The Young Telegraph Operator - 4

The Young Telegraph Operator - 4

The same winter of 1863-64, while at Port Huron, Edison had a further opportunity of

displaying his ingenuity. An ice-jam had broken the light telegraph cable laid in the bed

of the river across to Sarnia, and thus communication was interrupted. The river is threequarters

of a mile wide, and could not be crossed on foot; nor could the cable be repaired.

Edison at once suggested using the steam whistle of the locomotive, and by manipulating

the valve con- versed the short and long outbursts of shrill sound into the Morse code. An

operator on the Sarnia shore was quick enough to catch the significance of the strange

whistling, and messages were thus sent in wireless fashion across the ice-floes in the

river. It is said that such signals were also interchanged by military telegraphers during

the war, and possibly Edison may have heard of the practice; but be that as it may, he

certainly showed ingenuity and resource in applying such a method to meet the necessity.

It is interesting to note that at this point the Grand Trunk now has its St. Clair tunnel,

through which the trains are hauled under the river-bed by electric locomotives.

Edison had now begun unconsciously the roaming and drifting that took him during the

next five years all over the Middle States, and that might well have wrecked the career of

any one less persistent and industrious. It was a period of his life corresponding to the

Wanderjahre of the German artisan, and was an easy way of gratifying a taste for travel

without the risk of privation. To-day there is little temptation to the telegrapher to go to

distant parts of the country on the chance that he may secure a livelihood at the key. The

ranks are well filled everywhere, and of late years the telegraph as an art or industry has

shown relatively slight expansion, owing chiefly to the development of telephony. Hence,

if vacancies occur, there are plenty of operators available, and salaries have remained so

low as to lead to one or two formidable and costly strikes that unfortunately took no

account of the economic conditions of demand and supply. But in the days of the Civil

War there was a great dearth of skilful manipulators of the key. About fifteen hundred of

the best operators in the country were at the front on the Federal side alone, and several

hundred more had enlisted. This created a serious scarcity, and a nomadic operator going

to any telegraphic centre would be sure to find a place open waiting for him. At the close

of the war a majority of those who had been with the two opposed armies remained at the

key under more peaceful surroundings, but the rapid development of the commercial and

railroad systems fostered a new demand, and then for a time it seemed almost impossible

to train new operators fast enough. In a few years, however, the telephone sprang into

vigorous existence, dating from 1876, drawing off some of the most adventurous spirits

from the telegraph field; and the deterrent influence of the telephone on the telegraph had

made itself felt by 1890. The expiration of the leading Bell telephone patents, five years

later, accentuated even more sharply the check that had been put on telegraphy, as

hundreds and thousands of "independent" telephone companies were then organized,

throwing a vast network of toll lines over Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and other States,

and affording cheap, instantaneous means of communication without any necessity for

the intervention of an operator.

It will be seen that the times have changed radically since Edison became a telegrapher,

and that in this respect a chapter of electrical history has been definitely closed. There

was a day when the art offered a distinct career to all of its practitioners, and young men

of ambition and good family were eager to begin even as messenger boys, and were ready

to undergo a severe ordeal of apprenticeship with the belief that they could ultimately

attain positions of responsibility and profit. At the same time operators have always been

shrewd enough to regard the telegraph as a stepping-stone to other careers in life. A

bright fellow entering the telegraph service to-day finds the experience he may gain

therein valuable, but he soon realizes that there are not enough good-paying official

positions to "go around," so as to give each worthy man a chance after he has mastered

the essentials of the art. He feels, therefore, that to remain at the key involves either

stagnation or deterioration, and that after, say, twenty-five years of practice he will have

lost ground as compared with friends who started out in other occupations. The craft of

an operator, learned without much difficulty, is very attractive to a youth, but a position

at the key is no place for a man of mature years. His services, with rare exceptions, grow

less valuable as he advances in age and nervous strain breaks him down. On the contrary,

men engaged in other professions find, as a rule, that they improve and advance with

experience, and that age brings larger rewards and opportunities.