Burlington and Missouri Railroad uses Brooks insulators

The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad

Telegraph.

Ottumwa, Iowa, Dec. 8.

To the Editor of The Telegrapher

When, in 1863 or '64, I was elected a delegate to the Convention of the National Telegraphic Union, and instructed by the district to advocate the establishment of a journal in the interests of the operators of the country, there seemed to be but little hope of accomplishing the object, and certainly none that it would ever prove self-sustaining. The task has been effectually accomplished, however, and I have always looked for each number with undiminished interest, as I hope has been the case with my associates in that Convention. It is a matter of pride, as well as rejoicing to me, to see it grow from a monthly to a semi-monthly, and finally to a handsome weekly sheet, and although the Union has ceased to exist, to see it sustained by the true and reliable operators and telegraphers.

You and your associate are on the right track, and I think the day will surely come when your perseverance and labor will be rewarded, and all telegraph operators (except those devoid even of self-respect) in this country will be on your subscription book - and may that anticipation soon be realized.

This road - the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad - is becoming a large concern, even for the Western country, and in its telegraph facilities it keeps pace with the best. It now has three through wires - two of which are insulated with Brooks insulators - one branch of fifty miles, and two other branches of one hundred and of seventy-five miles, respectively, on which the telegraph wires will be completed and in working order within a week or two.

About two weeks since, after seventy-five hours of almost continuous rain, it would have done you and Mr. Brooks good to have seen how nicely our main wire, three hundred miles long, and with forty-two offices on it, worked. How different is this to my former experience of the Western Union and glass insulated lines! A person must have tried both to realize and appreciate the difference.