The British State Telegraphs / A Study of the Problem of a Large Body of Civil Servants in a Democracy

by Hugo Richard Meyer

The examination covers: (1) “Crossing and looping wires with facility and certainty. (2) Tracing and localizing faults in instruments. (3) Tracing and localizing permanent and intermittent earth contact and disconnection faults on wires. (4) Methods of testing the electro-motive force and resistance of batteries, and a general knowledge of the essential features of the various descriptions of batteries. (5) System of morning testing, both as regards sending and receiving currents, with the necessary calculations in connection with the same. (6) Making up special circuits in cases of emergency. (7) Joining up and adjusting single-needle, single-current, and double-current Morse, both simplex and duplex, and Wheatstone apparatus. (8) Fitting a Wheatstone transmitter to an ordinary key-worked circuit. (9) A general knowledge of the principles of quadruplex and multiplex working. (10) Measuring resistance by Wheatstone bridge.”

These subjects are the same as those prescribed for superintendents and assistant superintendents, but the examination is less severe.

[371] Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments, 1897; Appendix, p. 1,083.

[372] Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments, 1897; Appendix, p. 1,078; and q. 2,320, Mr. Nicholson, Chairman London Branch, Postal Telegraph Clerks Association. See also: q. 3,919, 4,135, 13,333, 13,344, 13,415, 15,142, and Appendix, p. 1,083.

[373] The wages of the sorters of inland letters at the time were: $10 to $14 for the first class, and $4.50 to $10 for the second class.

[374] Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments, 1897; Mr. J. C. Badcock, Controller London Postal Service; q. 2,190 et passim, and Appendix, pp. 1,063 and 1,074.

[375] Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments, 1897; q. 719 and following.

[376] Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments, 1897; q. 2,292 to 2,366, and 3,945 and following.

[377] Second Report of the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments, 1888; q. 20,291 to 20,346.

[378] Who’s Who, 1905, Lawson, Hon. H. L. W.; Lieutenant-Colonel and Honorable-Colonel commanding Royal Bucks Hussars; e. s. of 1st Baron Burnham. Education: Eton; Balliol College, Oxford. M. P. (L.) West St. Pancras, 1885-92; East Gloucestershire, 1883-95; L. C. C. West St. Pancras, 1889-92, and Whitechapel, 1897-1904.