Letter from L.G. Tillotson on English telegraphs

Letter from L. G. Tillotson.--

The English Railway Telegraphs. --

An Interesting Assemblage of Telegraph Superintendents, etc.

LANGHAM HOTEL,

LONDON, Eng., March 11.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TELEGRAPHER.

WHEN I left New York it was my intention to have written to you before this time, but my time has been so constantly occupied since my arrival in England that it has hitherto been quite impossible for me to do so. You will have heard of our safe arrival in this country. We stopped one week in Manchester and it was time well spent.

On Wednesday last the Superintendents of the Railway Telegraph lines of the United Kingdom, or nearly all of them, met in that city to inspect the Wire Works of Messrs. Johnson and Nephew, upon whose invitation they were entertained at luncheon, where I had the pleasure of meeting them. The following are the names of the Superintendents who were present on the occasion:

Mr. G. G. Newman, Superintendent London and North Western Railway Telegraph, Manchester, Enggland [sic] England.

Mr. James Radcliffe, Superintendent of Great Northern Railway Telegraph, Retford, England.

Mr. Henry Sach, Telegraph Engineer Great Eastern Railway, Bishops ate Station, London.

Mr. Andrew S. Dunn, Telegraph Superintendent Caledonian Railway, Glasgow, Scotland.

Mr. Henry Moxon, Telegraph Superintendent Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Manchester, England.

Mr. F. Rudall, Telegraph Superintendent London, Chatham and Dover Railway, Victoria Station, Pimlico, London, S. W.

Mr. C. Spagnolletti, Telegraph Superintendent Great Western Railway, Paddington, London, W.

Mr. Adolphus Graves, Telegraph Superintendent North Eastern Railway, York, England.

Mr. John Neale, Telegraph Superintendent North Stafford Railway, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

You can easily imagine what a gratification it was to me to meet these gentlemen. A jollier set of gentlemen it has seldom been my privilege to meet; and no better opportunity could have been afforded me to gain much valuable information in regard to railroad and telegraph matters in this country. The English and American systems of telegraphy were freely and fully discussed. I find that the needle telegraph is mostly used here on the railway telegraph lines, and it was difficult to convince these gentlemen that we could work the Morse System with 20 or 30 magnets in a 50 or 100 mile circuit. Much allowance must, however, be made for the difference in the climate here, as is generally known, the atmosphere is most of the time densely foggy and smoky.

One of the principal objections to the Morse System urged was that the operators, or clerks, as they are styled here, could not be kept from interfering with each other; and much of the time would be occupied in quarreling for the circuits. I assured them that American operators were too well trained and too sensible for this.

The construction of telegraph lines here is very much the same as in the United States, except that I must admit they appear to be more substantially built-stronger poles, deeper set, and almost every one braced. The posts are generally shorter than ours, but this is practicable on railways because they are better protected than with us.

A noticeable feature is the absence of air lines in cities-nearly all are under ground, and to "this complexion we must come."

The insulation is generally of porcelain. I may speak more fully in regard to insulation in a future communication.

You should see the underground railways here. They are a wonderful success, and prove conclusively to my mind that it is only a question of time (and I hope a short one) when New York must adopt them.

The sights which I see and the tales that I hear are wonderful and astounding, but the readers of THE TELEGRAPHER have had too many descriptions of all this to necessitate my repeating them, even if I had the time. L. G. T.