TELEGRAPHY IN ENGLAND.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 405, 29 September 1875, Page 3

TELEGRAPHY IN ENGLAND.

It is now little more than five years since the Government acquired the telegraphic system of the country ; but in that short time some marvellous results have been achieved. The total number of offices open to the public, which at the time of the transfer was about 2000, is now little short of SGOO, of which upwards of 450 are in London alone. The number of messages forwarded annually has increased from six to twenty millions ; and the average charge for an inland message has been reduced from 2s 2d to Is 2d. Of words transmitted on behalf of the press upwards of 220,000,000 are delivered annually, as compared with something like 2,000,000 in the days of the telegraph companies. Those companies possessed about 5600 miles of line and 49,000 miles of wire. The Post Office possesses 24,000 miles of line and 108,000 miles of wire. But the number of instruments has increased in a still greater proportion—all of the companies together possessing fewer than 1900 instruments, as against upwards of 11,600 woi’ked by the Post Office. The Wheatstone apparatus, hardly known or understood half-a-dozen years ago, and so essential for the carrying on of the news service of the country, has been introduced by the Post Office to the extent of nearly 150 sets; while the “duplex” or doubleworking system is in general operation throughout the country, and is in use in the central telegraph stations in London on no fewer than 75 separate lines. The pneumatic tubes of the old system were about 20 in number, and measured some three miles in length. Those of the Post Office are 55 in number, and measure upwards of 23 miles. Besides extending and maintaining its own system, the Post Office has lent help in several directions towards perfecting the system of military telegi’aphs. It has thrown open a portion of its service to a detachment of the Royal Engineers, who have been trained, at its expense, to erect and maintain telegraph lines, although it is understood that these officers are in no sense necessary to the telegraphic service of the country, which could be equally well carried on minus the expense which the Post Office is now put to in order to make room for them.