Discussion about Brooks Patent insulator

THE BROOKS PATENT INSULATOR.

(Concluded.)

ROBERT J. BLACK'S EVIDENCE CONTINUED.

(Continued)

5th. Please give your reasons for believing the Printing Instrument could be worked at full speed during this most unfavorable weather?

Ans. From the absence of escape, and induction or cross currents, and the strength of the current from the distant battery. My familiarity with a "Morse circuit" and the way a Printing circuit would act under similar circumstances leads me to the conclusion that the Combination Instrument would work to its full usual rate of speed under the unfavorable circumstances mentioned.

6th. What do you consider the full speed of that instrument?

Ans. I consider forty to forty-five printed words per minute as the usual full speed of the Printing Instrument.

7th. Have you ever seen any other kind of insulator used to insulate two wires on same cross-arm that was effectual in accomplishing its object on a much shorter circuit - say 100 miles - under the most unfavorable circumstances?

Ans. I have not. A rain-storm or fog of even moderate duration causes great escape and induction, so much so that wires that might possibly be worked over the escape are rendered useless from the latter cause. When I say worked, I mean at a speed varying from one-half to two-thirds less than usual - instead of from forty to forty-five words per minute, from twelve to twenty words per minute.

8th. Do you mean that both wires could be worked at this rate of speed?

Ans. I do not. I mean that to work at even this rate of speed one wire should either be kept quiet, closed or open.

9th. How far do you think two wires could be worked separate and distinct on same cross-arms, insulated in the manner of No. 4, during this most unfavorable weather?

Ans. I think I can safely say such wires could be worked on a circuit of one thousand miles. I never worked a circuit of this distance. I only judge from the state I have found No. 4 wire under the unfavorable circumstances before mentioned.

10th. Have you ever seen wires insulated with any kind of insulation, except No. 4, that could be worked that distance with the Printing Instrument under these unfavorable circumstances?

Ans. I never have.

11th. It is then your opinion that two wires on same cross-arm can be worked separate and distinct at such very unfavorable times to their full speed?

Ans. Such is my opinion.

STATEMENT OF JOHN FOTTRELL, LATE MANAGER U. S. TELEGRAPH OFFICE AT HARRISBURG.

"I was Manager of the United States Office at Harrisburg for two years. I am familiar with the United States wires from Philadelphia to Pittsburg.

"No. 3 wire was the last wire strung, put up about a year after the other wires; is a galvanized wire, insulated with a large glass fastened with red cement to a bracket boiled in coal tar. It was built for a through circuit, no intermediate magnets allowed thereon except one at Harrisburg. During the prevalence of very bad storms I have known the wire to completely stop work from the effects of the weather alone.

"I have read the questions and replies made thereto by Mr. Jones, and do hereby certify to correctness of Mr. Jones' reply to question seventh.

"John Fottrell."

Pittsburg, Oct. 10th, 1866.

David Brooks, Esq.: - Dear Sir: - I have examined carefully the questions and answers thereto by L. S. Jones, and can certify to the truth of those answers in every particular.

I will here state in substance that from my experience as operator at Pittsburg in working lines of long circuits now, from the time the lines were first put up in 1846-7, that a wire insulated with the "Brooks Patent" can be worked at full speed and capacity when a wire of similar length and under similar circumstances with any other kind of insulator, cannot be worked without the aid of intermediate repeaters, or under the greatest difficulty.

The lines, as first erected, had a plain glass with a groove in which the wire was placed. By the routes then adopted (the pikes) the distances from Pittsburg to Cincinnati, and from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, were about the same, and although built by the same person (Henry O'Rielly) and the same insulator used the entire distance from Philadelphia to Cincinnati, the wires from Pittsburg to Cincinnati could be worked tolerably well, when the lines to Philadelphia could not be worked at all - that is, during heavy rains - and this was accounted for from the supposed unfavorable conditions of country through which the eastern wires extended; that is, over the mountains, where they were affected by the clouds or fogs that always enveloped the mountains in times of storms; and after leaving the mountains they kept the banks of the Juaniata and Susquehanna rivers over a hundred miles where heavy fogs so often prevail.

We could never work the wire to Philadelphia with the various styles of glass during the prevalence of storms until the first style of the "Brooks Insulator" was introduced. The "Wade" insulator was tried in 1857, and never could be worked through on a stormy day. The first style of Brooks' Insulator, though never as perfect as the present, could be worked through any weather, though I cannot say to its full capacity in clear weather. Twelve and twenty are thus insulated from New York to Harrisburg, or mainly so, and are not the perfect wires they are from Harrisburg to Pittsburg, which have the patent improvement, or in same condition as No. 4 referred to in the questions to Mr. Jones.

I make this explanation because many suppose the first insulator was the patent insulator, and that twelve and twenty are insulated with this kind, which is not the case east of Harrisburg.

Yours, etc.,

M. H. Markle,

Chief Operator, Pittsburg Office.

We, the undersigned operators on the Combination Printing Instrument at Philadelphia, are familiar with the working of the wires and their conditions in unfavorable weather. We have fairly considered the questions propounded to Mr. Black, and the answers he has given to them, and we hereby certify to the correctness of his statements. We believe he has in no particular overstated the facts.

J. R. Woodruff,

George W. Snyder.

Philadelphia, Nov. 1, 1866.