F.—ll

60

boards for perforating were not used by these companies. It was stated that one mechanic could attend to three sets of Creed perforators and printers and the apparatus generally used in the office where these were. One company had two mechanics, one of whom was in attendance at night. A number of cable companies are using the system, and when the Creed works were visited it was seen that there was in progress the construction of a large number of receivers and printers for one of them. Figures got from the British Post Office showing the results over their circuits are as follows :

These figures show that the apparatus can handle over two hundred messages an hour each way when there is the work to do. The average each way for the eleven hours was 159 messages an hour. It is, however, proper to ascertain what the instrument can do by the work dealt with in the busy hour. That work w 7 as 218 messages an hour each way. It was said that at the London end alone there were sixteen men employed during the busy hour. With keyboard perforators each operator typing at forty 7 words a minute for forty minutes should prepare seventy messages on tape per hour. Three such operators at each end would feed the machine, allowing one for the transmitter and two for receiving and gumming. There is thus a total of six persons at each end, which gives thirty-six messages a person an hour. Working Morse, two persons are required to deal with a message —viz., a sender and a receiver—so that this result fully doubles the efficiency of each pair of operators, and doubles the carryingcapacity of the line, always assuming there is sufficient traffic to keep it filled during the business hours of the day 7. The -work done is equivalent to seventy-two messages per hour for each pair of men engaged. These instruments are costly, the price for a duplex set at one end being £2,120. This includes two spare keyboard perforators and one spare transmitter, receiver, and printer. The price, excluding spare apparatus, is £1,140. Mechanicians' attendance and repairs have not been referred to, as they 7 would be required for any kind of machine telegraph, such as Murray, Baudot, and Siemens. The Gell keyboard perforator is supplied with these instruments. The foregoing figures are based on everything working ideally, which seldom is the case. Probably eight or nine pairs of operators would represent more nearly the general working requirements. This would make the average per pair of operators between fifty and fifty-five messages per hour. Information has been received that the company has now devised a means by which the apparatus can be worked by electro-magnets, thereby dispensing with the use of compressed air. The working of what is styled " systematic Wheatstone " in the.British Post Office has features demanding, notice. Keyboard perforators of the Gell and Kotyra type have been developed to that stage at which they can be considered as giving satisfactory results. The speed of the Kotyra is about forty-five words a minute, that of the Gell eighty or ninety words a minute. These machines are, like all machinery 7 , liable to wear and occasional breakdown, but the wear is not so great nor are the breakdowns so frequent or serious as to make their maintenance heavy or to cause them not to be used. The Gell perforator has been improved so that the inventor has it practically in its final form, and is standardizing it. The British Post Office has about one hundred in use, at least thirty of which are in the Central Telegraph-office, London. They were also seen in the Dublin and Manchester telegraph-offices. In a newspaper office the writer has seen fifty-eight words in one minute and 123 -words in two minutes perforated on one of the machines. Where they are in the hands of skilled typists they are generally considered as giving more than twice the result obtained from the manual perforating method, from which about twenty-five w-ords a minute are obtained. One hundred and 127 messages have been perforated in an hour, but these speeds are not common, the average being more in the neighbourhood of sixty to seventy an hour. The perforating of this number of messages per hour is not unduly severe, as most typists can type at forty words a minute with ease. This rate for forty minutes in an hour will produce 1,600 w 7 ords, which at twenty, words a message gives eighty messages. Under strict Post Office test at the Daily News office, London, an operator perforafedtape which was fed direct into the transmitter at London and received at Manchester; 3,620 five-letter words wexe sent during one hour, the rate being sixty words a minute. The Gell perforator is also in use on the German-Atlantic cables. The slip, which is perforated suitably for cable transmission, is fed direct into the cable transmitter from the perforator. The Commonwealth has a good number of these machines. They were seen at Adelaide^

10 to 11 a.m. 11 to 12 12 to 1 to 1 p.m. 2 p.m. 2 to 3 p.m. 3 to 4 to 4 p.m. 5 p.m. Total for Day. Time. Hours, Forwarded Received 149 190 219 217 206 161 93 139 667 707 Total each hour 339 4 436 367 232 1,374 Forwarded Received 137 193 191 211 192 196 134 137 100 102 138 150 119 124 1,011 1,113 7 Total each hour 330 402 388 271 202 288 243 2,124