Anyone able to help this gentleman out? --------------------- 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/