The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

INTERIOR OF AN AMERICAN TELEGRAPH STATION.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Receiving Department of a Telegraph Station-The Operating or Manipulating
Department-Receiving Dispatches by Sound-Incidents of the StationExecution of an Tndian Respited by Telegraph.
RECEIVING DEPARTMENT OF A TELEGRAPH STATION.
IN the present chapter I will explain the routine of the interior of a telegraph station on the American lines. The public
reception rooms are sometimes on the lower floor, so that entrance may be direct from the street. At many of the offices,
it is in the second story. Figure 1 represents the public reception room. in the Cincinnati Station. Behind the counter are
seen the receiving clerks; in front is the public department. At
convenient places are arranged tables or stands on which are
placed pencils and blanks to be used in writing dispatches to
be transmitted. A copy of these blanks will be found at the
end of this chapter, marked A. It is not necessary to write the
dispatch with ink, and in fact it is the universal practice to
use the ordinary lead pencil; the paper used, is generally soft
and receives the lead so that the writing can be easily read.
When the dispatch is handed to the receiver at the counter, the
words are counted and endorsed on its margin. No regard is
given to the signature, and the receiver may know it to be
fictitious, yet he promptly receives the dispatch and the money
for its transmission. The blank form A has been adopted recently on several of the American lines, but it is not compulsory
to use them. In short, messages are received and sent from
any one offering, whether upon the company's blanks or upon
any other kind of paper.