THE MANIFOLD.
Under the common practice there must be prepared at least three copies
of each train order received for delivery. The conductor and engineman
are each supplied with a copy, and the operator retains one. To make
three several copies by pen and ink, as heretofore practiced by some,
takes a good deal of time, and there is danger that they may not be all
alike, and the time and risk are increased if more than three copies
are required. To obviate this, the manifold system of writing has
come into general use and with very great advantage. As used by many,
however, it has serious defects. The tissue paper frequently used is
very objectionable, especially the yellow variety. Messages written on
it are quite difficult to read, especially in a poor light; it is easily
crumpled, rendering it still more indistinct; it is difficult to handle
in the wind, and it is easily damaged by wet. In the use of the manifold
for some seventeen years the author found it entirely practicable to
use an opaque white paper, of sufficient body to be free from the above
objections and yet capable of giving seven distinct copies with a good
pencil of the hardness of No. 4 Faber. This is now recognized as the
best and is prescribed in the specifications connected with the Time
Convention rules.
Operators should not be permitted to receive orders on separate slips
and copy them on the manifold, but should take the order down at once
in the manifold-book. A sheet of tin placed in the book enables them
to make all the copies perfectly distinct. Of course none but "sound"
operators can do this. It takes but little more time and application to
make a "sound" than a "paper" operator, and the advantage of the former
is so great in this as well as in other respects in this service that
it should always be required. Operators readily become able to take the
requisite number of copies in manifold without the use of intermediate
slips, and the risks of copying are thus avoided. When more copies are
wanted than are made at the first writing they should be traced from one
of the original copies. In the case of a general order, as in annulling a
train, operators would usually make but one copy, and others required for
delivery should be traced from this. Careful supervision should be had as
to the actual practice of operators in the proper use of the manifold,
and as to frequently changing the carbon paper to secure distinctness.