APPENDIX 
507 
to receive them. In their midst was stationed an operator who printed 
the stock quotations on the tape by means of an electrical punch- 
button device, from the written slips handed to him in rotation by 
the four men receiving quotations from the floor. Naturally, in a 
busy market, these four men could receive quotations faster than the 
single central operator could print them. Also, he would in practice 
seize a bunch of slips from one receiving operator, print them, then 
seize another bunch from the next operator, and so on. Thus the 
quotations were not printed in their strict chronological order, with 
the result that sometimes on the stock tape there would appear 
“bunched” quotations for one active stock after another. This gave 
the public the false impression that, in the market, activity went in 
spurts from one stock issue to another. It also rendered some quo- 
:ations on the tape still further behind the market. In proportion as 
stock market activity increased, these defects became pronounced. 
After careful testing, a new system for quotation transmission was 
fully installed on the Exchange in the spring of 1923. The chief 
feature of this new system was the abolition of the four receiving 
operators and printing operator, and the substitution therefor of 
electrical machinery. Today, when the floor operator presses down 
a key on his instrument, an appropriate impression is made on a 
mechanical device resembling a Pianola roll. An electrical “inter- 
rupter” speedily shifts from one to another of the several sending 
wires from the floor, and thus largely avoids the old evil of “bunched 
sales” on the stock tape. Where formerly two persons had had to 
handle quotations after the floor operator had dispatched them and 
before they appeared on the tape, now nothing but machinery inter- 
vened between the floor operator and the New York Quotation Co. 
stock tapes. Where the old system had possessed a maximum speed 
of 225 characters on the tape per minute, the new system now made 
it easily possible to print 260 characters per minute upon it. 
But volume in the stock market continued to grow, and with it 
the necessity for still speedier operation of the ticker system. The 
central transmission machinery had been improved, and now the ticker 
instruments themselves came to constitute the chief factor in limiting 
the speed of the system, for they could print only about so many 
characters per minute irrespective of market conditions. During 
1927, days of 2,000,000 share sales became common-places, and even 
“3,000,000 share days” not uncommon. In the spring of 1928, several 
“4,000,000 share days” occurred, and even one “5,000,000 share day.” 
This great volume of business naturally tested the whole Stock Ex- 
-hange mechanism, and the greatest difficulty was experienced with