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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

25 November 1896.]

Chairman-continued.

Mr. WARD.

With the exception of Christmas Day and Boxing Day, from Holy Thursday to Easter Tuesday, the Sundays and the Bank Holidays, the cable is use],

When there are

1637. That is just over 300 days?—Yes; of course there are holidays. holidays the traffic is reduced. For instance, on the 4th of July there would be a great reduction in the traffic, but there would be much more traffic on that day, as a rule, than there is on a Then there are holidays that affect Sunday. one side.

The 4th of July, of course, affects the Stock Exchange more in particular, but these holidays-the United States holidays, for instance they do not affect so much the English side as they do their own side, still, it causes a reduction in the traffic.

1638. Then might it be said for general prac tical there are about 300 working days

purposes in the year?—I should think so, yes.

1639. If there is a pressure of business, 1 suppose you work on week days and Sundays? Oh, we work the messages off whenever we get them; our stations are always open.

1640. Now, for practical purposes, how many working hours are there for a cable in a day? Do you mean when we are at work-when the busiest time is ?

1641. Given sufficient business and proper relays of operators, you could work a cable for 24 hours every day?—Yes, exactly; there is nothing in the world to prevent it; the cable does not wear out by the electricity that is put through it at all; we do not notice that there is anything in it at all.

1642. Now, how does the business come in ?— We consider it necessary to test the insulation of the cable and to test its general electrical condition at least once a week. We do that on a Sunday, Well, that is a matter that takes an hour or two, perhaps, not more. That is the only time that any rest, I think, is necessary to a cable itself.

1643. I suppose, in point of practice, almost all your business is handed in to you within certain hours?--Yes; we have times of high pressure and times of low pressure of the traffic.

1644. What are the times of high pressure? --The time of high pressure with us is, ap- proximately speaking, for westward traffic, that is traffic to America, between four and seven in the afternoon, and for traffic from America, between nine p m. and half-past four a.m., the greatest pressure being at midnight. We are alack from half-past four a.m. to two p.m., very both ways, the lowest point being reached about eight a.m., English time, in every case.

1645. Your customers on this side of the water with messages for the American continent would practically, as a general rule, have handed in all their messages to you between one and seven? -Most of them, yes. Well, the pressure at that time, you must understand, is owing to the Stock Exchange business; we will say it does not affect so much the general commercial traffic; that comes in more or less the whole time; but you perhaps know that between just from the time that the New York Stock Exchange opens at

Chairman-continued.

[Continued.

three o'clock-that is ten o'clock New York time, three o'clock our time. The Stock Exchange here and the Stock Exchange in New York are open for a short time together, and there is a great influx of telegraphic work during that period.

1646. Of the telegrams that are handed in to you during this period, can you divide them into classes; that is, those which must be dealt with immediately and those which will stand delay? -It could be done. We know 'perfectly well those Stock Exchange messages that brook no delay whatever; that have to be got off at

mace.

1617. And what about the press messages? Press messages; they generally go at a slack You see, we work duplex; period of the cable. all our cables are duplex, so that it is actually like working three cables each way; three con- ductors each way. The press can be sent and get to New York in time for the morning papers all right. There is no difficulty about that.

1648, So that by discriminating between the degrees of urgency in messages, given a suffi- cient amount of business, it would be quite practicable to work off all the business to the satisfaction of the customers by using a cable yes; practically all the 24 hours through Oh,

should think so. Of course, if the business point that customers were not got to such a satisfied, one could give them more facilities by laying another cable, that is the only thing.

1649. Would you consider it a reasonable or an unreasonable estimate to say that for the purposes of business working, satisfying public require ments, a telegraph company could not reckon upon being able to use its cable for more than 10 hours a day continuously?-Oh, I think there is no question about their being able to use the cable during 10 hours a day. There is no reason in the world why. The Commercial Cable Com- pany, under certain conditions, have worked it for a week straight off and never stopped. We have our men there, and we relay them in.

I

Bay

1650. Day and night?-Day and night ; the whole 24 hours straight off without any break. I do not say that the Commercial Cable Com-

discriminate between messages ; pany that it can be done. The general theory is that That is the messages should each take its turn. general theory; but I say it is practicable, it is perfectly practicable, to discriminate between the messages and yet give perfect satisfaction to the public; because there are some people who are not particular whether their message takes two or three hours to go, and there are other people who want their message through in two or three minutes, and therefore there is not very much difficulty in giving the satisfaction desired.

1651. In calculating the carrying capacity of a cable, must you calculate only on its carrying 10 hours a day?-That has never entered into our minds; we have never made that calcula- tion.

Mr. Gillies.

1652. Does not this happen-you have early in the morning scarcely any messages coming in at all? Just 80.

25 November 1896.]

Mr. WARD.

Mr. Gillies-continued. 1653. And at certain periods of the day a larger number? Just so.

1654-5. Then they drop off?—Quite so. 1656. There is no continuity of messages coming in from six o'clock in the morning to six o'clock next morning ?—You see it takes a cer- tain amount of time to get a message. We have got three lines; we have got three cables; three people come in, and they hand in three messages. As soon as they are into the instru- ment-room they are sent; they are sent off, and the next three can come along; and you can get along like that. So that, unless you get a dozen in, pushing them in as fast as you can, you can keep the line clear. You see you can do It requires a very great deal of pressure to "block us," as we call it.

that.

Chairman.

Are

it

1657. But given a pressure, and you blocked, you simply work a few hours later?- Two or three hours later. Our experience has been, that when we have had extra pressure, has never carried us over more than two or three hours. I want in this relation to give you some little idea, We have three cables. Well, it occurs: you know every cable company is liable to an interruption, and we have had one of our cables interrupted which confined us to two ; that has not made two hours' difference in the delay of all our work. Perhaps that will give you some better idea of the way in which the work is done. There is a French Company mak- ing a line, a cable, and it will be laid next year, I expect, from Brest to New York. That is a cable that will be, I think, something over 3,000 miles long, and to the best of my knowledge they are going to put in a conductor of 600 lbs. of copper to the mile, and they expect to get good results out of it.

1658. Can you give us any statistics about this cable? The cable is being made now.

וויין

Mr. Murray.

1659. What spare cable power, for carrying messages, do you consider that you have with your three cables ?—Now?

1660. Yes; suppose your existing number of words is represented by a hundred.

How many more could you send ?—At the present time; if it were spread over the 24 hours, you mean?

1661-2. I was coming to that. If it were spread over the 24 hours we could do just as much again as we do now.

1663. Then

it in another way.

Sup- posing your existing business, which is spread over the 24 hours, was to come in exactly as you would like it to come in-that is, one message following another at the most convenient in- terval-into how many hours out of the 24 could you squeeze that business?-As a matter of fact, I will tell you. Our cables are practically idle at the present time from about 7 o'clock in the morning until 12 o'clock one way. From about 6 o'clock in the morning until 12 noon, there is practically no traffic-no traffic either way. I reckon about six hours out of the 24, we are doing practically nothing.

Mr. Murray- continued.

[Continued.

1664. Then the answer to my question would be that the working capacity of a cable in the 24 hours is about 18?---The time that we are

working, 18; yes. That would be the outside as things go now, That is the Transatlantic cables that I am speaking of. Of course, cablea that go to other parts of the world are subject to different conditions altogether.

1665-6. But that is about 18 hours-or rather I do not think we are

see if

less, you say ?—Oh, yes. working 48 hours upon our cables. Then you you put it at 18 hours at the outside there is a great portion of that, a considerable portion of the 18 hours, that we are only doing half; we are not doing half.

1667. Not really working full strength?- We are not using our cables up to their full capacity.

1668. Then, of course, there would be a differ- ence if instead of having three cables you had only one cable and one-third of the business. Probably then the 18 hours would be still further reduced, would it not?-Que-third of the busi-

ness,

1669. Because you could not count upon its coming in at as convenient intervals for your business as with three cables ?—Well, I do not know it would make any difference in what way the work came, we should only do less business, that is all; but the time the cable would be in use would be about the sune, 1 should think, because that is the time the traffic comes, and you have to take it. Then you see there are times between Great Britain and the United States that the traffic comes, and you cannot alter the flow of the traffic. It comes in those

intervals are more or less idle. times, and you have to take it then, and the

1670. Do you really think, as a matter of practice, it would be possible to discriminate between telegrams -Well, I do not know about

that.

I have just said that it is possible to do it, I have no doubt, up to a certain point.

1671-2. Do you really think that you can take one telegram and another, and say this should go first and another one can wait?—I say it is possible to do it. I do not say it should be done at all. Probably a man coines to you and he hands you a message to be transmitted, and he asks you questions about it, and you put the message in, and the general rule is that each. message should take its turn.

1673. Do you think that any other rule would I think if you really be possible?—Yes, I do. have managers and superintendents that under- stand their business, they will transact the telegraph business over their lines to suit the public and to suit their service.

1674. No doubt they will, but could they do it in any other way than by giving every message its proper precedence?--I do not know about that. Of course you could introduce a system, if you wanted to do it, of deferred messages.

1675. That is another question. Of course, if people pay for them that might be possible, but as a matter of ordinary business surely you could not discriminate between one message and another. You do not even know who the sender of the message is, to whom it is addressed, or what

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