Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad uses Lefferts insulators

Original Article

The Telegraph Department of the

Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad.

BY F. L. POPE.

The Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad extends from the western terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at Belpre, O., opposite Parkersburg, West Va., to Cincinnati, a distance of 205 miles, with branches from Hamden to Portsmouth, O. (56 miles), and from Blanchester to Hillsboro (21 miles). The telegraph lines are arranged as follows:

No. 1 wire is owned by the Western Union Company, and used for their business, while No. 3 is worked jointly by the railroad and telegraph companies.

Until within the past three years the telegraph, in common with the other departments of this railroad, suffered considerably from the depressed condition of the company's finances. The poles were small and inferior, the wires in bad condition, and the equipment comprised almost every known variety of instruments, the resistances of the relays varying all the way from 200 to 800 ohms-most of them approximating the latter figure. Under these circumstances it is, of course, not surprising that operations were almost entirely suspended during even a slight rain. The records kept at this time show that sometimes for three or four months not a day passed without the occurrence of a cross, break, or other interruption.

In October, 1868, the present Superintendent of Telegraph, Mr. I. N. Miller, was placed in charge of the lines. Being a young man of progressive ideas, a reader of THE TELEGRAPHER, and a student of electrical literature, he determined to improve the condition of his lines as rapidly as circumstances would permit. Fortunately the financial condition of the railroad company had at this time improved sufficiently to allow of a reasonable expenditure being made for this purpose.

The relays were rebuilt and their resistances adjusted to correspond with that of the circuits to which they belonged, or else replaced with new ones of the most approved patterns. The office poles, office connections, and leading-in wires were overhauled and reconstructed, and the joints soldered. The wires are carried into the offices through the top of the windows, the sash being dropped half an inch or so for this purpose. The insulators are inserted in a scantling fastened upon the window cap, in such a way that the hooks are three inches lower than the opening through which the office wires pass. The water drops off at the hook, and the scantling prevents the rain from entering the opening. There is no possible chance of leakage or escape with this arrangement, as the wires touch nothing outside the building except the insulators.

The poles are set 30 to 32 to the mile, of seasoned chestnut, 25 feet long and 5 inches diameter at the top. More than 1,000 new poles have been placed in the line this year, and 1,000 more will be set before the end of the summer. When this work is completed the whole line will be in excellent condition.

The insulation now used is the Lefferts and the glass and bracket. With the exception of No. 3 (an old plain wire, badly rusted, and of high resistance, which is very properly used as the through circuit), the wires have worked during the past nine months with commendable regularity. At no time, when the wires were not actually broken or grounded, has rain or moisture prevented the wires being worked nearly to their full capacity-which, considering the character of the insulation, is doing remarkably well. Under the old dispensation the lines could not usually be worked 50 miles in a heavy rain.

The carbon bi-chromate is now used for the main batteries, and Daniell and Callaud for locals. Mr. Miller confirms the testimony of the managers of other railway lines, who have used the last named battery, in respect to its constancy and economy, and states that he intends, as soon as practicable, to use it exclusively both for main and local circuits.

It is highly creditable to Mr. Miller that he looks sharply after the electrical condition of his lines, his theory being that it is better to detect faults and remove them, before they become serious, than to allow them to accumulate until they amount to a total obstruction. A flue galvanometer, upon the Wheatstone bridge principle, having sufficient capacity to measure up to 14,000,000 ohms, as well as an excellent tangent galvanometer, is kept at the headquarters of the telegraph department at Chillicothe. Every relay on the line has been measured and a record of its resistance preserved for reference. The wires are frequently measured for conductivity and insulative resistance and a record kept of the results. This is done both with and without relays in circuit-and, with the perfect knowledge thus gained of the actual condition of the wires, any fault is at once detected and removed. It is difficult to convince those who have not tried it of the amount of time, trouble, vexation and annoyance that is saved by this simple operation, which requires but a few minutes time each day. No one who has accustomed himself to this method of doing business would ever dream of going back to the old system of guess work, which is fortunately going out of fashion. By means of his tangent galvanometer Mr. Miller is also enabled to keep a daily record of the electro-motive force and resistance of his batteries. No doubt some of the difficulties in working that are usually shrouded in mystery are detected in this, portion of the circuit, where few people ever think of looking.

The Marietta and Cincinnati is the only railroad company in Ohio which retains control of the commercial telegraphic business over its line. The Western Union Company have an equal interest with the railroad in the poles and insulators. The former company takes the through business and the latter the local. Joint offices are maintained at Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Marietta, at which points the local business is transferred.

One feature in the management of this line deserves special notice and commendation. Operators are paid by the hour for all extra service, a corresponding deduction being made only in case of absence from duty for a number of days.

The system of running trains by telegraph is much the same as on other roads. Each office is provided with an iron crane, arranged for holding a flag and signal lamp, no train being allowed. to pass when either signal is displayed. Operators are required to see that the signals are kept in their proper place. When a train order is received it is copied with ink upon a blank form and delivered to the conductor and engineer of the train, who write their understanding of it in the order book. The understanding is repeated to the despatcher, and, if found correct, the operator is instructed to endorse " all right " upon the original copy of the order and allow the train to proceed.

The book of rules for the government of operators merits a passing notice, inasmuch as it is written in plain English, and devoid of the superfluous and obscure regulations often found in these books, serving only to confuse the inexperienced operator-for whose benefit, principally, they are supposed to be compiled. It is a little severe, however, to make the receiving operator responsible for all errors of transmission. True, the presumption is usually against him, but cases have often occurred where the probabilities were entirely the other way. A fairer plan is that employed on some lines of submitting the question to an arbitration committee of first class operators, who hold a sort of coroner's inquest over the mutilated message and render a decision as near as possible in accordance with the evidence. The difficulty of properly fixing the responsibility of such errors is one of the weak spots in the American system of telegraphy.