FAST TELEGRAPHY

Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1930, Page 8

FAST TELEGRAPHY

new machine, to be installed

The installing of a telegraphic printing machine, for transmitting messages between the two centres, has been under consideration for some time, and definite action has now been taken with the- appointment of an instructor from the head office to the Palmerston North office. A Murray multiplex machine is at present operating between Wellington and Auckland. With this machine it is possible for an operator, at either city, to sit down at a. typewriter keyboard and transmit messages which appear printed on a tape at the other end.

CORRECTING MISTAKES. The machine can be started, operated, and stopped from the one terminal and, if during his typing the operator should make a mistake he can erase it. His typewriter punches holes in a tape which then passes into another machine which transmits the messages. Some time elapses after the operator has hit the keys until his perforated tape enters the transmitting machine, so that should he make a mistake L e can, by pressing a ibutton. draw the tape back and correct the error without mutilating the message.

The “Morkum Teletype,” which if a faster machine, capable of transmitting 60 i words a minute, and also capable of sending messages in different directions on the same wire simultaneously, is different from this type of machine in that pressure on the keyboard immediately transmits an impulse. No tape is used at the transmitting end, hut the operator is able to sec what he has written and corrects his mistakes. Each of the four main centres in the Dominion and several of the more important towns arc joined by the same kind of automatic telegraphii apparatus, hut the capital cost has prevented their general use.

SAVING IN LABOUR. There is a great saving in labour, however, only one operator being required, and he not necessarily (as with the ordinary morse system) a skilled man. Anyone with a knowledge of typewriting can operate the machine, and in other parts of the world girls are employed. It is interesting to note that in the United States of America, these systems have been installed in hotels and big business firms. In a big wholesale firm, for instance, particulars of certain goods are typed down in the offict and automatically the shipping, packing and other departments receive typewritten pa rticu 1 a rs. Modern developments with the telegraph have been taken advantage of by the Press on. the other side of the world, and where facilities are available it would be passible for a linotype operator in Auckland to operate a machine in “The Dominion’s” printing department at Wellington, and have a news story in print within a few minutes of the event occurring.