One day he violated the rules of the
office by monopolising the use of the line on the strength of having a
message from the superintendent, and was discharged.
He was next engaged at Fort Wayne, and behaved so well that he was
promoted to a station at Indianapolis. While there he invented an
'automatic repeater,' by which a message is received on one line and
simultaneously transmitted on another without the assistance of an
operator. Like other young operators, he was ambitious to send or
receive the night reports for the press, which demand the highest speed
and accuracy of sending. But although he tried to overcome his faults
by the device of employing an auxiliary receiver working at a slower
rate than the direct one, he was found incompetent, and transferred to
a day wire at Cincinnati. Determined to excel, however, he took shift
for the night men as often as he could, and after several months, when a
delegation of Cleveland operators came to organise a branch of the
Telegraphers' Union, and the night men were out on 'strike,' he received
the press reports as well as he was able, working all the night. For
this feat his salary was raised next day from sixty-five to one hundred
and five dollars, and he was appointed to the Louisville circuit, one of
the most desirable in the office.
Pages:
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256