In 1911, Western Union began investigating systems used in Europe. The first to be tested was the Creed, a system for transmitting and printing Continental or Morse code signals at high speed. After observing several other systems, the Murray Multiplex, an improved and modernized version of the Baudot Multiplex, was found to show better operating features and, due to the use of the five-unit permutation code, more efficient use of telegraph lines. By agreement with Donald Murray, and with his cooperation, the so-called Western Union Multiplex was developed, using Murray’s phonic wheel drive and synchronous correction. Western Union engineers designed tape transmitters and an autocontrol device for transmitting service signals. A keyboard-operated, five-unit-code, tape punch was supplied by the Morkrum Company. A page printer, which was later converted to print on gummed tape, was supplied by the Kleinschmidt Electric Company. The Western Union Multiplex was effective in increasing operating efficiency and came into extensive use throughout the system. From that time on, development of the Baudot permutation-code printing telegraph apparatus was furthered by various companies, such as Bell Laboratories, Western Electric, the Morkrum Company, the Kleinschmidt Electric Company, as well as the companies of J. E. Wright, L. M. Potts, and others. It appears that all of these inventors experimented with the idea of operating all transmitting and receiving apparatus at identical speeds to transmit a five-unit-code combination by first transmitting a pulse to start both transmitter and the distant receiver at the same time. Synchronous operation was obtained by electric motors equipped with governors to maintain correct speed; some used tuning-fork-controlled impulse motors. A system of five relays with progressive contact arrangements to cause cascade operation was also used to provide correct timing. Later, when correctly-timed, 60-cycle alternating current became available (see page 27), synchronous motors did the job. Teleprinter apparatus using this synchronous method worked very well for point-to-point transmission as was used by the telegraph companies and news-distributing organizations to carry local traffic. It did not, however, solve the sought-for plan for a teleprinter intercommunicating system. When attempts were made to connect printers at different distant points in a telegraph intercommunicating circuit while using the synchronous principle, false reception and printing errors would occur, due to variation in line circuit conditions and to a variation of the mechanical start operation at outlying teleprinters. This required frequent overline adjustment to keep the connected apparatus in phase.