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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
RAILWAY TELEGRAPHS AND ELECTRIC SIGNALS*
BY ROBERT B. LINES.
Group-.
The practical value of the electric telegraph is nowhere more apparent than in its application to the running and control of railways.
One of the principal claims made by Prof. Morse for the invention which he at least had the merit of first bringing into practical commercial operation, was the facility which it would offer to railways for the speedy and safe transaction of their business. While it cannot be said that the railways of either Europe or America have yet received the full benefit of this important and now, indeed, indispensable auxiliary to their management, it is certain that much has been done by the aid of the telegraph which could not have been done without it, and much of the progress made by railways within the past thirty years is due to its powerful assistance. While it has rendered possible that direct control over hundreds of miles of track, which is such a striking feature in our railway management, its detailed application has also shown it to be the most valuable, if not the only, means of maintaining safety in the midst of the immense traffic in freight and passengers which its ufee has aided in building up.
In America the railways have been and are still, to a great extent, too much dependent for their telegraphic facilities on contracts with telegraph companies, frequently disadvantageous to the former from the commencement, and always, as
* The attempt which has been made in this article to reduce the large drawings with which it was accompanied, by the aid of the Heliotype process, has not succeeded as well as was expected, owing to the excessive reduction necessary to bring the illustrations within the size of the page; the lettering, particularly, is imperfect. It is believed, however, that the interested reader will find no difficulty in understanding the plates by aid of the context.— Editor.