The charge specified in the Telegraph Act of 1868 for press telegrams is one shilling for 75 words during the day, or one hundred words at night, but a proviso was added that for copies only 2d per 75 words in the day or 100 at night, and no condition was laid down as to the copy being for the same town as the original; the newspaper, accordingly, combined to receive from the news associations messages in identical terms, and by dividing the cost they are enabled to get the benefit of a rate which comes nearer 2d than a shilling, the average charge being in fact about four pence half-penny per 100 words.
Notwithstanding the economical arrangements which have been made for the transmission of press telegrams, 5,400,000 in number containing 650,000,000 words, the loss incurred by the Post-Office in dealing with them is estimated to amount to £300,000 per annum.
The reductions in the tariff, especially in 1885 and 1897, and the competition of the telephone (upwards of 450,000,000 messages a year, transmitted by the National Telephone Company alone), though it must be remembered that the Royalties of the companies exceeded £100,000 per annum, which figure among the receipts of the Post-Office telegraph service. The increased wages paid to telegraphists in 1880 and 1881, the wages and salaries represented 44 per cent. of the total revenue; they now exceed 66 per cent. The real success of the state administration of the telegraph lies not in any contribution to the revenue, but in cheap telegrams and a large use of the service.
The average price of the ordinary inland telegram is sevenpence, three farthings, and there are more telegrams sent in the United Kingdom, both positively and relatively than in any other country, with the possible exception of the United States.
For every 100 persons there are sent in the United Kingdom 184 telegrams, while in France there are but 108 and in Germany 66.
In 1901 the gross revenue was £3,380,589. The pay of a telegraphist in London rises to £160 a year, with the prospect of promotion to higher positions.
The number of telegrams transmitted in 1900–1 was 89,576,000.
In small towns and villages where the traffic is light, and a skilled telegraphist is unnecessary, the Wheatstone A. B. C. instrument is used; in this apparatus electric currents are generated by turning a handle (placed in front of the instrument) which is geared to a Siemens shuttle armature placed between the two arms of a powerful horseshoe magnet; when one of a series of keys (each corresponding to a letter), arranged around a pointer, is depressed, motion of the pointer which is geared to the shuttle armature is arrested on coming opposite that particular key and the transmission of the currents to line is stopped, though the armature itself can continue to rotate. The depression of a second key causes the first key to be raised, the currents actuate a ratchet wheel mechanism at the receiving station, whereby the hand on a small dial is moved on letter by letter.
At offices where the work is heavier than can be dealt with by the A.B.C. apparatus, the single needle instrument is very largely used.
It has the advantage of slight liability to derangement and of requiring very little adjustment. A fairly skilled operator can signal with it at the rate of twenty words a minute.