Circled the Globe

Mr. Depew Sends a Telegraphic Message to Tokio and Back in Fifty Minutes.

LAND LINES AND CABLES.

Went Out One Side of the Grand Central Palace and Entered on the Other.

MR. EDISON SOON RECEIVED IT.

Probably the Quickest Piece of Telegraphing and Cabling Ever Accomplished.

The Grand Central Palace was filled last evening, the special reason for the unusual gathering being the fact that Mr. Chauncey M. Depew was to send a message around the world, a distance of 28,600 miles.

The hall was en fete in honor of the occasion, as electric lights blazed from every side, while flags were tastefully festooned along the galleries or hung in streamers from the ceiling. Eclat was given to the occasion by the music of the Seventy-first regiment band.

As the visitor entered his eye was attracted to an outline map of the world hanging against the rear wall and even with the gallery. The places at which Mr. Depew’s message was to be relayed were indicated by small incandescent lamps that glowed like stars against the pale background.

In a box on one side of the gallery was Dr. Depew, the sender of the message and the orator of the evening, and about him were Assemblyman Hamilton Fish, Mr. James A. Seymour, president of the Central and South American Telegraph Company, and President A. B. Chandler, of the Postal Telegraph Company. In a box on the opposite side were Thomas A. Edison and President Adams, of the Niagara Falls Power Company.

MANY CELEBRITIES THERE.

Here and there throughout the hall were many men prominent in telegraph and business circles, among them being Mr. J. W. Mackay, Horace C. Duval, Edward A. Wickes, Frank W. Hawley, George Westinghouse, General T. T. Eckert, A. S. Brown, Charles Tinker, John Van Horn, W. C. Humstone, W. H. Baker, Francis W. Jones, George Clapperton, Dr. Park Benjamin, Charles F. Cutler, Frank J. Sprague, E. H. Johnson, Spencer Trask, Hugh J. Grant, Nikola Tesla, M. M. Davis, T. Commerford Martin, James R. Beard, Charlton P. Lewis and Major General Ruger.

Foreign governments were represented by the following officers: — Great Britain — Percy Sanderson, Consul General. Germany — August Feigel, Consul General. Russia — Alexander Olarovsky. Spain — Arturo Baldasano. Venezuela — Louis Forsyth, Consul General. Argentine Republic — Carlos Rohl, Consul General. Bolivia — T. Alejandro Santos, Consul General. Brazil — Antonio Fontoura Xavier, Consul General. Chili — Frederico A. Beelan, Consul General. Mexico — Juan N. Navarro, Consul General.

In front of Mr. Depew’s box was suspended a big vacuum tube, in the form of an arrow, which pointed to the West, and in front of Mr. Edison’s box was a similar tube, which pointed toward the box, the idea being that the tube first mentioned indicated the direction in which Mr. Depew’s message was sent, while the other indicated the direction from which it was received. Both tubes were connected with electric wires, and became fluorescent when the current was turned into them, so that they glowed like huge opals in the bright glare of the myriads of electric lights.

THE TWO LONG CIRCUITS.

The Postal Telegraph and Commercial Cable companies had arranged to have their lines open for the transmission of messages, and a similar arrangement had been made with the Western Union and Central and South American Telegraph companies. The programme was that Mr. Depew should hand his message to Mr. Chandler, who should immediately put it on the wire, using the gold key which President Cleveland touched when he opened the World’s Fair in Chicago. The route of the message was via Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Canso and London. From London the message was to be cabled to Lisbon and Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, Bombay, Madras, Singapore, Shanghai, Nagasaki and Tokio, and then to be repeated back to Mr. Edison’s box in the exposition hall.

The Western Union Company made up a circuit between New York and Galveston of about 10,000 miles, via Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and St. Louis. At Galveston the message was handed to the Mexican and the Central and Southern American Telegraph companies, which transmitted it about 6,500 miles, by way of Mexico, San Juan, Nicaragua, St. Elena, Ecuador, Chorillos, Peru, Valparaiso, Chili, thence by land line over the Andes Mountains to Buenos Ayres, where it was handed to the cables of the River Plate, the Western and Brazilian and the Brazilian Submarine Telegraph companies, about 6,000 miles, via Rio Janeiro, Pernambuco, St. Vincent, to Lisbon. From Lisbon it went over the cables of the Eastern Company about 1,000 miles to Penzance, England; thence over Western Union cables via Canso to New York, about 4,000 miles.

The messages over the Western Union lines were sent by Mr. C. A. Tinker, of the Western Union Telegraph Company, who also received them back after they had completed their long journey, in a box in the middle of the main gallery.

THE MESSAGES SENT.

It was after eight o’clock when Mr. Depew, escorted by a committee of the officials of the exposition, appeared in his box and was greeted by a round of applause from those in the hall. At half-past eight o’clock he was introduced to the assemblage by Mr. Fish, and, after a few preliminary remarks, explaining that his presence there was to send a message around the world, he handed the following message to President Chandler, who at once ticked it off at the gold key in front of him, the message being addressed to President Adams, who was in the box on the opposite side of the gallery: —

EDWARD D. ADAMS, New York: — God created nature’s treasures, science utilizes electric power for its grandeur of motives and the peace of the world.
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.

A moment after Mr. Chandler sent the following message, written by Mr. Adams:—

CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, New York: — Mighty Niagara, nature’s wonder, serving man through the world’s electric current, proclaims to all peoples science triumphant and the benevolent Creator.
EDWARD D. ADAMS.

Both these messages were also put on the Western Union wires by Mr. Tinker, so that they were travelling around the world at the same time. The moment they were despatched that fact was announced by the firing of a gun on the roof of the Exposition Building.

As President Chandler was ticking off the two messages the electricity was turned into the big bulb in front of the box, and, when it gleamed with the hue of fluorescence, everybody applauded, for it was a beautiful spectacle.

Mr. Depew then began the speech he had prepared for the occasion. It dealt with the wonders of electricity, with the great strides that had been made by electrical progress and research and paid a glowing tribute to the genius of Edison.

THE MESSAGES EN ROUTE.

He had been speaking but a few minutes when Mr. Edison announced in his box that the messages that had gone over the Postal and Commercial lines had gone through London, after traversing the American continent and crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Another gun was fired on the roof of the building at this announcement, and still another, when, not long after, the messages were reported at Bombay. In fifty minutes from the time it was sent from the Exposition Hall Mr. Depew’s message to Mr. Adams went to Tokio in Japan and was repeated back, the despatch being received by Mr. Edison, who again essayed the role of telegraph operator.

President Adams’ message which left the hall at twenty minutes before nine was received back at forty minutes after. In the meantime Mr. Tinker had sent the messages over the Western Union circuit at thirty-four minutes past eight, and had received them back at fifty-eight minutes past eight, after they had traversed this country and South America and crossed it and the ocean twice. The time made over the two circuits was said to be the fastest probably ever made.

When the announcement of the time it had taken to transmit the two messages was made there was applause in the hall, and then Mr. Depew, Mr. Edison and the invited guests enjoyed an elaborate supper that had been prepared by the exposition officials.