Chapter VI: Part 6

This brings the attention of the committee to a very
material point, namely: the quantum of matter, or amount
of intelligence, which the instrument would be capable
of transmitting in a given time. The ordinary average of
transmission is about thirty letters per minute along each
wire. Six wires can be erected at an expense of somewhat
less than $500 per mile, which would make the telegraph
competent to the transmission of one hundred and eighty
letters per minute, on an average. The words of our
language are estimated to average six letters to a word. A
telegraphic line composed of six wires, would, consequently,
be able to transmit per minute thirty words fully spelt.
But it is wholly unnecessary that the words should be fully
spelt by the instrument. By a well-contrived system of
abbreviations, the number of letters to be transmitted,
in order to communicate a given number of words, is
greatly diminished; and, of course, the number of words
transmissible in a given time is proportionably augmented.
To such great perfection has this system of conventional
abbreviations been carried, as to have enabled the
telegraph, on one occasion, to transmit in thirty minutes,
from Washington to Baltimore, congressional intelligence
enough to fill a column of the Baltimore Patriot. This
was done, too, with only one wire. Increase the number of
wires to six, as proposed in the bill introduced by the
Committee on Commerce, and it follows that the capacity of
the instrument will be adequate to the transmission of six
long newspaper columns of matter in half an hour. Then it
is to be further noted, that the telegraph is capable of
working throughout the whole twenty-four hours, without
intermission—in darkness as well as in daylight—in stormy
weather as well as in serene—which would enable it to
communicate in a single day two hundred and eighty-eight
long newspaper columns of matter. All these facts put
together, evince that the capacity of the instrument, in
reference not only to the celerity of its communications,
but in reference also to the kind and quantity of matter it
can communicate in a given time, is such as to recommend it
as a most efficient medium both of private correspondence
and public intelligence.

That it is capable of being, and will actually be, at no
distant day, extensively employed as such a medium, it seems
to the committee there can be but little room to doubt. Such
a result seems, indeed, to be rendered altogether certain,
when, in addition to the capacities of the instrument, we
take into consideration its cheapness. For little more than
$100,000, Baltimore can be connected with New York; and for
a like sum, New York with Boston. There would then be an
unbroken telegraphic line from Boston to Washington; passing
through New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and the other
considerable towns on the route. What a vast number of short
commercial letters would such a line be able to attract to
itself, and to despatch every day, far in advance of
the ordinary transportation by mail. Nor would any danger
of a detrimental divulgence of their affairs exist to
deter merchants and men of business from resorting to the
telegraph; because, in the first place, the simple expedient
of a concerted cipher between distant correspondents would
protect their communications with a shield of secrecy
impenetrable even to the officers and managers of the
telegraph. And in the next place, the very nature of their
functions will require that these persons shall be men of
great trustworthiness, and that they shall moreover be
placed under the most stringent official obligations of
secrecy in regard to the contents of private communications.
Under such circumstances, men of business need no more
apprehend danger of improper publicity from employing the
telegraph, than from the necessity of having clerks in their
counting-houses to pen and copy their correspondence.

If all these advantages should have the effect of
attracting to the telegraph the amount of custom which to
the committee seems probable, it is obvious that a very
moderate tariff of charges would produce income enough to
make it a gainful property—at least upon such a line as
that from Boston to Washington. It is upon this ground the
committee base the belief that it is destined soon to be
established along that whole line, if not by government,
certainly by private capital and enterprise; and then a
state of things will immediately develop itself, which the
people will never endure nor tolerate the government in
permitting to exist. That state of things would be that the
post office, in its transportation of all correspondence and
news, would lag not hours, but days, behind the transmission
of the same things through another medium; and that, a
medium belonging to private individuals, and controlled by
private views and interests.

The importance of prompt action in the matter on the part
of the government is further apparent from the fact that the
invention is a private patented property. It is a property
to the production of which Professor Morse has devoted years
of the highest order of labour—the labour of genius and
science combined. Under the patronage and at the expense of
the government, he has been enabled to give to the world,
in the line between Baltimore and Washington, a visible
and perfectly triumphant demonstration of the success and
utility of his invention. But the pecuniary reward, to
which he is so justly entitled, remains yet in abeyance. It
depends upon his being successful in making contracts with
the government, or others, for the use of his invention.
And, of course, if government shall not speedily embrace the
project, and enable him to realize a compensation for his
discovery, he will be necessitated to look elsewhere for his
indemnification and reward. And, should the arrangements
into which he may find it necessary to enter with private
individuals or associations, stipulate exclusive rights in
their favour, it is manifest how greatly government
and people would lie at their mercy. Having in their
hands the monopoly of such a medium of intelligence on
the important lines, they could make such use of their
advantages over the government and the community as would
at length enable them to exact their own terms as the price
of the surrender of their exclusive right; for the truth
cannot be too often repeated, or too deeply impressed in
relation to the subject, that the people will never submit
long to the mischiefs and discredit of the public post
office transmission of correspondence and intelligence
being outstripped by any private monopoly or establishment
whatever. The loss of revenue will co-operate with the
complaints and sufferings of the people to compel the
government, in the long run, to do what were better done at
once—namely, to establish the telegraph in connection with,
and as a branch of, the post office, on such great lines
of communication as the correspondence and commerce of the
country may indicate.

An accident has occurred, during the present winter,
in the administration of the post office, to which the
committee beg leave to call the attention of the House,
as illustrative of the principles and policy by which the
Department avowedly feels itself bound, as the public organ
for the transmission of correspondence and intelligence. It
is well known that, from Boston to Covington, in Georgia,
the great southern and New Orleans mail is transported
wholly by steam-power, either on water or on rail roads.
It is carried this whole distance in five days. From
Covington to Mobile, it is carried in stages, with the
exception of a short interval of rail road in approaching
Montgomery, Alabama. At Mobile, the mail is again committed
to steam-carriage, by sea, to New Orleans. Now, of so much
importance was a single day’s anticipation of the mail
deemed in all the great cities on the route, that a private
express was established with that view, to be carried on
horseback between Covington and Montgomery. All matter
destined for the private express was addressed to the agents
of the company at Covington and Montgomery, according as
such matter should happen to come from the north or south.
The express carrier at Covington, receiving his despatches
from the northern mail on the arrival of the steam-cars,
delivered them at Montgomery to the post office again in
such time that they were sent from Montgomery to Mobile and
New Orleans by mail one day in advance of the other letters,
which reached Covington at the same time. The effect was,
the anticipation of the northern mail by one day at Mobile
and New Orleans; and the same operation, from Montgomery to
Covington, resulted in one day’s anticipation of the Mobile
and New Orleans mails at New York. What did the Post Office
Department do, under this state of facts? The answer to this
question is to be found on the records of the Department.
The Postmaster General, after watching these anticipations
for a short time, issued an order for their prevention by
the establishment of a post office express between Covington
and Montgomery, to run alongside the private express. In
the same manner, if the government shall not soon establish
the telegraph on public account on the great routes, it
will find the mails anticipated in the hundred-fold greater
degree by the establishment of private telegraphs, which
it will have to meet, either by purchasing them out on
exorbitant terms, or by erecting a rival public telegraph
line by their side.

The facts and reasonings which have now been submitted,
satisfy the committee that it is important that the
government should lose no time in occupying, with a
telegraph of its own, the ground between Baltimore and New
York. The committee look to the probability that the line
will afterwards he progressively extended northwardly,
southwardly, and westwardly, on routes the business
and correspondence on which shall justify and require
telegraphic facilities of communication.

Apart from the post office power, the government
undoubtedly possesses the authority to establish the
telegraph for its own use in the transmission of official
orders and communications. On this ground, as well as on
that growing out of the post office power, the committee
deem the constitutionality of the measure incontrovertible.

The committee might easily add to the views and arguments
which they have now presented, others of a highly commanding
character—especially those which relate to the extreme
value of which the magnetic telegraph would be in the
emergencies of war, and its singular adaptedness to render
our system of government easily and certainly maintainable
over the immense space from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
which our territory covers. Doubt has been entertained by
many patriotic minds how far the rapid, full, and thorough
intercommunication of thought and intelligence, so necessary
to a people living under a common representative republic,
could be expected to take place throughout such immense
bounds. That doubt can no longer exist. It has been resolved
and put an end to forever by the triumphant success of the
electro magnetic telegraph of Professor Morse, as already
tested by the government.

The fact that a bill has been long pending in the House,
introduced by the Committee on Commerce, for the extension
of the telegraph from Baltimore to New York, renders it
unnecessary for this committee to report a bill. Without
pronouncing positively on the sufficiency of the provisions
of that bill, the committee consider the whole subject
worthy the prompt attention of Congress.

Having thus presented their views on the subject referred
to them, the committee beg to be discharged from its further
consideration.

HISTORY OF TELEGRAPHS,

_Employing Electricity in Various Ways for the Transmission of Intelligence._

We presume it will not be uninteresting to the reader, to be presented with an account of the various discoveries, in their chronological order, by which the science of Electricity became known to the world during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and _prepared the way_ for those more magnificent results, which have been made in this the nineteenth century. We will endeavour to make it as brief as is consistent with the importance of the subject, to enable us to mark the succession of discoveries and improvements through two hundred years.

More than any other branch of experimental philosophy, that of electricity had been most neglected, until the seventeenth century. The attractive power of amber is mentioned by Theophrastus and Pliny, and also later by others.

[16]In the year 1600, William Gilbert, a native of Colchester, and a London physician, published a Latin Treatise, _De Magnete_, in which he relates a variety of electrical experiments. He increased the list of electric bodies and also of substances upon which electrics could act, and noted some of the circumstances relating to their action. His theory of electricity was, however, very imperfect.

[16] Many of the facts here given, are taken from Priestley’s Work upon Electricity.

In 1630, Nicolaus Cabœus at Terrara, repeated Gilbert’s experiments and made some progress, increasing the list of electrics; as also did Mr. Boyle in the year 1670. He made some discoveries which had escaped the observation of those who preceded him. Cotemporary with Mr. Boyle, Otto Guericke, burgomaster of Magdeburg, (the inventor of the air pump,) made some advances. He constructed a sulphur globe, which he mounted upon an axis, in a wooden frame, and causing it to revolve, at the same time rubbing the globe with his hand, performed a variety of electrical experiments. He was the first to discover, that a body once attracted by an excited electric, was repelled by it, and not again attracted until it had touched some other body. He observed the light and sound produced by the electric fluid, while turning his electrical machine. Dr. Wall about the same time observed the light and sound produced by rubbing pieces of amber with wool, and also experienced a slight shock. He compared the sound and light of the electric fluid so produced, to thunder and lightning.

Sir Isaac Newton also engaged in similar electrical experiments, and gave an account of them to the Royal Society in 1675. Mr. Hauksbee, whose writings are dated 1709, distinguished himself by experiments and discoveries in electrical attraction, and repulsion, and electric light. He constructed an electrical machine, adopting the glass, instead of the sulphur globe. He experimented upon the subtilty and copiousness of the electric light, and likewise upon the sound and shocks produced by the fluid. After the death of Mr. Hauksbee, the science of electricity made but slow progress, and few experiments were made for twenty years. In the year 1728, Mr. Stephen Grey, a pensioner at the Charter House, commenced his experiments with an excited glass tube. He and his friend, Mr. Wheeler, made a great variety of experiments in which they demonstrated, that electricity may be communicated from one body to another, even without being in contact, and in this way, may be conducted to a great distance. Mr. Grey afterwards found, that, by suspending rods of iron by silk or hair lines, and bringing an excited tube under them, sparks might be drawn, and a light perceived at the extremities in the dark. He electrified a boy suspended by hair lines; and communicated electricity to a soap bubble blown from a tobacco pipe. He electrified water, contained in a dish, placed upon a cake of rosin, and also a tube of water. He made some curious experiments upon a small cup of water, over which, at the distance of an inch, he held the excited tube. He observed the water to rise in a conical shape, from which proceeded a light; small particles of water were thrown off from the cone, and the tube moistened.

Mr. Du Fay, intendant of the French king’s gardens, repeated the experiments of Mr. Grey in 1733. He found that by wetting the pack-thread he succeeded better with the experiment of communicating the electric virtue through a line 1256 feet in length. He made the discovery of two kinds of electricity, which he called _vitreous_ and _resinous_; the former produced by rubbing glass, and the latter from excited sulphur, sealing wax, &c. But this he afterwards gave up as erroneous. Mr. Grey, in 1734, experimented upon iron rods and gave rise to the term _metallic conductors_. He gave the name _pencil_ of _electric light_ to the stream of electricity, such as is seen to issue from an electric point. He suggested the idea that the electric virtue of the excited tube was similar to that of thunder and lightning, and that it could be accumulated.

Dr. Desaguliers commenced his experiments in 1739. He introduced the term _conductor_ to that body to which the excited tube conveys its electricity. He called bodies in which electricity may be excited by rubbing or heating, _electric per se_; and _non-electric_ when they receive electricity, and lose it at once upon the approach of another non-electric. In the year 1742, several Germans engaged in this subject. Mr. Boze, a professor at Wittemburg, revives the use of Hauksbee’s globe, instead of using Grey’s glass tube, and added to it a _prime conductor_. Mr. Winckler substituted a cushion instead of the hand, which had before been employed to excite the globe. Mr. P. Gordon, a Benedictine monk and professor of philosophy at Erford, was the first who used a _cylinder_ instead of a globe. With his electrical machine he conveyed the fluid through wires 200 ells in length and killed small birds. Dr. Ludolf of Berlin, in the year 1744, kindled by electricity the _ethereal spirit_ of Frobenius, by the excited glass tube; the spark proceeding from an iron conductor. Mr. Boze fired gunpowder by electricity. Mr. Gordon contrived the electrical star. Mr. Winckler contrived a wheel to move by the agency of the same fluid. Mr. Boze conveyed electricity from one man to another by a jet of water, when both were placed upon cakes of rosin, six paces apart. Mr. Gordon fired spirits, by a jet of water; and the Germans invented the electrical bells.

Mr. Collinson in 1745 sent to the Library Company of Philadelphia, an account of these experiments, together with a tube, and directions how to use it. Franklin, with some of his friends, immediately engaged in a course of experiments, the results of which are well known. He was enabled to make a number of important discoveries, and to propose theories to account for various phenomena, which have been universally adopted, and which bid fair to endure for ages.

In the year 1745, such was the attention given to the subject of electricity, that experiments upon it were publicly advertised and exhibited for money in Germany and Holland. Dr. Miles, of England, in the same year fired phosphorus by the application of the excited tube itself without the intervention of a conductor. It was at this period that Dr. Watson’s attention was given to this subject. He fired air, made inflammable by a chemical process, and discharged a musket by the electric fluid. He made many experiments, some of which will be described as we proceed.

The year 1745 was made famous by the discovery of the _Leyden Phial_ by Mr. Cuneus a native of Leyden. It appears also to have been discovered by Mr. Von Kleist, dean of the Cathedral in Camin about the same time. By this discovery, electricity could be accumulated and severe shocks given. Mr. Gralath, in 1746, gave a shock to twenty persons at once, and at a considerable distance from the machine. He constructed the electrical battery by charging several phials at once. Mr. Winckler, and also M. Monnier, in France, transmitted the electric fluid through several feet of water as a part of the circuit. M. Nollet, in France, killed birds and fishes by the discharge of the Leyden jars. Improvements were made by Dr. Watson, and others, in the Leyden phial, by coating the inside and outside of it with tin foil. Abbé Nollet gave a shock to 180 of the guards in the king’s presence; and at the grand convent of the Carthusians in Paris, the whole community formed a line of 3600 feet in length, by means of wires between them. The whole company upon the discharge of the phial, gave a sudden spring at the same instant. The French philosophers tried the same experiment through a circuit of persons, holding wires between them, two and a half miles in length. In another experiment the water of the basin in the Tuilleries was made a part of the circuit.

M. Monnier, the younger, to discover the velocity of electricity, discharged the Leyden phial through an iron wire 4000 feet in length, and another 1319 feet, but could not discover the time required for its passage. Dr. Franklin communicated his observations, in a series of letters, to his friend Collinson, the first of which is dated March 28, 1747. In these he shows the power of points in drawing and throwing off the electrical matter. He also made the grand discovery of a _plus_ and _minus_, or of a _positive_ and _negative_ state of electricity. Shortly after Franklin, from his principles of plus and minus state, explained, in a satisfactory manner, the phenomena of the Leyden phial. Dr. Watson and others in July 18, 1747, conveyed the electric fluid across the Thames at Westminster bridge; the width of the river making a part of the circuit. On the 24th of July, he tried the experiment of forcing the electric fluid to make a circuit with the bend of the river, at the New River at Stoke, Newington. He supposed that the electric fluid would follow the river alone, through its circuitous windings, and return by the wire. He suspected from the result of this experiment, that the ground also conducted the fluid. On the 28th, he proved the fact by supporting a wire 150 feet in length upon baked sticks, using the ground as half of the circuit. On the 5th, of August, he tried another experiment of making the _dry_ ground a part of the circuit for a mile in extent, and found it to conduct equally as well as water. The last experiment was tried at Shooter’s Hill, on the 14th of August of the same year. But one shower of rain had fallen for the five preceding weeks. The wires, two miles in length, were supported upon baked sticks, and the dry ground was used for the return two miles of the circuit. They found the transmission of the electric fluid to be instantaneous. Dr. Watson made many other experiments which we must pass over.

Mr. Ellicott constructed an electrometer for measuring the quantity of electricity. Mr. Maimbury, at Edinburgh, electrified two myrtle trees, during the month of October, 1746, when they put forth small branches and blossoms sooner than other shrubs of the same kind, which had not been electrified. The same experiment was tried upon seeds, sowed in garden pots with the same success. Mr. Jallabert, Mr. Boze and the Abbé Menon principal of the College of Bueil, at Angers, tried the same experiments upon plants, by electrifying bottles in which they were growing. He proved that electrified plants always grew faster, and had finer stems, leaves and flowers than those which were not electrified.

In the year 1748, Dr. Franklin, and his friends, held an _electrical feast_[17] on the banks of the Schuylkill near Philadelphia, and as the account is amusing, as well as scientific, we will give an account of it as related by Franklin, in a letter to his friend Collinson, dated Philadelphia, 1748. (1 vol. of Franklin’s Works, p. 202.)

“Chagrined a little that we have been hitherto able to produce nothing in this way of use to mankind; and the hot weather coming on, when electrical experiments are not so agreeable, it is proposed to put an end to them for this season, somewhat humorously, in a party of pleasure, on the banks of the _Skuykil_.”

“Spirits, at the same time, are to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through the river, without any other conductor than the water, an experiment which we some time since performed, to the amazement of many. A turkey is to be killed for our dinner by the _electrical shock_, and roasted by the _electrical jack_, before a fire kindled by the _electrified bottle_: when the healths of all the famous electricians of England, Holland, France, and Germany are to be drank in _electrified bumpers_,[18] under a discharge of guns from the _electrical battery_.”

[17] “As the possibility of this experiment has not been easily conceived, I shall here describe it. Two iron rods, about three feet long, were planted just within the margin of the river, on the opposite sides. A thick piece of wire, with a small round knob at its end, was fixed on the top of one of the rods, bending downwards, so as to deliver commodiously the spark upon the surface of the spirit. A small wire, fastened by one end to the handle of the spoon containing the spirit, was carried across the river, and supported in the air by the rope commonly used to hold by, in drawing ferry boats over. The other end of this wire was tied round the coating of the bottle; which being charged, the spark was delivered from the hook to the top of the rod standing in the water on that side. At the same instant the rod on the other side delivered a spark into the spoon and fired the spirit; the electric fire returning to the coating of the bottle, through the handle of the spoon and the supported wire connected with them.”

[18] “An electrified bumper is a small thin glass tumbler, nearly filled with wine, and electrified as the bottle. This, when brought to the lips, gives a shock, if the party be close shaved, and does not breathe on the liquor.”

“In the year 1749, Franklin first suggested his idea of explaining the phenomena of thunder gusts, and of the aurora borealis, upon electrical principles. He points out many particulars in which lightning and electricity agree; in the same year he conceived the bold idea of ascertaining the truth of his doctrine, by actually drawing down the lightning, by means of sharp pointed iron rods, raised into the region of the clouds. Admitting the identity of electricity and lightning, and knowing the power of points in repelling bodies charged with electricity, and in conducting the fluid silently and imperceptibly, he suggested the idea of securing houses, ships, &c. from being damaged by lightning, by raising pointed rods several feet above the most elevated part of the building to be protected, and the other end descending some feet into the ground. It was not until the summer of 1752, that he was enabled to complete his grand discovery by experiments.”

“While he was waiting for the erection of a spire, it occurred to him that he might have more ready access to the region of clouds, by means of a common kite. He prepared one by fastening two cross sticks to a silk handkerchief, which would not suffer so much from the rain as paper. To the upright stick was affixed an iron point. The string was, as usual, of hemp, except the lower end, which was silk. Where the hempen string terminated, a key was fastened. With this apparatus, on the appearance of a thunder gust approaching, he went out into the commons, accompanied by his son, to whom alone he communicated his intentions, well knowing the ridicule which, too generally for the interests of science, awaits unsuccessful experiments in philosophy. He placed himself under a shade, to avoid the rain; his kite was raised—a thunder cloud passed over it—no sign of electricity appeared. He almost despaired of success, when, suddenly, he observed the loose fibres of his string to move towards an erect position. He now presented his knuckle to the key, and received a strong spark; repeated sparks were drawn from the key; a phial was charged, a shock given, and all the experiments made which are usually performed with electricity.”

“Franklin constructed rods so as to bring the lightning into his house, for the purpose of ascertaining if it was of the positive or negative kind. He succeeded in the experiment for the first time in April, 1753, when it appeared that the electricity was negative. On the 6th of June he met with a cloud electrified positively. The discoveries of Franklin roused the attention of all Europe, and many distinguished electricians repeated them with success. Professor Richman, of St. Petersburg, while making some experiments upon the electrical state of the atmosphere, was killed by the electric fluid, August, 1753. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, electricity was assiduously cultivated by a great number of eminent individuals, who extended the boundaries of the science by numerous experiments, and by the invention of ingenious and useful instruments. Experiments were made upon air, water and ice; and in relation to the surfaces of electric bodies; in relation to the two electrical states; upon the deflagration of the metals; decomposition of solids and liquids,” &c. &c.

_Lomond’s Electrical Telegraph._

It is stated in Young’s Travels in France, (1787, 4th ed. vol. 1, p. 79,) that a Mr. Lomond had invented a mode by which, from his own room, he held communication with a person in a neighbouring chamber, by means of electricity. He employed the common electrical machine placed at one station, and at the other an electrometer constructed with pith balls. These instruments were connected by means of two wires stretched from one apartment to the other; so that, at each discharge of the Leyden phial, the pith balls would recede from each other, until they came in contact with the return wire. His system of telegraphic correspondence is not related. We must suppose from the character of his invention, having but one movement, that of the divergence of the balls, and using an apparatus extremely delicate, that his means of communication could not have been otherwise than limited, and required a great amount of time.

The only mode in which it appears possible for him to have transmitted intelligence, seems to be this: a single divergence of the pith balls, succeeded by an interval of two or three seconds, may have represented A. Two divergencies in quick succession, with an interval following, may have represented B; three divergencies, in like manner, indicated the letter C; and so on for the remainder of the alphabet. Instead of these movements of the pith balls representing letters, they may have indicated the numerals 1, 2, 3, &c. so that with a vocabulary of words, numbered, conducted his correspondence. This appears to be the first electrical telegraph of which we have any account; but does not appear to have been used upon extended lines.

_Reizen’s Electric Spark Telegraph._

In 1794, according to Voigt’s Magazine, vol. 9, p. 1, Reizen made use of the electric spark for telegraphic purposes. His plan was based upon the phenomenon which is observed when the electric fluid of a common machine is interrupted in its circuit by breaks in the wire, exhibiting at the interrupted portions of the circuit a _bright spark_. The spark thus rendered visible in its passage he appears to have employed in this manner.

Figure 34 is a representation of the table upon which were arranged the letters of the alphabet, twenty-six in number. Each letter is represented by strips of tin foil, passing from left to right, and right to left, alternately, over a space of an inch square upon a glass table. Such parts of the tin foil are cut out, as will represent a particular letter. Thus, it will be seen that the letter A is represented by those portions of the tin foil which have been taken out, and the remaining portions answer as the conductor. P and N represent the positive and negative ends of the strips, as they pass through the table and reappear, one on each side of the small dot at A. Those two lines which have a dot between, are the ends of the negative and positive wire belonging to one of the letters. Now if a spark from a charged receiver is sent through the wires belonging to letter A, that letter will present a bright and luminous appearance of the form of the letter A. “As the passage of the electric fluid through a perfect conductor is unattended with light, and as the light or spark appears only where imperfect conductors are thrown in its way, hence the appearance of the light at those interrupted points of the tin foil; the glass upon which the conductors are pasted, being an imperfect conductor. The instant the discharge is made through the wire, the spark is seen simultaneously at each of the interruptions, or breaks, of the tin foil, constituting the letter, and the whole letter is rendered visible at once.” This table is placed at one station, and the electrical machine at the other, with 72 wires inclosed in a glass tube connecting the two stations. He could have operated with equal efficiency by using 37 wires having one wire for a common communicating wire, or with 36 wires by substituting the ground for his common wire. It does not appear that it was ever tested to any extent.

_Dr. Salva’s Electric Spark Telegraph._

In 1798, Dr. Salva, in Madrid, constructed a similar telegraph, as that suggested by Reizen, (see Voigt’s Magazine, vol. 11, p. 4.) The Prince of Peace witnessed his experiments with much satisfaction, and the Infant Don Antonio engaged with Dr. Salva in improving his instruments. It is stated that his experiments were conducted through many miles. No description of his plans appear to have been given to the public.

_Origin of Galvanism._

Galvanism takes its name from Galvani, Professor of Anatomy at Bologna, who discovered it in the year 1790. As the account of the circumstances attending the discovery of this useful and wonderful agent, may not be uninteresting to the reader, we insert it here as related in the “_Library of Useful Knowledge_.”

“It happened in the year 1790, that his wife, being consumptive, was advised to take, as a nutritive article of diet, some soup made of the flesh of frogs. Several of these animals, recently skinned for that purpose, were lying on a table in the laboratory, close to an electrical machine, with which a pupil of the Professor was amusing himself in trying experiments. While the machine was in action, he chanced to touch the bare nerve of the leg of one of the frogs with the blade of the knife that he held in his hand; when suddenly the whole limb was thrown into violent convulsions. Galvani was not present when this occurred, but received the account from his lady who had witnessed, and had been struck with the singularity of the appearance. He lost no time in repeating the experiment: in examining minutely all the circumstances connected with it, and in determining those on which its success depended. He ascertained that the convulsions took place only at the moment when the spark was drawn from the prime conductor, and the knife was at the same time in contact with the nerve of the frog. He next found that other metallic bodies might be substituted for the knife, and very justly inferred that they owed this property of exciting muscular contractions to their being good conductors of electricity. Far from being satisfied with having arrived at this conclusion, it only served to stimulate him to the farther investigation of this curious subject; and his perseverance was at length rewarded by the discovery, that similar convulsions might be produced in a frog, independently of the electrical machine, by forming a chain of conducting substances between the outside of the muscles of the leg, and the crural nerve. Galvani had previously entertained the idea, that the contractions of the muscles of animals were in some way dependent on electricity; and as these new experiments appeared strongly to favour this hypothesis, he with great ingenuity applied it to explain them. He compared the muscles of a living animal to a Leyden phial, charged by the accumulation of electricity on its surface, while he conceived that the nerve belonging to it, performed the function of the wire communicating with the interior of the phial, which would, of course, be charged negatively. In this state, whenever a communication was made by means of a substance of high conducting power between the surface of the muscle and the nerve, the equilibrium would be instantly restored, and a sudden contraction of the fibres would be the consequence.

“Galvani was thus the first to discover the reason of that peculiar convulsive effect which we now obtain from the Galvanic battery, and he attributed it to a modification of electricity. It was left to another to construct an instrument which would give a constant and increased effect, and develop this extraordinary fluid. Whatever share accident may have had in the original discovery of Galvani, it is certain that the invention of the Pile, an instrument which has most materially contributed to the extension of our knowledge in this branch of physical science, was purely the result of reasoning.

“Professor Volta, of Pavia, in 1800, was led to the discovery of its properties by deep meditation on the developements of electricity at the surface of contact of different metals. We may justly regard this discovery as forming an epoch in the history of galvanism; and since that period, the terms Voltaism, or Voltaic electricity, have been often, in honour of this illustrious philosopher, used to designate that particular form of electrical agency.

“He had been led by theory to conceive that the effect of a single pair of metallic plates might be increased, indefinitely, by multiplying their number, and disposing them in pairs, with a less perfect conducting substance between each pair. For this purpose he provided an equal number of silver coins, and of pieces of zinc, of the same form and dimensions, and also circular discs of card, soaked in salt water, and of somewhat less diameter than the metallic plates. Of these he formed a pile or column as shown in figure 35, in which three substances, silver, zinc, and wet card, denoted by the letters S, Z, I, were made to succeed one another in the same regular order throughout the series. The efficacy of this combination realized the most sanguine anticipations of the discoverer. If the uppermost disc of metal in the column be touched with the finger of one hand, previously wetted, while a finger of the other hand is applied to the lowermost disc, a distinct shock is felt in the arms, similar to that from a Leyden phial, or still more nearly resembling that from an electrical battery, weakly charged. These discs are supported by two large discs, _a_ and _i_, of wood, one at the bottom and the other at the top of the pile, with three glass rods, A, B, C, at equal distances around the pile, but not touching it, and are cemented into the wooden base and cover. P represents the wire connecting the silver disc, and N that connecting the zinc.”

_The Decomposition of Water._

“The chemical agency of galvanism, exerted on _fluid_ conductors, placed in the circuit between the poles of the battery, is very remarkable. Among the simplest of its effects is the resolution of water into its two gaseous elements, oxygen and hydrogen. The discovery of this fact is due to the united researches of Mr. Nicholson and Mr. Carlisle, and was one of the immediate consequences of the invention of the pile by Volta. The most convenient mode of exhibiting the decomposition of water by the Voltaic battery, is to fill, with water, a glass tube; to each end of which, a cork has been fitted so as to confine the water, and to introduce into the tube two metallic wires, by passing one, at each end, through the cork which closes it, allowing the extremities of the wires, that are in the water, to come so near each other as to be separated by an interval of only a quarter of an inch. The wires being then respectively made to communicate with each of the two poles of a Voltaic battery, the following phenomena will ensue. If the wire connected with the positive pole of the battery consists of an oxidable metal, it is rapidly oxidated by the water surrounding it; while, at the same time, a stream of minute bubbles of hydrogen gas arises from the surface of the other wire, which is in connection with the negative pole. But if we employ wires made of a metal which is not susceptible of oxidation by water, such as gold or platina, gas will be extricated from both the wires, and, by means of a proper apparatus may be collected separately.”

We shall now see that these two discoveries, viz. the Voltaic pile, and the decomposition of water by the agency of the former are the bases of a plan _for telegraphic_ purposes.

_Samuel Thomas Soemmering’s Description of his Voltaic Electric Telegraph, invented in 1809._

“The fact that the decomposition of water may be produced with certainty and instantaneously, not only at short, but at great distances from the Voltaic pile, and that the decomposition may be sustained for a considerable time, suggested to me the idea, that it might be made subservient for the purposes of transmitting intelligence in a manner superior to the plan in common use, and would supersede them. My engagements were such that I have only been able to test the practicability of my plan upon a small scale, and herewith submit, for the Academy’s publication, an account of the experiment.

“My telegraph was constructed and used in the following manner: In the bottom of a glass reservoir, figure 36, of which A A is a sectional view, are 35 golden points, or pins, passing up through the bottom of the glass reservoir, marked A, B, C, &c. 25 of which are marked with the 25 letters of the German alphabet and the ten numerals. The 35 points are each connected with an extended copper wire, soldered to them, and extending through the tube, E, to the distant station; are there soldered to the 35 brass plates, upon the wooden bar, K K. Through the front end of each of the plates, there is a small hole, I, for the reception of two brass pins, B and C; one of which is on the end of the wire connecting the positive pole, and the other the negative pole of the Voltaic column, O. Each of the 35 plates are arranged upon a support of wood, K K, to correspond with the arrangement of the 35 points at the reservoir, and are lettered accordingly. When thus arranged, the two pins from the column are held, one in each hand, and the two plates being selected, the pins are then put into their holes and the communication is established. Gas is evolved at the two distant corresponding points in an instant. For example, K and T. The peg on the hydrogen pole, evolves hydrogen gas, and that on the oxygen pole, oxygen gas.

“In this way every letter and numeral may be indicated at the pleasure of the operator. Should the following rules be observed, it will enable the operator to communicate as much if not more, than can be done by the _common telegraph_.

“_First Rule._ As the hydrogen gas evolved is greater in quantity than the oxygen, therefore, those letters which the former gas represents, are more easily distinguished than those of the latter, and must be so noted. For example, in the words _ak_, _ad_, _em_, _ie_, we indicate the letters _A_, _a_, _e_, _i_, by the hydrogen; _k_, _d_, _m_, _e_, on the other hand, by the oxygen poles.

“_Second Rule._ To telegraph two letters of the same name, we must use a unit, unless they are separated by the syllable. For example, the name _anna_, may be telegraphed without the unit, as the syllable _an_, is first indicated and then _na_. The name _nanni_, on the contrary, cannot be telegraphed without the use of the unit, because _na_ is first telegraphed, and then comes _nn_, which cannot be indicated in the same vessel. It would, however, be possible to telegraph even three or more letters at the same time by increasing the number of wires from 25 to 50, which would very much augment the cost of construction and the care of attendance.

“_Third Rule._ To indicate the conclusion of a word, the unit 1 must be used. Therefore, it is used with the last single letter of a word, being made to follow the ending letter. It must also be prefixed to the letter commencing a word, when that letter follows a word of _two letters_ only. For example: _Sie lebt_ must be represented _Si_, _e1_, _le_, _bt_, that is the unit 1 must be placed after the first _e_. _Er lebt_, on the contrary, must be represented. _Er_, _1l_, _eb_, _t1_; that is, the unit 1 is placed before the _l_. Instead of using the unit, another signal may be introduced, the cross † to indicate the separation of syllables.

“Suppose now the decomposing table is situated in one city, and the pin arrangement in another, connected with each other by 35 continuous wires, extended from city to city. Then the operator, with his Voltaic column and pin arrangement at one station, may communicate intelligence to the observer of the gas at the decomposing table of the other station.

“The metallic plates with which the extended wires are connected have conical shaped holes in their ends; and the pins attached to the two wires of the Voltaic column are likewise of a conical shape, so that when they are put in the holes, there may be a close fit, prevent oxidation and produce a certain connection. It is well known that slight oxidation of the parts in contact will interrupt the communication. The pin arrangement might be so contrived as to use permanent keys, which for the 35 plates or rods would require 70 pins. The first key might be for hydrogen A; the third key for hydrogen B; the fourth key for oxygen B, and so on.

“The preparation and management of the Voltaic column is so well known, that little need be said except that it should be of that durability as to last more than a month. It should not be of very broad surfaces, as I have proved, that six of my usual plates (each one consisting of a Brabant dollar, felt, and a disc of zinc, weighing 52 grains) would evolve more gas, than five plates of the great battery of our Academy.[19] As to the cost of construction, this model which I have had the honour to exhibit to the Royal Academy, cost 30 florins. One line consisting of 35 wires, laid in glass or earthen pipes, each wire insulated with silk, making each wire 22,827 Parisian feet, or a German mile, or a single wire of 788,885 feet in length, might be made for less than 2000 florins, as appears from the cost of my short one.”

[19] Academy of Sciences at Munich.

_Extract from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 20, page 325._

“To the foregoing notice, we append an article published in Thompson’s Annals of Philosophy, vol. 7, page 162, 1st series, February, 1816. This article is from the pen of Dr. John Redman Coxe, of Philadelphia, and it is believed that the idea of the employment of galvanism, for a telegraph which it suggests, was then original. Those who are acquainted with the history of the progress of electricity, as evolved by the ordinary machine, are aware that experiments had been made with a view to its employment for a similar purpose; but from the inherent difficulties of the subject, the project had been abandoned.

“It is not pretended, that the state of our knowledge on the subject of galvanism, was such at the time the foregoing suggestion was made, as would have enabled any person to apply it practically; this, if done, will be due to the recent discoveries on the subject of electro magnetism; a subject which has been very successfully pursued by the philosophers of our own country, and particularly by Professor Henry, of Princeton. As some of the philosophers of Europe are disputing upon the question of the authorship of _proposition_ for the employment of Galvanic electricity, telegraphically, we have thought that it would not be altogether inopportune, or uninteresting, to publish the article above referred to.

“_Use of Galvanism as a Telegraph: in an extract of a Letter from Dr. J. Redman Coxe, Professor of Chemistry, Philadelphia._

“I observe in one of the volumes of your Annals of Philosophy, a proposition to employ galvanism, as a solvent, for the urinary calculus, but which has been very properly, I think, opposed by Mr. Armiger. I merely notice this, as it gives me the opportunity of saying, that a similar idea was maintained in a thesis, _three years_ ago, by a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. I have, however, contemplated this important agent, as a probable means of establishing telegraphic communications, with as much rapidity, and perhaps less expense, than any hitherto employed. I do not know how far experiment has determined galvanic action, to be communicated by means of wires; but there is no reason to suppose it confined, as to limits, certainly not as to time. Now, by means of apparatus, fixed at certain distances, as telegraphic stations, by tubes, for the _decomposition_ of _water_, and of metallic salts, &c. regularly ranged, such a key might be adopted as would be requisite to communicate words, sentences, or figures, from one station to another, and so on to the end of the line, I will take another opportunity to enlarge upon this, as I think it might serve many useful purposes; but like all others, it requires time to mature. As it takes up little room, and may be fixed in private, it might, in many cases, of besieged towns, &c. convey useful intelligence, with scarcely a chance of detection by the enemy. However fanciful in speculation, I have no doubt that sooner or later, it will be rendered useful in practice.”

“I have thus, my dear sir, ventured to encroach upon your time, with some crude ideas, that may serve to elicit some useful experiments in the hands of others. When we consider what wonderful results have arisen from the first trifling experiments of the junction of a small piece of silver and zinc in so short a period, what may not be expected from the further extension of galvanic electricity: I have no doubt of its being the chiefest agent, in the hands of nature, of the mighty changes that occur around us. If the metals are compound bodies, which I doubt not, will not this active principle combine those constituent in numerous places, so as to explain their metallic formation? and if such constituents are in themselves aeriform, may not galvanism reasonably tend to explain the existence of metals in situations to which their specific gravities certainly do not entitle us to look for them?”

_Ronald’s Electric Telegraph, invented in 1816. From the Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th edition, page 662._

“M. Cavællo suggested the idea of conveying intelligence by passing a given number of sparks through an insulated wire in given spaces of time; and some German and American authors have proposed to construct galvanic telegraphs by the decomposition of water. Mr. Ronalds, who has devoted much time to the consideration of this form of the telegraph, proposes to employ common electricity to convey intelligence along insulated and buried wires, and he proved the practicability of such a scheme, by insulating eight miles of wire on his lawn at Hammersmith. In this case the wire was insulated in the air by silk strings. But he also made the trial with 525 feet of buried wire; with this view he dug a trench four feet deep, in which he laid a trough of wood two inches square, well lined within and without with pitch; and within this trough were placed thick glass tubes, through which the wire ran. The junction of the glass tubes was surrounded with shorter and wider tubes of glass, the ends of which were sealed up with soft wax.