MORSE TELEGRAPHY

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3469, 22 May 1934, Page 5

MORSE TELEGRAPHY

ITS GROWTH AND UNIVERSAL USE. HISTORY OF ITS DEVELOPMENT. As the subject of his address from the chair at the first meeting' of the Te Awamutu Orphans’ Cub last Saturday evening' Mr S. G. Riddell (president) chose the invention and development of telegraphy and in a few minutes he sketched this wonderful influence in world communications. We quote:— It is my intention this evening to occupy your time for a few minutes in an endeavour to explain to you how the world was given what is known to-day as Morse telegraphy, and also to describe the major points concerned in the working of the system. Very few people know what years of experimenting were necessary before the invention was made workable and the crude methods employed in the early days compared with the present up-to-date methods of transmitting and reception of the ordinary telegram. No one can tell us in a sentence the origin of the telegraph. Too many men were concerned in its invention for the story to be told in a few words. If we look for the cradle of the electric telegraph we may find it in the Leyden jar, by means of which a Charterhouse pensioner named Stephen Giay sent a current of electricity nearly 900 ft. along a wire. This fact was very interesting and of wonderful learning to scientists of that day. However, the first telegraph did net come from this discovery. ft was not until the year 1753 that an unknown man wrote to a paper in Scotland suggesting that these electric currents might be used for sending- messages. He had two schemes.—One was to have a wire for each letter of the alphabet, and the current to be sent along the wire for the letter desired; the current to agitate a piece of paper at the receiving end and on it to be printed the letter signalled. The second method was to have only one wire and for a pith ball to be so agitated by the current that it would strike a bell giving signals to be read as letters. Although this was a very Cleveland likely suggestion, electricity in sufficient quantities could not be produced to operate the necessary apparatus. Great men such as Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday did much for telegraphy by unravelling some of the greatest secrets of electricity and its effects. Faraday discovered that a magnet would electrify wire through which no current passed. A great power was thus placed at the command of man. Still the first telegraph did not come from Faraday’s discovery. The first inventor was Francis Ronalds. He erected in his garden some eight miles of wires, and, creating electricity by means of friction, caused the current to travel the entire distance. At each end of the wire he affixed a dial, which was acted upon by the current and caused a letter to appear. Having' perfected his machine he endavoured, without success, to sell it to the Government. Being so discouraged he gave up all study of the invention. Its final success was due to the combined efforts of Wheatstone and cocke, who perfected an instrument for transmitting signals. However, at the same time as these men were experimenting in England, Samuel Morse was working in America on a similar device. He produced a telegraph and at the same time invented a code which was adopted the world over, and is still to-day used in all British countries for commercial telegraphy. It is the universal code for wii'eless telegraphy. The first practical telegraph was installed in the London Blackwall Railway in the year 1838. Since that time rapid strides have been made, and in the year 1874 Edison achieved a great advance by inventing an instrument that increased the traffic capacity of a single wire. He made it possible fer the transmission of four separate messages over one cii cuit simultaneously, i.e., two to be sent and two to be received. From this it can be readily imagined how the growth of the telegraph rapidly spread throughout the civilised world. In common with other countries New Zealand also experienced the benefit of tnese methods of communication and among the early systems in operation in this country was what was known as the tape machine. This machine operated by the sending end moving up and down in reaction to the currents at the receiving office and printing on thin strips of paper the Morse characters. This method was somewhat cumbersome as the telegrams had to be decoded and written on fresh paper before delivery. As I have already mentioned, this was a very cumbersome and slow method. It was soon ; eplaced by an instrument with the same up-and-down movement, but which was made to record a metallic sound, the sound being read instantly by the receiving operator and written letter for letter as recorded. This method necessitates careful training of and studious practice of the operators employed. This system is in use to-day. It is a fitting conclusion. that at the present time we can claim a yet speedier service, used only in the large centres and known as the Murray Multiplex. This invention is capable of transmitting messages at the rate of 60 w<L'ds a minute instead of approximately 30 words under the Morse system. The Murray is a machine with a keyboard like a typewriter, which when operated by the sender produces at the station of destination a message already decoded and typewritten. It is not possible at this stage to elaborate upon the intricacies of this machine, for it would be in some respects only a tedious repetition and would develop technicalities; suffice it is to say that Morse telegraphy, still only understood by the few, is the greatest link between the outposts of the civilised world. *