VARIOPLEX

E&MP128.005

Telegraph

no date

Years of research and experimentation by communications engineers and technicians have gone into the "varioplex," the Western Union Telegraph Company's latest devices for handling heavy traffic for large users of telegraph service with accuracy and speed. Here a panel of the complicated apparatus is being tested. The first telegram in history, "What Hath God Wrought!" was sent 100 years ago on May 24, 1844

Original Caption by Science Service
^©Western Union

Additional information:

In 1913 Western Union developed multiplexing, which it made possible to transmit eight messages simultaneously over a single wire (four in each direction). Teleprinter machines came into use about 1925. Varioplex, introduced in 1936, enabled a single wire to carry 72 transmissions at the same time (36 in each direction). Two years later Western Union introduced the first of its automatic facsimile devices. In 1959 Western Union inaugurated TELEX, which enables subscribers to the teleprinter service to dial each other directly.
<source: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelegraph.htm >

Comment - available e-Tool May 9, 2008 from james@ryley.com
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