Anyone able to help this gentleman out?
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Forwarded message:
From:   [log in to unmask] (D B Wagner)
Sender: [log in to unmask] (Material Culture Study and Methods)
Reply-to:       [log in to unmask] (Material Culture Study and Methods)
To:     [log in to unmask]
Date: 97-05-31 02:29:13 EDT
 
Dear all,
 
I have become involved on the periphery of a study of the introduction of
the telegraph in China, and find that I need to know more about the
specific technologies used. I wonder if anyone can direct me to published
work on telegraph technology in the U.S. and/or Europe and/or elsewhere
from about 1860 to about 1890? I can probably find out a lot by searching
through Scientific American for those years, but I suspect that someone
somewhere has already done that kind of work.
 
Things that seem important:
 
* Poles, wires, insulators: how many poles per km, when were the wires made
of iron, when of copper? What were the technical requirements for the
wires?
 
* Electricity: what voltage, what sort of batteries?
 
* Stations: what sort of apparatus was used, was it expensive, were
automatic repeaters ever used?
 
* Maintenance: How much maintenace was needed, for all of the above?
 
* People: What was the training of an operator? How many messages could an
operator handle per day? And what about other personnel?
 
Of course if I get answers to some of the above they will probably inspire
more questions.
 
Looking forward to hearing from Those Who Know,
 
Regards,
Don Wagner
Reverdilsgade 3, 1.th.
DK-1701 Copenhagen V
Denmark
[log in to unmask]
http://coco.ihi.ku.dk/~dbwagner/