REPORTING BY TELEPHONE.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3647, 3 September 1880, Page 2

REPORTING BY TELEPHONE.

A new method of reporting the debates of the House of Commons—those, namely, which are continued after midnight—has within the last few days (says the Times) been brought into operation in the office of this journal; and some account of the method employed will probably be of interest to the public :—The first step in this direction must undoubtedly be ascribed to the increased rapidity of setting up type, which has been due to the employment of a machine as a substitute for the manual labor of the compositor. The most slrilful workman, setting up type by hand, would not exceed a general average of about 40 lines per hour, or a maximum rate of 50 lines per hour during short periods of great pressure; but the machine, in which the types are brought down and placed in position by striking upon keys something like those of a piano or organ enables a fair workman to attain an average speed of 100 lines au hour even when composing from manuscript, which he has to read for himself; and this speed can be doubled, or. nearly so, when the operator is assisted by a reader,'and thus composed from dictation. The original form of the machine in use at this office was introduced here soon after the Franco-German war, and has ever since been undergoing such modifications in detail as experience has from time to time suggested, until it has now reached a state of very great efficiency. It has for some time been the custom to transmit the foreign intelligence from Paris, Vienna, and Berlin to this office by means of Hughes' printing telegraph, and to dictate the contents of the telegraphic slip to a compositor

at the machine. By this combine* tion remarkable facilities in dealing with late manuscript have been obtained, and it has been possible to carry on the work of type setting almost to the time of going to press; but the copy received from the House was necessarily somewhat delayed while the reporter transcribed his notes, and in transmission. The compositor was compelled to lag behind the actual progress of the debate, and precious time thus lost at each step of the process mounted up in the end to a considerable total. At this stage in the history of the matter, the telephone was brought into actual operation as a means of verbal communication between distant points: and the conductors of this journal formed a new connection between the House of Commons and the office and placed one of Edison's loud speaking telephones at either end. The immediate result of this arrangement has been to bring the compositor at the machine into direct communication with the Parliamentary Reporter at the House, and to enable the debate to be reported and printed from half to three-quarters of an hour later than had previously been possible. The notes made by the reporter can be read directly into the telephone receiver in a room adjoining the gallery either by the reporter himself when relieved or by another person employed for the purpose; and th& compositor, at — his machine in the office, sits with his ears "^ in juxtaposition with the other terminal of the instrument. The compositor is also furnished with a speaking instrument, with a key for ringing a bell; and with a bell which is rung from the House; a simple code of bell signals, consisting of one, two or three strokes, sufficing for the ordinary requirements of each, message. The compositor an* nounces by the bell that he is ready, receives a sentence, strikes, the bell to indicate that he understands it, sets up the type with his machine, strikes the bell again for the reader to continue his dictation, and so on until the work is carried as far as time will allow. If there is any doubt or difficulty about the words, the bell signal will cause them to be repeated, or explanations can be sought and received by direct vocal communication. In this power, indeed, resides one of the chief ' advantages of the method, and one which ought to lead to greater accuracy than has ever previously been attainable. The names of people, places, Ac, can be spelt out letter by letter if there be any doubt about them.-