Part 9 (2/2)
In the great hurricane which occurred in January, 1899, the telephone and telegraph wires radiating from Bristol were blown down in all directions. In consequence Bristol was entirely cut off from direct telephonic communication with Birmingham for 21 hours, and had only one wire instead of two for 9-1/4 hours; from Bath for 18 hours, and had only one wire instead of two for 5-1/2 hours; from Cardiff for 18 hours, and had only two wires instead of three for 10-1/2 hours; from Weston-super-Mare entirely for 24-1/2 hours; from Taunton for 28-1/2 hours; from Exeter for 27 hours; from Sharpness for 26 hours. There was only one wire instead of two to Gloucester for 26-1/4 hours, to London for 6 hours, and to Newport for 20-3/4 hours.
The trunk telephone lines were more or less interrupted for a week, caused by the working parties engaged on repairs.
The telegraph wires for the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, Monmouth, Warwick, Shrops.h.i.+re, Worcester, Wilts, Devon, Cornwall and Lancas.h.i.+re were those chiefly deranged.
It is believed that there is only one telegraph cable in the Bristol district, and that cable does not belong to the Postmaster-General. It crosses the river Avon at a point adjacent to Pill and s.h.i.+rehampton, and was used by the Commercial Rooms in connection with reports of the arrival of vessels. Up to the time of its introduction, as already stated, ”warners” were employed. The last of the old running ”warners”
were Gerrish and Case. These men lived at Pill, and on hearing news from pilots-men of the arrival of a s.h.i.+p in the Bristol Channel they started off on foot to Bristol and _warned_ the merchants and wives of sailors of the vessel's arrival in the Channel, getting, of course, fees for their trouble,--a guinea from the merchants, and so on, down to the s.h.i.+llings of the sailors' wives,--and fifty years ago these fees were willingly paid, and the heavy postages too. The runners were men of some little mark.
The Post Office at Avonmouth, a Bristol sub-office, is much used for telegraph purposes by persons on board vessels pa.s.sing up and down the Kingroad in the Bristol Channel. The Bristol Corporation placed outside the port a large white notice board with ”TELEGRAPH OFFICE” painted upon it in black letters, to attract the attention of mariners. The messages are chiefly received from vessels with cargoes consigned to Sharpness, which in neap tides have often to lie in the roads for days.
Telegrams for vessels lying in Kingroad are often taken out by boat at midnight or in the early hours of the morning. This is often in consequence of the tide not serving, or being too strong for the boatman to go out at seasonable hours.
Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, is connected with the mainland by a submarine cable, which is considered to be one of the most perfect of its kind. Letters for Lundy, from Bristol and elsewhere, are carried across by boat from Instow once a week. The nearer small islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm have cable telephonic communication with Weston-super-Mare. The telephone, which is carried into the Weston Post Office, is rented by the War Office Authorities, who allow the islanders the use of it. Letters from Bristol for the Flat Holm are conveyed by way of Cardiff. The island is rented from the Cardiff Corporation by a farmer who resides upon it. His son, who lives in Cardiff, daily visits the island in a yacht, and conveys the letters for the Trinity House officials and residents. For the Steep Holm, Bristol letters are sent from Weston-super-Mare; the services to the island being tri-weekly--Tuesday, Thursday and Sat.u.r.day,--and are performed by a contractor, who goes across on behalf of the War Office. The Steep Holm is inhabited by military men only. In a ma.n.u.script of 30th March, 1825, it is described as ”Stipe Holme.” One of the first serious efforts in connection with the plan of telegraphing through s.p.a.ce without connecting wires was conducted between the diminutive island of Flat Holm and the sh.o.r.e, a distance of about five miles; and between Penarth and Brean Down, a distance of nine miles. An interesting ill.u.s.tration of the system of wireless telegraphy was given, under the direction of Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R.S. (now Sir W. H. Preece, K.C.B., F.R.S.), at the Clifton College conversazione, held in honour of the learned British a.s.sociates during the meeting of the a.s.sociation at Bristol in 1898.
The telegraph staff have seldom had their skill and smartness more thoroughly tested than on the memorable Monday evening in February, 1893, when press messages of great length relating to the introduction of the Home Rule Bill were sent over the wires. Twenty minutes after Mr.
Gladstone rose to speak in the House of Commons the first instalment of the special summary of his speech reached this city. The conclusion of the summary was received at two minutes to 7. The verbatim report commenced to arrive at 4.49, and the last instalment reached the Bristol Office at 8 o'clock. The total number of words in the messages sent to Bristol was nearly 40,000.
During the early potato season telegraphing is very brisk with Jersey.
Bristol is the only large office besides London which has direct communication with the island. Some idea may be gathered of the extra labour entailed on the telegraph service from the fact that in the month of June, 1899, no fewer than 20,904 telegrams pa.s.sed between Bristol and Jersey, the normal number being only 5,800 monthly. Five or six telegraph operators are usually sent during the season to Jersey from Bristol.
In Bristol about 700 firms use abbreviated telegraphic addresses.
The telegraph money order system, started in 1889, is exhibiting marvellous developments in the local service.
The express letter delivery service, which came into operation in 1891, is very useful to the public. By means of this agency the Post Office distributes by express messenger 300,000 letters and parcels annually.
Of that number Bristol contributes 7,000 services. Bicycles and tricycles are now delivered for the public from any telegraph office in Bristol and district by special messenger at a fee of 3d. per mile, without any charge for weight. The messengers are not permitted to ride upon the cycles, except by the permission of the senders, but will wheel them up to a distance of three miles.
An express delivery messenger has been used, ere now, for the convoy of a traveller from point to point in a town unknown to him or her. The Post Office is often required to a.s.sist even more closely in the domestic relations of life. Recently a gentleman from America wrote to the Clifton Post Office to enquire whether a certain near relative of his could be found, as he was very anxious to see her before return to America. He enclosed a s.h.i.+lling stamp for a reply by telegraph, and begged for urgency. The relative was found and her address given. The applicant's ardour to see his relative cooled, or his stay in the country was abridged, for instead of paying the proposed visit, he begged the Post Office officials to expend five s.h.i.+llings, which he sent, in the purchase of cut roses for his relative. Of course, this was outside the round of Post Office duties, but the clerks obligingly attended to it, with the aid of a telegraph messenger who was off duty at the moment.
Occasional mistakes are not to be wondered at when people write illegibly. Through the improper formation of the capital letter, D, in the proper name Dyster, has in telegraphing been turned into O, and the name made Oyster, with the result of misdelivery of the telegram to a firm of fishmongers having ”Oyster” as an abbreviated address. It must have been extremely painful to an anxious parent to receive a telegram summoning him to a nursing home far distant, in terms that his ”sow was worse,” and begging him to come at once; the telegraphist having made the slight mistake of transcribing ”w” for ”n.” The gentleman who sent a telegram to his town house in the West End of London asking that his covert coat might be forwarded to him was no doubt considerably astonished when his butler returned the telegram to him by post asking for an explanation, and he found that the text of it was ”Pigs, 9/3, 8/9, and 8/-.” The error was occasioned in connection with the use of multiple addresses for a bacon-trading firm's telegrams. In another instance a curious complication resulted through imperfect s.p.a.cing on the part of the signalling telegraphist, thus:--A telegram written by the sender as ”To ----, Fore St., Northam, Bideford. Be in attendance Public Offices,” was transcribed thus:--”To ---- forest, Northam, Bideford. Be in at ten dance Public Offices,” and, owing to the number of words counting the same as the number signalled, the inaccuracy was not discovered until a repet.i.tion had been obtained from the office of origin on application of the addressee. It was printed in a Midland newspaper that at the presentation of a sword of honour to the Sirdar the Common Councilmen attended in their ”margarine gowns,” and, of course, the error of using ”margarine” for ”mazarine” was put down to the carelessness of the telegraph clerk. A telegram was sent indicating arrival at 8 Mostyn Crescent, in a favourite North Wales town. At one stage in transmission ”Mostyn” became converted into ”mostly,” and at the next office of transmission ”Crescent” became ”pleasant,” and the telegram when delivered read ”Arrived 8 mostly pleasant.” The Prime Minister who had informed his audience that ”there was no prospect of an immediate general election, that they had a working majority, and the Government was of good cheer,” would not have been pleased had he seen that the last word in the telegram posted up in the Bristol Commercial Rooms had been transcribed as ”of good cheek.”
A telegram, ”Have arranged for Sunday. Dening,” with the first two words struck out, and ”arrangement complete” subst.i.tuted underneath, was handed in at a telegraph office by a well-known and much respected Bristol clergyman. At the forwarding office the message was unfortunately read ”For Sunday Dinning arrangement complete,” the erasure and addition not having been properly understood and the proper name misspelt. At the delivering office the message again suffered alteration, and became ”For Sunday dining arrangements complete.” It may readily be supposed that the addressee was somewhat astonished at the peculiar text of the message.
The following is from the Bristol _Times and Mirror_ of February, 1893, and has reference to a little inaccuracy on the part of a telegraph a.s.sistant employed at a Bristol sub-post office. The incident itself is correctly reported:--”Garraways, 12 o'clock. Dear Mrs. B.--Chops and tomato sauce. Yours Pickwick,” settled the hash of a well-known character; and a wire, ”Going to Bath to meet girl. Not back to dinner,”
had, very nearly, a similar effect on the domestic relations of one of the smartest solicitors in our city. The telegraph has had, in its time, much to answer for, ”but never aught like this.” When Puck said: ”I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes,” he little thought what mischief he might do. It was only the other day we read how a stray dropped line destroyed a horse, killed a cow, and cut off the head of a n.i.g.g.e.r; but these accidents were a trifle compared with what might have happened if the message first quoted could not have been explained. The learned gentleman it appears has a brother, by name Gilbert, familiarly known in the circle as ”Gil.” The latter, having business in Bath, wrote asking his relative to dine with him at the ”Christopher.” The learned advocate at once accepted; but, being a thoroughly domesticated man, telegraphed to his better-half: ”Going to Bath to meet Gil; not back to dinner.” Then came in the ”cussedness” of the wire which subst.i.tuted ”girl” for ”Gil,” and hence the temporary ructions when the happy husband, having succeeded with his latchkey, sought repose.
CHAPTER XIV.
TELEGRAPH MESSENGERS.
The telegraph messengers in uniform employed in the Bristol district number about 160. They have a literary inst.i.tute, a drum and fife band, hold swimming cla.s.ses, etc. That there is need of night cla.s.ses may be inferred from the following specimens of telegraph messengers'
orthography and syntax:--
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