Telegraph Practice: A Study of Comparative Method

Abstract

OF books op the art of electric telegraphs, cover ing more or less completely technical details and principles of the numerous types of apparatus, there has been an increasing, and it may be even a more than ample, supply. That the science of telegraphy has not been equally well served is probably due to the artificial elimination in England of the engineer from any sufficient prac tical direction of the method of utilising the machines which he designed and installed. How ever that may be, the appearance of Mr. Lee's book at once brings the fact into prominence and goes a long way towards filling the gap which it reveals. Mr. Lee's long association with the traffic control organisation of the British Post Office has placed him in an excellent position to ascertain all the factors of the numberless prob lems of the science of telegraphy; and his ad mirable powers of grasping the facts and of pre senting them in a concise and cogent manner render this little book of 100 pages a storehouse of valuable details and a veritable handbook for the expert. It is withal a very attractively read able description of one of the most valuable of modern “utilities.” It is a “study” of telegraph practice which, while glancing at the past, deals in a comparative sense with the present, and in dulges' in illuminating conjecture in regard to the future. The author regrets that the name of the originator of an ingenious method of classifying Press telegrams is unknown; if he should wish to know who originated the “indicator” word of registered telegraphic addresses which he describes on another page the present writer might be able to enlighten him. Telegraph Practice: A Study of Comparative Method. By J. Lee. Pp. ix + 102. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1917.) Price 2s. 6d. net.