PRINTING TELEGRAPH

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 March 1922, Page 7

PRINTING TELEGRAPH

NEW ZEALAND RESULTS. BIG SAVINGS PROVED, (Special to the Star.) d WELLINGTON, This Day. 0 The printing telegram installation r working between Wellington and i Christchurch has been operating for several months, and there is now ab- ‘ solutely no doubt that the system L . is well adapted to New Zealand lines, . and that enormous savings in capital - costs of lines, and equally important economies in working are to be ob- \ tained. Although the printing tclei graph has been in use in I’rance for > forty years, and for a lesser period in England, it was thought that its suc- ■ cess in these countries was due to the i better conditions obtaining. Some 1 fears were expressed that New Zealand Hues, running through many miles oi rough country, would provide too many problems in the way of maintaining perfect’’'insulation, but actual experience of the Wellington-Christ-church route has demonstrated that the printing telegraph, instead of being inferior to the quadruples worked with Morse signals, is actually superior. 'Thus one important point has been cleared up, and the way lies open for the extension of the printing system to any part of the country. Auckland and Wellington will be the next circuit of the printing telegraph. The necessary instruments arrived in New Zealand recently, and the staff m Auckland is being trained to oper-

y ate them. One big change is the s - substitution of simple typewriting fur j* tile -dorse doL and dash. it looks as it the days of the expert Moise operag tor are numbered. Another imporie ant impioicmeiiL which will follow 'I tne installation of the Welimaton u Auckland circuit is that the economy ■- in inc use oi the existing tclvgrapn Imus will unable a continuous leiephone service between the two cities ( to be maintained. instead oi limiting ’ .i to curtain Hours oi tne nigm. ExI pvrimemai wording between tv elnng- ’ ton and Aucklanu may be possible in six weeks, and the business operation oi me system will commence within a iew ntuntJis. So inucii can be transmitted through the medium ol one Wire that tne printing telegraphy enormously increases the capacity ol New Zealand lines. Mr. E. A. bhrimptun, Chief Telegraph Engineer, in discitssing tins point with the “Star” correspondent, was able to speak of actual experience, not mere theory. Un February 14th last, the working conditions between Wellington and Christchurch were bad. A mizzling ram seriously lowered the insulation of the lines, and the usual quadruplex working by Morse signals became impossible. The bust which could be done by this system was' to cut its transmission down by one-half, • and work duplex. What was the experience with the printing telegraph ? Despite the “blanket” of rain all along flic lines, it continued to transmit perfectly eight messages simul-

taneously —four sets of receivers, and four transmitters —along the one wire. Another instance of improved working possibilities in the new system came to light when a tree fell across Ihe line somewhere on the long route to Christchurch. One wire remained, ami this was used fur the printing telegraph, which carried tho whole of ; the traffic between tho North and 1 South Islands without delay. There was no necessity to inform the public I that anything had gone wrong, because users of the telegraphs had no j occasion to complain of restricted service. When your correspondent was ’ shown the printing telegraph at work on a recent busy morning, some of the operators would occasionally look up from their typewriters, and take a . leisurely survey of the instrument and their surroundings. Picking up the : printed tape from one of these instruments Dlr. Shrimpton read the end of the message from the Christchurch operator, which he had typed a few moments previously, the machine in Wellington promptly repeated it in Roman characters: “I have cleaned up tho work for the present” was the message, which Dlr. Shrimpton remarked was a frequent occurrence, as the one line, with the printing tele- B graph, working at the slow rate of 30 words per minute can more than keep up with the demand for telegraphic communication. It is proposed to raise the transmission rate to 40 words per minute now that all tho operators are quite accustomed to the new system. Tho big test of New Zealand’s telegraphic service is at Christmas-timo, when tho wires are overloaded with messages of greeting. The festival time is almost a nightmare for, telegraph operators, and the printing teleraph system had hardly got into full

working order before this awkwafa date arrived. As a result of former experience, the traffic staff arranged for relays of operators who could keep up continuous working right through Christmas Evo until 2 p.m. or later, on the Christmas Day, this being the usual requirement to clean up the work. The printing telegraph was put on its trial, and the flood of messages came to hand as usual. The machines kept up a good pace during Christmas Evo, and instead of having to face a depressing accumulation of delayed messages at midnight, Christchurch operators were actually asking their colleagues in other parts of the South Island to divert the work foi’ the North Island through the printing telegraph circuit, as it was waiting for messages. So the full flow’d the traffic camo to this one wire, but there was no difficulty in keeping it down. The Christchurch operators who had been ‘ 7 warned” for duty at 2 p.m. on Christmas Day came to the office, but to their astonisment they were informed that there was nothing left for them to do, the new system having swallowed up all the messages by that time. They gave three cheers for the printing telegraph, and went back to their homes*. The system had carried 3,352 outward, and 2,947 inward messages as well as 2,704 words of press telegrams on Christmas Eve.' '~ : Operating costs will substantially decrease with the printing telegraph.

i , - • . 'l?,'" jr'-'l' <1 » Its capacity is 600 messages per hour, » and whereas it takes first class opera- ; tors on first class circuits five or six - years’ training to work up to the > Dlorso maximum, the amount of train- ; ing to work the printer is four or five ; months. Actual tests under New ' Zealand conditions show an advantage in carrying capacity for the printing ; telegraph compared -with the Morse . quadruplex, of 3.2 per cent, while the ■ average operator can work the printer ; 50 per cent, faster than the Dlorso. ■naaaMunouMoaranmianiimn