Syphon Pen

The report submitted by the Dawes Committee to the Reparations Committee contained 44,000 words--a sizable book.* In the space of nine hours every word was transmitted from Paris to the Associated Press, Manhattan. Within 24 hours it was delivered, complete, to six American newspapers, viz.: The New York Times, The New York Herald-Tribune, The New York World, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, the Washington Post, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

The longest despatch ever cabled, it was sent by regenerating repeaters over four cables. "An unparalleled feat," said Newcomb Carlton, Western Union President.

A telegram is punched out in a series of dots and dashes. But a cable streams along from an inked "syphon" pen in angles and curves like a fever chart. Curves above an imaginary line are "dots"; curves below are dashes. The number depends on the curve length. The operator reads in words, not letters.