Untitled

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 46, 24 October 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

A wheat trust i- being formed in the llopctoun distriel, Victoria The farmer i have signed an agreement hand ing ovi r a quarter ol the coining season'.-, crop to he sol I lor export oiil.-ide Vietoria. Tlw am cement is conditional on the w hole of the wiie.lt growers ill the colony adopting it. Spcakiny ot Ihe writine- ofT of the ISauk of N'ew Zealand since ISSS, four mil ions , d I, the Southland News signitieanily icmarks that if the public entered a branch ol tin; I'.ank at the rate of ."(It) per day. or one a minute duriny otliee hours for business, and received tli each over the counter Irom ISSS, ami ending iS'.Mi, they would jus! have annexed the (.mount written oil'. I'ut in another way. it would be equal to each man, women and child ill the colony re Cciviug tO.

ELECTRICITY AND ITS RELATION TO THt WORKING OF THE TELEGRAPH. \\'i: have first the battry already de scribed called the "line" battery, from which a wire leads to the front of the transmitter or " key," which is simply a small brass lever pivoted at the middle, and held in position by a sprin.'. At each end of the lever there is a small contact stud of platinum. When the operator grasps the knob or handle and works it up and down, the key makes and breaks contact with corresponding studs below. From the centre of the key the wit'a then leads to the "galvanometer" used fur detecting and measuring the electricity. This galvanometer is a pivoted magnetic needle, round the base of which is coiled a layer of insulated copper wire, the ends of whieh arc attached to the terminal screws in front. When electricity is caused to How thror.idi thia wre it, causes the needle to move. From the galvanometer the wire then leads to tie upper plate of what is called a "lightning guard." This consists of two grooved steel plates, placed one river the other, so close as to be almost touching yet kept separate from each other by Hindi pieces of noli conductive substance. From the lower plate another wire leads direct to earth, but the plates being separated the current of electricity fiom an oidinary battery cannot thus escape. Dining thunder storm--, however, lightning Hashes are often attracted by the telegraph wires, and when a wire thus bcL-omes charged, as minetitncs happen-, wi'll electricity of a nature powerful enough to ciu-e any dam,ice, whoa it arrives ;it the lightning f»UUiI its own strength enables it to jump across the intervening spate to the lower plat-; and thus takes the shorteM cut to earth. Were these guards not in use tin re is no ■ Inula there would be frequent e ises of serious damage to the telegraph apparatus from lightning Hashes, as well as danger to the operators. On one occasion while J was in To Aroint a few y» lirs ago a very heavy thunder storm passed over the olliee. One powerful liuhtning IWsh was attracted by the wires and passing into the olliee in jumpiii« across the guard it caused an explosion somewlu.t like a small cannon, damaged the guard to sonui extent—portions of it Hying about the ofliuc—and rither startling, though fortunately doing no harm to, myself or a-sistanl. |!y the same Hash a telegraph pole not very far from tic oilicc was smashed into very small pieces. From the lightning guard die wire leads away to the first telegraph post and then, nto its destinat on.

The apparatus described so far N all tint is required to .-nul a message, but to

i-rrrici the signals fiom an tner sSathm a wire leads ft'oin the Wl; of the key to an installment called a " r lay " and thence direct to earth. Thisielay, it i its in me implys, is use I to bring into play a relay or fresh supply of electricity from a second batteiy (called a h.cl hafoy) and the fie-h supply of electricity thus obtained works the receiving insMuiucnt or "sounder'' fiom which the m-.'ssige is read oil' by the receiving operator. On ii lon,' line' the current of electricity irom the .--ending station meets with so much '• resistance" that it- stieiieth is gicatly weakened and is Msuliio'ent to worn I he sou n '< r at die receiving station. The nsliiy i- consequently an important in, mini. -ill. On lhe long cables the

ciineut of electricity i- .-o weakened lhat ii w id no, even work the rclav, and Ihe s glial- are read off from the dillcelions of tie- -dviinoiuctcr, by means of mi inuen on.- ai raiigeieent of mirrors which throw Hashes of light on to a dilik sciecn. This, besides being very trying to the eye, is much slower thin the Morse sounder.

If we now press down the key at the sending station theciicui'. i- completed. The current of electricity generated at the line buttery Hows a'mig the wire to the front ot tin- key, thruueli which it passes, and out by the centre connection to the coils ol the' galvanometer, deflectill" the needle as it pas.-es, shewing the pre dice of the current and that the circuit is complete. It it were not complete the needle would not move, the operator would at onco know there was ii " disconnection " or " fault " somewhere, and would, of course, take inillicd'iilc steps to locate and remedy it. Fiom the gilvanrimetcr the cuir:iit pases on through Ihe lightning guard nod away ul'.ng ihe line to the receiving station, which may be I or 100 miles distant. Arrivinp ' there ii pusses in thioiigh the lightning puard and galvanometer to the' clitic connection of the key, out by the buck (the front being open) on thromih the relay, and then direc". to "earth." til" current then returns tlnougli the earth it.-elf, direct to the earth wire at the sendiny station and back to the zinc pole of the battery whence it Hist s- t out thus completing the circuit. Electricity must, as we have .-ecu. have a eompleti ursc to How in, from one pole of the battery back to the i ther : and, in the earliest days of telegraphy two wires wen; required for each Hie, ihe second wire bcine for ihe return current ; but the important discovery that the eirth acts in, a return path, v nders ihe second win! nuliecc.--ary, if the current is pi-op'-r'.y led into ihe gioillld. This idone by means of copper sheets buried in the ulMimd at each station and to which the wire is connected. In cities, ill-ten.l of burying plates in tie- ground, ihe wires are' connected to the ga- or water pipe-. Tie: current of electricity in passing through the relay at the recjiviiig station, uuti math el-y doses the circuit of a s-cond battery in the sunnway that the key does -hat of lie M'lidill" lattei-v. The circuit being thus close,l tic' cm rent fom this second battery Hows a'one, a wire I i the founder, lie; coils of which become eleelroinug ii'Used (in the same manner as do those of the galvanometer and relay) and at 1,-acl a .small pivotlcd lever placed jn-i above them .-id held in position by ii spring. The cuircnl then Ih.w- along a win- h.-oiiu.: directly back to the other p„Y ~| the same batteiy and so completes i:.~ ow n •' locil " eircil'l . This .-..,under (iis the receiving instrument i< eallnl) inovv in general use fiu'o dinary telegraph work, t'ne old fishioiied tape receiving ill-tl'tltliciit, which printed or embossed the signals on a ribbon if tape kepi in mot'oii by a clockwork attachment, being now out d da'e with New Zcilainfopirators at any rate while the ~|,l needle instruments which in the earliest days ot telegraph were in general use arc now regarded us " relics of tin past,"

The Rending key simply makes and breaks the cuircnl Iron, one pole of the 1,,,1-erv and ihe sense of lie -i'jnal-. depends on the leneih of time ii .-hurt or momentary closure form- u hat i- ti clinically termed a " dot " and a closure about three tines n- long, a ••dash." An intelligent combination of these signals lorm ihe messmie. and to be enabled to read it oil troll! the so'.indcr an operator must of coiii>c be thoroughly aetpiain'ed w ith the code ol signals representing the dill'cicnt Infers ul the alphabet.

Tlie cede of signals invented by Saiuin-1 Mriive is now universally em ployed in telegraphy. The instruments described lire, witli slight modifications, used idiiiost throughout the world for general telegraph woik, and with them, messages can lie tiansmit'ed at the rate of 10 words .-i minute, wlreh is about as fast a- a praofis d hand eim write. Our best nieii mi bu-y circuits work pretty well up to tliiit, steadily, and in order to i'o so the sender Ins to make an average of WO "dots"' and "dashes" every minute, nil of which have to be regularly and properly .-paced -and to do so his hand has to move pretty quickly, I can tell yo-J. I was present n few years ago at atrial of speed with two of our fastest New Zealand operators -the one sending and the other transcribing what was liein.: sent —when tiny averaged a fraction ever li'J words a minute, for half an hoar. This beat any previous record either in or out of New Zealand, and shewed thai our New Zealand operators can hold their own against " all coalers." There are other arrangements of the apparatus which enable both stations to sen 1 at the tunic time over one wiie- - and not only one nr ssage each, but even two or more. Sueh aic the " duplex," " (juadniplex " and " inilltipb.v' systems of telegraphy. Among other sy.-tems r. eently introduced on soaie of our New Zealand lines is the " Wheatstone automatic" by which Soil words a minute can be sent. lint far in advance of other systems is the reported recent invention of Dchiney, a New Vork telegraph operator, whereby it is el limed I7<>() words a iiiinut- may lie sent over a single wire. The letters are represented by holes punctured in tape by in -ans of puncturing instrument--, end o'ie wire by this system can be mule to carry the messages as fast as .">() or more perforating opeiators can piepaie lb.' tape. 'lime will not permit of my diing more than mentioning a few of the many other uses to which eleetiicity has been applied. No doubt the electric era was ushered in by the introduction of the tele.'i-aph, but within the 10-t few years the telephone (that electric marvel invented by Professor (imhain l!ell in IS"(i, a description of whieh 1 may give you en sine: future occasion) the electric light, and other wonders, have become

—in our large cities at any rate —matters of every day use. The principle known as "tdeet-.ioal induction,'' dheoverod by the immortal Faraday, is of the highest importance, and upon il all mechanical generators of eleetiicity are based. I have not li'i c to explain further than that in Faraday discovered that whenever an c'tctric current is suddenly sentahmg.a wire it instantly exaites an opposite current in another wire held parallel to the first, and upou this discovery are founded all the ''induction coih" used by medical men, and the modern dynamo electric midlines for gencia.tiug tlie current to feed the i lectrie light. In America tlie Niagara Falls have been harnessed up as it were, converted into electricity, and the power thus i-ciicra'cd is transmitted to New York,"a distance of 100 miles, whe.e it is u-ed us motive power for running the city trams a-ul other u-es ; while here in New Zealand a scheme is now propos.-d to generate the power from the HtiUa Falls in the Wuikato river, and transmit it thence to the llaiuaki Goldlield. _ It is believed that the power now running to waste at these falls could bo transmitted to any part of the Isorth Island.

Among other every day uses to whieh electricity has I ecu applied we have cleetiie bells, firu am' burglar alarms, clcctio-platitii!. the reduction of metals fiom their ore.-, the lirini' of submarine and other in lies, indeed the number is legion, that which will, 1 believe, prove nunc beneficial to the human race than any of these referred to, is its application to the science of medicine and sU'gcry, and, though wonderful results have already been attained by its? aid, notably the astonishing possibilities opened up by Professor Kontqen's recent discovery of the " X rays,'' I think I can nifeiy say electricity is yet only in its infancy in t:''i- lc-pcct. and that it will prove instrumental in alleviating and lcuelyiiiL' many of "the ills that llcsli is heir i», : ' and be universally regarded as Cod'.-, greatest gitt to mankind.