To show the variety of the operations of the telegraph, a game of draughts, and several games of chess, have been played between the cities of Baltimore and Washington, with the same ease as if the players were seated at the same table. To illustrate the independence of the telegraph of the weather, and time of day, I would state that, during the severe storm of the 5th December, when the night was intensely dark, the rain descending in torrents, and the wind blowing a gale, it seemed more than ordinarily mysterious to see a company around a table, in a warm retired chamber, on such a night, in Washington, playing a game of chess with another company similarly situated in Baltimore: the darkness, the rain, and the wind, being no impediment to instantaneous communication. In regard to the quantity of intelligence which may be sent in a given time, it is perfectly safe to say that thirty characters can be transmitted in a minute by a single instrument; and as these characters are conventional signs, they may mean either _numbers_, _letters_, _words_, or _sentences_. As an illustration of this point, I will state that nearly a whole column (more than seven-eighths) in the Baltimore Patriot was transmitted in thirty minutes—faster than the reporter in Baltimore could transcribe. This fact bears upon the ability of producing a revenue from the telegraph; and I would suggest the propriety of permission being granted by Congress to the department, to adjust a tariff of charges on intelligence sent by telegraph, at such a rate of postage as shall at least return to the treasury the interest of the capital expended in the first construction, and after maintenance of the telegraph. In aid of this view of the subject, I beg to refer to my letter to the chairman of the Committee on Commerce, December 6, 1842, No. 13. Since that was written, experience has shown that that calculation is far below the real results. Instead of _twelve signs_ in a minute, upon which that computation was based, we must substitute _thirty_—a column of a newspaper having been transmitted to Baltimore even at the rate of _thirty-five_ signs in a minute. It is, therefore, safe to set down the rate at 30 signs per minute; and it is safe to double the annual receipts, making the gross amount $600,000 per annum.