CHEAPER CABLES

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 490, 24 April 1909, Page 5

CHEAPER CABLES

f A NEW INVENTION. LETTER PROM MR. HENfNIKER HEAION, M.L'. Mr. J. Hennikor Ucaton, M.1 , ., who is still interesting himself in the endeavour to socure cheaper cablegram i.ites, has nrittou as follows to Sir Joseph Ward:— "iou will be glad to hrar I havo a splendid reply to the assertion of tho oihcinl lopresontativo of tho cable companies who said that the grand and insuperablo dilllculty to the establishment of punny-n-word telegrams (that is, a shilling for a twelvo-word telegram) throughout tho world was tho carrying capacity of tho cables, and he added that if I conhned myself to increasing the carrying capacity of the cables by SO por cent, it would be worth a king's ransom. There ar.o now four grent m\ vontors who oiicred to prove, mid havo proved in my presence, that they can scud 50(1 words in place of 30 words a mmute over the cables By the PirrogV'alcck system 40,000 words can bo sent in,an hour.from London to Berlin." Tho J'iimo Minister considers that if the development described by Mr. Henniker Ucaton becomes a commercial reality, it will enormously drciuasp tho resisting "power of the cable companies to the lessonin" ot cable charges. "It will onablp a largo" increase of woik," ho remarked, "to bo carried out without putting down a number of fresh cables, which of oour6O means an enormous addition to the capital cost. But if, as tho outcome of the scientific researches ot tho inventors referred to by Mr. Henniker Hcaton, thf> existing cables cm bo made to carry 000 words instead of 30 words a minute, a comploto ievolution 'in the cible world would inevitably be achieved. I have previously stated that I see no leason whv wo should not expect to find tho piesont cnblos made to enrry menaces at- a ratr at least equal to thnt arcomplishcd on land by means of .μ-ndruplpxing a single wiro. iivory day in Now Zealand, between tho principal centres, we aro sending four messages simultaneously over a single mre viz" two mossagrs in pach direction. At one timo in the history of hnd telegraphing such a proposal would have seemed no\t door to madness, ,vpt it is now tho cvervdav practice. The adoption of tho quadruple system in New Zealand has saved manv many thousands ot pounds." ''