ROMANCE OF TELEGRAPHY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9396, 17 March 1909, Page 7

ROMANCE OF TELEGRAPHY.

THE FIRST MESSAGE. V A direct overland telegraph line has just been established between London and India.” In that sentence, which does not at first sight suggest anything very .startling, is conveyed the news of due of, the most astonishing feats in the history of telegraphy. On a recent Saturday a small party of "guests were invited to 128, Old Broad street, London, the offices of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, and there witnessed the achievement of a world’s record, when one of the operators sent a messgae to Calcutta, on a direct line from the London office to. the receiving room over 7000 miles away, and had an answer in less time than it would take to walk through Fleet street. It is difficult to realise the full significance of this fact. It means, lor one thing, that there are no intermediate; re-transmissions. The operator’s key is pressed in London, and the electric signal produced oom6s out in India with tho speed of lightning i that is to say, in the infinitesimal fraction of a second. It , means that, during the past few years men have been carrying a line further Bast, across Europe to Warsaw, then southward, to Odessa, skirting the Black Sea to Tiflis, invading Turkey in Asia, stretching away to Teheran, through Tabriz and the wild of the Persian tribesmen, down to Karachi and the ' coast of the Arabian Sea, It was on a Saturday afternoon at five o’clock that the first press message was sent from the room in London to Karachi, 5374 miles away, to Which the great line has only just been carried, thence being connected direct with Calcutta. “Now, gentlemen,” said one of the officials of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, “We will signal to Karachi that the London press deshe a message from them. ” He passed the word to an operator, 4:he man tapped out a lew words and waited a seconds. “Karachi replies,” he said. Aud by dot and dash the answer 'Came on a tape-machine, which reeled off the long thin strips of paper as quickly as the official could interpret them—at the rate of 40 words a ' minute. It was a brief record of the way in which the wire had been taken overland, of the concessions obtained from the various Governments, and of the difficulties which had been successfully overcome. From the unknown writer 5374 miles away came the iconoluding sentence'“The value of a system ot direct working between England and India may, I think, be left to the gentlemen of the press to estimate.” 7000 MILES WIRE. “Now then, said the official, “let us try to get straight through to Calcutta. It has never been done before except for signalling purpoaes. ” , , , . . One of the men present blew his nose. Almost before he had finished Calcutta replied to the operator’s question. It was a quotation from some economic writer on the philosophy of wealth, which must have baen at the elbow of the operator 7000 miles away when suddenly called upon to speak to the London pressmen. For experimental purposes other cities of the world were signalled for messages. Bombay said “It is hot here. We suppose you are cold. Madras said: —“It is cold but dry.’ - Constantinople said :—“Our Parliament is sitting,” Odessa; Tabriz, Warsaw, Pera, and Teheran sent many messages which came into the heads of the operators. It was all oou6 quickly aod without a' hitch. The operators telegraphed to Pera as easily as one could t.o.Pcckham-Kye, anti Teheran was no further away in point ot time than Tooting. The romance of this direct line to India cannot be told in a few words. The unknown men who have carried the line have also had to defend it. Tiabviz, through which it passes, has been in a state of seige for meni ths and communication over part of this ttie line, which is constantly destroyed in the encounters of the two opposing parties, has only been kept . up with the greatest difficulty by.the staff of the Indo-European Telegraph Company at the risk of their lives. From a political as well as from a commercial point of view, the value •of this direct communication with India and the East is of incalculable importance, and the Telegraph Company who have carried through this enterprise successfully deserve the thanks of the British Empire.