REPORT OF MR. ROBERT B. LINES.
435
traffic increases, involving great difficulties in their practical working. In many cases, railways have been required not only to yield the right of w r ay, but also to furnish and distribute the poles for, and otherwise to aid the erection of lines, the property in which vests in a telegraph company. The line once established, the railway is to transport men and material for its maintenance or extension and to share the expense of its operation. In return for these services it receives a partial use of the wire for its own business, the telegraph company receiving the profits from all other despatches.
This use of a railway wire for commercial business, still common in some sections, gives rise to constant disputes between the employés of the two companies, and not infrequently is productive of great delay and danger to the business of the railways. On most important lines, however, the railways of America have followed the example of those in Europe, and secured for themselves the exclusive use, if not the ownership, of one or more wires along their routes, operating them independently. Such cases alone come properly within the scope of this report, as where the control of a wire belongs to, or is even divided with a company operating it for commercial purposes, railway telegraphy can hardly be said to exist.
The telegraphic service of railways may be divided into two classes, general and special. Although this paper relates almost exclusively to the latter class, a few words with regard to the former may not be out of place.
The first class includes all messages on the ordinary business of the road, such as orders to station-masters, directions iu regard to cars, to the distribution and working of forces, etc. Under this head may also be classified the regular reports to the central office and the whole system of " train despatching,” or "running by telegraph,” which has become so common, and been brought to such apparent perfection in the United States, but which, so far as I am able to learn, does not exist abroad.
In Europe there are generally several wdres set apart for the exclusive use of railways, both for the general and the special services. In France, one wire connects the principal,