The following is taken from the English scientific paper, Nature: “At the Telegraph Office, Washington, on December 11, 1873, an experiment was carried out in the presence of Mr. Creswell, the Postmaster-General of the United States, the practical results of which will be of immense importance as regards the future of telegraphy throughout the world. On that occasion the President’s last annual message of 11,500 words was transmitted from Washington to New York, a distance of 290 miles, over a single wire, in 221 minutes, the speed obtained being over 2,500 letters per minute.
“At New York the message was delivered from the automatic instrument, printed in bold type, in presence of the Postmaster of New York. This achievement in telegraphy is the more remarkable, as the principle involved is not new, but was well known in 1848. The experiments made at that date were practically without result. By the new American combination of chemistry and mechanism the speed is apparently almost unlimited, messages, at the rate of 1,200 words or 6,000 letters, a minute, being afterward transmitted with equally satisfactory results.”
A rapid talker only speaks two hundred words per minute; while by this invention a message can be sent at the rate of 1,200 words per minute! This is but one item out of thousands showing the wonderful increase of knowledge in this fast age. D. M. C.