BY DIRECT CABLE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1917, Page 2

BY DIRECT CABLE

WELLINGTON TO SYDNEY

INAUGURATION OF NEW SERVICE

THE PASSING 9F "WAKA."

Many business men are familiar with the abbreviation "Waka" appearing, as tho office oE origin, on cable messages. Those who havo thought or enquired about the matter know that the word stands for Wakapuaka, a little place on Gable B:i.y, Nelson, and the New Zealand terminal of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company's cable lines. After tliis week "Waka" will disappear from the telegraph forms aiid its place will be taken by "Wn" or whatever abbreviation the telegraph office may use to designate this city. It has been mentioned previously in The lost that the cable station is being transferred from Wa.kapua.ka. to Wellington, the cable ■coming ashore at Titahi Bay instead of Cable Bay. For months the great amount of work involved by the change has been in progress, and within ,a few days it will be complete. A new cable ha.s been laid for a distance of about 85 miles from Titalii Bay, which itself has been connected by means of an underground lino with Wellington. Today the newly-laid cable is being linked to the main line, and this afternoon, if all goes well, the transmission of messages direct between Wellington and Sydney will commence. The section of cable connecting with Wakapuaka. will then be lifted and taken to Singapore to have the outer* steel sheathing renewed, when it will be as good as.new, since there is practically no wear upon the core—or inner copper wire, which is protected by gutta-percha insulating material. SAVING TIME FOR WELLINGTON.

The change is an important one for the North Island, and particularly for Wellington, since it means that cable-mes-sages —both press and private cablegrams—will be received by Wellington direct instead of having to be despatched again from Wakapuaka' across the Cook Strait cable. . For the newspapers this saving of time and reduction of possibility of error ml transmission is of importance. The burden upon the Cook Strait ca-bie between Wellington and Nelson will also be considerably lightened. There ha 6 been a cable station at Wakapuaka since 1876; but when the whole staff has been transferred, which will take place on Sunday if all goes well, the station' will be finally abandone_d. Already a great portion of. the material has been brought to Wellington, and set up in' the top floor of Nathan's buildings, the new receiving and transmitting office.

THE VIOLET CURVES. \

The ordinary man reading his cable news clay by day knows that .it has been transmitted to New Zealand by marvellous means; but he knows little of tjje. intricacies of* mechanism and the delicate nature of the instruments which the work calls for. To him a visit to the new cable offices would prove an i object-lesson. In the first . place, there ! are the receiving aiid transmitting in- | struments. The latter is simple enough —a key somewhat more elaborate ,in form than the ordinary telegraph'instrument. The receiver, however, is much more complex and delicate., Thei'e is no registration of clots and dashes by sound or the movement of a visible needle, but instead the dots and dashes I sent over the wire from Sydney cause a movement, in a small, glass syphon, which presses against a . constantly moving paper tape. When no message is on the cable the syption prints a straight violet line along the middle of the paper. Then, without any warning, the syphon commences to move above and below the line in little curves. A curve above the line indicates a dot and below the line a dash. As the impressions are recorded, ythe tape travels over a table and an operator translates the wobbling and seemingly erratic "scrawl into a communique from Sir Douglas Haig, a a speech by Mr. Lloyd George, a reference to the price of butter, or, some other message, and this transcription is checked by another operator before the tape has passed over the table and been wound on another reel. The mechanism controlling the glass syphon, which is filled from a little reservoir of aniline and water, is particularly delicate, single fibres of cocoon .silk/and so on, being used, so that resistance is reduced to a minimum, -Not only messages re- | ceived, but messages transmitted, are recorded, and can be checked. The instruments at present in use are .simplex in form, out shortly a duplex .recorder will be brought over from "Waka". and installed!'. This instrument enables a message to be cent and another received on the line simultaneously. Though cable business has "increased greatly in the war period, even apart from free enquiry messages and.other soldiers' business, the lines can. deal with.it easily, even without the duplex sets. A CIRCUITOUS ROUTE. There is' a popular impression- that j when the message leaves New Zealand it goes direct to London. It does nothing of the kind, ■'. but travels through about a dozen- different offices—Sydney, Adelaide, Cpcos Island, Durban, Capetown! St. Vincent, and so on.-'..This makes for more certain Working, since it is the longest cable which is most subject to interruption. IPhe transmission from office to' office takes time, however, and naturally increases the chance, of error even th6ugh careful checking. may reduce this to a minimum. To meet these difficulties the Eastern Company in offices outside New Zealand has automatic transmitting .instruments. The message is punched in a series of dots | and dashes on the paper tape and v then fed into the a.utomatic transmitter. A similar record is made at the next station, and again •automatically* sent on. Before very long New Zealand also will have these automatic instruments, thus completing the circuit, saving time, and practically making errors impossible. TESTING THE CABLES. Other interesting apparatus now installed at Nathan's Building is that for testing the cables. Every week the test is carried out by means of a fine galvanometer with a small mirror attachment reflecting a light; on to a graduated scale, so that - very exact readings may be obtained. To describe the-work-ing of this instrument in simple .language is impossible. It is sufficient to say that the skilled operator can with it measure current and resistance so as to calculate to within a .few yards where the l«ak in the cable is located. Thus the cable boat is able to speedily find the -fault or break and effect repairs. How sensitive this instrument is may be judged from the fact, that when a Post reporter watched it in operation yesterday the indicating "spot-light" was jumping right off the scale, and the operator explained that this was due to earth currents affecting the cable. Simspofs, causing electrical disturbances, lead to such erratic move-ments.-trying the patience-of the expert who is testing the lines. Current for \he. rabies is provided at present, by Leek-nclio batteries, housed in a special battery room, together with other, cells for driving the mills, Later

theflij liuttericA will be replaced by accumulator)), of varying bvabh, which will be charged from n dynamo to be installed on the prcmines. Thin does not embrac(-._ the whole of^ the mechanism or electncii.l apparatus in the office. There* in much complex wiring, to nay nothing (A the artificial line which balances the cable.

When the office is in full working order it will have a staff of about 20. Titis number is required because the cables are in use 24 hours every day, and every day of the year. The New Zealand superintendent is Mr. B. R.. Ulack, who will now make his headquarters at Wellington. Next in charge will be Mr. H. Maleski, who has been working for some time on the equipment of tho new office.