Chapter XXXIII: Part II: for 1808 (2)

=A.D. 1811.=--Schweigger (Johann Salomo Christoph), a chemist of Halle (1779–1857), inserts at p. 240, Vol. II of his _Journal für die Chemie und Physik_, the memoir of Sömmering, relative to his electro-chemical telegraph, as well as an appendix thereto, wherein he points out the difficulties likely to attend the employment of so many different wires. He suggests the use of but two wires, and of two piles of unequal power. With these, all desired characters could be transmitted, through a preconcerted code regarding the meaning of such letters and figures as would be represented by the weaker or the stronger pile, in conjunction with the duration of the gas evolutions or the space of time separating them. He also suggested, for an alarum, the use of a pistol, by connecting a battery to the pile, in lieu of liberating an alarm by means of accumulated gas as Sömmering had done.

Two months after Oersted’s great discovery, which was announced in July 1820, Schweigger read at Halle (September 16, 1820) and communicated to the German _Literary Gazette_ (No. 296 for November 1820), a paper relative to an important improvement made in his _galvano magnetic indicator_. The latter, which had been described at pp. 206–208 of Gehlen’s (1808) _Journal für Chemie_, was merely an electroscope, employed to indicate the attraction and repulsion of ordinary frictional electricity in lieu of a Coulomb balance, the improved apparatus being the result of his discovery that, by coiling an _insulated_ wire several times around a magnetic needle, the deflecting power of the voltaic current increases with the number of turns (Kuhn, “Ang. Elek.-Lehre,” p. 514).

Alluding to Schweigger’s multiplier, the Abbé Moigno says:

“A conducting wire twisted upon itself and forming one hundred turns will, when traversed by the same current, produce an effect one hundred times greater than a wire with a single turn: provided always that the electric fluid pass through circumvolutions of the wire without passing laterally from one contour to another” (_Cornhill Magazine_, Vol. II for 1860, pp. 61, 64).

It was, however, shown by Dr. Seebeck that the power of multiplication does not increase with the number of windings in the uniting wire, for the resistance to transmission naturally increases with the length of the wire, thus diminishing its conducting power.

To his new instrument Schweigger gave the name of _electro-magnetic multiplier_ (_multiplicator_) or _galvanometer multiplier_, and it has become the most important for indicating and measuring the strength of the galvanic current.

Prof. W. B. Rogers says that Schweigger’s apparatus as improved by Nobili (_Ital. Soc. Mem._, Vol. XX. p. 173) became indispensable in the measurement of current electricity, and that through the later improvements given it by Sir William Thomson (also by Du Bois Reymond), it has been made one of the most perfect and delicate of all known means of measuring force. Schweigger’s multipliers with improvements made thereon by Oersted and Nobili are illustrated at p. 642, Vol. XXI of the eighth “Ency. Britannica,” where reference is made to drawings on a large scale shown at Plate 522, article “Thermo-Electricity,” of the “Edinburgh Encyclopædia.”

According to a footnote, p. 273 of “Report Smithsonian Inst.” for 1878, Schweigger’s multiplier is alluded to in the “Additions to Oersted’s Electroma-gnetic Experiments,” a memoir read at the _Naturforschende Gesellschaft_ at Halle, September 16 and November 4, 1820. An abstract of this paper was published in the _Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung_ of Halle (4to), November 1820, No. 296, Vol. III. col. 621–624, whilst the full memoir appeared in the _Journal für Chemie und Physik_, 1821, Vol. XXXI. pp. 1–17; and “Additional Remarks ...” by Dr. Schweigger, in the same volume, pp. 35–41. It is further stated in the afore-mentioned note that:

“A galvanometer of somewhat different form, having a vertical helix and employing an unmagnetized needle, was very shortly afterward independently devised by Johann Christian Poggendorff, of Berlin; and as he preceded Schweigger in publishing an account of it, he is sometimes regarded as the original inventor. Schweigger designated his device an ‘Electro-magnetic Multiplicator’; Poggendorff designated his arrangement a ‘Galvano-magnetic Condensator.’ Prof. Oersted remarks: ‘Immediately after the discovery of electro-magnetism, M. Schweigger, professor at Halle, invented an apparatus admirably adapted for exhibiting by means of the magnetic needle the feeblest electric currents.... M. Poggendorff, a distinguished young savant, of Berlin, constructed an electro-magnetic multiplier very shortly after M. Schweigger, with which he made some striking experiments. M. Poggendorff’s work having been cited in a book on electro-magnetism by the celebrated M. Erman (published immediately after the discovery of these phenomena), became known to several philosophers before that of M. Schweigger’ (_Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, 1823, Vol. XXII. pp. 358–360).

“The researches of Schweigger and Bart leave us little or no doubt that the ancients were well acquainted with the mutual attraction of iron and the lodestone, as well as with the positive and negative properties of electricity, by whatever name they may have called it. The reciprocal magnetic relations to the planetary orbs, which are all magnets, was with them an accepted fact, and aerolites were not only called by them magnetic stones, but used in the Mysteries for purposes to which we now apply the magnet.”

REFERENCES.--“Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. pp. 281, 282. See also
_Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, 1816, Vol. II. pp. 84, 86;
Thos. Thomson, “An Outline of the Sciences ...” London, 1830,
Chap. XV. p. 564; “Encycl. Brit.,” seventh edition, “Voltaic
Electricity,” p. 687; _Polytechnisches Centralblatt_; _Sc. Am.
Supp._, No. 404; Sturgeon’s “Scientific Researches,” Bury,
1850, p. 19; L. F. Kaemtz, _Phil. Mag._, Vol. LXII. p. 441;
Poggendorff, Vol. II. pp. 873–875; Du Moncel, “Exposé ...” Vol.
III; Whewell’s “Hist. of Ind. Sci.,” Vol. II. p. 251; “Abhandl.
d. Naturf. Gesellsch. zu Halle” for 1853–1856; Schweigger’s
_Journal für Chemie und Physik_, Vol. II. part iv. pp. 424–434;
Vol. X for 1814 and Vol. XXXVIII for 1823; “Cat. Sc. Papers
Roy. Soc.,” Vol. V. pp. 589–592; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. XVI,
N.S., 1821, p. 197; Larousse, Vol. XIV. pp. 386–387. _Edinburgh
Philosophical Journal_, July 1821, Vol. V. p. 113. For Seebeck,
see _Phil. Mag._, Vol. LXI, 1823, p. 146. For Poggendorff, see
“Cat. Sc. Pap. Roy. Soc.,” Vol. IV. pp. 952–956; Vol. VIII. pp.
638–640; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. XVIII, N.S., 1821, p. 195; Pogg.,
“Annalen,” Vol. CLX (biography).

In the editorship of Schweigger’s _Journal_, which followed Gehlen’s _Journal_, Mr. J. S. C. Schweigger was assisted, from 1828, by Franz W. Schweigger-Seidel, who was the author of “Lit. d. Math. Natur.,” published in 1828. (For the joint magnetic work of J. S. C. Schweigger and Wilhelm Pfaff, see _Jour. f. Ch. u. Ph._, Band X. heft i. for 1814.)

=A.D. 1811.=--Monsieur Dessaignes is first to establish a relation between electricity and phosphorescence, as is shown in the extract published in London from the Memoir which he had presented two years before to the French Institute. The general view he takes is that phosphorescence is produced by a particular fluid, which is set in motion by light, by heat, by electricity, as well as by friction, and that it is dissipated by overheating or by too long exposure to light.

It is asserted by Fahie (“Hist. of El. Tel.,” pp. xiv, 297) that it was Dessaignes and not Seebeck who first discovered thermo-electricity. “Dessaignes,” he says, “showed us how difference of temperature or heat could produce electricity.” This was in 1815, or six years before Seebeck, who is always credited with the observation (Bostock’s “History of Galvanism,” London, 1818, p. 101). Many observations bearing on _thermo-electricity_ had been made even long before Dessaignes.... In 1759 Æpinus called attention to the same phenomena, and pointed out that electricity of opposite kinds was developed at opposite ends of the crystal (tourmaline). In 1760 Canton observed the same properties in the topaz; and between 1789 and 1791 Haüy showed the thermo-electric properties of various other substances, as mesotype, prehnite, Iceland spar, and boracite.

REFERENCES.--Priestley’s “History of Electricity,” 1767, pp.
314–326. For Dessaignes’ other observations, see J. Farrar,
“Elem. of Elec., Mag. and Electro-Mag.,” 1826, p. 125, and
_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XLIV. p. 313. See also _Phil. Mag._, Vol.
XXXVIII. p. 3; _Journal des Mines_, Vol. XXVII. p. 213;
Poggendorff, Vol. I. p. 563; “Cat. Sci. Pap. Roy. Soc.,” Vol.
II. pp. 272, 273; Chap. III. s. 3 of the “Electricity” article
of the “Ency. Britannica.”

=A.D. 1811.=--The idea of placing a lightning conductor through the body of a ship is first suggested by Mr. Benjamin Cook, of Birmingham, and is carried out by Mr. William Snow Harris, of Plymouth. Mr. William Sturgeon, who mentions the fact (“Lectures of Electricity,” London, 1842, p. 208), adds that Mr. Harris “has formed the conductors into strips of copper, which are inserted in grooves in the after side of the masts from top to bottom and through the keelson to the sea. In one of the smaller men-of-war Mr. Harris carried his mizzen conductor through the powder magazine!!! The evils attending these conductors arise principally from lateral explosions and electro-magnetic influence.”

REFERENCES.--For Wm. Sturgeon, consult _Phil. Mag._, Vol. XI,
1832, pp. 195, 270, 324; “Cat. Sc. Papers Roy. Soc.,” Vol. V.
pp. 876–878, Vol. VI. p. 758 and Vol. VIII. p. 1042.

=A.D. 1811–1812.=--Schübler (Gustav), Professor, of Tübingen, is the first to present a connected series of observations upon the electricity of the air, which were made at Stuttgart, during all kinds of weather and at regular daily intervals, between May 1811 and June 1812. Other observations previously carried on by Schübler, during 1805 and subsequent years, at Ellvanguen and Stuttgart are detailed at pp. 579, 580, Vol. VIII--and are also alluded to in article “Meteorology”--of the eighth “Britannica.”

While De Lor was the first to observe, in 1752, the existence of electricity in the atmosphere, even when no lightning is visible, Schübler made the earliest known report upon the daily periodicity of the intensity of the electricity. The annual periodicity had been previously demonstrated by G. B. Beccaria, who published at Turin two able treatises on the subject during 1769 and 1775.

The origin of atmospheric electricity was, by Lavoisier, Laplace and Sir H. Davy, attributed in great part to the constant combustion taking place upon the earth’s surface. Volta and Saussure believed it to arise from the process of evaporation, while Pouillet pointed out the influence of the processes of vegetation; Reich, however, showed that as neither developed electricity they could not produce it in the atmosphere. Peltier advanced the theory that mere evaporation without chemical action is not enough, and the experiments of Faraday and Armstrong showed that evaporation without friction is likewise insufficient. These theories are treated of in “Gaea-Natur und Leben,” Köln and Leipzig, 1873, p. 322, and in Lardner’s “Popular Lectures,” 1859, Vol. II. pp. 149–160. The last named gives tables of many observations, and reports, among other matters, that the series of observations on the diurnal changes of atmospheric electricity which Schübler made, in 1811–1812, were repeated and confirmed at Paris in 1830 by M. Arago. During the month of March 1811 Schübler found that the mean time of the morning maximum was eight hours thirty minutes, and M. Arago ascertained the mean time for the same month to be eight hours forty-eight minutes.

REFERENCES.--_Edin. Jour. of Sci._, new series, Vol. III;
_Biblio. Univers._, Vol. XLII; _Annales de Ch. et de Ph._
for 1816, Vol. II. p. 85; “Jahrbuch der Ch. und Ph.,” 1829;
Gilbert’s _Annalen_, Vols. XXXIX, XLIX, LI; Schweigger’s
_Journal_, Vols. II. p. 377; III. p. 133; VIII. pp. 21, 22, 25,
26, 28, 29; IX. pp. 348, 350, 351; XV. p. 130; XIX. pp. 1 and
11; XXV. p. 249; XXXI. p. 39; _Jour. de Phys._, Vol. LXXV. p.
177; Vol. LXXXIII. p. 184; “Lehrbuch der Meteor,” L. F. Kaemtz,
Halle, 1832, Vol. I. p. 337; Vol. II. pp. 411, 414; “Annual of
Sc. Disc.” for 1862, pp. 99–103; L. Palmieri in _Lum. Elec._,
Paris, Oct. 31, 1891, pp. 209–212; “Sci. Pap. Roy. Soc.,” Vol.
V. pp. 559–562; Vol. VI. p. 755; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. II,
N.S. for 1816 pp. 93–113 (atmosph. electricity); Poggendorff,
Vol. II. p. 853; Report on Atmospheric Electricity by F. J. F.
Duprez, 1858, Part III. chap. ii. pp. 363–368; Foggo, p. 124,
Vol. IV of _Edin. Jour. Sci._; J. J. Hemmer’s observations at
Mannheim from 1783 to 1787, Lehrbuch, etc., Vol. II. p. 418, and
the recorded investigations of De Luc, Girtannier, Mayer, Monge,
Pouillet, Becquerel, De Tressan, Arago, De Saussure, Delezenne,
Helwig and Kaemtz.

=A.D. 1811.=--In the first volume of his “Cosmos” (London, 1849, Vol. I. pp. 240–241) Humboldt speaks of _islands of eruption_, or marine volcanoes, which can properly be classed among electrical phenomena, and alludes to the one observed on the 13th of June 1811 by Captain Tillard (Tilland), and to which he gave the name “Sabrina.”

This volcano, which had previously appeared June 11, 1638 and December 31, 1719, off the island of St. Michael, in the Azores, is thus described in the _Philosophical Transactions_:

“Imagine,” says Captain Tillard, “an immense body of smoke rising from the sea, the surface of which was marked by the silver rippling of the waves occasioned by the slight and steady breezes incidental to those climates in summer. In a quiescent state, it had the appearance of a circular cloud, revolving on the water like a horizontal wheel, in various and irregular involutions, expanding itself gradually on the lee side, when suddenly a column of the blackest cinders, ashes, and stones, would shoot up in the form of a spire, rapidly succeeded by others, each acquiring greater velocity and breaking into various branches resembling a group of pines; these again forming themselves into festoons of white feathery smoke. During these bursts, the most vivid flashes of lightning continually issued from the densest portion of the volcano, and the columns rolled off in large masses of fleecy clouds, gradually expanding themselves before the wind, in a direction nearly horizontal, and drawing up a quantity of water spouts, which formed a striking addition to the scene. In less than an hour, a peak was visible, and, in three hours from the time of our arrival, the volcano then being four hours old, a crater was formed twenty feet high, and from four to five hundred feet in diameter. The eruptions were attended by a noise like the firing of cannon and musketry mixed; as also with shocks of earthquakes sufficient to throw down a large part of the cliff on which we stood.” (See description of the sudden appearance of the Island of St. Michael, etc., in Lectures by Dr. Webster, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at Harvard College, Boston, 1822.)

=A.D. 1811–1818.=--Ure (Andrew), M.D., F.R.S., the first astronomer appointed to the Glasgow Observatory and the author of a Dictionary of Chemistry (the undisputed standard until the appearance of a similar work by Henry Watts), makes known the result of his electrical experiments in the same line as those made by Aldini (A.D. 1793) upon the body of a recently executed criminal. Noad, who gives a greatly detailed account of the investigations, at pp. 338–341 of his “Manual,” remarks that they “serve to convey a tolerably accurate idea of the wonderful physiological effects of the electrical agent, and will be impressive from their conveying the most terrific expressions of human passion and human agony.”

Dr. Ure is the inventor of an improved eudiometer, for detonating or exploding gases by means of an electric shock or spark, which is fully described and illustrated in the “Electricity” article of the “Britannica.”

REFERENCES.--De la Rive, “Treatise on Electricity,” Vol. II.
pp. 489–490, also “Encycl. Metropol.,” Vol. IV (Galv.), p. 197.
Another report of Ure’s experiments appears at pp. 634, 635 of
the “Encycl. Brit.,” article on “Voltaic Electricity,” also in
No. 12 of the _Journal Sci. and Arts_, and at p. 56, Vol. LIII
of the _Philosophical Magazine_.

=A.D. 1812.=--Through the _New York Columbian_, of July 1812, Mr. Christopher Colles informs the public that the operation of his new telegraphs “will be shown from the top of the Custom House on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from four to six o’clock in the afternoon.”

In an explanatory pamphlet, he states that “eighty-four letters can be exhibited by this machine in five minutes, to the distance of one telegraphic station averaged at ten miles, and by the same proportion a distance of 2600 miles in fifteen minutes, twenty-eight seconds.”

James D. Reid, who mentions this fact at p. 5 of his “Telegraph in America,” says that the above was nothing but the already well-known European semaphore or visual signal, and that Colles worked his “machine” between New York and Sandy Hook for several years.

=A.D. 1812.=--On April 1 and 15, May 13 and June 17, Mr. M. Donovan, secretary of the Kirwanian Society of Dublin, reads before the latter body a long communication “On the Inadequacy of the Hypothesis at Present Received to Account for (explain) the Phenomena of Electricity,” which was afterward ably criticized by J. A. de Luc, as will be seen by reference to the _Philosophical Magazine_, Vols. XLV. pp. 97, 200, 329–332, and XLVI. pp. 13, 14. In his treatment of Eeles’ hypothesis (see A.D. 1755) Donovan gives some attention to the designed suppression by Priestley of Eeles’ valuable papers from the _Philosophical Transactions_.

The above communication was followed by still more valuable and much longer ones, read by Mr. Donovan before the same society, February 22, March 8, and March 22, 1815, entitled “On the Origin, Progress and Present State of Galvanism ... and Inadequacy of the Hypotheses to Explain Its Phenomena ...” a modified form of which obtained for its author the prize of the Irish Royal Society.

The sketch of the history of galvanism is divided into three periods. The first treats of the discoveries attaching to muscular contraction, and alludes to the observations of Sulzer, Galvani, Fabbroni, Humboldt, Pfaff, Fontana, Valli, Monro, Vassalli-Eandi, Fowler, Smuck, Marsigli, Grapengieser, Giulio, Rossi, Aldini and Wells. The second period reviews the gradual development of the physical and chemical power of combined galvanic arrangements, beginning with Nicholson and Carlisle, and refers to the many conclusions reached by Cruikshanks, Henry, Haldane, Ritter, Robertson, Brugnatelli, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Thénard, Lehot, Trommsdorff, Simon, Helwige (Major Helvig), Twast, Bourguet, Erman, Grapengieser, Wollaston, Davy, Pfaff, Van Marum, Biot, Cuvier, Desormes, Bostock, Cuthbertson, Aldini, Lagrave, Jordan, Ritter and Wilkinson. The third period commences with the well-known generalizations of the chemical effects of galvanism made by Hisinger and Berzelius; their experiments on the invisible transfer of elements at a distance, and the explanation given by Grotthus of the invisible transfer of the elements of water. Following this, Donovan alludes to the announced decomposition of muriatic acid by W. Peel, Francis Pacchiani, and others, as well as the discovery of the source of mistakes in the Galvani Society investigations by Pfaff, Biot, Thénard and Davy; after which reference is made to the special observations of Sylvester, Grotthus, Wilson, Erman, Davy, Pontin, Gay-Lussac and Thénard, Children, De Luc, Singer, Murray and Maycock.

On the 5th of April 1815, Donovan reviewed the hypotheses of Volta and Fabbroni, as well as of the British philosophers Wollaston, Bostock and Davy, and, on the 19th of the same month, he read an additional paper on the inadequacy of the galvanic hypothesis, having previously (Dec. 28, 1814, and Jan. 11, 1815) presented to the Kirwanian Society a communication relative to a new theory of Galvanism.

REFERENCES.--_Phil. Mag._, Vols. XXXIX. p. 396; XLIV. pp.
334, 401; XLV. pp. 154, 222, 308, 381; XLVI. p. 401; XLVII.
pp. 167, 204; also Vol. XXXVII. pp. 227, 245, on Mr. Davy’s
erroneous hypothesis of electro-chemical affinity, and Vols.
XXII and XXIII of the _Trans. Royal Irish Academy_ for Mr.
Donovan’s papers relating to improvements in the construction of
galvanometers, on galvanometric deflections, etc. etc.

=A.D. 1812.=--Zamboni (Giuseppe), Italian physicist, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Verona Lyceum, makes known through his “_Della pila elettrica a secco_” an improved method of constructing dry piles. He dispenses entirely with the zinc plates of De Luc and employs only discs of paper having one side tinned and the other coated with a thin layer of black oxide of manganese pulverized in a mixture of flour and milk (“Note historique sur les piles sèches,” _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, Vol. XI. p. 190).

His pile terminates in metallic plates, compressing the paper discs by means of silk ligatures, and the column is insulated by giving it a coating of either sulphur or shellac. In this apparatus the tinned surface is the positive element, the negative being the oxide of manganese, which replaces M. De Luc’s Dutch gilt paper. In the later forms of Zamboni’s pile the discs were formed of gilt and silvered paper pasted back to back. William Sturgeon remarks (“Scientific Researches,” Bury, 1850, p. 200) that the Zamboni piles are those which have been the most securely protected against the action of the ambient air and which alone have maintained their original electrical intensity.

REFERENCES.--Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XV. p. 1452; K.
F. Anton Von Schreibers in Gilbert’s _Annalen_, LV; Placidus
Heinrich (Schweigger’s _Journal_, XV); Gustav Schübler, “Uber
Zamboni’s Trockne Säule,” 1815–1816; G. F. Parrot (Gilbert’s
_Annalen_, LV); K. C. F. Jäger in Gilbert’s _Annalen_, Vol. XLIX
for 1815, pp. 47–66; De la Rive, “Treatise on Electricity,” Vol.
II. p. 852; A. M. Ampère, _Ann. de Chimie et de Phys._, XXIX;
John Farrar, “Elem. of Electricity,” etc., 1826, p. 179; Zamboni
and Ambrogio Fusinieri, _Ann. ... Reg. Lomb., Veneto_, Vols.
IV. pp. 128, 132; VI. pp. 31, 142, 143, 293; G. Resti-Ferrari,
“Elettroscopio ... del Zamboni”; _Ann. ... Reg. Lomb., Ven._,
Vols. II. p. 229; III. p. 290; “Verona Poligrafo” for 1831, p.
87; _Mem. Soc. Ital._, Vols. XXI, XXIII; _Mem. dell’ Istit.
Veneto_, Vol. II. pp. 239, 251; G. A. Majocchi, _Annali di
Fisica_, Vol. VIII. p. 14; “Comm. dell’ Ateneo di Brescia,”
1832, p. 38; Sturgeon’s “Researches,” Bury, 1850, pp. 147, 199,
etc., for observations of A. de la Rive and Francis Watkins;
_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XLV. pp. 67, 261; _Ann. Ch. et Phys._ for
May 1816, Vol. II. pp. 76, etc., 82–87, and _Bibl. Britan._,
Vol. LVII. p. 225; also Vol. LVIII. p. 111 of the O.S., Vol. II,
N.S. for 1816, p. 21 as well as Vol. XL. p. 190; “Bibl. Univ.,”
Bruxelles, 1831, Vol. XLVII. p. 183 (horloge électrique);
“Edin. New Phil. Journal,” 1829, Vol. XXI. p. 357. See likewise
the references at Hachette (A.D. 1803), Dyckhoff (A.D. 1804),
Maréchaux (A.D. 1806), De Luc (A.D. 1809); the illustration
and description of M. Palmieri’s dry pile in _Sci. Am. Supp._,
Nos. 512, 519, and the accounts of investigations made more
particularly by MM. Beetz, Belgrado, Burstyn, Crosse, Du Bois
Reymond, De la Rive, D’Arsonval, Desruelles, Edelmann, Faraday,
Gassiot, Gassner, Germain, Roul, Guérin, Haussman, Keiser,
Schübler, Minotto, Pollak, Riess, Schmidt, Trouvé, Wagner,
Watkins and Wolf.

=A.D. 1812.=--Schilling (Pawel Lwowitch), Baron (of Kannstadt), attaché to the Russian Embassy in Munich, and who had been two years before associated with S. T. Von Sömmering (Kuhn, p. 836), devises what he calls his “sub-aqueous galvanic conducting cord”--a copper wire insulated with a thin coating of india-rubber and varnish. This was laid both underground and under the sea, and, it is asserted that, by means of an arrangement of charcoal points, he was enabled to explode powder mines across the Neva, near St. Petersburg, as well as also across the Seine, during the occupation of Paris by the allied armies.

REFERENCES.--Hamel, “Bull. Acad. Petersb.,” II and IV; also Wm.
F. Cooke’s reprint, 1859, pp. 20–22; Fahie’s “History,” p. 309.

From the moment Schilling first saw the telegraph of Sömmering (Aug. 13, 1810) he made many experiments (Prime’s “Life of Morse,” p. 277) with the view of introducing it into Russia and finally took a model of it to St. Petersburg during the year 1812 (“Sc. Am. Suppl.,” No. 405). Hamel states (at p. 41 of Cooke’s reprint) that one of his contrivances was exhibited to the Emperor Alexander as early as 1825. Of this, Dr. E. N. Dickerson, in his Henry Memorial Address before Princeton College, gives the date as 1824. Be that as it may, it was only after his return from China in 1832 (two years after Sömmering’s death) that, following Ampère’s suggestion as to the availment of Oersted’s discovery, he submitted the apparatus which established for him the credit of having invented the electro-magnetic telegraph.

Many authors have erroneously described Schilling’s apparatus as consisting of a number of platinum wires insulated and bound together with a silken cord which put in motion thirty-six magnetic needles placed vertically in the centre of the multiplier by means of a species of key connecting with a galvanic pile. This account appeared at p. 43 of the “Journal des Travaux de l’Acad. de l’Industrie Française” for March 1839. The fact is that he employed but one magnetic needle and multiplier, with two leading wires, as proposed by Fechner, and was enabled by means of a combination of the deflections of the needle to the right and left to give all necessary signals for a complete correspondence by changing the poles of the battery at the ends of the wires. His call signal was given by a bell in connection with a clockwork, released by the deflection of a magnet.

REFERENCES.--For a detailed explanation of the working of
Schilling’s telegraph, J. S. T. Gehler’s “Physikalisches
Wörterbuch” for 1838, Vol. IX. p. 111; Fahie’s “History,” pp.
310–313; “Sc. Am. Suppl.,” No. 405, p. 6467.

From the account of the telegraphic collection at the 1873 Exposition, published by Dr. Edward Zetzsche in the “Austellungblatte” of the Vienna “Neue Freie Presse,” the following is extracted: “Even after Prof. Oersted, of Copenhagen, had observed the deviation of a magnetic needle under the influence of the current, neither the proposition of Ampère, at Paris, in 1820 (of employing thirty needles and sixty wires) nor that of Fechner, at Leipzig, in 1829 (twenty-four needles and forty-eight wires) gave any impulse to telegraphy. Only in 1832 did the Russian Councillor of State, Baron Schilling de Kannstadt (who had seen the telegraph of his friend Sömmering, and had made it known in Russia), invent a new instrument with but five wires, which number he subsequently reduced to one. In it, the movements of the needle were rendered more perceptible by means of little discs of paper attached to a silk thread, holding the needle in suspension. This telegraph, it is true, was not put in application on a large scale, for Schilling died in 1837, but, on the 23rd of Sept. 1835, he had already brought out his apparatus at Bonn and at Frankfort-on-the-Main, where it was seen amongst other persons by Prof. Muncke, who doubtless constructed a similar one which he took with him to Heidelberg.”

It was only one year before his death that Schilling succeeded in obtaining the support of the Russian Government for his telegraph, and it was only after Muncke had shown it (March 6, 1836) to Wm. Fothergill Cooke, then a student in medicine at Heidelberg, that the latter produced his needle telegraph, which was followed by Cooke and Wheatstone’s still more perfect instrument in 1837 (Prime’s “Life of Morse,” pp. 265, 276). Some improvements in Schilling’s so-called deflective telegraph had, in the meantime, been made by Gauss and Weber at Göttingen, as well as by Steinheil at Munich.

Prior to his visiting Bonn (Meeting of Naturalists--Isis, Nog., 1836) Schilling had taken the working model of his telegraph to Vienna, where he made many experiments with it in conjunction with Baron Jacquin and with Prof. Andreas von Ettinghausen. Upon his return home from Germany in 1836, he declined invitations made him to bring his instruments to England (Dr. Hamel’s St. Petersburg lecture on “The Telegraph and Baron Paul Schilling”), whilst, by direction of the Russian Commission of Inquiry, he set up an experimental telegraph in two chambers of the Palace of the Admiralty connecting the apparatus by a long line over ground and by a cable laid in the waters of the canal. The results proved so satisfactory that in May 1837 the Emperor Nicholas ordered a submarine line to be laid between St. Petersburg and Cronstadt. Schilling’s death, on the 25th of July following, prevented, however, the execution of the project.

REFERENCES.--Biography in _Sci. Am. Supp._, No. 547, p. 8737;
_Polytechnic Central Journal_, Nos. 31, 32 for 1838; _Lumière
Electrique_ for March 17, 1883; “Allg. Bauztg.,” 1837, No. 52,
p. 440; L. Turnbull, Electro. Magn. Tel. p. 223; (Hibbard’s
Ev. 31; Channing, Ev. 41); Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 798;
_Annales Télégraphiques_ for November to December 1861, p. 670;
_Journal Soc. of Arts_ for July 22, 1859, p. 598; References
at Ronalds’ “Catalogue,” p. 457; Du Moncel, “Exposé,” Vol.
III. p. 8 and “Traité Théorique et Pratique du Tel. Elect.,”
Paris, 1864, p. 217; _Comptes Rendus_, Vol. VII for 1838, p. 82;
_Journal Franklin Inst._ for 1851, p. 60; H. F. E. Lenz, “Uber
die Praktische ... Galvanismus,” 1839; “Report of Smithsonian
Inst.,” 1898, pp. 224–225.

=A.D. 1812–1813.=--Morichini (Domenico Pini), eminent Italian physician, is the first to announce that unmagnetized steel needles can be rendered magnetic by making the focus of violet solar rays collected through a lens pass repeatedly from the middle to one end of the needle, without touching the other half (Zantedeschi, II. p. 214).

The long contention created by this announcement and the ingenious experiments of Mrs. Somerville, together with the results obtained by P. T. Riess and L. Moser, are detailed at p. 48 of Brewster’s (1837) “Treatise on Magnetism.” At p. 12 of his article (Vol. XIV of the eighth “Britannica”), Sir David Brewster states that Morichini’s experiments were successfully repeated by both Dr. Carpi at Rome and the Marquis Ridolfi at Florence; but M. d’Hombre Firmas, at Alais, in France; Prof. Pietro Configliachi, of Pavia, and M. Berard, of Montpelier, failed in obtaining decided effects from the violet rays. In 1814 Morichini exhibited the actual experiment to Sir Humphry Davy, and in 1817 Dr. Carpi showed it to Prof. Playfair. A few months later Sir David Brewster met Davy at Geneva, and learned from him the fact that he had paid the most diligent attention to one of Morichini’s experiments, and that he had actually seen with his own eyes an unmagnetized needle rendered magnetic by violet light. Then follow in the same article the account of Dr. Carpi’s experiment as given to Brewster by Prof. Playfair, also details of the investigations of Mrs. Somerville, Mr. Christie, Sir William Snow Harris, Prof. Zantedeschi, of MM. Baumgartner and Barlocci, as well as those of Riess and Moser above alluded to.

REFERENCES.--“Elogio storico del Cavaliere D. Morichini” in
_Mem. della Soc. Ital._, Vol. XXVI. p. 3; Riess and Moser in
_Phil. Mag. or Annals_, Vol. VIII. p. 155, 1830 and in Edin.
_Trans._, Vol. X. p. 123; “Library of Useful Knowledge” (El.
Mag.), p. 97; _Zeitschrift_, Vol. I. p. 263; Noad, “Manual,” pp.
532, 533; the article of Col. George Gibbs in Silliman’s _Amer.
Jour. of Sci._, 1818, Vol. I. pp. 89, 90; _Annales de Chimie_,
Vol. XLII. p. 304; Brewster’s “Optics,” p. 92; also articles
“Optics,” p. 596, “Light,” p. 452 and “Electricity,” p. 569 of
the eighth “Britannica”; _Edin. Jour. of Sci._, No. 4, p. 225;
B. Gandolfi, “Antologia Romana,” 1797; Harris, “Rud. Mag.,”
Parts I, II. p. 69; _Phil. Trans._ for 1826, pp. 132, 219; D.
Olmstead, “Int. to Nat. Phil.,” 1835, Vol. II. p. 194. See also
Thomas Thomson’s “Outline of the Sci.,” p. 514, and Berzelius’
“Traité de Chimie,” Vol. I. p. 138 for Morichini’s observations
on galvanic energy; “Bibl. Brit.,” Vol. LII, 1813, p. 21; Vol.
LIII, 1813, p. 195; Vol. LIV, 1813, p. 171 (Experiments of G.
Babini in Florence); Vol. IV, N.S., 1817, pp. 1–8; Vol. V,
N.S., 1817, p. 167; Vol. VI, N.S., 1817, p. 81; Vol. XI, N.S.,
1819, p. 29 for the experiments of L. A. d’Hombre Firmas on
Morichini’s violet rays, whilst p. 174 of the same issue gives
J. Murray’s investigations as recorded in the “Phil. Mag.” for
April 1819.

Peter (Pietro) Configliachi, already named, was the successor of Volta as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Pavia University, and became editor of the “Biblioteca Fisica d’Europa,” the “Biblioteca Germanica,” the “Biblioteca Italiana” and the “Giornale di Fisica, Chimica e Storia Naturale” (Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IV. p. 908; J. J. Prechtl, in Schweigger’s _Journal_, Vol. IV for 1812; Fr. Mochetti, “Lettera al P. Configliachi,” Como, 1814; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. LVIII, 1815, p. 305 and Vol. IV of the N.S. for 1817, pp. 1–8).

=A.D. 1813.=--Sharpe (John Robert), of Doe Hill, near Alfreton, transmits to the _Repertory of Arts_ a letter, which appeared in its Vol. XXIX, second series, p. 23, wherein he alludes to p. 188, Vol. XXIV of the same series, containing an account of Sömmering’s apparatus. He says:

“Without the slightest wish to throw a doubt over the originality of Mr. Sömmering’s invention, I beg leave to mention that an experiment, showing the advantages to be obtained from the application of the certain and rapid motion of the electric principle through an extensive voltaic circuit to the purpose of the ordinary telegraph, was exhibited by me before the Right Hon. the Lords of the Admiralty, in the beginning of February 1813.”

It is said that the Lords of the Admiralty spoke approvingly of it, but stated that as the war was over, and money scarce, they could not carry it into effect (_Saturday Review_ for August 21, 1858, p. 190).

Ronalds says (“Catal.,” p. 473):

“No description of this telegraph appears to have been printed. It was mentioned at the Admiralty after the invention and full description of Sömmering’s, described fully and with figures in the Denkschriften of the Academy of Munich for 1809–1810, issued in 1811.”

Mr. Benjamin Sharpe, nephew of J. R. Sharpe, is the author of “A Treatise on the Construction and Submersion of Deep-Sea Electric Telegraph Cables,” London, 1861, wherein he alludes to the above, and asserts that his uncle “conveyed signals a distance of seven miles under water” (Fahie’s “History,” pp. 244–246; _Sci. Am. Supp._, No. 404, pp. 6, 446).

=A.D. 1813.=--Deleuze (Joseph Philippe François), French physician, publishes his “Histoire Critique du Magnétisme Animal,” containing the result of observations made by him during the previous twenty-five years upon animal magnetism.

According to Dr. Allen Thomson, of the University of Glasgow, Deleuze believed in the existence of an all-pervading magnetic fluid. This fluid, says he, is under the control of the will, and is constantly escaping from our bodies, forming around them an atmosphere, which, having no determinate current, does not act sensibly on the person near us; but, when urged and directed by our volition, it moves with all the force which we impress upon it; it is moved like the luminous rays emitted by substances in a state of combustion. The chief difference between the Deleuze and Puységur schools has reference to the various modes in which the magnetic fluid should be brought into action, and the suitable occasions for its employment.

During the year 1815 the Magnetic Society was established in Paris, with M. De Puységur as its president and M. Deleuze as vice-president, but it expired in 1820. In 1819 M. Deleuze had published his “Défense du Magnétisme Animal,” in reply to the attack made upon the subject by M. Virey through the “Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales,” and he was followed, more particularly, by M. Bertrand, who issued in 1823 his “Traité du Somnambulisme,” and in 1826 his still more important work, “Du Magnétisme Animal en France,” etc. Respecting the last named Deleuze says:

“Of all the attacks directed against magnetism up to the present day, this is the most powerful, the most imposing, and the most ably combined. The author is a man of genius, etc. He has been occupied with magnetism for some years. He has joined its practice to that of medicine, and he has even taught its doctrines in public lectures. A more attentive examination and new experiments have dissuaded him from a belief which he himself propagated; he undertakes to undeceive others, and to prove that magnetism is a mere chimera. Certainly his conviction must be very strong.”

REFERENCES.--Article “Somnambulism,” in the “Britannica,” more
especially for a review of, and extracts from, Deleuze’s great
work, also the translation of the latter by T. C. Hartshorn, of
which the enlarged fourth edition was published at London in
1850, accompanied by notes and a life by Dr. Foissac.

=A.D. 1813.=--Brande (William Thomas), F.R.S., succeeds Sir Humphry Davy as Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Institution after having long been his assistant.

He was already favourably known through a long line of interesting chemical experiments, one of which, treating of the effects of the galvanic current on albumen, had attracted very particular attention at the time it was communicated to the _Philosophical Transactions_. When he applied Davy’s method to fluids containing albumen, the albumen and acid were found at the positive pole and the albumen and alkali at the negative pole, and he also observed that, although it remained fluid with a weak battery, a stronger one caused it to be separated in a coagulated form. In like experiments subsequently made by Golding Bird, coagulation took place in the positive vessel, while none occurred in the negative; after a time the contents of the former had an acid taste, and of the latter a caustic alkaline flavour. When all in the positive vessel was coagulated by the galvanic action, he found there hydrochloric acid mixed with chlorine and the alkali in the negative vessel.

He also repeated the experiments of Davy on the light developed by charcoal points connected with a powerful galvanic battery, and found that this light was as effectual as solar light in decomposing muriate of silver and other bodies, and in acting upon hydrogen and chlorine gases, causing them to detonate, but he could not produce the same effect by the moon’s rays or by any other light.

The electricity developed in flame, which had received much attention from Paul Erman and others, was likewise investigated by Prof. Brande, whose conclusions are to be found detailed at Sec. III. chap. iii. part i. of the “Electricity” article in the “Encyclopædia Britannica.” Therein is recalled the fact that A. L. Lavoisier, P. S. Laplace and Aless. Volta previously obtained clear indications of electricity by the combustion of charcoal, while H. B. de Saussure failed to develop electricity either by the combustion or explosion of gunpowder, and Humphry Davy could not obtain it through the combustion of charcoal or of iron in air or in pure oxygen. In the above-named article will also be found an account of the investigations of Pouillet and of Becquerel in the same line; some of the other well-known scientists who have treated more or less directly upon the subject being E. F. Dutour, J. S. Waitz, J. J. Hemmer, Heinrich Buff, G. Gurney, Carlo Matteucci, W. R. Grove, Michael Faraday, M. A. Bancalari, W. G. Hankel, F. Zantedeschi and M. Neyreneuf.

REFERENCES.--_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XLIV. p. 124; _Phil. Mag. or
Annals_, Vol. IX. p. 237; _Annales de Chimie_, 5^e série,
Vol. II; _Phil. Trans._ for 1809 and 1820; _Mémoires de
Mathématiques_, Vol. II. p. 246; “Cat. Sc. Pap. Roy. Soc.,” Vol.
I. p. 48; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. LVII, 1814, p. 11.

=A.D. 1813.=--Colonel Mark Beaufoy (already alluded to at Graham, A.D. 1722), describes in the first volume of Dr. Thomas Thomson’s _Annals of Philosophy_ what has by many been called the most perfect form known of the variation compass. It is also to be found illustrated at p. 81, Vol. XIV of the eighth “Britannica,” wherein it is said that he employed it in the valuable series of magnetic observations made by him between the years 1813 and 1821. It consists of a telescope, underneath the axis of which is a magnetic needle whose position is alterable in order to indicate the exact angle of deviation, or the declination of the needle from the true meridian.

Brewster states (eighth “Brit.,” Vol. XIV. p. 54) that when the diurnal variation of the needle was first discovered it was supposed to have only two changes in its movements during the day. About 7 a.m. its north end began to deviate to the west, and about 2 p.m. it reached its maximum westerly deviation. It then returned to the eastward to its first position, and remained stationary till it again resumed its westerly course in the following morning. When magnetic observations became more accurate, it was found that the diurnal movement commences much earlier than 7 a.m., but its motion is to the east. At 7.30 a.m. it reaches its greatest easterly deviation, and then begins its movement to the west till 2 p.m. It then returns to the eastward till the evening, when it has again a slight westerly motion; and in the course of the night, or early in the morning, it reaches the point from which it set out twenty-four hours before. The most accurate observations made in England were those of Colonel Beaufoy, when the variation was about 24½´ west. In these the absolute maxima were earlier than in Canton’s observations, and the second maximum west about 11 p.m. Dr. Thomas Thomson alludes to the diurnal investigations of Barlow and Christie and others, and gives (“Outline of the Sciences,” London, 1830, pp. 543–550) a table of the mean monthly variation of the compass from April 1817 to March 1819 as determined by Colonel Beaufoy. Mr. Peter Barlow, he says, has given in his “Essay on Magnetic Attractions” a very ingenious and plausible explanation of the daily variation by supposing the sun to possess a certain magnetic action on the needle.

REFERENCES.--_Phil. Mag._, Vol. LIII, 1819, p. 387; LV, 1820,
p. 394; W. S. Harris, “Rud. Mag.,” Parts I, II, pp. 150–152;
“Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol. III (Magnetism), pp. 766, 767; _Annals
of Phil._, series 1, Vols. II, VI, IX, XVI, and N.S., Vol. I. p.
94, for Beaufoy’s own summary of all his observations.

=A.D. 1814.=--Mr. Thomas Howldy addresses to the _Philosophical Magazine_ a letter, dated Hereford, March 24, 1814, relative to “Experiments evincing the influence of atmospheric moisture on an electric column composed of 1000 discs of zinc and silver,” wherein he also makes reference to the dry pile of J. A. De Luc alluded to at A.D. 1809.

REFERENCES.--_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XLIII. pp. 241, 363, and
_Nicholson’s Journal_, Vol. XXXV. p. 84; also the _Phil. Mag._,
Vol. XLI. p. 393, for a description of the electric column of
20,000 pairs of zinc and silver plates, and others, constructed
during the previous year (1813) by Mr. George J. Singer.

The above-named letter was followed (_Phil. Mag._, Vols. XLVI. pp. 401–408, and XLVII. p. 285) by a communication on the “Franklinian Theory of the Leyden Jar ... with Some Remarks on Mr. Donovan’s Experiments,” and by another letter sent to MM. R. Taylor and R. Phillips (_Phil. Mag. or Annals_, Vol. I. p. 343) relative to the paper of William Sturgeon “On the Inflammation of Gunpowder by Electricity,” which appeared at p. 20 of the last-named book.

An interchange of correspondence not long since through the columns of the London _Electrical Review_, for the purpose of ascertaining the period of the earliest use of carbon as a resistant, brought forth an extract from the “Treatise on Atmospheric Electricity,” published at London and Edinburgh, 1830, by Mr. John Murray, of Glasgow, which reads as follows: “Mr. Howldy, of Hereford, an ingenious electrician, has by some novel experiments clearly proved the increased power of electricity if retarded in its progress; instead of using tubes of glass filled with water, as Mr. Woodward had done, he has employed a glass tube supplied with lamp black.”

=A.D. 1814.=--Murray (John), Scotch physician and chemist, also Ph.D., and Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica in the Edinburgh University, is the author of works entitled, “On Electrical Phenomena, and on the new substance called Jod (Iode),” also “On the Phenomena of Electricity,” published at London, respectively, during the years 1814 and 1815 (Tilloch’s _Phil. Mag._, Vols. XLIII. pp. 270–272; XLV. pp. 38–41; “Catalogue Sci. Pap. Roy. Soc.,” Vol. IV. pp. 556–557).

Dr. John Murray died July 22, 1820, in Edinburgh, the place of his birth, as will be seen by reference to Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XI. p. 706, and to Poggendorff, Vol. II. pp. 243, 244. He should not be confounded, as has been done by many, with _Mr._ John Murray, whose papers, read before the Royal Society (“Catalogue Scientific Papers,” Vol. IV. pp. 557–559; Vol. VI. p. 731), treat of the relations of caloric to magnetism, of the unequal distribution of caloric in voltaic action, etc., of aerolites, of the decomposition of metallic salts by the magnet, of the ignition of wires by the galvanic battery, of lightning rods, conductors, etc. (These papers appear in Tilloch’s _Phil. Mag._, Vols. LIV, 1819, pp. 39–43; LVIII, 1821, pp. 380–382; LX, 1822, pp. 358–361; LXI, 1823, p. 207; LXII, 1823, p. 74; LXIII, 1824, pp. 130, 131; L. F. von Froriep, “Notizen ...” for 1823, Vol. IV. col. 198; _Edin. Phil. Jour._, Vols. XIV for 1826, pp. 57–62; XVIII for 1828, pp. 88–91; and in Sturgeon’s _Annals_, Vols. III for 1838–1839, pp. 64–68; VII for 1841, pp. 82–83.)

Mr. John Murray is said to have been a lecturer on experimental philosophy, and one of his most interesting reviews is the one appearing at p. 62, Vol. XLIII of the _Phil. Mag._ regarding Ezekiel Walker’s theory of combustion as deduced from galvanic phenomena. Murray thinks there is much obscurity in Mr. Walker’s solution, which arises “from his using indiscriminately the terms heat (caloric) and combustion. Now caloric (the matter of heat) and combustion (the act of ignition) are not identical. What may be collected, however, from the general tenor of that paper is the theory of Lavoisier in a new dress.”

At p. 17 of this same volume is a paper from Mr. John Webster on the agency of electricity in contributing the peculiar properties of bodies and producing combustion, while, at p. 20, is a letter from Mr. George J. Singer wherein he calls Mr. Walker a novice in the science of electricity, saying that among other things he “has yet to learn that a conducting body supported by dry glass and surrounded by dry air may be still very far from being insulated.”

The treatise of Mr. John Murray on “Atmospheric Electricity” previously alluded to (at Thomas Howldy, A.D. 1814) was translated into French (“Mém. de l’Elec. Atm.”) by J. R. D. Riffault, Paris, 1831.

REFERENCES.--_Phil. Mag._, Vols. XLIII. p. 175; L. pp. 145,
312; LII. p. 60; LIII. pp. 268, 468; LVIII. p. 387; LX. p. 61;
LXI. p. 394; LXII. p. 456; LXIII. p. 130; also pp. 306, 307 of
Fahie’s “History,” regarding John Murray’s “Notes to Assist the
Memory in Various Sciences.”

=A.D. 1814.=--Wedgwood (Ralph), member of the family whose name is inseparably connected with one of the most beautiful manufactures of pottery, completes an electric telegraph, upon which he has been steadily at work from 1806. Of its construction or mode of action he appears, however, to have left no particulars.

At pp. 178 and 180 of “The Wedgwoods ...” by Llewellyn Jewett, London, 1865, appears the following:

“This Thomas Wedgwood was, I believe, cousin to Josiah, being son of Aaron Wedgwood, etc., etc. ... He was a man of high scientific attainments, and has the reputation of being the first inventor of the electric telegraph (afterward so ably carried out by his son Ralph) and of many other valuable works.... In 1806 Ralph Wedgwood established himself at Charing Cross, and soon afterward his whole attention began to be engrossed with his scheme of the electric telegraph, which in the then unsettled state of the kingdom--in the midst of war, it must be remembered--he considered would be of the utmost importance to the government. In 1814, having perfected his scheme, he submitted his proposals to Lord Castlereagh, and most anxiously waited the result ... was informed that ‘the war being at an end, the old system was sufficient for the country.’ The plan, therefore, fell to the ground, until Prof. Wheatstone, in happier and more enlightened times, again brought up the subject with such eminent success. The plan thus brought forward by Ralph Wedgwood, in 1814, and of which, as I have stated, he received the first idea from his father, was described by him in a pamphlet, entitled ‘An Address to the Public on the Advantages of a Proposed Introduction of the Stylographic Principle of Writing Into General Use; And Also an Improved Species of Telegraphy, Calculated for the Use of the Public, as Well as for the Government.’”

The pamphlet is dated May 29, 1815. Fahie gives (“History,” pp. 125–127) extracts both from this pamphlet, regarding the electric Fulguri-Polygraph, and from the communication of Mr. W. R. Wedgwood to the _Commercial Magazine_ for December 1846, urging his father’s claims to a share in the discovery of the electric telegraph.

REFERENCES.--“Life of Wedgwood,” by Miss Meteyard, 2 vols.,
1865–1866; J. D. Reid, “The Telegraph in America,” p. 70.

=A.D. 1814.=--Singer (George John), distinguished English scientist and writer, publishes the first edition of his valuable “Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry,” of which translations were made, in French by M. Thillaye, Paris, 1817, as well as in German and in Italian during the year 1819.

Mr. Singer is the inventor of the improvement upon Mr. Bennet’s electroscope, which is to be found illustrated and described in nearly all works upon natural philosophy and the main design of which is to diminish, if not totally prevent, the amount of moisture generally precipitated upon the surface of insulators. Mr. Singer remarks that his arrangement so effectually precludes moisture that some of the “electrometers constructed in 1810 and which have never yet (1814) been warmed or wiped, have still apparently the same insulating power as at first.” The use of this apparatus is strongly recommended by Dr. Faraday, whose instructions for the use of electrometers are given at great length at pp. 617–619, Vol. VIII of the eighth “Britannica.”

After describing the above-named electrometer, Mr. William Sturgeon remarks (“Lectures,” London, 1842, pp. 42, 43):

“It is frequently exceedingly difficult, without extensive reading, to confer the merit that is due to invention on the right party, and even then we sometimes err for want of proper information. Mr. Singer has hitherto, with most writers, had the exclusive merit of insulating the axial wire of the electroscope from the brass cap, by a glass tube; and it would appear from the description he gives of this improvement in his excellent treatise on electricity that he was not aware of anything of the kind being previously done. It appears, however, by an article of Mr. Erman in the _Journal de Physique_, Vol. LIX. p. 98, and _Nicholson’s Journal_, Vol. X, published in 1805, that a Mr. Weiss had applied the glass tube for the purpose of insulating the axial wire of Bennet’s electroscope. The account runs thus: ‘The electrometer he (Mr. Erman) used was that distinguished in Germany as the electrometer of Weiss.’ From this it would appear to have been long known. ‘The length of its leaves of gold is half an inch, and the diameter of the glass cylinder which encloses them is three-quarters of an inch, the height being an inch and a half. Its cover of ivory does not project above the glass, and is perforated in the middle with a hole in which a _smaller glass tube is fixed, and through this last tube passes the metallic rod that serves to suspend the gold leaves_.’ Singer’s improvement, first published in 1814, would, therefore, consist in adding the brass ferrule, which covers the glass tube first introduced by Weiss.”

Singer is also the inventor of one of the best-known amalgams for the cushions of the electric machine. It is described at p. 536, Vol. VIII of the eighth “Britannica,” where it is said that a mixture of one part tin and two parts mercury is very effective, as is also the amalgam consisting of mosaic gold and the deutosulphuret of tin. (Other descriptions of the application of mosaic gold on the rubber are to be found at p. 432, Vol. II of “Young’s Course of Lectures”; Woulfe, _Phil. Trans._, 1771, p. 114; Bienvenu and Witry de Abt, _Lichtenb. Mag._, Vols. II. p. 211, and IV. st. 3, pp. 58–61; Marquis de Bouillon, “Observ. de Physique,” XXI.)

The dry electric columns which Mr. Singer invented are alluded to in _Phil. Mag._, Vols. XLI. p. 393 and XLV. p. 359, while the results of his experiments on the electric fusion of metallic wires and the oxidation of metals, as well as those made upon the electricity of sifted powders and also in order to ascertain the effects of electricity upon gases, are to be found recorded at pp. 564, 592, 593 and 597, Vol. VIII of the 1855 “Britannica,” and at p. 46 (“Electricity”) of “Library of Useful Knowledge.”

REFERENCES.--pp. 15, 16 of the last-named work; Poggendorff,
Vol. II. pp. 938, 939; Figuier, “Exp. et Hist.,” 1857, Vol.
IV. p. 267; Sturgeon’s “Lectures,” 1842, p. 11; _Phil. Mag._,
Vols. XXXVII. p. 80; XLII. pp. 36, 261; XLIII. p. 20; XLVI. pp.
161, 259; likewise Ch. Samuel Weiss, at Poggendorff, Vol. II.
pp. 1287–1289; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. XLIII, 1810, p. 166; Vol.
XLVII, 1811, pp. 3, 113, 213, 313; Vol. LVI, 1814, pp. 197, 318.

=A.D. 1814–1815.=--Fraunhofer--Frauenhofer (Joseph von), a practical Bavarian physicist and optician, who had been assistant to the celebrated George Reichenbach, publishes his observations on spectra in a pamphlet entitled “Bestimmung des Brechungs und Farbenzerstreuungs-Vermögens ...”