TELEPHONES, TELEGRAPHS, AND RADIO --. b47
The Western Union Telegraph Co.’s revenues from telegraph trans-
missions for 1925 amounted to $112,768,083, an increase of $13,089,-
247 over 1924. The net income was $15,220,541, the largest in the
history of the company, and exceeded that of 1924 by $2,849,600.
The Western Union reports extensive additions to its plant during
1925 amounting to over $14,000,000. The system at the end of the
year consisted of 213,763 miles of pole lines; 1,603,760 miles of wire,
of which 56 per cent was copper; 3,176 miles of land-line cables;
25,476 nautical miles of ocean cables; and 24,428 telegraph offices,
The use of the automatic multiplex telegraph apparatus was extended,
and about 64 per cent of the company’s telegraph business is now
handled automatically, as compared with 62 per cent in 1924.
Ocean Cables.
The year 1925 marked continued activities in the eonstruction of
American owned cables. The Western Union appropriated over
$5,000,000 during the year for the development and perfection of
high-speed permalloy cables. This new type of cable has proved so
successful that the company has decided to lay a new line from New
York to Penzance, England, via Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, with a
speed of 2,400 letters per minute. Through the one conductor of
this cable, eight printing telegraph channels will be operated direct
between London and New York, thus making the capacity of the
cable four times greater than the older types. The company has
made arrangements with the German and British Postal Administra-
ions for the leasing of a cable circuit between London and Emden.
Pending the laying of phe new German Atlantic Cable Co.’s line,
the Commercial Cable Co. has established a direct circuit between
its London office and the Emden office of the German company.
The German cable will be a high-speed permalloy cable between
Emden, Germany, and the Azores, and is expected to be completed
by October, 1926. It will connect at the Azores with the cables of
both the Commercial and Western Union Cable Companies and will
be the first direct cable communication between the United States
and Germany since 1914. The Postal Co: also contemplates divert-
ing two of its main cables between Nova Scotia and Ireland into
Newfoundland, by which method the capacity of these cables will be
ncreased by about 25 per cent.
The All America Cables company has under construction an all
copper telegraph line connecting its cable terminal at Buenaventura,
Colombia, with Bogota, which is expected to improve greatly the
service between these two points, as well as to other important
cities in the interior. On January 6, 1925, the new high-speed
cable between New York and Fisherman's Point (Guantanamo
Bay), Cuba, was placed in operation. This third cable has made it
possible for the All America company to give a direct service from
