
 Brett obtained a concession from the French Govern- 
 ment for effecting this object, an object regarded at 
 the time as purely chimerical, and decried by the
 
 1 96 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 press as a gigantic swindle. The cable which was 
 made for the purpose, consisted of a solid copper wire, 
 covered with gutta-percha. When tested by Mr. 
 Wollaston, it was found to be so imperfect from air- 
 holes in the gutta-percha, that the water found its 
 way to the copper wire, an imperfection which was, 
 however, forthwith repaired. This cable was manufac- 
 tured at the gutta-percha works, in the Wharf Road, 
 City Road, under the superintendence of the late 
 Mr. Samuel Statham ; coiled on a drum, it was then 
 conveyed by steam-tug to Dover, and, in the year 1850, 
 paid out from Dover to Calais. The landing-place 
 in France was Cape Grisnez, from which place a few 
 messages passed, so as to comply with the terms of 
 the concession and test the accuracy of the principle. 
 The communication thus established between the 
 Continent and England was, however, after a few hours, 
 abruptly stopped by a singular accident. 
 
 " A diligent fisherman, plying his vocation, having 
 brought up part of the cable in his trawl, cut off a 
 piece, which he bore in triumph to Boulogne, exhibit- 
 ing it there as a specimen of rare sea-weed, with its 
 centre filled with gold. It is believed that this 
 ' piscator ignobilis ' returned again and again to 
 search for further specimens of this treasure of the 
 deep ; it is, at all events, perfectly certain that he 
 succeeded in destroying the submarine cable. 
 
 " This accident caused the attention of scientific men
 
 THE FIRST SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS. 1 97 
 
 to be directed to the discovery of some mode of pre- 
 serving submarine cables from similar casualties, and 
 a suggestion was made to Mr. Wollaston, and to Mr. 
 T. R. Crampton, by Mr. Kiiper, who was engaged 
 in the manufacture of wire ropes, that the wire 
 insulated with gutta-percha should form a core or 
 centre to a wire rope, so as to give protection to it 
 during the process of paying out and laying down, as 
 well as to guard it from the anchors of vessels and the 
 rocks, and to secure a perfect electrical continuity. 
 
 "Mr. Crampton, who had already accepted the con- 
 tract for laying the cable between England and France, 
 and had given much of his time to the study of 
 the subject, adopted this idea, and in 185 1, he and 
 several other gentlemen, associated for the purpose, 
 laid the cable between England and the Continent. 
 It was made by Wilkins and Weatherby, Newall and 
 Co., Kiiper and Co., and Mr. Crampton. The exer- 
 tions of the last-named eminent engineer in laying the 
 first cable under water, and his devotion to an object 
 towards which he contributed largely in money, are 
 Icnown only to a few, and have never been adequately 
 acknowledged. 
 
 " The success of that form of cable having been thus 
 completely established, several lines of similar char- 
 acter were laid during the following years, between 
 England and Ireland and parts of the Continent : one 
 made by Newall and Co. — eighteen miles long — across
 
 198 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 the Great Belt ; one from Dover to Ostend, by the 
 same makers and by Kiiper and Co. ; one from 
 Donaghadee to Portpatrick, by Nevvall and Co. ; one 
 from Holyhead to Howth ; and one from Orfordness 
 to the Hasfue," 
 
 THE FIRST ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. 
 
 The following interesting history of this great under- 
 taking is taken from the Encyclopccdia Britannica : — 
 
 "In the year 1857 as much iron as would make a 
 cube of 20 feet side was drawn into wire long enough 
 to reach from the earth to the moon, and bind several 
 times round each globe. This wire was made into 
 126 lengths of 2,500 miles, and spun into 18 strands 
 of seven wires each. A single strand of seven copper 
 wires of the same length, weighing in all 1 10 grains 
 per foot, was three times coated with gutta-percha, to 
 an entire outer thickness of '4 of an inch ; and this 
 was 'served' outside with 240 tons of tarred yarn, 
 and then laid over with 18 strands of iron wire in 
 long contiguous spirals, and passed through a bath of 
 melted pitch. In August of that year about a sixth 
 of the entire length of this compound rope was laid 
 from the Irish shore westwards, and lost by a breakage 
 at the stern of the Niamra. The remainder was con-
 
 THE FIRST ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. 1 99 
 
 veyed in the two ships to Devonport, and stored for 
 the winter in Keyham Dockyard. A length of fifty- 
 five miles of the portion which had been lost, was 
 lifted, in tolerably good condition, a few months later. 
 During the ensuing winter and spring about 900 miles 
 more of similar cable were manufactured ; and in the 
 months of April and May, 1858, the whole length of 
 3,000 British statute miles was shipped on board 
 H.M.S. Agavicmnon and the U.S. steam frigate 
 Niagara. After an experimental cruise in the Bay of 
 Biscay, to test the appliances for laying the cable, by 
 actual trials in water 2,500 fathoms deep, and some 
 slight alteration in the machinery, made in conse- 
 quence of returning to Plymouth, the two ships, 
 accompanied by H.M.S. Valoroics and Gorgon, paddle 
 steamers — the former tender to the Agamemnon, the 
 latter to the Niagara — set out for the middle of the 
 Atlantic on the loth of June. After three unsuc- 
 cessful, but not discouraging attempts, in which 
 between 400 and 500 statute miles of cable were lost, 
 the ships returned from the different points they had 
 reached, to rendezvous in Queenstown Harbour, 
 where, on the arrival of the Agamemnon on the I2th 
 of July, the whole squadron were again together, and 
 remained long enough to take in coal and make 
 other preparations for a final attempt. On the 17th 
 of July they again put to sea westwards. On the 
 29th they met at the mid-ocean rendezvous, joined
 
 200 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 the ends of the cable between the two ships bearing 
 it, and commenced laying it in 2,400 fathoms water, 
 the Niagara continuing westwards, and the Agamem- 
 non returning to the east. This time no accident 
 stopped the continuous paying-out ; and on the 5th 
 of August the two ships cut the cable, and left the 
 ends on shore on the two sides of the Atlantic. The 
 possibility of laying an electric cable across 2,000 
 miles of ocean, in depths of from 1,800 to 2,500 
 fathoms — seriously doubted by nearly all practical 
 engineers, and considered a perfectly chimerical pro- 
 ject by some of the most eminent — was triumphantly 
 demonstrated. The risk of failure in future attempts 
 was brought almost within the limits of a common 
 'sea-risk;' the weather having been by no means 
 favourable, especially on the Agamemnofis side, 
 where, during three days of the six, strong breezes 
 from several quarters were experienced, and at one 
 time a fresh gale of head-wind. The telegraphic 
 operations performed between Valentia and Trinity 
 Bay during the remainder of the month of August 
 will render the year 1858 ever memorable in the 
 history of the world. The world's news was read on 
 the same day in the capitals of Europe and America. 
 Question and answer passed freely, and friendly con- 
 versation was held between the operators on the two 
 sides of the Atlantic. The Queen of England and 
 the President of the United States interchanged con-
 
 THE FIRST ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. 201 
 
 gratulatory messages, and assurances of mutual good- 
 will on the part of the two great nations under their 
 authority. One short message saved thousands of 
 pounds of money, and an inestimable amount of 
 anxiety, by giving timely notice of an accident which 
 disabled one of the Transatlantic steamers off the 
 American coast, bound for England. Another — 
 nearly the last utterance of the failing cable — counter- 
 manded two British regiments under orders to em- 
 bark, and prevented them from leaving the American 
 colonies on a bootless voyage across the Atlantic. 
 The last words of the [first] Atlantic telegraph were 
 read at Valentia on the 20th October, 1858 — 'two 
 
 hundred and forty t — k (? two) Daniell's 
 
 now in circuit.' The full message, as was afterwards 
 learned in the old method of receiving intelligence 
 from the other side of the Atlantic, was ' two hundred 
 and forty trays and seventy-two liquid Daniell's now 
 in circuit' 
 
 [A note explains that "trays" meant a form of bat- 
 tery introduced for nautical and land telegraphic use, 
 which has the good electrical qualities of Daniell's, 
 without the disadvantage inseparable from the use of 
 process cells. It consisted of copper trays, each 
 strewn with crystals of sulphate of copper, covering 
 its bottom, and filled with saw-dust moistened with 
 sulphuric acid and water, on the top of which an 
 amalgamated zinc plate was laid. These trays, thus
 
 202 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 charged, were piled one with its outside copper bot- 
 tom on the top of the zinc of another, in columns of 
 from five to twenty, after the fashion of an old voltaic 
 pile.] 
 
 "This prodigious power, one thousand times as much 
 as would have given perfect signals to the mirror 
 galvanometer in use as receiving instrument at Valen- 
 tia through the same cable, if ordinarily well insulated, 
 proved insufficient for continuing telegraphic work, 
 and it became certain that only mending the insula- 
 tion in one or more faulty places could restore 
 communication. Before the process of laying was 
 complete, indications of very imperfect insulation 
 had been given by the readings of the ' marine gal- 
 vanometer,' recorded on board of each ship. After 
 the ends were landed, the insulation became further 
 deteriorated ; every attempt to establish communica- 
 tion by means of the regular telegraphic instruments 
 prepared for the use of the Company proved a failure;, 
 and it was only by the introduction of the mirror- 
 receiving instrument on each side of the Atlantic that 
 an interchange of intelligence was effected. 
 
 " As soon as messages began to come from New- 
 foundland, they were read with the greatest ease at- 
 Valentia, on the new system. At Newfoundland, on 
 the other hand, three days passed, during which 
 messages, continually being sent from Valentia, were 
 not read or even recognized to be signals at all ; and.
 
 THE FIRST ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. 2O3 
 
 it was only by the occasional introduction of the 
 mirror instrument into circuit, in accordance with 
 instructions given at Devonport to special operators, 
 sent out in charge of it, that the first words were read 
 on the other side of the Atlantic, A ' detector,' or 
 common telegraph galvanometer, of a kind then much 
 used by British practical electricians, was next tried, 
 and it was found possible to read by it, although 
 with great difficulty (the signal deflections scarcely 
 amounting to half a degree), and only at an exces- 
 sively slow rate (half a word per minute or less) ; but 
 when, as was often the case, these attempts failed 
 altogether, the mirror was had recourse to, to see 
 whether any message was coming or not. Matters 
 were conducted in this unsatisfactory way at the 
 Newfoundland station for about a week after the first 
 words had been read, until the mirror was perma- 
 nently introduced into circuit, and regularly used as 
 a receiving instrument, in accordance with an order 
 transmitted through the cable from Valentia on the 
 2 1st of August. From that time forward the messages 
 were read with about equal ease at the two ends; but 
 the days of the first Atlantic telegraph were num- 
 bered. On the 1st of September it conveyed the two 
 military messages ; on the following day it conveyed 
 one congratulatory message for a public meeting in 
 New York, addressed to Mr. Cyrus Field, to whose 
 untiring energy it in a great measure owed its exist-
 
 204 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 ence ; and it failed to convey a second similar mes- 
 sage on the same day. From that time to its death- 
 struggle, on the 20th of October, it was silent." 
 
 ACQUISITION OF THE TELEGRAPHS BY THE 
 POST OFFICE AUTHORITIES. 
 
 This important step was taken under the provisions 
 of Acts of Parliament passed in the Sessions of 1868 
 and 1869, and the reasons which induced the Govern- 
 ment to consent to the purchase of the various lines in 
 the United Kingdom may be gathered from the fol- 
 lowing statements taken from the able and compre- 
 hensive report of Mr. Scudamore, and submitted by 
 the Postmaster-General (Lord Hartington) to the 
 Lords* Commissioners : — 
 
 Owing to the depression in trade, the increase in 
 the amount of telegraphic business during the fifteen 
 months ended the 31st of March, 1876, fell considerably 
 short of the increase in previous years. The number 
 of messages dealt with was 26,440,439, being an 
 increase of 960,000 over the number in the preceding 
 fifteen months. The amount of matter transmitted 
 on behalf of the Press was about equal to the amount 
 transmitted in the preceding fifteen months. The 
 number of post-ofificcs open for the transaction of
 
 ACQUISITION OF TELEGRAPHS BY THE POST OFFICE. 205. 
 
 telegraph business on the 31st of March, 1877, was 
 3,734, in addition to which there were 1,636 railway 
 stations open for the transaction of public telegraph 
 business. The arbitration between the North-Eastem 
 Railway Company and the Department was the only 
 one which it was found possible to conclude. The 
 railway company claimed the sum of ^540,292, with 
 interest thereon at 5 per cent, from the i st of February, 
 1870, until payment. Under the award they obtained 
 the sum of ;^ 168,696, or less than one-fourth of their 
 claim on Her Majesty's Treasury. 
 
 Mr. Scudamore's report continues — "Five years have 
 passed since the agitation in favour of the transfer 
 which had been proposed by Mr. Allan in 1854, by 
 Mr. Baines in 1856, and by Mr. Ricardo, formerly 
 chairman of the Electric and International Telegraph 
 Company, in 1861, was formally and vigorously begun 
 by the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, which ad- 
 vocated that the following results were attainable : — 
 The reduction and simplification of the charges for 
 the transmission of telegrams throughout the United 
 Kingdom ; the extension of the wires from railway 
 stations lying outside of town populations to post- 
 offices in the centre of such populations, the extension 
 of the wires already carried into large cities towards 
 the suburbs of such cities, and the extension of the 
 wires from towns into rural and other districts unpro- 
 vided with telegraphic accommodation. From the
 
 2o6 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 combined effect of these extensioas, it was hoped that 
 a saving of time, as well as of cost of porterage, 
 would accrue to the senders and receivers of mes- 
 sages. 
 
 " Such a complete separation of the commercial 
 telegraph system from the railway telegraph system, 
 as would entirely relieve the commercial wires from 
 railway messages, and throw on the railway wires 
 those com.mercial messages only which arise out of 
 the circumstances of railway traffic. Free trade in 
 the collection of news for the Press, of which collec- 
 tion the telegraph companies had hitherto had a 
 monopoly, with low rates for the transmission of such 
 news, no matter by what or by how many agencies it 
 might be collected. 
 
 " Those who contended that the charges for the 
 transmission of telegrams by the companies were too 
 high, rested their case solely upon the tariff which 
 the Electric and International Company, the British 
 and Irish Magnetic Company, and the United King- 
 dom Company, under the provisions of the Telegraph 
 Act of 1863, had agreed to adopt for messages pass- 
 ing over, but not beyond, their own lines. Under that 
 : tariff the charge in Great Britain was a shilling for 
 j a twenty-word message, over distances not exceeding 
 I 100 miles ; one-and-sixpence for distances exceeding 
 / 100 but not exceeding 200 miles ; and two shillings 
 ^ for a distance exceeding 200 miles. For messages
 
 ACQUISITIOX OF TELEGRAPHS BY THE TOST OFFICE. 20/ 
 
 .^passing between Great Britain and Ireland, the charge 
 ranged from three, to six shilHngs. 
 
 " The case against this tariff was so strong, that the 
 promoters of the transfer never found it worth their 
 while to point out that it was limited in its operation 
 to certain lines and districts ; and that beyond those 
 lines and districts, there were veiy many unfavourable 
 exceptions to it. In order that the pubh"c may know 
 the full extent to which they have been benefited by 
 the transfer, it is necessary that these exceptions should 
 be noticed. There were twenty-five branch telegraph 
 lines, over which, for the transmission of messages, an 
 extra charge was made, over and above the tariff 
 already mentioned. 
 
 " On these branch lines there were about 475 stations, 
 to all of which the extra charge applied. That was 
 always high, and sometimes extremely so in proportion 
 to the ordinary tariff. 
 
 " Irrespective of the stations on these branch lines, 
 there were about 460 railway stations in connection 
 with the system of the Electric and International 
 Telegraph Company, on messages to and from which, 
 an extra charge was levied, as a fee to the station- 
 master for his attendance and trouble. 
 
 "Again, although the ordinary tariff was levied by 
 the Companies on the lines between towns in both of 
 which all companies had stations, yet if a message were 
 forwarded by one company from a town in which it
 
 208 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 had, but the other companies had not a station, to a 
 town in which the other companies had, but it had 
 not a station, the charge on it was composed of the 
 charge, according to tariff, from the forwarding station 
 to the handing over station, and a further charge, 
 according to tariff, from the handing over station to 
 the receiving station. 
 
 " Lastly, the charge for a message between the Isle of" 
 Man and the United Kingdom was four-and-sixpence, 
 whilst the charge for transmission between the Channel 
 Islands and the United Kingdom was six-and-eight- 
 pence for a London, and seven-and-eightpence for a 
 provincial message. 
 
 " The amount of the charges was not the only dis- 
 advantage of the system of charge which prevailed 
 prior to the transfer. An almost equal disadvantage 
 arose out of the complexity of the charges. It was 
 difficult for the clerks, and still more difficult for the 
 public, to tell what the cost of a message would be, and 
 there can be little doubt that the prevailing uncertainty 
 as to the charge, prevented many from sending 
 messages, who would have otherwise sent them freely. 
 
 " The proposals for the transfers of the telegraphs 
 from private companies to the Government were 
 put forward by Mr. Baines in 1856. He had not long 
 ceased to be an officer of the Electric Telegraph 
 Company, and had fully in his mind the disadvantages 
 and difficulties which were inseparable from a tariff so
 
 ACQUISITION OF TELEGRAPHS BV THE POST OFFICE. 209 
 
 variable as that which then prevailed. He proposed that 
 the transmission charge of messages should be at the 
 rate of sixpence for twenty words, irrespective of 
 distance. A tariff irrespective of distance had at that 
 time been established in Belgium and Switzerland, but 
 in no other country. In 1861, the United Kingdom 
 Telegraph Company was formed with the intent to 
 establish a uniform rate, of a shilling, irrespective of 
 distance, but it was compelled by the rival companies 
 to abandon that rate and adopt, in concurrence with 
 them, the rate which prevailed up to the time of 
 the transfer. In 1865, the Edinburgh Chamber of 
 Commerce advocated the establishment of a sixpenny 
 rate, irrespective of distance, and their example was 
 followed by other Chambers of Commerce throughout 
 the kingdom." 
 
 Mr. Scudamore continues : " I have frequently 
 expressed the opinion, which I still hold, that a six- 
 penny rate for messages of ten words, is what will at 
 no very distant date be found the best for this country ; 
 but I did not think it prudent when I drew up my 
 first reports on the subject to recommend the adoption 
 of such a low rate. The lowest uniform rate was at 
 that time a rate of one franc, the rate prevailing in 
 Belgium and Switzerland, and it seemed to me that 
 until some experience had been gained of the capacity 
 of the English telegraphs to bear the increase of work, 
 which a reduction of tariff would bring about, it would 
 
 P
 
 2IO TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 be well to proceed cautiously ; and I therefore recom- 
 mended the adoption of a shilling rate ; a shilling- rate 
 being in this country much what a franc is in Belgium 
 and France. 
 
 "When the Telegraph Bill of 1868 was before 
 the Parliamentary Committee, a sixpenny rate was 
 strongly recommended by Mr. Allan, and by Mr. 
 Patterson, who represented the Liverpool Chamber of 
 Commerce, and Mr. Potter, one of the members of the 
 Committee, proposed that it should be adopted. The 
 proposal was, however, rejected. 
 
 " When the Bill, after it had been amended by the- 
 Committee, came again before the House of Commons,, 
 Mr. Potter once more urged the adoption of a sixpenny 
 rate, upon which the then Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 Mr. Ward Hunt, said : ' That both he and I believed 
 in a sixpenny rate, and no doubt that eventually the 
 rate would be reduced to sixpence, but that it was 
 thought prudent to try the effect of a shilling rate in 
 the first instance.' 
 
 " The unofficial advocates of the transfer, in their 
 proposals for an alteration of tariff, dealt merely with 
 the initial charge for a message of twenty words. 
 
 " The Government proposal, as it was submitted to 
 the Committee in 1868, was that the transmission rate 
 for twenty words should be one shilling ; and that 
 half a rate should be charged for each additional ten 
 words, or part of ten words. On the motion of Mr.
 
 ACQUISITION OF TELEGRAPHS BY THE POST OFFICE. 211 
 
 Goschen, however, it was decided that a quarter rate 
 should be charged for each additional five words, 
 or part of five words. This was an important im- 
 provement 
 
 "The following clause from the Telegraph Act of 
 1868 shows the final decision of Parliament with 
 respect to the charges for the transmission of telegraph 
 messages. These charges can be reduced without fur- 
 ther legislative action, but the principle of uniformity 
 cannot be abandoned without the sanction of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 "'15. The Postmaster-General, with the consent- 
 of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, may 
 from time to time make regulations for determining 
 the hours during which the offices appointed by him 
 to be places for the receipt and despatch of messages, 
 shall be open for the transaction of telegraphic busi- 
 ness, and for fixing the sum to be from time to time 
 paid for the transmission of messages, and for services 
 rendered in connection therewith, and for the general 
 conduct of telegraphic business ; provided always, 
 
 *"(i.) That the charges for the transmission of mes- 
 sages throughout the United Kingdom shall uniformly, 
 and without regard to distance, be at a rate not 
 exceeding one shilling, for the first twenty words of 
 each message, or part of twenty words, and not 
 exceeding threepence for each additional five words, 
 or part of five words.
 
 912 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 " '(2.) That the names and addresses of senders, and 
 receivers of messages shall not be counted as part of 
 the words for which payment shall be required. 
 
 " '(3.) That the sums charged for the transmission of 
 messages, shall be held to cover the costs of delivery 
 by special foot messenger, within the limit of one mile 
 of the terminal telegraphic office, or within the limit 
 of the town postal delivery of that office ; when it is a 
 head post-office, and the town postal delivery extends 
 for more than a mile from it. 
 
 " '(4.) That when the addressee does not reside within 
 the above-described limits, and the sender desires to 
 have his message delivered by special foot messenger ; 
 the charge to him for porterage by such special mes- 
 senger shall not exceed sixpence per double mile, or 
 any part thereof, beyond such limits. 
 
 " '(5) Thatwhen the addressee does not reside within 
 the above-described limits, and the sender does not 
 desire to incur the cost of special delivery, his message 
 shall be delivered free of extra charge by the ordinary 
 postal delivery next following on the arrival of the 
 message at the terminal telegraphic office.' 
 
 " Those who advocated the transfer of the telegraphs 
 to Government, were of course actuated by a desire to 
 bring the telegraph offices closer to the population ; 
 and to reduce, for the senders and receivers of mes- 
 sages, the labour and cost of their transmission 
 over a certain portion of the then existing routes.
 
 ACQUISITION OF TELEGRAPHS BY THE POST OFFICE. 213 
 
 Prior to the transfer of the telegraphs to the State, 
 the principal telegraph system of the country — 
 that of the Electric and International Company — had 
 grown up, on the principal railways of the country, 
 and in connection with them. This had come to pass — 
 partly because the telegraph was seen to be indis- 
 pensable to the exigencies of railway traffic before it 
 was thought likely to be of great service, or to be of 
 interest to the general public ; — partly because railways 
 in some other respects, though not in all, afforded the 
 best routes for telegraph lines ; and, partly, because, in 
 the case of the particular Company, to which I have 
 referred, there was such an amount of connection 
 between the Board of that Company, and the Boards 
 of certain Railway Companies, as enabled the Tele- 
 graph Company to obtain a monopoly of way-leave 
 over certain railway lines. The result was, that in a 
 vast number of cases, the telegraph lines followed the 
 railway lines, and terminated at the railway stations ; 
 which, in a great majority of cases, were outside the ' 
 town populations. 
 
 "Mr. Baines, writing in 1856, and with his recollec- 
 tions of the Electric Telegraph Company fresh upon 
 him, says : — ' I have shown that of the 730 post- 
 towns, 260 only are telegraph stations ; of the latter 
 only fifty have offices within the limits of the respec- 
 tive towns, the remainder being at the railway sta- 
 tions, which are rarely within a mile of the towns
 
 214 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 from which their respective titles are taken, and not 
 unfrequently two or three miles distant from them. 
 An important increase of business must therefore 
 result from the telegraph being readily available, and 
 thus obviating the necessity for the conveyance of 
 messages by hand, over the distance between the rail- 
 way station and the town. It is clear that if the post- 
 offices of all towns were removed to railway stations, 
 a very considerable contraction of postal business 
 would ensue; (not to speak of the inconvenience result- 
 ing to the public), as no letters, save those of com- 
 parative importance, would in all probability {owing 
 to the intervening distance) be posted. This principle 
 is equally applicable to the electric telegraph.' 
 
 "As a matter of course, circumstances had in many 
 respects changed between 1856 and the autumn of 
 1865, at which time the formal agitation for the 
 transfer commenced ; nor would Mr. Baines's remarks 
 as to the post-towns have held good then. 
 
 " By that time the Electric Company had extended 
 their lines from many more railway stations into post- 
 towns, into which the Magnetic and United Kingdom 
 Companies, which worked chiefly on the common 
 roads, had carried their lines also ; but a large 
 number of places which really required telegraphic 
 accommodation, were still served from railway stations 
 lying outside the town limits. 
 ; " In the appendix to my first report on the subject
 
 ACQUISITION OF TELEGRAPHS BY THE POST OFFICE. 21 5 
 
 (which was made in July, 1866), I gave a list of 486 
 towns in England and Wales, having a population of 
 2,000 and upwards, per town, (the list did not include 
 the largest towns), and showed that at only 144 of 
 those 486 towns was the telegraph office within the 
 town limits. 
 
 " I may here observe, that at the present moment 
 only thirty-five out of these 486 towns are without a 
 telegraph-office in the very centre of the population ; 
 and that this change is due to the action of the Post 
 Office. 
 
 " Nor, when the lines were extended from the rail- 
 way stations into towns, was the accommodation, 
 even in the greatest towns, satisfactory to the public. 
 The first memorial from the Edinburgh Chamber of 
 Commerce contains the following remarks : — ' There 
 are at present about 300 places in which all the three 
 companies have offices, generally situated, as in the 
 case of our own city, within a few yards of each other. 
 Many of these offices could be dispensed with, and 
 their cost applied to the establishment of others 
 placed where the convenience of the public, rather 
 than the necessities of competition, required them to 
 be placed.' 
 
 " In 1868 the Electric and International put forth a 
 pamphlet, in which they proposed a transfer. 
 
 " In London, the Magnetic and United Kingdom 
 Companies had established a considerable number of
 
 21 6 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 branch offices ; but in London also they adhered to 
 their plan of competing for the traffic of busy 
 localities. The London and Provincial Company, 
 too, had established what was designed to be mainly 
 a local system for the transmission, primarily, of mes- 
 sages from one part of London to another. In reality, 
 however, the lines of this company were mere feeders 
 to the lines of other companies, and were used mainly 
 for the transmission of messages from the provinces 
 over certain districts to London. Purely local mes- 
 sages were comparatively few in number, the time 
 required for their transmission being usually greater 
 than that in which the post, or special messenger 
 could have delivered them. Statements to this effect 
 constantly appeared in the public prints for some 
 years prior to the transfer. 
 
 "In my first report (July, 1866), I stated that when 
 the transfer took place I should propose — 
 
 " To open a central telegraphic-office at each of the 
 ten district Post Offices in London ; 
 
 " To open subordinate telegraphic-offices at the sort- 
 ing-offices and receiving-offices in each district ; 
 
 "To connect the subordinate telegraphic-offices of 
 each district with the central telegraphic-office of that 
 district ; 
 
 " To establish direct communication between each 
 central telegraphic-office and every other central tele- 
 graphic-office in London.
 
 ACQUISITION OF TELEGRAPHS BY THE POST OFFICE. 217 
 
 " While small towns and the suburbs of large towns 
 were thus insufficiently provided for, even less pro- 
 vision was made for the wants of rural districts. 
 These were almost entirely dependent upon the rail- 
 way stations, at many of which the service was 
 occasional only, and at but few of which was there a 
 regular messenger. 
 
 " The railway companies were fully alive to the dis- 
 advantage of the system, and though they at first, 
 while they jointly with the telegraph companies were 
 opposing the transfer, urged that the connection 
 between them and the telegraph companies was in- 
 dispensable to the public safety, they afterwards took 
 care to provide for the complete severance of that 
 connection, by procuring the insertion of the following 
 clause in the Act of 1868 : — 
 
 " ' On such acquisition as aforesaid, all the posts, 
 wires, instruments, and other telegraphic apparatus 
 belonging to the railway company, and also all posts, 
 wires, and instruments, and other telegraphic appara- 
 tus belonging to the telegraph companies on the 
 railway companies' lines and canals which are neces- 
 sary for establishing a complete system of telegraphy 
 in connection with the working of trains, and the 
 traffic of the lines and canals, shall become the abso- 
 lute property of the railway company, and shall be 
 handed over to them by the Postmaster-General, free 
 of charge, in efficient working order, so that the 
 
 L
 
 21 8 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 railway company may be in a position at once to 
 take up and carry on their own telegraph work on 
 their own system ; and thereafter the posts, wires, 
 instruments, and other telegraphic apparatus shall be 
 maintained and worked by the railway company.' 
 
 "This clause has been carried out to the very letter 
 wherever it is applicable. The advantage of the 
 separation of the railway from the commercial work 
 will be found in the fact that so far as the safety of 
 railway passengers can be secured by the employment 
 of a free and unencumbered telegraph, the risks of 
 railway travelling over great lengths of important 
 line must have been diminished by the operations of 
 the Government measure." 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PRESS NEWS. 
 
 Prior to the acquisition of the telegraphs by the 
 State, the telegraphic companies, whilst competing 
 with each other for ordinary messages, were in com- 
 bination for collecting and transmitting news to news- 
 papers and news-rooms. The rates which they charged 
 for the collection and transmission of news were 
 moderate ; but as they had the command of the entire 
 telegraphic communication of the United Kingdom, 
 ihe newspaper proprietors who required news by
 
 TELEGRAPHIC PRESS NEWS. 21 p 
 
 "telegraph were compelled to resort to them for it, and 
 to take what the companies were willing to supply. 
 
 To ascertain what the views of newspaper proprie- 
 tors were with regard to this agreement, the represen- 
 tatives of the Provincial Press were examined before 
 a Parliamentary Committee on the Telegraph Bill of 
 1868, and from their evidence it was clear that they 
 were dissatisfied with the then existing arrangements, 
 chiefly because there were delays and errors oi a 
 serious character ; because the cost was too high ; and 
 because the companies sent a quantity of matter which 
 the newspapers did not require, and refused to supply 
 them with a quantity of matter which they did re- 
 -quire. They were especially dissatisfied with the 
 monopoly of collection possessed by the Telegraph 
 Companies, and in their opinion the then existing 
 arrangements tended to check the distribution of 
 news by telegraph throughout the country. They 
 approved of the provisions of the Bill then before the 
 Committee, and thought the effect of them would be, 
 if they became law, greatly to increase the spread of 
 news by telegraph throughout the country ; at an 
 increased cost, it might be, to newspaper proprietors, 
 but with a proportionate advantage to them and to 
 their readers. 
 
 In furtherance of their views, the following clause 
 was inserted in the Telegraphs Act of 1868 : — 
 
 " Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be
 
 220 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 lawful for the Postmaster-General, with the consent 
 of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, from 
 time to time to make contracts, agreements, and 
 arrangements with the proprietor or publisher of any 
 public registered newspaper, or the proprietor or occu- 
 pier of any news-room, club, or exchange-room, for 
 the transmission and delivery or the transmission or 
 delivery, of telegraphic communications at rates not 
 exceeding one shilling for every hundred words trans- 
 mitted between the hours of 6 p.m. and 9 a.m., and at 
 rates not exceeding one shilling for every seventy-five 
 words transmitted between the hours of 9 a.m. and 
 6 p.m., to a single address, with an additional charge 
 of twopence for every hundred words, or twopence for 
 every seventy-five words, as the case may be, of the 
 same telegraphic communication so transmitted to 
 every additional address. Provided always that the 
 Postmaster-General may, from time to time, with the 
 like consent, let to any such proprietor, publisher, or 
 occupier, the special use of a wire (during a period 
 of twelve hours /e;* diem as may be agreed on) for the 
 purpose of such newspaper, news-room, club-room, or 
 exchange-room, at a rate not exceeding five hundred 
 pounds per annum. Provided also, that no such pro- 
 prietor, publisher, or occupier, shall have any undue 
 priority or preference in respect of such rates over any 
 other such proprietor, publisher, or occupier.
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 221 
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 
 
 The report proceeds to describe the difficulties that 
 the Post Office Department had to encounter in the 
 prosecution of its undertaking. These are classed 
 under three heads : — 
 
 Difficulties arising out of the very natural reluctance 
 of the Telegraph Companies to extend the systems 
 under their control so long as the proposal for the 
 acquisition of those systems by the State was under 
 consideration. 
 
 Difficulties, unavoidable at the outset of the under- 
 taking, and arising out of the nature and magnitude 
 of the change which was demanded by, and promised 
 to the public, and which was nothing less than a com- 
 plete reorganization of the telegraph system through- 
 out the country. 
 
 Difficulties attributable to the delay which took 
 place in the passing, in 1869, of the Money Bill which 
 was required to give effect to the Act of 1868. 
 
 Very little was done in the five years prior to the 
 transfer towards the extension of the inland telegraph 
 system. 
 
 The agitation for the transfer of the telegraphs 
 began to take shape in 1866, and, as a matter of course, 
 Jiad a powerful effect upon all the companies. The 
 Electric Company, which in 1866 increased its mileage
 
 222 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 of wire 2,500, added only 2,000 miles in 1867, and only 
 700 miles in 1868 ; and this additional mileage was 
 placed mainly on existing lines of great importance. 
 Hardly anything was done for the extension of the 
 inland system in 1867 and 1868 by the other companies ; 
 and in 1869, no extensions were made save those 
 which were carried out on behalf of the Post Office, 
 and at its cost, and in view of the transfer. 
 
 In short, there can be no doubt that during five 
 years prior to the transfer of the telegraph system in 
 this country it made very little progress, and that 
 in the two years prior to the transfer it made no 
 progress at all. During the whole of that time the 
 public had been crying out for extensions, so that' 
 the Post Office started with a heavy arrear of work 
 upon its hands, and heavily in debt to public expec- 
 tation. 
 
 The change demanded by the public, and promised 
 by the legislature, was a sweeping and radical one ; 
 and in carrj-ing it out it was scarcely possible for the 
 department to avoid giving some dissatisfaction to 
 some classes of the community. 
 
 1 The telegraph companies declared in 1868, that 
 their lines were used mainly by stockbrokers, mining 
 agents, shipbrokers, colonial brokers, racing and 
 betting men, fishmongers, fruit merchants, and others 
 engaged in business of a speculative character, or who 
 deal in articles of a perishable nature.
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 2 23 
 
 It was their opinion, too, that " general merchants 
 used the telegraph comparatively little, compared with 
 those engaged in the more speculative branches of 
 commerce." 
 
 . There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of this 
 view. By maintaining high charges as long as they 
 could, by reducing those charges inch by inch as it 
 were, and only under pressure, by the confinement of 
 their operations to important towns, and by planting 
 their offices mainly in the business centres of these 
 towns, the telegraph companies had brought specula- 
 tive men, and speculative men only, to a free use of 
 the telegraph. Whoever could make money on a turn 
 of the market, whoever could advantageously place a 
 few pounds when Bumblebee went below Dulcibella 
 in the betting, whoever had it at heart to let Thames 
 Street know that there was a large take of herrings at 
 Wick, rushed cheerfully to the telegraph office and 
 Avould have submitted to any inconvenience and paid 
 any charge to get his message through in time. But 
 the general public, puzzled by a variable and complex 
 tariff, and disheartened by the distance of telegraph 
 offices from their doors, had got to regard the tehegraph 
 as a medium of communication which might be used 
 in times of sore necessity, and then only, and to look 
 upon a telegraph message with a feeling amounting to 
 fear. This is within the knowledge of most people, 
 and for years there will be a large number of persons
 
 224 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 who will be unable to open the envelope of a telegraph 
 message without alarm and apprehension. 
 
 Those who advocated the transfer to the Govern- 
 ment, contemplated a radical change in this respect. 
 They proposed, by the establishment of a low, uniform, 
 and very simple tariff; and by bringing the wires close 
 to the population : to popularise telegraphs in this 
 country, to put the use of the telegraph within the 
 reach of everyone, and to make that, which had 
 hitherto mainly served the purposes of the wealthy 
 and the speculative, minister to all the necessities of 
 social and domestic life. 
 
 On the introduction of such a system as this, it was 
 absolutely necessary that the Post Office should set 
 itself against favouritism of any kind, and that it 
 should determine strictly in order of receipt, and 
 without any reference to their real or supposed impor- 
 tance or to the wishes of the senders. 
 
 Applications have been made to the Department 
 for the establishment of a differential tariff, with alow 
 rate for ordinary and a high rate for special messages, 
 but is clear that no such differential tariff is possible. 
 If it were once admitted that a message called special, 
 and for which 5s. was paid, ought to go before a 
 message called ordinary, and on which but a shiUing 
 was paid, then it would be impossible to contend that 
 a message on which a guinea was paid should not 
 have a priority over a message on which 5s. was paid.
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 225 
 
 If the principle of strict rotation were once abandoned, * 
 the chief use of the telegraph would fall to the rich, 
 or to those whose wants, for the time being, made 
 them as lavish as rich. 
 
 In bad weather, when the wires were working ill 
 generally, some companies would take care to keep a 
 fair communication between important towns, even 
 though by so doing they damage a larger number of 
 less important towns. As a matter of course the 
 Post Office has endeavoured to deal with all parts of 
 the country equally, to leave those wires undisturbed 
 which were unaffected by weather, and to let those 
 districts whose lines of communication were affected 
 bear for a time the misfortune which had fallen upon 
 them. 
 
 Such a course as that pursued by the Post Office is 
 fair, and for the benefit of the community ; but it was 
 not to be expected that this course would commend 
 itself to those whose interests were affected by it. 
 When the Post Office undertook, by the establishment 
 of a low tariff, and by the extension of the wires into 
 outlying districts, to bring about a large increase of 
 messages, the department was bound, as far as 
 possible, to take care that the extension of the means 
 of transmission had kept pace with the extension of 
 the business, so that those who had hitherto chiefly 
 used the telegraph should suffer no loss of accommo- 
 dation. 
 
 Q
 
 226 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 On the whole, then, the transfer to the Government 
 involved these practical difficulties : — 
 
 (a) Having undertaken, by the establishment of a 
 
 low tariff and the erection of feeders to the 
 main lines, to swell the traffic on those main 
 lines, it was absolutely necessary that the 
 means of communication on the main lines 
 should be extended and improved. 
 
 (b) Having undertaken to effect a separation be- 
 
 tween the commercial system and the rail- 
 way system, it was absolutely necessary to 
 supply the railways with a large mileage of 
 wires, 5,000 or 6,000 miles, in substitution of 
 those wires of which there had been a joint 
 user ; to provide fresh instruments in lieu of 
 those left at the railway stations, and to 
 take care that the Railway Companies were 
 provided with the proper force for working 
 the wires which were left to them. 
 ,{c) Having taken over the staff of the several Com- 
 panies, it was necessary to amalgamate into 
 one force men who had hitherto regarded 
 each other as rivals ; and who had, in many 
 cases, worked on totally opposite plans, and 
 with different instruments. Further, it was 
 necessary to amalgamate this combined 
 force with the employes of the Government 
 department, and to assimilate practices so
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 227 
 
 much at variance with each other, as those 
 of a public office, and commercial Com- 
 panies. 
 It was provided by the Telegraphs Act, 1868, that 
 unless another Act were passed in that or the next 
 session of Parliament, putting at the disposal of the 
 Postmaster-General such moneys as should be requi- 
 site for carrying into effect the objects and purposes 
 of 1868, the provisions contained in the last-named 
 Act should be null and void. 
 
 From this it followed that, as a matter of course, 
 until the Money Bill was passed, the Post Office could 
 make no other preparations than preparations on 
 paper, for the work which it had to do. 
 
 In the winter of 1868-9 grave doubts were raised 
 by a writer in the Edinburgh Rcviciv, and by some 
 other writers in the public prints, as to the bargain 
 with the Telegraph Companies, Vv'hich had been sanc- 
 tioned by the Act of 1868. It was for some time 
 doubtful whether the Money Bill wOuld be introduced. 
 Nor was it possible for the Government to come to a 
 decision on the subject until the result of the arbitra- 
 tions and negotiations under the Act of 1868 was 
 known. It was not until July, 1869, that the Money 
 Bill was introduced. When it was introduced it met 
 with some opposition, both in Committee and in 
 the House; and it was not until. xA.ugust 9th that it 
 became law. Up to that time the Post Office could
 
 228 TELKGRAPHS. 
 
 not spend one shilling for its undertaking ; and could 
 not invite a tender for materials, even though such 
 materials might require months of preparation ; and 
 could not get the advice, or the assistance of practical 
 officers of the Telegraph Companies ; who, though 
 their advice and assistance were indispensable to the 
 Post Office, were bound in the interests of their 
 employers to withhold them so long as the issue of 
 the long-pending proceedings was doubtful. 
 
 The Post Office was heavily in debt to public 
 expectation, and under strong pressure to mount the 
 new system without delay. The plans of the depart- 
 ment were complete, so far as completion was possible 
 at that time ; but for the effectual completion of the 
 work a large amount of outdoor work was required, 
 at a time when the autumn was at hand, and the 
 winter fast coming on. Further, the stores required 
 for the work could not be obtained with sufficient 
 rapidity; to have obtained them in sufficient quantities 
 at the time it required them, the department ought to 
 have been in a position to order them six months 
 before ; consequently the difficulties which had to be 
 overcome were very great. 
 
 As soon as the Money Bill was passed, the depart- 
 ment began vigorously to erect the additional wires 
 required for the completion of its scheme ; to re- 
 arrange such of the telegraph-offices as it designed to 
 keep, and to fit up such post-offices as it designed to
 
 DIFFICULTIES IX THE WAY. 229 
 
 open for telegraph business ; to arrange for the re- 
 distribution of the old staff, and for the training of 
 additional staff; to prepare uniform codes and regula- 
 tions in lieu of the codes and regulations of the Com- 
 panies ; and to carry out the amalgamation by- 
 degrees, wherever gradual amalgamation was practi- 
 cable. 
 
 Great as were the exertions of the Post Office 
 Department, nothing less would have sufficed to 
 enable it to keep pace with the growth of its busi- 
 ness. In the first week after the transfer the number 
 of messages (exclusive of news messages) forwarded 
 from all stations was 128,872 ; in the week endino- 
 the 31st of March the number had risen to 160,775 ; 
 the average weekly number in thirteen weeks to 30th 
 of June, 177,410; the average number in thirteen 
 weeks to 30th September was 200,787. In the week 
 ending 31st December, which is usually considered 
 the worst week in the year for telegraphic work, the 
 number was 144,041, or nearly 16,000 messages in 
 excess of the number with which they started. In 
 the first nine months after the telegraphs came into 
 the hands of the Government the number of messages 
 forwarded was no less than 7,563,015. 
 
 In 1872 they had increased to 12,479,000, and in 
 1873 to 15,535,000. 
 
 It must be added that the cost of the acquisition 
 and extension of the telegraphs has exceeded nine
 
 230 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 millions sterling, a sum far beyond the original esti- 
 mate. 
 
 PRIVATE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 Side by side with the impetus given to ordinary 
 public telegraphing by the increase of facilities and the 
 lowering of the rates consequent upon the acquisition 
 of the system by the Post Office, private telegraphs 
 have shown a remarkable development during the past 
 seven years. In 1870, when the Post Office took over 
 the business of the " Universal Private " and other 
 telegraph companies, the aggregate rentals derived 
 from the letting out of private wires amounted to a 
 trifle under ;^2 1,000. In the year 1873-4 they had 
 reached very nearly double that amount, while at the 
 close of the last financial year as much as ;^59,ooo was 
 placed to the credit of the telegraph revenue from this 
 source. At the close of the year, not far short of 1,700 
 private wire contracts were in operation, representing 
 a total of 5,700 miles of wire and 4,855 separate instru- 
 ments. These figures compare Avith a total of 732 
 contracts, 2,525 miles of wire, and 1,773 instruments 
 on the 3 1st of March, 1870 ; the increase in the number 
 of instruments being on a larger scale than that of 
 either contracts, or miles of wire. The largest increase 
 of mileage was in the year 1872-3, when a very con-
 
 PRIVATE TELEGRAPHS. 23 1 
 
 siderable extension of the system of Police wires in 
 London was carried out. 
 
 Private telegraphs are of various kinds, variously- 
 constructed, and variously worked. Thus, the Post 
 Office undertakes to construct and afterwards main- 
 tain, upon the payment of a fixed annual rental, aline 
 of private wire between the place of business, or resi- 
 dence of a firm, or private individual, and a postal tele- 
 graph office ; or between two, or more places of business, 
 or residences, except where it may be desired to have 
 a line of private telegraphs between two towns which 
 are already connected by means of the public postal 
 wires. In such cases, the Post Office provides a line 
 of private wires between the place of business, and the 
 head telegraph office at each town at the ordinary 
 rental, with an extra payment for clerks' services ; the 
 service between the two towns being performed over 
 the public wires, at the ordinary charge for inland 
 telegrams. In London, the rate per mile for a private 
 wire carried over house, or under ground is £8, and on 
 the roads it is £6. In other parts of the kingdom the 
 rates are respectively £y and jCS- Por wires carried 
 under Avater there are special rates according to cir- 
 cumstances. The niiiiiuiuni charge in all cases is for 
 one mile, advancing beyond that distance by quarter- 
 miles ; any less distance than a quarter-mile being 
 counted as such. The Department, however, reserves 
 to itself the right to vary these rates in special circum-
 
 232 
 
 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 stances. The instruments used are of various kinds, and 
 may either be rented from the Post Office or provided 
 by the renter himself Perliaps the most common form 
 of private wire instruments is that known as the Alpha- 
 betical, or " A B C," consisting of a communicator, an 
 indicator, and a bell. This form of instrument is most 
 common, because least difficult to work; and, therefore, 
 more easily mastered by elderly persons, and the unin- 
 itiated generally, than the more complex forms. In 
 reality it represents, as its name implies, the " A B C," 
 of the telegraphic system. The turning of a handle by 
 which the current is generated, and the depression of 
 one, or other of a series of keys or "stops," each repre- 
 senting a letter of the alphabet, or a figure ; actuates a 
 needle, or pointer on the indicator at the distant end, 
 which literally spells out the words letter by letter just 
 as they might be spelled out by the schoolboy on the 
 blackboard aided by the teacher and pointer. The 
 process may seem to be slow at first sight, but it is 
 not so in reality, as many as twenty or even thirty 
 words a minute being quite within the compass of an 
 expert operator, of whom there are many even in the 
 simple " A B C." A bell in circuit with the communi- 
 cator serves to call attention when a message is about to 
 be sent, one turn of the handle at the distant end being 
 sufficient to arouse the most phlegmatic of hall porters, 
 or the most inattentive of office boys. The other 
 forms of apparatus in use on private wires, are the
 
 PRIVATE TELEGRAPHS. 233 
 
 Single Needle and the Printer, each of which, like the 
 " A B C," is a kind of pointer instrument, but it points 
 to arbitrary signs, representing the letters of the 
 alphabet instead of the letters themselves, and is, 
 therefore, much more difficult of manipulation than the 
 '" A B C." Still, as this form of instrument is in use 
 .at most of the smaller post-offices, and very generally 
 on railways, where the telegraph operators are not 
 very highly skilled, it would seem to be not very 
 difficult of manipulation with ordinary skill and a little 
 practice. The Printer, or " Morse," as it is usually 
 called, also deals in arbitrary signs, but it possesses 
 this advantage over either the "ABC" or Single 
 Needle — that it leaves a record on a strip of paper, 
 which may be translated at leisure, or referred to at 
 .any future time. It requires, however, greatly superior 
 .skill to work compared with either of the other two 
 instruments mentioned, although it is capable in expert 
 hands of producing much more rapid and satisfactory- 
 results. The price to the renter of a private wire of 
 ■each of these forms of apparatus, if purchased from 
 the Post Office, is £2^ for the "ABC" and Printer, 
 •and £7 I OS. for the Single Needle — one battery being 
 included in the case of the two last-mentioned forms. 
 If rented from the department, a set of "ABC" 
 apparatus, composed of communicator, indicator, and 
 bell, costs £6 per annum ; a Single Needle and battery 
 costs ^3 ; and a Printer and battery, including the
 
 234 
 
 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 suppl}' of paper riband, costs ;^io per annum. If the 
 apparatus be the property of the renter, the "ABC" 
 form is charged at the rate of £i los. ; the Single 
 Needle at the rate of £2 los. ; and the Printer at the 
 rate of £"/ los. per annum, including maintenance, 
 repairs, and renewals, which are also included when 
 the apparatus is rented from the department. 
 
 In addition to the work of ordinary private tele- 
 graphing, the Post Office also provides the means for 
 distributing the Greenwich time-current either twice a 
 day, at 10 and i o'clock, or hourly, through the day. 
 The latter arrangement appears to be applicable to 
 London only, and may be secured within a radius of 
 two miles from the General Post Office, including the 
 use of the necessary wire, for a payment of ;^I5 per 
 annum. For any distance over two miles, the same 
 rate, added to the private wire rate for the wire over 
 the extra distance, is chargeable. In the country the 
 10 o'clock current, including the rental and main- 
 tenance of a private wire from the local head postal 
 telegraph office to the renter's house, or place of 
 business, will be supplied at an annual rental, varying 
 from ;{^ 12, where the wire is only a quarter of a mile 
 in length, to £17, where it is one mile in length. If 
 the private wire exceeds one mile in length, the 
 ordinary tariff rate will be charged, in addition to ^la 
 for the signal. The rate for the one o'clock current 
 varies from £27, where the private wire is only a .
 
 PRIVATE TELEGRAPHS. 235", 
 
 quarter of a mile in length, to ^32 where it is ohe 
 mile in length ; and if the wire exceeds the last-men- 
 tioned distance, the ordinary tariff rate will be charged, 
 in addition to £2^ for the signal. The verj'' consider- 
 able difference between these two rates is due, we 
 imagine, to the fact that whereas at 10 o'clock in the 
 morning the ordinary postal wires are tolerably free 
 for the passage of the current, they have to be cleared, 
 so to speak, in order to admit of its passage at the 
 later and more busy hour. For watch and clock 
 makers in remote parts of the country these daily 
 time signals must be of immense value; while it seems 
 more than probable that the time guns which are fired 
 daily at several of the northern seaports, are actuated 
 through the agency of the postal private wire system. 
 The various uses of private telegraphy may be very 
 readily conceived. The merchant requires hourly 
 communication between his counting-house in the city, 
 and his manufactory in the suburbs ; the banker 
 between his head office, and branches ; the dock com- 
 pany between its wharves, and offices ; the wholesale 
 house in the city with its retail establishment at the 
 east, or west end ; gas and water companies between 
 their respective offices, and reservoirs ; Watling-street 
 with Scotland-yard and the hundred and one other 
 points whence the alarm of fire may come at any 
 moment ; the Editor with the Parliamentaiy reporters' 
 gallery ; and, indeed, everybody with eveiybody else,.
 
 236 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 where time is of importance, and distance has to be 
 bridged over. Nor is it in the field of commerce alone 
 that the private telegraph is found in operation. The 
 nobleman or squire whose seat is remote from the din 
 of forges, or the smoke of factories, may luxuriously 
 have his wire " laid on " to the nearest post-office, 
 and send, or receive his telegrams, at his own sweet 
 will ; either by his own hand, or by the hands of his 
 servants. He saves not only the time which would be 
 occupied in walking to and fro between his residence 
 and the telegraph office, but the " porterage " which 
 would be chargeable on all messages delivered to him 
 beyond a given distance. He may have a wire to his 
 stables or the " home farm," and, in fact, may give his 
 orders as readily from his library or study as from the 
 back of the hack which carries him daily across his 
 broad acres. There is, indeed, no limit to the opera- 
 tions of the private telegraph, and the introduction of 
 the telephone will probably give an impetus to this 
 kind of business which its early promoters little 
 dreamt of. 
 
 The Post Office, although probably the largest, is 
 not the only contractor for the erection and main- 
 tenance of private telegraphs throughout the country. 
 Several private agencies, notably in London and Glas- 
 gow, exist for the transaction of business of this kind, 
 it being no part of the Government monopoly of 
 public telegraphing to exclude competition in this less
 
 PRIVATE TELEGRAPHS. 237' 
 
 ambitious, although apparently highly remunerative 
 field. With its vast resources, however, and its means 
 of bringing private and public lines of telegraph into 
 ready communication, the Post Office must always 
 secure the largest amount of private telegraph business; 
 and it is gratifying to know that almost the only 
 branch of the Government service which goes in search 
 of " fresh woods and pastures new " has prospered 
 during the past year, notwithstanding the continued 
 depression in all branches of trade and commerce. 
 
 The Exchange Telegraph — an American idea, we 
 believe — reports stock and share quotations to a large 
 number of customers, almost every minute during 
 'Change, using for the purpose a self-starting, record- 
 ing apparatus, which prints the figures in the clearest 
 type. And, talking of America, we are reminded that 
 New York lawyers and stockbrokers hold conversations, 
 with each other in their several offices as readily as if 
 they were vis-d-vis in Wall Street. In England,, 
 where we manage these things more surely, if more 
 slowly, it is gratifying to find that the revenue derived 
 from private telegraphs has almost doubled itself in 
 the short space of seven years, and continues to 
 increase steadily. More can hardly be said of the 
 ordinary telegraph revenue.
 
 .238 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 POST OFFICE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 To 31st March, 1877. 
 
 Length of Avire (miles) ii3)333 
 
 Number of messages in year 21,726,143 
 
 offices (post-office) . . 3>739l 
 „ „ (raihvay stations) 1,636) ^'^' ^ 
 
 Receipts £^,Z^l^S7 
 
 Expenditure ;^i, 108,918 
 
 Of which ;^ 2 1,1 03 has been expended 
 on the construction of new lines. 
 Estimated average number of words 
 
 transmitted weekly for the press . . 4,984,851 
 
 REUTER'S TELEGRAMS. 
 
 For a long time, when the newspaper reading world 
 were looking for continental news, they were obliged 
 to look for such information under the head, " Renter's 
 Telegrams," and they naturally asked who or what 
 this "Reuter" was — an individual, an institution, or a 
 myth ? If only a man, by what extraordinary organi- 
 zation does he manage to gather up, every night, a 
 summary of events over the entire continent, and to 
 place the news before us at the breakfast-table ?
 
 REUTER S TELEGRAMS. 239 
 
 These were questions frequently asked some years 
 ago, but in more recent times Mr. Reuter has publicly 
 proved his individuality by the engagement entered 
 into between himself, and the Shah of Persia on the 
 occasion of that potentate's visit to England. Indeed 
 it was asked at that time who Mr. Reuter was, and it 
 came out in some of the newspapers that when he 
 first made his appearance in London he was regarded 
 as a mysterious man, more especially by the editors 
 of newspapers. He was invariably about the news- 
 paper offices, always well dressed, remarkably polite, 
 and always in the possession of news that could 
 be had from no other source. He only wanted his 
 "leetle telegram" published, and he made no con- 
 ditions for being remunerated. He was at first 
 received with a great amount of shyness, but as it was 
 found that the news which he offered was always cor- 
 rect, and in anticipation of every other source, he 
 became a necessity. In fact, Mr. Reuter's history is 
 like that of all courageous and energetic men, who, 
 seizing upon a new idea, Avork it persistently and 
 silently, until one fine morning, from comparative 
 obscurity, they suddenly find their names famous. 
 The practical success of the first working telegraph 
 on the continent — that between Berlin and Aix-la- 
 Chapelle in 1849 — convinced Mr. Reuter, in common 
 with every thinking man on the continent, that a new 
 era in newspaper correspondence had arisen, and he
 
 240 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 determined to avail himself of its facilities for his own 
 and the public advantage. The first office for the- 
 furtherance of telegraphic communication was 
 opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, an admirable spot, lying so 
 conveniently between the east and west of Europe.. 
 This office formed the first centre of that organization 
 which has since gathered up into the hands of one 
 man, for all general and public purposes, the scattered 
 electric wires of the world, as Dr. Wynter very 
 expressly puts it. In order to correct breaks in the 
 most direct line of transmitting news, he had to sup- 
 plement the wire with contrivances of his own, so as 
 to insure priority of information. Thus, the better to 
 gain time in the journey between Aix-la-Chapelle and 
 Brussels, he employed a service of carrier pigeons. 
 By this means, on this distance alone, he was enabled 
 to anticipate the mail train between the two places by- 
 six or eight hours. In order to secure regularity and 
 safeness in transmission, each message was despatched 
 by three different pigeons, which made the passage 
 from Brussels to Aix-la-Chapelle in an average period 
 of one hour. When the telegraphic line was extended 
 from Aix-la-Chapclle to Ouievrain, on the Belgio- 
 Frcnch frontier, and the French Government extended 
 their line from Paris to Valenciennes, there remained 
 a gap of only five miles in the line between the 
 French and Prussian capitals, but insignificant as 
 this space was, the delay thereby occasioned was
 
 REUTERS TELEGRAMS. 24I 
 
 enormous. To obviate this, relays of saddled horses 
 were always kept in readiness to forward despatches 
 between the two points. 
 
 As line after line was opened in succession, each 
 was made subservient to his system, and when the 
 cable between Dover and Calais was successfully laid 
 in 1851, Mr. Reuter, who had become a naturalized 
 subject of Her Majesty, transferred his office to 
 London, which thenceforth was put in connection with 
 the principal continental cities. Up to this time, Mr. 
 Reuter confined his attention to the conveyance of 
 commercial despatches, but it now struck him that 
 the time had arrived for making the telegraph the 
 handmaid of the press. As we have already said, in 
 this attempt he met with but little encouragement, 
 until the 9th of February, 1859, on which the Emperor 
 of the French made his famous speech, threatening 
 Austria through her ambassador. His ominous words 
 were uttered at i p.m. in the Tuileries, and at 2 p.m. 
 the speech was published in a third edition of the 
 Times, shaking the Stock Exchange to its foundation. 
 The news was supplied through Mr. Renter's system, 
 land as one success followed after another, his news 
 I became an absolute necessity to any paper having a 
 character for giving the earliest information. 
 
 Mr. Reuter's business grew to such large dimensions, 
 that a few years ago a Company was established to 
 carry it on, he still continuing the management. The 
 
 R
 
 242 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 Company has proved a success, and its shares com- 
 mand a premium in the market. 
 
 INSIDE A TELEGRAPH OFFICE. 
 
 Click, click, go the needles as we enter. Here we 
 see the iron tongues of the telegraph wagging, and 
 talking as fast as a tea-table full of old maids. Lon- 
 don is holding communication with Manchester. Ply- 
 mouth is listening attentively to a long story, and 
 every now and then intimates by a slight movement, 
 that he perfectly understands. But there - is one 
 speaker whose nimble tongue seems to be saying 
 important things by the stir around him — that is the 
 Hague whispering underneath the North Sea the 
 news he has heard an hour ago from Vienna of a 
 great victory just gained by the Turks. We are wit- 
 ness to a series of conversations carried on with all 
 corners of the island, and between the metropolis of 
 the world, and every capital of northern, and central 
 Europe ; as intimately as though the speakers were 
 bending their heads over the dinner-table, and talking 
 confidentially to the host. And by what agency is 
 this extraordinary conversation carried on } All that 
 the visitor sees is a number of little mahogany-cases, 
 very similar to those of American clocks, each having
 
 INSIDE A TELEGRAPH OFFICE. 24$ 
 
 a dial with two lozenge-sliaped nieedles' working by 
 pivots, which hang, when at rest, perpendicularly 
 upon it. Two dependent handles, situated at the 
 base of this instrument, which the operator grasps and 
 moves from side to side at his will, suffice to make 
 and break the currents, or reverse them, and conse- 
 quently to deflect the needles either to the right or 
 left Two little stops of ivory are placed about half- 
 an-inch apart, on either side of the needle, to prevent 
 it deflecting too much, and to check all vibration. It 
 is the sound of the iron tongue striking against these 
 stops that makes the clicking, and to this the tele- 
 graphists are sensitively alive. In the early days of 
 telegraphy the operator's attention, at all the stations, 
 was drawn to the instrument, by the sudden ringing 
 of an alarum, which was effected by the agency of an 
 electro magnet ; but the horrid din it occasioned 
 became insupportable to persons in constant attend- 
 ance, and this part of the instrument was soon given 
 up, the clicking of the needle being found quite 
 sufficient to draw his attention to the arrival or pass- 
 ing of a message. We say or passing of a message, 
 because when a communication is made, as, for 
 instance, between London and Edinburgh, the 
 needles of all the telegraph stations are simul- 
 taneously deflected, but the attendant has only to take 
 notice of what is going on when a special signal is 
 made to his particular locality, informing him that he
 
 244 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 is spoken with. A story is told of a certain somno- 
 lent station clerk, who, in order to enjoy his nap, 
 trained his terrier to scratch and awaken him, at the 
 first sound of the clicking needles.* 
 
 CIPHERING IN TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 Verbal ciphers or abbreviations are much in use 
 among mercantile houses. This is practised more for 
 the sake of economy than secrecy, although the latter 
 purpose is also attained. The firm and its corres- 
 pondents have a key in which are tabulated a number 
 of single words, each of which expresses a phrase or 
 sentence, such as is of frequent occurrence in these 
 communications. The following example of such a 
 commercial despatch is given by an American author. 
 The despatch to be sent consisted of sixty-eight words, 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Flour market for fair and common brands of 
 western is lower, with moderate demand for home 
 trade and export. Sales 8,000 bbls. Genessee at 5 
 dollars 12. Wheat prime, in fair demand, market firm, 
 common description dull, with a downward tendency, 
 sales 4,000 bushels at i dollar 10. Corn, foreign 
 news unsettled the market, no sales of importance 
 
 Sir F. B. Head, Bart
 
 TELEGRAPHIC ERRORS. 245 
 
 made. The only sale made was 2,500 bushels at 
 ey c." 
 
 This despatch, when converted into the verbal 
 cipher, was expressed in nine words, as follows : — 
 
 " Bad, came aft keen dark ache lain fault adapt." 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC ERRORS. 
 
 Among other uses of the Rhyming Dictionary,* and 
 one that will most commend it to commercial men, is 
 the assistance it affords in deciphering errors in tele- 
 grams. All merchants having business relations with 
 America, or the Far East, use Telegraph Codes ; so 
 arranged that each word in their Telegrams represents 
 a whole sentence. Frequently, however, these words 
 are so mutilated in transmission as to be almost unre- 
 cognizable. As a rule there is not much difficulty in 
 finding the proper word if the ciphers (or symbolical 
 words) in the code are alphabetically arranged, unless 
 the first letters in it have been altered or lost. It is 
 especially in the latter case that this work will be found 
 useful, and every merchant who receives Telegrams of 
 importance should obtain a copy, and insert in their 
 places such proper names or unusual words as he may 
 
 * Walker's Rhyming Dictionary. Revised by Dr. Longmuir.
 
 246 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 be likely to receive in his Telegrams, if he does not find 
 them already printed. 
 
 .. An instance of not uncommon word-mutilation may 
 be added to show the value of the book for the purpose 
 above-mentioned. In a Telegram received, a word 
 appears as " Sterturn." The merchant goes through 
 the usual course of looking down his Code for any 
 word like this, which will make sense in connection 
 with the remainder of the message, and after wasting 
 an hour or more in trying to decipher the true meaning 
 is compelled to return the Telegram to the Telegraph 
 Company for repetition. 
 
 . Probably in the course of the following day he 
 receives the amended message, showing that the word 
 originally despatched was "Overturn," meaning " Se//- 
 to-arrive 1,000 bales Tinnivelly Cotton at %\ petice per 
 pound." By this time, however, the London price has 
 declined to 5|d. per pound, so that he must either run 
 the risk of holding the cotton in a falling market, or 
 submit to an immediate loss of ;^300 on the previous 
 day's quotation. Now had this merchant referred to 
 this book under the letter N for words ending " erturn," 
 he would at once have found the word " Overturn," and 
 saved some hundreds of pounds. 
 
 We may explain that such an error as the above is 
 not unfrequently caused by incorrect reading of the 
 " Morse " alphabet ; the letters St being expressed in 
 " Morse " by and the letter F by , the
 
 TELEGRAPHIC ERRORS. 
 
 247 
 
 initial " O " was either lost or very likely attached to 
 the end of the previous word. 
 
 Thousands of instances of errors and consequent 
 'heavy losses might be given, but no Merchant or 
 Banker requires to be told of them, as they are of 
 almost daily occurrence. 
 
 As a further assistance in deciphering badly trans- 
 mitted messages, we append the Morse Alphabet, as 
 used on almost every telegraph wire throughout the 
 world, and a list of the more common errors occurring 
 in Telegrams. 
 
 COMMON EEKORS IN TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 Let- 
 ters. 
 
 Morse 
 Signs. 
 
 Separated would be 
 
 Confound in 
 Transmission with 
 
 Confound in 
 Writing mth 
 
 "a" 
 
 - — 
 
 et. 
 
 U.E.T.N. 
 
 u.n.d.H.o. 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 ts.tie.teee.tei.ni.nee.de. 
 
 D. 
 
 l.C.h.t.f.R. 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 nn.nte.lce.tr.tae.t«n.tete. 
 
 W.G.F.P.K.R. 
 
 b.l.e.i.o. 
 
 D 
 
 
 
 ti.tee.ne. 
 
 B.L.N. 
 
 a.L. 
 
 E 
 
 - 
 
 
 T. 
 
 c.i.G.o.r. 
 
 F 
 
 
 
 ue.ln.ite.er.een.eete. 
 
 C.L.P.R.W. 
 
 H.l.b.J. 
 
 G 
 
 
 
 me.tn.tte. 
 
 W.G.M.P.Z.T.JX.O. 
 
 E.q.y.z. 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 eeee.eei.ii.iee.se. 
 
 S.N. 
 
 L.n.A.b.Fl.K.p. 
 
 I 
 
 -- 
 
 ee. 
 
 S.T. 
 
 c.e.v.J. 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 wt.am att.eo.emt.etni.ettt. 
 
 Y.G.P.Q.W.O. 
 
 I.f. 
 
 K 
 
 
 
 nt.ta.tet. 
 
 CM. 
 
 R.H.h. 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 re.ai.ace ed.ene.eti.etee. 
 
 D.P.F.W. 
 
 b.t.li.C.f.S.D.p. 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 tt. 
 
 G.W.O.K. 
 
 n.w. 
 
 N 
 
 — - 
 
 te. 
 
 R.D.A.T.H.U.V. 
 
 r.v.a.u.h.m. 
 
 
 
 
 
 mt.tm.ttt. 
 
 G.W.J.M.P.Q. 
 
 e.a.v.C.Q. 
 
 P 
 
 
 
 ■sve.an.ate.cg.eme.etn.ette. 
 
 C.F.G.J.O.L.Q.W. 
 
 h.L.R. 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 gt.ma.mct.tk. tnt.tta.ttet. 
 
 J.O.P. 
 
 g.O.y. 
 
 B.| 
 
 ae.en.ete. 
 
 E.C.N.A.F.V. 
 
 e.P.B.v.K.n. 
 
 .S 
 
 1--- 
 
 ie.eLeee. 
 
 H.I.A. 
 
 L.T.
 
 248 
 
 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 COMMON EEBOfiS IN TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 Morse 
 Signs- 
 
 Separated would be 
 
 Confound in 
 Writing with 
 
 it.ea.eet. 
 
 st.ia.iet.eu.eit.eea.eeet. 
 
 at.em.ett. 
 
 dt.na.net.tit.tu.tea.teet. 
 
 kt.nm.ntttw. tat. tern, tett 
 
 ge.mi.mee.td.tne.tti.ttee. 
 
 A.N.E.L 
 A.N.V. 
 U.E.N.W. 
 P.G.F.J.M.V.C.O. 
 
 G.J. 
 G. 
 
 bJ.S. 
 
 P.r.o.Ln.u. 
 m. 
 
 y. 
 & 
 
 VARIETIES OF TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES. 
 
 The mixture of subjects which the clerks in rapid 
 succession read from their needles, is most curious. 
 " We have," says Mr. Walker, " ordered a turbot, and 
 also a coffin ; a dinner, and a physician ; a monthly 
 nurse, and a shooting jacket ; a special engine, and a 
 chain cable ; an officer's uniform, and some Wenham- 
 lakc ice ; a clergyman, and a counsellor's wig ; a royal 
 standard, and a hamper of wine ; and so on."
 
 CATASTROPHES AVERTED BY THE TELEGRAPH. 249 
 
 Passing over the black leather bag which some one 
 appears to leave in some train every day, passengers 
 have recovered luggage of most miscellaneous character 
 by means of the telegraph. In the trains have been 
 left a pair of spectacles, and a pig ; an umbrella, and 
 Layard's Nineveh ; a purse, and a barrel of oysters ; 
 a great-coat, and a baby ; and boxes and trunks, et id 
 genus omne, without number. 
 
 CATASTROPHES AVERTED BY THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 Among the serious railway accidents which might 
 have been, or actually were prevented by the telegraph, 
 the following have been mentioned : — 
 
 In a storm, the wind blew a first-class carriage, 
 which stood in an open shed at a second-class station, 
 and putting it in motion upon a very level line, sent 
 it flying with accelerated speed to the terminal station. 
 No telegraph at that time existed to warn either the 
 intermediate or terminal stations of the event and the 
 approaching danger. The vehicle was actually blown 
 over twenty-one miles of railway, but the trip it thus 
 took occurring fortunately at an hour of the night when 
 little business was going on, it came to a stand-still 
 without any calamitous result. 
 
 On New Year's Day, 1850, a catastrophe, which it
 
 250 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 is fearful to contemplate, was averted by the aid of 
 the telegraph. A collision had occurred to an empty 
 train at Gravesend ; and the driver having leaped from 
 his engine, the latter started alone at full speed to 
 London. Notice was immediately given by telegraph 
 to London and other stations ; and while the line Avas 
 kept clear, an engine and other arrangements were 
 prepared as a buttress to receive the runaway. The 
 superintendent of the railway also started down the 
 line on an engine, and, on passing the runaway, he 
 reversed his engine and had it transferred at the next 
 • crossing to the up line, so as to be in the rear of the 
 fugitive ; he then started in chase, and on overtaking 
 the other, he ran into it with speed, and the driver of 
 his engine took possession of the fugitive, and all 
 danger was at an end. Twelve stations were passed 
 in safety : it passed Woolwich at fifteen miles an hour : 
 it was within a couple of miles of London before it 
 was arrested. Had its approach been unknown, the 
 mere money value of the damage it would have caused 
 might have equalled the cost of the whole line of 
 telegraphs. 
 
 As a contrast to this, an engine, some months pre- 
 viously, started from New Cross towards London. 
 The Brighton Company had then no telegraphs ; and, 
 its approach could not be made known. Provi- 
 dentiall)', the arrival platform was clear ; it ran in, 
 carrying the fixed buffer before it, and knocked down,
 
 A NOVEL MEETING AND A GOOD SUGGESTION. 25 1 
 
 with frightful violence, the wall of the parcel booking 
 office. 
 
 A NOVEL MEETING AND A GOOD SUGGESTION. 
 
 . Some years ago the employes of the American Tele- 
 graph Company's lines between Boston and Calais, 
 Maine, held a meeting by telegraph, after the business 
 of the line was concluded for the day, to take action 
 upon the resignation of Mr. A. F. Woodman, superin- 
 tendent. 
 
 Thirty-three offices were represented, scattered over 
 a circuit of seven hundred miles. Speeches were made 
 by Messrs. Palmer and Milliken of Boston, Hayes of 
 Great Falls, Smith of Portland, Bedlow of Bangor, 
 Black of Calais, and others. Each speaker wrote with 
 his key what he had to say, and all the offices upon 
 the line received his remarks at the same moment, 
 thus annihilating time and space, and bringing the 
 different parties, in effisct, as near to each other as 
 though they were in the same room, although actually 
 separated by hundreds of miles. 
 
 After passing appropriate resolutions, the meeting 
 was adjourned in great harmony and kindly feeling, 
 having been in session about an hour. 
 
 ■ An account of the above meeting having been 
 published in the newspapers, Punch made the
 
 252 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 following humorous suggestions for the applica- 
 tion of a similar system to the House of Com- 
 mons : — 
 
 " Now, why could not our Parliamentary proceedings 
 be conducted in an equally silent manner ? Do you 
 think Cobden would unwind his many miles of Man- 
 chester yarns without an audience ? Do you fancy 
 Spooner would go raving for hours if there was not a 
 soul present to hear him rave ? And is it likely that 
 Gladstone, even, with all his love of talking, would 
 talk incessantly when all that his eloquence could pos- 
 sibly bring round was a dial ? Now an electric Par- 
 liament would remedy all the evils that verbiage at 
 present inflicts on the patience of the nation. A 
 member of Parliament would be able to attend to his 
 legislative duties without leaving his country seat. 
 The entire business of St. Stephen's might be conducted 
 in a telegraph office. The whole parliamentary para- 
 phernalia, with its numerous bundles of rods and 
 sticks, might be cut down into a Speaker. That worthy 
 functionary would sit in the middle of his office, like a 
 forewoman in a milliner's workshop, watching the 
 numerous needles flying assiduously around him. 
 When the work was done, he would collect the stuff 
 and report the result. The threads of various argu- 
 ments would run into his hands, and it would befit 
 him to sort them. His decisions would be final, and 
 justly so, as he would always have the debates at his.
 
 A NOVEL MEETING AND A GOOD SUGGESTION. 253 
 
 finger-ends. The Prime Minister and Prince Albert 
 might look in every quarter of an hour to see that the 
 Speaker had not fallen asleep. 
 
 " Under our improved plan, one great benefit would 
 undoubtedly be gained. There would be no noise ! 
 All zoological exhibitions would be effectually closed. 
 Your Parliamentary cocks, donkeys, and laughing 
 hyaenas would be peremptorily shut up, like their 
 wooden prototypes in a boy's Noah's Ark. Really, we 
 see no obstacle in the way of an Electric Parliament. It 
 would, to a great extent, cure the absurd mania 
 for talking, and, moreover, we do not think the 
 speeches then would be half so wire-drawn as they are 
 now. Besides, every little Demosthenes, who at 
 present is not reported, or else snubbed under the 
 obscure cognomen of the ' Hon. Member,' would have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that his speech had gone 
 to the length, at all events, of one line, and, if he were 
 at some distant post, it might run to the extent 
 of four or five lines, according to the number of 
 wires on the different telegraphs ; whilst your 
 Drummonds and Osbornes, as they indulged in their 
 electric facetiae, might flatter themselves with the 
 belief that they were fairly convulsing the Poles with 
 laughter."
 
 2 54 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 PERSONS UNQUALIFIED FOR TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 There are many persons who seem totally incapable 
 of acquiring a knowledge of the art of telegraphing 
 sufficient for practical use, while others, and especially 
 young persons, will acquire it, even in the short space 
 of a fortnight, sufficiently to transmit, and receive 
 despatches, with considerable facility. 
 
 A ludicrous example of this lack of ability to 
 operate this simple apparatus came to our knowledge 
 some time ago. 
 
 A middle-aged man employed upon an American 
 railway as station-master and telegraph-operator ; 
 found great difficulty, after two years' experience, in 
 working the instrument, and this inability extended 
 to his reading, as well as his transmitting, despatches. 
 Upon one occasion he rushed out of his office in a 
 great state of excitement, and informed the guard of 
 a train which had just arrived at his station, that he 
 had that moment received a message stating that " the 
 
 train had broken both driving wheels, and 
 
 was badly smashed up. No more trains must pass 
 until further orders." 
 
 The conductor, who was able to read the telegraphic 
 characters, went to the instrument, and, drawing out 
 the paper, read the following despatch : — " Ask the 
 conductor of the Boston train to examine carefully
 
 PERSON'S UNQUALIFIED FOR TELEGRAPHY. 255 
 
 the connecting-rods of both driving wheels, and if not 
 in good condition to await orders. 
 
 The conductor having made the examination in 
 company with the engineer, and found all right, gave 
 the order for the train to move on, to the infinite 
 astonishment of the soi-disaut operator, who never 
 was able to find out why the conductor had the 
 temerity to order the train to proceed under such 
 grave circumstances. 
 
 In the same village where this reliable operator is 
 employed there is another telegraph office, where the 
 ordinary telegraph business is done ; and whenever 
 our friend receives a call upon his instrument, he gives 
 the signal to proceed, and, after receiving the despatch, 
 takes it to the operator at. the other office to have it 
 translated to him. 
 
 Not long since, he rushed into the office with a strip 
 of telegraph paper in his hand, and cried out, " I want 
 you to read this for me, quick ! I expect there's some 
 awful accident on the road, the operator rattled away 
 so fast when he sent it." 
 
 The friendly neighbour took the paper, but, to the 
 dismay of the nervous visitor, found that a large piece 
 had been torn off by a dog, who was attracted by its 
 singular appearance as it streamed behind him while 
 he rushed along, and the part which remained con- 
 tained only these words : — " Good morning, uncle Ben. 
 When are you — " The dog had swallowed the rest !
 
 256 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 MR. BENNETT'S EMPLOYMENT OF THE 
 TELEGRAPH. 
 
 The late Mr. Bennett, of the New York Herald, 
 was known as the most enterprising man that the 
 newspaper world had ever produced, and he was the 
 first New York editor who had important speeches 
 reported, though dehvered at hundreds of miles 
 distance. He seized upon the telegraph as soon as it 
 was established, and sometimes incurred very heavy 
 expenses in getting exclusive or the earliest infor- 
 mation. 
 
 When the Prince of Wales was expected at Niagara 
 Falls, Mr. Bennett instructed his reporter to secure 
 the telegraph. This could only be done by keeping 
 it at work, on the principle of " first come first served ;" 
 but there was nothing to report. The reporter was at 
 the end of his story, and asked what he should do ? 
 "Send on the Book of Proverbs," was Mr. Bennett's 
 answer. The Book of Proverbs concluded, the 
 reporter said by way of postscript, " No sign of the 
 Prince — what next .'' " " Give us Ecclesiastes," was the 
 answer ; and the operators were kept at their long and 
 unusual Scripture lesson, at a heavy price, until the 
 cannon thundered, and the long-expected heir of 
 England's throne came in sight of the great cataract.
 
 BREVITY IN TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCHES. 257 
 
 BREVITY IN TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCHES. 
 
 The despatches which pass over a line in the course 
 of a year, if collected together, would present a very- 
 curious and interesting volume of correspondence. 
 The price of transmission for a message depending 
 upon the number of words which it contains, of course 
 renders the construction of it necessarily as brief as 
 possible. Most despatches are contained in less than 
 ten words (exclusive of address and signature, which 
 are not charged for), and it is surprising how much 
 matter is frequently contained in this small number. 
 Among the best examples of brevity which we have 
 met with, however, are the two following : 
 
 A lady, in a neighbouring city, desirous of ascer- 
 taining when her husband would return home, sent 
 him a message making the inquiry ; to which he re- 
 sponded, that important business detained him, and 
 that he could not leave for some days. 
 
 The lady immediately replied by sending him 
 another despatch couched in the following laconic 
 manner : — 
 
 " To F. C. P. — Despatch received, 
 
 " Deuteronomy xxiv. 5. 
 (Signed) 
 
 " " Kate." 
 
 s
 
 250 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 The gentleman to whom the despatch was ad- 
 dressed, upon referring to the passage of Scripture 
 quoted, obtained the following lengthy and suggestive 
 epistle : — 
 
 " When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not 
 go out to war, ncitJicr shall Jie be charged zvith any 
 business ; but he shall be free at home one year, and 
 shall cheer up his wife zvhich he hath taken." 
 
 The second example is the reply sent to a person in 
 a distant city, who, having committed some offence 
 against the laws, was desirous of ascertaining if it 
 would be prudent for him to return. He therefore 
 telegraphed in the following style : — 
 
 " New York, 
 " To B. C. M.,— Philadelphia, - 
 
 " Is everything O. K. ? 
 
 " D. T. M." 
 
 To which he obtained the following brief reply : — 
 
 " Philadelphia, 
 " To D. T. M,— New York, 
 
 " Proverbs, chap, xxvii. 12. 
 
 " B. C. M." 
 
 Upon reference to the passage indicated, the in- 
 quiring individual obtained the following valuable 
 advice, which, it is to be presumed, he followed : —
 
 AN IMPROVED SPEECH. 
 
 259 
 
 "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hiddh 
 himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished ! " 
 
 AN IMPROVED SPEECH. 
 
 During the Presidential campaign of Daniel Webster, 
 he, as a matter of course, made a great many speeches. 
 One made at Albany, New York, was particularly 
 good, and abounded in short, pithy, Saxon sentences, 
 many of which were in the form of interrogatories. In 
 order to do full justice to the speech before it was 
 transmitted through the wires to the various country 
 papers, the chief of the operative department of the 
 telegraph, took occasion to punctuate it, as he read it 
 to the copyist, and whenever an interrogatory occurred, 
 repeated the word " question," — meaning, of course, 
 for the copyist to make the sign " ? " at the end of the 
 sentence. 
 
 Judge, however, of the surprise and horror of the 
 chief next morning, when the country newspapers, as 
 they arrived by post, were found embellished with the 
 word " (question) " printed in full at the end of nearly 
 every sentence. 
 
 L
 
 26o TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 READING TELEGRAPH SIGNALS BY SOUND. 
 
 We shall not pretend to say to whom is entitled the 
 credit of having first discovered the idea of reading 
 telegraphic signals by sound, instead of by motions of 
 the needle, and the many other methods now in use ; 
 and if we could, it would be a matter of no importance, 
 for no one, with the " very smallest " ear for tune and 
 time, could be within hearing of a Morse Register for 
 twenty-four hours, without being aware of its peculiar 
 adaptability for this use. 
 
 " The first time, however, "says Mr. G. B. Prescott 
 (the superintendent of the Electric Telegraph Lines of 
 the United States, i860), "we saw any one read in this 
 manner was in the winter of 1846-7, in New York. 
 The lines were broken, and Mr. D. E. Wood and 
 myself were sent out to repair them. Mr, Wood 
 carried a small electro-magnet in his hand, and when 
 we reached Harlem Bridge, he disconnected the line 
 wire, and attached it to one end of the helix-wire ; and 
 then, uncoiling a dozen or two feet of iron-wire, dropped 
 one end of it in the river, and with the other com- 
 menced tapping upon the other extremity of the helix- 
 wire. To our infinite astonishment, we saw the lever 
 fly backward and forward ; and presently, when he had 
 stopped writing, he received a reply from the office in 
 New York. He gave us the questions and answers as
 
 TELEGRAPHY IN EUROPE IN 1 875. 26 1 
 
 ihe received and sent them, and although we have 
 several thousand times accomplished the same feat, 
 the conversation and the occurrence are still indelibly- 
 fixed on our memory. 
 
 " No trick of legerdemain, performed by the most 
 successful necromancer, has ever been able to excite 
 so much interest in our mind as this." 
 
 TELEGRAPHY IN EUROPE IN 1875. 
 
 The Statistics published by the International Tele- 
 graph Office at Berne with regard to telegraphic 
 matters in the year 1875 are not without interest, 
 although they are somewhat late in making their 
 appearance. As we have been disappointed in England 
 at finding that the profits of our Telegraph Service 
 are not yet sufficient to pay the interest on the large 
 capital raised to acquire the business of the old tele- 
 graph companies, and to develop the system ; it is some 
 consolation to find that our neighbours arc in a much 
 less satisfactory position than ourselves. 
 
 Out of 16 European States whose transactions are 
 brought under our notice, there arc 10 in which the 
 gross earnings of the telegraph system were insufficient 
 to cover the working expenses. Arranged in the 
 .order of the per-centage of deficiency, these ten States
 
 263 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 arc, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Austria- 
 Hungary, Greece, Portugal, Holland, Roumania, and 
 Spain. In the case of the three States first men- 
 tioned the deficiency is less than 1 5 per cent. ; for thc: 
 remainder it ranges up to 38 per cent. Of the (tele- 
 graphically speaking) more prosperous States, Sweden 
 shows a profit of 6 per cent. ; Switzerland of 12 per 
 cent. ; France of 18 per cent. ; Russia of 19 per cent ; 
 England and Italy of 25 per cent. each. 
 
 As regards extent of business, England is facile 
 priiiceps. The number of paid inland messages. 
 transmitted by this country in 1875 was (in round 
 numbers) i8i- millions; by Germany, 8} millions; by 
 France 7 millions ; by Austria-Hungary, 4-i- millions ; 
 by Italy, 4^ millions ; by Russia, 3^^ millions ; by 
 Switzerland, 2 millions ; by Belgium, 2 millions ; by 
 Holland, i| million. None of the other states had 
 more than a million inland messages. 
 
 Comparing the number of inland messages with the 
 populations of the respective countries, we find that 
 for every 100 inhabitants there were transmitted in 
 Switzerland, yy messages ; in England, 58 ; in Holland, 
 38 ; in Belgium, 36 ; in Norway, 27 ; in Denmark, 
 22 ; in France and Germany, 19 ; in Italy, 16 ; in 
 Austria-Hungary, 12 ; and in Russia. 37. It is 
 scarcely necessary to remark that a large proportion 
 of the Swiss inland messages are forwarded by people 
 who are not inhabitants of the country.
 
 \ 
 
 TELEGRAPHY IN EUROPE IX 1875. 263 
 
 Turning- to the numbers of telegraph offices open 
 for the use of the public, we find that Switzerland 
 heads the list with an office for every 2,664 inhabitants. 
 Here again the circumstances of Switzerland arc alto- 
 gether exceptional — many of the offices being at 
 hotels and only used during the tourist season. 
 England ranks next with an office for every 5,640 in- 
 habitants. Among the other States we find the 
 number of inhabitants to each office to be as follows : — 
 In France, 8,463 ; in Germany, 7,980 ; in Austria- 
 Hungary, 11,556; in Italy, 15,522; and in Russia, 
 50,188. Holland, strangely enough, appears, if the 
 figures can be trusted, to have the least liberal provision 
 of offices among all the European States, having only 
 one office to every 115,449 inhabitants. 
 
 In making a comparison between different coun- 
 tries as regards the average expenditure per message 
 transmitted, it must be remembered that this cost is 
 considerably affected by the cost of the territory of 
 each particular State. Other things being equal, the 
 working expenses will be higher in a country in which 
 the average distance traversed by a message is 250 
 miles than in one where the average is only 25 miles. 
 Accordingly, we find Russia at the top of the list in 
 this respect with an average expenditure of 3s. 2d. per 
 message. Among the medium-sized States the cost 
 per message is — in Spain, 2s. 4|d. ; in Austria-Hun- 
 gary, IS. 5f d. ; in Norway, is. 4^d. ; in German)-,
 
 264 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 IS. o|d. ; in France, is. ; in England, ii-^d. ; in Italy, 
 io|d. Of the smaller States, Roumania, with an 
 average of is. 8|d., comes out the least favourably, 
 while the most cheaply worked systems show the 
 following average rates of expenditure per message — 
 viz., Holland, lojd. ; Denmark, 8fd. ; Belgium and 
 Switzerland, 5fd. each. 
 
 It is gratifying to see that our own country com- 
 pares favourably with other countries of the same 
 class, as regards economy of management. Italy has 
 nominally a lower rate of expenditure, but it will be 
 found that the things compared are not identical. In 
 the first place, the ordinary message in Italy is a 
 message of 1 5 words ; in England it is a message of 
 20 words with addresses free — equal in all to about 30 
 words. Secondly, it appears from the notes appended 
 to the Statistical tables that in enumerating the 
 messages transmitted in the United Kingdom, no 
 account hdS been taken of two classes of messages 
 which have been included in the returns of other 
 States — viz., messages transmitted for the Press — 
 which alone comprise more matter than the whole of 
 the Italian traffic — and messages transmitted in the 
 service of the Telegraph Department. If proper 
 allowance was made for these omissions it would 
 probably be found that the average working cost per 
 message is really lower in England than in Italy.* 
 * The Times.
 
 I 
 
 GERMANY'S SHARE IN DEVELOPMENT OF TELEGRAPH. 26: 
 
 GERMANY'S SHARE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
 THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 The first article in the December i, 1877 number of 
 the Berlin "Archiv fur Post und Telegraphie" is en- 
 titled " Germany's Share in the Development of the 
 Telegraph." It urges that the article on "Telegraphic 
 Progress " which appeared in The Times of November 
 22, is written in too insular a spirit, and that while 
 the claims of certain Englishmen and Americans are 
 set forth, the work of the scientific men of other 
 nations has not been duly recognized. The progress 
 of the telegraph has been an international work even 
 from its earliest stages, and to claim as The Times 
 article has claimed that all the discoveries up to 1843 
 were due to English genius is not a fair representa- 
 tion of facts. It recognizes that Le Sage's name is 
 just mentioned, but indicates that his work is too 
 lightly passed over, and draws attention to the fact, 
 that many important names associated with work on 
 which, telegraphic progress is founded, are altogether 
 omitted. There are, it says, not a few Germans who 
 have made themselves worthy to be prominently 
 mentioned, as there are also philosophers of other 
 nations. For example, without the discovery of gal- 
 vanism the present science of telegraphy would have 
 been an impossibility, and with this discovery the
 
 266 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 names of the Italian philosophers, Galvani and Volta, 
 are closely bound up, while the discovery of the 
 principle of the galvanometer is due to CErsted, a 
 Dane, almost simultaneously with Schweiger and 
 Poggendorf The invention of the galvanometer was 
 the first step towards the needle telegraph, and the 
 honour of first seeing the application of this is due tO' 
 the French savant Ampere. The laws of the strength 
 of currents, without which apparatus could not be 
 rationally constructed, were first worked at in 1825 by 
 the distinguished German Ohm, which led to the 
 discoveries in 1845 by Kirchoff. Then came the 
 "epoch making" labours of the Gottingen Professors 
 Gauss and Weber. These facts the German writer 
 considers are sufficient to show that it is an " arrogant 
 assumption " on the part of the English writer to 
 claim the earliest stages of the invention, and develop- 
 ment of the telegraph, as purely English. When the 
 British Association appointed a committee to report on 
 suitable units as the standard of electrical resistance, 
 there were four names suggested for them — an 
 Ohm, a Volt, a Weber, and a Faraday — so that 
 here there were recognized one Englishman, one 
 Italian, and two Germans. The article goes on to 
 point out, that the constant battery is due to Becquerel 
 and Daniell, and the discovery of the earth currents, 
 and the application to the telegraph is due to Stenheil. 
 The first idea for the employment of galvanic currents
 
 Germany's share in development of telegraph. 267- 
 
 for telegraphic signals originated with Scemmering. 
 He showed how the chymical decomposing property 
 of the currents could be made to indicate letters (as 
 Le Sage had with frictional electricity), and exhibited 
 his "water decomposition telegraph" at an Academy 
 meeting in 1809. He may be regarded as the real 
 founder of our present telegraphic knowledge, as he 
 was the first to recognize the possibility of employing 
 galvanic electricity to convey signals to a distance. 
 The needle telegraph came as the next step — the 
 deduction from the galvanometer ; and here the 
 Prussian Schilling, with his submarine wire, must be 
 named, as well as Gauss and Weber (1833). Fothergill 
 Cook, who is named in The Times article in connexion 
 with Wheatstone as inventor of the needle telegraph,, 
 was in 1835 at Heidelberg studying wax modelling 
 for the museum of the University of Durham, when 
 he accidentally saw an instrument that belonged to 
 Muncke, with which it was possible to telegraph from 
 one room to another. He took up the idea and 
 worked it out with Wheatstone, but he cannot claim 
 the invention. Siemens, Von Chauvin, Halske, and 
 Elund are mentioned in connexion with the develop- 
 ment of duplex and quadruplex telegraphy, but the 
 writer has omitted to mention the name of Edison 
 which, perhaps, should take the place of the names of 
 Prescott and Jerritt Smith. The comments of the 
 German writer, prejudiced as they are, usefully draw
 
 268 TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 attention to the fact that a good international history 
 of the telegraph has still to be written. 
 
 RATHER AWKWARD. 
 
 ■" We are requested by Renter's Telegram Company to 
 correct an erroneous announcement made in their 
 Brisbane telegram of the 2nd inst, published on the 
 5th inst, stating that ' Lady Kennedy had given 
 birth to twins, the eldest being a son.' The company 
 explain that the message they received contained the 
 words 'Governor of Queensland twins first son! 
 Being, however, subsequently informed that Sir Arthur 
 Kennedy was unmarried, and that there m.ust be some 
 mistake, a telegraphic repetition was at once demanded. 
 It has been received to-day (nth inst), and shows 
 that the words really telegraphed by Renter's agent 
 were, ' Governor Queensland turns first sod^ alluding 
 to the Maryborough Gympic Railway in course of 
 construction. The words in italics were mutilated by 
 the telegraph in transmission from Australia, and 
 reaching the company in the form mentioned above, 
 gave rise to the mistake."* 
 
 * The Times, March 12th, 1878.
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE TELEPHONE 
 
 PHONOGRAPH.
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE TELEPHOI^E. 
 
 The success which has attended the experiments 
 -with the Telephone, performed in this country by 
 Professor Graham Bell within the past few months, 
 in the transmission of articulate and musical sounds 
 through tens and hundreds of miles of space, has 
 roused universal attention to the latest, and, in some 
 Tespects, most marvellous of modern scientific inven- 
 tions. Scarcely a day passes in which one or more of 
 our daily newspapers do not contain paragraphs re- 
 lating to some new development or application of this 
 extraordinary instrument. Now, we are told, the 
 Telephone is in active practical operation over six 
 hundred miles of Chinese territory ; and, again, that 
 in Persia intelligible speech has been sent by its 
 means over a wire five hundred miles in length. It 
 may naturally excite surprise to learn that these two 
 Oriental nations are in advance of Europe and
 
 272 
 
 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 America in their adoption and working of the Tele- 
 phone. And this is not all, for a question has just 
 been raised as to whether the principle of the Tele- 
 phone may not have been known in the East before 
 it was discovered in Europe or America. With regard 
 to this latter point, however, the evidence seems at 
 present to be far from satisfactory. In a recently- 
 published letter, Mr. William Chappell records a con- 
 versation he had with Captain C. H. A. Gower, of the 
 Madras Staff Corps, in which that officer asserted that 
 the Telephone was now in use in Burmah. " Seeing 
 a native boy," writes Mr. Chappell, "holding some- 
 thing to his ear, and then taking it down to his 
 mouth. Captain Gower's curiosity induced him to 
 ascertain Avhat the boy was holding. It was some- 
 thing so like the * Eton Telephone' that, at my re- 
 quest. Captain Gower wrote down an account, giving 
 me permission to make it known. His letter is dated 
 January 13th. Referring to my paper in the Athe- 
 iicnuin, he says : ' It has recalled to my mind a fact, 
 viz.y that the Burmans are well acquainted with the 
 use of the Telephone. More than a year ago I found 
 them using one in the town where I was then living, 
 Maoobin, near Rangoon. The apparatus consisted of 
 two short lengths of bamboo ; one end of each was 
 closed with strong paper, and the two were connected 
 by a piece of strong cotton passing through the 
 paper, retained in its place by a knot at each end. I
 
 WHAT IS THE TELEPHONE ? 273 
 
 ascertained by experiment tliat this simple apparatus 
 answered perfectly for a distance of loo yards, sounds 
 being conveyed without any apparent loss. The 
 lowest whisper was heard quite distinctly." It is 
 clear enough from this description that the Burman 
 "Telephone" is quite as primitive an instrument as 
 those sold for a copper or two during the past few 
 months at the corners of the streets in London, and 
 in several of our large provincial towns. That this 
 simple contrivance has little or nothing to do with 
 the Telephone need hardly be stated ; but it may 
 remind many persons of an experiment popular with 
 British, and possibly also with Burmese boys, by 
 which the ticking of a watch laid upon the one end of 
 a long log of wood can be distinctly heard at the 
 other by placing the ear close to it. It is to the 
 application of electricity in the conveyance of sound 
 that the marvellous performances of the Telephone 
 are mainly due, and, in this respect, there is no evi- 
 dence that any Oriental nation has excelled, or even 
 equalled, the achievements of European and American 
 savants. But in addition to the power of transmitting 
 articulate speech, the tones of the human voice, and 
 musical sounds, to any distance to which the neces- 
 sary wires have been extended, which is claimed for 
 the Telephone, it is asserted that by means of the 
 most recent adaptation of the Phonograph, or Tele- 
 phon-autograph, a message of any length can be 
 
 T
 
 274 
 
 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 spoken on to a plate of metal, that plate be sent by- 
 post or otherwise to any part of the world, and the 
 message respoken in the very voice of the sender, any 
 time after the plate reaches its destination. 
 
 There is generally a good deal of dubiety and con- 
 troversy in regard to important points connected with 
 the history of most scientific inventions, and to this 
 rule the Telephone is no exception. No complete 
 narrative of the various stages of scientific discovery 
 that have led up to the present position of the art of 
 transmitting sound through space has yet been 
 written, and it is clear that many of the principles 
 involved are, as yet, only at best empirically, and not 
 scientifically understood, even by the ablest of the 
 electricians who have made a special study of the 
 subject. As has already been indicated, the applica- 
 tion of electricity to the conveyance of sound is 
 merely the last step that has been taken to render 
 that force useful to mankind. But before this object 
 could be attained, much had to be accomplished, both 
 in regard to the production and manipulation of 
 electric currents, and to the analysis of vocal and 
 musical sounds. 
 
 No adequate idea of the working of the Telephone 
 can be formed by any one who is ignorant of the 
 leading principles of the science of electro-magnetism. 
 That the " loadstone," which is now recognized to be 
 one of the ores of iron, and is called magnetite by
 
 NATURAL MAGNETISM. 275 
 
 our mineralogists, possesses the power of attracting 
 iron, and lifting a mass many times its own weight, 
 was known from a very remote antiquity. In this 
 ore, 72"5 per cent, of its weight consists of iron com- 
 bined with oxygen ; whereas in another ore, called 
 hematite, there is but 70 per cent, of iron. This dif- 
 ference of 2h per cent, of iron is enough to make the 
 difference between a magnetically inert mineral and 
 one which may be able to lift a mass of iron many 
 times its own weight. All magnetite, however, does 
 not possess the property called magnetism. It is 
 rare that large masses of it, such as the mountains of 
 Lapland and the iron-mines of Sweden, display this 
 power ; and the most powerful natural magnets are 
 found in Siberia, and in the Hartz mountains of 
 northern Germany. 
 
 A discovery made by Professor Oersted of Copen- 
 hagen, in 1820, that if a properly balanced magnetic 
 needle be placed immediately under and parallel with 
 a wire along which a current of electricity is passing, 
 that end of the needle which is situated next to the 
 negative side of the battery immediately moves to 
 the west; while if the needle is placed parallel to, and 
 over the wire, the same pole moves to the east, led to 
 the identification of magnetism and electricity. By 
 this means a vast field of research was opened up, 
 which was shortly occupied by such ardent and able 
 investigators as Faraday, Ampere, and Schweyzer.
 
 276 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 After a series of experiments it was permanently 
 established that the neutral condition of bodies sus- 
 ceptible of magnetism is disturbed by the electrical 
 current, and that the magnetism acquires extraor- 
 dinary power when the current of electricity is made 
 to circulate a number of times round the bar acted 
 upon. A further step in advance was accomplished 
 in 1825, when William Sturgeon of Woolwich dis- 
 covered that if a copper wire is wound round a piece 
 of soft iron, and a current of electricity sent through 
 the wire, the soft iron becomes a magnet, but retains 
 its magnetism only while the current of electricity 
 is passing through the coil. The magnetism produced 
 in this way is called electro-magnetism, and the iron 
 so wound is called an electro-magnet. A further 
 improvement was made in this process in 1830, by 
 Professor Heniy, of Princetown, New Jersey, who 
 insulated the wire by covering it with silk, and, 
 thereby, was the first to produce a very powerful 
 magnet. The power of the electro-magnet is far 
 greater than that of any permanent magnet. Mr. 
 Joule, the celebrated physical philosopher, has, by 
 skilful arrangement of the coils, produced electro- 
 magnets capable of attracting and supporting thirty- 
 five hundred times their own weight, or one hundred 
 and forty times the proportionate load of Sir Isaac 
 Newton's ring-magnet, which was a small loadstone 
 weighing three grains, that had the power of lifting
 
 ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 277 
 
 seven hundred and fifty grains, or two hundred and 
 fifty times its own weight. The power of imparting 
 and withdrawing electro-magnetic force explains the 
 whole mystery of telegraphic communication. For 
 example, the teeth of a wheel may be attracted in 
 succession, and so a rotatory motion produced ; and 
 it is evident that as the electric force may be trans- 
 mitted through wires for any distance, a wheel or other 
 apparatus at the extreme end of the line may be made 
 to act sympathetically with a similar apparatus at the 
 home end, by means of those transmitted "jerks," or 
 alternate currents and stoppages. The fact that the 
 earth itself, as is tolerably well known, is a huge 
 electro-magnet with currents of electricity perpetually 
 flowing round it, and having its poles, or the neigh- 
 bourhood of its poles or ends at the axis of rotation, 
 — the familiar north and south poles, — explains why 
 one end of the magnetised steel of the mariner's 
 compass always points to the north. 
 
 In some respects electricity differs from magnetism, 
 although electricity induces magnetism, in the manner 
 that has already been described. On this point Pro- 
 fessor A. E. Dolbcar, of Tuft's College, Massachusetts, 
 United States, says — " We can come to but one con- 
 clusion, that both electricity and magnetism are but 
 forms of motion ; electricity being a form of motion 
 in ordinary matter, for it cannot be made to pass 
 through a vacuum, while magnetism must be a form
 
 278 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 of motion induced in the ether, for it is as effective in 
 a vacuum as out of it ; electricity always needing 
 some material conductor, magnetism needing it no 
 more than do radiant heat and light." 
 
 After it was discovered that through the electro- 
 magnet broken currents of electricity could be sent 
 through wires of great length, attempts were soon 
 made to transmit signals by means of the alphabet. 
 Electric shocks were reproduced at a distance of a 
 mile or two by Wollaston in 1747, and by Franklin 
 the year after. In 1799 Don Francisco Salva and 
 Senor Batancourt sent similar messages by telegraph 
 from Madrid to Aranjuez, a distance of about six-and- 
 twenty miles, and shortly afterwards they suggested 
 the substitution of the voltaic pile for frictional 
 electricity. About the year 18 10 Ampere proposed 
 that the electro-magnet should be applied to the 
 transmission of telegraphic signals, but his suggestion 
 involved the use of thirty needles and sixty indepen- 
 dent wires. Steinheil of Gottingen, in 1837, made 
 a great advance upon all his predecessors in the 
 construction of a practically useful telegraph. He 
 used a wire twelve miles in length at the end of 
 which signals were produced upon a series of bells 
 of different tones that were readily intelligible 
 to a cultivated ear ; and the same deflections that 
 produced the sounds were also made to mark a ribbon 
 of paper moved at a uniform, steady rate with ink
 
 I 
 
 THE TELEGRArH AND THE TELEPHONE. 2/9 
 
 lines and dots. About this time careful experiments 
 were being made both in England and America which 
 soon led to the invention of a system of telegraphing, 
 similar, in many respects, to that now generally em- 
 ployed. A brief summary of the future history of 
 the electric telegraph is all that is necessary to our 
 present purpose. It was in June 1837 that the late 
 Sir Charles Wheatstone and Mr. Cooke took out their 
 patent in England, and in October of the same year 
 Professor Morse, of New York, secured a patent 
 in the United States. Towards the close of the year 
 1838 the telegraph was for the first time practically 
 brought into use in England, on the Great Western 
 Railway, between Paddington and West Drayton ; 
 and Morse's system was first practically applied in 
 1844, between Washington and Baltimore. 
 
 A word or two on the modes of transmitting mes- 
 sages by Telegraph, adopted by several inventors, may 
 help our readers to understand the working of the 
 Telephone and the Telephone-autograph, the Tele- 
 phone being in reality nothing else than a Speaking 
 Telegraph. There is, indeed, considerable similarity 
 in the method of working both instruments. From a 
 recent publication of much merit, the following pas- 
 sages have been extracted : — 
 
 " At first Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke employed 
 five magnetic needles, and either five or six wires, 
 with a peculiar keyboard, on which were arranged the
 
 28o THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 letters of the alphabet. After a time only one needle 
 was employed, different letters being designated by 
 the deflection of the needle to the right or to the left, 
 one or more times, in either or both directions, the 
 swinging of the needle being checked by small pins 
 fixed on the dial, so that the motions were rendered 
 precise and clear. Operators accustomed to the work 
 do not require the lettered dials for reading the move- 
 ments of the needle, and some can even read off a 
 message transmitted at the rate of lOO letters a 
 minute. This, however, is a remarkable feat both of 
 transmission and reading ; and the ordinary rate at 
 which messages are sent is about 24 words a minute. 
 
 " The Morse system is very different. At the send- 
 ing end is a voltaic battery, at the receiving end an 
 electro-magnet, which, when the current passes, at- 
 tracts an ' armature,' or piece of soft iron placed at 
 the pole, by which, according to the duration of the 
 current, dots or lines are marked with a steel point 
 upon a moving slip of paper. At the sending end is 
 an apparatus known as ' the key,' consisting of a 
 small lever with a button at the end, on pressing 
 which two platinum wires are brought into contact, 
 and the shock is transmitted ; but when the pressure 
 is removed, a spring lifts the lever, separates the 
 wires, and breaks the circuit. The paper on which 
 the message is to be recorded, is carried between two 
 rollers moved by clockwork. In one of these rollers
 
 THE TELEGRAPH AND THE TELEPHONE. 28I 
 
 is a groove, into which the steel point presses the 
 paper. When successive blows are struck on the key 
 at the sending end, closing and opening the circuit 
 quickly, corresponding dots appear on the paper; 
 but, if the key be pressed down for a longer or 
 shorter time, keeping the circuit closed, a continuous 
 line of any desired length may be produced on the 
 paper. Every letter of the English alphabet and 
 every numeral has a sign ; and there are also marks 
 of punctuation. We need not give the entire 
 alphabet, the signs for the first five letters being 
 sufficient to exemplify the system : — 
 
 A ,B ,C-- -,D ,E-, 
 
 F . 
 
 "The word 'Victoria' thus transmitted would 
 appear on the slip of paper at the receiving end in 
 this fashion : — 
 I -. 1 ... I -J .- I -- I .. I -_ 
 
 "We have inserted dividing lines between the 
 letters for the sake of clearness, but they are not 
 practically used. The skilled operator with the Morse 
 instrument can read off the message as it arrives 
 without looking at the marks on the paper, simply by 
 listening to the 'click' which is made every time the 
 circuit is completed or broken, and we are told 
 'practice has taught him to rely on the evidence of 
 his ears with as much confidence as one less accus- 
 tomed to the work would trust his eyes;' that is, his
 
 282 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 cultivated ear enables him to estimate so correctly 
 the length of the currents as indicated by the clicks 
 that he knows what letters are being impressed on 
 the paper." 
 
 Before proceeding to a description of the different 
 Telephones that have been invented up to the present 
 moment, it will be necessary to say a few words on 
 the subject of sound, and thereby complete our survey 
 of the three factors, — electricity, magnetism, and 
 sound, — that are involved in Telephony. 
 
 " If," says Professor Dolbear, " I strike my pencil 
 upon the table, I hear a snap that appears to the ear 
 to be simultaneous with the stroke : if, however, I see 
 a man upon a somewhat distant hill strike a tree with 
 an axe, the sound does not reach me until some 
 appreciable time has passed ; and it is noted, that, the 
 farther away the place where a so-called sound origi- 
 nates, the longer time does it take to reach any 
 listener. Hence sound has in air a certain velocity 
 which has been very accurately measured, and found 
 to be 1,093 feet per second when the temperature of 
 the air is at the freezing point of water. As the 
 temperature increases, the velocity of sound will 
 increase a little more than one foot for every Fahren- 
 heit degree ; so that at 60 degrees the velocity is 
 1,125 feet per second. This is the velocity in air. 
 In water the velocity is about four times greater, in 
 steel sixteen times, in pine-wood about ten times.
 
 SOUND. 283 
 
 " If a person stands at a distance of fifteen or twenty- 
 rods from a cannon that is fired, he will first see the 
 flash, then the cloud of smoke that rushes from the 
 ■cannon's mouth, then the ground will be felt to 
 tremble, and lastly the sound will reach his ear at the 
 same time that a strong puff of air will be felt. This 
 puff of air is the sound wave itself, travelling at the 
 rate of eleven hundred feet or more per second. At 
 the instant of explosion of the gunpowder, the air in 
 front of the cannon is very much compressed ; and 
 this compression at once begins to move outwards 
 in every direction, so as to be a kind of a spherical 
 shell of air constantly increasing in diameter ; and, 
 whenever it reaches an ear, the sound is perceived. 
 Whenever such a sound-wave strikes upon a solid 
 surface, as upon a cliff or a building, it is turned 
 back, and the reflected wave may be heard ; in which 
 •case we call it an echo. When a cannon is fired, we 
 generally hear the sound repeated, so that it appa- 
 rently lasts for a second or more ; but when, as in 
 the first case, we hear the sound of a pencil struck 
 upon the table, but a single short report is noticed, 
 and this, as may be supposed, consists of a single 
 wave of condensed air." 
 
 From the same writer we take the following on the 
 limits of audibility: "Numerous experiments have 
 been made to determine the limits of audible sounds ; 
 ■and here it is found that there is a very great differ-
 
 284 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 cncc in individuals in their ability to perceive sounds. 
 Helmholtz states that about twenty-three vibrations 
 per second is the fewest in number that can be heard 
 as continuous sound ; if they are fewer in number 
 than that, the vibrations are heard as separate distinct 
 noises, as when one knocks upon a door four or five 
 times a second. If one could knock evenly twenty- 
 three times per second, he would be making a con- 
 tinuous musical sound of a very low pitch. But this 
 limit of twenty-three is not the limit for all : some 
 can hear a continuous sound with as few as sixteen 
 or eighteen vibrations per second, while others are as 
 far above the medium as this is below it The limits 
 of sound in musical instruments are about all included 
 in the range of a 7-octave pianoforte from F to F, say 
 from forty-two to 5,460 vibrations per second. But 
 this high number is not anywhere near the upper limit 
 of audible sounds for man. 
 
 " Very many of the familiar sounds of insects, such 
 as crickets and mosquitoes, have a much higher pitch. 
 Helmholtz puts this upper limit at 38,000 vibrations 
 per second, and Despraetz at 36,850. The discrep- 
 ancy of results is due solely to the marked difference 
 in individuals as to acoustic perception." 
 
 The author we have just quoted also supplies us 
 with these interesting remarks : " We may roughly 
 divide all bodies into two classes, as to their relations 
 to sound, — such as re-enforce it, and such as distribute
 
 SOUND. 285 
 
 it : the first depending upon the form of the body, as 
 related to a particular sound; the second independent 
 of form, and responding to all orders of vibrations. 
 Air, wood, and metals belong to this latter class. 
 The common toy-string telegraph, or lovers' telegraphy 
 is an example of this class. Two tin boxes are con- 
 nected by a string passing through the middle of the 
 bottom of each. When the string is stretched, and a 
 person speaks in one box, what is said can be heard 
 by an ear applied at the other. If the speaking-tubes 
 be made about four inches in diameter, and about 
 four inches deep, they are capable of doing much 
 more service than is generally supposed to be possible. 
 I know of two lines, one of five hundred feet and the 
 other of a thousand feet in length, over which one 
 can talk, and be heard with distinctness. In the line 
 of a thousand feet, the end of the tube is made of 
 sheepskin tightly stretched, and the line is made of 
 No. 8 cotton thread. The greater the tension, the 
 better is the sound transmitted. The thread is sup- 
 ported at intervals by running through a loop on the 
 ends of cords not less than three feet long, attached 
 to supports. The thread pierces the membrane, and 
 is attached to a small button which is in contact with 
 the membrane. Wind and rain affect this line dis- 
 advantageously. The other line of five hundred feet, 
 between a passenger and a freight depot, has the tube 
 end covered with stretched calfskin. Instead of thread,
 
 286 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 a copper relay wire is employed (any small uninsulated' 
 wire will do as well). This permits a good tension, 
 and is unaffected by the weather. One may stand in 
 front of it about three feet, and converse with ease, 
 and in an ordinary tone. The wire is supported in 
 loops of string, as in the other." 
 
 Helmholtz, the great German physicist, who has, 
 perhaps, done more than any other man, living or 
 dead, in the analysis and synthesis of sound, found it 
 necessary in some of his experiments to maintain the 
 vibrations of a tuning-fork for a considerable time. 
 The means by which he effected this are thus briefly 
 explained by Professor Dolbear : " By placing a short 
 electro-magnet between the prongs of the fork, and 
 affixing a platinum point at the end of one prong in 
 such a manner, that, as the prong descended in its 
 vibration, the platinum point dipped into a small cup 
 of mercury that completed the circuit. When the 
 prong receded, it was of course withdrawn from the 
 mercury, and the current was broken. As it is not 
 possible for a tuning-fork to vibrate in more than one 
 period, such an arrangement would evidently make 
 and break the current as m.any times per second as. 
 the fork vibrated. When, therefore, such an interrup- 
 tor is inserted in the circuit with the click rod on its 
 resonant box, the latter must give out just such a 
 sound as the fork is giving. With such a device, it is 
 possible to reproduce at almost any distance in a
 
 HELMHOLTZ'S EXPERIMENTS. 28/- 
 
 telegraphic circuit, a sound of a given pitch. It is 
 therefore a true telephone." 
 
 There are a good many of the details of the early 
 history of the true Telephone — i.e., the instrument for 
 the transmission of sound by means of electro-mag- 
 netism — that remain to be settled ; but much is 
 known, and the story is highly interesting. Although 
 it is contended by many savants that Wheatstone's 
 researches on the transmission of sound differ radi- 
 cally from the modern electro-magnetic reproduction of 
 sound, it may safely be asserted that the learned and 
 able electrician's acoustic discoveries and musical 
 inventions, — which were chiefly made between the 
 years 1825 and 1835, — contributed greatly to the pro- 
 gress of the art. Another important step was the 
 discovery made in 1837, by Professor C. G. Page, of 
 Salem, Massachusetts, — whose paper on "The Pro- 
 duction of Galvanic Music" is well known and much 
 appreciated by all students of the branch of science 
 to which it belongs, — that when a bar of iron, say a 
 foot or more in length, and half-an-inch or more in 
 diameter, which has been made a temporary magnet 
 through being acted upon by an electric current, loses 
 its magnetism through the current from the battery 
 being broken, it emits a single dick. This is occa- 
 sioned by a molecular movement which results in a 
 change of length of the bar. When it is made a 
 magnet it elongates about -^5 Juoth of its length ; and
 
 200 THE TELEPHONE, 
 
 ■when it loses its magnetism it suddenly regains its 
 original length ; and this change is accompanied by 
 the sound. Professor Page also invented a device for 
 breaking such a circuit of magnetism more than 
 fifteen or sixteen times per second, and thereby suc- 
 ceeded in transmitting a continuous sound with a 
 pitch depending upon the number of clicks per 
 second. 
 
 There is some dispute among scientific men as to 
 the exact share that Sir Charles Wheatstone had in 
 the development of the Telephone. In a letter to the 
 Times the other day, Mr. A. Scott says : — " Wheat- 
 stone's experiments had nothing to do with electri- 
 city, but consisted of what we know as the convey- 
 ance of sound by mechanical vibration," such as is 
 seen in the familiar toy Telephone. We, however, 
 believe that this is an under-estimate altogether of 
 Wheatstone's position. The account written by Mr. 
 William Chappell of an exhibition given by that 
 savant before the Royal Society on the 26th No- 
 vember, 1840, at which he was himself present, asserts 
 that — " knowing already the transmissibility of deli- 
 cate musical sounds through rods, it was an easy step 
 for him to convey the tick of a clock through wire in 
 his electro-magnetic clock." This he described as 
 " an instrument . . . which shall indicate the 
 time and beat dead sounds audibly." An amusing 
 story is told in connection with this invention.
 
 SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE AND THE TELEPHONE. 2'89 
 
 An eminent foreign performer on the violoncello 
 came to England, bringing a letter of introduction to 
 Wheatstone. He left the letter at the house, and 
 appointed to call at a particular hour on the following 
 day. Wheatstone was at home to receive him, and, 
 thinking to surprise and amuse his visitor, hung a 
 violoncello on the wall of the passage, having a rod 
 behind it to connect it with another, which was to be 
 played from within when he entered the hall. The 
 guest turned in every direction to find whence the 
 sounds came, and, at last, approaching the violoncello 
 hanging on the wall, and, having satisfied himself 
 that they proceeded from it, although there was 
 neither hand nor bow to play upon it, he rushed out 
 of the house in affright, and would never enter it 
 again ! Wheatstone also made the invention a source 
 of domestic amusement, by fitting up a lyre in a 
 small boudoir, connecting it by a rod through the 
 ceiling with a pianoforte in the room above, and his 
 daughter was wont to amuse friends by playing unseen 
 on the piano by means of the apparatus below. 
 
 Referring to the exhibition on the 26th November, 
 1840, Mr. Chappell says : — " Having seen a huge coil 
 of wire in the well of the staircase on entering 
 Somerset House on that evening, after I had attended 
 the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, I went up 
 to the library and tea-room of the Royal Society to 
 learn what had been going on. Wheatstone pointed 
 
 u
 
 290 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 out to me a clock-face in the room. It was perfectly 
 transparent, and had hands, but every one could see 
 that there were no works within it. Yet the hands 
 moved, and the clock-face ticked most audibly. He 
 took me out on the staircase to hear the perfect 
 simultaneity and the equal force of the tick with that 
 of the clock in the hall below. It was the sound of 
 that clock which had been conveyed through a coil of 
 wire of some miles in length to the clock-face in the 
 library on high. The sound above and the sound 
 below were in perfect unison, and of absolute equality 
 in force as well as of pitch. As this was the first 
 electric clock, so Wheatstone was the first to employ 
 the electric wire for the transmission of sounds, as 
 well as to transmit them by rods without the use of 
 electricity. After him, it became so much a matter 
 <of common sense that other kinds of sounds could be 
 conveyed with or without the electric Avire, that the 
 Telephone has always appeared to me as the useful 
 .application of a well-known principle, rather than as 
 .an absolute novelty." 
 
 On the loth of May, 1855, a similar exhibition to 
 that just described took place before Her Majesty the 
 •Queen, at the Polytechnic Institution, of which the 
 •only account that has been reproduced is that given 
 by Mr. C. K. Salaman, in a letter to the CJioir : — 
 
 " I. Lecture by J. H, Pepper, Esq., on Professor 
 AVheatstone's experiments on the transmission of
 
 riRST EXrKKIMEXTS BEFORE QUEEX VICTORIA. 29I 
 
 ■musical sounds to distant places, illustrated by a 
 Telephone concert, in which sounds of various instru- 
 ments pass inaudible through an intermediate hall, 
 and are reproduced in the lecture room, unchanged 
 in their qualities and intensities. 
 
 " 2. A series of ancient keyed stringed instruments, 
 including virginals, harpsichords, &c., will be per- 
 formed on, and explained by Mr. Salaman. 
 
 " 3. Ruhmkorff 's coil will be kindly explained by 
 Dr. Faraday, F.R.S. 
 
 " 4. The stereoscope and pseudoscope will be 
 kindly explained by Professor Wheatstone, F.R.S." 
 
 To this Mr. Salaman adds : — 
 
 " The small theatre of the Institution was turned 
 into an elegantly-furnished saloon, for the use of the 
 Queen, Prince Albert, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg 
 Gotha, and suite. The Royal party occupied state 
 chairs in the centre of the theatre. The platform was 
 almost filled with specimens of virginals, harpsi- 
 chords, and spinets, of various ages and forms, be- 
 sides which was an ordinary harp, to the sounding- 
 board of which a thin wooden rod of great length 
 was attached. This communicated with an apart- 
 ment at the lowest part of the Institution, in which 
 were placed the instrumentalists, who performed 
 some orchestral pieces of music, which were distinctly 
 heard in the theatre above. Professor Pepper ex- 
 plained briefly to Her Majesty the principle upon
 
 292 
 
 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 which sounds were transmitted through wood, and 
 also showed successfully some experiments with 
 tuning-forks." 
 
 In 1 861 Professor Reis, of Friedrichsdorf, near 
 Homburg, Germany, succeeded in constructing an 
 apparatus, the distinctive feature of which was a 
 stretched membrane vibrating to a particular pitch or 
 note. By his instrument a melody could be repro- 
 duced at a distance with distinctness, but the sounds 
 were low, and they had besides a tin-trumpet quality. 
 Of this apparatus Professor Barrett said, in a lecture 
 recently delivered : — " The first Telephone was of a 
 most primitive nature. The originating instrument 
 was a bung of a beer barrel hollowed out, and the 
 cone formed in this way was closed with the skin of 
 a German sausage, which did service as a membrane. 
 To this was fixed with a drop of sealing-wax a little 
 strip of platinum, representing the hammer of the ear, 
 and which 'made' or 'broke' the electric circuit, 
 precisely as in the instruments of a later date. The 
 receiving instrument was a knitting-needle surrounded 
 with a coil of wire and placed on a violin to serve as 
 a sounding-board." 
 
 Mr. Thomas A. Edison, of Manlowe Park, New 
 Jersey, U.S.A., an eminent engineer, whose name has 
 now become famous throughout the world as the 
 inventor of the Phonograph or Phonautograph, — of 
 which we shall give an account further on, — con-
 
 THE FIRST TELEPHONE. 293 
 
 structed a Telephone which, we understand, only- 
 attained a limited measure of success, Reis's appa- 
 ratus was greatly improved about the same date by 
 Mr. Elisha Gray, of Chicago. His apparatus, which 
 has been called a Telephonic Piano, because it can 
 only transmit the sounds of that instrument, conveyed 
 the playing of a performer at Philadelphia to an 
 audience at New York, a distance of ninety miles. 
 In the spring of 1877, several public performances 
 were held in America with this instrument. During 
 
 o 
 
 one of these the apparatus transmitted the music from 
 Chicago to Milwaukie, eighty-seven miles distant, the 
 tunes played being, "The Last Rose of Summer," 
 "Yankee Doodle," "The Sweet By-and-by," and 
 " Home, Sweet Home." At another performance the 
 distance accomplished was 284 miles, from Chicago 
 to Detroit. 
 
 A writer on these performances in Chambers's 
 yournal, says that " two instruments are required, a 
 transmitter and a receiver. There is a keyboard of 
 two octaves (available, therefore, only for simple 
 melodies), a tuning-bar, an electro-magnet, and an 
 electric circuit. The play on the keys with the fingers 
 produces vibrations, thuds, molecular movements, in 
 rhythmical succession ; these are transmitted by the 
 electric wire to the receiving apparatus at the other 
 end. This receiving apparatus is a large sounding- 
 box, on which is mounted an electro-magnet. The
 
 2 94 
 
 THE TELEPHONE.. 
 
 box intensifies the sounds by its sonorousness, through 
 the medium of the slight touches which the magnet- 
 ised iron gives to the box at every expansion or 
 elongation which the electro-magnetism gives it. 
 Delicate experiments have shown that there is a 
 minute difference in the length of a bar of iron when 
 magnetised and demagnetised, and Mr. Gray appears 
 to have taken advantage of this property in causing 
 his magnetised bar to give a succession of taps to the 
 resonant box." 
 
 It was at the great Centennial Exhibition held at 
 Philadelphia in the autumn of 1876, that the Tele- 
 phone invented by Professor Alexander Graham Bell 
 was first publicly shown, and at the same time its 
 inventor first gave a public exhibition of its powers. 
 Reis's apparatus, which is essentially and radically 
 different from the Telephone of Mr. Bell, was also on 
 view at the same time in the Centennial Exhibition. 
 The testimony borne to the value of Mr. Bell's inven- 
 tion by the celebrated physicist Sir William Thomson 
 and others in their official report, immediately roused 
 the interest of nearly the whole population of Europe 
 in the Telephone, and ever since that interest has 
 steadily and rapidly increased. An extract from that 
 document may very appropriately precede an account 
 of Mr. Bell's labours in this field, and a description of 
 his apparatus. 
 
 "Mr. Alexander Graham Bell exhibits an apparatus.
 
 SIR WILLIAM THOMSON S REPORT, ETC. 295 
 
 by which he has achieved a result of transcendent 
 scientific interest — a transmission of spoken words by 
 electric currents through a telegraph wire. To obtain 
 this result, Mr. Bell perceived that he must produce a 
 variation of strength of current as nearly as may be 
 in exact proportion to the velocity of a particle of air 
 moved by the sound ; and he invented a method of 
 doing so — a piece of iron attached to a membrane, 
 and then moved to and fro in the neighbourhood of 
 an electro-magnet — which proved perfectly successful. 
 The battery and wire of this electro-magnet are in 
 circuit with the telegraph wire and the wire of another 
 electro-magnet at the receiving station. The second 
 electro-magnet has a solid bar of iron for core, which 
 is connected at one end by a thick disc of iron to an 
 iron tube surrounding the coil and bar. The free 
 circular end of the tube constitutes one pole of the 
 electro-magnet, and the adjacent free end of the bar 
 core the other. A thin, circular iron disc held pressed 
 against the end of the tube by the electro-magnetic 
 attraction, and free to vibrate through a small space 
 without touching the central pole, constitutes the 
 sounder by which the electric effect is reconverted 
 into sound. With my ear pressed against the disc, I 
 
 heard it speak distinctly several sentences 
 
 I need scarcely say I was astonished and delighted. 
 So were others, including some judges of our group, 
 who witnessed the experiments, and verified with
 
 2(}'0 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 their own cars the electric transmission of speech. 
 This, perhaps the greatest marvel hitherto achieved by 
 the electrie telegraph, has been obtained by appHances 
 of quite a homespun and rudimentary character. 
 With soil! eiu hat more advaneed plans and more poivci'ful 
 apparatus, tve may confidently expect that Mr. Bell zuill 
 give lis the means of making voice and spoken words 
 audible througJi the electric zuire to an ear hundirds of 
 miles distant.'' 
 
 On his return to England from the Centennial 
 Exhibition at Philadelphia, Sir William Thomson 
 declared that the telephone there exhibited by Pro- 
 fessor Bell was " the greatest by far of all the marvels 
 of the electric telegraph." According to Professor 
 Dolbear, this instrument " was the first speaking Tele- 
 phone that was ever constructed," but it was not a 
 practicable instrument. Many sounds were not re- 
 produced at all, and, according to the report of the 
 judges, " one needed to shout himself hoarse in order 
 that he might be heard at all." It has several times 
 been stated of late that this gentleman claims to have 
 been the first inventor of the speaking Telephone in 
 v/hich magneto-electric currents were used ; and in the 
 lecture delivered by Professor Bell before the Society 
 of Telegraphic Engineers, at a meeting held in Great 
 George Street, Westminster, on the 31st October, 
 1877, occurs a sentence in which he says that that 
 gentleman "not only claims to have discovered the
 
 PROFESSOR bell's STUDY OF SPEECH. 297 
 
 magneto-electric Telephone, but I understand charges 
 me with having obtained the idea from him through 
 the medium of a mutual friend." There can be no 
 doubt that Professor Dolbear claims the independent 
 invention of a magneto-electric Telegraphone, for he 
 states in a recently-published pamphlet that he con- 
 structed his telephonic apparatus "without the 
 slightest knowledge of the mechanism which Professor 
 Bell had used," 
 
 Professor Alexander Graham Bell is the son of Mr, 
 Alexander Melville Bell — for many years a teacher of 
 elocution in the metropolis of Scotland, and who made a 
 wide reputation in this country through the invention of 
 the system known as " visible speech," — and was born 
 at Edinburgh in 1847. About the year 1 873 Professor 
 Bell went to Montreal, Canada, with his father, and 
 was there employed for some time in teaching deaf 
 mutes to speak, by means of his father's system of 
 "visible speech." It may be explained that deaf 
 mutes are mute because of their deafness, and not 
 from any defect in their vocal organs ; and Mr. Bell's 
 system teaches them through the eye how to use the 
 vocal organs in uttering language, and how to read 
 what another person is saying by the motions of the 
 lips. So successful were Mr. Bell's labours that he was 
 appointed to teach his system in a large school for 
 mutes at Boston, and this post was shortly after trans- 
 ferred to his son, through whose efforts it is said that
 
 29S THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 there arc now in America some three thousand deaf 
 mutes who can speak almost as well as those who 
 hear. This wonderful achievement led to Mr. Graham 
 Bell's appointment as Professor of " Vocal Physiology" 
 in the University of Boston, in 1873. The researches 
 into acoustics and sound, a love for Avhich had de- 
 scended to him from his grandfather as well as his 
 father, undoubtedly paved the way in some measure 
 to his discovery of " one of the most interesting of the 
 scientific inventions made in this century, or that has 
 ever been made in the history of science." 
 
 Of Professor Bell's earlier efforts to conceive and 
 produce a practicable telephonic apparatus, he gives 
 us some account in his lecture before the Society of 
 Telegraphic Engineers, from which we have already- 
 made a quotation. " Many of those present," he said,. 
 " may recollect the invention by my father of a means 
 of representing, in a wonderfully accurate manner, the 
 positions of the vocal organs in forming sounds. 
 Together we carried on quite a number of experi- 
 ments, seeking to discover the correct mechanism of 
 English and foreign elements of speech, and I re- 
 member especially an investigation in which we were 
 engaged concerning the musical relations of vowel 
 sounds. When vowel sounds are whispered, each 
 vowel seems to possess a particular pitch of its own, 
 and by whispering certain vowels in succession, a 
 musical scale can be distinctly perceived. Our aim
 
 PROFESSOR BELLS STUDY OF SPEECH. 299 
 
 was to determine the natural pitch of each vowel ; but 
 unexpected difficulties made their appearance, for 
 many of the vowels seemed to possess a double pitch 
 — one due, probably to the resonance of the air in the 
 mouth, and the other to the resonance of the air con- 
 tained in the cavity behind the tongue, comprehending- 
 the pharynx and larynx. I hit upon an expedient 
 for determining the pitch which at that time I thought 
 to be original with myself It consisted in vibrating 
 a tuning-fork in front of the mouth wdiile the positions 
 of the vocal organs for the various vowel sounds were 
 silently taken. It was found that each vowel position 
 caused the reinforcement of some particular fork or 
 forks. I wrote an account of these researches to Mr. 
 Alex. J, Ellis of London. In reply he informed me 
 that the experiments related had already been per- 
 formed by Helmholtz, and in a much more perfect 
 manner than I had done. Indeed, he said that Helm- 
 holtz had not only analyzed the vowel sounds into 
 their constituent musical elements, but had actually 
 performed the synthesis of them. He had succeeded 
 in producing, artificially, certain of the vowel sounds 
 by causing tuning-forks of different pitch to vibrate 
 simultaneously by means of an electric current. . . . 
 While reflecting upon the possibilities of the produc- 
 tion of sound by electrical means, it struck me that 
 the principle of vibrating a tuning-fork by the inter- 
 mittent attraction of an electro-magnet might be
 
 3CO 
 
 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 applied to the electrical production of music. I 
 imagined to myself a series of tuning-forks of different 
 pitches, arranged to vibrate automatically in the 
 manner shown by Helmholtz, each fork interrupting 
 at everj' vibration a voltaic current ; and the thought 
 occurred, ' Why should not the depression of a key 
 like that of the piano direct the interrupted current 
 from any one of these forks, through a telegraph wire, 
 to a series of electro-magnets operating the strings of 
 a piano or other musical instrument, in which case a 
 person might play the tuning-fork piano in one place 
 and the music be audible from the electro-magnetic 
 piano in a distant city ?' The more I reflected upon 
 this arrangement the more feasible did it seem to me ; 
 indeed, I saw no reason why the depression of a 
 number of keys at the tuning-fork end of the circuit 
 should not be followed by the audible production of a 
 full chord from the piano in the distant city, each 
 tuning-fork affecting at the receiving end that string 
 of the piano with which it was in unison. At this 
 time the interest which I felt in electricity led me to 
 study the various systems of telegraphy in use in this 
 country and in America. I was much struck with the 
 simplicity of the Morse alphabet, and with the fact 
 that it could be read by sound. Instead of having 
 the dots and dashes recorded upon paper, the opera- 
 tors were in the habit of observing the duration of 
 the click of the instruments, and in this way were
 
 THE CONCEPTION OF THE TELEPHONE. 3OI 
 
 enabled to distinguish by ear the various signals. It 
 struck me that in a similar manner the duration of a 
 musical note might be made to represent the dot or 
 dash of the telegraph code, so that a person might 
 operate one of the keys of the tuning-fork piano re- 
 ferred to above, and the duration of the sound pro- 
 ceeding from the corresponding string of the distant 
 piano be observed by an operator stationed there. It 
 seemed to me that in this way a number of distinct 
 telegraph messages might be sent simultaneously 
 from the tuning-fork piano to the other end of the 
 circuit, by operators each manipulating a different 
 key of the instrument These messages would be 
 read by operators stationed at the distant piano, each 
 receiving operator listening for signals of a certain 
 definite pitch, and ignoring all others. In this way 
 could be accomplished the simultaneous transmission 
 of a number of telegraphic messages along a single 
 wire, the number being limited only by the delicacy 
 of the listener's ear. The idea of increasing the 
 carrying power of the telegraph wire in this way took 
 complete possession of my mind, and it was this 
 practical end that I had in view when I commenced 
 my researches in electric telephony." 
 
 In this same discourse Professor Bell goes on to 
 relate the course of his studies regarding the acoustic 
 effects produced by magnetization ^\hich were care- 
 fully studied by Marrian, Beatson, Gassiot, De La
 
 302 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 Rive, Manteucci, Guillemin, Werthem, Wartmann, 
 Jannier, Joule, Laborde, Legat, Ries, Poggendorf, De 
 Moncel, Delezenne, and others. He then states that 
 for several years his attention was almost exclusively 
 directed to the production of an instrument for making 
 and breaking a voltaic current with extreme rapidity, 
 to take the place of the transmitting tuning-fork used 
 in Helmholtz's researches, and proceeds to describe 
 one of the best of the instruments he devised. Of the 
 second form of articulating telephone, by which he 
 was then producing undulatory electricity, for the 
 purpose of conveying musical tones, he gives the fol- 
 lowing interesting account : — " It was attached to one 
 pole of an electro-magnet, and magnetized by means 
 of a battery current. A current being passed through 
 the coils of the magnet, this piece of iron became 
 magnetic, and a rod attached to one pole would of 
 course become magnetic also, as if attached to a per- 
 manent magnet, so that, on vibrating this rod in any 
 way whatever, the battery current was put in opera- 
 tion, and the corresponding rod at the other end 
 thrown into vibration. I, therefore, took this appa- 
 ratus, and instead of clamping the rod firmly, it was 
 attached loosely to one extemity of the magnet, and 
 the other end was attached to a stretched membrane 
 of goldbeater's skin ; and the same at the other end. 
 The idea was that on speaking to this membrane, it 
 would be thrown into vibration, and cause the vibra-
 
 THE SECOND FORM OF BELl's APPARATUS. 3O3 
 
 tion of the piece of iron, that in fact the iron would 
 follow the motion of the membrane, that is, of the 
 particles of air ; it would, therefore, induce an undu- 
 latory current of electricity the intensity of which 
 would vary with the motion, and at the other end the 
 intensity of the magnetic attraction would vary in a 
 similar way ; so that the piece of iron at the other end, 
 being attracted and repelled in a varying manner, 
 would be thrown into vibration, copying the motion 
 of the first, and it in turn would cause the motion of 
 a second stretched membrane, which would move the 
 air in the neighbourhood, and we should thus have a 
 sound produced. The idea was, that not only would 
 the two pieces of iron vibrate together, but the form 
 of the vibration would be the same, so that on speak- 
 ing in the neighbourhood of one membrane we should 
 have a fac-simile of the sound produced at the other 
 end. The apparatus was constructed, but the results 
 were rather unsatisfactory. My friend, Mr. Thomas 
 Watson, who assisted me, however, asserted that he 
 could hear a very faint sound proceed from the second 
 membrane when I spoke in the neighbourhood of the 
 first. Encouraged by this fact I varied the apparatus 
 in a number of ways, and eventually produced three 
 distinct forms of apparatus, which were exhibited at 
 the Centennial Exhibition. I came to the conclusion 
 that this piece of iron was probably rather too heavy 
 ±0 be set in vibration by the membrane, and I there-
 
 304 
 
 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 fore made It as light as possible ; in fact, I took a 
 piece of stqel spring, only about the size of the pole of 
 the electro-magnet itself, and glued it to the centre of 
 the membrane. Upon constructing two of these in- 
 struments, there was no mistake at all that articulate 
 speech was produced ; but it was of a very imperfect 
 nature. When a person spoke or sung into one of 
 these instruments, you could distinctly hear the tones 
 of the speaker's voice at the other end, and could re- 
 cognize that there was articulation there, and when 
 you knew the sentence that was uttered, you could 
 recognize the articulation, and it seemed strange that 
 you could not understand what it was at first. The 
 vowel sounds seemed to be copied very fairly, but the 
 consonant sounds were entirely alike." 
 
 It was an instrument like this that Mr. Bell sent to 
 the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, and it need 
 hardly be said that he was surprised as well as grati- 
 fied at the enthusiastic encomiums pronounced upon 
 it by Sir Wm. Thomson and the other judges who 
 signed the official report that has already been cited. 
 Encouraged by this verdict. Professor Bell persevered 
 in his experiments, and on the 9th October, 1876, the 
 first conversation ever carried on over a telegraphic 
 wire took place. At both ends of a telegraph wire 
 extending from the office of the Walworth Manufac- 
 turing Company at Boston to their factory in Cam- 
 bridge-port, a distance of about two miles, telephones
 
 PUBLIC EXHIBITION OF A TELEPHONE. 305 
 
 were placed ; and the articulation transmitted through 
 the wire, whicli was at first faint and indistinct, after 
 a time became quite loud and intelligible. On 
 February 12th of the following year, a public exhibi- 
 tion of Bell's Telephone was given in Salem, eighteen 
 miles from Boston, before an audience of 500 persons. 
 Mr. Bell was posted at the Salem end of the town, 
 and Mr. Watson, with assistance, at the Boston end. 
 At the latter town a telephonic organ was put in 
 operation, which played " Should auld acquaintance 
 be forgot" and "Yankee Doodle," to the delight and 
 astonishment of the audience in Salem. Next Pro- 
 fessor Bell asked Mr. Watson for a song, and "Auld 
 Lang Syne" was transmitted back to him almost in- 
 stantly by wire. In the course of the proceedings a 
 speech was delivered by Mr. Watson which was dis- 
 tinctly heard thirty-four feet from the instrument that 
 received it, and the applause of the audience in Salem 
 at the close of the experiments was at once acknow- 
 ledged by Mr. Watson in Boston. It is said that the 
 results of these experiments were " telephoned" to the 
 Boston Guide, and that the despatches are the first 
 ever sent to the press by this novel agency. 
 
 From an account of Bell's telephone published in the 
 Times before the close of last year, we learn that now 
 more than 500 houses in New England hold telephonic 
 communication, and more than 6,000 Telephones are 
 in operation in the United States. Gentlemen in 
 
 X
 
 306 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 their libraries give orders to clerks in their offices, fire 
 brigades have called the Telephone into requisition, 
 and it is used extensively in the mines of Pennsylvania, 
 Nevada, and California. In fact, the invention has 
 passed out of the region of speculation, and ingenious 
 minds are constantly finding new work for it to do. 
 Its application in diving is an accomplished fact. The 
 size of the Telephone-box is of no consequence, and 
 a complete instrument may be made not larger than 
 the palm of the hand. This is easily attached to the 
 diver's armour in a way to allow him at any time to 
 speak with his assistants above. In the same article 
 from which we have just quoted, it is said that during 
 certain experiments made at a mine near Liverpool, 
 since the arrival of Professor Bell in this countiy. Sir 
 William Thomson gave a short lecture on the Tele- 
 phone to a double audience — one being in the mine 
 and the other in the office — expressing his amazement 
 at the great improvement which the instrument had 
 undergone since first tested by him at Philadelphia in 
 the presence of the Emperor of Brazil. 
 
 With regard to the power of the Telephone, Pro- 
 fessor Bell says, at the close of the lecture he delivered 
 before the Society of Arts on the 30th November last 
 year :— 
 
 " Of course the question will naturally arise, how 
 far can it be possible to use the instruments ? That 
 as yet we do not know. The limit has not been
 
 THE I'OWKR OK THE TELEPHONE. 307 
 
 found. In laboratory experiments no difficulty has 
 been found in using an apparatus of this construction 
 through a circuit equivalent to 6,000 miles. In this 
 instrument we have a powerful compound permanent 
 magnet The longest actual wire I have been able to 
 experiment upon has been 258 miles in length, arid 
 no difficulty was experienced so long as the other 
 parallel wires were not in operation. The instrument 
 is wonderfully sensitive to inductive influences, and 
 when you use a wire upon the poles with other wires 
 you have the benefit of the other messages that are 
 passing along ' the other wires on the Telephone, 
 . However, means have been discovered very recently 
 . by which the inductive influence of other wires can 
 be overcome and neutralised, so that I hope we may 
 have the instrument in use upon circuits of all lengths. 
 " I do not know that there are any other points that I 
 should like to mention to you to-night, excepting !a 
 new application that is shown here to a diving appa- 
 ratus. Inside the diver's helmet you place a Tele- 
 phone of convenient structure, and in the place of 
 using a separate telegraph wire, we use the wire that 
 is coiled up inside the breathing pipe. In evci-y 
 breathing pipe of course there must be a coil of wire, 
 in order to withstand the pressure of the water, and 
 that wire we find can be used for the purposes of the 
 Telephone, so that the wire inside this pipe is con- 
 nected with the Telephone inside the diver's helmet,
 
 308 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 and the earth connection is simply made by attaching 
 the other wire to the helmet itself, which is in contact, 
 outside, with the salt water. I had the pleasure of 
 conversing with a diver yesterday, with perfect suc- 
 cess, at Messrs. Siebe and Gorman's, in a tank. He 
 heard every word I said, and I was able to under- 
 stand every word he said ; and when I told him to 
 come up, by word of mouth, he obeyed me. I do not 
 know that there are any other points of interest to 
 you, but I shall be very happy to attempt to answer 
 any questions that may be put." 
 
 Among the most noteworthy experiments that have 
 taken place in this country with Bell's Telephone, 
 is that which occurred on Monday evening, the 14th 
 of January, 1878, when Professor Bell and Colonel 
 Reynolds were presented to the Queen, at Osborne 
 House, Isle of Wight, and exhibited the Telephone, 
 being assisted by Mr. C. Wolleston. Professor Bell 
 explained the mechanism of his invention, and then 
 held Telephonic communication with Osborne Cot- 
 tage, the residence of Sir Thomas Biddulph. Her 
 Majesty conversed with Sir Thomas and Lady Bid- 
 dulph, and later Miss Kate Field, who was at 
 Osborne Cottage, sang " Kathleen Mavourneen," for 
 which Her Majesty returned thanks telephonically 
 through the Duke of Connaught. Miss Field after- 
 wards sang Shakespeare's "Cuckoo Song" and 
 "Comin' thro' the Rye," and delivered the epilogue
 
 EXPERIMENTS BEFORE THE QUEEN IN 1 878. 309 
 
 to As You Like It, all of which were heard distinctly. 
 The applause which followed came through the Tele- 
 phone. The Princess Beatrice, the Hon. Mrs. Pon- 
 sonby, and others conversed with Osborne Cottage, 
 sometimes through a circuit of one, three, and five 
 persons. As the evening wore on telephonic connec- 
 tion was established between Osborne House and 
 Cowes, Southampton, and London. At Cowes, where 
 Major Webber, of the Royal Engineers, superintended 
 the line, a quartet of tonic-sol-fa singers sang several 
 part songs, which produced an admirable effect, and 
 the Duke of Connaught talked for several minutes 
 with Major Webber. Attention was then turned to 
 Southampton, where Mr. W. H. Preece, of the Post- 
 office, talked as fluently with Professor Bell and 
 Colonel Reynolds as though he were in the next 
 room. A bugle in Southampton sounded the retreat 
 with startling distinctness ; and, lastly, came the 
 tones of an organ from London, in charge of Mr. 
 Wilmot. Cheering and laughing in London were 
 heard, the distance being 80 miles. The experiments 
 lasted from half-past nine until nearly midnight. Her 
 Majesty, the Princess Beatrice, the Duke of Con- 
 naught, and the entire Royal household evinced the 
 greatest interest. On the following morning, Pro- 
 fessor Bell made very successful experiments between 
 Cowes, Osborne House, and Osborne Cottage, at 
 which the Princess Beatrice, the Duke of Connaught,
 
 3IO THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 the Duke of Richmond, Lord John Manners, Lord 
 Ripon, Lady Biddulph, Lady Cowell, Sir John Covvell, 
 and others assisted. 
 
 The following correspondence has since passed 
 between Sir Thomas Biddulph and Professor Bell ; — 
 
 "Osborne, January i6th, 1878. 
 " My Dear Sir, — I hope you are aware how much 
 gratified and surprised the Queen was at the exhibi- 
 tion of the Telephone here on Monday evening. Her 
 Majesty desires me to express her thanks to you, and 
 the ladies and gentlemen who were associated with 
 you on the occasion. The Queen would like, if there 
 is no reason against it, to purchase the two instru- 
 ments still here, with the wires attached. Perhaps 
 you will be so kind as to let me know, and when the 
 sum due shall be paid. With many thanks, 
 " I am, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 .; "Thos. Biddulph." 
 
 Professor Bell returned this answer : — 
 
 " 57, West Cromwell Road, Kensington, 
 " January \%th. 
 
 "Dear Sir, — I feel highly honoured by the gratifica- 
 tion expressed by Her Majesty, and by her desire to 
 possess the Telephones. The instruments at present 
 at Osborne are merely supplied for ordinary com-
 
 THE PHONOGRAPH. 3II 
 
 mcrcial purposes, and it will afford me much pleasure 
 to be permitted to offer to the Queen a set of Tele- 
 phones made expressly for Her Majesty's use. 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Alexander Graham Bell." 
 
 A portion of the debate in the House of Commons 
 and of the Parliamentary Summary was transmitted 
 by means of the Telephone, through the ordinary 
 telegraphic wires from the gallery of the House of 
 Commons to the office of the Daily Ncivs, in Bouverie 
 Street, Fleet Street, and published in that journal on 
 Wednesday, the 23rd of January, 1878. 
 
 We also see it announced that the Persian Ambas- 
 sador has sent several messages by Telephone to the 
 Shah. The distance between London and Teheran 
 {about 2,500 miles) is, we believe, the greatest dis- 
 tance yet achieved in actual communication. 
 
 THE PHONOGRAPH. 
 
 Wonderful as are the achievements of the Tele- 
 phone, however, another instrument recently invented 
 must be pronounced to be equally, if not more, won- 
 derful. This is the Phonograph, Phonautograph, or 
 Tele-Phonograph, devised by Mr. Edison, of New 
 Jersey, by which the voice can be impressed on a thin 
 slip of metal, and sent to any part of the world,
 
 312 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 where, on its aiTival, the sounds may be again repro- 
 duced. From an account of this amazing invention, 
 published in the Times on the 15th of January last, we 
 take the following description of this instrument : — 
 
 " The Phonograph is composed of three parts mainly 
 — namely, a receiving, a recording, and a transmitting 
 apparatus. The receiving apparatus consists of a 
 curved tube, one end of which is fitted with a mouth- 
 piece, for the convenience of speaking into it. The 
 other end is about two inches in diameter, and is 
 closed in with a disc or diaphragm of exceedingly 
 thin metal, capable of being thrust slightly outwards 
 or vibrated upon gentle pressure being applied to it 
 from within the tube. To the centre of this dia- 
 phragm — which forms a right angle with the horizor^ 
 — is fixed a small blunt steel pin, which, of course, 
 partakes of the vibratory motion of the diaphragm. 
 This arrangement is carried on a table, and is fitted 
 by a set screw, by means of which it can be adjusted 
 relatively to the second part of the apparatus — the 
 recorder. This is a brass cylinder, about four inches 
 in length and four inches in diameter, cut with a con- 
 tinuous V groove from one end to the other, so that 
 it in effect represents a large screw. Measuring along 
 the cylinder from one end to the other, there are ten 
 of these grooves to the inch, or about forty in the 
 whole length. The total length of this continuous 
 groove, or screw-thread, is about forty-two feet — that
 
 THE PHONOGRAPH. 313, 
 
 is to say, that would be the length of the groove if it 
 were stretched out in a straight line. This cylinder 
 is mounted on a horizontal axis or shaft carried in 
 bearings at either end, and having its circumferential 
 face presented to the steel point of the receiving 
 apparatus. The shaft is prolonged for four inches or 
 so beyond the ends of the cylinder, and one of the 
 prolongations is cut with a screw-thread, and works 
 in a screwed bearing. This end terminates in a 
 handle ; and as this is turned round the cylinder is 
 not only revolved, but, by means of the screwed 
 spindle, is caused to travel its whole length in front 
 of the steel point, either backwards or forwards. 
 
 " We now see that if the pointer be set in the groove 
 in the cylinder at its commencement, and the handle 
 turned, the groove would be traversed over the point 
 from beginning to end, or, conversely, the point would 
 always be presented to the groove. A voice speaking 
 in the receiver would produce waves of sound which 
 would cause the point to enter to greater or less 
 depths into this groove, according to the degree of 
 intensity given to, the pressure upon the diaphragm 
 set up by the vibrations of the sound produced. This, 
 of course, of itself would mean nothing ; but in order 
 to arrest and preserve these sound-pressures, a sheet 
 of tinfoil is interposed, the foil being inelastic and 
 well adapted for receiving impressions. This sheet 
 is placed around the cylinder and its edges lightly
 
 314 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 fastened together by mouth-glue, forming an endless 
 band, and held on the cylinder at the edges by the 
 india-rubber rings. If a person now speaks into the 
 receiving tube and the handle of the cylinder be 
 turned, it will be seen that the vibrations of the 
 pointer will be impressed upon that portion of the 
 tinfoil over the hollow groove and retained by it. 
 These impressions will be more or less deeply marked 
 according to the modulations and inflexions of the 
 speaker's voice. We have now a message verbally 
 imprinted upon a slip of metal. Sound has, in fact, 
 been converted into visible form, and we have now to 
 translate that message by reconverting it into sound. 
 We are about, in effect, to hear our own voice speak- 
 ing from a machine the words which have just fallen 
 from our lips. To do this we require the third portion 
 of Mr. Edison's apparatus — the transmitter. 
 
 " This consists of what may be called a conical 
 metal drum, having its larger end open, the smaller 
 •end, which is about two inches in diameter, being 
 •covered with paper, which is stretched taut as is the 
 parchment of a drum-head. Just in front of this 
 paper diaphragm is a light flat steel spring, held in a 
 vertical position and terminating in a blunt steel point 
 projecting from it, and corresponding with that on 
 the diaphragm of the receiver. The spring is con- 
 nected with the paper diaphragm of the transmitter 
 by means of a silken thread, which is placed just
 
 THE PHONOGRAPH, 
 
 J'D 
 
 sufficiently ill tension to cause the outer face of the 
 diaphragm to assume a sHghtly convex form. This 
 apparatus is placed on the opposite side of the cyHnder 
 to the receiver. Having set the latter apparatus back 
 from the cylinder, and having, by turning the handle 
 in a reverse direction, set the cylinder back to what 
 we may term the zero point, the transmitting appara- 
 tus is advanced towards the cylinder by means of a 
 set screw until the steel point rests without absolute 
 pressure in the first indentation made by the point of 
 the receiver. If now the handle be turned at the 
 same speed as it was when the message was being 
 recorded, the steel point will follow the line of impres- 
 sion and will vibrate in periods corresponding to the 
 impressions previously produced on the foil by the 
 point of the receiving apparatus. Vibrations of the 
 requisite number and depth being thus communicated 
 to the upper diaphragm, there will be produced pre- 
 cisely the same sounds that in the first instance ^\•cre 
 required to produce the impressions formed on the 
 tinfoil. Thus the words of the speaker will be heard 
 issuing from the conical drum in his ov.n voice, tinged, 
 however, with a slight metallic or mechanical tone. 
 If the cylinder be revolved more slowly than when 
 the message was being recorded, the voice assumes a 
 bass tone ; if more quickly, the message is given Avith 
 a childish treble. These variations occur according 
 as the vibrations are more or less frequent.
 
 3l6 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 " Such is the apparatus, and it promises to be one 
 of the most remarkable of the recent marvels of 
 science. The machine we have described is the first 
 Mr. Edison has made, but he is now constructing one 
 to be set in motion by clockwork, the cylinder being 
 sixteen inches long. In the present machine, for record- 
 ing a long message, as soon as one strip of the tinfoil 
 is filled it is removed and replaced by others until the 
 communication has been completed. In using the 
 machine for the purpose of correspondence, the metal 
 strips are removed from the cylinder and sent to the 
 person with whom the speaker desires to correspond, 
 and who must possess a machine similar to that used 
 by the sender. The person receiving the strips places 
 them in turn on the cylinder of his apparatus, applies 
 the transmitter, and puts the cylinder in motion, when 
 he hears his friend's voice speaking to him from the 
 indented metal. And he can repeat the contents of 
 the missive as often as he pleases until he has worn 
 the metal through. The sender can make an indefi- 
 nite number of copies of his communication by taking 
 a plaster of Paris cast of the original strip and rubbing- 
 off impressions from it on a clean sheet of foil. It will 
 thus be seen, as we stated at the commencement of 
 this article, that the voices of those who have left us, 
 either for ever or for a season only, can be heard 
 talking with us if we so desire it. The invention has 
 been so recently and so quickly developed into exist-
 
 THE TELEPHONE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 317 
 
 €nce by Mr. Edison that he himself can hardly say 
 what its practical value is or will prove to be. Nu- 
 merous applications suggest themselves, but beyond 
 those to which we have alluded it is difficult to say with 
 precision how they would work out in practice. In 
 cases of depositions it might be of the highest impor- 
 tance to have oral evidence mechanically repro- 
 duced in a court of justice. Authors, too, may 
 perhaps be saved the trouble of writing their com- 
 positions." 
 
 It is believed that, owing in some measure to the 
 heavy royalty added to the price of the instrument in 
 England, the Telephone is not making way in this 
 country so rapidly as in America and Germany. We 
 have already said something regarding its extension 
 in the United States, and we learn that it is being 
 quickly and widely adopted in Germany, where there 
 is no patent. There is a firm in Berlin at the present 
 moment who occupy some lOO men exclusively in the 
 manufacture of Telephones. Prince Bismarck's study 
 in his residence at Varzin, Pomerania, is connected 
 with the Chancellor's office at Berlin, 230 miles dis- 
 tant, by telephone. Referring to this fact, a recent 
 writer says : — " The wire along which the Chancellor 
 speaks is an ordinary air-iine erected on posts, and 
 when we consider the state secrets which may pass 
 over it any day, and how easily they could be tapped 
 by another telephone, one is tempted to become an
 
 3l8 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 eavesdropper to the great statesman's momentous- 
 vitterances." 
 
 Whether the time is at hand when our Sims Reeves, 
 Madame Nilssoris, Joachims, Arabella Goddards, arid 
 other great singers and instrumentalists will be heard 
 performing simultaneously in all the capitals and pro- 
 vincial towns of Europe, by means of the Telephone, 
 remains to be seen, but such a result does not seem 
 ■ so plainly impossible, certainly, as it did a very few 
 years ago. What the phonograph may yet accom- 
 plish, in addition to the marvellous wonders it already 
 performs, seems to defy the descriptive powers of the 
 most imaginative of mankind. " What will be 
 thought," asks a recent writer on this instrument, " of 
 a piece of mechanism by means of ivJiicJi a message of 
 any length can he spoken on to a plaie of metal, that 
 plate sent by post to any part of the ivorld, and the mes- 
 sage absolntely respoken in the very voice of the sender, 
 purely by mechanical agency ? What, too, shall be said 
 of a mere machine by means of which the old familiar 
 voice of one who is no longer with us on earth can be 
 heard speaking to us in the very tones and measure 
 to which our ears were once accustomed ? " 
 
 Ma'Ul:ijL01)ALli & CO., Pl.IXTEllS, '•TIIE AU.MOUUy," SOUTHWARK. 
 
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