Forschner, Homer W.

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 The Knowledge Bank at The Ohio State University Ohio State Engineer   Title:  Modern Method of Handling Telegrams Creators:  Forschner, Homer W. Issue Date:  Jan-1926 Publisher:  Ohio State University, College of Engineering Citation:  Ohio State Engineer, vol. 9, no. 2 (January, 1926), 29-30. URI:  http://hdl.handle.net/1811/33779  Appears in Collections: Ohio State Engineer: Volume 9, no. 2 (January, 1926)           THE OHIO STATE ENGINEER 29MODERN METHOD OF HANDLING TELEGRAMSBy HOMER W. FORSCHNER, E. E. '28HOUSANDS of telegrams are received and senteach day, but very few people know the way inwhich they are actually handled. Because abso-lute secrecy must be maintained in the telegraphservice, the public does not have a chance to visit theoffices and watch the force at work. With this in view,and a hope that the public will have a better under-standing of telegraph practices and terms, this articlewas written.The procedure which a telegram passes through isdependent on the size of the office from which it is sent.The most illustrative case and the one to be followed inthis report is that of sending a message from one non-functional office to another via two relay offices.A non-functional office is found in the small townsand cities. It does not handle sufficient traffic (incom-ing and outgoing messages) to warrant having a wireof its own to a number of other towns. It handles allof its traffic through a larger office called a relay office.The relay office has wires to all the non-functional of-fices within a certain radius, and also to other relayoffices. Thus when a non-functional office gets a mes-sage to send, it is first transmitted to the relay office. Ifthe message is destined to a town within a radius cov-ered by that relay office, it is immediately transmitted toit. If not, it must be transmitted to a second relayoffice which does cover a radius containing the town towhich the message is addressed. This second relay of-fice then transmits the message to its destination.Messages are brought to the office in several ways.Intermittent users usually come to the office and writeout their message. More extensive users have a callsystem installed whereby a signal indicates to the tele-graph office that the patron has a message for them.A messenger is sent for it. An increasingly popularmethod is to telephone them to the telegraph office.Oftimes private lines are installed for this purpose.The filing of a telegram refers to where and at whattime it was given to the telegraph companv for trans-mission. This information is found on all telegramsand is transmitted free of charge.The message once filed is immediately handed to theoperator for transmission. The operator calls the relaystation and transmits the message to an operator there,who gives his 0. K. on receiving it.If the non-functional office has considerable traffic tohandle, a relay operator is assigned to their wire anddoes not leave it. If, however, the office has a smallamount of traffic, it gets the attention of an operatoronly part of the time. The small office calls a relayoperator to its wire by making a signal which lights alamp in the relay office. This light must be answeredwithin five minutes after its first lighting.The relay operator "picking UD" a lamp answers withthe call of the relay station. The operator at the non-functional office then sends the message which the relayoperator translates in his head and typewrites in com-plete form on a telegraph blank. Removing it from thetypewriter he places it on a conveying belt which runsdirectly in front of him. At the end of the first beltthe message drops onto another belt which carries it toa large table. Here girls sort the messages according todestination. Other girls take them to the proper wire.The traffic between two relay stations is so great thatmany ooerators would be needed to handle it. Theautomatic transmitter and receiver, the multiplex ma-chine, is therefore used. One machine takes the placeof four Morse operators. The mux (multiplex) oper-ator sits before a keyboard similar to that on a type-writer. To transmit a message it is only necessary togo through the form of typing it. As the keys are de-pressed holes are punched in a moving tape. This tapefeeds into an automatic transmitter which actuates thereceiving portion of the mux machine at the distant relayoffice by means of the holes in the tape.The incoming pulses from the mux machine of thefirst relay office cause letters to be printed. These let-ters correspond to those sent out from the first relayoffice. Thus when the key S is depressed in the firstrelay office a series of holes corresponding to S ispunched in the tape. This tape running through thetransmitteer causes pulsations corresponding to S to beset up in the circuit. The receiver at the second relayoffice is actuated by this pulsation and the letter S isprinted corresponding to that pulsation. Thus the wholemessage comes out of the mux machine in printed form.The message is taken from the mux machine to alarge table. Here it is routed according to destination,and is taken to the correct wire. The relay operatorcalls the office to which the message is destined. Whenanswered by the call of the non-functional office, hetransmits the message and gets the other operator's 0. K.The non-functional office operator receives the mes-sage, typing it on a telegraph blank. It is taken to thedelivery clerk whose duty it is to get it to the addresse.The usual form of delivery is by messenger boy. Thisphysical delivery finds greatest favor in the down-townbusiness sections where the original copy of the messageis often necessary. This method is not so well adaptedfor messages going to outlying points, for even the fast-est messenger must spend many minutes delivering themessage. In such cases the message is telephoned ifpossible, and agreeable to the recipient. Telephonicdelivery of telegrams is immediate and many patronsrequest it.Patrons often wish to know how long it will take theirmessage to be delivered. This is no doubt a reasonablequestion, but one which cannot be answered with cer-tainty. In fact the Western Union has a rule againstpromising any certain time of delivery. The averagetime for a fast telegram is from forty-five minutes to anhour. The distance the message "travels" has prac-tically nothing to do with how long it takes it to getthere. It takes no longer for an operator to send a-V.1ST1TELI; : • - ' : • - : . • • . . . . : . . . . !• • • • • • • , : . . : - . '30 THE O H I O STATE E N G I N E E Rmessage from New York to San Francisco than fromNew York to Cleveland if he has a direct wire to eachplace. Messages often come through in fifteen min-utes, but this exceptional service cannot be relied upon.A record is kept of the message at each office itpasses through. On this record also is the time, bywhom, and over what wire it was received and sent fromthat office. This record is kept for one year.The relay system described above is the one usedby the Western Union Telegraph Company. It is theresult of many years of practical experience in thespeedy delivery of telegrams. Its effectiveness can bejudged by the fact that a message sent from any one ofthe twenty-six thousand Western Union offices will bedelivered at any other office within an hour or so. Ofthe thousands of messages sent every day it is a rareoccurrence to have one come to fault in delivery. Ittakes the highest type of organization to accomplish this.American telegraph companies no doubt boast the truthin asserting that America's telegraph service is equaledby none.

Modern Method of Handling Telegrams

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Modern Method of Handling Telegrams

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