The current by which the whole of the circuits are worked at the Central Telegraph Office is generated at the Blackfriars Power Station, and conveyed by mains to the basement of the building, where the accumulators are charged, and the current distributed from these to the circuits.
I have been obliged to give a large number of somewhat technical details, and it would be almost impossible to describe the work of the Central Telegraph Office in any other way. But enough has been said in this chapter to bring out clearly the fact that in working the telegraphs the servants of the General Post Office keep in touch with the advance of science, and are not slow to avail themselves of every discovery which will benefit and add to the efficiency of the Service.
CHAPTER XII
THE TELEGRAPH (continued)
A very important matter in connection with the Service is the timing of telegrams, and in order to provide for their correct and uniform timing throughout the United Kingdom, Greenwich mean time, which is received from the Observatory hourly, is distributed from the Central Office at 9 and 10 A.M. daily. To enable this to be done, one circuit to every office excepting certain principal towns is stopped just before 9 or 10 A.M. daily, and, as the gong sounds at these hours, the signal “nine” or “ten” is transmitted to the offices in direct communication with the Central Office, and these offices retransmit the signal to the smaller offices connected with them by telegraph. The exceptions I have mentioned are served by means of the chronefer. Two such instruments are situated on the third floor provincial gallery, and daily transmit automatically a current received directly from Greenwich Observatory, one to the principal towns at 10 A.M., and the other to certain selected towns at 1 P.M.
Magnetic clocks are now used throughout the galleries, and allow of uniformity of timing.
Now let me deal with the practical working of the Service. The introduction of the sixpenny minimum rate for inland telegrams in 1885 led to an immediate large increase, particularly in the social class of telegrams. The average number dealt with during the month previous to the reduced rate was 52,000. A month later, the total reached 70,000, and these numbers have gone on increasing until at the present time the daily number dealt with ranges between 120,000 and 165,000. On certain occasions these totals are greatly exceeded. For instance, on the 25th June 1902, the date when it was announced that the coronation of King Edward was postponed, the record total of 314,116 was reached. These totals represent ordinary telegrams, but in addition a considerable quantity of news or press matter is dealt with, and frequently, on busy parliamentary nights, as many as half a million words are dealt with. For many years the news record for any one night was 1,050,000 words, the occasion being the introduction of Mr. Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill in 1886; but on the 5th December 1910, just before the General Election, as many as 1,885,400 words were estimated to have been dealt with. They were chiefly speeches delivered in various parts of the country by parliamentary candidates. The total number of telegrams dealt with at the Central Telegraph Office during the year 1910, including continental and press messages, was upwards of 42,000,000.
A General Election, as may be imagined, throws an enormous quantity of work upon the postal telegraphs and the Central Telegraph Office, the chief transmitting and delivering office in particular. At the beginning of the election campaign the leaders of each party address meetings in various parts of the country, and as each speech for reporting purposes varies from a half to several columns of a newspaper, the reception and distribution to the London and provincial newspapers requires very careful and extensive arrangements. A special staff, fast-speed apparatus, and extra wires have very frequently to be provided for the particular town in which each speech is delivered.
It sometimes happens that more than twenty speeches are delivered throughout the country on the same night. On their receipt at the Central Office they have to be transcribed for delivery to the various London subscribers, and for transmission to the principal towns in the United Kingdom for the newspapers. Sometimes it is found possible to relieve the Central Office of some portion of the re-transmitted work by utilising the YQ system, and distributing the traffic to the principal centres in the Kingdom. During the first two weeks of the General Election of December 1910, 15,210,600 words were dealt with at the Central Office.
The reception and transmission of polling results require careful treatment. The results are received by carefully skilled operators, and immediately taken in hand for distribution to a large number of towns for delivery to press agencies, subscribers, newspapers, clubs, &c. The making up of direct wires to the polling towns when required, in order that the result may be received in London in the shortest possible time, involves care and forethought. As an example of the celerity with which such messages are dealt with, the telegram conveying a result was handed in at Listowel, in the West of Ireland, at 9.15 P.M., and delivered to the press agents in London at 9.20 P.M.
Apart from the press work dealt with in the manner I have described, arrangements have been made by certain provincial newspapers for the leasing at a fixed rental of special or private wires from their London offices direct into the editorial offices, over which a vast amount of press matter is transmitted nightly.