The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph / With the Reports of Congress, and a Description of All Telegraphs Known, Employing Electricity or Galvanism

by Alfred Vail

Another instance of interruption was occasioned by the falling of a tree, which accidently fell across the wires, and at the same time across the rail road track, stopping the cars for a short time, and the telegraphic communication for two hours.

Excepting the time excluded by these, and two or three other similar accidental interruptions, and which, during seven months of its effective existence between the two cities, does not altogether amount to more than 24 hours, the telegraph has been either in operation, or prepared for operation, at any hour of the day or night, irrespective of the state of the weather.

It has transmitted intelligence of great importance. During the troubles in Philadelphia the last summer, sealed despatches were sent by express from the Mayor of Philadelphia to the President of the United States. On the arrival of the express at Baltimore, the purport of the despatches transpired; and while the express train was in preparation for Washington, the intelligence was sent to Washington by telegraph, accompanied by an order from the president of the rail road company to prevent the Washington burden train from leaving until the express should arrive. The order was given and complied with. The express had a clear track, and the President and the Cabinet (being in council) had notice both of the fact that an express was on its way with important despatches to them, and also of the nature of those despatches, so that, when the express arrived, the answer was in readiness for the messenger.

In October, a deserter from the U.S. ship Pennsylvania, lying at Norfolk, who had defrauded also the purser of the ship of some $600 or $700, was supposed to have gone to Baltimore. The purser called at the telegraph office in Washington, stated his case, and wished to give notice in Baltimore, at the same time offering a reward for the apprehension of the culprit. The name and description of the offender’s person, with the offer of the reward, were sent to Baltimore, and in ten minutes the warrant was in the hands of the officers of justice for his arrest; and in half an hour from the time that the purser profferred his request at Washington, it was announced from Baltimore by the telegraph, “The deserter is arrested; he is in jail; what shall be done with him?”

To show the variety of the operations of the telegraph, a game of draughts, and several games of chess, have been played between the cities of Baltimore and Washington, with the same ease as if the players were seated at the same table. To illustrate the independence of the telegraph of the weather, and time of day, I would state that, during the severe storm of the 5th December, when the night was intensely dark, the rain descending in torrents, and the wind blowing a gale, it seemed more than ordinarily mysterious to see a company around a table, in a warm retired chamber, on such a night, in Washington, playing a game of chess with another company similarly situated in Baltimore: the darkness, the rain, and the wind, being no impediment to instantaneous communication.

In regard to the quantity of intelligence which may be sent in a given time, it is perfectly safe to say that thirty characters can be transmitted in a minute by a single instrument; and as these characters are conventional signs, they may mean either numbers, letters, words, or sentences. As an illustration of this point, I will state that nearly a whole column (more than seven-eighths) in the Baltimore Patriot was transmitted in thirty minutes—faster than the reporter in Baltimore could transcribe.

This fact bears upon the ability of producing a revenue from the telegraph; and I would suggest the propriety of permission being granted by Congress to the department, to adjust a tariff of charges on intelligence sent by telegraph, at such a rate of postage as shall at least return to the treasury the interest of the capital expended in the first construction, and after maintenance of the telegraph.

In aid of this view of the subject, I beg to refer to my letter to the chairman of the Committee on Commerce, [December 6, 1842, No. 13].

Since that was written, experience has shown that that calculation is far below the real results. Instead of twelve signs in a minute, upon which that computation was based, we must substitute thirty—a column of a newspaper having been transmitted to Baltimore even at the rate of thirty-five signs in a minute. It is, therefore, safe to set down the rate at 30 signs per minute; and it is safe to double the annual receipts, making the gross amount $600,000 per annum.

In the absence of experience, the expense necessary to construct and to maintain a system of electro magnetic telegraphs, was thought to be so great as to present a formidable, if not an insurmountable obstacle to its adoption. But the experiment already made for 40 miles, has shown that the electro magnetic telegraph is far from being expensive, either in its first construction, or after maintenance, especially when its vast superiority over the old system is taken into consideration.