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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/979-h.zip b/979-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..323d4a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/979-h.zip diff --git a/979-h/979-h.htm b/979-h/979-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5eb6de --- /dev/null +++ b/979-h/979-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8638 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Heroes of the Telegraph, by J. Munro + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heroes of the Telegraph, by J. Munro + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Heroes of the Telegraph + +Author: J. Munro + +Release Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #979] +Last Updated: February 6, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By J. Munro + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + Author Of 'Electricity And Its Uses,' Pioneers Of Electricity,' 'The Wire + And The Wave'; And Joint Author Of 'Munro And Jamieson's Pocket-Book Of + Electrical Rules And Tables.' + </p> + <p> + (Note: All accents etc. have been omitted. Italics have been converted to + capital letters. The British 'pound' sign has been written as 'L'. + Footnotes have been placed in square brackets at the place in the text + where a suffix originally indicated their existence.) + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE. + </h2> + <p> + The present work is in some respects a sequel to the PIONEERS OF + ELECTRICITY, and it deals with the lives and principal achievements of + those distinguished men to whom we are indebted for the introduction of + the electric telegraph and telephone, as well as other marvels of electric + science. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. CHARLES WHEATSTONE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. SAMUEL MORSE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. SIR WILLIAM THOMSON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. FLEEMING JENKIN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. JOHANN PHILIPP REIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. GRAHAM BELL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. THOMAS ALVA EDISON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. DAVID EDWIN HUGHES. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> I. CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> II. WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> III. SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> IV. ALEXANDER BAIN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> V. DR. WERNER SIEMENS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> VI. LATIMER CLARK. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> VII. COUNT DU MONCEL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> VIII. ELISHA GRAY. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH. + </h2> + <p> + The history of an invention, whether of science or art, may be compared to + the growth of an organism such as a tree. The wind, or the random visit of + a bee, unites the pollen in the flower, the green fruit forms and ripens + to the perfect seed, which, on being planted in congenial soil, takes root + and flourishes. Even so from the chance combination of two facts in the + human mind, a crude idea springs, and after maturing into a feasible plan + is put in practice under favourable conditions, and so develops. These + processes are both subject to a thousand accidents which are inimical to + their achievement. Especially is this the case when their object is to + produce a novel species, or a new and great invention like the telegraph. + It is then a question of raising, not one seedling, but many, and + modifying these in the lapse of time. + </p> + <p> + Similarly the telegraph is not to be regarded as the work of any one mind, + but of many, and during a long course of years. Because at length the + final seedling is obtained, are we to overlook the antecedent varieties + from which it was produced, and without which it could not have existed? + Because one inventor at last succeeds in putting the telegraph in + operation, are we to neglect his predecessors, whose attempts and failures + were the steps by which he mounted to success? All who have extended our + knowledge of electricity, or devised a telegraph, and familiarised the + public mind with the advantages of it, are deserving of our praise and + gratitude, as well as he who has entered into their labours, and by genius + and perseverance won the honours of being the first to introduce it. + </p> + <p> + Let us, therefore, trace in a rapid manner the history of the electric + telegraph from the earliest times. + </p> + <p> + The sources of a river are lost in the clouds of the mountain, but it is + usual to derive its waters from the lakes or springs which are its + fountain-head. In the same way the origins of our knowledge of electricity + and magnetism are lost in the mists of antiquity, but there are two facts + which have come to be regarded as the starting-points of the science. It + was known to the ancients at least 600 years before Christ, that a piece + of amber when excited by rubbing would attract straws, and that a lump of + lodestone had the property of drawing iron. Both facts were probably + ascertained by chance. Humboldt informs us that he saw an Indian child of + the Orinoco rubbing the seed of a trailing plant to make it attract the + wild cotton; and, perhaps, a prehistoric tribesman of the Baltic or the + plains of Sicily found in the yellow stone he had polished the mysterious + power of collecting dust. A Greek legend tells us that the lodestone was + discovered by Magnes, a shepherd who found his crook attracted by the + rock. + </p> + <p> + However this may be, we are told that Thales of Miletus attributed the + attractive properties of the amber and the lodestone to a soul within + them. The name Electricity is derived from ELEKTRON, the Greek for amber, + and Magnetism from Magnes, the name of the shepherd, or, more likely, from + the city of Magnesia, in Lydia, where the stone occurred. + </p> + <p> + These properties of amber and lodestone appear to have been widely known. + The Persian name for amber is KAHRUBA, attractor of straws, and that for + lodestone AHANG-RUBA attractor of iron. In the old Persian romance, THE + LOVES OF MAJNOON AND LEILA, the lover sings— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'She was as amber, and I but as straw: + She touched me, and I shall ever cling to her.' +</pre> + <p> + The Chinese philosopher, Kuopho, who flourished in the fourth century, + writes that, 'the attraction of a magnet for iron is like that of amber + for the smallest grain of mustard seed. It is like a breath of wind which + mysteriously penetrates through both, and communicates itself with the + speed of an arrow.' [Lodestone was probably known in China before the + Christian era.] Other electrical effects were also observed by the + ancients. Classical writers, as Homer, Caesar, and Plutarch, speak of + flames on the points of javelins and the tips of masts. They regarded them + as manifestations of the Deity, as did the soldiers of the Mahdi lately in + the Soudan. It is recorded of Servius Tullus, the sixth king of Rome, that + his hair emitted sparks on being combed; and that sparks came from the + body of Walimer, a Gothic chief, who lived in the year 415 A.D. + </p> + <p> + During the dark ages the mystical virtues of the lodestone drew more + attention than those of the more precious amber, and interesting + experiments were made with it. The Romans knew that it could attract iron + at some distance through an intervening fence of wood, brass, or stone. + One of their experiments was to float a needle on a piece of cork, and + make it follow a lodestone held in the hand. This arrangement was perhaps + copied from the compass of the Phoenician sailors, who buoyed a lodestone + and observed it set towards the north. There is reason to believe that the + magnet was employed by the priests of the Oracle in answering questions. + We are told that the Emperor Valerius, while at Antioch in 370 A.D., was + shown a floating needle which pointed to the letters of the alphabet when + guided by the directive force of a lodestone. It was also believed that + this effect might be produced although a stone wall intervened, so that a + person outside a house or prison might convey intelligence to another + inside. + </p> + <p> + This idea was perhaps the basis of the sympathetic telegraph of the Middle + Ages, which is first described in the MAGIAE NATURALIS of John Baptista + Porta, published at Naples in 1558. It was supposed by Porta and others + after him that two similar needles touched by the same lodestone were + sympathetic, so that, although far apart, if both were freely balanced, a + movement of one was imitated by the other. By encircling each balanced + needle with an alphabet, the sympathetic telegraph was obtained. Although + based on error, and opposed by Cabeus and others, this fascinating notion + continued to crop up even to the days of Addison. It was a prophetic + shadow of the coming invention. In the SCEPSIS SCIENTIFICA, published in + 1665, Joseph Glanvil wrote, 'to confer at the distance of the Indies by + sympathetic conveyances may be as usual to future times as to us in + literary correspondence.' [The Rosicrucians also believed that if two + persons transplanted pieces of their flesh into each other, and tattooed + the grafts with letters, a sympathetic telegraph could be established by + pricking the letters.] + </p> + <p> + Dr. Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth, by his systematic researches, + discovered the magnetism of the earth, and laid the foundations of the + modern science of electricity and magnetism. Otto von Guericke, + burgomaster of Magdeburg, invented the electrical machine for generating + large quantities of the electric fire. Stephen Gray, a pensioner of the + Charterhouse, conveyed the fire to a distance along a line of pack thread, + and showed that some bodies conducted electricity, while others insulated + it. Dufay proved that there were two qualities of electricity, now called + positive and negative, and that each kind repelled the like, but attracted + the unlike. Von Kleist, a cathedral dean of Kamm, in Pomerania, or at all + events Cuneus, a burgher, and Muschenbroek, a professor of Leyden, + discovered the Leyden jar for holding a charge of electricity; and + Franklin demonstrated the identity of electricity and lightning. + </p> + <p> + The charge from a Leyden jar was frequently sent through a chain of + persons clasping hands, or a length of wire with the earth as part of the + circuit. This experiment was made by Joseph Franz, of Vienna, in 1746, and + Dr. Watson, of London, in 1747; while Franklin ignited spirits by a spark + which had been sent across the Schuylkill river by the same means. But + none of these men seem to have grasped the idea of employing the fleet + fire as a telegraph. + </p> + <p> + The first suggestion of an electric telegraph on record is that published + by one 'C. M.' in the Scots Magazine for February 17, 1753. The device + consisted in running a number of insulated wires between two places, one + for each letter of the alphabet. The wires were to be charged with + electricity from a machine one at a time, according to the letter it + represented. At its far end the charged wire was to attract a disc of + paper marked with the corresponding letter, and so the message would be + spelt. 'C. M.' also suggested the first acoustic telegraph, for he + proposed to have a set of bells instead of the letters, each of a + different tone, and to be struck by the spark from its charged wire. + </p> + <p> + The identity of 'C. M.,' who dated his letter from Renfrew, has not been + established beyond a doubt. There is a tradition of a clever man living in + Renfrew at that time, and afterwards in Paisley, who could 'licht a room + wi' coal reek (smoke), and mak' lichtnin' speak and write upon the wa'.' + By some he was thought to be a certain Charles Marshall, from Aberdeen; + but it seems likelier that he was a Charles Morrison, of Greenock, who was + trained as a surgeon, and became connected with the tobacco trade of + Glasgow. In Renfrew he was regarded as a kind of wizard, and he is said to + have emigrated to Virginia, where he died. + </p> + <p> + In the latter half of the eighteenth century, many other suggestions of + telegraphs based on the known properties of the electric fire were + published; for example, by Joseph Bozolus, a Jesuit lecturer of Rome, in + 1767; by Odier, a Geneva physicist, in 1773, who states in a letter to a + lady, that he conceived the idea on hearing a casual remark, while dining + at Sir John Pringle's, with Franklin, Priestley, and other great geniuses. + 'I shall amuse you, perhaps, in telling you,' he says,'that I have in my + head certain experiments by which to enter into conversation with the + Emperor of Mogol or of China, the English, the French, or any other people + of Europe... You may intercommunicate all that you wish at a distance of + four or five thousands leagues in less than half an hour. Will that + suffice you for glory?' + </p> + <p> + George Louis Lesage, in 1782, proposed a plan similar to 'C. M.'s,' using + underground wires. An anonymous correspondent of the JOURNAL DE PARIS for + May 30, 1782, suggested an alarm bell to call attention to the message. + Lomond, of Paris, devised a telegraph with only one wire; the signals to + be read by the peculiar movements of an attracted pith-ball, and Arthur + Young witnessed his plan in action, as recorded in his diary. M. Chappe, + the inventor of the semaphore, tried about the year 1790 to introduce a + synchronous electric telegraph, and failed. + </p> + <p> + Don Francisco Salva y Campillo, of Barcelona, in 1795, proposed to make a + telegraph between Barcelona and Mataro, either overhead or underground, + and he remarks of the wires, 'at the bottom of the sea their bed would be + ready made, and it would be an extraordinary casualty that should disturb + them.' In Salva's telegraph, the signals were to be made by illuminating + letters of tinfoil with the spark. Volta's great invention of the pile in + 1800 furnished a new source of electricity, better adapted for the + telegraph, and Salva was apparently the first to recognise this, for, in + the same year, he proposed to use it and interpret the signals by the + twitching of a frog's limb, or the decomposition of water. + </p> + <p> + In 1802, Jean Alexandre, a reputed natural son of Jean Jacques Rousseau, + brought out a TELEGRAPHE INTIME, or secret telegraph, which appears to + have been a step-by-step apparatus. The inventor concealed its mode of + working, but it was believed to be electrical, and there was a needle + which stopped at various points on a dial. Alexandre stated that he had + found out a strange matter or power which was, perhaps generally diffused, + and formed in some sort the soul of the universe. He endeavoured to bring + his invention under the eye of the First Consul, but Napoleon referred the + matter to Delambre, and would not see it. Alexandre was born at Paris, and + served as a carver and gilder at Poictiers; then sang in the churches till + the Revolution suppressed this means of livelihood. He rose to influence + as a Commissary-general, then retired from the army and became an + inventor. His name is associated with a method of steering balloons, and a + filter for supplying Bordeaux with water from the Garonne. But neither of + these plans appear to have been put in practice, and he died at Angouleme, + leaving his widow in extreme poverty. + </p> + <p> + Sommering, a distinguished Prussian anatomist, in 1809 brought out a + telegraph worked by a voltaic battery, and making signals by decomposing + water. Two years later it was greatly simplified by Schweigger, of Halle; + and there is reason to believe that but for the discovery of + electro-magnetism by Oersted, in 1824 the chemical telegraph would have + come into practical use. + </p> + <p> + In 1806, Ralph Wedgwood submitted a telegraph based on frictional + electricity to the Admiralty, but was told that the semaphore was + sufficient for the country. In a pamphlet he suggested the establishment + of a telegraph system with public offices in different centres. Francis + Ronalds, in 1816, brought a similar telegraph of his invention to the + notice of the Admiralty, and was politely informed that 'telegraphs of any + kind are now wholly unnecessary.' + </p> + <p> + In 1826-7, Harrison Gray Dyar, of New York, devised a telegraph in which + the spark was made to stain the signals on moist litmus paper by + decomposing nitric acid; but he had to abandon his experiments in Long + Island and fly the country, because of a writ which charged him with a + conspiracy for carrying on secret communication. In 1830 Hubert Recy + published an account of a system of Teletatodydaxie, by which the electric + spark was to ignite alcohol and indicate the signals of a code. + </p> + <p> + But spark or frictional electric telegraphs were destined to give way to + those actuated by the voltaic current, as the chemical mode of signalling + was superseded by the electro-magnet. In 1820 the separate courses of + electric and magnetic science were united by the connecting discovery of + Oersted, who found that a wire conveying a current had the power of moving + a compass-needle to one side or the other according to the direction of + the current. + </p> + <p> + La Place, the illustrious mathematician, at once saw that this fact could + be utilised as a telegraph, and Ampere, acting on his suggestion, + published a feasible plan. Before the year was out, Schweigger, of Halle, + multiplied the influence of the current on the needle by coiling the wire + about it. Ten years later, Ritchie improved on Ampere's method, and + exhibited a model at the Royal Institution, London. About the same time, + Baron Pawel Schilling, a Russian nobleman, still further modified it, and + the Emperor Nicholas decreed the erection of a line from Cronstadt to St. + Petersburg, with a cable in the Gulf of Finland but Schilling died in + 1837, and the project was never realised. + </p> + <p> + In 1833-5 Professors Gauss and Weber constructed a telegraph between the + physical cabinet and the Observatory of the University of Gottingen. At + first they used the voltaic pile, but abandoned it in favour of Faraday's + recent discovery that electricity could be generated in a wire by the + motion of a magnet. The magnetic key with which the message was sent + Produced by its action an electric current which, after traversing the + line, passed through a coil and deflected a suspended magnet to the right + or left, according to the direction of the current. A mirror attached to + the suspension magnified the movement of the needle, and indicated the + signals after the manner of the Thomson mirror galvanometer. This + telegraph, which was large and clumsy, was nevertheless used not only for + scientific, but for general correspondence. Steinheil, of Munich, + simplified it, and added an alarm in the form of a bell. + </p> + <p> + In 1836, Steinheil also devised a recording telegraph, in which the + movable needles indicated the message by marking dots and dashes with + printer's ink on a ribbon of travelling paper, according to an artificial + code in which the fewest signs were given to the commonest letters in the + German language. With this apparatus the message was registered at the + rate of six words a minute. The early experimenters, as we have seen, + especially Salva, had utilised the ground as the return part of the + circuit; and Salva had proposed to use it on his telegraph, but Steinheil + was the first to demonstrate its practical value. In trying, on the + suggestion of Gauss, to employ the rails of the Nurenberg to Furth railway + as the conducting line for a telegraph in the year 1838, he found they + would not serve; but the failure led him to employ the earth as the return + half of the circuit. + </p> + <p> + In 1837, Professor Stratingh, of Groninque, Holland, devised a telegraph + in which the signals were made by electro-magnets actuating the hammers of + two gongs or bells of different tone; and M. Amyot invented an automatic + sending key in the nature of a musical box. From 1837-8, Edward Davy, a + Devonshire surgeon, exhibited a needle telegraph in London, and proposed + one based on the discovery of Arago, that a piece of soft iron is + temporarily magnetised by the passage of an electric current through a + coil surrounding it. This principle was further applied by Morse in his + electro-magnetic printing telegraph. Davy was a prolific inventor, and + also sketched out a telegraph in which the gases evolved from water which + was decomposed by the current actuated a recording pen. But his most + valuable discovery was the 'relay,' that is to say, an auxiliary device by + which a current too feeble to indicate the signals could call into play a + local battery strong enough to make them. Davy was in a fair way of + becoming one of the fathers of the working telegraph, when his private + affairs obliged him to emigrate to Australia, and leave the course open to + Cooke and Wheatstone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. CHARLES WHEATSTONE. + </h2> + <p> + The electric telegraph, like the steam-engine and the railway, was a + gradual development due to the experiments and devices of a long train of + thinkers. In such a case he who crowns the work, making it serviceable to + his fellow-men, not only wins the pecuniary prize, but is likely to be + hailed and celebrated as the chief, if not the sole inventor, although in + a scientific sense the improvement he has made is perhaps less than that + of some ingenious and forgotten forerunner. He who advances the work from + the phase of a promising idea, to that of a common boon, is entitled to + our gratitude. But in honouring the keystone of the arch, as it were, let + us acknowledge the substructure on which it rests, and keep in mind the + entire bridge. Justice at least is due to those who have laboured without + reward. + </p> + <p> + Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone were the first to + bring the electric telegraph into daily use. But we have selected + Wheatstone as our hero, because he was eminent as a man of science, and + chiefly instrumental in perfecting the apparatus. As James Watt is + identified with the steam-engine, and George Stephenson with the railway, + so is Wheatstone with the telegraph. + </p> + <p> + Charles Wheatstone was born near Gloucester, in February, 1802. His father + was a music-seller in the town, who, four years later, removed to 128, + Pall Mall, London, and became a teacher of the flute. He used to say, with + not a little pride, that he had been engaged in assisting at the musical + education of the Princess Charlotte. Charles, the second son, went to a + village school, near Gloucester, and afterwards to several institutions in + London. One of them was in Kennington, and kept by a Mrs. Castlemaine, who + was astonished at his rapid progress. From another he ran away, but was + captured at Windsor, not far from the theatre of his practical telegraph. + As a boy he was very shy and sensitive, liking well to retire into an + attic, without any other company than his own thoughts. When he was about + fourteen years old he was apprenticed to his uncle and namesake, a maker + and seller of musical instruments, at 436, Strand, London; but he showed + little taste for handicraft or business, and loved better to study books. + His father encouraged him in this, and finally took him out of the uncle's + charge. + </p> + <p> + At the age of fifteen, Wheatstone translated French poetry, and wrote two + songs, one of which was given to his uncle, who published it without + knowing it as his nephew's composition. Some lines of his on the lyre + became the motto of an engraving by Bartolozzi. Small for his age, but + with a fine brow, and intelligent blue eyes, he often visited an old + book-stall in the vicinity of Pall Mall, which was then a dilapidated and + unpaved thoroughfare. Most of his pocket-money was spent in purchasing the + books which had taken his fancy, whether fairy tales, history, or science. + One day, to the surprise of the bookseller, he coveted a volume on the + discoveries of Volta in electricity, but not having the price, he saved + his pennies and secured the volume. It was written in French, and so he + was obliged to save again, till he could buy a dictionary. Then he began + to read the volume, and, with the help of his elder brother, William, to + repeat the experiments described in it, with a home-made battery, in the + scullery behind his father's house. In constructing the battery the boy + philosophers ran short of money to procure the requisite copper-plates. + They had only a few copper coins left. A happy thought occurred to + Charles, who was the leading spirit in these researches, 'We must use the + pennies themselves,' said he, and the battery was soon complete. + </p> + <p> + In September, 1821, Wheatstone brought himself into public notice by + exhibiting the 'Enchanted Lyre,' or 'Aconcryptophone,' at a music-shop at + Pall Mall and in the Adelaide Gallery. It consisted of a mimic lyre hung + from the ceiling by a cord, and emitting the strains of several + instruments—the piano, harp, and dulcimer. In reality it was a mere + sounding box, and the cord was a steel rod that conveyed the vibrations of + the music from the several instruments which were played out of sight and + ear-shot. At this period Wheatstone made numerous experiments on sound and + its transmission. Some of his results are preserved in Thomson's ANNALS OF + PHILOSOPHY for 1823. He recognised that sound is propagated by waves or + oscillations of the atmosphere, as light by undulations of the + luminiferous ether. Water, and solid bodies, such as glass, or metal, or + sonorous wood, convey the modulations with high velocity, and he conceived + the plan of transmitting sound-signals, music, or speech to long distances + by this means. He estimated that sound would travel 200 miles a second + through solid rods, and proposed to telegraph from London to Edinburgh in + this way. He even called his arrangement a 'telephone.' [Robert Hooke, in + his MICROGRAPHIA, published in 1667, writes: 'I can assure the reader that + I have, by the help of a distended wire, propagated the sound to a very + considerable distance in an instant, or with as seemingly quick a motion + as that of light.' Nor was it essential the wire should be straight; it + might be bent into angles. This property is the basis of the mechanical or + lover's telephone, said to have been known to the Chinese many centuries + ago. Hooke also considered the possibility of finding a way to quicken our + powers of hearing.] A writer in the REPOSITORY OF ARTS for September 1, + 1821, in referring to the 'Enchanted Lyre,' beholds the prospect of an + opera being performed at the King's Theatre, and enjoyed at the Hanover + Square Rooms, or even at the Horns Tavern, Kennington. The vibrations are + to travel through underground conductors, like to gas in pipes. 'And if + music be capable of being thus conducted,' he observes,'perhaps the words + of speech may be susceptible of the same means of propagation. The + eloquence of counsel, the debates of Parliament, instead of being read the + next day only,—But we shall lose ourselves in the pursuit of this + curious subject.' + </p> + <p> + Besides transmitting sounds to a distance, Wheatstone devised a simple + instrument for augmenting feeble sounds, to which he gave the name of + 'Microphone.' It consisted of two slender rods, which conveyed the + mechanical vibrations to both ears, and is quite different from the + electrical microphone of Professor Hughes. + </p> + <p> + In 1823, his uncle, the musical instrument maker, died, and Wheatstone, + with his elder brother, William, took over the business. Charles had no + great liking for the commercial part, but his ingenuity found a vent in + making improvements on the existing instruments, and in devising + philosophical toys. At the end of six years he retired from the + undertaking. + </p> + <p> + In 1827, Wheatstone introduced his 'kaleidoscope,' a device for rendering + the vibrations of a sounding body apparent to the eye. It consists of a + metal rod, carrying at its end a silvered bead, which reflects a 'spot' of + light. As the rod vibrates the spot is seen to describe complicated + figures in the air, like a spark whirled about in the darkness. His + photometer was probably suggested by this appliance. It enables two lights + to be compared by the relative brightness of their reflections in a + silvered bead, which describes a narrow ellipse, so as to draw the spots + into parallel lines. + </p> + <p> + In 1828, Wheatstone improved the German wind instrument, called the MUND + HARMONICA, till it became the popular concertina, patented on June 19, + 1829 The portable harmonium is another of his inventions, which gained a + prize medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He also improved the speaking + machine of De Kempelen, and endorsed the opinion of Sir David Brewster, + that before the end of this century a singing and talking apparatus would + be among the conquests of science. + </p> + <p> + In 1834, Wheatstone, who had won a name for himself, was appointed to the + Chair of Experimental Physics in King's College, London, But his first + course of lectures on Sound were a complete failure, owing to an + invincible repugnance to public speaking, and a distrust of his powers in + that direction. In the rostrum he was tongue-tied and incapable, sometimes + turning his back on the audience and mumbling to the diagrams on the wall. + In the laboratory he felt himself at home, and ever after confined his + duties mostly to demonstration. + </p> + <p> + He achieved renown by a great experiment—the measurement of the + velocity of electricity in a wire. His method was beautiful and ingenious. + He cut the wire at the middle, to form a gap which a spark might leap + across, and connected its ends to the poles of a Leyden jar filled with + electricity. Three sparks were thus produced, one at either end of the + wire, and another at the middle. He mounted a tiny mirror on the works of + a watch, so that it revolved at a high velocity, and observed the + reflections of his three sparks in it. The points of the wire were so + arranged that if the sparks were instantaneous, their reflections would + appear in one straight line; but the middle one was seen to lag behind the + others, because it was an instant later. The electricity had taken a + certain time to travel from the ends of the wire to the middle. This time + was found by measuring the amount of lag, and comparing it with the known + velocity of the mirror. Having got the time, he had only to compare that + with the length of half the wire, and he found that the velocity of + electricity was 288,000 miles a second. + </p> + <p> + Till then, many people had considered the electric discharge to be + instantaneous; but it was afterwards found that its velocity depended on + the nature of the conductor, its resistance, and its electro-static + capacity. Faraday showed, for example, that its velocity in a submarine + wire, coated with insulator and surrounded with water, is only 144,000 + miles a second, or still less. Wheatstone's device of the revolving mirror + was afterwards employed by Foucault and Fizeau to measure the velocity of + light. + </p> + <p> + In 1835, at the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Wheatstone + showed that when metals were volatilised in the electric spark, their + light, examined through a prism, revealed certain rays which were + characteristic of them. Thus the kind of metals which formed the sparking + points could be determined by analysing the light of the spark. This + suggestion has been of great service in spectrum analysis, and as applied + by Bunsen, Kirchoff, and others, has led to the discovery of several new + elements, such as rubidium and thallium, as well as increasing our + knowledge of the heavenly bodies. Two years later, he called attention to + the value of thermo-electricity as a mode of generating a current by means + of heat, and since then a variety of thermo-piles have been invented, some + of which have proved of considerable advantage. + </p> + <p> + Wheatstone abandoned his idea of transmitting intelligence by the + mechanical vibration of rods, and took up the electric telegraph. In 1835 + he lectured on the system of Baron Schilling, and declared that the means + were already known by which an electric telegraph could be made of great + service to the world. He made experiments with a plan of his own, and not + only proposed to lay an experimental line across the Thames, but to + establish it on the London and Birmingham Railway. Before these plans were + carried out, however, he received a visit from Mr. Fothergill Cooke at his + house in Conduit Street on February 27, 1837, which had an important + influence on his future. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Cooke was an officer in the Madras army, who, being home on furlough, + was attending some lectures on anatomy at the University of Heidelberg, + where, on March 6, 1836, he witnessed a demonstration with the telegraph + of Professor Moncke, and was so impressed with its importance, that he + forsook his medical studies and devoted all his efforts to the work of + introducing the telegraph. He returned to London soon after, and was able + to exhibit a telegraph with three needles in January, 1837. Feeling his + want of scientific knowledge, he consulted Faraday and Dr. Roget, the + latter of whom sent him to Wheatstone. + </p> + <p> + At a second interview, Mr. Cooke told Wheatstone of his intention to bring + out a working telegraph, and explained his method. Wheatstone, according + to his own statement, remarked to Cooke that the method would not act, and + produced his own experimental telegraph. Finally, Cooke proposed that they + should enter into a partnership, but Wheatstone was at first reluctant to + comply. He was a well-known man of science, and had meant to publish his + results without seeking to make capital of them. Cooke, on the other hand, + declared that his sole object was to make a fortune from the scheme. In + May they agreed to join their forces, Wheatstone contributing the + scientific, and Cooke the administrative talent. The deed of partnership + was dated November 19, 1837. A joint patent was taken out for their + inventions, including the five-needle telegraph of Wheatstone, and an + alarm worked by a relay, in which the current, by dipping a needle into + mercury, completed a local circuit, and released the detent of a + clockwork. + </p> + <p> + The five-needle telegraph, which was mainly, if not entirely, due to + Wheatstone, was similar to that of Schilling, and based on the principle + enunciated by Ampere—that is to say, the current was sent into the + line by completing the circuit of the battery with a make and break key, + and at the other end it passed through a coil of wire surrounding a + magnetic needle free to turn round its centre. According as one pole of + the battery or the other was applied to the line by means of the key, the + current deflected the needle to one side or the other. There were five + separate circuits actuating five different needles. The latter were + pivoted in rows across the middle of a dial shaped like a diamond, and + having the letters of the alphabet arranged upon it in such a way that a + letter was literally pointed out by the current deflecting two of the + needles towards it. + </p> + <p> + An experimental line, with a sixth return wire, was run between the Euston + terminus and Camden Town station of the London and North Western Railway + on July 25, 1837. The actual distance was only one and a half mile, but + spare wire had been inserted in the circuit to increase its length. It was + late in the evening before the trial took place. Mr. Cooke was in charge + at Camden Town, while Mr. Robert Stephenson and other gentlemen looked on; + and Wheatstone sat at his instrument in a dingy little room, lit by a + tallow candle, near the booking-office at Euston. Wheatstone sent the + first message, to which Cooke replied, and 'never,' said Wheatstone, 'did + I feel such a tumultuous sensation before, as when, all alone in the still + room, I heard the needles click, and as I spelled the words, I felt all + the magnitude of the invention pronounced to be practicable beyond cavil + or dispute.' + </p> + <p> + In spite of this trial, however, the directors of the railway treated the + 'new-fangled' invention with indifference, and requested its removal. In + July, 1839, however, it was favoured by the Great Western Railway, and a + line erected from the Paddington terminus to West Drayton station, a + distance of thirteen miles. Part of the wire was laid underground at + first, but subsequently all of it was raised on posts along the line. + Their circuit was eventually extended to Slough in 1841, and was publicly + exhibited at Paddington as a marvel of science, which could transmit fifty + signals a distance of 280,000 miles in a minute. The price of admission + was a shilling. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding its success, the public did not readily patronise the new + invention until its utility was noised abroad by the clever capture of the + murderer Tawell. Between six and seven o'clock one morning a woman named + Sarah Hart was found dead in her home at Salt Hill, and a man had been + observed to leave her house some time before. The police knew that she was + visited from time to time by a Mr. John Tawell, from Berkhampstead, where + he was much respected, and on inquiring and arriving at Slough, they found + that a person answering his description had booked by a slow train for + London, and entered a first-class carriage. The police telegraphed at once + to Paddington, giving the particulars, and desiring his capture. 'He is in + the garb of a Quaker,' ran the message, 'with a brown coat on, which + reaches nearly to his feet.' There was no 'Q' in the alphabet of the + five-needle instrument, and the clerk at Slough began to spell the word + 'Quaker' with a 'kwa'; but when he had got so far he was interrupted by + the clerk at Paddington, who asked him to 'repent.' The repetition fared + no better, until a boy at Paddington suggested that Slough should be + allowed to finish the word. 'Kwaker' was understood, and as soon as Tawell + stepped out on the platform at Paddington he was 'shadowed' by a + detective, who followed him into a New Road omnibus, and arrested him in a + coffee tavern. + </p> + <p> + Tawell was tried for the murder of the woman, and astounding revelations + were made as to his character. Transported in 1820 for the crime of + forgery, he obtained a ticket-of-leave, and started as a chemist in + Sydney, where he flourished, and after fifteen years left it a rich man. + Returning to England, he married a Quaker lady as his second wife. He + confessed to the murder of Sarah Hart, by prussic acid, his motive being a + dread of their relations becoming known. + </p> + <p> + Tawell was executed, and the notoriety of the case brought the telegraph + into repute. Its advantages as a rapid means of conveying intelligence and + detecting criminals had been signally demonstrated, and it was soon + adopted on a more extensive scale. + </p> + <p> + In 1845 Wheatstone introduced two improved forms of the apparatus, namely, + the 'single' and the 'double' needle instruments, in which the signals + were made by the successive deflections of the needles. Of these, the + single-needle instrument, requiring only one wire, is still in use. + </p> + <p> + In 1841 a difference arose between Cooke and Wheatstone as to the share of + each in the honour of inventing the telegraph. The question was submitted + to the arbitration of the famous engineer, Marc Isambard Brunel, on behalf + of Cooke, and Professor Daniell, of King's College, the inventor of the + Daniell battery, on the part of Wheatstone. They awarded to Cooke the + credit of having introduced the telegraph as a useful undertaking which + promised to be of national importance, and to Wheatstone that of having by + his researches prepared the public to receive it. They concluded with the + words: 'It is to the united labours of two gentlemen so well qualified for + mutual assistance that we must attribute the rapid progress which this + important invention has made during five years since they have been + associated.' The decision, however vague, pronounces the needle telegraph + a joint production. If it was mainly invented by Wheatstone, it was + chiefly introduced by Cooke. Their respective shares in the undertaking + might be compared to that of an author and his publisher, but for the fact + that Cooke himself had a share in the actual work of invention. + </p> + <p> + In 1840 Wheatstone had patented an alphabetical telegraph, or, 'Wheatstone + A B C instrument,' which moved with a step-by-step motion, and showed the + letters of the message upon a dial. The same principle was utilised in his + type-printing telegraph, patented in 1841. This was the first apparatus + which printed a telegram in type. It was worked by two circuits, and as + the type revolved a hammer, actuated by the current, pressed the required + letter on the paper. In 1840 Wheatstone also brought out his + magneto-electrical machine for generating continuous currents, and his + chronoscope, for measuring minute intervals of time, which was used in + determining the speed of a bullet or the passage of a star. In this + apparatus an electric current actuated an electro-magnet, which noted the + instant of an occurrence by means of a pencil on a moving paper. It is + said to have been capable of distinguishing 1/7300 part of a second, and + the time a body took to fall from a height of one inch. + </p> + <p> + The same year he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society for his + explanation of binocular vision, a research which led him to construct the + stereoscope. He showed that our impression of solidity is gained by the + combination in the mind of two separate pictures of an object taken by + both of our eyes from different points of view. Thus, in the stereoscope, + an arrangement of lenses and mirrors, two photographs of the same object + taken from different points are so combined as to make the object stand + out with a solid aspect. Sir David Brewster improved the stereoscope by + dispensing with the mirrors, and bringing it into its existing form. + </p> + <p> + The 'pseudoscope' (Wheatstone was partial to exotic forms of speech) was + introduced by its professor in 1850, and is in some sort the reverse of + the stereoscope, since it causes a solid object to seem hollow, and a + nearer one to be farther off; thus, a bust appears to be a mask, and a + tree growing outside of a window looks as if it were growing inside the + room. + </p> + <p> + On November 26, 1840, he exhibited his electro-magnetic clock in the + library of the Royal Society, and propounded a plan for distributing the + correct time from a standard clock to a number of local timepieces. The + circuits of these were to be electrified by a key or contact-maker + actuated by the arbour of the standard, and their hands corrected by + electro-magnetism. The following January Alexander Bain took out a patent + for an electro-magnetic clock, and he subsequently charged Wheatstone with + appropriating his ideas. It appears that Bain worked as a mechanist to + Wheatstone from August to December, 1840, and he asserted that he had + communicated the idea of an electric clock to Wheatstone during that + period; but Wheatstone maintained that he had experimented in that + direction during May. Bain further accused Wheatstone of stealing his idea + of the electro-magnetic printing telegraph; but Wheatstone showed that the + instrument was only a modification of his own electro-magnetic telegraph. + </p> + <p> + In 1843 Wheatstone communicated an important paper to the Royal Society, + entitled 'An Account of Several New Processes for Determining the + Constants of a Voltaic Circuit.' It contained an exposition of the + well-known balance for measuring the electrical resistance of a conductor, + which still goes by the name of Wheatstone's Bridge or balance, although + it was first devised by Mr. S. W. Christie, of the Royal Military Academy, + Woolwich, who published it in the PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS for 1833. The + method was neglected until Wheatstone brought it into notice. His paper + abounds with simple and practical formula: for the calculation of currents + and resistances by the law of Ohm. He introduced a unit of resistance, + namely, a foot of copper wire weighing one hundred grains, and showed how + it might be applied to measure the length of wire by its resistance. He + was awarded a medal for his paper by the Society. The same year he + invented an apparatus which enabled the reading of a thermometer or a + barometer to be registered at a distance by means of an electric contact + made by the mercury. A sound telegraph, in which the signals were given by + the strokes of a bell, was also patented by Cooke and Wheatstone in May of + that year. + </p> + <p> + The introduction of the telegraph had so far advanced that, on September + 2, 1845, the Electric Telegraph Company was registered, and Wheatstone, by + his deed of partnership with Cooke, received a sum of L33,000 for the use + of their joint inventions. + </p> + <p> + From 1836-7 Wheatstone had thought a good deal about submarine telegraphs, + and in 1840 he gave evidence before the Railway Committee of the House of + Commons on the feasibility of the proposed line from Dover to Calais. He + had even designed the machinery for making and laying the cable. In the + autumn of 1844, with the assistance of Mr. J. D. Llewellyn, he submerged a + length of insulated wire in Swansea Bay, and signalled through it from a + boat to the Mumbles Lighthouse. Next year he suggested the use of + gutta-percha for the coating of the intended wire across the Channel. + </p> + <p> + Though silent and reserved in public, Wheatstone was a clear and voluble + talker in private, if taken on his favourite studies, and his small but + active person, his plain but intelligent countenance, was full of + animation. Sir Henry Taylor tells us that he once observed Wheatstone at + an evening party in Oxford earnestly holding forth to Lord Palmerston on + the capabilities of his telegraph. 'You don't say so!' exclaimed the + statesman. 'I must get you to tell that to the Lord Chancellor.' And so + saying, he fastened the electrician on Lord Westbury, and effected his + escape. A reminiscence of this interview may have prompted Palmerston to + remark that a time was coming when a minister might be asked in Parliament + if war had broken out in India, and would reply, 'Wait a minute; I'll just + telegraph to the Governor-General, and let you know.' + </p> + <p> + At Christchurch, Marylebone, on February 12, 1847, Wheatstone was married. + His wife was the daughter of a Taunton tradesman, and of handsome + appearance. She died in 1866, leaving a family of five young children to + his care. His domestic life was quiet and uneventful. + </p> + <p> + One of Wheatstone's most ingenious devices was the 'Polar clock,' + exhibited at the meeting of the British Association in 1848. It is based + on the fact discovered by Sir David Brewster, that the light of the sky is + polarised in a plane at an angle of ninety degrees from the position of + the sun. It follows that by discovering that plane of polarisation, and + measuring its azimuth with respect to the north, the position of the sun, + although beneath the horizon, could be determined, and the apparent solar + time obtained. The clock consisted of a spy-glass, having a nichol or + double-image prism for an eye-piece, and a thin plate of selenite for an + object-glass. When the tube was directed to the North Pole—that is, + parallel to the earth's axis—and the prism of the eye-piece turned + until no colour was seen, the angle of turning, as shown by an index + moving with the prism over a graduated limb, gave the hour of day. The + device is of little service in a country where watches are reliable; but + it formed part of the equipment of the North Polar expedition commanded by + Captain Nares. Wheatstone's remarkable ingenuity was displayed in the + invention of cyphers which have never been unravelled, and interpreting + cypher manuscripts in the British Museum which had defied the experts. He + devised a cryptograph or machine for turning a message into cypher which + could only be interpreted by putting the cypher into a corresponding + machine adjusted to reproduce it. + </p> + <p> + The rapid development of the telegraph in Europe may be gathered from the + fact that in 1855, the death of the Emperor Nicholas at St. Petersburg, + about one o'clock in the afternoon, was announced in the House of Lords a + few hours later; and as a striking proof of its further progress, it may + be mentioned that the result of the Oaks of 1890 was received in New York + fifteen seconds after the horses passed the winning-post. + </p> + <p> + Wheatstone's next great invention was the automatic transmitter, in which + the signals of the message are first punched out on a strip of paper, + which is then passed through the sending-key, and controls the signal + currents. By substituting a mechanism for the hand in sending the message, + he was able to telegraph about 100 words a minute, or five times the + ordinary rate. In the Postal Telegraph service this apparatus is employed + for sending Press telegrams, and it has recently been so much improved, + that messages are now sent from London to Bristol at a speed of 600 words + a minute, and even of 400 words a minute between London and Aberdeen. On + the night of April 8, 1886, when Mr. Gladstone introduced his Bill for + Home Rule in Ireland, no fewer than 1,500,000 words were despatched from + the central station at St. Martin's-le-Grand by 100 Wheatstone + transmitters. Were Mr. Gladstone himself to speak for a whole week, night + and day, and with his usual facility, he could hardly surpass this + achievement. The plan of sending messages by a running strip of paper + which actuates the key was originally patented by Bain in 1846; but + Wheatstone, aided by Mr. Augustus Stroh, an accomplished mechanician, and + an able experimenter, was the first to bring the idea into successful + operation. + </p> + <p> + In 1859 Wheatstone was appointed by the Board of Trade to report on the + subject of the Atlantic cables, and in 1864 he was one of the experts who + advised the Atlantic Telegraph Company on the construction of the + successful lines of 1865 and 1866. On February 4, 1867, he published the + principle of reaction in the dynamo-electric machine by a paper to the + Royal Society; but Mr. C. W. Siemens had communicated the identical + discovery ten days earlier, and both papers were read on the same day. It + afterwards appeared that Herr Werner Siemens, Mr. Samuel Alfred Varley, + and Professor Wheatstone had independently arrived at the principle within + a few months of each other. Varley patented it on December 24, 1866; + Siemens called attention to it on January 17, 1867; and Wheatstone + exhibited it in action at the Royal Society on the above date. But it will + be seen from our life of William Siemens that Soren Hjorth, a Danish + inventor, had forestalled them. + </p> + <p> + In 1870 the electric telegraph lines of the United Kingdom, worked by + different companies, were transferred to the Post Office, and placed under + Government control. + </p> + <p> + Wheatstone was knighted in 1868, after his completion of the automatic + telegraph. He had previously been made a Chevalier of the Legion of + Honour. Some thirty-four distinctions and diplomas of home or foreign + societies bore witness to his scientific reputation. Since 1836 he had + been a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1873 he was appointed a Foreign + Associate of the French Academy of Sciences. The same year he was awarded + the Ampere Medal by the French Society for the Encouragement of National + Industry. In 1875 he was created an honorary member of the Institution of + Civil Engineers. He was a D.C.L. of Oxford and an LL.D. of Cambridge. + </p> + <p> + While on a visit to Paris during the autumn of 1875, and engaged in + perfecting his receiving instrument for submarine cables, he caught a + cold, which produced inflammation of the lungs, an illness from which he + died in Paris, on October 19, 1875. A memorial service was held in the + Anglican Chapel, Paris, and attended by a deputation of the Academy. His + remains were taken to his home in Park Crescent, London, and buried in + Kensal Green. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. SAMUEL MORSE. + </h2> + <p> + Cooke and Wheatstone were the first to introduce a public telegraph worked + by electro-magnetism; but it had the disadvantage of not marking down the + message. There was still room for an instrument which would leave a + permanent record that might be read at leisure, and this was the invention + of Samuel Finley Breeze Morse. He was born at the foot of Breed's Hill, in + Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April, 1791. The place was a + little over a mile from where Benjamin Franklin was born, and the date was + a little over a year after he died. His family was of British origin. + Anthony Morse, of Marlborough, in Wiltshire, had emigrated to America in + 1635, and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, He and his descendants + prospered. The grandfather of Morse was a member of the Colonial and State + Legislatures, and his father, Jedediah Morse, D.D., was a well-known + divine of his day, and the author of Morse's AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY, as well + as a compiler of a UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. His mother was Elizabeth Ann + Breeze, apparently of Welsh extraction, and the grand-daughter of Samuel + Finley, a distinguished President of the Princeton College. Jedediah Morse + is reputed a man of talent, industry, and vigour, with high aims for the + good of his fellow-men, ingenious to conceive, resolute in action, and + sanguine of success. His wife is described as a woman of calm, reflective + mind, animated conversation, and engaging manners. + </p> + <p> + They had two other sons besides Samuel, the second of whom, Sidney E. + Morse, was founder of the New York OBSERVER, an able mathematician, author + of the ART OF CEROGRAPHY, or engraving upon wax, to stereotype from, and + inventor of a barometer for sounding the deep-sea. Sidney was the trusted + friend and companion of his elder brother. + </p> + <p> + At the age of four Samuel was sent to an infant school kept by an old + lady, who being lame, was unable to leave her chair, but carried her + authority to the remotest parts of her dominion by the help of a long + rattan. Samuel, like the rest, had felt the sudden apparition of this + monitor. Having scratched a portrait of the dame upon a chest of drawers + with the point of a pin, he was called out and summarily punished. Years + later, when he became notable, the drawers were treasured by one of his + admirers. + </p> + <p> + He entered a preparatory school at Andover, Mass., when he was seven years + old, and showed himself an eager pupil. Among other books, he was + delighted with Plutarch's LIVES, and at thirteen he composed a biography + of Demosthenes, long preserved by his family. A year later he entered Yale + College as a freshman. + </p> + <p> + During his curriculum he attended the lectures of Professor Jeremiah Day + on natural philosophy and Professor Benjamin Sieliman on chemistry, and it + was then he imbibed his earliest knowledge of electricity. In 1809-10 Dr. + Day was teaching from Enfield's text-book on philosophy, that 'if the + (electric) circuit be interrupted, the fluid will become visible, and + when: it passes it will leave an impression upon any intermediate body,' + and he illustrated this by sending the spark through a metal chain, so + that it became visible between the links, and by causing it to perforate + paper. Morse afterwards declared this experiment to have been the seed + which rooted in his mind and grew into the 'invention of the telegraph.' + </p> + <p> + It is not evident that Morse had any distinct idea of the electric + telegraph in these days; but amidst his lessons in literature and + philosophy he took a special interest in the sciences of electricity and + chemistry. He became acquainted with the voltaic battery through the + lectures of his friend, Professor Sieliman; and we are told that during + one of his vacations at Yale he made a series of electrical experiments + with Dr. Dwight. Some years later he resumed these studies under his + friend Professor James Freeman Dana, of the University of New York, who + exhibited the electro-magnet to his class in 1827, and also under + Professor Renwick, of Columbia College. + </p> + <p> + Art seems to have had an equal if not a greater charm than science for + Morse at this period. A boy of fifteen, he made a water-colour sketch of + his family sitting round the table; and while a student at Yale he + relieved his father, who was far from rich, of a part of his education by + painting miniatures on ivory, and selling them to his companions at five + dollars a-piece. Before he was nineteen he completed a painting of the + 'Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,' which formerly hung in the office + of the Mayor, at Charlestown, Massachusetts. + </p> + <p> + On graduating at Yale, in 1810, he devoted himself to Art, and became a + pupil of Washington Allston, the well-known American painter. He + accompanied Allston to Europe in 1811, and entered the studio of Benjamin + West, who was then at the zenith of his reputation. The friendship of + West, with his own introductions and agreeable personality, enabled him to + move in good society, to which he was always partial. William Wilberforce, + Zachary Macaulay, father of the historian, Coleridge, and Copley, were + among his acquaintances. Leslie, the artist, then a struggling genius like + himself, was his fellow-lodger. His heart was evidently in the profession + of his choice. 'My passion for my art,' he wrote to his mother, in 1812, + 'is so firmly rooted that I am confident no human power could destroy it. + The more I study the greater I think is its claim to the appellation of + divine. I am now going to begin a picture of the death of Hercules the + figure to be as large as life.' + </p> + <p> + After he had perfected this work to his own eyes, he showed it, with not a + little pride, to Mr. West, who after scanning it awhile said, 'Very good, + very good. Go on and finish it.' Morse ventured to say that it was + finished. 'No! no! no!' answered West; 'see there, and there, and there. + There is much to be done yet. Go on and finish it.' Each time the pupil + showed it the master said, 'Go on and finish it.' [THE TELEGRAPH IN + AMERICA, by James D. Reid] This was a lesson in thoroughness of work and + attention to detail which was not lost on the student. The picture was + exhibited at the Royal Academy, in Somerset House, during the summer of + 1813, and West declared that if Morse were to live to his own age he would + never make a better composition. The remark is equivocal, but was + doubtless intended as a compliment to the precocity of the young painter. + </p> + <p> + In order to be correct in the anatomy he had first modelled the figure of + his Hercules in clay, and this cast, by the advice of West, was entered in + competition for a prize in sculpture given by the Society of Arts. It + proved successful, and on May 13 the sculptor was presented with the prize + and a gold medal by the Duke of Norfolk before a distinguished gathering + in the Adelphi. + </p> + <p> + Flushed with his triumph, Morse determined to compete for the prize of + fifty guineas and a gold medal offered by the Royal Academy for the best + historical painting, and took for his subject, 'The Judgment of Jupiter in + the case of Apollo, Marpessa, and Idas.' The work was finished to the + satisfaction of West, but the painter was summoned home. He was still, in + part at least, depending on his father, and had been abroad a year longer + than the three at first intended. During this time he had been obliged to + pinch himself in a thousand ways in order to eke out his modest allowance. + 'My drink is water, porter being too expensive,' he wrote to his parents. + 'I have had no new clothes for nearly a year. My best are threadbare, and + my shoes are out at the toes. My stockings all want to see my mother, and + my hat is hoary with age.' + </p> + <p> + Mr. West recommended him to stay, since the rules of the competition + required the winner to receive the prize in person. But after trying in + vain to get this regulation waived, he left for America with his picture, + having, a few days prior to his departure, dined with Mr. Wilberforce as + the guns of Hyde Park were signalling the victory of Waterloo. + </p> + <p> + Arriving in Boston on October 18, he lost no time in renting a studio. His + fame had preceded him, and he became the lion of society. His 'Judgment of + Jupiter' was exhibited in the town, and people flocked to see it. But no + one offered to buy it. If the line of high art he had chosen had not + supported him in England, it was tantamount to starvation in the rawer + atmosphere of America. Even in Boston, mellowed though it was by culture, + the classical was at a discount. Almost penniless, and fretting under his + disappointment, he went to Concord, New Hampshire, and contrived to earn a + living by painting cabinet portraits. Was this the end of his ambitious + dreams? + </p> + <p> + Money was needful to extricate him from this drudgery and let him follow + up his aspirations. Love may have been a still stronger motive for its + acquisition. So he tried his hand at invention, and, in conjunction with + his brother Sidney, produced what was playfully described as 'Morse's + Patent Metallic Double-Headed Ocean-Drinker and Deluge-Spouter Pump-Box.' + The pump was quite as much admired as the 'Jupiter,' and it proved as + great a failure. + </p> + <p> + Succeeding as a portrait painter, he went, in 1818, on the invitation of + his uncle, Dr. Finley, to Charleston, in South Carolina, and opened a + studio there. After a single season he found himself in a position to + marry, and on October 1, 1818, was united to Lucretia P. Walker, of + Concord, New Hampshire, a beautiful and accomplished lady. He thrived so + well in the south that he once received as many as one hundred and fifty + orders in a few weeks; and his reputation was such that he was honoured + with a commission from the Common Council of Charleston to execute a + portrait of James Monroe, then President of the United States. It was + regarded as a masterpiece. In January, 1821, he instituted the South + Carolina Academy of Fine Arts, which is now extinct. + </p> + <p> + After four years of life in Charleston he returned to the north with + savings to the amount of L600, and settled in New York. He devoted + eighteen months to the execution of a large painting of the House of + Representatives in the Capitol at Washington; but its exhibition proved a + loss, and in helping his brothers to pay his father's debts the remains of + his little fortune were swept away. He stood next to Allston as an + American historical painter, but all his productions in that line proved a + disappointment. The public would not buy them. On the other hand, he + received an order from the Corporation of New York for a portrait of + General Lafayette, the hero of the hour. + </p> + <p> + While engaged on this work he lost his wife in February, 1825, and then + his parents. In 1829 he visited Europe, and spent his time among the + artists and art galleries of England, France, and Italy. In Paris he + undertook a picture of the interior of the Louvre, showing some of the + masterpieces in miniature, but it seems that nobody purchased it. He + expected to be chosen to illustrate one of the vacant panels in the + Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington; but in this too he was mistaken. + However, some fellow-artists in America, thinking he had deserved the + honour, collected a sum of money to assist him in painting the composition + he had fixed upon: 'The Signing of the First Compact on Board the + Mayflower.' + </p> + <p> + In a far from hopeful mood after his three years' residence abroad he + embarked on the packet Sully, Captain Pell, and sailed from Havre for New + York on October 1, 1832. Among the passengers was Dr. Charles T. Jackson, + of Boston, who had attended some lectures on electricity in Paris, and + carried an electro-magnet in his trunk. One day while Morse and Dr. + Jackson, with a few more, sat round the luncheon table in the cabin, he + began to talk of the experiments he had witnessed. Some one asked if the + speed of the electricity was lessened by its passage through a long wire, + and Dr. Jackson, referring to a trial of Faraday, replied that the current + was apparently instantaneous. Morse, who probably remembered his old + lessons in the subject, now remarked that if the presence of the + electricity could be rendered visible at any point of the circuit he saw + no reason why intelligence might not be sent by this means. + </p> + <p> + The idea became rooted in his mind, and engrossed his thoughts. Until far + into the night he paced the deck discussing the matter with Dr. Jackson, + and pondering it in solitude. Ways of rendering the electricity sensible + at the far end of the line were considered. The spark might pierce a band + of travelling paper, as Professor Day had mentioned years before; it might + decompose a chemical solution, and leave a stain to mark its passage, as + tried by Mr. Dyar in 1827; Or it could excite an electro-magnet, which, by + attracting a piece of soft iron, would inscribe the passage with a pen or + pencil. The signals could be made by very short currents or jets of + electricity, according to a settled code. Thus a certain number of jets + could represent a corresponding numeral, and the numeral would, in its + turn, represent a word in the language. To decipher the message, a special + code-book or dictionary would be required. In order to transmit the + currents through the line, he devised a mechanical sender, in which the + circuit would be interrupted by a series of types carried on a port-rule + or composing-stick, which travelled at a uniform speed. Each type would + have a certain number of teeth or projections on its upper face, and as it + was passed through a gap in the circuit the teeth would make or break the + current. At the other end of the line the currents thus transmitted would + excite the electro-magnet, actuate the pencil, and draw a zig-zag line on + the paper, every angle being a distinct signal, and the groups of signals + representing a word in the code. + </p> + <p> + During the voyage of six weeks the artist jotted his crude ideas in his + sketch-book, which afterwards became a testimony to their date. That he + cherished hopes of his invention may be gathered from his words on + landing, 'Well, Captain Pell, should you ever hear of the telegraph one of + these days as the wonder of the world, remember the discovery was made on + the good ship Sully.' + </p> + <p> + Soon after his return his brothers gave him a room on the fifth floor of a + house at the corner of Nassau and Beekman Streets, New York. For a long + time it was his studio and kitchen, his laboratory and bedroom. With his + livelihood to earn by his brush, and his invention to work out, Morse was + now fully occupied. His diet was simple; he denied himself the pleasures + of society, and employed his leisure in making models of his types. The + studio was an image of his mind at this epoch. Rejected pictures looked + down upon his clumsy apparatus, type-moulds lay among plaster-casts, the + paint-pot jostled the galvanic battery, and the easel shared his attention + with the lathe. By degrees the telegraph allured him from the canvas, and + he only painted enough to keep the wolf from the door. His national + picture, 'The Signing of the First Compact on Board the Mayflower,' was + never finished, and the 300 dollars which had been subscribed for it were + finally returned with interest. + </p> + <p> + For Morse by nature was proud and independent, with a sensitive horror of + incurring debt. He would rather endure privation than solicit help or lie + under a humiliating obligation. His mother seems to have been animated + with a like spirit, for the Hon. Amos Kendall informs us that she had + suffered much through the kindness of her husband in becoming surety for + his friends, and that when she was dying she exacted a promise from her + son that he would never endanger his peace of mind and the comfort of his + home by doing likewise. + </p> + <p> + During the two and a half years from November, 1832, to the summer of 1835 + he was obliged to change his residence three times, and want of money + prevented him from combining the several parts of his invention into a + working whole. In 1835, however, his reputation as an historical painter, + and the esteem in which he was held as a man of culture and refinement, + led to his appointment as the first Professor of the Literature of the + Arts of Design in the newly founded University of the city of New York. In + the month of July he took up his quarters in the new buildings of the + University at Washington Square, and was henceforth able to devote more + time to his apparatus. The same year Professor Daniell, of King's College, + London, brought out his constant-current battery, which befriended Morse + in his experiments, as it afterwards did Cooke and Wheatstone, Hitherto + the voltaic battery had been a source of trouble, owing to the current + becoming weak as the battery was kept in action. + </p> + <p> + The length of line through which Morse could work his apparatus was an + important point to be determined, for it was known that the current grows + feebler in proportion to the resistance of the wire it traverses. Morse + saw a way out of the difficulty, as Davy, Cooke, and Wheatstone did, by + the device known as the relay. Were the current too weak to effect the + marking of a message, it might nevertheless be sufficiently strong to open + and close the circuit of a local battery which would print the signals. + Such relays and local batteries, fixed at intervals along the line, as + post-horses on a turnpike, would convey the message to an immense + distance. 'If I can succeed in working a magnet ten miles,' said Morse,'I + can go round the globe. It matters not how delicate the movement may be.' + </p> + <p> + According to his own statement, he devised the relay in 1836 or earlier; + but it was not until the beginning of 1837 that he explained the device, + and showed the working of his apparatus to his friend, Mr. Leonard D. + Gale, Professor of Chemistry in the University. This gentleman took a + lively interest in the apparatus, and proved a generous ally of the + inventor. Until then Morse had only tried his recorder on a few yards of + wire, the battery was a single pair of plates, and the electro-magnet was + of the elementary sort employed by Moll, and illustrated in the older + books. The artist, indeed, was very ignorant of what had been done by + other electricians; and Professor Gale was able to enlighten him. When + Gale acquainted him with some results in telegraphing obtained by Mr. + Barlow, he said he was not aware that anyone had even conceived the notion + of using the magnet for such a purpose. The researches of Professor Joseph + Henry on the electro-magnet, in 1830, were equally unknown to Morse, until + Professor Gale drew his attention to them, and in accordance with the + results, suggested that the simple electro-magnet, with a few turns of + thick wire which he employed, should be replaced by one having a coil of + long thin wire. By this change a much feebler current would be able to + excite the magnet, and the recorder would mark through a greater length of + line. Henry himself, in 1832, had devised a telegraph similar to that of + Morse, and signalled through a mile of wire, by causing the armature of + his electro-magnet to strike a bell. This was virtually the first + electro-magnetic acoustic telegraph.[AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.] + </p> + <p> + The year of the telegraph—1837—was an important one for Morse, + as it was for Cooke and Wheatstone. In the privacy of his rooms he had + constructed, with his own hands, a model of his apparatus, and fortune + began to favour him. Thanks to Professor Gale, he improved the + electro-magnet, employed a more powerful battery, and was thus able to + work through a much longer line. In February, 1837, the American House of + Representatives passed a resolution asking the Secretary of the Treasury + to report on the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the + United States, and on March 10 issued a circular of inquiry, which fell + into the hands of the inventor, and probably urged him to complete his + apparatus, and bring it under the notice of the Government. Lack of + mechanical skill, ignorance of electrical science, as well as want of + money, had so far kept it back. + </p> + <p> + But the friend in need whom he required was nearer than he anticipated. On + Saturday, September 2, 1837, while Morse was exhibiting the model to + Professor Daubeny, of Oxford, then visiting the States, and others, a + young man named Alfred Vail became one of the spectators, and was deeply + impressed with the results. Vail was born in 1807, a son of Judge Stephen + Vail, master of the Speedwell ironworks at Morristown, New Jersey. After + leaving the village school his father took him and his brother George into + the works; but though Alfred inherited a mechanical turn of mind, he + longed for a higher sphere, and on attaining to his majority he resolved + to enter the Presbyterian Church. In 1832 he went to the University of the + city of New York, where he graduated in October, 1836. Near the close of + the term, however, his health failed, and he was constrained to relinquish + his clerical aims. While in doubts as to his future he chanced to see the + telegraph, and that decided him. He says: 'I accidentally and without + invitation called upon Professor Morse at the University, and found him + with Professors Torrey and Daubeny in the mineralogical cabinet and + lecture-room of Professor Gale, where Professor Morse was exhibiting to + these gentlemen an apparatus which he called his Electro-Magnetic + Telegraph. There were wires suspended in the room running from one end of + it to the other, and returning many times, making a length of seventeen + hundred feet. The two ends of the wire were connected with an + electro-magnet fastened to a vertical wooden frame. In front of the magnet + was its armature, and also a wooden lever or arm fitted at its extremity + to hold a lead-pencil.... I saw this instrument work, and became + thoroughly acquainted with the principle of its operation, and, I may say, + struck with the rude machine, containing, as I believed, the germ of what + was destined to produce great changes in the conditions and relations of + mankind. I well recollect the impression which was then made upon my mind. + I rejoiced to think that I lived in such a day, and my mind contemplated + the future in which so grand and mighty an agent was about to be + introduced for the benefit of the world. Before leaving the room in which + I beheld for the first time this magnificent invention, I asked Professor + Morse if he intended to make an experiment on a more extended line of + conductors. He replied that he did, but that he desired pecuniary + assistance to carry out his plans. I promised him assistance provided he + would admit me into a share of the invention, to which proposition he + assented. I then returned to my boarding-house, locked the door of my + room, threw myself upon the bed, and gave myself up to reflection upon the + mighty results which were certain to follow the introduction of this new + agent in meeting and serving the wants of the world. With the atlas in my + hand I traced the most important lines which would most certainly be + erected in the United States, and calculated their length. The question + then rose in my mind, whether the electro-magnet could be made to work + through the necessary lengths of line, and after much reflection I came to + the conclusion that, provided the magnet would work even at a distance of + eight or ten miles, there could be no risk in embarking in the enterprise. + And upon this I decided in my own mind to SINK OR SWIM WITH IT.' + </p> + <p> + Young Vail applied to his father, who was a man of enterprise and + intelligence. He it was who forged the shaft of the Savannah, the first + steamship which crossed the Atlantic. Morse was invited to Speedwell with + his apparatus, that the judge might see it for himself, and the question + of a partnership was mooted. Two thousand dollars were required to procure + the patents and construct an instrument to bring before the Congress. In + spite of a financial depression, the judge was brave enough to lend his + assistance, and on September 23, 1837, an agreement was signed between the + inventor and Alfred Vail, by which the latter was to construct, at his own + expense, a model for exhibition to a Committee of Congress, and to secure + the necessary patents for the United States. In return Vail was to receive + one-fourth of the patent rights in that country. Provision was made also + to give Vail an interest in any foreign patents he might furnish means to + obtain. The American patent was obtained by Morse on October 3, 1837. He + had returned to New York, and was engaged in the preparation of his + dictionary. + </p> + <p> + For many months Alfred Vail worked in a secret room at the iron factory + making the new model, his only assistant being an apprentice of fifteen, + William Baxter, who subsequently designed the Baxter engine, and died in + 1885. When the workshop was rebuilt this room was preserved as a memorial + of the telegraph, for it was here that the true Morse instrument, such as + we know it, was constructed. + </p> + <p> + It must be remembered that in those days almost everything they wanted had + either to be made by themselves or appropriated to their purpose. Their + first battery was set up in a box of cherry-wood, parted into cells, and + lined with bees-wax; their insulated wire was that used by milliners for + giving outline to the 'sky-scraper' bonnets of that day. The first machine + made at Speedwell was a copy of that devised by Morse, but as Vail grew + more intimate with the subject his own ingenuity came into play, and he + soon improved on the original. The pencil was discarded for a fountain + pen, and the zig-zag signals for the short and long lines now termed + 'dots' and 'dashes.' + </p> + <p> + This important alteration led him to the 'Morse alphabet,' or code of + signals, by which a letter is transmitted as a group of short and long + jets, indicated as 'dots' and 'dashes' on the paper. Thus the letter E, + which is so common in English words, is now transmitted by a short jet + which makes a dot; T, another common letter, by a long jet, making a dash; + and Q, a rare letter, by the group dash, dash, dot, dash. Vail tried to + compute the relative frequency of all the letters in order to arrange his + alphabet; but a happy idea enabled him to save his time. He went to the + office of the local newspaper, and found the result he wanted in the + type-cases of the compositors. The Morse, or rather Vail code, is at + present the universal telegraphic code of symbols, and its use is + extending to other modes of signalling-for example, by flags, lights, or + trumpets. + </p> + <p> + The hard-fisted farmers of New Jersey, like many more at that date, had no + faith in the 'telegraph machine,' and openly declared that the judge had + been a fool for once to put his money in it. The judge, on his part, + wearied with the delay, and irritated by the sarcasm of his neighbours, + grew dispirited and moody. Alfred, and Morse, who had come to assist, were + careful to avoid meeting him. At length, on January 6, 1838, Alfred told + the apprentice to go up to the house and invite his father to come down to + see the telegraph at work. It was a cold day, but the boy was so eager + that he ran off without putting on his coat. In the sitting-room he found + the judge with his hat on as if about to go out, but seated before the + fire leaning his head on his hand, and absorbed in gloomy reflection. + 'Well, William?' he said, looking up, as the boy entered; and when the + message was delivered he started to his feet. In a few minutes he was + standing in the experimental-room, and the apparatus was explained. + Calling for a piece of paper he wrote upon it the words, 'A PATIENT WAITER + IS NO LOSER,' and handed it to Alfred, with the remark, 'If you can send + this, and Mr. Morse can read it at the other end, I shall be convinced.' + The message was transmitted, and for a moment the judge was fairly + mastered by his feelings. + </p> + <p> + The apparatus was then exhibited in New York, in Philadelphia, and + subsequently before the Committee of Congress at Washington. At first the + members of this body were somewhat incredulous about the merits of the + uncouth machine; but the Chairman, the Hon. Francis O. J. Smith, of Maine, + took an interest in it, and secured a full attendance of the others to see + it tried through ten miles of wire one day in February. The demonstration + convinced them, and many were the expressions of amazement from their + lips. Some said, 'The world is coming to an end,' as people will when it + is really budding, and putting forth symptoms of a larger life. Others + exclaimed, 'Where will improvements and discoveries stop?' and 'What would + Jefferson think should he rise up and witness what we have just seen?' One + gentleman declared that, 'Time and space are now annihilated.' + </p> + <p> + The practical outcome of the trial was that the Chairman reported a Bill + appropriating 30,000 dollars for the erection of an experimental line + between Washington and Baltimore. Mr. Smith was admitted to a fourth share + in the invention, and resigned his seat in Congress to become legal + adviser to the inventors. Claimants to the invention of the telegraph now + began to spring up, and it was deemed advisable for Mr. Smith and Morse to + proceed to Europe and secure the foreign patents. Alfred Vail undertook to + provide an instrument for exhibition in Europe. + </p> + <p> + Among these claimants was Dr. Jackson, chemist and geologist, of Boston, + who had been instrumental in evoking the idea of the telegraph in the mind + of Morse on board the Sully. In a letter to the NEW YORK OBSERVER he went + further than this, and claimed to be a joint inventor; but Morse + indignantly repudiated the suggestion. He declared that his instrument was + not mentioned either by him or Dr. Jackson at the time, and that they had + made no experiments together. 'It is to Professor Gale that I am most of + all indebted for substantial and effective aid in many of my experiments,' + he said; 'but he prefers no claim of any kind.' + </p> + <p> + Morse and Smith arrived in London during the month of June. Application + was immediately made for a British patent, but Cooke and Wheatstone and + Edward Davy, it seems, opposed it; and although Morse demonstrated that + his was different from theirs, the patent was refused, owing to a prior + publication in the London MECHANICS' MAGAZINE for February 18, 1838, in + the form of an article quoted from Silliman's AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE + for October, 1837. Morse did not attempt to get this legal + disqualification set aside. In France he was equally unfortunate. His + instrument was exhibited by Arago at a meeting of the Institute, and + praised by Humboldt and Gay-Lussac; but the French patent law requires the + invention to be at work in France within two years, and when Morse + arranged to erect a telegraph line on the St. Germain Railway, the + Government declined to sanction it, on the plea that the telegraph must + become a State monopoly. + </p> + <p> + All his efforts to introduce the invention into Europe were futile, and he + returned disheartened to the United States on April 15, 1839. While in + Paris, he had met M. Daguerre, who, with M. Niepce, had just discovered + the art of photography. The process was communicated to Morse, who, with + Dr. Draper, fitted up a studio on the roof of the University, and took the + first daguerreotypes in America. + </p> + <p> + The American Congress now seemed as indifferent to his inventions as the + European governments. An exciting campaign for the presidency was at hand, + and the proposed grant for the telegraph was forgotten. Mr. Smith had + returned to the political arena, and the Vails were under a financial + cloud, so that Morse could expect no further aid from them. The next two + years were the darkest he had ever known. 'Porte Crayon' tells us that he + had little patronage as a professor, and at one time only three pupils + besides himself. Crayon's fee of fifty dollars for the second quarter were + overdue, owing to his remittance from home not arriving; and one day the + professor said, 'Well, Strother, my boy, how are we off for money?' + Strother explained how he was situated, and stated that he hoped to have + the money next week. + </p> + <p> + 'Next week!' repeated Morse. 'I shall be dead by that time... dead of + starvation.' + </p> + <p> + 'Would ten dollars be of any service?' inquired the student, both + astonished and distressed. + </p> + <p> + 'Ten dollars would save my life,' replied Morse; and Strother paid the + money, which was all he owned. They dined together, and afterwards the + professor remarked, 'This is my first meal for twenty-four hours. + Strother, don't be an artist. It means beggary. A house-dog lives better. + The very sensitiveness that stimulates an artist to work keeps him alive + to suffering.' + </p> + <p> + Towards the close of 1841 he wrote to Alfred Vail: 'I have not a cent in + the world;' and to Mr. Smith about the same time he wrote: 'I find myself + without sympathy or help from any who are associated with me, whose + interests, one would think, would impell them at least to inquire if they + could render some assistance. For nearly two years past I have devoted all + my time and scanty means, living on a mere pittance, denying myself all + pleasures, and even necessary food, that I might have a sum to put my + telegraph into such a position before Congress as to insure success to the + common enterprise. I am crushed for want of means, and means of so + trifling a character too, that they who know how to ask (which I do not) + could obtain in a few hours.... As it is, although everything is + favourable, although I have no competition and no opposition—on the + contrary, although every member of Congress, so far as I can learn, is + favourable—yet I fear all will fail because I am too poor to risk + the trifling expense which my journey and residence in Washington will + occasion me. I WILL NOT RUN INTO DEBT, if I lose the whole matter. So + unless I have the means from some source, I shall be compelled, however + reluctantly, to leave it. No one call tell the days and months of anxiety + and labour I have had in perfecting my telegraphic apparatus. For want of + means I have been compelled to make with my own hands (and to labour for + weeks) a piece of mechanism which could be made much better, and in a + tenth part of the time, by a good mechanician, thus wasting time—time + which I cannot recall, and which seems double-winged to me. + </p> + <p> + '"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." It is true, and I have known the + full meaning of it. Nothing but the consciousness that I have an invention + which is to mark an era in human civilisation, and which is to contribute + to the happiness of millions, would have sustained me through so many and + such lengthened trials of patience in perfecting it.' Morse did not invent + for money or scientific reputation; he believed himself the instrument of + a great purpose. + </p> + <p> + During the summer of 1842 he insulated a wire two miles long with hempen + threads saturated with pitch-tar and surrounded with india-rubber. On + October 18, during bright moonlight, he submerged this wire in New York + Harbour, between Castle Garden and Governor's Island, by unreeling it from + a small boat rowed by a man. After signals had been sent through it, the + wire was cut by an anchor, and a portion of it carried off by sailors. + This appears to be the first experiment in signalling on a subaqueous + wire. It was repeated on a canal at Washington the following December, and + both are described in a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, December + 23, 1844, in which Morse states his belief that 'telegraphic communication + on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty be established across the + Atlantic Ocean. Startling as this may now seem, I am confident the time + will come when the project will be realised.' + </p> + <p> + In December, 1842, the inventor made another effort to obtain the help of + Congress, and the Committee on Commerce again recommended an appropriation + of 30,000 dollars in aid of the telegraph. Morse had come to be regarded + as a tiresome 'crank' by some of the Congressmen, and they objected that + if the magnetic telegraph were endowed, mesmerism or any other 'ism' might + have a claim on the Treasury. The Bill passed the House by a slender + majority of six votes, given orally, some of the representatives fearing + that their support of the measure would alienate their constituents. Its + fate in the Senate was even more dubious; and when it came up for + consideration late one night before the adjournment, a senator, the Hon. + Fernando Wood, went to Morse, who watched in the gallery, and said,'There + is no use in your staying here. The Senate is not in sympathy with your + project. I advise you to give it up, return home, and think no more about + it.' + </p> + <p> + Morse retired to his rooms, and after paying his bill for board, including + his breakfast the next morning, he found himself with only thirty-seven + cents and a half in the world. Kneeling by his bed-side he opened his + heart to God, leaving the issue in His hands, and then, comforted in + spirit, fell asleep. While eating his breakfast next morning, Miss Annie + G. Ellsworth, daughter of his friend the Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, + Commissioner of Patents, came up with a beaming countenance, and holding + out her hand, said— + </p> + <p> + 'Professor, I have come to congratulate you.' + </p> + <p> + 'Congratulate me!' replied Morse; 'on what?' + </p> + <p> + 'Why,' she exclaimed,' on the passage of your Bill by the Senate!' + </p> + <p> + It had been voted without debate at the very close of the session. Years + afterwards Morse declared that this was the turning-point in the history + of the telegraph. 'My personal funds,' he wrote,' were reduced to the + fraction of a dollar; and had the passage of the Bill failed from any + cause, there would have been little prospect of another attempt on my part + to introduce to the world my new invention.' + </p> + <p> + Grateful to Miss Ellsworth for bringing the good news, he declared that + when the Washington to Baltimore line was complete hers should be the + first despatch. + </p> + <p> + The Government now paid him a salary of 2,500 dollars a month to + superintend the laying of the underground line which he had decided upon. + Professors Gale and Fisher became his assistants. Vail was put in charge, + and Mr. Ezra Cornell, who founded the Cornell University on the site of + the cotton mill where he had worked as a mechanic, and who had invented a + machine for laying pipes, was chosen to supervise the running of the line. + The conductor was a five-wire cable laid in pipes; but after several miles + had been run from Baltimore to the house intended for the relay, the + insulation broke down. Cornell, it is stated, injured his machine to + furnish an excuse for the stoppage of the work. The leaders consulted in + secret, for failure was staring them in the face. Some 23,000 dollars of + the Government grant were spent, and Mr. Smith, who had lost his faith in + the undertaking, claimed 4000 of the remaining 7000 dollars under his + contract for laying the line. A bitter quarrel arose between him and + Morse, which only ended in the grave. He opposed an additional grant from + Government, and Morse, in his dejection, proposed to let the patent + expire, and if the Government would use his apparatus and remunerate him, + he would reward Alfred Vail, while Smith would be deprived of his portion. + Happily, it was decided to abandon the subterranean line, and erect the + conductor on poles above the ground. A start was made from the Capitol, + Washington, on April 1, 1844, and the line was carried to the Mount Clare + Depot, Baltimore, on May 23, 1843. Next morning Miss Ellsworth fulfilled + her promise by inditing the first message. She chose the words, 'What hath + God wrought?' and they were transmitted by Morse from the Capitol at 8.45 + a.m., and received at Mount Clare by Alfred Vail. + </p> + <p> + This was the first message of a public character sent by the electric + telegraph in the Western World, and it is preserved by the Connecticut + Historical Society. The dots and dashes representing the words were not + drawn with pen and ink, but embossed on the paper with a metal stylus. The + machine itself was kept in the National Museum at Washington, and on + removing it, in 1871, to exhibit it at the Morse Memorial Celebration at + New York, a member of the Vail family discovered a folded paper attached + to its base. A corner of the writing was torn away before its importance + was recognised; but it proved to be a signed statement by Alfred Vail, to + the effect that the method of embossing was invented by him in the sixth + storey of the NEW YORK OBSERVER office during 1844, prior to the erection + of the Washington to Baltimore line, without any hint from Morse. 'I have + not asserted publicly my right as first and sole inventor,' he says, + 'because I wished to preserve the peaceful unity of the invention, and + because I could not, according to my contract with Professor Morse, have + got a patent for it.' + </p> + <p> + The powers of the telegraph having been demonstrated, enthusiasm took the + place of apathy, and Morse, who had been neglected before, was in some + danger of being over-praised. A political incident spread the fame of the + telegraph far and wide. The Democratic Convention, sitting in Baltimore, + nominated Mr. James K. Polk as candidate for the Presidency, and Mr. Silas + Wright for the Vice-Presidency. Alfred Vail telegraphed the news to Morse + in Washington, and he at once told Mr. Wright. The result was that a few + minutes later the Convention was dumbfounded to receive a message from + Wright declining to be nominated. They would not believe it, and appointed + a committee to inquire into the matter; but the telegram was found to be + genuine. + </p> + <p> + On April 1, 1845, the Baltimore to Washington line was formally opened for + public business. The tariff adopted by the Postmaster-General was one cent + for every four characters, and the receipts of the first four days were a + single cent. At the end of a week they had risen to about a dollar. + </p> + <p> + Morse offered the invention to the Government for 100,000 dollars, but the + Postmaster-General declined it on the plea that its working 'had not + satisfied him that under any rate of postage that could be adopted its + revenues could be made equal to its expenditures.' Thus through the narrow + views and purblindness of its official the nation lost an excellent + opportunity of keeping the telegraph system in its own hands. Morse was + disappointed at this refusal, but it proved a blessing in disguise. He and + his agent, the Hon. Amos Kendall, determined to rely on private + enterprise. + </p> + <p> + A line between New York and Philadelphia was projected, and the apparatus + was exhibited in Broadway at a charge of twenty-five cents a head. But the + door-money did not pay the expenses. There was an air of poverty about the + show. One of the exhibitors slept on a couple of chairs, and the princely + founder of Cornell University was grateful to Providence for a shilling + picked up on the side-walk, which enabled him to enjoy a hearty breakfast. + Sleek men of capital, looking with suspicion on the meagre furniture and + miserable apparatus, withheld their patronage; but humbler citizens + invested their hard-won earnings, the Magnetic Telegraph Company was + incorporated, and the line was built. The following year, 1846, another + line was run from Philadelphia to Baltimore by Mr. Henry O'Reilly, of + Rochester, N.Y., an acute pioneer of the telegraph. In the course of ten + years the Atlantic States were covered by a straggling web of lines under + the control of thirty or forty rival companies working different + apparatus, such as that of Morse, Bain, House, and Hughes, but owing to + various causes only one or two were paying a dividend. It was a fit moment + for amalgamation, and this was accomplished in 1856 by Mr. Hiram Sibley. + 'This Western Union,' says one in speaking of the united corporation, + 'seems to me very like collecting all the paupers in the State and + arranging them into a union so as to make rich men of them.' But 'Sibley's + crazy scheme' proved the salvation of the competing companies. In 1857, + after the first stage coach had crossed the plains to California, Mr. + Henry O'Reilly proposed to build a line of telegraph, and Mr. Sibley urged + the Western Union to undertake it. He encountered a strong opposition. The + explorations of Fremont were still fresh in the public mind, and the + country was regarded as a howling wilderness. It was objected that no + poles could be obtained on the prairies, that the Indians or the buffaloes + would destroy the line, and that the traffic would not pay. 'Well, + gentlemen,' said Sibley, 'if you won't join hands with me in the thing, + I'll go it alone.' He procured a subsidy from the Government, who realised + the value of the line from a national point of view, the money was raised + under the auspices of the Western Union, and the route by Omaha, Fort + Laramie, and Salt Lake City to San Francisco was fixed upon. The work + began on July 4, 1861, and though it was expected to occupy two years, it + was completed in four months and eleven days. The traffic soon became + lucrative, and the Indians, except in time of war, protected the line out + of friendship for Mr. Sibley. A black-tailed buck, the gift of White + Cloud, spent its last years in the park of his home at Rochester. + </p> + <p> + The success of the overland wire induced the Company to embark on a still + greater scheme, the project of Mr. Perry MacDonough Collins, for a trunk + line between America and Europe by way of British Columbia, Alaska, the + Aleutian Islands, and Siberia. A line already existed between European + Russia and Irkutsk, in Siberia, and it was to be extended to the mouth of + the Amoor, where the American lines were to join it. Two cables, one + across Behring Sea and another across the Bay of Anadyr, were to link the + two continents. + </p> + <p> + The expedition started in the summer of 1865 with a fleet of about thirty + vessels, carrying telegraph and other stores. In spite of severe + hardships, a considerable part of the line had been erected when the + successful completion of the trans-Atlantic cable, in 1866, caused the + enterprise to be abandoned after an expenditure of 3,000,000 dollars. A + trace cut for the line through the forests of British Columbia is still + known as the 'telegraph trail.' In spite of this misfortune the Western + Union Telegraph Company has continued to flourish. In 1883 its capital + amounted to 80,000,000 dollars, and it now possesses a virtual monopoly of + telegraphic communication in the United States. + </p> + <p> + Morse did not limit his connections to land telegraphy. In 1854, when Mr. + Cyrus Field brought out the Atlantic Telegraph Company, to lay a cable + between Europe and America, he became its electrician, and went to England + for the purpose of consulting with the English engineers on the execution + of the project. But his instrument was never used on the ocean lines, and, + indeed, it was not adapted for them. + </p> + <p> + During this time Alfred Vail continued to improve the Morse apparatus, + until it was past recognition. The porte-rule and type of the transmitter + were discarded for a simple 'key' or rocking lever, worked up and down by + the hand, so as to make and break the circuit. The clumsy framework of the + receiver was reduced to a neat and portable size. The inking pen was + replaced by a metal wheel or disc, smeared with ink, and rolling on the + paper at every dot or dash. Vail, as we have seen, also invented the plan + of embossing the message. But he did still more. When the recording + instrument was introduced, it was found that the clerks persisted in + 'reading' the signals by the clicking of the marking lever, and not from + the paper. Threats of instant dismissal did not stop the practice when + nobody was looking on. Morse, who regarded the record as the distinctive + feature of his invention, was very hostile to the practice; but Nature was + too many for him. The mode of interpreting by sound was the easier and + more economical of the two; and Vail, with his mechanical instinct, + adopted it. He produced an instrument in which there is no paper or + marking device, and the message is simply sounded by the lever of the + armature striking on its metal stops. At present the Morse recorder is + rarely used in comparison with the 'sounder.' + </p> + <p> + The original telegraph of Morse, exhibited in 1837, has become an archaic + form. Apart from the central idea of employing an electro-magnet to signal—an + idea applied by Henry in 1832, when Morse had only thought of it—the + development of the apparatus is mainly due to Vail. His working devices + made it a success, and are in use to-day, while those of Morse are all + extinct. + </p> + <p> + Morse has been highly honoured and rewarded, not only by his countrymen, + but by the European powers. The Queen of Spain sent him a Cross of the + Order of Isabella, the King of Prussia presented him with a jewelled + snuff-box, the Sultan of Turkey decorated him with the Order of Glory, the + Emperor of the French admitted him into the Legion of Honour. Moreover, + the ten European powers in special congress awarded him 400,000 francs + (some 80,000 dollars), as an expression of their gratitude: honorary + banquets were a common thing to the man who had almost starved through his + fidelity to an idea. + </p> + <p> + But beyond his emoluments as a partner in the invention, Alfred Vail had + no recompense. Morse, perhaps, was somewhat jealous of acknowledging the + services of his 'mechanical assistant,' as he at one time chose to regard + Vail. When personal friends, knowing his services, urged Vail to insist + upon their recognition, he replied, 'I am confident that Professor Morse + will do me justice.' But even ten years after the death of Vail, on the + occasion of a banquet given in his honour by the leading citizens of New + York, Morse, alluding to his invention, said: 'In 1835, according to the + concurrent testimony of many witnesses, it lisped its first accents, and + automatically recorded them a few blocks only distant from the spot from + which I now address you. It was a feeble child indeed, ungainly in its + dress, stammering in its speech; but it had then all the distinctive + features and characteristics of its present manhood. It found a friend, an + efficient friend, in Mr. Alfred Vail, of New Jersey, who, with his father + and brother, furnished the means to give the child a decent dress, + preparatory to its' visit to the seat of Government.' + </p> + <p> + When we remember that even by this time Vail had entirely altered the + system of signals, and introduced the dot-dash code, we cannot but regard + this as a stinted acknowledgment of his colleague's work. But the man who + conceives the central idea, and cherishes it, is apt to be niggardly in + allowing merit to the assistant whose mechanical skill is able to shape + and put it in practice; while, on the other hand, the assistant is + sometimes inclined to attach more importance to the working out than it + deserves. Alfred Vail cannot be charged with that, however, and it would + have been the more graceful on the part of Morse had he avowed his + indebtedness to Vail with a greater liberality. Nor would this have + detracted from his own merit as the originator and preserver of the idea, + without which the improvements of Vail would have had no existence. In the + words of the Hon. Amos Kendall, a friend of both: 'If justice be done, the + name of Alfred Vail will for ever stand associated with that of Samuel F. + B. Morse in the history and introduction into public use of the + electro-magnetic telegraph.' + </p> + <p> + Professor Morse spent his declining years at Locust Grove, a charming + retreat on the banks of the River Hudson. In private life he was a fine + example of the Christian gentleman. + </p> + <p> + In the summer of 1871, the Telegraphic Brotherhood of the World erected a + statue to his honour in the Central Park, New York. Delegates from + different parts of America were present at the unveiling; and in the + evening there was a reception at the Academy of Music, where the first + recording telegraph used on the Washington to Baltimore line was + exhibited. The inventor himself appeared, and sent a message at a small + table, which was flashed by the connected wires to the remotest parts of + the Union, It ran: 'Greeting and thanks to the telegraph fraternity + throughout the world. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, + goodwill towards men.' + </p> + <p> + It was deemed fitting that Morse should unveil the statue of Benjamin + Franklin, which had been erected in Printing House Square, New York. When + his venerable figure appeared on the platform, and the long white hair was + blown about his handsome face by the winter wind, a great cheer went up + from the assembled multitude. But the day was bitterly cold, and the + exposure cost him his life. Some months later, as he lay on his sick bed, + he observed to the doctor, 'The best is yet to come.' In tapping his chest + one day, the physician said,' This is the way we doctors telegraph, + professor,' and Morse replied with a smile, 'Very good—very good.' + These were his last words. He died at New York on April 2, 1872, at the + age of eighty-one years, and was buried in the Greenwood Cemetery. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. SIR WILLIAM THOMSON. + </h2> + <p> + Sir William Thomson, the greatest physicist of the age, and the highest + authority on electrical science, theoretical and applied, was born at + Belfast on June 25, 1824. His father, Dr. James Thomson, the son of a + Scots-Irish farmer, showed a bent for scholarship when a boy, and became a + pupil teacher in a small school near Ballynahinch, in County Down. With + his summer earnings he educated himself at Glasgow University during + winter. Appointed head master of a school in connection with the Royal + Academical Institute, he subsequently obtained the professorship of + mathematics in that academy. In 1832 he was called to the chair of + mathematics in the University of Glasgow, where he achieved a reputation + by his text-books on arithmetic and mathematics. + </p> + <p> + William began his course at the same college in his eleventh year, and was + petted by the older students for his extraordinary quickness in solving + the problems of his father's class. It was quite plain that his genius lay + in the direction of mathematics; and on finishing at Glasgow he was sent + to the higher mathematical school of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. In + 1845 he graduated as second wrangler, but won the Smith prize. This + 'consolation stakes' is regarded as a better test of originality than the + tripos. The first, or senior, wrangler probably beat him by a facility in + applying well-known rules, and a readiness in writing. One of the + examiners is said to have declared that he was unworthy to cut Thomson's + pencils. It is certain that while the victor has been forgotten, the + vanquished has created a world-wide renown. + </p> + <p> + While at Cambridge he took an active part in the field sports and + athletics of the University. He won the Silver Sculls, and rowed in the + winning boat of the Oxford and Cambridge race. He also took a lively + interest in the classics, in music, and in general literature; but the + real love, the central passion of his intellectual life, was the pursuit + of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of + electricity, had captivated his imagination, and soon engrossed all the + teeming faculties of his mind. At the age of seventeen, when ordinary lads + are fond of games, and the cleverer sort are content to learn without + attempting to originate, young Thomson had begun to make investigations. + The CAMBRIDGE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL of 1842 contains a paper by him—'On + the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection + with the mathematical theory of electricity.' In this he demonstrated the + identity of the laws governing the distribution of electric or magnetic + force in general, with the laws governing the distribution of the lines of + the motion of heat in certain special cases. The paper was followed by + others on the mathematical theory of electricity; and in 1845 he gave the + first mathematical development of Faraday's notion, that electric + induction takes place through an intervening medium, or 'dielectric,' and + not by some incomprehensible 'action at a distance.' He also devised an + hypothesis of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving + problems of electrostatics, or the science which deals with the forces of + electricity at rest. + </p> + <p> + On gaining a fellowship at his college, he spent some time in the + laboratory of the celebrated Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was + appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. + It was due to the brilliant promise he displayed, as much as to the + influence of his father, that at the age of twenty-two he found himself + wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities + in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a freshman but + a few years before. + </p> + <p> + Thomson became a man of public note in connection with the laying of the + first Atlantic cable. After Cooke and Wheatstone had introduced their + working telegraph in 1839; the idea of a submarine line across the + Atlantic Ocean began to dawn on the minds of men as a possible triumph of + the future. Morse proclaimed his faith in it as early as the year 1840, + and in 1842 he submerged a wire, insulated with tarred hemp and + india-rubber, in the water of New York harbour, and telegraphed through + it. The following autumn Wheatstone performed a similar experiment in the + Bay of Swansea. A good insulator to cover the wire and prevent the + electricity from leaking into the water was requisite for the success of a + long submarine line. India-rubber had been tried by Jacobi, the Russian + electrician, as far back as 1811. He laid a wire insulated with rubber + across the Neva at St. Petersburg, and succeeded in firing a mine by an + electric spark sent through it; but india-rubber, although it is now used + to a considerable extent, was not easy to manipulate in those days. + Luckily another gum which could be melted by heat, and readily applied to + the wire, made its appearance. Gutta-percha, the adhesive juice of the + ISONANDRA GUTTA tree, was introduced to Europe in 1842 by Dr. Montgomerie, + a Scotch surveyor in the service of the East India Company. Twenty years + before he had seen whips made of it in Singapore, and believed that it + would be useful in the fabrication of surgical apparatus. Faraday and + Wheatstone soon discovered its merits as an insulator, and in 1845 the + latter suggested that it should be employed to cover the wire which it was + proposed to lay from Dover to Calais. It was tried on a wire laid across + the Rhine between Deutz and Cologne. In 1849 Mr. C. V. Walker, electrician + to the South Eastern Railway Company, submerged a wire coated with it, or, + as it is technically called, a gutta-percha core, along the coast off + Dover. + </p> + <p> + The following year Mr. John Watkins Brett laid the first line across the + Channel. It was simply a copper wire coated with gutta-percha, without any + other protection. The core was payed out from a reel mounted behind the + funnel of a steam tug, the Goliath, and sunk by means of lead weights + attached to it every sixteenth of a mile. She left Dover about ten o'clock + on the morning of August 28, 1850, with some thirty men on board and a + day's provisions. The route she was to follow was marked by a line of + buoys and flags. By eight o'clock in the evening she arrived at Cape + Grisnez, and came to anchor near the shore. Mr. Brett watched the + operations through a glass at Dover. 'The declining sun,' he says, + 'enabled me to discern the moving shadow of the steamer's smoke on the + white cliff; thus indicating her progress. At length the shadow ceased to + move. The vessel had evidently come to an anchor. We gave them half an + hour to convey the end of the wire to shore and attach the type-printing + instrument, and then I sent the first electrical message across the + Channel. This was reserved for Louis Napoleon.' According to Mr. F. C. + Webb, however, the first of the signals were a mere jumble of letters, + which were torn up. He saved a specimen of the slip on which they were + printed, and it was afterwards presented to the Duke of Wellington. + </p> + <p> + Next morning this pioneer line was broken down at a point about 200 Yards + from Cape Grisnez, and it turned out that a Boulogne fisherman had raised + it on his trawl and cut a piece away, thinking he had found a rare species + of tangle with gold in its heart. This misfortune suggested the propriety + of arming the core against mechanical injury by sheathing it in a cable of + hemp and iron wires. The experiment served to keep alive the concession, + and the next year, on November 13, 1851, a protected core or true cable + was laid from a Government hulk, the Blazer, which was towed across the + Channel. + </p> + <p> + Next year Great Britain and Ireland were linked together. In May, 1853, + England was joined to Holland by a cable across the North Sea, from + Orfordness to the Hague. It was laid by the Monarch, a paddle steamer + which had been fitted for the work. During the night she met with such + heavy weather that the engineer was lashed near the brakes; and the + electrician, Mr. Latimer Clark, sent the continuity signals by jerking a + needle instrument with a string. These and other efforts in the + Mediterranean and elsewhere were the harbingers of the memorable + enterprise which bound the Old World and the New. + </p> + <p> + Bishop Mullock, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland, was + lying becalmed in his yacht one day in sight of Cape Breton Island, and + began to dream of a plan for uniting his savage diocese to the mainland by + a line of telegraph through the forest from St. John's to Cape Ray, and + cables across the mouth of the St. Lawrence from Cape Ray to Nova Scotia. + St. John's was an Atlantic port, and it seemed to him that the passage of + news between America and Europe could thus be shortened by forty-eight + hours. On returning to St. John's he published his idea in the COURIER by + a letter dated November 8, 1850. + </p> + <p> + About the same time a similar plan occurred to Mr. F. N. Gisborne, a + telegraph engineer in Nova Scotia. In the spring of 1851 he procured a + grant from the Legislature of Newfoundland, resigned his situation in Nova + Scotia, and having formed a company, began the construction of the land + line. But in 1853 his bills were dishonoured by the company, he was + arrested for debt, and stripped of all his fortune. The following year, + however, he was introduced to Mr. Cyrus Field, of New York, a wealthy + merchant, who had just returned from a six months' tour in South America. + Mr. Field invited Mr. Gisborne to his house in order to discuss the + project. When his visitor was gone, Mr. Field began to turn over a + terrestrial globe which stood in his library, and it flashed upon him that + the telegraph to Newfoundland might be extended across the Atlantic Ocean. + The idea fired him with enthusiasm. It seemed worthy of a man's ambition, + and although he had retired from business to spend his days in peace, he + resolved to dedicate his time, his energies, and fortune to the + accomplishment of this grand enterprise. + </p> + <p> + A presentiment of success may have inspired him; but he was ignorant alike + of submarine cables and the deep sea. Was it possible to submerge the + cable in the Atlantic, and would it be safe at the bottom? Again, would + the messages travel through the line fast enough to make it pay! On the + first question he consulted Lieutenant Maury, the great authority on + mareography. Maury told him that according to recent soundings by + Lieutenant Berryman, of the United States brig Dolphin, the bottom between + Ireland and Newfoundland was a plateau covered with microscopic shells at + a depth not over 2000 fathoms, and seemed to have been made for the very + purpose of receiving the cable. He left the question of finding a time + calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a wire long enough, and a ship big + enough,' to lay a line some sixteen hundred miles in length to other + minds. As to the line itself, Mr. Field consulted Professor Morse, who + assured him that it was quite possible to make and lay a cable of that + length. He at once adopted the scheme of Gisborne as a preliminary step to + the vaster undertaking, and promoted the New York, Newfoundland, and + London Telegraph Company, to establish a line of telegraph between America + and Europe. Professor Morse was appointed electrician to the company. + </p> + <p> + The first thing to be done was to finish the line between St. John's and + Nova Scotia, and in 1855 an attempt was made to lay a cable across the + Gulf of the St. Lawrence, It was payed out from a barque in tow of a + steamer; but when half was laid a gale rose, and to keep the barque from + sinking the line was cut away. Next summer a steamboat was fitted out for + the purpose, and the cable was submerged. St. John's was now connected + with New York by a thousand miles of land and submarine telegraph. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Field then directed his efforts to the completion of the trans-oceanic + section. He induced the American Government to despatch Lieutenant + Berryman, in the Arctic, and the British Admiralty to send Lieutenant: + Dayman, in the Cyclops, to make a special survey along the proposed route + of the cable. These soundings revealed the existence of a submarine hill + dividing the 'telegraph plateau' from the shoal water on the coast of + Ireland, but its slope was gradual and easy. + </p> + <p> + Till now the enterprise had been purely American, and the funds provided + by American capitalists, with the exception of a few shares held by Mr. J. + W. Brett. But seeing that the cable was to land on British soil, it was + fitting that the work should be international, and that the British people + should be asked to contribute towards the manufacture and submersion of + the cable. Mr. Field therefore proceeded to London, and with the + assistance of Mr. Brett the Atlantic Telegraph Company was floated. Mr. + Field himself supplied a quarter of the needed capital; and we may add + that Lady Byron, and Mr. Thackeray, the novelist, were among the + shareholders. + </p> + <p> + The design of the cable was a subject of experiment by Professor Morse and + others. It was known that the conductor should be of copper, possessing a + high conductivity for the electric current, and that its insulating jacket + of gutta-percha should offer a great resistance to the leakage of the + current. Moreover, experience had shown that the protecting sheath or + armour of the core should be light and flexible as well as strong, in + order to resist external violence and allow it to be lifted for repair. + There was another consideration, however, which at this time was rather a + puzzle. As early as 1823 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Francis Ronalds had observed + that electric signals were retarded in passing through an insulated wire + or core laid under ground, and the same effect was noticeable on cores + immersed in water, and particularly on the lengthy cable between England + and the Hague. Faraday showed that it was caused by induction between the + electricity in the wire and the earth or water surrounding it. A core, in + fact, is an attenuated Leyden jar; the wire of the core, its insulating + jacket, and the soil or water around it stand respectively for the inner + tinfoil, the glass, and the outer tinfoil of the jar. When the wire is + charged from a battery, the electricity induces an opposite charge in the + water as it travels along, and as the two charges attract each other, the + exciting charge is restrained. The speed of a signal through the conductor + of a submarine cable is thus diminished by a drag of its own making. The + nature of the phenomenon was clear, but the laws which governed it were + still a mystery. It became a serious question whether, on a long cable + such as that required for the Atlantic, the signals might not be so + sluggish that the work would hardly pay. Faraday had said to Mr. Field + that a signal would take 'about a second,' and the American was satisfied; + but Professor Thomson enunciated the law of retardation, and cleared up + the whole matter. He showed that the velocity of a signal through a given + core was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the core. + That is to say, in any particular cable the speed of a signal is + diminished to one-fourth if the length is doubled, to one-ninth if it is + trebled, to one-sixteenth if it is quadrupled, and so on. It was now + possible to calculate the time taken by a signal in traversing the + proposed Atlantic line to a minute fraction of a second, and to design the + proper core for a cable of any given length. + </p> + <p> + The accuracy of Thomson's law was disputed in 1856 by Dr. Edward O. + Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, who + had misinterpreted the results of his own experiments. Thomson disposed of + his contention in a letter to the ATHENAEUM, and the directors of the + company saw that he was a man to enlist in their adventure. It is not + enough to say the young Glasgow professor threw himself heart and soul + into their work. He descended in their midst like the very genius of + electricity, and helped them out of all their difficulties. In 1857 he + published in the ENGINEER the whole theory of the mechanical forces + involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line + is running out of the ship at a constant speed in a uniform depth of + water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it + enters the water to that where it touches the bottom. + </p> + <p> + To these gifts of theory, electrical and mechanical, Thomson added a + practical boon in the shape of the reflecting galvanometer, or mirror + instrument. This measurer of the current was infinitely more sensitive + than any which preceded it, and enables the electrician to detect the + slightest flaw in the core of a cable during its manufacture and + submersion. Moreover, it proved the best apparatus for receiving the + messages through a long cable. The Morse and other instruments, however + suitable for land lines and short cables, were all but useless on the + Atlantic line, owing to the retardation of the signals; but the mirror + instrument sprang out of Thomson's study of this phenomenon, and was + designed to match it. Hence this instrument, through being the fittest for + the purpose, drove the others from the field, and allowed the first + Atlantic cables to be worked on a profitable basis. + </p> + <p> + The cable consisted of a strand of seven copper wires, one weighing 107 + pounds a nautical mile or knot, covered with three coats of gutta-percha, + weighing 261 pounds a knot, and wound with tarred hemp, over which a + sheath of eighteen strands, each of seven iron wires, was laid in a close + spiral. It weighed nearly a ton to the mile, was flexible as a rope, and + able to withstand a pull of several tons. It was made conjointly by + Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., of Greenwich, and Messrs. R. S. Newall + & Co., of Liverpool. + </p> + <p> + The British Government promised Mr. Field a subsidy of L1,400 a year, and + the loan of ships to lay the cable. He solicited an equal help from + Congress, but a large number of the senators, actuated by a national + jealousy of England, and looking to the fact that both ends of the line + were to lie in British territory, opposed the grant. It appeared to these + far-sighted politicians that England, the hereditary foe, was 'literally + crawling under the sea to get some advantage over the United States.' The + Bill was only passed by a majority of a single vote. In the House of + Representatives it encountered a similar hostility, but was ultimately + signed by President Pierce. + </p> + <p> + The Agamemnon, a British man-of-war fitted out for the purpose, took in + the section made at Greenwich, and the Niagara, an American warship, that + made at Liverpool. The vessels and their consorts met in the bay of + Valentia Island, on the south-west coast of Ireland, where on August 5, + 1857, the shore end of the cable was landed from the Niagara. It was a + memorable scene. The ships in the bay were dressed in bunting, and the + Lord Lieutenant of Ireland stood on the beach, attended by his following, + to receive the end from the American sailors. Visitors in holiday attire + collected in groups to watch the operations, and eagerly joined with his + excellency in helping to pull the wire ashore. When it was landed, the + Reverend Mr. Day, of Kenmore, offered up a prayer, asking the Almighty to + prosper the undertaking, Next day the expedition sailed; but ere the + Niagara had proceeded five miles on her way the shore-end parted, and the + repairing of it delayed the start for another day. + </p> + <p> + At first the Niagara went slowly ahead to avoid a mishap, but as the cable + ran out easily she increased her speed. The night fell, but hardly a soul + slept. The utmost vigilance was maintained throughout the vessel. Apart + from the noise of the paying-out machinery, there was an awful stillness + on board. Men walked about with a muffled step, or spoke in whispers, as + if they were afraid the sound of their voices would break the slender + line. It seemed as though a great and valued friend lay at the point of + death. + </p> + <p> + The submarine hill, with its dangerous slope, was passed in safety, and + the 'telegraph plateau,' nearly two miles deep, was reached, when suddenly + the signals from Ireland, which told that the conductor was intact, + stopped altogether. Professor Morse and De Sauty, the electricians, failed + to restore the communication, and the engineers were preparing to cut the + cable, when quite as suddenly the signals returned, and every face grew + bright. A weather-beaten old sailor said, 'I have watched nearly every + mile of it as it came over the side, and I would have given fifty dollars, + poor man as I am, to have saved it, although I don't expect to make + anything by it when it is laid down.' + </p> + <p> + But the joy was short-lived. The line was running out at the rate of six + miles an hour, while the vessel was only making four. To check this waste + of cable the engineer tightened the brakes; but as the stern of the ship + rose on the swell, the cable parted under the heavy strain, and the end + was lost in the sea. + </p> + <p> + The bad news ran like a flash of lightning through all the ships, and + produced a feeling of sorrow and dismay. + </p> + <p> + No attempt was made to grapple the line in such deep water, and the + expedition returned to England. It was too late to try again that year, + but the following summer the Agamemnon and Niagara, after an experimental + trip to the Bay of Biscay, sailed from Plymouth on June 10 with a full + supply of cable, better gear than before, and a riper experience of the + work. They were to meet in the middle of the Atlantic, where the two + halves of the cable on board of each were to be spliced together, and + while the Agamemnon payed out eastwards to Valentia Island the Niagara was + to pay out westward to Newfoundland. On her way to the rendezvous the + Agamemnon encountered a terrific gale, which lasted for a week, and nearly + proved her destruction. + </p> + <p> + On Saturday, the 26th, the middle splice was effected and the bight + dropped into the deep. The two ships got under weigh, but had not + proceeded three miles when the cable broke in the paying-out machinery of + the Niagara. Another splice, followed by a fresh start, was made during + the same afternoon; but when some fifty miles were payed out of each + vessel, the current which kept up communication between them suddenly + failed owing to the cable having snapped in the sea. Once more the middle + splice was made and lowered, and the ships parted company a third time. + For a day or two all went well; over two hundred miles of cable ran + smoothly out of each vessel, and the anxious chiefs began to indulge in + hopes of ultimate success, when the cable broke about twenty feet behind + the stern of the Agamemnon. + </p> + <p> + The expedition returned to Queenstown, and a consultation took place. Mr. + Field, and Professor Thomson, who was on board the Agamemnon, were in + favour of another trial, and it was decided to make one without delay. The + vessels left the Cove of Cork on July 17; but on this occasion there was + no public enthusiasm, and even those on board felt as if they were going + on another wild goose chase. The Agamemnon was now almost becalmed on her + way to the rendezvous; but the middle splice was finished by 12.30 p.m. on + July 29, 1858, and immediately dropped into the sea. The ships thereupon + started, and increased their distance, while the cable ran easily out of + them. Some alarm was caused by the stoppage of the continuity signals, but + after a time they reappeared. The Niagara deviated from the great arc of a + circle on which the cable was to be laid, and the error was traced to the + iron of the cable influencing her compass. Hence the Gorgon, one of her + consorts, was ordered to go ahead and lead the way. The Niagara passed + several icebergs, but none injured the cable, and on August 4 she arrived + in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. At 6. a.m. next morning the shore end was + landed into the telegraph-house which had been built for its reception. + Captain Hudson, of the Niagara, then read prayers, and at one p.m. H.M.S. + Gorgon fired a salute of twenty-one guns. + </p> + <p> + The Agamemnon made an equally successful run. About six o'clock on the + first evening a huge whale was seen approaching on the starboard bow, and + as he sported in the waves, rolling and lashing them into foam, the + onlookers began to fear that he might endanger the line. Their excitement + became intense as the monster heaved astern, nearer and nearer to the + cable, until his body grazed it where it sank into the water; but happily + no harm was done. Damaged portions of the cable had to be removed in + paying-out, and the stoppage of the continuity signals raised other alarms + on board. Strong head winds kept the Agamemnon back, and two American + ships which got into her course had to be warned off by firing guns. The + signals from the Niagara became very weak, but on Professor Thomson asking + the electricians on board of her to increase their battery power, they + improved at once. At length, on Thursday, August, 5, the Agamemnon, with + her consort, the Valorous, arrived at Valentia Island, and the shore end + was landed into the cable-house at Knightstown by 3 p.m., and a royal + salute announced the completion of the work. + </p> + <p> + The news was received at first with some incredulity, but on being + confirmed it caused a universal joy. On August 16 Queen Victoria sent a + telegram of congratulation to President Buchanan through the line, and + expressed a hope that it would prove 'an additional link between the + nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and + reciprocal esteem.' The President responded that, 'it is a triumph more + glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by + conqueror on the field of battle. May the Atlantic telegraph, under the + blessing of heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship + between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine + Providence to diffuse religion, civilisation, liberty, and law throughout + the world.' + </p> + <p> + These messages were the signal for a fresh outburst of enthusiasm. Next + morning a grand salute of 100 guns resounded in New York, the streets were + decorated with flags, the bells of the churches rung, and at night the + city was illuminated. + </p> + <p> + The Atlantic cable was a theme of inspiration for innumerable sermons and + a prodigious quantity of doggerel. Among the happier lines were these:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ''Tis done! the angry sea consents, + The nations stand no more apart; + With clasped hands the continents + Feel throbbings of each other's heart. + + Speed! speed the cable! let it run + A loving girdle round the earth, + Till all the nations 'neath the sun + Shall be as brothers of one hearth. + + As brothers pledging, hand in hand, + One freedom for the world abroad, + One commerce over every land, + One language, and one God.' +</pre> + <p> + The rejoicing reached a climax in September, when a public service was + held in Trinity Church, and Mr. Field, the hero of the hour, as head and + mainspring of the expedition, received an ovation in the Crystal Palace at + New York. The mayor presented him with a golden casket as a souvenir of + 'the grandest enterprise of our day and generation.' The band played 'God + save the Queen,' and the whole audience rose to their feet. In the evening + there was a magnificent torchlight procession of the city firemen. + </p> + <p> + That very day the cable breathed its last. Its insulation had been failing + for some days, and the only signals which could be read were those given + by the mirror galvanometer.[It is said to have broken down while + Newfoundland was vainly attempting to inform Valentia that it was sending + with THREE HUNDRED AND TWELVE CELLS!] The reaction at this news was + tremendous. Some writers even hinted that the line was a mere hoax, and + others pronounced it a stock exchange speculation. Sensible men doubted + whether the cable had ever 'spoken;' but in addition to the royal + despatch, items of daily news had passed through the wire; for instance, + the announcement of a collision between two ships, the Arabia and the + Europa, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, and an order from London, + countermanding the departure of a regiment in Canada for the seat of the + Indian Mutiny, which had come to an end. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Field was by no means daunted at the failure. He was even more eager + to renew the work, since he had come so near to success. But the public + had lost confidence in the scheme, and all his efforts to revive the + company were futile. It was not until 1864 that with the assistance of Mr. + Thomas (afterwards Lord) Brassey, and Mr. (now Sir) John Fender, that he + succeeded in raising the necessary capital. The Glass, Elliot, and + Gutta-Percha Companies were united to form the well-known Telegraph + Construction and Maintenance Company, which undertook to manufacture and + lay the new cable. + </p> + <p> + Much experience had been gained in the meanwhile. Long cables had been + submerged in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The Board of Trade in 1859 + had appointed a committee of experts, including Professor Wheatstone, to + investigate the whole subject, and the results were published in a + Blue-book. Profiting by these aids, an improved type of cable was + designed. The core consisted of a strand of seven very pure copper wires + weighing 300 lbs. a knot, coated with Chatterton's compound, which is + impervious to water, then covered with four layers of gutta-percha + alternating with four thin layers of the compound cementing the whole, and + bringing the weight of the insulator to 400 lbs. per knot. This core was + served with hemp saturated in a preservative solution, and on the hemp as + a padding were spirally wound eighteen single wires of soft steel, each + covered with fine strands of Manilla yam steeped in the preservative. The + weight of the new cable was 35.75 cwt. per knot, or nearly twice the + weight of the old, and it was stronger in proportion. + </p> + <p> + Ten years before, Mr. Marc Isambard Brunel, the architect of the Great + Eastern, had taken Mr. Field to Blackwall, where the leviathan was lying, + and said to him, 'There is the ship to lay the Atlantic cable.' She was + now purchased to fulfil the mission. Her immense hull was fitted with + three iron tanks for the reception of 2,300 miles of cable, and her decks + furnished with the paying-out gear. Captain (now Sir) James Anderson, of + the Cunard steamer China, a thorough seaman, was appointed to the command, + with Captain Moriarty, R.N., as chief navigating officer. Mr. (afterwards + Sir) Samuel Canning was engineer for the contractors, the Telegraph + Construction and Maintenance Company, and Mr. de Sauty their electrician; + Professor Thomson and Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley were the electricians + for the Atlantic Telegraph Company. The Press was ably represented by Dr. + W. H. Russell, correspondent of the TIMES. The Great Eastern took on board + seven or eight thousand tons of coal to feed her fires, a prodigious + quantity of stores, and a multitude of live stock which turned her decks + into a farmyard. Her crew all told numbered 500 men. + </p> + <p> + At noon on Saturday, July 15, 1865, the Great Eastern left the Nore for + Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island, where the shore end was laid by the + Caroline. + </p> + <p> + At 5.30 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, amidst the firing of cannon and the + cheers of the telegraph fleet, she started on her voyage at a speed of + about four knots an hour. The weather was fine, and all went well until + next morning early, when the boom of a gun signalled that a fault had + broken out in the cable. It turned out that a splinter of iron wire had + penetrated the core. More faults of the kind were discovered, and as they + always happened in the same watch, there was a suspicion of foul play. In + repairing one of these on July 31, after 1,062 miles had been payed out, + the cable snapped near the stern of the ship, and the end was lost. 'All + is over,' quietly observed Mr. Canning; and though spirited attempts were + made to grapple the sunken line in two miles of water, they failed to + recover it. + </p> + <p> + The Great Eastern steamed back to England, where the indomitable Mr. Field + issued another prospectus, and formed the Anglo-American Telegraph + Company, with a capital of L600,000, to lay a new cable and complete the + broken one. On July 7, 1866, the William Cory laid the shore end at + Valentia, and on Friday, July 13, about 3 p.m., the Great Eastern started + paying-out once more. [Friday is regarded as an unlucky, and Sunday as a + lucky day by sailors. The Great Eastern started on Sunday before and + failed; she succeeded now. Columbus sailed on a Friday, and discovered + America on a Friday.] A private service of prayer was held at Valentia by + invitation of two directors of the company, but otherwise there was no + celebration of the event. Professor Thomson was on board; but Dr. W. H. + Russell had gone to the seat of the Austro-Prussian war, from which + telegrams were received through the cable. + </p> + <p> + The 'big ship' was attended by three consorts, the Terrible, to act as a + spy on the starboard how, and warn other vessels off the course, the + Medway on the port, and the Albany on the starboard quarter, to drop or + pick up buoys, and make themselves generally useful. Despite the + fickleness of the weather, and a 'foul flake,' or clogging of the line as + it ran out of the tank, there was no interruption of the work. The 'old + coffee mill,' as the sailors dubbed the paying-out gear, kept grinding + away. 'I believe we shall do it this time, Jack,' said one of the crew to + his mate. + </p> + <p> + On the evening of Friday, July 27, the expedition made the entrance of + Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, in a thick fog, and next morning the Great + Eastern cast her anchor at Heart's Content. Flags were flying from the + little church and the telegraph station on shore. The Great Eastern was + dressed, three cheers were given, and a salute was fired. At 9 a.m. a + message from England cited these words from a leading article in the + current TIMES: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age and nation, and the + men who have achieved it deserve to be honoured among the benefactors of + their race.' 'Treaty of peace signed between Prussia and Austria.' The + shore end was landed during the day by the Medway; and Captain Anderson, + with the officers of the telegraph fleet, went in a body to the church to + return thanks for the success of the expedition. Congratulations poured + in, and friendly telegrams were again exchanged between Her Majesty and + the United States. The great work had been finally accomplished, and the + two worlds were lastingly united. + </p> + <p> + On August 9 the Great Eastern put to sea again in order to grapple the + lost cable of 1865, and complete it to Newfoundland. Arriving in mid-ocean + she proceeded to fish for the submerged line in two thousand fathoms of + water, and after repeated failures, involving thirty casts of the grapnel, + she hooked and raised it to surface, then spliced it to the fresh cable in + her hold, and payed out to Heart's Content, where she arrived on Saturday, + September 7. There were now two fibres of intelligence between the two + hemispheres. + </p> + <p> + On his return home, Professor Thomson was among those who received the + honour of knighthood for their services in connection with the enterprise. + He deserved it. By his theory and apparatus he probably did more than any + other man, with the exception of Mr. Field, to further the Atlantic + telegraph. We owe it to his admirable inventions, the mirror instrument of + 1857 and the siphon recorder of 1869, that messages through long cables + are so cheap and fast, and, as a consequence, that ocean telegraphy is now + so common. Hence some account of these two instruments will not be out of + place. + </p> + <p> + Sir William Thomson's siphon recorder, in all its present completeness, + must take rank as a masterpiece of invention. As used in the recording or + writing in permanent characters of the messages sent through long + submarine cables, it is the acknowledged chief of 'receiving instruments,' + as those apparatus are called which interpret the electrical condition of + the telegraph wire into intelligible signals. Like other mechanical + creations, no doubt its growth in idea and translation into material fact + was a step-by-step process of evolution, culminating at last in its great + fitness and beauty. + </p> + <p> + The marvellous development of telegraphy within the last generation has + called into existence a great variety of receiving instruments, each + admirable in its way. The Hughes, or the Stock Exchange instruments, for + instance, print the message in Roman characters; the sounders strike it + out on stops or bells of different tone; the needle instruments indicate + it by oscillations of their needles; the Morse daubs it in ink on paper, + or embosses it by a hard style; while Bain's electro-chemical receiver + stains it on chemically prepared paper. The Meyer-Baudot and the Quadruple + receive four messages at once and record them separately; while the + harmonic telegraph of Elisha Gray can receive as many as eight + simultaneously, by means of notes excited by the current in eight separate + tuning forks. + </p> + <p> + But all these instruments have one great drawback for delicate work, and, + however suitable they may be for land lines, they are next to useless for + long cables. They require a certain definite strength of current to work + them, whatever it may be, and in general it is very considerable. Most of + the moving parts of the mechanism are comparatively heavy, and unless the + current is of the proper strength to move them, the instrument is dumb, + while in Bain's the solution requires a certain power of current to + decompose it and leave the stain. + </p> + <p> + In overland lines the current traverses the wire suddenly, like a bullet, + and at its full strength, so that if the current be sufficiently strong + these instruments will be worked at once, and no time will be lost. But it + is quite different on submarine cables. There the current is slow and + varying. It travels along the copper wire in the form of a wave or + undulation, and is received feebly at first, then gradually rising to its + maximum strength, and finally dying away again as slowly as it rose. In + the French Atlantic cable no current can be detected by the most delicate + galvanoscope at America for the first tenth of a second after it has been + put on at Brest; and it takes about half a second for the received current + to reach its maximum value. This is owing to the phenomenon of induction, + very important in submarine cables, but almost entirely absent in land + lines. In submarine cables, as is well known, the copper wire which + conveys the current is insulated from the sea-water by an envelope, + usually of gutta-percha. Now the electricity sent into this wire INDUCES + electricity of an opposite kind to itself in the sea-water outside, and + the attraction set up between these two kinds 'holds back' the current in + the wire, and retards its passage to the receiving station. + </p> + <p> + It follows, that with a receiving instrument set to indicate a particular + strength of current, the rate of signalling would be very slow on long + cables compared to land lines; and that a different form of instrument is + required for cable work. This fact stood greatly in the way of early cable + enterprise. Sir William (then Professor) Thomson first solved the + difficulty by his invention of the 'mirror galvanometer,' and rendered at + the same time the first Atlantic cable company a commercial success. The + merit of this receiving instrument is, that it indicates with extreme + sensibility all the variations of the current in the cable, so that, + instead of having to wait until each signal wave sent into the cable has + travelled to the receiving end before sending another, a series of waves + may be sent after each other in rapid succession. These waves, encroaching + upon each other, will coalesce at their bases; but if the crests remain + separate, the delicate decipherer at the other end will take cognisance of + them and make them known to the eye as the distinct signals of the + message. + </p> + <p> + The mirror galvanometer is at once beautifully simple and exquisitely + scientific. It consists of a very long fine coil of silk-covered copper + wire, and in the heart of the coil, within a little air-chamber, a small + round mirror, having four tiny magnets cemented to its back, is hung, by a + single fibre of floss silk no thicker than a spider's line. The mirror is + of film glass silvered, the magnets of hair-spring, and both together + sometimes weigh only one-tenth of a grain. A beam of light is thrown from + a lamp upon the mirror, and reflected by it upon a white screen or scale a + few feet distant, where it forms a bright spot of light. + </p> + <p> + When there is no current on the instrument, the spot of light remains + stationary at the zero position on the screen; but the instant a current + traverses the long wire of the coil, the suspended magnets twist + themselves horizontally out of their former position, the mirror is of + course inclined with them, and the beam of light is deflected along the + screen to one side or the other, according to the nature of the current. + If a POSITIVE current—that is to say, a current from the copper pole + of the battery—gives a deflection to the RIGHT of zero, a NEGATIVE + current, or a current from the zinc pole of the battery, will give a + deflection to the left of zero, and VICE VERSA. + </p> + <p> + The air in the little chamber surrounding the mirror is compressed at + will, so as to act like a cushion, and 'deaden' the movements of the + mirror. The needle is thus prevented from idly swinging about at each + deflection, and the separate signals are rendered abrupt and 'dead beat,' + as it is called. + </p> + <p> + At a receiving station the current coming in from the cable has simply to + be passed through the coil of the 'speaker' before it is sent into the + ground, and the wandering light spot on the screen faithfully represents + all its variations to the clerk, who, looking on, interprets these, and + cries out the message word by word. + </p> + <p> + The small weight of the mirror and magnets which form the moving part of + this instrument, and the range to which the minute motions of the mirror + can be magnified on the screen by the reflected beam of light, which acts + as a long impalpable hand or pointer, render the mirror galvanometer + marvellously sensitive to the current, especially when compared with other + forms of receiving instruments. Messages have been sent from England to + America through one Atlantic cable and back again to England through + another, and there received on the mirror galvanometer, the electric + current used being that from a toy battery made out of a lady's silver + thimble, a grain of zinc, and a drop of acidulated water. + </p> + <p> + The practical advantage of this extreme delicacy is, that the signal waves + of the current may follow each other so closely as almost entirely to + coalesce, leaving only a very slight rise and fall of their crests, like + ripples on the surface of a flowing stream, and yet the light spot will + respond to each. The main flow of the current will of course shift the + zero of the spot, but over and above this change of place the spot will + follow the momentary fluctuations of the current which form the individual + signals of the message. What with this shifting of the zero and the very + slight rise and fall in the current produced by rapid signalling, the + ordinary land line instruments are quite unserviceable for work upon long + cables. + </p> + <p> + The mirror instrument has this drawback, however—it does not + 'record' the message. There is a great practical advantage in a receiving + instrument which records its messages; errors are avoided and time saved. + It was to supply such a desideratum for cable work that Sir William + Thomson invented the siphon recorder, his second important contribution to + the province of practical telegraphy. He aimed at giving a GRAPHIC + representation of the varying strength of the current, just as the mirror + galvanometer gives a visual one. The difficulty of producing such a + recorder was, as he himself says, due to a difficulty in obtaining marks + from a very light body in rapid motion, without impeding that motion. The + moving body must be quite free to follow the undulations of the current, + and at the same time must record its motions by some indelible mark. As + early as 1859, Sir William sent out to the Red Sea cable a piece of + apparatus with this intent. The marker consisted of a light platinum wire, + constantly emitting sparks from a Rhumkorff coil, so as to perforate a + line on a strip of moving paper; and it was so connected to the movable + needle of a species of galvanometer as to imitate the motions of the + needle. But before it reached the Red Sea the cable had broken down, and + the instrument was returned dismantled, to be superseded at length by the + siphon recorder, in which the marking point is a fine glass siphon + emitting ink, and the moving body a light coil of wire hung between the + poles of a magnet. + </p> + <p> + The principle of the siphon recorder is exactly the inverse of the mirror + galvanometer. In the latter we have a small magnet suspended in the centre + of a large coil of wire—the wire enclosing the magnet, which is free + to rotate round its own axis. In the former we have a small coil suspended + between the poles of a large magnet—the magnet enclosing the coil, + which is also free to rotate round its own axis. When a current passes + through this coil, so suspended in the highly magnetic space between the + poles of the magnet, the coil itself experiences a mechanical force, + causing it to take up a particular position, which varies with the nature + of the current, and the siphon which is attached to it faithfully figures + its motion on the running paper. + </p> + <p> + The point of the siphon does not touch the paper, although it is very + close. It would impede the motion of the coil if it did. But the + 'capillary attraction' of so fine a tube will not permit the ink to flow + freely of itself, so the inventor, true to his instincts, again called in + the aid of electricity, and electrified the ink. The siphon and reservoir + are together supported by an EBONITE bracket, separate from the rest of + the instrument, and INSULATED from it; that is to say, electricity cannot + escape from them to the instrument. The ink may, therefore, be electrified + to an exalted state, or high POTENTIAL as it is called, while the body of + the instrument, including the paper and metal writing-tablet, are in + connection with the earth, and at low potential, or none at all, for the + potential of the earth is in general taken as zero. + </p> + <p> + The ink, for example, is like a highly-charged thunder-cloud supported + over the earth's surface. Now the tendency of a charged body is to move + from a place of higher to a place of lower potential, and consequently the + ink tends to flow downwards to the writing-tablet. The only avenue of + escape for it is by the fine glass siphon, and through this it rushes + accordingly and discharges itself in a rain upon the paper. The natural + repulsion between its like electrified particles causes the shower to + issue in spray. As the paper moves over the pulleys a delicate hair line + is marked, straight when the siphon is stationary, but curved when the + siphon is pulled from side to side by the oscillations of the signal coil. + </p> + <p> + It is to the mouse-mill that me must look both for the electricity which + is used to electrify the ink and for the motive power which drives the + paper. This unique and interesting little motor owes its somewhat + epigrammatic title to the resemblance of the drum to one of those sparred + wheels turned by white mice, and to the amusing fact of its capacity for + performing work having been originally computed in terms of a + 'mouse-power.' The mill is turned by a stream of electricity flowing from + the battery above described, and is, in fact, an electro-magnetic engine + worked by the current. + </p> + <p> + The alphabet of signals employed is the 'Morse code,' so generally in + vogue throughout the world. In the Morse code the letters of the alphabet + are represented by combinations of two distinct elementary signals, + technically called 'dots' and 'dashes,' from the fact that the Morse + recorder actually marks the message in long and short lines, or dots and + dashes. In the siphon recorder script dots and dashes are represented by + curves of opposite flexure. The condensers are merely used to sharpen the + action of the current, and render the signals more concise and distinct on + long cables. On short cables, say under three hundred miles long, they are + rarely, if ever, used. + </p> + <p> + The speed of signalling by the siphon recorder is of course regulated by + the length of cable through which it is worked. The instrument itself is + capable of a wide range of speed. The best operators cannot send over + thirty-five words per minute by hand, but a hundred and twenty words or + more per minute can be transmitted by an automatic sender, and the + recorder has been found on land lines and short cables to write off the + message at this incredible speed. When we consider that every word is, on + the average, composed of fifteen separate waves, we may better appreciate + the rapidity with which the siphon can move. On an ordinary cable of about + a thousand miles long, the working speed is about twenty words per minute. + On the French Atlantic it is usually about thirteen, although as many as + seventeen have sometimes been sent. + </p> + <p> + The 'duplex' system, or method of telegraphing in opposite directions at + once through the same wire, has of late years been applied, in connection + with the recorder, to all the long cables of that most enterprising of + telegraph companies—the Eastern—so that both stations may + 'speak' to each other simultaneously. Thus the carrying capacity of the + wire is in practice nearly doubled, and recorders are busy writing at both + ends of the cable at once, as if the messages came up out of the sea + itself. + </p> + <p> + We have thus far followed out the recorder in its practical application to + submarine telegraphy. Let us now regard it for a moment in its more + philosophic aspect. We are at once struck with its self-dependence as a + machine, and even its resemblance in some respects to a living creature. + All its activity depends on the galvanic current. From three separate + sources invisible currents are led to its principal parts, and are at once + physically changed. That entering the mouse-mill becomes transmuted in + part into the mechanical motion of the revolving drum, and part into + electricity of a more intense nature—into mimic lightning, in fact, + with its accompaniments of heat and sound. That entering the signal magnet + expends part of its force in the magnetism of the core. That entering the + signal coil, which may be taken as the brain of the instrument, appears to + us as INTELLIGENCE. + </p> + <p> + The recorder is now in use in all four quarters of the globe, from + Northern Europe to Southern Brazil, from China to New England. Many and + complete are the adjustments for rendering it serviceable under a wide + range of electrical conditions and climatic changes. The siphon is, of + course, in a mechanical sense, the most delicate part, but, in an + electrical sense, the mouse-mill proves the most susceptible. It is + essential for the fine marking of the siphon that the ink should neither + be too strongly nor too feebly electrified. When the atmosphere is + moderately humid, a proper supply of electricity is generated by the + mouse-mill, the paper is sufficiently moist, and the ink flows freely. But + an excess of moisture in the air diminishes the available supply of + EXALTED electricity. In fact, the damp depositing on the parts leads the + electricity away, and the ink tends to clog in the siphon. On the other + hand, drought not only supercharges the ink, but dries the paper so much + that it INSULATES the siphon point from the metal tablet and the earth. + There is then an insufficient escape for the electricity of the ink to + earth; the ink ceases to flow down the siphon; the siphon itself becomes + highly electrified and agitated with vibrations of its own; the line + becomes spluttered and uncertain. + </p> + <p> + Various devices are employed at different stations to cure these local + complaints. The electrician soon learns to diagnose and prescribe for + this, his most valuable charge. At Aden, where they suffer much from + humidity, the mouse-mill is or has been surrounded with burning carbon. At + Malta a gas flame was used for the same purpose. At Suez, where they + suffer from drought, a cloud of steam was kept rising round the + instrument, saturating the air and paper. At more temperate places the + ordinary means of drying the air by taking advantage of the absorbing + power of sulphuric acid for moisture prevailed. At Marseilles the recorder + acted in some respects like a barometer. Marseilles is subject to sudden + incursions of dry northerly winds, termed the MISTRAL. The recorder never + failed to indicate the mistral when it blew, and sometimes even to predict + it by many hours. Before the storm was itself felt, the delicate glass pen + became agitated and disturbed, the frail blue line broken and irregular. + The electrician knew that the mistral would blow before long, and, as it + rarely blows for less than three days at a time, that rather rude wind, so + dreaded by the Marseillaise, was doubly dreaded by him. + </p> + <p> + The recorder was first used experimentally at St. Pierre, on the French + Atlantic cable, in 1869. This was numbered 0, as we were told by Mr. White + of Glasgow, the maker, whose skill has contributed not a little to the + success of the recorder. No. 1 was first used practically on the Falmouth + and Gibraltar cable of the Eastern Telegraph Company in July, 1870. No. 1 + was also exhibited at Mr. (now Sir John) Pender's telegraph soiree in + 1870. On that occasion, memorable even beyond telegraphic circles, 'three + hundred of the notabilities of rank and fashion gathered together at Mr. + Pender's house in Arlington Street, Piccadilly, to celebrate the + completion of submarine communication between London and Bombay by the + successful laying of the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta and the British + Indian cable lines.' Mr. Pender's house was literally turned outside in; + the front door was removed, the courtyard temporarily covered with an iron + roof and the whole decorated in the grandest style. Over the gateway was a + gallery filled with the band of the Scots Fusilier Guards; and over the + portico of the house door hung the grapnel which brought up the 1865 + cable, made resplendent to the eye by a coating of gold leaf. A handsome + staircase, newly erected, permitted the guests to pass from the + reception-room to the drawing-room. In the grounds at the back of the + house stood the royal tent, where the Prince of Wales and a select party, + including the Duke of Cambridge and Lady Mayo, wife of the Viceroy of + India at that time, were entertained at supper. Into this tent were + brought wires from India, America, Egypt, and other places, and Lady Mayo + sent off a message to India about half-past eleven, and had received a + reply before twelve, telling her that her husband and sons were quite well + at five o'clock the next morning. The recorder, which was shown in + operation, naturally stood in the place of honour, and attracted great + attention. + </p> + <p> + The minor features of the recorder have been simplified by other inventors + of late; for example, magnets of steel have been substituted for the + electro-magnets which influence the swinging coil; and the ink, instead of + being electrified by the mouse-mill, is shed on the paper by a rapid + vibration of the siphon point. + </p> + <p> + To introduce his apparatus for signalling on long submarine cables, Sir + William Thomson entered into a partnership with Mr. C. F. Varley, who + first applied condensers to sharpen the signals, and Professor Fleeming + Jenkin, of Edinburgh University. In conjunction with the latter, he also + devised an 'automatic curb sender,' or key, for sending messages on a + cable, as the well-known Wheatstone transmitter sends them on a land line. + </p> + <p> + In both instruments the signals are sent by means of a perforated ribbon + of paper; but the cable sender was the more complicated, because the cable + signals are formed by both positive and negative currents, and not merely + by a single current, whether positive or negative. Moreover, to curb the + prolongation of the signals due to induction, each signal was made by two + opposite currents in succession—a positive followed by a negative, + or a negative followed by a positive, as the case might be. The + after-current had the effect of curbing its precursor. This self-acting + cable key was brought out in 1876, and tried on the lines of the Eastern + Telegraph Company. + </p> + <p> + Sir William Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic cable + of 1869, and with Professor Jenkin was engineer of the Western and + Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables. He was present at the laying of + the Para to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873, and + introduced his method of deep-sea sounding, in which a steel pianoforte + wire replaces the ordinary land line. The wire glides so easily to the + bottom that 'flying soundings' can be taken while the ship is going at + full speed. A pressure-gauge to register the depth of the sinker has been + added by Sir William. + </p> + <p> + About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's place + at sea, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application. His most + important aid to the mariner is, however, the adjustable compass, which he + brought out soon afterwards. It is a great improvement on the older + instrument, being steadier, less hampered by friction, and the deviation + due to the ship's own magnetism can be corrected by movable masses of iron + at the binnacle. + </p> + <p> + Sir William is himself a skilful navigator, and delights to cruise in his + fine yacht, the Lalla Rookh, among the Western Islands, or up the + Mediterranean, or across the Atlantic to Madeira and America. His interest + in all things relating to the sea perhaps arose, or at any rate was + fostered, by his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern. + Babbage was among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to + signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light; but Sir William + pointed out the merits of the Morse telegraphic code for the purpose, and + urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the + light to represent the dots and dashes. + </p> + <p> + Sir William has done more than any other electrician to introduce accurate + methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 his mind + was attracted to this subject. He pointed out that the experimental + results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of + Coulomb. + </p> + <p> + In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a + description of his new divided ring electrometer, which is based on the + old electroscope of Bohnenberger and since then he has introduced a chain + or series of beautiful and effective instruments, including the quadrant + electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. + His delicate mirror galvanometer has also been the forerunner of a later + circle of equally precise apparatus for the measurement of current or + dynamic electricity. + </p> + <p> + To give even a brief account of all his physical researches would require + a separate volume; and many of them are too abstruse or mathematical for + the general reader. His varied services have been acknowledged by numerous + distinctions, including the highest honour a British man of science can + obtain—the Presidency of the Royal Society of London, to which he + was elected at the end of last year. + </p> + <p> + Sir William Thomson has been all his life a firm believer in the truth of + Christianity, and his great scientific attainments add weight to the + following words, spoken by him when in the chair at the annual meeting of + the Christian Evidence Society, May 23, 1889:—'I have long felt that + there was a general impression in the non-scientific world, that the + scientific world believes Science has discovered ways of explaining all + the facts of Nature without adopting any definite belief in a Creator. I + have never doubted that that impression was utterly groundless. It seems + to me that when a scientific man says—as it has been said from time + to time—that there is no God, he does not express his own ideas + clearly. He is, perhaps, struggling with difficulties; but when he says he + does not believe in a creative power, I am convinced he does not + faithfully express what is in his own mind, He does not fully express his + own ideas. He is out of his depth. + </p> + <p> + 'We are all out of our depth when we approach the subject of life. The + scientific man, in looking at a piece of dead matter, thinking over the + results of certain combinations which he can impose upon it, is himself a + living miracle, proving that there is something beyond that mass of dead + matter of which he is thinking. His very thought is in itself a + contradiction to the idea that there is nothing in existence but dead + matter. Science can do little positively towards the objects of this + society. But it can do something, and that something is vital and + fundamental. It is to show that what we see in the world of dead matter + and of life around us is not a result of the fortuitous concourse of + atoms. + </p> + <p> + 'I may refer to that old, but never uninteresting subject of the miracles + of geology. Physical science does something for us here. St. Peter speaks + of scoffers who said that "all things continue as they were from the + beginning of the creation;" but the apostle affirms himself that "all + these things shall be dissolved." It seems to me that even physical + science absolutely demonstrates the scientific truth of these words. We + feel that there is no possibility of things going on for ever as they have + done for the last six thousand years. In science, as in morals and + politics, there is absolutely no periodicity. One thing we may prophesy of + the future for certain—it will be unlike the past. Everything is in + a state of evolution and progress. The science of dead matter, which has + been the principal subject of my thoughts during my life, is, I may say, + strenuous on this point, that THE AGE OF THE EARTH IS DEFINITE. We do not + say whether it is twenty million years or more, or less, but me say it is + NOT INDEFINITE. And we can say very definitely that it is not an + inconceivably great number of millions of years. Here, then, we are + brought face to face with the most wonderful of all miracles, the + commencement of life on this earth. This earth, certainly a moderate + number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe; all scientific men + of the present day agree that life came upon this earth somehow. If some + form or some part of the life at present existing came to this earth, + carried on some moss-grown stone perhaps broken away from mountains in + other worlds; even if some part of the life had come in that way—for + there is nothing too far-fetched in the idea, and probably some such + action as that did take place, since meteors do come every day to the + earth from other parts of the universe;—still, that does not in the + slightest degree diminish the wonder, the tremendous miracle, we have in + the commencement of life in this world.' + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS. + </h2> + <p> + Charles William Siemens was born on April 4, 1823, at the little village + of Lenthe, about eight miles from Hanover, where his father, Mr. Christian + Ferdinand Siemens, was 'Domanen-pachter,' and farmed an estate belonging + to the Crown. His mother was Eleonore Deichmann, a lady of noble + disposition, and William, or Carl Wilhelm, was the fourth son of a family + of fourteen children, several of whom have distinguished themselves in + scientific pursuits. Of these, Ernst Werner Siemens, the fourth child, and + now the famous electrician of Berlin, was associated with William in many + of his inventions; Fritz, the ninth child, is the head of the well-known + Dresden glass works; and Carl, the tenth child, is chief of the equally + well-known electrical works at St. Petersburg. Several of the family died + young; others remained in Germany; but the enterprising spirit, natural to + them, led most of the sons abroad—Walter, the twelfth child, dying + at Tiflis as the German Consul there, and Otto, the fourteenth child, also + dying at the same place. It would be difficult to find a more remarkable + family in any age or country. Soon after the birth of William, Mr. Siemens + removed to a larger estate which he had leased at Menzendorf, near Lubeck. + </p> + <p> + As a child William was sensitive and affectionate, the baby of the family, + liking to roam the woods and fields by himself, and curious to observe, + but not otherwise giving any signs of the engineer. He received his + education at a commercial academy in Lubeck, the Industrial School at + Magdeburg (city of the memorable burgomaster, Otto von Guericke), and at + the University of Gottingen, which he entered in 1841, while in his + eighteenth year. Were he attended the chemical lectures of Woehler, the + discoverer of organic synthesis, and of Professor Himly, the well-known + physicist, who was married to Siemens's eldest sister, Mathilde. With a + year at Gottingen, during which he laid the basis of his theoretical + knowledge, the academical training of Siemens came to an end, and he + entered practical life in the engineering works of Count Stolberg, at + Magdeburg. At the University he had been instructed in mechanical laws and + designs; here he learned the nature and use of tools and the construction + of machines. But as his University career at Gottingen lasted only about a + year, so did his apprenticeship at the Stolberg Works. In this short time, + however, he probably reaped as much advantage as a duller pupil during a + far longer term. + </p> + <p> + Young Siemens appears to have been determined to push his way forward. In + 1841 his brother Werner obtained a patent in Prussia for electro-silvering + and gilding; and in 1843 Charles William came to England to try and + introduce the process here. In his address on 'Science and Industry,' + delivered before the Birmingham and Midland Institute in 1881, while the + Paris Electrical Exhibition was running, Sir William gave a most + interesting account of his experiences during that first visit to the + country of his adoption. + </p> + <p> + 'When,' said he, 'the electrotype process first became known, it excited a + very general interest; and although I was only a young student at + Gottingen, under twenty years of age, who had just entered upon his + practical career with a mechanical engineer, I joined my brother, Werner + Siemens, then a young lieutenant of artillery in the Prussian service, in + his endeavours to accomplish electro-gilding; the first impulse in this + direction having been given by Professor C. Himly, then of Gottingen. + After attaining some promising results, a spirit of enterprise came over + me, so strong that I tore myself away from the narrow circumstances + surrounding me, and landed at the east end of London with only a few + pounds in my pocket and without friends, but with an ardent confidence of + ultimate success within my breast. + </p> + <p> + 'I expected to find some office in which inventions were examined into, + and rewarded if found meritorious, but no one could direct me to such a + place. In walking along Finsbury Pavement, I saw written up in large + letters, "So-and-so" (I forget the name), "Undertaker," and the thought + struck me that this must be the place I was in quest of; at any rate, I + thought that a person advertising himself as an "undertaker" would not + refuse to look into my invention with a view of obtaining for me the + sought-for recognition or reward. On entering the place I soon convinced + myself, however, that I came decidedly too soon for the kind of enterprise + here contemplated, and, finding myself confronted with the proprietor of + the establishment, I covered my retreat by what he must have thought a + very lame excuse. By dint of perseverance I found my way to the patent + office of Messrs. Poole and Carpmael, who received me kindly, and provided + me with a letter of introduction to Mr. Elkington. Armed with this letter, + I proceeded to Birmingham, to plead my cause before your townsman. + </p> + <p> + 'In looking back to that time, I wonder at the patience with which Mr. + Elkington listened to what I had to say, being very young, and scarcely + able to find English words to convey my meaning. After showing me what he + was doing already in the way of electro-plating, Mr. Elkington sent me + back to London in order to read some patents of his own, asking me to + return if, after perusal, I still thought I could teach him anything. To + my great disappointment, I found that the chemical solutions I had been + using were actually mentioned in one of his patents, although in a manner + that would hardly have sufficed to enable a third person to obtain + practical results. + </p> + <p> + On my return to Birmingham I frankly stated what I had found, and with + this frankness I evidently gained the favour of another townsman of yours, + Mr. Josiah Mason, who had just joined Mr. Elkington in business, and whose + name, as Sir Josiah Mason, will ever be remembered for his munificent + endowment of education. It was agreed that I should not be judged by the + novelty of my invention, but by the results which I promised, namely, of + being able to deposit with a smooth surface 30 dwt. of silver upon a + dish-cover, the crystalline structure of the deposit having theretofore + been a source of difficulty. In this I succeeded, and I was able to return + to my native country and my mechanical engineering a comparative Croesus. + </p> + <p> + 'But it was not for long, as in the following year (1844) I again landed + in the Thames with another invention, worked out also with my brother, + namely, the chronometric governor, which, though less successful, + commercially speaking, than the first, obtained for me the advantage of + bringing me into contact with the engineering world, and of fixing me + permanently in this country. This invention was in course of time applied + by Sir George Airy, the then Astronomer-Royal, for regulating the motion + of his great transit and touch-recording instrument at the Royal + Observatory, where it still continues to be employed. + </p> + <p> + 'Another early subject of mine, the anastatic printing process, found + favour with Faraday, "the great and the good," who made it the subject of + a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution. These two + circumstances, combined, obtained for me an entry into scientific circles, + and helped to sustain me in difficulty, until, by dint of a certain + determination to win, I was able to advance step by step up to this place + of honour, situated within a gunshot of the scene of my earliest success + in life, but separated from it by the time of a generation. But + notwithstanding the lapse of time, my heart still beats quick each time I + come back to the scene of this, the determining incident of my life.' + </p> + <p> + The 'anastatic' process, described by Faraday in 1845, and partly due to + Werner Siemens, was a method of reproducing printed matter by transferring + the print from paper to plates of zinc. Caustic baryta was applied to the + printed sheet to convert the resinous ingredients of the ink into an + insoluble soap, the stearine being precipitated with sulphuric acid. The + letters were then transferred to the zinc by pressure, so as to be printed + from. The process, though ingenious and of much interest at the time, has + long ago been superseded by photographic methods. + </p> + <p> + Even at this time Siemens had several irons in the fire. Besides the + printing process and the chronometric governor, which operated by the + differential movement between the engine and a chronometer, he was + occupied with some minor improvements at Hoyle's Calico Printing Works. He + also engaged in railway works from time to time; and in 1846 he brought + out a double cylinder air-pump, in which the two cylinders are so + combined, that the compressing side of the first and larger cylinder + communicated with the suction side of the second and smaller cylinder, and + the limit of exhaustion was thereby much extended. The invention was well + received at the time, but is now almost forgotten. + </p> + <p> + Siemens had been trained as a mechanical engineer, and, although he became + an eminent electrician in later life, his most important work at this + early stage was non-electrical; indeed, the greatest achievement of his + life was non-electrical, for we must regard the regenerative furnace as + his MAGNUM OPUS. Though in 1847 he published a paper in Liebig's ANNALEN + DER CHEMIE on the 'Mercaptan of Selenium,' his mind was busy with the new + ideas upon the nature of heat which were promulgated by Carnot, Clayperon, + Joule, Clausius, Mayer, Thomson, and Rankine. He discarded the older + notions of heat as a substance, and accepted it as a form of energy. + Working on this new line of thought, which gave him an advantage over + other inventors of his time, he made his first attempt to economise heat, + by constructing, in 1847, at the factory of Mr. John Hick, of Bolton, an + engine of four horse-power, having a condenser provided with regenerators, + and utilising superheated steam. Two years later he continued his + experiments at the works of Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., of Smethwick, + near Birmingham, who had taken the matter in hand. The use of superheated + steam was, however, attended with many practical difficulties, and the + invention was not entirely successful, but it embraced the elements of + success; and the Society of Arts, in 1850, acknowledged the value of the + principle, by awarding Mr. Siemens a gold medal for his regenerative + condenser. Various papers read before the Institution of Mechanical + Engineers, the Institution of Civil Engineers, or appearing in DINGLER'S + JOURNAL and the JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE about this time, + illustrate the workings of his mind upon the subject. That read in 1853, + before the Institution of Civil Engineers, 'On the Conversion of Heat into + Mechanical Effect,' was the first of a long series of communications to + that learned body, and gained for its author the Telford premium and + medal. In it he contended that a perfect engine would be one in which all + the heat applied to the steam was used up in its expansion behind a + working piston, leaving none to be sent into a condenser or the + atmosphere, and that the best results in any actual engine would be + attained by carrying expansion to the furthest possible limit, or, in + practice, by the application of a regenerator. Anxious to realise his + theories further, he constructed a twenty horse-power engine on the + regenerative plan, and exhibited it at the Paris Universal Exhibition of + 1855; but, not realising his expectations, he substituted for it another + of seven-horse power, made by M. Farcot, of Paris, which was found to work + with considerable economy. The use of superheated steam, however, still + proved a drawback, and the Siemens engine has not been extensively used. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the Siemens water-meter, which he introduced in 1851, + has been very widely used, not only in this country, but abroad. It acts + equally well under all variations of pressure, and with a constant or an + intermittent supply. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile his brother Werner had been turning his attention to telegraphy, + and the correspondence which never ceased between the brothers kept + William acquainted with his doings. In 1844, Werner, then an officer in + the Prussian army, was appointed to a berth in the artillery workshops of + Berlin, where he began to take an interest in the new art of telegraphy. + In 1845 Werner patented his dial and printing telegraph instruments, which + came into use all over Germany, and introduced an automatic alarm on the + same principle. These inventions led to his being made, in 1846, a member + of a commission in Berlin for the introduction of electric telegraphs + instead of semaphores. He advocated the use of gutta-percha, then a new + material, for the insulation of underground wires, and in 1847 designed a + screw-press for coating the wires with the gum rendered plastic by heat. + The following year he laid the first great underground telegraph line from + Berlin to Frankfort-on-the-Main, and soon afterwards left the army to + engage with Mr. Halske in the management of a telegraph factory which they + had conjointly established in 1847. In 1852 William took an office in John + Street, Adelphi, with a view to practise as a civil engineer. Eleven years + later, Mr. Halske and William Siemens founded in London the house of + Siemens, Halske & Co., which began with a small factory at Millbank, + and developed in course of time into the well-known firm of Messrs. + Siemens Brothers, and was recently transformed into a limited liability + company. + </p> + <p> + In 1859 William Siemens became a naturalised Englishman, and from this + time forward took an active part in the progress of English engineering + and telegraphy. He devoted a great part of his time to electrical + invention and research; and the number of telegraph apparatus of all sorts—telegraph + cables, land lines, and their accessories—which have emanated from + the Siemens Telegraph Works has been remarkable. The engineers of this + firm have been pioneers of the electric telegraph in every quarter of the + globe, both by land and sea. The most important aerial line erected by the + firm was the Indo-European telegraph line, through Prussia, Russia, and + Persia, to India. The North China cable, the Platino-Brazileira, and the + Direct United States cable, were laid by the firm, the latter in 1874-5 So + also was the French Atlantic cable, and the two Jay Could Atlantic cables. + At the time of his death the manufacture and laying of the Bennett-Mackay + Atlantic cables was in progress at the company's works, Charlton. Some + idea of the extent of this manufactory may be gathered from the fact that + it gives employment to some 2,000 men. All branches of electrical work are + followed out in its various departments, including the construction of + dynamos and electric lamps. + </p> + <p> + On July 23, 1859, Siemens was married at St. James's, Paddington, to Anne, + the youngest daughter of Mr. Joseph Gordon, Writer to the Signet, + Edinburgh, and brother to Mr. Lewis Gordon, Professor of Engineering in + the University of Glasgow, He used to say that on March 19 of that year he + took oath and allegiance to two ladies in one day—to the Queen and + his betrothed. The marriage was a thoroughly happy one. + </p> + <p> + Although much engaged in the advancement of telegraphy, he was also + occupied with his favourite idea of regeneration. The regenerative gas + furnace, originally invented in 1848 by his brother Friedrich, was + perfected and introduced by him during many succeeding years. The + difficulties overcome in the development of this invention were enormous, + but the final triumph was complete. + </p> + <p> + The principle of this furnace consists in utilising the heat of the + products of combustion to warm up the gaseous fuel and air which enters + the furnace. This is done by making these products pass through brickwork + chambers which absorb their heat and communicate it to the gas and air + currents going to the flame. An extremely high temperature is thus + obtained, and the furnace has, in consequence, been largely used in the + manufacture of glass and steel. + </p> + <p> + Before the introduction of this furnace, attempts had been made to produce + cast-steel without the use of a crucible—that is to say, on the + 'open hearth' of the furnace. Reaumur was probably the first to show that + steel could be made by fusing malleable iron with cast-iron. Heath + patented the process in 1845; and a quantity of cast-steel was actually + prepared in this way, on the bed of a reverberatory furnace, by Sudre, in + France, during the year 1860. But the furnace was destroyed in the act; + and it remained for Siemens, with his regenerative furnace, to realise the + object. In 1862 Mr. Charles Atwood, of Tow Law, agreed to erect such a + furnace, and give the process a fair trial; but although successful in + producing the steel, he was afraid its temper was not satisfactory, and + discontinued the experiment. Next year, however, Siemens, who was not to + be disheartened, made another attempt with a large furnace erected at the + Montlucon Works, in France, where he was assisted by the late M. le + Chatellier, Inspecteur-General des Mines. Some charges of steel were + produced; but here again the roof of the furnace melted down, and the + company which had undertaken the trials gave them up. The temperature + required for the manufacture of the steel was higher than the melting + point of most fire-bricks. Further endeavours also led to disappointments; + but in the end the inventor was successful. He erected experimental works + at Birmingham, and gradually matured his process until it was so far + advanced that it could be trusted to the hands of others. Siemens used a + mixture of cast-steel and iron ore to make the steel; but another + manufacturer, M. Martin, of Sireuil, in France, developed the older plan + of mixing the cast-iron with wrought-iron scrap. While Siemens was + improving his means at Birmingham, Martin was obtaining satisfactory + results with a regenerative furnace of his own design; and at the Paris + Exhibition of 1867 samples of good open-hearth steel were shown by both + manufacturers. In England the process is now generally known as the + 'Siemens-Martin,' and on the Continent as the 'Martin-Siemens' process. + </p> + <p> + The regenerative furnace is the greatest single invention of Charles + William Siemens. Owing to the large demand for steel for engineering + operations, both at home and abroad, it proved exceedingly remunerative. + Extensive works for the application of the process were erected at + Landore, where Siemens prosecuted his experiments on the subject with + unfailing ardour, and, among other things, succeeded in making a basic + brick for the lining of his furnaces which withstood the intense heat + fairly well. + </p> + <p> + The process in detail consists in freeing the bath of melted pig-iron from + excess of carbon by adding broken lumps of pure hematite or magnetite iron + ore. This causes a violent boiling, which is kept up until the metal + becomes soft enough, when it is allowed to stand to let the metal clear + from the slag which floats in scum upon the top. The separation of the + slag and iron is facilitated by throwing in some lime from time to time. + Spiegel, or specular iron, is then added; about 1 per cent. more than in + the scrap process. From 20 to 24 cwt. of ore are used in a 5-ton charge, + and about half the metal is reduced and turned into steel, so that the + yield in ingots is from 1 to 2 per cent. more than the weight of pig and + spiegel iron in the charge. The consumption of coal is rather larger than + in the scrap process, and is from 14 to 15 cwt. per ton of steel. The two + processes of Siemens and Martin are often combined, both scrap and ore + being used in the same charge, the latter being valuable as a tempering + material. + </p> + <p> + At present there are several large works engaged in manufacturing the + Siemens-Martin steel in England, namely, the Landore, the Parkhead Forge, + those of the Steel Company of Scotland, of Messrs. Vickers & Co., + Sheffield, and others. These produced no less than 340,000 tons of steel + during the year 1881, and two years later the total output had risen to + half a million tons. In 1876 the British Admiralty built two iron-clads, + the Mercury and Iris, of Siemens-Martin steel, and the experiment proved + so satisfactory, that this material only is now used in the Royal + dockyards for the construction of hulls and boilers. Moreover, the use of + it is gradually extending in the mercantile marine. Contemporaneous with + his development of the open-hearth process, William Siemens introduced the + rotary furnace for producing wrought-iron direct from the ore without the + need of puddling. + </p> + <p> + The fervent heat of the Siemens furnace led the inventor to devise a novel + means of measuring high temperatures, which illustrates the value of a + broad scientific training to the inventor, and the happy manner in which + William Siemens, above all others, turned his varied knowledge to account, + and brought the facts and resources of one science to bear upon another. + As early as 1860, while engaged in testing the conductor of the Malta to + Alexandria telegraph cable, then in course of manufacture, he was struck + by the increase of resistance in metallic wires occasioned by a rise of + temperature, and the following year he devised a thermometer based on the + fact which he exhibited before the British Association at Manchester. + Mathiessen and others have since enunciated the law according to which + this rise of resistance varies with rise of temperature; and Siemens has + further perfected his apparatus, and applied it as a pyrometer to the + measurement of furnace fires. It forms in reality an electric thermometer, + which will indicate the temperature of an inaccessible spot. A coil of + platinum or platinum-alloy wire is enclosed in a suitable fire-proof case + and put into the furnace of which the temperature is wanted. Connecting + wires, properly protected, lend from the coil to a differential + voltameter, so that, by means of the current from a battery circulating in + the system, the electric resistance of the coil in the furnace can be + determined at any moment. Since this resistance depends on the temperature + of the furnace, the temperature call be found from the resistance + observed. The instrument formed the subject of the Bakerian lecture for + the year 1871. + </p> + <p> + Siemens's researches on this subject, as published in the JOURNAL OF THE + SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS (Vol. I., p. 123, and Vol. III., p. 297), + included a set of curves graphically representing the relation between + temperature and electrical resistance in the case of various metals. + </p> + <p> + The electric pyrometer, which is perhaps the most elegant and original of + all William Siemens's inventions, is also the link which connects his + electrical with his metallurgical researches. His invention ran in two + great grooves, one based upon the science of heat, the other based upon + the science of electricity; and the electric thermometer was, as it were, + a delicate cross-coupling which connected both. Siemens might have been + two men, if we are to judge by the work he did; and either half of the + twin-career he led would of itself suffice to make an eminent reputation. + </p> + <p> + The success of his metallurgical enterprise no doubt reacted on his + telegraphic business. The making and laying of the Malta to Alexandria + cable gave rise to researches on the resistance and electrification of + insulating materials under pressure, which formed the subject of a paper + read before the British Association in 1863. The effect of pressure up to + 300 atmospheres was observed, and the fact elicited that the inductive + capacity of gutta-percha is not affected by increased pressure, whereas + that of india-rubber is diminished. The electrical tests employed during + the construction of the Malta and Alexandria cable, and the insulation and + protection of submarine cables, also formed the subject of a paper which + was read before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1862. + </p> + <p> + It is always interesting to trace the necessity which directly or + indirectly was the parent of a particular invention; and in the great + importance of an accurate record of the sea-depth in which a cable is + being laid, together with the tedious and troublesome character of + ordinary sounding by the lead-line, especially when a ship is actually + paying out cable, we may find the requirements which led to the invention + of the 'bathometer,' an instrument designed to indicate the depth of water + over which a vessel is passing without submerging a line. The instrument + was based on the ingenious idea that the attractive power of the earth on + a body in the ship must depend on the depth of water interposed between it + and the sea bottom; being less as the layer of water was thicker, owing to + the lighter character of water as compared with the denser land. Siemens + endeavoured to render this difference visible by means of mercury + contained in a chamber having a bottom extremely sensitive to the pressure + of the mercury upon it, and resembling in some respects the vacuous + chamber of an aneroid barometer. Just as the latter instrument indicates + the pressure of the atmosphere above it, so the bathometer was intended to + show the pull of the earth below it; and experiment proved, we believe, + that for every 1,000 fathoms of sea-water below the ship, the total + gravity of the mercury was reduced by 1/3200 part. The bathometer, or + attraction-meter, was brought out in 1876, and exhibited at the Loan + Exhibition in South Kensington. The elastic bottom of the mercury chamber + was supported by volute springs which, always having the same tension, + caused a portion of the mercury to rise or fall in a spiral tube of glass, + according to the variations of the earth's attraction. The whole was kept + at an even temperature, and correction was made for barometric influence. + Though of high scientific interest, the apparatus appears to have failed + at the time from its very sensitiveness; the waves on the surface of the + sea having a greater disturbing action on its readings than the change of + depth. Siemens took a great interest in this very original machine, and + also devised a form applicable to the measurement of heights. Although he + laid the subject aside for some years, he ultimately took it up again, in + hopes of producing a practical apparatus which would be of immediate + service in the cable expeditions of the s.s. Faraday. + </p> + <p> + This admirable cable steamer of 5,000 tons register was built for Messrs. + Siemens Brothers by Messrs. Mitchell & Co., at Newcastle. The designs + were mainly inspired by Siemens himself; and after the Hooper, now the + Silvertown, she was the second ship expressly built for cable purposes. + All the latest improvements that electric science and naval engineering + could suggest were in her united. With a length of 360 feet, a width of 52 + feet, and a depth of 36 feet in the hold, she was fitted with a rudder at + each end, either of which could be locked when desired, and the other + brought into play. Two screw propellers, actuated by a pair of compound + engines, were the means of driving the vessel, and they were placed at a + slight angle to each other, so that when the engines were worked in + opposite directions the Faraday could turn completely round in her own + length. Moreover, as the ship could steam forwards or backwards with equal + ease, it became unnecessary to pass the cable forward before hauling it + in, if a fault were discovered in the part submerged: the motion of the + ship had only to be reversed, the stern rudder fixed, and the bow rudder + turned, while a small engine was employed to haul the cable back over the + stern drum, which had been used a few minutes before to pay it out. + </p> + <p> + The first expedition of the Faraday was the laying of the Direct United + States cable in the winter of 1874 a work which, though interrupted by + stormy weather, was resumed and completed in the summer of 1875. She has + been engaged in laying several Atlantic cables since, and has been fitted + with the electric light, a resource which has proved of the utmost + service, not only in facilitating the night operations of paying-out, but + in guarding the ship from collision with icebergs in foggy weather off the + North American coast. + </p> + <p> + Mention of the electric light brings us to an important act of the + inventor, which, though done on behalf of his brother Werner, was pregnant + with great consequences. This was his announcement before a meeting of the + Royal Society, held on February 14, 1867, of the discovery of the + principle of reinforcing the field magnetism of magneto-electric + generators by part or the whole of the current generated in the revolving + armature—a principle which has been applied in the dynamo-electric + machines, now so much used for producing electric light and effecting the + transmission of power to a distance by means of the electric current. By a + curious coincidence the same principle was enunciated by Sir Charles + Wheatstone at the very same meeting; while a few months previously Mr. S. + A. Varley had lodged an application for a British patent, in which the + same idea was set forth. The claims of these three inventors to priority + in the discovery were, however, anticipated by at least one other + investigator, Herr Soren Hjorth, believed to be a Dane by birth, and still + remembered by a few living electricians, though forgotten by the + scientific world at large, until his neglected specification was + unexpectedly dug out of the musty archives of the British Patent Office + and brought into the light. + </p> + <p> + The announcement of Siemens and Wheatstone came at an apter time than + Hjorth's, and was more conspicuously made. Above all, in the affluent and + enterprising hands of the brothers Siemens, it was not suffered to lie + sterile, and the Siemens dynamo-electric machine was its offspring. This + dynamo, as is well known, differs from those of Gramme and Paccinotti + chiefly in the longitudinal winding of the armature, and it is unnecessary + to describe it here. It has been adapted by its inventors to all kinds of + electrical work, electrotyping, telegraphy, electric lighting, and the + propulsion of vehicles. + </p> + <p> + The first electric tramway run at Berlin in 1879 was followed by another + at Dusseldorf in 1880, and a third at Paris in 1881. With all of these the + name of Werner Siemens was chiefly associated; but William Siemens had + also taken up the matter, and established at his country house of + Sherwood, near Tunbridge Wells, an arrangement of dynamos and water-wheel, + by which the power of a neighbouring stream was made to light the house, + cut chaff turn washing-machines, and perform other household duties. More + recently the construction of the electric railway from Portrush to + Bushmills, at the Giant's Causeway, engaged his attention; and this, the + first work of its kind in the United Kingdom, and to all appearance the + pioneer of many similar lines, was one of his very last undertakings. + </p> + <p> + In the recent development of electric lighting, William Siemens, whose + fame had been steadily growing, was a recognised leader, although he + himself made no great discoveries therein. As a public man and a + manufacturer of great resources his influence in assisting the + introduction of the light has been immense. The number of Siemens machines + and Siemens electric lamps, together with measuring instruments such as + the Siemens electro-dynamometer, which has been supplied to different + parts of the world by the firm of which he was the head, is very + considerable, and probably exceeds that of any other manufacturer, at + least in this country. + </p> + <p> + Employing a staff of skilful assistants to develop many of his ideas, Dr. + Siemens was able to produce a great variety of electrical instruments for + measuring and other auxiliary purposes, all of which bear the name of his + firm, and have proved exceedingly useful in a practical sense. + </p> + <p> + Among the most interesting of Siemens's investigations were his + experiments on the influence of the electric light in promoting the growth + of plants, carried out during the winter of 1880 in the greenhouses of + Sherwood. These experiments showed that plants do not require a period of + rest, but continue to grow if light and other necessaries are supplied to + them. Siemens enhanced the daylight, and, as it were, prolonged it through + the night by means of arc lamps, with the result of forcing excellent + fruit and flowers to their maturity before the natural time in this + climate. + </p> + <p> + While Siemens was testing the chemical and life-promoting influence of the + electric arc light, he was also occupied in trying its temperature and + heating power with an 'electric furnace,' consisting of a plumbago + crucible having two carbon electrodes entering it in such a manner that + the voltaic arc could be produced within it. He succeeded in fusing a + variety of refractory metals in a comparatively short time: thus, a pound + of broken files was melted in a cold crucible in thirteen minutes, a + result which is not surprising when we consider that the temperature of + the voltaic arc, as measured by Siemens and Rosetti, is between 2,000 and + 3,000 Deg. Centigrade, or about one-third that of the probable temperature + of the sun. Sir Humphry Davy was the first to observe the extraordinary + fusing power of the voltaic arc, but Siemens first applied it to a + practical purpose in his electric furnace. + </p> + <p> + Always ready to turn his inventive genius in any direction, the + introduction of the electric light, which had given an impetus to + improvement in the methods of utilising gas, led him to design a + regenerative gas lamp, which is now employed on a small scale in this + country, either for street lighting or in class-rooms and public halls. In + this burner, as in the regenerative furnace, the products of combustion + are made to warm up the air and gas which go to feed the flame, and the + effect is a full and brilliant light with some economy of fuel. The use of + coal-gas for heating purposes was another subject which he took up with + characteristic earnestness, and he advocated for a time the use of gas + stoves and fires in preference to those which burn coal, not only on + account of their cleanliness and convenience, but on the score of + preventing fogs in great cities, by checking the discharge of smoke into + the atmosphere. He designed a regenerative gas and coke fireplace, in + which the ingoing air was warmed by heat conducted from the back part of + the grate; and by practical trials in his own office, calculated the + economy of the system. The interest in this question, however, died away + after the close of the Smoke Abatement Exhibition; and the experiments of + Mr. Aiken, of Edinburgh, showed how futile was the hope that gas fires + would prevent fogs altogether. They might indeed ameliorate the noxious + character of a fog by checking the discharge of soot into the atmosphere; + but Mr. Aiken's experiments showed that particles of gas were in + themselves capable of condensing the moisture of the air upon them. The + great scheme of Siemens for making London a smokeless city, by + manufacturing gas at the coal-pit and leading it in pipes from street to + street, would not have rendered it altogether a fogless one, though the + coke and gas fires would certainly have reduced the quantity of soot + launched into the air. Siemens's scheme was rejected by a Committee of the + House of Lords on the somewhat mistaken ground that if the plan were as + profitable as Siemens supposed, it would have been put in practice long + ago by private enterprise. + </p> + <p> + From the problem of heating a room, the mind of Siemens also passed to the + maintenance of solar fires, and occupied itself with the supply of fuel to + the sun. Some physicists have attributed the continuance of solar heat to + the contraction of the solar mass, and others to the impact of cometary + matter. Imbued with the idea of regeneration, and seeking in nature for + that thrift of power which he, as an inventor, had always aimed at, + Siemens suggested a hypothesis on which the sun conserves its heat by a + circulation of its fuel in space. The elements dissociated in the intense + heat of the glowing orb rush into the cooler regions of space, and + recombine to stream again towards the sun, where the self-same process is + renewed. The hypothesis was a daring one, and evoked a great deal of + discussion, to which the author replied with interest, afterwards + reprinting the controversy in a volume, ON THE CONSERVATION OF SOLAR + ENERGY. Whether true or not—and time will probably decide—the + solar hypothesis of Siemens revealed its author in a new light. Hitherto + he had been the ingenious inventor, the enterprising man of business, the + successful engineer; but now he took a prominent place in the ranks of + pure science and speculative philosophy. The remarkable breadth of his + mind and the abundance of his energies were also illustrated by the active + part he played in public matters connected with the progress of science. + His munificent gifts in the cause of education, as much as his + achievements in science, had brought him a popular reputation of the best + kind; and his public utterances in connection with smoke abatement, the + electric light. Electric railways, and other topics of current interest, + had rapidly brought him into a foremost place among English scientific + men. During the last years of his life, Siemens advanced from the shade of + mere professional celebrity into the strong light of public fame. + </p> + <p> + President of the British Association in 1882, and knighted in 1883, + Siemens was a member of numerous learned societies both at home and + abroad. In 1854 he became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers; + and in 1862 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was twice + President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and the Institution of + Mechanical Engineers, besides being a Member of Council of the Institution + of Civil Engineers, and a Vice-President of the Royal Institution. The + Society of Arts, as we have already seen, was the first to honour him in + the country of his adoption, by awarding him a gold medal for his + regenerative condenser in 1850; and in 1883 he became its chairman. Many + honours were conferred upon him in the course of his career—the + Telford prize in 1853, gold medals at the various great Exhibitions, + including that of Paris in 1881, and a GRAND PRIX at the earlier Paris + Exhibition of 1867 for his regenerative furnace. In 1874 he received the + Royal Albert Medal for his researches on heat, and in 1875 the Bessemer + medal of the Iron and Steel Institute. Moreover, a few days before his + death, the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers awarded him the + Howard Quinquennial prize for his improvements in the manufacture of iron + and steel. At the request of his widow, it took the form of a bronze copy + of the 'Mourners,' a piece of statuary by J. G. Lough, originally + exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, in the Crystal Palace. In 1869 + the University of Oxford conferred upon him the high distinction of D.C.L. + (Doctor of Civil Law); and besides being a member of several foreign + societies, he was a Dignitario of the Brazilian Order of the Rose, and + Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. + </p> + <p> + Rich in honours and the appreciation of his contemporaries, in the prime + of his working power and influence for good, and at the very climax of his + career, Sir William Siemens was called away. The news of his death came + with a shock of surprise, for hardly any one knew he had been ill. He died + on the evening of Monday, November 19, 1883, at nine o'clock. A fortnight + before, while returning from a managers' meeting of the Royal Institution, + in company with his friend Sir Frederick Bramwell, he tripped upon the + kerbstone of the pavement, after crossing Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, and + fell heavily to the ground, with his left arm under him. Though a good + deal shaken by the fall, he attended at his office in Queen Anne's Gate, + Westminster, the next and for several following days; but the exertion + proved too much for him, and almost for the first time in his busy life he + was compelled to lay up. On his last visit to the office he was engaged + most of the time in dictating to his private secretary a large portion of + the address which he intended to deliver as Chairman of the Council of the + Society of Arts. This was on Thursday, November 8, and the following + Saturday he awoke early in the morning with an acute pain about the heart + and a sense of coldness in the lower limbs. Hot baths and friction removed + the pain, from which he did not suffer much afterwards. A slight + congestion of the left lung was also relieved; and Sir William had so far + recovered that he could leave his room. On Saturday, the 17th, he was to + have gone for a change of air to his country seat at Sherwood; but on + Wednesday, the 14th, he appears to have caught a chill which affected his + lungs, for that night he was seized with a shortness of breath and a + difficulty in breathing. Though not actually confined to bed, he never + left his room again. On the last day, and within four hours of his death, + we are told, his two medical attendants, after consultation, spoke so + hopefully of the future, that no one was prepared for the sudden end which + was then so near. In the evening, while he was sitting in an arm-chair, + very quiet and calm, a change suddenly came over his face, and he died + like one who falls asleep. Heart disease of long standing, aggravated by + the fall, was the immediate cause; but the opinion has been expressed by + one who knew him well, that Siemens 'literally immolated himself on the + shrine of labour.' At any rate he did not spare himself, and his intense + devotion to his work proved fatal. + </p> + <p> + Every day was a busy one with Siemens. His secretary was with him in his + residence by nine o'clock nearly every morning, except on Sundays, + assisting him in work for one society or another, the correction of + proofs, or the dictation of letters giving official or scientific advice, + and the preparation of lectures or patent specifications. Later on, he + hurried across the Park 'almost at racing speed,' to his offices at + Westminster, where the business of the Landore-Siemens Steel Company and + the Electrical Works of Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Company was + transacted. As chairman of these large undertakings, and principal + inventor of the processes and systems carried out by them, he had a + hundred things to attend to in connection with them, visitors to see, and + inquiries to answer. In the afternoon and evenings he was generally + engaged at council meetings of the learned societies, or directory + meetings of the companies in which he was interested. He was a man who + took little or no leisure, and though he never appeared to over-exert + himself, few men could have withstood the strain so long. + </p> + <p> + Siemens was buried on Monday, November 26, in Kensal Green Cemetery. The + interment was preceded by a funeral service held in Westminster Abbey, and + attended by representatives of the numerous learned societies of which he + had been a conspicuous member, by many leading men in all branches of + science, and also by a large body of other friends and admirers, who thus + united in doing honour to his memory, and showing their sense of the loss + which all classes had sustained by his death. + </p> + <p> + Siemens was above all things a 'labourer.' Unhasting, unresting labour was + the rule of his life; and the only relaxation, not to say recreation, + which he seems to have allowed himself was a change of task or the calls + of sleep. This natural activity was partly due to the spur of his genius, + and partly to his energetic spirit. For a man of his temperament science + is always holding out new problems to solve and fresh promises of triumph. + All he did only revealed more work to be done; and many a scheme lies + buried in his grave. + </p> + <p> + Though Siemens was a man of varied powers, and occasionally gave himself + to pure speculation in matters of science, his mind was essentially + practical; and it was rather as an engineer than a discoverer that he was + great. Inventions are associated with his name, not laws or new phenomena. + Standing on the borderland between pure and applied science, his + sympathies were yet with the latter; and as the outgoing President of the + British Association at Southport, in 1882, he expressed the opinion that + 'in the great workshop of nature there are no lines of demarcation to be + drawn between the most exalted speculation and common-place practice.' The + truth of this is not to be gain-said, but it is the utterance of an + engineer who judges the merit of a thing by its utility. He objected to + the pursuit of science apart from its application, and held that the man + of science does most for his kind who shows the world how to make use of + scientific results. Such a view was natural on the part of Siemens, who + was himself a living representative of the type in question; but it was + not the view of such a man as Faraday or Newton, whose pure aim was to + discover truth, well knowing that it would be turned to use thereafter. In + Faraday's eyes the new principle was a higher boon than the appliance + which was founded upon it. + </p> + <p> + Tried by his own standard, however, Siemens was a conspicuous benefactor + of his fellow-men; and at the time of his decease he had become our + leading authority upon applied science. In electricity he was a pioneer of + the new advances, and happily lived to obtain at least a Pisgah view of + the great future which evidently lies before that pregnant force. + </p> + <p> + If we look for the secret of Siemens's remarkable success, we shall + assuredly find it in an inventive mind, coupled with a strong commercial + instinct, and supported by a physical energy which enabled him to labour + long and incessantly. It is told that when a mechanical problem was + brought to him for solution, he would suggest six ways of overcoming the + difficulty, three of which would be impracticable, the others feasible, + and one at least successful. From this we gather that his mind was fertile + in expedients. The large works which he established are also a proof that, + unlike most inventors, he did not lose his interest in an invention, or + forsake it for another before it had been brought into the market. On the + contrary, he was never satisfied with an invention until it was put into + practical operation. + </p> + <p> + To the ordinary observer, Siemens did not betray any signs of the untiring + energy that possessed him. His countenance was usually serene and + tranquil, as that of a thinker rather than a man of action; his demeanour + was cool and collected; his words few and well-chosen. In his manner, as + well as in his works, there was no useless waste of power. + </p> + <p> + To the young he was kind and sympathetic, hearing, encouraging, advising; + a good master, a firm friend. His very presence had a calm and orderly + influence on those about him, which when he presided at a Public meeting + insensibly introduced a gracious tone. The diffident took heart before + him, and the presumptuous were checked. The virtues which accompanied him + into public life did not desert him in private. In losing him, we have + lost not only a powerful intellect, but a bright example, and an amiable + man. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. FLEEMING JENKIN. + </h2> + <p> + The late Fleeming Jenkin, Professor of Engineering in Edinburgh + University, was remarkable for the versatility of his talent. Known to the + world as the inventor of Telpherage, he was an electrician and cable + engineer of the first rank, a lucid lecturer, and a good linguist, a + skilful critic, a writer and actor of plays, and a clever sketcher. In + popular parlance, Jenkin was a dab at everything. + </p> + <p> + His father, Captain Charles Jenkin, R.N., was the second son of Mr. + Charles Jenkin, of Stowting Court, himself a naval officer, who had taken + part in the actions with De Grasse. Stowting Court, a small estate some + six miles north of Hythe, had been in the family since the year 1633, and + was held of the Crown by the feudal service of six men and a constable to + defend the sea-way at Sandgate. Certain Jenkins had settled in Kent during + the reign of Henry VIII., and claimed to have come from Yorkshire. They + bore the arms of Jenkin ap Phillip of St. Melans, who traced his descent + from 'Guaith Voeth,' Lord of Cardigan. + </p> + <p> + While cruising in the West Indies, carrying specie, or chasing buccaneers + and slavers, Charles Jenkin, junior, was introduced to the family of a + fellow midshipman, son of Mr. Jackson, Custos Rotulorum of Kingston, + Jamaica, and fell in love with Henrietta Camilla, the youngest daughter. + Mr. Jackson came of a Yorkshire stock, said to be of Scottish origin, and + Susan, his wife, was a daughter of [Sir] Colin Campbell, a Greenock + merchant, who inherited but never assumed the baronetcy of Auchinbreck. + [According to BURKE'S PEERAGE (1889), the title went to another branch.] + </p> + <p> + Charles Jenkin, senior, died in 1831, leaving his estate so heavily + encumbered, through extravagance and high living, that only the mill-farm + was saved for John, the heir, an easy-going, unpractical man, with a turn + for abortive devices. His brother Charles married soon afterwards, and + with the help of his wife's money bought in most of Stowting Court, which, + however, yielded him no income until late in life. Charles was a useful + officer and an amiable gentleman; but lacking energy and talent, he never + rose above the grade of Commander, and was superseded after forty-five + years of service. He is represented as a brave, single-minded, and + affectionate sailor, who on one occasion saved several men from + suffocation by a burning cargo at the risk of his own life. Henrietta + Camilla Jackson, his wife, was a woman of a strong and energetic + character. Without beauty of countenance, she possessed the art of + pleasing, and in default of genius she was endowed with a variety of + gifts. She played the harp, sang, and sketched with native art. At + seventeen, on hearing Pasta sing in Paris, she sought out the artist and + solicited lessons. Pasta, on hearing her sing, encouraged her, and + recommended a teacher. She wrote novels, which, however, failed to make + their mark. At forty, on losing her voice, she took to playing the piano, + practising eight hours a day; and when she was over sixty she began the + study of Hebrew. + </p> + <p> + The only child of this union was Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin, generally + called Fleeming Jenkin, after Admiral Fleeming, one of his father's + patrons. He was born on March 25, 1833, in a building of the Government + near Dungeness, his father at that time being on the coast-guard service. + His versatility was evidently derived from his mother, who, owing to her + husband's frequent absence at sea and his weaker character, had the + principal share in the boy's earlier training. + </p> + <p> + Jenkin was fortunate in having an excellent education. His mother took him + to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at Barjarg, she taught him + drawing among other things, and allowed him to ride his pony on the moors. + He went to school at Jedburgh, and afterwards to the Edinburgh Academy, + where he carried off many prizes. Among his schoolfellows were Clerk + Maxwell and Peter Guthrie Tait, the friends of his maturer life. + </p> + <p> + On the retirement of his father the family removed to Frankfort in 1847, + partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's instruction. Here + Fleeming and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching old + castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. Fleeming was + precocious, and at thirteen had finished a romance of three hundred lines + in heroic measure, a Scotch novel, and innumerable poetical fragments, + none of which are now extant. He learned German in Frankfort; and on the + family migrating to Paris the following year, he studied French and + mathematics under a certain M. Deluc. While here, Fleeming witnessed the + outbreak of the Revolution of 1848, and heard the first shot. In a letter + written to an old schoolfellow while the sound still rang in his ears, and + his hand trembled with excitement, he gives a boyish account of the + circumstances. The family were living in the Rue Caumartin, and on the + evening of February 23 he and his father were taking a walk along the + boulevards, which were illuminated for joy at the resignation of M. + Guizot. They passed the residence of the Foreign Minister, which was + guarded with troops, and further on encountered a band of rioters marching + along the street with torches, and singing the Marseillaise. After them + came a rabble of men and women of all sorts, rich and poor, some of them + armed with sticks and sabres. They turned back with these, the boy + delighted with the spectacle, 'I remarked to papa' (he writes),'I would + not have missed the scene for anything. I might never see such a splendid + one; when PONG went one shot. Every face went pale: R—R—R—R—R + went the whole detachment [of troops], and the whole crowd of gentlemen + and ladies turned and cut. Such a scene!—-ladies, gentlemen, and + vagabonds went sprawling in the mud, not shot but tripped up, and those + that went down could not rise—they were trampled over.... I ran a + short time straight on and did not fall, then turned down a side street, + ran fifty yards, and felt tolerably safe; looked for papa; did not see + him; so walked on quickly, giving the news as I went.' + </p> + <p> + Next day, while with his father in the Place de la Concorde, which was + filled with troops, the gates of the Tuileries Garden were suddenly flung + open, and out galloped a troop of cuirassiers, in the midst of whom was an + open carriage containing the king and queen, who had abdicated. Then came + the sacking of the Tuileries, the people mounting a cannon on the roof, + and firing blank cartridges to testify their joy. 'It was a sight to see a + palace sacked' (wrote the boy), 'and armed vagabonds firing out of the + windows, and throwing shirts, papers, and dresses of all kinds out.... + They are not rogues, the French; they are not stealing, burning, or doing + much harm.' [MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN, by R. L. Stevenson.] + </p> + <p> + The Revolution obliged the Jenkins to leave Paris, and they proceeded to + Genoa, where they experienced another, and Mrs. Jenkin, with her son and + sister-in-law, had to seek the protection of a British vessel in the + harbour, leaving their house stored with the property of their friends, + and guarded by the Union Jack and Captain Jenkin. + </p> + <p> + At Genoa, Fleeming attended the University, and was its first Protestant + student. Professor Bancalari was the professor of natural philosophy, and + lectured on electro-magnetism, his physical laboratory being the best in + Italy. Jenkin took the degree of M.A. with first-class honours, his + special subject having been electro-magnetism. The questions in the + examinations were put in Latin, and answered in Italian. Fleeming also + attended an Art school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a + drawing from one of Raphael's cartoons. His holidays were spent in + sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano; or, when + permissible, at the theatre or opera-house; for ever since hearing Rachel + recite the Marseillaise at the Theatre Francaise, he had conceived a taste + for acting. + </p> + <p> + In 1850 Fleeming spent some time in a Genoese locomotive shop under Mr. + Philip Taylor, of Marseilles; but on the death of his Aunt Anna, who lived + with them, Captain Jenkin took his family to England, and settled in + Manchester, where the lad, in 1851, was apprenticed to mechanical + engineering at the works of Messrs. Fairbairn, and from half-past eight in + the morning till six at night had, as he says, 'to file and chip + vigorously, in a moleskin suit, and infernally dirty.' At home he pursued + his studies, and was for a time engaged with Dr. Bell in working out a + geometrical method of arriving at the proportions of Greek architecture. + His stay amidst the smoke and bustle of Manchester, though in striking + contrast to his life in Genoa, was on the whole agreeable. He liked his + work, had the good spirits of youth, and made some pleasant friends, one + of them the authoress, Mrs. Gaskell. Even as a boy he was disputatious, + and his mother tells of his having overcome a Consul at Genoa in a + political discussion when he was only sixteen, 'simply from being + well-informed on the subject, and honest. He is as true as steel,' she + writes, 'and for no one will he bend right or left... Do not fancy him a + Bobadil; he is only a very true, candid boy. I am so glad he remains in + all respects but information a great child.' + </p> + <p> + On leaving Fairbairn's he was engaged for a time on a survey for the + proposed Lukmanier Railway, in Switzerland, and in 1856 he entered the + engineering works of Mr. Penn, at Greenwich, as a draughtsman, and was + occupied on the plans of a vessel designed for the Crimean war. He did not + care for his berth, and complained of its late hours, his rough comrades, + with whom he had to be 'as little like himself as possible,' and his + humble lodgings, 'across a dirty green and through some half-built streets + of two-storied houses.... Luckily,' he adds, 'I am fond of my profession, + or I could not stand this life.' There was probably no real hardship in + his present situation, and thousands of young engineers go through the + like experience at the outset of their career without a murmur,' and even + with enjoyment; but Jenkin had been his mother's pet until then, with a + girl's delicate training, and probably felt the change from home more + keenly on that account. At night he read engineering and mathematics, or + Carlyle and the poets, and cheered his drooping spirits with frequent + trips to London to see his mother. + </p> + <p> + Another social pleasure was his visits to the house of Mr. Alfred Austin, + a barrister, who became permanent secretary to Her Majesty's Office of + Works and Public Buildings, and retired in 1868 with the title of C.B. His + wife, Eliza Barron, was the youngest daughter of Mr. E. Barron, a + gentleman of Norwich, the son of a rich saddler, or leather-seller, in the + Borough, who, when a child, had been patted on the head, in his father's + shop, by Dr. Johnson, while canvassing for Mr. Thrale. Jenkin had been + introduced to the Austins by a letter from Mrs. Gaskell, and was charmed + with the atmosphere of their choice home, where intellectual conversation + was happily united with kind and courteous manners, without any pretence + or affectation. 'Each of the Austins,' says Mr. Stevenson, in his memoir + of Jenkin, to which we are much indebted, 'was full of high spirits; each + practised something of the same repression; no sharp word was uttered in + the house. The same point of honour ruled them: a guest was sacred, and + stood within the pale from criticism.' In short, the Austins were truly + hospitable and cultured, not merely so in form and appearance. It was a + rare privilege and preservative for a solitary young man in Jenkin's + position to have the entry into such elevating society, and he appreciated + his good fortune. + </p> + <p> + Annie Austin, their only child, had been highly educated, and knew Greek + among other things. Though Jenkin loved and admired her parents, he did + not at first care for Annie, who, on her part, thought him vain, and by no + means good-looking. Mr. Stevenson hints that she vanquished his stubborn + heart by correcting a 'false quantity' of his one day, for he was the man + to reflect over a correction, and 'admire the castigator.' Be this as it + may, Jenkin by degrees fell deeply in love with her. + </p> + <p> + He was poor and nameless, and this made him diffident; but the liking of + her parents for him gave him hope. Moreover, he had entered the service of + Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, who were engaged in the new work of submarine + telegraphy, which satisfied his aspirations, and promised him a successful + career. With this new-born confidence in his future, he solicited the + Austins for leave to court their daughter, and it was not withheld. Mrs. + Austin consented freely, and Mr. Austin only reserved the right to inquire + into his character. Neither of them mentioned his income or prospects, and + Jenkin, overcome by their disinterestedness, exclaimed in one of his + letters, 'Are these people the same as other people?' Thus permitted, he + addressed himself to Annie, and was nearly rejected for his pains. Miss + Austin seems to have resented his courtship of her parents first; but the + mother's favour, and his own spirited behaviour, saved him, and won her + consent. + </p> + <p> + Then followed one of the happiest epochs in Jenkin's life. After leaving + Penn's he worked at railway engineering for a time under Messrs. Liddell + and Gordon; and, in 1857, became engineer to Messrs. R. S. Newall & + Co., of Gateshead, who shared the work of making the first Atlantic cable + with Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co., of Greenwich. Jenkin was busy + designing and fitting up machinery for cableships, and making electrical + experiments. 'I am half crazy with work,' he wrote to his betrothed; 'I + like it though: it's like a good ball, the excitement carries you + through.' Again he wrote, 'My profession gives me all the excitement and + interest I ever hope for.'... 'I am at the works till ten, and sometimes + till eleven. But I have a nice office to sit in, with a fire to myself, + and bright brass scientific instruments all round me, and books to read, + and experiments to make, and enjoy myself amazingly. I find the study of + electricity so entertaining that I am apt to neglect my other work.'... + 'What shall I compare them to,' he writes of some electrical experiments, + 'a new song? or a Greek play?' In the spring of 1855 he was fitting out + the s.s. Elba, at Birkenhead, for his first telegraph cruise. It appears + that in 1855 Mr. Henry Brett attempted to lay a cable across the + Mediterranean between Cape Spartivento, in the south of Sardinia, and a + point near Bona, on the coast of Algeria. It was a gutta-percha cable of + six wires or conductors, and manufactured by Messrs. Glass & Elliott, + of Greenwich—a firm which afterwards combined with the Gutta-Percha + Company, and became the existing Telegraph Construction and Maintenance + Company. Mr. Brett laid the cable from the Result, a sailing ship in tow, + instead of a more manageable steamer; and, meeting with 600 fathoms of + water when twenty-five miles from land, the cable ran out so fast that a + tangled skein came up out of the hold, and the line had to be severed. + Having only 150 miles on board to span the whole distance of 140 miles, he + grappled the lost cable near the shore, raised it, and 'under-run' or + passed it over the ship, for some twenty miles, then cut it, leaving the + seaward end on the bottom. He then spliced the ship's cable to the + shoreward end and resumed his paying-out; but after seventy miles in all + were laid, another rapid rush of cable took place, and Mr. Brett was + obliged to cut and abandon the line. + </p> + <p> + Another attempt was made the following year, but with no better success. + Mr. Brett then tried to lay a three-wire cable from the steamer Dutchman, + but owing to the deep water—in some places 1500 fathoms—its + egress was so rapid, that when he came to a few miles from Galita, his + destination on the Algerian coast, he had not enough cable to reach the + land. He therefore telegraphed to London for more cable to be made and + sent out, while the ship remained there holding to the end. For five days + he succeeded in doing so, sending and receiving messages; but heavy + weather came on, and the cable parted, having, it is said, been chafed + through by rubbing on the bottom. After that Mr. Brett went home. + </p> + <p> + It was to recover the lost cable of these expeditions that the Elba was + got ready for sea. Jenkin had fitted her out the year before for laying + the Cagliari to Malta and Corfu cables; but on this occasion she was + better equipped. She had a new machine for picking up the cable, and a + sheave or pulley at the bows for it to run over, both designed by Jenkin, + together with a variety of wooden buoys, ropes, and chains. Mr. Liddell, + assisted by Mr. F. C. Webb and Fleeming Jenkin, were in charge of the + expedition. The latter had nothing to do with the electrical work, his + care being the deck machinery for raising the cable; but it entailed a + good deal of responsibility, which was flattering and agreeable to a young + man of his parts. + </p> + <p> + 'I own I like responsibility,' he wrote to Miss Austin, while fitting up + the vessel; 'it flatters one; and then, your father might say, I have more + to gain than lose. Moreover, I do like this bloodless, painless combat + with wood and iron, forcing the stubborn rascals to do my will, licking + the clumsy cubs into an active shape, seeing the child of to-day's thought + working to-morrow in full vigour at his appointed task.' Another letter, + dated May 17, gives a picture of the start. 'Not a sailor will join us + till the last moment; and then, just as the ship forges ahead through the + narrow pass, beds and baggage fly on board, the men, half tipsy, clutch at + the rigging, the captain swears, the women scream and sob, the crowd cheer + and laugh, while one or two pretty little girls stand still and cry + outright, regardless of all eyes.' + </p> + <p> + The Elba arrived at Bona on June 3, and Jenkin landed at Fort Genova, on + Cape Hamrah, where some Arabs were building a land line. 'It was a strange + scene,' he writes, 'far more novel than I had imagined; the high, steep + bank covered with rich, spicy vegetation, of which I hardly knew one + plant. The dwarf palm, with fan-like leaves, growing about two feet high, + forms the staple verdure.' After dining in Fort Genova, he had nothing to + do but watch the sailors ordering the Arabs about under the 'generic term + "Johnny."' He began to tire of the scene, although, as he confesses, he + had willingly paid more money for less strange and lovely sights. Jenkin + was not a dreamer; he disliked being idle, and if he had had a pencil he + would have amused himself in sketching what he saw. That his eyes were + busy is evident from the particulars given in his letter, where he notes + the yellow thistles and 'Scotch-looking gowans' which grow there, along + with the cistus and the fig-tree. + </p> + <p> + They left Bona on June 5, and, after calling at Cagliari and Chia, arrived + at Cape Spartivento on the morning of June 8. The coast here is a low + range of heathy hills, with brilliant green bushes and marshy pools. Mr. + Webb remarks that its reputation for fever was so bad as to cause Italian + men-of-war to sheer off in passing by. Jenkin suffered a little from + malaria, but of a different origin. 'A number of the SATURDAY REVIEW + here,' he writes; 'it reads so hot and feverish, so tomb-like and + unhealthy, in the midst of dear Nature's hills and sea, with good + wholesome work to do.' + </p> + <p> + There were several pieces of submerged cable to lift, two with their ends + on shore, and one or two lying out at sea. Next day operations were begun + on the shore end, which had become buried under the sand, and could not be + raised without grappling. After attempts to free the cable from the sand + in small boats, the Elba came up to help, and anchored in shallow water + about sunset. Curiously enough, the anchor happened to hook, and so + discover the cable, which was thereupon grappled, cut, and the sea end + brought on board over the bow sheave. After being passed six times round + the picking-up drum it was led into the hold, and the Elba slowly forged + ahead, hauling in the cable from the bottom as she proceeded. At half-past + nine she anchored for the night some distance from the shore, and at three + next morning resumed her picking up. 'With a small delay for one or two + improvements I had seen to be necessary last night,' writes Jenkin, 'the + engine started, and since that time I do not think there has been half an + hour's stoppage. A rope to splice, a block to change, a wheel to oil, an + old rusted anchor to disengage from the cable, which brought it up—these + have been our only obstructions. Sixty, seventy, eighty, a hundred, a + hundred and twenty revolutions at last my little engine tears away. The + even black rope comes straight out of the blue, heaving water, passes + slowly round an open-hearted, good-tempered-looking pulley, five feet in + diameter, aft past a vicious nipper, to bring all up should anything go + wrong, through a gentle guide on to a huge bluff drum, who wraps him round + his body, and says, "Come you must," as plain as drum can speak; the + chattering pauls say, "I've got him, I've got him; he can't come back," + whilst black cable, much slacker and easier in mind and body, is taken by + a slim V-pulley and passed down into the huge hold, where half a dozen men + put him comfortably to bed after his exertion in rising from his long + bath. + </p> + <p> + 'I am very glad I am here, for my machines are my own children, and I look + on their little failings with a parent's eye, and lead them into the path + of duty with gentleness and firmness. I am naturally in good spirits, but + keep very quiet, for misfortunes may arise at any instant; moreover, + to-morrow my paying-out apparatus will be wanted should all go well, and + that will be another nervous operation. Fifteen miles are safely in, but + no one knows better than I do that nothing is done till all is done.' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 11.—'It would amuse you to see how cool (in head) and jolly + everybody is. A testy word now and then shows the nerves are strained a + little, but every one laughs and makes his little jokes as if it were all + in fun....I enjoy it very much.' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 13, SUNDAY.—'It now (at 10.30) blows a pretty stiff gale, and + the sea has also risen, and the Elba's bows rise and fall about nine feet. + We make twelve pitches to the minute, and the poor cable must feel very + sea-sick by this time. We are quite unable to do anything, and continue + riding at anchor in one thousand fathoms, the engines going constantly, so + as to keep the ship's bows close up to the cable, which by this means + hangs nearly vertical, and sustains no strain but that caused by its own + weight and the pitching of the vessel. We were all up at four, but the + weather entirely forbade work for to-day; so some went to bed, and most + lay down, making up our lee-way, as we nautically term our loss of sleep. + I must say Liddell is a fine fellow, and keeps his patience and his temper + wonderfully; and yet how he does fret and fume about trifles at home!' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 16.—'By some odd chance a TIMES of June 7 has found its way on + board through the agency of a wretched old peasant who watches the end of + the line here. A long account of breakages in the Atlantic trial trip. + To-night we grapple for the heavy cable, eight tons to the mile. I long to + have a tug at him; he may puzzle me; and though misfortunes, or rather + difficulties, are a bore at the time, life, when working with cables, is + tame without them.—2 p.m. Hurrah! he is hooked—the big fellow—almost + at the first cast. He hangs under our bows, looking so huge and imposing + that I could find it in my heart to be afraid of him.' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 17.—'We went to a little bay called Chia, where a fresh-water + stream falls into the sea, and took in water. This is rather a long + operation, so I went up the valley with Mr. Liddell. The coast here + consists of rocky mountains 800 to 1000 feet high, covered with shrubs of + a brilliant green. On landing, our first amusement was watching the + hundreds of large fish who lazily swam in shoals about the river. The big + canes on the further side hold numberless tortoises, we are told, but see + none, for just now they prefer taking a siesta. A little further on, and + what is this with large pink flowers in such abundance?—the oleander + in full flower! At first I fear to pluck them, thinking they must be + cultivated and valuable; but soon the banks show a long line of thick tall + shrubs, one mass of glorious pink and green, set there in a little valley, + whose rocks gleam out blue and purple colours, such as pre-Raphaelites + only dare attempt, shining out hard and weird-like amongst the clumps of + castor-oil plants, cistus, arbor-vitae, and many other evergreens, whose + names, alas! I know not; the cistus is brown now, the rest all deep and + brilliant green. Large herds of cattle browse on the baked deposit at the + foot of these large crags. One or two half-savage herdsmen in sheepskin + kilts, etc., ask for cigars; partridges whirr up on either side of us; + pigeons coo and nightingales sing amongst the blooming oleander. We get + six sheep, and many fowls too, from the priest of the small village, and + then run back to Spartivento and make preparations for the morning.' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 18.—'The short length (of the big-cable) we have picked up was + covered at places with beautiful sprays of coral, twisted and twined with + shells of those small fairy animals we saw in the aquarium at home. Poor + little things! they died at once, with their little bells and delicate + bright tints.' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 19.—'Hour after hour I stand on the fore-castle-head picking + off little specimens of polypi and coral, or lie on the saloon deck + reading back numbers of the TIMES, till something hitches, and then all is + hurly-burly once more. There are awnings all along the ship, and a most + ancient and fish-like smell (from the decaying polypi) beneath.' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 22.—'Yesterday the cable was often a lovely sight, coming out + of the water one large incrustation of delicate net-like corals and long + white curling shells. No portion of the dirty black wire was visible; + instead we had a garland of soft pink, with little scarlet sprays and + white enamel intermixed. All was fragile, however, and could hardly be + secured in safety; and inexorable iron crushed the tender leaves to + atoms.' + </p> + <p> + JUNE 24.—'The whole day spent in dredging, without success. This + operation consists in allowing the ship to drift slowly across the line + where you expect the cable to be, while at the end of a long rope, fast + either to the bow or stern, a grapnel drags along the ground. The grapnel + is a small anchor, made like four pot-hooks tied back to back. When the + rope gets taut the ship is stopped and the grapnel hauled up to the + surface in the hopes of finding the cable on its prongs. I am much + discontented with myself for idly lounging about and reading WESTWARD HO! + for the second time instead of taking to electricity or picking up + nautical information.' + </p> + <p> + During the latter part of the work much of the cable was found to be + looped and twisted into 'kinks' from having been so slackly laid, and two + immense tangled skeins were raised on board, one by means of the mast-head + and fore-yard tackle. Photographs of this ravelled cable were for a long + time exhibited as a curiosity in the windows of Messrs. Newall & Co's. + shop in the Strand, where we remember to have seen them. + </p> + <p> + By July 5 the whole of the six-wire cable had been recovered, and a + portion of the three-wire cable, the rest being abandoned as unfit for + use, owing to its twisted condition. Their work was over, but an + unfortunate accident marred its conclusion. On the evening of the 2nd the + first mate, while on the water unshackling a buoy, was struck in the back + by a fluke of the ship's anchor as she drifted, and so severely injured + that he lay for many weeks at Cagliari. Jenkin's knowledge of languages + made him useful as an interpreter; but in mentioning this incident to Miss + Austin, he writes, 'For no fortune would I be a doctor to witness these + scenes continually. Pain is a terrible thing.' + </p> + <p> + In the beginning of 1859 he made the acquaintance of Sir William Thomson, + his future friend and partner. Mr. Lewis Gordon, of Messrs. R. S. Newall + & Co., afterwards the earliest professor of engineering in a British + University, was then in Glasgow seeing Sir William's instruments for + testing and signalling on the first Atlantic cable during the six weeks of + its working. Mr. Gordon said he should like to show them to 'a young man + of remarkable ability,' engaged at their Birkenhead Works, and Jenkin, + being telegraphed for, arrived next morning, and spent a week in Glasgow, + mostly in Sir William's class-room and laboratory at the old college. Sir + William tells us that he was struck not only with Jenkin's brightness and + ability, but with his resolution to understand everything spoken of; to + see, if possible, thoroughly into every difficult question, and to slur + over nothing. 'I soon found,' he remarks, 'that thoroughness of honesty + was as strongly engrained in the scientific as in the moral side of his + character.' Their talk was chiefly on the electric telegraph; but Jenkin + was eager, too, on the subject of physics. After staying a week he + returned to the factory; but he began experiments, and corresponded + briskly with Sir William about cable work. That great electrician, indeed, + seems to have infected his visitor during their brief contact with the + magnetic force of his personality and enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + The year was propitious, and, in addition to this friend, Fortune about + the same time bestowed a still better gift on Jenkin. On Saturday, + February 26, during a four days' leave, he was married to Miss Austin at + Northiam, returning to his work the following Tuesday. This was the great + event of his life; he was strongly attached to his wife, and his letters + reveal a warmth of affection, a chivalry of sentiment, and even a romance + of expression, which a casual observer would never have suspected in him. + Jenkin seemed to the outside world a man without a heart, and yet we find + him saying in the year 1869, 'People may write novels, and other people + may write poems, but not a man or woman among them can say how happy a man + can be who is desperately in love with his wife after ten years of + marriage.' Five weeks before his death he wrote to her, 'Your first letter + from Bournemouth gives me heavenly pleasure—for which I thank Heaven + and you, too, who are my heaven on earth.' + </p> + <p> + During the summer he enjoyed another telegraph cruise in the + Mediterranean, a sea which for its classical memories, its lovely climate, + and diversified scenes, is by far the most interesting in the world. This + time the Elba was to lay a cable from the Greek islands of Syra and Candia + to Egypt. Cable-laying is a pleasant mode of travel. Many of those on + board the ship are friends and comrades in former expeditions, and all are + engaged in the same venture. Some have seen a good deal of the world, both + in and out of the beaten track; they have curious 'yarns to spin,' and + useful hints or scraps of worldly wisdom to bestow. The voyage out is like + a holiday excursion, for it is only the laying that is arduous, and even + that is lightened by excitement. Glimpses are got of hide-away spots, + where the cable is landed, perhaps. on the verge of the primeval forest or + near the port of a modern city, or by the site of some ruined monument of + the past. The very magic of the craft and its benefit to the world are a + source of pleasure to the engineer, who is generally made much of in the + distant parts he has come to join. No doubt there are hardships to be + borne, sea-sickness, broken rest, and anxiety about the work—for + cables are apt suddenly to fail, and the ocean is treacherous; but with + all its drawbacks this happy mixture of changing travel and profitable + labour is very attractive, especially to a young man. + </p> + <p> + The following extracts from letters to his wife will illustrate the nature + of the work, and also give an idea of Jenkin's clear and graphic style of + correspondence:—May 14.—'Syra is semi-eastern. The pavement, + huge shapeless blocks sloping to a central gutter; from this base + two-storeyed houses, sometimes plaster, many-coloured, sometimes + rough-hewn marble, rise, dirty and ill-finished, to straight, plain, flat + roofs; shops guiltless of windows, with signs in Greek letters; dogs, + Greeks in blue, baggy, Zouave breeches and a fez, a few narghilehs, and a + sprinkling of the ordinary continental shop-boys. In the evening I tried + one more walk in Syra with A——, but in vain endeavoured to + amuse myself or to spend money, the first effort resulting in singing + DOODAH to a passing Greek or two, the second in spending—no, in + making A—— spend—threepence on coffee for three.' + </p> + <p> + Canea Bay, in Candia (or Crete), which they reached on May 16, appeared to + Jenkin one of the loveliest sights that man could witness. + </p> + <p> + May 23.—'I spent the day at the little station where the cable was + landed, which has apparently been first a Venetian monastery and then a + Turkish mosque. At any rate the big dome is very cool, and the little ones + hold batteries capitally. A handsome young Bashi-Bazouk guards it, and a + still handsomer mountaineer is the servant; so I draw them and the + monastery and the hill till I'm black in the face with heat, and come on + board to hear the Canea cable is still bad.' + </p> + <p> + May 23.—'We arrived in the morning at the east end of Candia, and + had a glorious scramble over the mountains, which seem built of adamant. + Time has worn away the softer portions of the rock, only leaving sharp, + jagged edges of steel; sea eagles soaring above our heads—old tanks, + ruins, and desolation at our feet. The ancient Arsinoe stood here: a few + blocks of marble with the cross attest the presence of Venetian + Christians; but now—the desolation of desolations. Mr. Liddell and I + separated from the rest, and when we had found a sure bay for the cable, + had a tremendous lively scramble back to the boat. These are the bits of + our life which I enjoy; which have some poetry, some grandeur in them. + </p> + <p> + May 29.-'Yesterday we ran round to the new harbour (of Alexandria), landed + the shore end of the cable close to Cleopatra's Bath, and made a very + satisfactory start about one in the afternoon. We had scarcely gone 200 + yards when I noticed that the cable ceased to run out, and I wondered why + the ship had stopped.' + </p> + <p> + The Elba had run her nose on a sandbank. After trying to force her over + it, an anchor was put out astern and the rope wound by a steam winch, + while the engines were backed; but all in vain. At length a small Turkish + steamer, the consort of the Elba, came to her assistance, and by means of + a hawser helped to tug her off: The pilot again ran her aground soon + after, but she was delivered by the same means without much damage. When + two-thirds of this cable was laid the line snapped in deep water, and had + to be recovered. On Saturday, June 4, they arrived at Syra, where they had + to perform four days' quarantine, during which, however, they started + repairing the Canea cable. + </p> + <p> + Bad weather coming on, they took shelter in Siphano, of which Jenkin + writes: 'These isles of Greece are sad, interesting places. They are not + really barren all over, but they are quite destitute of verdure; and tufts + of thyme, wild mastic, or mint, though they sound well, are not nearly so + pretty as grass. Many little churches, glittering white, dot the islands; + most of them, I believe, abandoned during the whole year with the + exception of one day sacred to their patron saint. The villages are mean; + but the inhabitants do not look wretched, and the men are capital sailors. + There is something in this Greek race yet; they will become a powerful + Levantine nation in the course of time.' + </p> + <p> + In 1861 Jenkin left the service of Newall & Co., and entered into + partnership with Mr. H. C. Forde, who had acted as engineer under the + British Government for the Malta-Alexandria cable, and was now practising + as a civil engineer. For several years after this business was bad, and + with a young family coming, it was an anxious time for him; but he seems + to have borne his troubles lightly. Mr. Stevenson says it was his + principle 'to enjoy each day's happiness as it arises, like birds and + children.' + </p> + <p> + In 1863 his first son was born, and the family removed to a cottage at + Claygate, near Esher. Though ill and poor at this period, he kept up his + self-confidence. 'The country,' he wrote to his wife, 'will give us, + please God, health and strength. I will love and cherish you more than + ever. You shall go where you wish, you shall receive whom you wish, and as + for money, you shall have that too. I cannot be mistaken. I have now + measured myself with many men. I do not feel weak. I do not feel that I + shall fail. In many things I have succeeded, and I will in this.... And + meanwhile, the time of waiting, which, please Heaven, shall not be so + long, shall also not be so bitter. Well, well, I promise much, and do not + know at this moment how you and the dear child are. If he is but better, + courage, my girl, for I see light.' + </p> + <p> + He took to gardening, without a natural liking for it, and soon became an + ardent expert. He wrote reviews, and lectured, or amused himself in + playing charades, and reading poetry. Clerk Maxwell, and Mr. Ricketts, who + was lost in the La Plata, were among his visitors. During October, 1860, + he superintended the repairs of the Bona-Spartivento cable, revisiting + Chia and Cagliari, then full of Garibaldi's troops. The cable, which had + been broken by the anchors of coral fishers, was grapnelled with + difficulty. 'What rocks we did hook!' writes Jenkin. 'No sooner was the + grapnel down than the ship was anchored; and then came such a business: + ship's engines going, deck engine thundering, belt slipping, tear of + breaking ropes; actually breaking grapnels. It was always an hour or more + before we could get the grapnels down again.' + </p> + <p> + In 1865, on the birth of his second son, Mrs. Jenkin was very ill, and + Jenkin, after running two miles for a doctor, knelt by her bedside during + the night in a draught, not wishing to withdraw his hand from hers. Never + robust, he suffered much from flying rheumatism and sciatica ever + afterwards. It nearly disabled him while laying the Lowestoft to Norderney + cable for Mr. Reuter, in 1866. This line was designed by Messrs. Forde + & Jenkin, manufactured by Messrs. W. T. Henley & Co., and laid by + the Caroline and William Cory. Miss Clara Volkman, a niece of Mr. Reuter, + sent the first message, Mr. C. F, Varley holding her hand. + </p> + <p> + In 1866 Jenkin was appointed to the professorship of Engineering in + University College, London. Two years later his prospects suddenly + improved; the partnership began to pay, and he was selected to fill the + Chair of Engineering, which had been newly established, in Edinburgh + University. What he thought of the change may be gathered from a letter to + his wife: 'With you in the garden (at Claygate), with Austin in the + coach-house, with pretty songs in the little low white room, with the + moonlight in the dear room upstairs—ah! it was perfect; but the long + walk, wondering, pondering, fearing, scheming, and the dusty jolting + railway, and the horrid fusty office, with its endless disappointments, + they are well gone. It is well enough to fight, and scheme, and bustle + about in the eager crowd here (in London) for awhile now and then; but not + for a lifetime. What I have now is just perfect. Study for winter, action + for summer, lovely country for recreation, a pleasant town for talk.' + </p> + <p> + The liberality of the Scotch universities allowed him to continue his + private enterprises, and the summer holiday was long enough to make a trip + round the globe. + </p> + <p> + The following June he was on board the Great Eastern while she laid the + French Atlantic cable from Brest to St. Pierre. Among his shipmates were + Sir William Thomson, Sir James Anderson, C. F. Varley, Mr. Latimer Clark, + and Willoughby Smith. Jenkin's sketches of Clark and Varley are + particularly happy. At St. Pierre, where they arrived in a fog, which + lifted to show their consort, the William Cory, straight ahead, and the + Gulnare signalling a welcome, Jenkin made the curious observation that the + whole island was electrified by the battery at the telegraph station. + </p> + <p> + Jenkin's position at Edinburgh led to a partnership in cable work with Sir + William Thomson, for whom he always had a love and admiration. Jenkin's + clear, practical, and business-like abilities were doubtless an advantage + to Sir William, relieving him of routine, and sparing his great abilities + for higher work. In 1870 the siphon recorder, for tracing a cablegram in + ink, instead of merely flashing it by the moving ray of the mirror + galvanometer, was introduced on long cables, and became a source of profit + to Jenkin and Varley as well as to Sir William, its inventor. + </p> + <p> + In 1873 Thomson and Jenkin were engineers for the Western and Brazilian + cable. It was manufactured by Messrs. Hooper & Co., of Millwall, and + the wire was coated with india-rubber, then a new insulator. The Hooper + left Plymouth in June, and after touching at Madeira, where Sir William + was up 'sounding with his special toy' (the pianoforte wire) 'at half-past + three in the morning,' they reached Pernambuco by the beginning of August, + and laid a cable to Para. + </p> + <p> + During the next two years the Brazilian system was connected to the West + Indies and the River Plate; but Jenkin was not present on the expeditions. + While engaged in this work, the ill-fated La Plata, bound with cable from + Messrs. Siemens Brothers to Monte Video, perished in a cyclone off Cape + Ushant, with the loss of nearly all her crew. The Mackay-Bennett Atlantic + cables were also laid under their charge. + </p> + <p> + As a professor Jenkin's appearance was against him; but he was a clear, + fluent speaker, and a successful teacher. Of medium height, and very + plain, his manner was youthful, and alert, but unimposing. Nevertheless, + his class was always in good order, for his eye instantly lighted on any + unruly member, and his reproof was keen. + </p> + <p> + His experimental work was not strikingly original. At Birkenhead he made + some accurate measurements of the electrical properties of materials used + in submarine cables. Sir William Thomson says he was the first to apply + the absolute methods of measurement introduced by Gauss and Weber. He also + investigated there the laws of electric signals in submarine cables. As + Secretary to the British Association Committee on Electrical Standards he + played a leading part in providing electricians with practical standards + of measurement. His Cantor lectures on submarine cables, and his treatise + on ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM, published in 1873, were notable works at the + time, and contained the latest development of their subjects. He was + associated with Sir William Thomson in an ingenious 'curb-key' for sending + signals automatically through a long cable; but although tried, it was not + adopted. His most important invention was Telpherage, a means of + transporting goods and passengers to a distance by electric panniers + supported on a wire or conductor, which supplied them with electricity. It + was first patented in 1882, and Jenkin spent his last years on this work, + expecting great results from it; but ere the first public line was opened + for traffic at Glynde, in Sussex, he was dead. + </p> + <p> + In mechanical engineering his graphical methods of calculating strains in + bridges, and determining the efficiency of mechanism, are of much value. + The latter, which is based on Reulaux's prior work, procured him the + honour of the Keith Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. + Another successful work of his was the founding of the Sanitary Protection + Association, for the supervision of houses with regard to health. + </p> + <p> + In his leisure hours Jenkin wrote papers on a wide variety of subjects. To + the question, 'Is one man's gain another man's loss?' he answered 'Not in + every case.' He attacked Darwin's theory of development, and showed its + inadequacy, especially in demanding more time than the physicist could + grant for the age of the habitable world. Darwin himself confessed that + some of his arguments were convincing; and Munro, the scholar, + complimented him for his paper on Lucretius and the Atomic Theory.' In + 1878 he constructed a phonograph from the newspaper reports of this new + invention, and lectured on it at a bazaar in Edinburgh, then employed it + to study the nature of vowel and consonantal sounds. An interesting paper + on Rhythm in English Verse,' was also published by him in the SATURDAY + REVIEW for 1883. + </p> + <p> + He was clever with his pencil, and could seize a likeness with astonishing + rapidity. He has been known while on a cable expedition to stop a peasant + woman in a shop for a few minutes and sketch her on the spot. His artistic + side also shows itself in a paper on 'Artist and Critic,' in which he + defines the difference between the mechanical and fine arts. 'In + mechanical arts,' he says, 'the craftsman uses his skill to produce + something useful, but (except in the rare case when he is at liberty to + choose what he shall produce) his sole merit lies in skill. In the fine + arts the student uses skill to produce something beautiful. He is free to + choose what that something shall be, and the layman claims that he may and + must judge the artist chiefly by the value in beauty of the thing done. + Artistic skill contributes to beauty, or it would not be skill; but beauty + is the result of many elements, and the nobler the art the lower is the + rank which skill takes among them.' + </p> + <p> + A clear and matter-of-fact thinker, Jenkin was an equally clear and + graphic writer. He read the best literature, preferring, among other + things, the story of David, the ODYSSEY, the ARCADIA, the saga of Burnt + Njal, and the GRAND CYRUS. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ariosto, + Boccaccio, Scott, Dumas, Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot, were some + of his favourite authors. He once began a review of George Eliot's + biography, but left it unfinished. Latterly he had ceased to admire her + work as much as before. He was a rapid, fluent talker, with excited + utterance at times. Some of his sayings were shrewd and sharp; but he was + sometimes aggressive. 'People admire what is pretty in an ugly thing,' he + used to say 'not the ugly thing.' A lady once said to him she would never + be happy again. 'What does that signify?' cried Jenkin; 'we are not here + to be happy, but to be good.' On a friend remarking that Salvini's acting + in OTHELLO made him want to pray, Jenkin answered, 'That is prayer.' + </p> + <p> + Though admired and liked by his intimates, Jenkin was never popular with + associates. His manner was hard, rasping, and unsympathetic. 'Whatever + virtues he possessed,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'he could never count on being + civil.' He showed so much courtesy to his wife, however, that a Styrian + peasant who observed it spread a report in the village that Mrs. Jenkin, a + great lady, had married beneath her. At the Saville Club, in London, he + was known as the 'man who dines here and goes up to Scotland.' Jenkin was + conscious of this churlishness, and latterly improved. 'All my life,' he + wrote,'I have talked a good deal, with the almost unfailing result of + making people sick of the sound of my tongue. It appeared to me that I had + various things to say, and I had no malevolent feelings; but, + nevertheless, the result was that expressed above. Well, lately some + change has happened. If I talk to a person one day they must have me the + next. Faces light up when they see me. "Ah! I say, come here." "Come and + dine with me." It's the most preposterous thing I ever experienced. It is + curiously pleasant.' + </p> + <p> + Jenkin was a good father, joining in his children's play as well as + directing their studies. The boys used to wait outside his office for him + at the close of business hours; and a story is told of little Frewen, the + second son, entering in to him one day, while he was at work, and holding + out a toy crane he was making, with the request, 'Papa you might finiss + windin' this for me, I'm so very busy to-day.' He was fond of animals too, + and his dog Plate regularly accompanied him to the University. But, as he + used to say, 'It's a cold home where a dog is the only representative of a + child.' + </p> + <p> + In summer his holidays were usually spent in the Highlands, where Jenkin + learned to love the Highland character and ways of life. He was a good + shot, rode and swam well, and taught his boys athletic exercises, boating, + salmon fishing, and such like. He learned to dance a Highland reel, and + began the study of Gaelic; but that speech proved too stubborn, craggy, + and impregnable even for Jenkin. Once he took his family to Alt Aussee, in + the Stiermark, Styria, where he hunted chamois, won a prize for shooting + at the Schutzen-fest, learned the dialect of the country, sketched the + neighbourhood, and danced the STEIERISCH and LANDLER with the peasants. He + never seemed to be happy unless he was doing, and what he did was well + done. + </p> + <p> + Above all, he was clear-headed and practical, mastering many things; no + dreamer, but an active, business man. Had he confined himself to + engineering he might have adorned his profession more, for he liked and + fitted it; but with his impulses on other lines repressed, he might have + been less happy. Moreover, he was one who believed, with the sage, that + all good work is profitable, having its value, if only in exercise and + skill. + </p> + <p> + His own parents and those of his wife had come to live in Edinburgh; but + he lost them all within ten months of each other. Jenkin had showed great + devotion to them in their illnesses, and was worn out with grief and + watching. His telpherage, too, had given him considerable anxiety to + perfect; and his mother's illness, which affected her mind, had caused + himself to fear. + </p> + <p> + He was meditating a holiday to Italy with his wife in order to recuperate, + and had a trifling operation performed on his foot, which resulted, it is + believed, in blood poisoning. There seemed to be no danger, and his wife + was reading aloud to him as he lay in bed, when his intellect began to + wander. It is doubtful whether he regained his senses before he died, on + June 12, 1885. + </p> + <p> + At one period of his life Jenkin was a Freethinker, holding, as Mr. + Stevenson says, all dogmas as 'mere blind struggles to express the + inexpressible.' Nevertheless, as time went on he came back to a belief in + Christianity. 'The longer I live,' he wrote, 'the more convinced I become + of a direct care by God—which is reasonably impossible—but + there it is.' In his last year he took the Communion. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. JOHANN PHILIPP REIS. + </h2> + <p> + Johann Philipp Reis, the first inventor of an electric telephone, was born + on January 7, 1834, at the little town of Gelnhausen, in Cassel, where his + father was a master baker and petty farmer. The boy lost his mother during + his infancy, and was brought up by his paternal grandmother, a well-read, + intelligent woman, of a religious turn. While his father taught him to + observe the material world, his grandmother opened his mind to the Unseen. + </p> + <p> + At the age of six he was sent to the common school of the town, where his + talents attracted the notice of his instructors, who advised his father to + extend his education at a higher college. Mr. Reis died before his son was + ten years old; but his grandmother and guardians afterwards placed him at + Garnier's Institute, in Friedrichsdorf, where he showed a taste for + languages, and acquired both French and English, as well as a stock of + miscellaneous information from the library. At the end of his fourteenth + year he passed to Hassel's Institute, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he + picked up Latin and Italian. A love of science now began to show itself, + and his guardians were recommended to send him to the Polytechnic School + of Carlsruhe; but one of them, his uncle, wished him to become a merchant, + and on March 1, 1850, Reis was apprenticed to the colour trade in the + establishment of Mr. J. F Beyerbach, of Frankfort, against his own will. + He told his uncle that he would learn the business chosen for him, but + should continue his proper studies by-and-by. + </p> + <p> + By diligent service he won the esteem of Mr. Beyerbach, and devoted his + leisure to self-improvement, taking private lessons in mathematics and + physics, and attending the lectures of Professor R. Bottger on mechanics + at the Trade School. When his apprenticeship ended he attended the + Institute of Dr. Poppe, in Frankfort, and as neither history nor geography + was taught there, several of the students agreed to instruct each other in + these subjects. Reis undertook geography, and believed he had found his + true vocation in the art of teaching. He also became a member of the + Physical Society of Frankfort. + </p> + <p> + In 1855 he completed his year of military service at Cassel, then returned + to Frankfort to qualify himself as a teacher of mathematics and science in + the schools by means of private study and public lectures. His intention + was to finish his training at the University of Heidelberg, but in the + spring of 1858 he visited his old friend and master, Hofrath Garnier, who + offered him a post in Garnier's Institute. In the autumn of 1855 he + removed to Friedrichsdorf, to begin his new career, and in September + following he took a wife and settled down. + </p> + <p> + Reis imagined that electricity could be propagated through space, as light + can, without the aid of a material conductor, and he made some experiments + on the subject. The results were described in a paper 'On the Radiation of + Electricity,' which, in 1859, he posted to Professor Poggendorff; for + insertion in the well-known periodical, the ANNALEN DER PHYSIK. The memoir + was declined, to the great disappointment of the sensitive young teacher. + </p> + <p> + Reis had studied the organs of hearing, and the idea of an apparatus for + transmitting sound by means of electricity had been floating in his mind + for years. Incited by his lessons on physics, in the year 1860 he attacked + the problem, and was rewarded with success. In 1862 he again tried + Poggendorff, with an account of his 'Telephon,' as he called it;[The word + 'telephone' occurs in Timbs' REPOSITORY OF SCIENCE AND ART for 1845, in + connection With a signal trumpet operated by compressed air.] but his + second offering was rejected like the first. The learned professor, it + seems, regarded the transmission of speech by electricity as a chimera; + but Reis, in the bitterness of wounded feeling, attributed the failure to + his being 'only a poor schoolmaster.' + </p> + <p> + Since the invention of the telephone, attention has been called to the + fact that, in 1854, M. Charles Bourseul, a French telegraphist, [Happily + still alive (1891).] had conceived a plan for conveying sounds and even + speech by electricity. 'Suppose,' he explained, 'that a man speaks near a + movable disc sufficiently flexible to lose none of the vibrations of the + voice; that this disc alternately makes and breaks the currents from a + battery: you may have at a distance another disc which will simultaneously + execute the same vibrations.... It is certain that, in a more or less + distant future, speech will be transmitted by electricity. I have made + experiments in this direction; they are delicate and demand time and + patience, but the approximations obtained promise a favourable + result.'[See Du Moncel's EXPOSE DES APPLICATIONS, etc.] + </p> + <p> + Bourseul deserves the credit of being perhaps the first to devise an + electric telephone and try to make it; but to Reis belongs the honour of + first realising the idea. A writer may plot a story, or a painter invent a + theme for a picture; but unless he execute the work, of what benefit is it + to the world? True, a suggestion in mechanics may stimulate another to + apply it in practice, and in that case the suggester is entitled to some + share of the credit, as well as the distinction of being the first to + think of the matter. But it is best when the original deviser also carries + out the work; and if another should independently hit upon the same idea + and bring it into practice, we are bound to honour him in full, though we + may also recognise the merit of his predecessor. + </p> + <p> + Bourseul's idea seems to have attracted little notice at the time, and was + soon forgotten. Even the Count du Moncel, who was ever ready to welcome a + promising invention, evidently regarded it as a fantastic notion. It is + very doubtful if Reis had ever heard of it. He was led to conceive a + similar apparatus by a study of the mechanism of the human ear, which he + knew to contain a membrane, or 'drum,' vibrating under the waves of sound, + and communicating its vibrations through the hammer-bone behind it to the + auditory nerve. It therefore occurred to him, that if he made a diaphragm + in imitation of the drum, and caused it by vibrating to make and break the + circuit of an electric current, he would be able through the magnetic + power of the interrupted current to reproduce the original sounds at a + distance. + </p> + <p> + In 1837-8 Professor Page, of Massachusetts, had discovered that' a needle + or thin bar of iron, placed in the hollow of a coil or bobbin of insulated + wire, would emit an audible 'tick' at each interruption of a current, + flowing in the coil, and that if these separate ticks followed each other + fast enough, by a rapid interruption of the current, they would run + together into a continuous hum, to which he gave the name of 'galvanic + music.' The pitch of this note would correspond to the rate of + interruption of the current. From these and other discoveries which had + been made by Noad, Wertheim, Marrian, and others, Reis knew that if the + current which had been interrupted by his vibrating diaphragm were + conveyed to a distance by a metallic circuit, and there passed through a + coil like that of Page, the iron needle would emit a note like that which + had caused the oscillation of the transmitting diaphragm. Acting on this + knowledge, he constructed a rude telephone. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Messel informs us that his first transmitter consisted of the bung of + a beer barrel hollowed out in imitation of the external ear. The cup or + mouth-piece thus formed was closed by the skin of a German sausage to + serve as a drum or diaphragm. To the back of this he fixed, with a drop of + sealing-wax, a little strip of platinum, representing the hammer-bone, + which made and broke the metallic circuit of the current as the membrane + oscillated under the sounds which impinged against it. The current thus + interrupted was conveyed by wires to the receiver, which consisted of a + knitting-needle loosely surrounded by a coil of wire fastened to the + breast of a violin as a sounding-board. When a musical note was struck + near the bung, the drum vibrated in harmony with the pitch of the note, + the platinum lever interrupted the metallic circuit of the current, which, + after traversing the conducting wire, passed through the coil of the + receiver, and made the needle hum the original tone. This primitive + arrangement, we are told, astonished all who heard it. [It is now in the + museum of the Reichs Post-Amt, Berlin.] + </p> + <p> + Another of his early transmitters was a rough model of the human ear, + carved in oak, and provided with a drum which actuated a bent and pivoted + lever of platinum, making it open and close a springy contact of platinum + foil in the metallic circuit of the current. He devised some ten or twelve + different forms, each an improvement on its predecessors, which + transmitted music fairly well, and even a word or two of speech with more + or less perfection. But the apparatus failed as a practical means of + talking to a distance. + </p> + <p> + The discovery of the microphone by Professor Hughes has enabled us to + understand the reason of this failure. The transmitter of Reis was based + on the plan of interrupting the current, and the spring was intended to + close the contact after it had been opened by the shock of a vibration. So + long as the sound was a musical tone it proved efficient, for a musical + tone is a regular succession of vibrations. But the vibrations of speech + are irregular and complicated, and in order to transmit them the current + has to be varied in strength without being altogether broken. The waves + excited in the air by the voice should merely produce corresponding waves + in the current. In short, the current ought to UNDULATE in sympathy with + the oscillations of the air. It appears from the report of Herr Von Legat, + inspector of the Royal Prussian Telegraphs, on the Reis telephone, + published in 1862, that the inventor was quite aware of this principle, + but his instrument was not well adapted to apply it. No doubt the platinum + contacts he employed in the transmitter behaved to some extent as a crude + metal microphone, and hence a few words, especially familiar or expected + ones, could be transmitted and distinguished at the other end of the line. + But Reis does not seem to have realised the importance of not entirely + breaking the circuit of the current; at all events, his metal spring is + not in practice an effective provision against this, for it allows the + metal contacts to jolt too far apart, and thus interrupt the current. Had + he lived to modify the spring and the form or material of his contacts so + as to keep the current continuous—as he might have done, for + example, by using carbon for platinum—he would have forestalled + alike Bell, Edison, and Hughes in the production of a good speaking + telephone. Reis in fact was trembling on the verge of a great discovery, + which was, however, reserved for others. + </p> + <p> + His experiments were made in a little workshop behind his home at + Friedrichsdorff; and wires were run from it to an upper chamber. Another + line was erected between the physical cabinet at Garnier's Institute + across the playground to one of the class-rooms, and there was a tradition + in the school that the boys were afraid of creating an uproar in the room + for fear Herr Reis should hear them with his 'telephon.' + </p> + <p> + The new invention was published to the world in a lecture before the + Physical Society of Frankfort on October 26, 1861, and a description, + written by himself for the JAHRESBERICHT, a month or two later. It excited + a good deal of scientific notice in Germany; models of it were sent + abroad, to London, Dublin, Tiflis, and other places. It became a subject + for popular lectures, and an article for scientific cabinets. Reis + obtained a brief renown, but the reaction soon set in. The Physical + Society of Frankfort turned its back on the apparatus which had given it + lustre. Reis resigned his membership in 1867; but the Free German + Institute of Frankfort, which elected him an honorary member, also + slighted the instrument as a mere 'philosophical toy.' At first it was a + dream, and now it is a plaything. Have we not had enough of that superior + wisdom which is another name for stupidity? The dreams of the imagination + are apt to become realities, and the toy of to-day has a knack of growing + into the mighty engine of to-morrow. + </p> + <p> + Reis believed in his invention, if no one else did; and had he been + encouraged by his fellows from the beginning, he might have brought it + into a practical shape. But rebuffs had preyed upon his sensitive heart, + and he was already stricken with consumption. It is related that, after + his lecture on the telephone at Geissen, in 1854, Professor Poggendorff, + who was present, invited him to send a description of his instrument to + the ANNALEN. Reis answered him,'Ich danke Ihnen recht Sehr, Herr + Professor; es ist zu spaty. Jetzt will ICH nicht ihn schickeny. Mein + Apparat wird ohne Beschreibung in den ANNALEN bekannt werden.' ('Thank you + very much, Professor, but it is too late. I shall not send it now. My + apparatus will become known without any writing in the ANNALEN.') + </p> + <p> + Latterly Reis had confined his teaching and study to matters of science; + but his bad health was a serious impediment. For several years it was only + by the exercise of a strong will that he was able to carry on his duties. + His voice began to fail as the disease gained upon his lungs, and in the + summer of 1873 he was obliged to forsake tuition during several weeks. The + autumn vacation strengthened his hopes of recovery, and he resumed his + teaching with his wonted energy. But this was the last flicker of the + expiring flame. It was announced that he would show his new + gravity-machine at a meeting of the Deutscher Naturforscher of Wiesbaden + in September, but he was too ill to appear. In December he lay down, and, + after a long and painful illness, breathed his last at five o'clock in the + afternoon of January 14, 1874. + </p> + <p> + In his CURRICULUM VITAE he wrote these words: 'As I look back upon my life + I call indeed say with the Holy Scriptures that it has been "labour and + sorrow." But I have also to thank the Lord that He has given me His + blessing in my calling and in my family, and has bestowed more good upon + me than I have known how to ask of Him. The Lord has helped hitherto; He + will help yet further.' + </p> + <p> + Reis was buried in the cemetery of Friedrichsdorff, and in 1878, after the + introduction of the speaking telephone, the members of the Physical + Society of Frankfort erected over his grave an obelisk of red sandstone + bearing a medallion portrait. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. GRAHAM BELL. + </h2> + <p> + The first to produce a practicable speaking telephone was Alexander Graham + Bell. He was born at Edinburgh on March 1, 1847, and comes of a family + associated with the teaching of elocution. His grandfather in London, his + uncle in Dublin, and his father, Mr. Andrew Melville Bell, in Edinburgh, + were all professed elocutionists. The latter has published a variety of + works on the subject, several of which are well known, especially his + treatise on Visible Speech, which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. In this + he explains his ingenious method of instructing deaf mutes, by means of + their eyesight, how to articulate words, and also how to read what other + persons are saying by the motions of their lips. Graham Bell, his + distinguished son, was educated at the high school of Edinburgh, and + subsequently at Warzburg, in Germany, where he obtained the degree of + Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy). While still in Scotland he is said to have + turned his attention to the science of acoustics, with a view to + ameliorate the deafness of his mother. + </p> + <p> + In 1873 he accompanied his father to Montreal, in Canada, where he was + employed in teaching the system of visible speech. The elder Bell was + invited to introduce it into a large day-school for mutes at Boston, but + he declined the post in favour of his son, who soon became famous in the + United States for his success in this important work. He published more + than one treatise on the subject at Washington, and it is, we believe, + mainly through his efforts that thousands of deaf mutes in America are now + able to speak almost, if not quite, as well as those who are able to hear. + </p> + <p> + Before he left Scotland Mr. Graham Bell had turned his attention to + telephony, and in Canada he designed a piano which could transmit its + music to a distance by means of electricity. At Boston he continued his + researches in the same field, and endeavoured to produce a telephone which + would not only send musical notes, but articulate speech. + </p> + <p> + If it be interesting to trace the evolution of an animal from its + rudimentary germ through the lower phases to the perfect organism, it is + almost as interesting to follow an invention from the original model + through the faultier types to the finished apparatus. + </p> + <p> + In 1860 Philipp Reis, as we have seen, produced a telephone which could + transmit musical notes, and even a lisping word or two; and some ten years + later Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, F.R.S., a well-known English + electrician, patented a number of ingenious devices for applying the + musical telephone to transmit messages by dividing the notes into short or + long signals, after the Morse code, which could be interpreted by the ear + or by the eye in causing them to mark a moving paper. These inventions + were not put in practice; but four years afterwards Herr Paul la Cour, a + Danish inventor, experimented with a similar appliance on a line of + telegraph between Copenhagen and Fredericia in Jutland. In this a + vibrating tuning-fork interrupted the current, which, after traversing the + line, passed through an electro-magnet, and attracted the limbs of another + fork, making it strike a note like the transmitting fork. By breaking up + the note at the sending station with a signalling key, the message was + heard as a series of long and short hums. Moreover, the hums were made to + record themselves on paper by turning the electro-magnetic receiver into a + relay, which actuated a Morse printer by means of a local battery. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Elisha Gray, of Chicago, also devised a tone telegraph of this kind + about the same time as Herr La Cour. In this apparatus a vibrating steel + tongue interrupted the current, which at the other end of the line passed + through the electro-magnet and vibrated a band or tongue of iron near its + poles. Gray's 'harmonic telegraph,' with the vibrating tongues or reeds, + was afterwards introduced on the lines of the Western Union Telegraph + Company in America. As more than one set of vibrations—that is to + say, more than one note—can be sent over the same wire + simultaneously, it is utilised as a 'multiplex' or many-ply telegraph, + conveying several messages through the same wire at once; and these can + either be interpreted by the sound, or the marks drawn on a ribbon of + travelling paper by a Morse recorder. + </p> + <p> + Gray also invented a 'physiological receiver,' which has a curious + history. Early in 1874 his nephew was playing with a small induction coil, + and, having connected one end of the secondary circuit to the zinc lining + of a bath, which was dry, he was holding the other end in his left hand. + While he rubbed the zinc with his right hand Gray noticed that a sound + proceeded from it, which had the pitch and quality of the note emitted by + the vibrating contact or electrotome of the coil. 'I immediately took the + electrode in my hand,' he writes, 'and, repeating the operation, found to + my astonishment that by rubbing hard and rapidly I could make a much + louder sound than the electrotome. I then changed the pitch of the + vibration, and found that the pitch of the sound under my hand was also + changed, agreeing with that of the vibration.' Gray lost no time in + applying this chance discovery by designing the physiological receiver, + which consists of a sounding-box having a zinc face and mounted on an + axle, so that it can be revolved by a handle. One wire of the circuit is + connected to the revolving zinc, and the other wire is connected to the + finger which rubs on the zinc. The sounds are quite distinct, and would + seem to be produced by a microphonic action between the skin and the + metal. + </p> + <p> + All these apparatus follow in the track of Reis and Bourseul—that is + to say, the interruption of the current by a vibrating contact. It was + fortunate for Bell that in working with his musical telephone an accident + drove him into a new path, which ultimately brought him to the invention + of a speaking telephone. He began his researches in 1874 with a musical + telephone, in which he employed the interrupted current to vibrate the + receiver, which consisted of an electro-magnet causing an iron reed or + tongue to vibrate; but, while trying it one day with his assistant, Mr. + Thomas A. Watson, it was found that a reed failed to respond to the + intermittent current. Mr. Bell desired his assistant, who was at the other + end of the line, to pluck the reed, thinking it had stuck to the pole of + the magnet. Mr. Watson complied, and to his astonishment Bell observed + that the corresponding reed at his end of the line thereupon began to + vibrate and emit the same note, although there was no interrupted current + to make it. A few experiments soon showed that his reed had been set in + vibration by the magneto-electric currents induced in the line by the mere + motion of the distant reed in the neighbourhood of its magnet. This + discovery led him to discard the battery current altogether and rely upon + the magneto-induction currents of the reeds themselves. Moreover, it + occurred to him that, since the circuit was never broken, all the complex + vibrations of speech might be converted into sympathetic currents, which + in turn would reproduce the speech at a distance. + </p> + <p> + Reis had seen that an undulatory current was needed to transmit sounds in + perfection, especially vocal sounds; but his mode of producing the + undulations was defective from a mechanical and electrical point of view. + By forming 'waves' of magnetic disturbance near a coil of wire, Professor + Bell could generate corresponding waves of electricity in the line so + delicate and continuous that all the modulations of sound could be + reproduced at a distance. + </p> + <p> + As Professor of Vocal Physiology in the University of Boston, he was + engaged in training teachers in the art of instructing deaf mutes how to + speak, and experimented with the Leon Scott phonautograph in recording the + vibrations of speech. This apparatus consists essentially of a thin + membrane vibrated by the voice and carrying a light stylus, which traces + an undulatory line on a plate of smoked glass. The line is a graphic + representation of the vibrations of the membrane and the waves of sound in + the air. + </p> + <p> + On the suggestion of Dr. Clarence J. Blake, an eminent Boston aurist, + Professor Bell abandoned the phonautograph for the human ear, which it + resembled; and, having removed the stapes bone, moistened the drum with + glycerine and water, attached a stylus of hay to the nicus or anvil, and + obtained a beautiful series of curves in imitation of the vocal sounds. + The disproportion between the slight mass of the drum and the bones it + actuated, is said to have suggested to him the employment of goldbeater's + skin as membrane in his speaking telephone. Be this as it may, he devised + a receiver, consisting of a stretched diaphragm or drum of this material + having an armature of magnetised iron attached to its middle, and free to + vibrate in front of the pole of an electro-magnet in circuit with the + line. + </p> + <p> + This apparatus was completed on June 2, 1875, and the same day he + succeeded in transmitting SOUNDS and audible signals by magneto-electric + currents and without the aid of a battery. On July 1, 1875, he instructed + his assistant to make a second membrane-receiver which could be used with + the first, and a few days later they were tried together, one at each end + of the line, which ran from a room in the inventor's house at Boston to + the cellar underneath. Bell, in the room, held one instrument in his + hands, while Watson in the cellar listened at the other. The inventor + spoke into his instrument, 'Do you understand what I say?' and we can + imagine his delight when Mr. Watson rushed into the room, under the + influence of his excitement, and answered,'Yes.' + </p> + <p> + A finished instrument was then made, having a transmitter formed of a + double electro-magnet, in front of which a membrane, stretched on a ring, + carried an oblong piece of soft iron cemented to its middle. A mouthpiece + before the diaphragm directed the sounds upon it, and as it vibrated with + them, the soft iron 'armature' induced corresponding currents in the cells + of the electro-magnet. These currents after traversing the line were + passed through the receiver, which consisted of a tubular electro-magnet, + having one end partially closed by a thin circular disc of soft iron fixed + at one point to the end of the tube. This receiver bore a resemblance to a + cylindrical metal box with thick sides, having a thin iron lid fastened to + its mouth by a single screw. When the undulatory current passed through + the coil of this magnet, the disc, or armature-lid, was put into vibration + and the sounds evolved from it. + </p> + <p> + The apparatus was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, in + 1876, and at the meeting of the British Association in Glasgow, during the + autumn of that year, Sir William Thomson revealed its existence to the + European public. In describing his visit to the Exhibition, he went on to + say: 'In the Canadian department I heard, "To be or not to be... there's + the rub," through an electric wire; but, scorning monosyllables, the + electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave me passages taken + at random from the New York newspapers: "s.s. Cox has arrived" (I failed + to make out the s.s. Cox); "The City of New York," "Senator Morton," "The + Senate has resolved to print a thousand extra copies," "The Americans in + London have resolved to celebrate the coming Fourth of July!" All this my + own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then + circular disc armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this + I hold in my hand.' + </p> + <p> + To hear the immortal words of Shakespeare uttered by the small inanimate + voice which had been given to the world must indeed have been a rare + delight to the ardent soul of the great electrician. + </p> + <p> + The surprise created among the public at large by this unexpected + communication will be readily remembered. Except one or two inventors, + nobody had ever dreamed of a telegraph that could actually speak, any more + than they had ever fancied one that could see or feel; and imagination + grew busy in picturing the outcome of it. Since it was practically + equivalent to a limitless extension of the vocal powers, the ingenious + journalist soon conjured up an infinity of uses for the telephone, and + hailed the approaching time when ocean-parted friends would be able to + whisper to one another under the roaring billows of the Atlantic. + Curiosity, however, was not fully satisfied until Professor Bell, the + inventor of the instrument, himself showed it to British audiences, and + received the enthusiastic applause of his admiring countrymen. + </p> + <p> + The primitive telephone has been greatly improved, the double + electro-magnet being replaced by a single bar magnet having a small coil + or bobbin of fine wire surrounding one pole, in front of which a thin disc + of ferrotype is fixed in a circular mouthpiece, and serves as a combined + membrane and armature. On speaking into the mouthpiece, the iron diaphragm + vibrates with the voice in the magnetic field of the pole, and thereby + excites the undulatory currents in the coil, which, after travelling + through the wire to the distant place, are received in an identical + apparatus. [This form was patented January 30, 1877.] In traversing the + coil of the latter they reinforce or weaken the magnetism of the pole, and + thus make the disc armature vibrate so as to give out a mimesis of the + original voice. The sounds are small and elfin, a minim of speech, and + only to be heard when the ear is close to the mouthpiece, but they are + remarkably distinct, and, in spite of a disguising twang, due to the + fundamental note of the disc itself, it is easy to recognise the speaker. + </p> + <p> + This later form was publicly exhibited on May 4, 1877 at a lecture given + by Professor Bell in the Boston Music Hall. 'Going to the small telephone + box with its slender wire attachments,' says a report, 'Mr. Bell coolly + asked, as though addressing some one in an adjoining room, "Mr. Watson, + are you ready!" Mr. Watson, five miles away in Somerville, promptly + answered in the affirmative, and soon was heard a voice singing + "America."....Going to another instrument, connected by wire with + Providence, forty-three miles distant, Mr. Bell listened a moment, and + said, "Signor Brignolli, who is assisting at a concert in Providence Music + Hall, will now sing for us." In a moment the cadence of the tenor's voice + rose and fell, the sound being faint, sometimes lost, and then again + audible. Later, a cornet solo played in Somerville was very distinctly + heard. Still later, a three-part song floated over the wire from the + Somerville terminus, and Mr. Bell amused his audience exceedingly by + exclaiming, "I will switch off the song from one part of the room to + another, so that all can hear." At a subsequent lecture in Salem, + Massachusetts, communication was established with Boston, eighteen miles + distant, and Mr. Watson at the latter place sang "Auld Lang Syne," the + National Anthem, and "Hail Columbia," while the audience at Salem joined + in the chorus.' + </p> + <p> + Bell had overcome the difficulty which baffled Reis, and succeeded in + making the undulations of the current fit the vibrations of the voice as a + glove will fit the hand. But the articulation, though distinct, was + feeble, and it remained for Edison, by inventing the carbon transmitter, + and Hughes, by discovering the microphone, to render the telephone the + useful and widespread apparatus which we see it now. + </p> + <p> + Bell patented his speaking telephone in the United States at the beginning + of 1876, and by a strange coincidence, Mr. Elisha Gray applied on the same + day for another patent of a similar kind. Gray's transmitter is supposed + to have been suggested by the very old device known as the 'lovers' + telephone,' in which two diaphragms are joined by a taut string, and in + speaking against one the voice is conveyed through the string, solely by + mechanical vibration, to the other. Gray employed electricity, and varied + the strength of the current in conformity with the voice by causing the + diaphragm in vibrating to dip a metal probe attached to its centre more or + less deep into a well of conducting liquid in circuit with the line. As + the current passed from the probe through the liquid to the line a greater + or less thickness of liquid intervened as the probe vibrated up and down, + and thus the strength of the current was regulated by the resistance + offered to the passage of the current. His receiver was an electro-magnet + having an iron plate as an armature capable of vibrating under the + attractions of the varying current. But Gray allowed his idea to slumber, + whereas Bell continued to perfect his apparatus. However, when Bell + achieved an unmistakable success, Gray brought a suit against him, which + resulted in a compromise, one public company acquiring both patents. + </p> + <p> + Bell's invention has been contested over and over again, and more than one + claimant for the honour and reward of being the original inventor of the + telephone have appeared. The most interesting case was that of Signor + Antonio Meucci, an Italian emigrant, who produced a mass of evidence to + show that in 1849, while in Havanna, Cuba, he experimented with the view + of transmitting speech by the electric current. He continued his + researches in 1852-3, and subsequently at Staten Island, U.S.; and in 1860 + deputed a friend visiting Europe to interest people in his invention. In + 1871 he filed a caveat in the United States Patent Office, and tried to + get Mr. Grant, President of the New York District Telegraph Company, to + give the apparatus a trial. Ill-health and poverty, consequent on an + injury due to an explosion on board the Staten Island ferry boat + Westfield, retarded his experiments, and prevented him from completing his + patent. Meucci's experimental apparatus was exhibited at the Philadelphia + Exhibition of 1884, and attracted much attention. But the evidence he + adduces in support of His early claims is that of persons ignorant of + electrical science, and the model shown was not complete. The caveat of + 1871 is indeed a reliable document; but unfortunately for him it is not + quite clear from it whether he employed a 'lovers' telephone,' with a wire + instead of a string, and joined a battery to it in the hope of enhancing + the effect. 'I employ,' he says, 'the well known conducting effect of + continuous metallic conductors as a medium for sound, and increase the + effect by electrically insulating both the conductor and the parties who + are communicating. It forms a speaking telegraph without the necessity of + any hollow tube.' In connection with the telephone he used an electric + alarm. It is by no means evident from this description that Meucci had + devised a practicable speaking telephone; but he may have been the first + to employ electricity in connection with the transmission of speech. + [Meucci is dead.] + </p> + <p> + 'This crowning marvel of the electric telegraph,' as Sir William Thomson + happily expressed it, was followed by another invention in some respects + even more remarkable. During the winter of 1878 Professor Bell was in + England, and while lecturing at the Royal Institution, London, he + conceived the idea of the photophone. It was known that crystalline + selenium is a substance peculiarly sensitive to light, for when a ray + strikes it an electric current passes far more easily through it than if + it were kept in the dark. It therefore occurred to Professor Bell that if + a telephone were connected in circuit with the current, and the ray of + light falling on the selenium was eclipsed by means of the vibrations of + sound, the current would undulate in keeping with the light, and the + telephone would emit a corresponding note. In this way it might be + literally possible 'to hear a shadow fall athwart the stillness.' + </p> + <p> + He was not the first to entertain the idea, for in the summer of 1878, one + 'L. F. W.,' writing from Kew on June 3 to the scientific journal NATURE + describes an arrangement of the kind. To Professor Bell, in conjunction + with Mr. Summer Tainter, belongs the honour of having, by dint of patient + thought and labour, brought the photophone into material existence. By + constructing sensitive selenium cells through which the current passed, + then directing a powerful beam of light upon them, and occulting it by a + rotary screen, he was able to vary the strength of the current in such a + manner as to elicit musical tones from the telephone in circuit with the + cells. Moreover, by reflecting the beam from a mirror upon the cells, and + vibrating the mirror by the action of the voice, he was able to reproduce + the spoken words in the telephone. In both cases the only connecting line + between the transmitting screen or mirror and the receiving cells and + telephone was the ray of light. With this apparatus, which reminds us of + the invocation to Apollo in the MARTYR OF ANTIOCH— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'Lord of the speaking lyre, + That with a touch of fire + Strik'st music which delays the charmed spheres.' +</pre> + <p> + Professor Bell has accomplished the curious feat of speaking along a beam + of sunshine 830 feet long. The apparatus consisted of a transmitter with a + mouthpiece, conveying the sound of the voice to a silvered diaphragm or + mirror, which reflected the vibratory beam through a lens towards the + selenium receiver, which was simply a parabolic reflector, in the focus of + which was placed the selenium cells connected in circuit with a battery + and a pair of telephones, one for each ear. The transmitter was placed in + the top of the Franklin schoolhouse, at Washington, and the receiver in + the window of Professor Bell's laboratory in L Street. 'It was + impossible,' says the inventor, 'to converse by word of mouth across that + distance; and while I was observing Mr. Tainter, on the top of the + schoolhouse, almost blinded by the light which was coming in at the window + of my laboratory, and vainly trying to understand the gestures he was + making to me at that great distance, the thought occurred to me to listen + to the telephones connected with the selenium receiver. Mr. Tainter saw me + disappear from the window, and at once spoke to the transmitter. I heard + him distinctly say, "Mr. Bell, if you hear what I say, come to the window + and wave your hat!" It is needless to say with what gusto I obeyed.' + </p> + <p> + The spectroscope has demonstrated the truth of the poet, who said that + 'light is the voice of the stars,' and we have it on the authority of + Professor Bell and M. Janssen, the celebrated astronomer, that the + changing brightness of the photosphere, as produced by solar hurricanes, + has produced a feeble echo in the photophone. + </p> + <p> + Pursuing these researches, Professor Bell discovered that not only the + selenium cell, but simple discs of wood, glass, metal, ivory, + india-rubber, and so on, yielded a distinct note when the intermittent ray + of light fell upon them. Crystals of sulphate of copper, chips of pine, + and even tobacco-smoke, in a test-tube held before the beam, emitted a + musical tone. With a thin disc of vulcanite as receiver, the dark heat + rays which pass through an opaque screen were found to yield a note. Even + the outer ear is itself a receiver, for when the intermittent beam is + focussed in the cavity a faint musical tone is heard. + </p> + <p> + Another research of Professor Bell was that in which he undertook to + localise the assassin's bullet in the body of the lamented President + Garfield. In 1879 Professor Hughes brought out his beautiful induction + balance, and the following year Professor Bell, who had already worked in + the same field, consulted him by telegraph as to the best mode of applying + the balance to determining the place of the bullet, which had hitherto + escaped the probes of the President's physicians. Professor Hughes advised + him by telegraph, and with this and other assistance an apparatus was + devised which indicated the locality of the ball. A full account of his + experiments was given in a paper read before the American Association for + the Advancement of Science in August, 1882. + </p> + <p> + Professor Bell continues to reside in the United States, of which he is a + naturalised citizen. He is married to a daughter of Mr. Gardiner G. + Hubbard, who in 1860, when she was four years of age, lost her hearing by + an illness, but has learned to converse by the Horace-Mann system of + watching the lips. Both he and his father-in-law (who had a pecuniary + interest in his patents) have made princely fortunes by the introduction + of the telephone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. THOMAS ALVA EDISON. + </h2> + <p> + Thomas Alva Edison, the most famous inventor of his time and country, was + born at Milan, Erie County, Ohio, in the United States, on February 11, + 1847. His pedigree has been traced for two centuries to a family of + prosperous millers in Holland, some of whom emigrated to America in 1730. + Thomas, his great-grandfather, was an officer of a bank in Manhattan + Island during the Revolution, and his signature is extant on the old notes + of the American currency. Longevity seems a characteristic of the strain, + for Thomas lived to the patriarchal term of 102, his son to 103, and + Samuel, the father of the inventor, is, we understand, a brisk and hale + old man of eighty-six. + </p> + <p> + Born at Digby, in the county of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, on August 16, + 1804, Samuel was apprenticed to a tailor, but in his manhood he forsook + the needle to engage in the lumber trade, and afterwards in grain. He + resided for a time in Canada, where, at Vienna, he was married to Miss + Nancy Elliott, a popular teacher in the high school. She was of Scotch + descent, and born in Chenango County, New York, on January 10, 1810. After + his marriage he removed, in 1837, to Detroit, Michigan, and the following + year settled in Milan. + </p> + <p> + In his younger days Samuel Edison was a man of fine appearance. He stood 6 + feet 2 inches in his stockings, and even at the age of sixty-four he was + known to outjump 260 soldiers of a regiment quartered at Fort Gratiot, in + Michigan. His wife was a fine-looking woman, intelligent, well-educated, + and a social favourite. The inventor probably draws his physical endurance + from his father, and his intellect from his mother. + </p> + <p> + Milan is situated on the Huron River, about ten miles from the lake, and + was then a rising town of 3,000 inhabitants, mostly occupied with the + grain and timber trade. Mr. Edison dwelt in a plain cottage with a low + fence in front, which stood beside the roadway under the shade of one or + two trees. + </p> + <p> + The child was neither pale nor prematurely thoughtful; he was + rosy-cheeked, laughing, and chubby. He liked to ramble in the woods, or + play on the banks of the river, and could repeat the songs of the boatmen + ere he was five years old. Still he was fond of building little roads with + planks, and scooping out canals or caverns in the sand. + </p> + <p> + An amusing anecdote is imputed to his sister, Mrs. Homer Page, of Milan. + Having been told one day that a goose hatches her goslings by the warmth + of her body, the child was missed, and subsequently found in the barn + curled up in a nest beside a quantity of eggs! + </p> + <p> + The Lake Shore Railway having injured the trade of Milan, the family + removed to Port Huron, in Michigan, when Edison was about seven years old. + Here they lived in an old-fashioned white frame-house, surrounded by a + grove, and commanding a fine view of the broad river, with the Canadian + hills beyond. His mother undertook his education, and with the exception + of two months he never went to school. She directed his opening mind to + the acquisition of knowledge, and often read aloud to the family in the + evening. She and her son were a loving pair, and it is pleasant to know + that although she died on April 9, 1871, before he finally emerged from + his difficulties, her end was brightened by the first rays of his coming + glory. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Edison tells us that his son never had any boyhood in the ordinary + sense, his early playthings being steam-engines and the mechanical powers. + But it is like enough that he trapped a wood-chuck now and then, or caught + a white-fish with the rest. + </p> + <p> + He was greedy of knowledge, and by the age of ten had read the PENNY + ENCYCLOPAEDIA; Hume's HISTORY OF ENGLAND; Dubigne's HISTORY OF THE + REFORMATION; Gibbon's DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, and Sears' + HISTORY OF THE WORLD. His father, we are told, encouraged his love of + study by making him a small present for every book he read. + </p> + <p> + At the age of twelve he became a train-boy, or vendor of candy, fruit, and + journals to the passengers on the Grand Trunk Railway, between Port Huron + and Detroit. The post enabled him to sleep at home, and to extend his + reading by the public library at Detroit. Like the boy Ampere, he + proposed, it is said, to master the whole collection, shelf by shelf, and + worked his way through fifteen feet of the bottom one before he began to + select his fare. + </p> + <p> + Even the PRINCIPIA of Newton never daunted him; and if he did not + understand the problems which have puzzled some of the greatest minds, he + read them religiously, and pressed on. Burton's ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, + Ure's DICTIONARY OF CHEMISTRY, did not come amiss; but in Victor Hugo's + LES MISERABLES and THE TOILERS OF THE SEA he found a treasure after his + own heart. Like Ampere, too, he was noted for a memory which retained many + of the facts thus impressed upon it, as the sounds are printed on a + phonogram. + </p> + <p> + The boy student was also a keen man of business, and his pursuit of + knowledge in the evening did not sap his enterprises of the day. He soon + acquired a virtual monopoly for the sale of newspapers on the line, and + employed four boy assistants. His annual profits amounted to about 500 + dollars, which were a substantial aid to his parents. To increase the sale + of his papers, he telegraphed the headings of the war news to the stations + in advance of the trains, and placarded them to tempt the passengers. Ere + long he conceived the plan of publishing a newspaper of his own. Having + bought a quantity of old type at the office of the DETROIT FREE PRESS, he + installed it in a spingless car, or 'caboose' of the train meant for a + smoking-room, but too uninviting to be much used by the passengers. Here + he set the type, and printed a smallsheet about a foot square by pressing + it with his hand. The GRAND TRUNK HERALD, as he called it, was a weekly + organ, price three cents, containing a variety of local news, and gossip + of the line. It was probably the only journal ever published on a railway + train; at all events with a boy for editor and staff, printer and 'devil,' + publisher and hawker. Mr. Robert Stephenson, then building the tubular + bridge at Montreal, was taken with the venture, and ordered an extra + edition for his own use. The London TIMES correspondent also noticed the + paper as a curiosity of journalism. This was a foretaste of notoriety. + </p> + <p> + Unluckily, however, the boy did not keep his scientific and literary work + apart, and the smoking-car was transformed into a laboratory as well as a + printing house. + </p> + <p> + Having procured a copy of Fresenius' QUALITIVE ANALYSIS and some old + chemical gear; he proceeded to improve his leisure by making experiments. + One day, through an extra jolt of the car, a bottle of phosphorus broke on + the floor, and the car took fire. The incensed conductor of the train, + after boxing his ears, evicted him with all his chattels. + </p> + <p> + Finding an asylum in the basement of his father's house (where he took the + precaution to label all his bottles 'poison'), he began the publication of + a new and better journal, entitled the PAUL PRY. It boasted of several + contributors and a list of regular subscribers. One of these (Mr. J.H.B.), + while smarting under what he considered a malicious libel, met the editor + one day on the brink of the St. Clair, and taking the law into his own + hands, soused him in the river. The editor avenged his insulted dignity by + excluding the subscriber's name from the pages of the PAUL PRY. + </p> + <p> + Youthful genius is apt to prove unlucky, and another story (we hope they + are all true, though we cannot vouch for them), is told of his partiality + for riding with the engine-driver on the locomotive. After he had gained + an insight into the working of the locomotive he would run the train + himself; but on one occasion he pumped so much water into the boiler that + it was shot from the funnel, and deluged the engine with soot. By using + his eyes and haunting the machine shops he was able to construct a model + of a locomotive. + </p> + <p> + But his employment of the telegraph seems to have diverted his thoughts in + that direction, and with the help of a book on the telegraph he erected a + makeshift line between his new laboratory and the house of James Ward, one + of his boy helpers. The conductor was run on trees, and insulated with + bottles, and the apparatus was home-made, but it seems to have been of + some use. Mr. James D. Reid, author of THE TELEGRAPH IN AMERICA, would + have us believe that an attempt was made to utilise the electricity + obtained by rubbing a cat connected up in lieu of a battery; but the + spirit of Artemus Ward is by no means dead in the United States, and the + anecdote may be taken with a grain of salt. Such an experiment was at all + events predestined to an ignominious failure. + </p> + <p> + An act of heroism was the turning-point in his career. One day, at the + risk of his life, he saved the child of the station-master at Mount + Clemens, near Port Huron, from being run over by an approaching train, and + the grateful father, Mr. J. A. Mackenzie, learning of his interest in the + telegraph, offered to teach him the art of sending and receiving messages. + After his daily service was over, Edison returned to Mount Clemens on a + luggage train and received his lesson. + </p> + <p> + At the end of five months, while only sixteen years of age, he forsook the + trains, and accepted an offer of twenty-five dollars a month, with extra + pay for overtime, as operator in the telegraph office at Port Huron, a + small installation in a jewelry store. He worked hard to acquire more + skill; and after six months, finding his extra pay withheld, he obtained + an engagement as night operator at Stratford, in Canada. To keep him awake + the operator was required to report the word 'six,' an office call, every + half-hour to the manager of the circuit. Edison fulfilled the regulation + by inventing a simple device which transmitted the required signals. It + consisted of a wheel with the characters cut on the rim, and connected + with the circuit in such a way that the night watchman, by turning the + wheel, could transmit the signals while Edison slept or studied. + </p> + <p> + His employment at Stratford came to a grievous end. One night he received + a service message ordering a certain train to stop, and before showing it + to the conductor he, perhaps for greater certainty, repeated it back + again. When he rushed out of the office to deliver it the train was gone, + and a collision seemed inevitable; but, fortunately, the opposing trains + met on a straight portion of the track, and the accident was avoided. The + superintendent of the railway threatened to prosecute Edison, who was + thoroughly frightened, and returned home without his baggage. + </p> + <p> + During this vacation at Port Huron his ingenuity showed itself in a more + creditable guise. An 'ice-jam' occurred on the St. Clair, and broke the + telegraph cable between Port Huron and Sarnia, on the opposite shore. + Communication was therefore interrupted until Edison mounted a locomotive + and sounded the whistle in short and long calls according to the + well-known 'Morse,' or telegraphic code. After a time the reporter at + Sarnia caught the idea, and messages were exchanged by the new system. + </p> + <p> + His next situation was at Adrian, in Michigan, where he fitted up a small + shop, and employed his spare time in repairing telegraph apparatus and + making crude experiments. One day he violated the rules of the office by + monopolising the use of the line on the strength of having a message from + the superintendent, and was discharged. + </p> + <p> + He was next engaged at Fort Wayne, and behaved so well that he was + promoted to a station at Indianapolis. While there he invented an + 'automatic repeater,' by which a message is received on one line and + simultaneously transmitted on another without the assistance of an + operator. Like other young operators, he was ambitious to send or receive + the night reports for the press, which demand the highest speed and + accuracy of sending. But although he tried to overcome his faults by the + device of employing an auxiliary receiver working at a slower rate than + the direct one, he was found incompetent, and transferred to a day wire at + Cincinnati. Determined to excel, however, he took shift for the night men + as often as he could, and after several months, when a delegation of + Cleveland operators came to organise a branch of the Telegraphers' Union, + and the night men were out on 'strike,' he received the press reports as + well as he was able, working all the night. For this feat his salary was + raised next day from sixty-five to one hundred and five dollars, and he + was appointed to the Louisville circuit, one of the most desirable in the + office. The clerk at Louisville was Bob Martin, one of the most expert + telegraphists in America, and Edison soon became a first-class operator. + </p> + <p> + In 1864, tempted by a better salary, he removed to Memphis, where he found + an opportunity of introducing his automatic repeater, thus enabling + Louisville to communicate with New Orleans without an intermediary clerk. + For this innovation he was complimented; but nothing more. He embraced the + subject of duplex telegraphy, or the simultaneous transmission of two + messages on the same wire, one from each end; but his efforts met with no + encouragement. Men of routine are apt to look with disfavour on men of + originality; they do not wish to be disturbed from the official groove; + and if they are not jealous of improvement, they have often a + narrow-minded contempt or suspicion of the servant who is given to + invention, thinking him an oddity who is wasting time which might be + better employed in the usual way. A telegraph operator, in their eyes, has + no business to invent. His place is to sit at his instrument and send or + receive the messages as fast as he can, without troubling his mind with + inventions or anything else. When his shift is over he can amuse himself + as he likes, provided he is always fit for work. Genius is not wanted. + </p> + <p> + The clerks themselves, reckless of a culture which is not required, and + having a good string to their bow in the matter of livelihood, namely, the + mechanical art of signalling, are prone to lead a careless, gay, and + superficial life, roving from town to town throughout: the length and + breadth of the States. But for his genius and aspirations, Edison might + have yielded to the seductions of this happy-go-lucky, free, and frivolous + existence. Dissolute comrades at Memphis won upon his good nature; but + though he lent them money, he remained abstemious, working hard, and + spending his leisure upon books and experiments. To them he appeared an + extraordinary fellow; and so far from sympathising with his inventions, + they dubbed him 'Luny,' and regarded him as daft. + </p> + <p> + What with the money he had lent, or spent on books or apparatus, when the + Memphis lines were transferred from the Government to a private company + and Edison was discharged, he found himself without a dollar. Transported + to Decatur, he walked to Nashville, where he found another operator, + William Foley, in the like straits, and they went in company to + Louisville. Foley's reputation as an operator was none of the best; but on + his recommendation Edison obtained a situation, and supported Foley until + he too got employment. + </p> + <p> + The squalid office was infested with rats, and its discipline was lax, in + all save speed and quality of work, and some of his companions were of a + dissipated stamp. To add to his discomforts, the line he worked was old + and defective; but he improved the signals by adjusting three sets of + instruments, and utilising them for three different states of the line. + During nearly two years of drudgery under these depressing circumstances, + Edison's prospects of becoming an inventor seemed further off than ever. + Perhaps he began to fear that stern necessity would grind him down, and + keep him struggling for a livelihood. None of his improvements had brought + him any advantage. His efforts to invent had been ridiculed and + discountenanced. Nobody had recognised his talent, at least as a thing of + value and worthy of encouragement, let alone support. All his promotion + had come from trying to excel in his routine work. Perhaps he lost faith + in himself, or it may be that the glowing accounts he received of South + America induced him to seek his fortune there. At all events he caught the + 'craze' for emigration that swept the Southern States on the conclusion of + the Civil War, and resolved to emigrate with two companions, Keen and + Warren. + </p> + <p> + But on their arriving at New Orleans the vessel had sailed. In this + predicament Edison fell in with a travelled Spaniard, who depicted the + inferiority of other countries, and especially of South America, in such + vivid colours, that he changed his intention and returned home to + Michigan. After a pleasant holiday with his friends he resumed his + occupation in the Louisville office. + </p> + <p> + Contact with home seems to have charged him with fresh courage. He wrote a + work on electricity, which for lack of means was never published, and + improved his penmanship until he could write a fair round backhand at the + rate of forty-five words a minute—that is to say, the utmost that an + operator can send by the Morse code. The style was chosen for its + clearness, each letter being distinctly formed, with little or no shading. + </p> + <p> + His comrades were no better than before. On returning from his work in the + small hours, Edison would sometimes find two or three of them asleep in + his bed with their boots on, and have to shift them to the floor in order + that he might 'turn in.' + </p> + <p> + A new office was opened, but strict orders were issued that nobody was to + interfere with the instruments and their connections. He could not resist + the infringement of this rule, however, and continued his experiments. + </p> + <p> + In drawing some vitriol one night, he upset the carboy, and the acid + eating its way through the floor, played havoc with the furniture of a + luxurious bank in the flat below. He was discharged for this, but soon + obtained another engagement as a press operator in Cincinnati. He spent + his leisure in the Mechanics' Library, studying works on electricity and + general science. He also developed his ideas on the duplex system; and if + they were not carried out, they at least directed him to the quadruplex + system with which his name was afterwards associated. + </p> + <p> + These attempts to improve his time seem to have made him unpopular, for + after a short term in Cincinnati, he returned to Port Huron. A friend, Mr. + F. Adams, operator in the Boston office of the Western Union Telegraph + Company, recommended Edison to his manager, Mr. G. F. Milliken, as a good + man to work the New York wire, and the berth was offered to Edison by + telegraph. He accepted, and left at once for Boston by the Grand Trunk + Railway, but the train was snowed up for two days near the bluffs of the + St. Lawrence. The consequence might have been serious had provisions not + been found by a party of foragers. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Milliken was the first of Edison's masters, and perhaps his fellows, + who appreciated him. Mediocrity had only seen the gawky stripling, with + his moonstruck air, and pestilent habit of trying some new crotchet. + Himself an inventor, Milliken recognised in his deep-set eye and musing + brow the fire of a suppressed genius. He was then just twenty-one. The + friendship of Mr. Milliken, and the opportunity for experiment, rendered + the Boston office a congenial one. + </p> + <p> + His by-hours were spent in a little workshop he had opened. Among his + inventions at this period were a dial telegraph, and a 'printer' for use + on private lines, and an electro-chemical vote recorder, which the + Legislature of Massachusetts declined to adopt. With the assistance of Mr. + F. L. Pope, patent adviser to the Western Union Telegraph Company, his + duplex system was tried, with encouraging results. + </p> + <p> + The ready ingenuity of Edison is shown by his device for killing the + cockroaches which overran the Boston office. He arranged some strips of + tinfoil on the wall, and connected these to the poles of a battery in such + a way that when the insects ran towards the bait which he had provided, + they stepped from one foil to the other, and completed the circuit of the + current, thus receiving a smart shock, which dislodged them into a pail of + water, standing below. + </p> + <p> + In 1870, after two years in Boston, where he had spent all his earnings, + chiefly on his books and workshop, he found himself in New York, tramping + the streets on the outlook for a job, and all but destitute. After + repeated failures he chanced to enter the office of the Laws Gold + Reporting Telegraph Company while the instrument which Mr. Laws had + invented to report the fluctuations of the money market had broken down. + No one could set it right; there was a fever in the market, and Mr. Laws, + we are told, was in despair. Edison volunteered to set it right, and + though his appearance was unpromising, he was allowed to try. + </p> + <p> + The insight of the born mechanic, the sleight of hand which marks the true + experimenter, have in them something magical to the ignorant. In Edison's + hands the instrument seemed to rectify itself. This was his golden + opportunity. He was engaged by the company, and henceforth his career as + an inventor was secure. The Gold Indicator Company afterwards gave him a + responsible position. He improved their indicator, and invented the Gold + and Stock Quotation Printer, an apparatus for a similar purpose. He + entered into partnership with Mr. Pope and Mr. Ashley, and introduced the + Pope and Edison Printer. A private line which he established was taken + over by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, and soon their system was + worked almost exclusively with Edison's invention. + </p> + <p> + He was retained in their service, and that of the Western Union Telegraph + Company, as a salaried inventor, they having the option of buying all his + telegraphic inventions at a price to be agreed upon. + </p> + <p> + At their expense a large electrical factory was established under his + direction at Newark, New Jersey, where he was free to work out his ideas + and manufacture his apparatus. Now that he was emancipated from drudgery, + and fairly started on the walk which Nature had intended for him, he + rejoiced in the prolific freedom of his mind, which literally teemed with + projects. His brain was no longer a prey to itself from the 'local + action,' or waste energy of restrained ideas and revolving thoughts. [The + term 'local action' is applied by electricians to the waste which goes on + in a voltaic battery, although its current is not flowing in the outer + circuit and doing useful work.] If anything, he attempted too much. + Patents were taken out by the score, and at one time there were no less + than forty-five distinct inventions in progress. The Commissioner of + Patents described him as 'the young man who kept the path to the Patent + Office hot with his footsteps.' + </p> + <p> + His capacity for labouring without rest is very remarkable. On one + occasion, after improving his Gold and Stock Quotation Printer, an order + for the new instruments, to the extent of 30,000 dollars, arrived at the + factory. The model had acted well, but the first instruments made after it + proved a failure. Edison thereupon retired to the upper floor of the + factory with some of his best workmen, and intimated that they must all + remain there until the defect was put right. After sixty hours of + continuous toil, the fault was remedied, and Edison went to bed, where he + slept for thirty-six hours. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Johnson, one of his assistants, informs us that for ten years he + worked on an average eighteen hours a day, and that he has been known to + continue an experiment for three months day and night, with the exception + of a nap from six o'clock to nine of the morning. In the throes of + invention, and under the inspiration of his ideas, he is apt to make no + distinction between day and night, until he arrives at a result which he + considers to be satisfactory one way or the other. His meals are brought + to him in the laboratory, and hastily eaten, although his dwelling is + quite near. Long watchfulness and labour seem to heighten the activity of + his mind, which under its 'second wind,' so to speak, becomes + preternaturally keen and suggestive. He likes best to work at night in the + silence and solitude of his laboratory when the noise of the benches or + the rumble of the engines is stilled, and all the world about him is + asleep. + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, he can work without stimulants, and, when the strain is over, + rest without narcotics; otherwise his exhausted constitution, sound as it + is, would probably break down. Still, he appears to be ageing before his + time, and some of his assistants, not so well endowed with vitality, have, + we believe, overtaxed their strength in trying to keep up with him. + </p> + <p> + At this period he devised his electric pen, an ingenious device for making + copies of a document. It consists essentially of a needle, rapidly jogged + up and down by means of an electro-magnet actuated by an intermittent + current of electricity. The writing is traced with the needle, which + perforates another sheet of paper underneath, thus forming a + stencil-plate, which when placed on a clean paper, and evenly inked with a + rolling brush, reproduces the original writing. + </p> + <p> + In 1873 Edison was married to Miss Mary Stillwell, of Newark, one of his + employees. His eldest child, Mary Estelle, was playfully surnamed 'Dot,' + and his second, Thomas Alva, jun., 'Dash,' after the signals of the Morse + code. Mrs. Edison died several years ago. + </p> + <p> + While seeking to improve the method of duplex working introduced by Mr. + Steams, Edison invented the quadruplex, by which four messages are + simultaneously sent through one wire, two from each end. Brought out in + association with Mr. Prescott, it was adopted by the Western Union + Telegraph Company, and, later, by the British Post Office. The President + of the Western Union reported that it had saved the Company 500,000 + dollars a year in the construction of new lines. Edison also improved the + Bain chemical telegraph, until it attained an incredible speed. Bain had + left it capable of recording 200 words a minute; but Edison, by dint of + searching a pile of books ordered from New York, Paris, and London, making + copious notes, and trying innumerable experiments, while eating at his + desk and sleeping in his chair, ultimately prepared a solution which + enabled it to register over 1000 words a minute. It was exhibited at the + Philadelphia Centenial Exhibition in 1876, where it astonished Sir William + Thomson. + </p> + <p> + In 1876, Edison sold his factory at Newark, and retired to Menlo Park, a + sequestered spot near Metuchin, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and about + twenty-four miles from New York. Here on some rising ground he built a + wooden tenement, two stories high, and furnished it as a workshop and + laboratory. His own residence and the cottages of his servants completed + the little colony. + </p> + <p> + The basement of the main building was occupied by his office, a choice + library, a cabinet replete with instruments of precision, and a large airy + workshop, provided with lathes and steam power, where his workmen shaped + his ideas into wood and metal. + </p> + <p> + The books lying about, the designs and placards on the walls, the + draught-board on the table, gave it the appearance of a mechanics' + club-room. The free and lightsome behaviour of the men, the humming at the + benches, recalled some school of handicraft. There were no rigid hours, no + grinding toil under the jealous eye of the overseer. The spirit of + competition and commercial rivalry was absent. It was not a question of + wringing as much work as possible out of the men in the shortest time and + at the lowest price. Moreover, they were not mere mechanical drudges—they + were interested in their jobs, which demanded thought as well as skill. + </p> + <p> + Upstairs was the laboratory proper—a long room containing an array + of chemicals; for Edison likes to have a sample of every kind, in case it + might suddenly be requisite. On the tables and in the cupboards were lying + all manner of telegraphic apparatus, lenses, crucibles, and pieces of his + own inventions. A perfect tangle of telegraph wires coming from all parts + of the Union were focussed at one end of the room. An ash-covered forge, a + cabinet organ, a rusty stove with an old pivot chair, a bench well stained + with oils and acids, completed the equipment of this curious den, into + which the sunlight filtered through the chemical jars and fell in coloured + patches along the dusty floor. + </p> + <p> + The moving spirit of this haunt by day and night is well described as an + overgrown school-boy. He is a man of a slim, but wiry figure, about five + feet ten inches in height. His face at this period was juvenile and + beardless. The nose and chin were shapely and prominent, the mouth firm, + the forehead wide and full above, but not very high. It was shaded by dark + chestnut hair, just silvered with grey. His most remarkable features were + his eyes, which are blue-grey and deeply set, with an intense and piercing + expression. When his attention was not aroused, he seemed to retire into + himself, as though his mind had drifted far away, and came back slowly to + the present. He was pale with nightwork, and his thoughtful eyes had an + old look in serious moments. But his smile was boyish and pleasant, and + his manner a trifle shy. + </p> + <p> + There was nothing of the dandy about Edison, He boasted no jewelled + fingers or superfine raiment. An easy coat soiled with chemicals, a + battered wide-awake, and boots guiltless of polish, were good enough for + this inspired workman. An old silver watch, sophisticated with magnetism, + and keeping an eccentric time peculiar to it, was his only ornament. On + social occasions, of course, he adopted a more conventional costume. + Visitors to the laboratory often found him in his shirt-sleeves, with + dishevelled hair and grimy hands. + </p> + <p> + The writer of 'A Night with Edison' has described him as bending like a + wizard over the smoky fumes of some lurid lamps arranged on a brick + furnace, as if he were summoning the powers of darkness. + </p> + <p> + 'It is much after midnight now,' says this author. 'The machinery below + has ceased to rumble, and the tired hands have gone to their homes. A + hasty lunch has been sent up. We are at the thermoscope. Suddenly a + telegraph instrument begins to click. The inventor strikes a grotesque + attitude, a herring in one hand and a biscuit in the other, and with a + voice a little muffled with a mouthful of both, translates aloud, slowly, + the sound intelligible to him alone: "London.—News of death of Lord + John Russell premature." "John Blanchard, whose failure was announced + yesterday, has suicided (no, that was a bad one) SUCCEEDED! in adjusting + his affairs, and will continue in business."' + </p> + <p> + His tastes are simple and his habits are plain. On one occasion, when + invited to a dinner at Delmonico's restaurant, he contented himself with a + slice of pie and a cup of tea. Another time he is said to have declined a + public dinner with the remark that 100,000 dollars would not tempt him to + sit through two hours of 'personal glorification.' He dislikes notoriety, + thinking that a man is to be 'measured by what he does, not by what is + said about him.' But he likes to talk about his inventions and show them + to visitors at Menlo Park. In disposition he is sociable, affectionate, + and generous, giving himself no airs, and treating all alike. His humour + is native, and peculiar to himself, so there is some excuse for the + newspaper reporters who take his jokes about the capabilities of Nature AU + SERIEUX; and publish them for gospel. + </p> + <p> + His assistants are selected for their skill and physical endurance. The + chief at Menlo Park was Mr. Charles Batchelor, a Scotchman, who had a + certain interest in the inventions, but the others, including + mathematicians, chemists, electricians, secretary, bookkeeper, and + mechanics, were paid a salary. They were devoted to Edison, who, though he + worked them hard at times, was an indulgent master, and sometimes joined + them in a general holiday. All of them spoke in the highest terms of the + inventor and the man. + </p> + <p> + The Menlo establishment was unique in the world. It was founded for the + sole purpose of applying the properties of matter to the production of new + inventions. For love of science or the hope of gain, men had experimented + before, and worked out their inventions in the laboratories of colleges + and manufactories. But Edison seems to have been the first to organise a + staff of trained assistants to hunt up useful facts in books, old and + modern, and discover fresh ones by experiment, in order to develop his + ideas or suggest new ones, together with skilled workmen to embody them in + the fittest manner; and all with the avowed object of taking out patents, + and introducing the novel apparatus as a commercial speculation. He did + not manufacture his machines for sale; he simply created the models, and + left their multiplication to other people. There are different ways of + looking at Nature: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'To some she is the goddess great; + To some the milch-cow of the field; + Their business is to calculate + The butter she will yield.' +</pre> + <p> + The institution has proved a remarkable success. From it has emanated a + series of marvellous inventions which have carried the name of Edison + throughout the whole civilised world. Expense was disregarded in making + the laboratory as efficient as possible; the very best equipment was + provided, the ablest assistants employed, and the profit has been immense. + Edison is a millionaire; the royalties from his patents alone are said to + equal the salary of a Prime Minister. + </p> + <p> + Although Edison was the master spirit of the band, it must not be + forgotten that his assistants were sometimes co-inventors with himself. No + doubt he often supplied the germinal ideas, while his assistants only + carried them out. But occasionally the suggestion was nothing more than + this: 'I want something that will do so-and-so. I believe it will be a + good thing, and can be done.' The assistant was on his mettle, and either + failed or triumphed. The results of the experiments and researches were + all chronicled in a book, for the new facts, if not then required, might + become serviceable at a future time. If a rare material was wanted, it was + procured at any cost. + </p> + <p> + With such facilities, an invention is rapidly matured. Sometimes the idea + was conceived in the morning, and a working model was constructed by the + evening. One day, we are told, a discovery was made at 4 P.M., and Edison + telegraphed it to his patent agent, who immediately drew up the + specification, and at nine o'clock next morning cabled it to London. + Before the inventor was out of bed, he received an intimation that his + patent had been already deposited in the British Patent Office. Of course, + the difference of time was in his favour. + </p> + <p> + When Edison arrived at the laboratory in the morning, he read his letters, + and then overlooked his employees, witnessing their results and offering + his suggestions; but it often happened that he became totally engrossed + with one experiment or invention. His work was frequently interrupted by + curious visitors, who wished to see the laboratory and the man. Although + he had chosen that out-of-the-way place to avoid disturbance, they were + never denied: and he often took a pleasure in showing his models, or + explaining the work on which he was engaged. There was no affectation of + mystery, no attempt at keeping his experiments a secret. Even the + laboratory notes were open to inspection. Menlo Park became a kind of + Mecca to the scientific pilgrim; the newspapers and magazines despatched + reporters to the scene; excursion parties came by rail, and country + farmers in their buggies; till at last an enterprising Yankee even opened + a refreshment room. + </p> + <p> + The first of Edison's greater inventions in Menlo Park was the + 'loud-speaking telephone.' Professor Graham Bell had introduced his + magneto-electric telephone, but its effect was feeble. It is, we believe, + a maxim in biology that a similarity between the extremities of a creature + is an infallible sign of its inferiority, and that in proportion as it + rises in the scale of being, its head is found to differ from its tail. + Now, in the Bell apparatus, the transmitter and the receiver were alike, + and hence Clerk Maxwell hinted that it would never be good for much until + they became differentiated from each other. Consciously or unconsciously + Edison accomplished the feat. With the hardihood of genius, he attempted + to devise a telephone which would speak out loud enough to be heard in any + corner of a large hall. + </p> + <p> + In the telephone of Bell, the voice of the speaker is the motive power + which generates the current in the line. The vibrations of the sound may + be said to transform themselves into electrical undulations. Hence the + current is very weak, and the reproduction of the voice is relatively + faint. Edison adopted the principle of making the vibrations of the voice + control the intensity of a current which was independently supplied to the + line by a voltaic battery. The plan of Bell, in short, may be compared to + a man who employs his strength to pump a quantity of water into a pipe, + and that of Edison to one who uses his to open a sluice, through which a + stream of water flows from a capacious dam into the pipe. Edison was + acquainted with two experimental facts on which to base the invention. + </p> + <p> + In 1873, or thereabout, he claimed to have observed, while constructing + rheostats, or electrical resistances for making an artificial telegraph + line, that powdered plumbago and carbon has the property of varying in its + resistance to the passage of the current when under pressure. The + variation seemed in a manner proportional to the pressure. As a matter of + fact, powdered carbon and plumbago had been used in making small + adjustable rheostats by M. Clerac, in France, and probably also in + Germany, as early as 1865 or 1866. Clerac's device consisted of a small + wooden tube containing the material, and fitted with contacts for the + current, which appear to have adjusted the pressure. Moreover, the Count + Du Moncel, as far back as 1856, had clearly discovered that when powdered + carbon was subjected to pressure, its electrical resistance altered, and + had made a number of experiments on the phenomenon. Edison may have + independently observed the fact, but it is certain he was not the first, + and his claim to priority has fallen to the ground. + </p> + <p> + Still he deserves the full credit of utilising it in ways which were + highly ingenious and bold. The 'pressure-relay,' produced in 1877, was the + first relay in which the strength of the local current working the local + telegraph instrument was caused to vary in proportion to the variation; of + the current in the main line. It consisted of an electro-magnet with + double poles and an armature which pressed upon a disc or discs of + plumbago, through which the local current Passed. The electro-magnet was + excited by the main line current and the armature attracted to its poles + at every signal, thus pressing on the plumbago, and by reducing its + resistance varying the current in the local circuit. According as the main + line current was strong or weak, the pressure on the plumbago was more or + less, and the current in the local circuit strong or weak. Hence the + signals of the local receiver were in accordance with the currents in the + main line. + </p> + <p> + Edison found that the same property might be applied to regulate the + strength of a current in conformity with the vibrations of the voice, and + after a great number of experiments produced his 'carbon transmitter.' + Plumbago in powder, in sticks, or rubbed on fibres and sheets of silk, + were tried as the sensitive material, but finally abandoned in favour of a + small cake or wafer of compressed lamp-black, obtained from the smoke of + burning oil, such as benzolene or rigolene. This was the celebrated + 'carbon button,' which on being placed between two platinum discs by way + of contact, and traversed by the electric current, was found to vary in + resistance under the pressure of the sound waves. The voice was + concentrated upon it by means of a mouthpiece and a diaphragm. + </p> + <p> + The property on which the receiver was based had been observed and applied + by him some time before. When a current is passed from a metal contact + through certain chemical salts, a lubricating effect was noticeable. Thus + if a metal stylus were rubbed or drawn over a prepared surface, the point + of the stylus was found to slip or 'skid' every time a current passed + between them, as though it had been oiled. If your pen were the stylus, + and the paper on which you write the surface, each wave of electricity + passing from the nib to the paper would make the pen start, and jerk your + fingers with it. He applied the property to the recording of telegraph + signals without the help of an electro-magnet, by causing the currents to + alter the friction between the two rubbing surfaces, and so actuate a + marker, which registered the message as in the Morse system. + </p> + <p> + This instrument was called the 'electromotograph,' and it occurred to + Edison that in a similar way the undulatory currents from his carbon + transmitter might, by varying the friction between a metal stylus and the + prepared surface, put a tympanum in vibration, and reproduce the original + sounds. Wonderful as it may appear, he succeeded in doing so by the aid of + a piece of chalk, a brass pin, and a thin sheet or disc of mica. He + attached the pin or stylus to the centre of the mica, and brought its + point to bear on a cylindrical surface of prepared chalk. The undulatory + current from the line was passed through the stylus and the chalk, while + the latter was moved by turning a handle; and at every pulse of the + electricity the friction between the pin and chalk was diminished, so that + the stylus slipped upon its surface. The consequence was a vibration of + the mica diaphragm to which the stylus was attached. Thus the undulatory + current was able to establish vibrations of the disc, which communicated + themselves to the air and reproduced the original sounds. The replica was + loud enough to be heard by a large audience, and by reducing the strength + of the current it could be lowered to a feeble murmur. The combined + transmitter and receiver took the form of a small case with a mouthpiece + to speak into, an car-piece on a hinged bracket for listening to it, + press-keys for manipulating the call-bell and battery, and a small handle + by which to revolve the little chalk cylinder. This last feature was a + practical drawback to the system, which was patented in 1877. + </p> + <p> + The Edison telephone, when at its best, could transmit all kinds of + noises, gentle or harsh; it could lift up its voice and cry aloud, or sink + it to a confidential whisper. There was a slight Punchinellian twang about + its utterances, which, if it did not altogether disguise the individuality + of the distant speaker, gave it the comicality of a clever parody, and to + hear it singing a song, and quavering jauntily on the high notes, was + irresistibly funny. Instrumental notes were given in all their purity, + and, after the phonograph, there was nothing more magical in the whole + range of science than to hear that fragment of common chalk distilling to + the air the liquid melody of sweet bells jingling in tune. It brought to + mind that wonderful stone of Memnon, which responded to the rays of + sunrise. It seemed to the listener that if the age of miracles was past + that of marvels had arrived, and considering the simplicity of the + materials, and the obscurity of its action, the loud-speaking telephone + was one of the most astonishing of recent inventions. + </p> + <p> + After Professor Hughes had published his discovery of the microphone, + Edison, recognising, perhaps, that it and the carbon transmitter were + based on the same principle, and having learnt his knowledge of the world + in the hard school of adversity, hastily claimed the microphone as a + variety of his invention, but imprudently charged Professor Hughes and his + friend, Mr. W. H. Preece, who had visited Edison at Menlo Park, with + having 'stolen his thunder.' The imputation was indignantly denied, and it + was obvious to all impartial electricians that Professor Hughes had + arrived at his results by a path quite independent of the carbon + transmitter, and discovered a great deal more than Edison had done. For + one thing, Edison believed the action of his transmitter as due to a + property of certain poor or 'semi-conductors,' whereby their electric + resistance varied under pressure. Hughes taught us to understand that it + was owing to a property of loose electrical contact between any two + conductors. + </p> + <p> + The soft and springy button of lamp-black became no longer necessary, + since it was not so much the resistance of the material which varied as + the resistance at the contacts of its parts and the platinum electrodes. + Two metals, or two pieces of hard carbon, or a piece of metal and a piece + of hard carbon, were found to regulate the current in accordance with the + vibrations of the voice. Edison therefore discarded the soft and fragile + button, replacing it by contacts of hard carbon and metal, in short, by a + form of microphone. The carbon, or microphone transmitter, was found + superior to the magneto-electric transmitter of Bell; but the latter was + preferable as a receiver to the louder but less convenient chemical + receiver of Edison, and the most successful telephonic system of the day + is a combination of the microphone, or new carbon transmitter, with the + Bell receiver. + </p> + <p> + The 'micro-tasimeter,' a delicate thermoscope, was constructed in 1878, + and is the outcome of Edison's experiments with the carbon button. Knowing + the latter to be extremely sensitive to minute changes of pressure, for + example, those of sonorous vibrations, he conceived the idea of measuring + radiant heat by causing it to elongate a thin bar or strip of metal or + vulcanite, bearing at one end on the button. To indicate the effect, he + included a galvanometer in the circuit of the battery and the button. The + apparatus consisted of a telephone button placed between two discs of + platinum and connected in circuit with the battery and a sensitive + galvanometer. The strip was supported so that one end bore upon the button + with a pressure which could be regulated by an adjustable screw at the + other. The strip expanded or contracted when exposed to heat or cold, and + thrust itself upon the button more or less, thereby varying the electric + current and deflecting the needle of the galvanometer to one side or the + other. The instrument was said to indicate a change of temperature + equivalent to one-millionth of a degree Fahrenheit. It was tested by + Edison on the sun's corona during the eclipse observations of July 29, + 1875, at Rawlings, in the territory of Wyoming. The trial was not + satisfactory, however, for the apparatus was mounted on a hen-house, which + trembled to the gale, and before he could get it properly adjusted the + eclipse was over. + </p> + <p> + It is reported that on another trial the light from the star Arcturus, + when focussed on the vulcanite, was capable of deflecting the needle of + the galvanometer. When gelatine is substituted for vulcanite, the humidity + of the atmosphere can also be measured in the same way. + </p> + <p> + Edison's crowning discovery at Menlo Park was the celebrated 'phonograph,' + or talking machine. It was first announced by one of his assistants in the + pages of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN for 1878. The startling news created a + general feeling of astonishment, mingled with incredulity or faith. People + had indeed heard of the talking heads of antiquity, and seen the + articulating machines of De Kempelen and Faber, with their artificial + vocal organs and complicated levers, manipulated by an operator. But the + phonograph was automatic, and returned the words which had been spoken + into it by a purely mechanical mimicry. It captured and imprisoned the + sounds as the photograph retained the images of light. The colours of + Nature were lost in the photograph, but the phonograph was said to + preserve the qualities even of the human voice. Yet this wonderful + appliance had neither tongue nor teeth, larynx nor pharynx. It appeared as + simple as a coffee-mill. A vibrating diaphragm to collect the sounds, and + a stylus to impress them on a sheet of tinfoil, were its essential parts. + Looking on the record of the sound, one could see only the scoring of the + stylus on the yielding surface of the metal, like the track of an Alpine + traveller across the virgin snow. These puzzling scratches were the + foot-prints of the voice. + </p> + <p> + Speech is the most perfect utterance of man; but its powers are limited + both in time and space. The sounds of the voice are fleeting, and do not + carry far; hence the invention of letters to record them, and of signals + to extend their range. These twin lines of invention, continued through + the ages, have in our own day reached their consummation. The smoke of the + savage, the semaphore, and the telegraph have ended in the telephone, by + which the actual voice can speak to a distance; and now at length the clay + tablet of the Assyrian, the wax of the ancient Greek, the papyrus of the + Egyptian, and the modern printing-press have culminated in the phonograph, + by which the living words can be preserved into the future. In the light + of a new discovery, we are apt to wonder why our fathers were so blind as + not to see it. When a new invention has been made, we ask ourselves, Why + was it not thought of before? The discovery seems obvious, and the + invention simple, after we know them. Now that speech itself can be sent a + thousand miles away, or heard a thousand years after, we discern in these + achievements two goals toward which we have been making, and at which we + should arrive some day. We marvel that we had no prescience of these, and + that we did not attain to them sooner. Why has it taken so many + generations to reach a foregone conclusion? Alas! they neither knew the + conclusion nor the means of attaining to it. Man works from ignorance + towards greater knowledge with very limited powers. His little circle of + light is surrounded by a wall of darkness, which he strives to penetrate + and lighten, now groping blindly on its verge, now advancing his taper + light and peering forward; yet unable to go far, and even afraid to + venture, in case he should be lost. + </p> + <p> + To the Infinite Intelligence which knows all that is hidden in that + darkness, and all that man will discover therein, how poor a thing is the + telephone or phonograph, how insignificant are all his 'great + discoveries'! This thought should imbue a man of science with humility + rather than with pride. Seen from another standpoint than his own, from + without the circle of his labours, not from within, in looking back, not + forward, even his most remarkable discovery is but the testimony of his + own littleness. The veil of darkness only serves to keep these little + powers at work. Men have sometimes a foreshadowing of what will come to + pass without distinctly seeing it. In mechanical affairs, the notion of a + telegraph is very old, and probably immemorial. Centuries ago the poet and + philosopher entertained the idea of two persons far apart being able to + correspond through the sympathetic property of the lodestone. The string + or lovers' telephone was known to the Chinese, and even the electric + telephone was thought about some years before it was invented. Bourseul, + Reis, and others preceded Graham Bell. + </p> + <p> + The phonograph was more of a surprise; but still it was no exception to + the rule. Naturally, men and women had desired to preserve the accents as + well as the lineaments of some beloved friend who had passed away. The + Chinese have a legend of a mother whose voice was so beautiful that her + children tried to store it in a bamboo cane, which was carefully sealed + up. Long after she was dead the cane was opened, and her voice came out in + all its sweetness, but was never heard again. A similar idea (which + reminds us of Munchausen's trumpet) is found in the NATURAL MAGICK of John + Baptista Porta, the celebrated Neapolitan philosopher, and published at + London in 1658. He proposes to confine the sound of the voice in leaden + pipes, such as are used for speaking through; and he goes on to say that + 'if any man, as the words are spoken, shall stop the end of the pipe, and + he that is at the other end shall do the like, the voice may be + intercepted in the middle, and be shut up as in a prison, and when the + mouth is opened, the voice will come forth as out of his mouth that spake + it.... I am now upon trial of it. If before my book be printed the + business take effect, I will set it down; if not, if God please, I shall + write of it elsewhere.' Porta also refers to the speaking head of Albertus + Magnus, whom, however, he discredits. He likewise mentions a colossal + trumpeter of brass, stated to have been erected in some ancient cities, + and describes a plan for making a kind of megaphone, 'wherewith we may + hear many miles.' + </p> + <p> + In the VOYAGE A LA LUNE of De Cyrano Bergerac, published at Paris in 1650, + and subsequently translated into English, there is a long account of a + 'mechanical book' which spoke its contents to the listener. 'It was a + book, indeed,' says Cyrano, 'but a strange and wonderful book, which had + neither leaves nor letters,' and which instructed the Youth in their + walks, so that they knew more than the Greybeards of Cyrano's country, and + need never lack the company of all the great men living or dead to + entertain them with living voices. Sir David Brewster surmised that a + talking machine mould be invented before the end of the century. Mary + Somerville, in her CONNECTION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, wrote some fifty + years ago: 'It may be presumed that ultimately the utterances or + pronunciation of modern languages will be conveyed, not only to the eye, + but also to the ear of posterity. Had the ancients possessed the means of + transmitting such definite sounds, the civilised world must have responded + in sympathetic notes at the distance of many ages.' In the MEMOIRES DU + GEANT of M. Nadar, published in 1864, the author says: 'These last fifteen + years I have amused myself in thinking there is nothing to prevent a man + one of these days from finding a way to give us a daguerreotype of sound—the + phonograph—something like a box in which melodies will be fixed and + kept, as images are fixed in the dark chamber.' It is also on record that, + before Edison had published his discovery to the world, M. Charles Cros + deposited a sealed packet at the Academie des Sciences, Paris, giving an + account of an invention similar to the phonograph. + </p> + <p> + Ignorance of the true nature of sound had prevented the introduction of + such an instrument. But modern science, and in particular the invention of + the telephone with its vibrating plate, had paved the way for it. The time + was ripe, and Edison was the first to do it. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the unbridled fancies of the poets and the hints of ingenious + writers, the announcement that a means of hoarding speech had been devised + burst like a thunderclap upon the world. + </p> + <p> + [In seeing his mother's picture Byron wished that he might hear her voice. + Tennyson exclaims, 'Oh for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of + a voice that is still!' Shelley, in the WITCH OF ATLAS, wrote: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'The deep recesses of her odorous dwelling + Were stored with magic treasures—sounds of air, + Which had the power all spirits of compelling, + Folded in cells of crystal silence there; + Such as we hear in youth, and think the feeling + Will never die—yet ere we are aware, + The feeling and the sound are fled and gone, + And the regret they leave remains alone.' + Again, in his SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE, we find: + 'The fire of those soft orbs has ceased to burn, + And silence too enamoured of that voice + Locks its mute music in her rugged cell,'] +</pre> + <p> + The phonograph lay under the very eyes of Science, and yet she did not see + it. The logograph had traced all the curves of speech with ink on paper; + and it only remained to impress them on a solid surface in such a manner + as to regulate the vibrations of an artificial tympanum or drum. Yet no + professor of acoustics thought of this, and it was left to Edison, a + telegraphic inventor, to show them what was lying at their feet. + </p> + <p> + Mere knowledge, uncombined in the imagination, does not bear fruit in new + inventions. It is from the union of different facts that a new idea + springs. A scholar is apt to be content with the acquisition of knowledge, + which remains passive in his mind. An inventor seizes upon fresh facts, + and combines them with the old, which thereby become nascent. Through + accident or premeditation he is able by uniting scattered thoughts to add + a novel instrument to a domain of science with which he has little + acquaintance. Nay, the lessons of experience and the scruples of intimate + knowledge sometimes deter a master from attempting what the tyro, with the + audacity of genius and the hardihood of ignorance, achieves. Theorists + have been known to pronounce against a promising invention which has + afterwards been carried to success, and it is not improbable that if + Edison had been an authority in acoustics he would never have invented the + phonograph. It happened in this wise. During the spring of 1877, he was + trying a device for making a telegraph message, received on one line, + automatically repeat itself along another line. This he did by embossing + the Morse signals on the travelling paper instead of merely inking them, + and then causing the paper to pass under the point of a stylus, which, by + rising and falling in the indentations, opened and closed a sending key + included in the circuit of the second line. In this way the received + message transmitted itself further, without the aid of a telegraphist. + Edison was running the cylinder which carried the embossed paper at a high + speed one day, partly, as we are told, for amusement, and partly to test + the rate at which a clerk could read a message. As the speed was raised, + the paper gave out a humming rhythmic sound in passing under the stylus. + The separate signals of the message could no longer be distinguished by + the ear, and the instrument seemed to be speaking in a language of its + own, resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly.' Immediately it flashed on + the inventor that if he could emboss the waves of speech upon the paper + the words would be returned to him. To conceive was to execute, and it was + but the work of an hour to provide a vibrating diaphragm or tympanum + fitted with an indenting stylus, and adapt it to the apparatus. Paraffined + paper was selected to receive the indentations, and substituted for the + Morse paper on the cylinder of the machine. On speaking to the tympanum, + as the cylinder was revolved, a record of the vibrations was indented on + the paper, and by re-passing this under the indenting point an imperfect + reproduction of the sounds was heard. Edison 'saw at once that the problem + of registering human speech, so that it could be repeated by mechanical + means as often as might he desired, was solved.' [T. A. Edison, NORTH + AMERICAN REVIEW, June, 1888; New York ELECTRICAL REVIEW, 1888,] + </p> + <p> + The experiment shows that it was partly by accident, and not by reasoning + on theoretical knowledge, that the phonograph was discovered. The sound + resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly' seems to have suggested it to + his mind. This was the germ which fell upon the soil prepared for it. + Edison's thoughts had been dwelling on the telephone; he knew that a metal + tympanum was capable of vibrating with all the delicacies of speech, and + it occurred to him that if these vibrations could be impressed on a + yielding material, as the Morse signals were embossed upon the paper, the + indentations would reproduce the speech, just as the furrows of the paper + reproduced the Morse signals. The tympanum vibrating in the curves of + speech was instantly united in his imagination with the embossing stylus + and the long and short indentations on the Morse paper; the idea of the + phonograph flashed upon him. Many a one versed in acoustics would probably + have been restrained by the practical difficulty of impressing the + vibrations on a yielding material, and making them react upon the + reproducing tympanum. But Edison, with that daring mastery over matter + which is a characteristic of his mechanical genius, put it confidently to + the test. + </p> + <p> + Soon after this experiment, a phonograph was constructed, in which a sheet + of tinfoil was wrapped round a revolving barrel having a spiral groove cut + in its surface to allow the point of the indenting stylus to sink into the + yielding foil as it was thrust up and down by the vibrating tympanum. This + apparatus—the first phonograph—was published to the world in + 1878, and created a universal sensation. [SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, March 30, + 1878] It is now in the South Kensington Museum, to which it was presented + by the inventor. + </p> + <p> + The phonograph was first publicly exhibited in England at a meeting of the + Society of Telegraph Engineers, where its performances filled the audience + with astonishment and delight. A greeting from Edison to his electrical + brethren across the Atlantic had been impressed on the tinfoil, and was + spoken by the machine. Needless to say, the voice of the inventor, however + imperfectly reproduced, was hailed with great enthusiasm, which those who + witnessed will long remember. In this machine, the barrel was fitted with + a crank, and rotated by handle. A heavy flywheel was attached to give it + uniformity of motion. A sheet of tinfoil formed the record, and the + delivery could be heard by a roomful of people. But articulation was + sacrificed at the expense of loudness. It was as though a parrot or a + punchinello spoke, and sentences which were unexpected could not be + understood. Clearly, if the phonograph were to become a practical + instrument, it required to be much improved. Nevertheless this apparatus + sufficiently demonstrated the feasibility of storing up and reproducing + speech, music, and other sounds. Numbers of them were made, and exhibited + to admiring audiences, by license, and never failed to elicit both + amusement and applause. To show how striking were its effects, and how + surprising, even to scientific men, it may be mentioned that a certain + learned SAVANT, on hearing it at a SEANCE of the Academie des Sciences, + Paris, protested that it was a fraud, a piece of trickery or + ventriloquism, and would not be convinced. + </p> + <p> + After 1878 Edison became too much engaged with the development of the + electric light to give much attention to the phonograph, which, however, + was not entirely overlooked. His laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, + where the original experiments were made, was turned into a factory for + making electric light machinery, and Edison removed to New York until his + new laboratory at Orange, New Jersey, was completed. Of late he has + occupied the latter premises, and improved the phonograph so far that it + is now a serviceable instrument. In one of his 1878 patents, the use of + wax to take the records in place of tinfoil is indicated, and it is + chiefly to the adoption of this material that the success of the + 'perfected phonograph' is due. Wax is also employed in the 'graphophone' + of Mr. Tainter and Professor Bell, which is merely a phonograph under + another name. Numerous experiments have been made by Edison to find the + bees-wax which is best adapted to receive the record, and he has recently + discovered a new material or mixture which is stated to yield better + results than white wax. + </p> + <p> + The wax is moulded into the form of a tube or hollow cylinder, usually 4 + 1/4 inches long by 2 inches in diameter, and 1/8 inch thick. Such a size + is capable of taking a thousand words on its surface along a delicate + spiral trace; and by paring off one record after another can be used + fifteen times. There are a hundred or more lines of the trace in the width + of an inch, and they are hardly visible to the naked eye. Only with a + magnifying glass can the undulations caused by the vibrating stylus be + distinguished. This tube of wax is filed upon a metal barrel like a + sleeve, and the barrel, which forms part of a horizontal spindle, is + rotated by means of a silent electro-motor, controlled by a very sensitive + governor. A motion of translation is also given to the barrel as it + revolves, so that the marking stylus held over it describes a spiral path + upon its surface. In front of the wax two small metal tympanums are + supported, each carrying a fine needle point or stylus on its under + centre. One of these is the recording diaphragm, which prints the sounds + in the first place; the other is the reproducing diaphragm, which emits + the sounds recorded on the wax. They are used, one at a time, as the + machine is required, to take down or to render back a phonographic + message. + </p> + <p> + The recording tympanum, which is about the size of a crown-piece, is + fitted with a mouthpiece, and when it is desired to record a sentence the + spindle is started, and you speak into the mouthpiece. The tympanum + vibrates under your voice, and the stylus, partaking of its motion, digs + into the yielding surface of the wax which moves beneath, and leaves a + tiny furrow to mark its passage. This is the sonorous record which, on + being passed under the stylus of the reproducing tympanum, will cause it + to give out a faithful copy of the original speech. A flexible + india-rubber tube, branching into two ear-pieces, conveys the sound + emitted by the reproducing diaphragm to the ears. This trumpet is used for + privacy and loudness; but it may be replaced by a conical funnel inserted + by its small end over the diaphragm, which thereby utters its message + aloud. It is on this plan that Edison has now constructed a phonograph + which delivers its reproduction to a roomful of people. Keys and pedals + are provided with which to stop the apparatus either in recording or + receiving, and in the latter case to hark back and repeat a word or + sentence if required. This is a convenient arrangement in using the + phonograph for correspondence or dictation. Each instrument, as we have + seen, can be employed for receiving as well as recording; and as all are + made to one pattern, a phonogram coming from any one, in any art of the + world, can be reproduced in any other instrument. A little box with double + walls has been introduced for transmitting the phonograms by post. A knife + or cutter is attached to the instrument for the purpose of paring off an + old message, and preparing a fresh surface of the wax for the reception of + a new one. This can be done in advance while the new record is being made, + so that no time is lost in the operation. A small voltaic battery, placed + under the machine, serves to work the electric motor, and has to be + replenished from time to time. A process has also been devised for making + copies of the phonograms in metal by electro-deposition, so as to produce + permanent records. But even the wax phonogram may be used over and over + again, hundreds of times, without diminishing the fidelity of the + reproduction. + </p> + <p> + The entire phonograph is shown in our figure. [The figure is omitted from + this e-text] It consists of a box, B, containing the silent electro-motor + which drives the machine, and supporting the works for printing and + reproducing the sounds. Apart from the motive power, which might, as in + the graphophone, be supplied by foot, the apparatus is purely mechanical, + the parts acting with smoothness and precision. These are, chiefly, the + barrel or cylinder, C, on which the hollow wax is placed; the spindle, S, + which revolves the cylinder and wax; and the two tympana, T, T', which + receive the sounds and impress them on the soft surface of the wax. A + governor, G, regulates the movement of the spindle; and there are other + ingenious devices for starting and stopping the apparatus. The tympanum T + is that which is used for recording the sounds, and M is a mouthpiece, + which is fixed to it for speaking purposes. The other tympanum, T', + reproduces the sounds; and E E is a branched ear-piece, conveying them to + the two ears of the listener. The separate wax tube, P, is a phonogram + with the spiral trace of the sounds already printed on its surface, and + ready for posting. + </p> + <p> + The box below the table contains the voltaic battery which actuates the + electro-motor. A machine which aims at recording and reproducing actual + speech or music is, of course, capable of infinite refinement, and Edison + is still at work improving the instrument, but even now it is + substantially perfected. + </p> + <p> + Phonographs have arrived in London, and through the kindness of Mr. Edison + and his English representative, Colonel G. E. Gouraud, we have had an + opportunity of testing one. A number of phonograms, taken in Edison's + laboratory, were sent over with the instruments, and several of them were + caused to deliver in our hearing the sounds which were + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'sealed in crystal silence there.' +</pre> + <p> + The first was a piece which had been played on the piano, quick time, and + the fidelity and loudness with which it was delivered by the hearing tube + was fairly astonishing, especially when one considered the frail and + hair-like trace upon the wax which had excited it. There seemed to be + something magical in the effect, which issued, as it were, from the + machine itself. Then followed a cornet solo, concert piece of cornet, + violin, and piano, and a very beautiful duet of cornet and piano. The + tones and cadences were admirably rendered, and the ear could also faintly + distinguish the noises of the laboratory. Speaking was represented by a + phonogram containing a dialogue between Mr. Edison and Colonel Gouraud + which had been imprinted some three weeks before in America. With this we + could hear the inventor addressing his old friend, and telling him to + correspond entirely with the phonograph. Colonel Gouraud answers that he + will be delighted to do so, and be spared the trouble of writing; while + Edison rejoins that he also will be glad to escape the pains of reading + the gallant colonel's letters. The sally is greeted with a laugh, which is + also faithfully rendered. + </p> + <p> + One day a workman in Edison's laboratory caught up a crying child and held + it over the phonograph. Here is the phonogram it made, and here in England + we can listen to its wailing, for the phonograph reproduces every kind of + sound, high or low, whistling, coughing, sneezing, or groaning. It gives + the accent, the expression, and the modulation, so that one has to be + careful how one speaks, and probably its use will help us to improve our + utterance. + </p> + <p> + By speaking into the phonograph and reproducing the words, we are enabled + for the first time to hear ourselves speak as others hear us; for the + vibrations of the head are understood to mask the voice a little to our + own ears. Moreover, by altering the speed of the barrel the voice can be + altered, music can be executed in slow or quick time, however it is + played, inaudible notes can be raised or lowered, as the case may be, to + audibility. The phonograph will register notes as low as ten vibrations a + second, whereas it is well known the lowest note audible to the human ear + is sixteen vibrations a second. The instrument is equally capable of + service and entertainment. It can be used as a stenograph, or + shorthand-writer. A business man, for instance, can dictate his letters or + instructions into it, and they can be copied out by his secretary. Callers + can leave a verbal message in the phonograph instead of a note. An editor + or journalist can dictate articles, which may be written out or composed + by the printer, word by word, as they are spoken by the reproducer in his + ears. + </p> + <p> + Correspondence can be carried on by phonograms, distant friends and lovers + being able thus to hear each other's accents as though they were together, + a result more conducive to harmony and good feeling than letter-writing. + In matters of business and diplomacy the phonogram will teach its users to + be brief, accurate, and honest in their speech; for the phonograph is a + mechanical memory more faithful than the living one. Its evidence may even + be taken in a court of law in place of documents, and it is conceivable + that some important action might be settled by the voice of this DEUS EX + MACHINA. Will it therefore add a new terror to modern life? Shall a + visitor have to be careful what he says in a neighbour's house, in case + his words are stored up in some concealed phonograph, just as his + appearance may be registered by a detective camera? In ordinary life—no; + for the phonograph has its limitations, like every other machine, and it + is not sufficiently sensitive to record a conversation unless it is spoken + close at hand. But there is here a chance for the sensational novelist to + hang a tale upon. + </p> + <p> + The 'interviewer' may make use of it to supply him with 'copy,' but this + remains to be seen. There are practical difficulties in the way which need + not be told over. Perhaps in railway trains, steamers, and other unsteady + vehicles, it will be-used for communications. The telephone may yet be + adapted to work in conjunction with it, so that a phonogram can be + telephoned, or a telephone message recorded in the phonograph. Such a + 'telephonograph' is, however, a thing of the future. Wills and other + private deeds may of course be executed by phonograph. Moreover, the + loud-speaking instrument which Edison is engaged upon will probably be + applied to advertising and communicating purposes. The hours of the day, + for example, can be called out by a clock, the starting of a train + announced, and the merits of a particular commodity descanted on. All + these uses are possible; but it is in a literary sense that the phonograph + is more interesting. Books can now be spoken by their authors, or a good + elocutionist, and published in phonograms, which will appeal to the ear of + the 'reader' instead of to his eye. 'On, four cylinders 8 inches long, + with a diameter of 5,' says Edison, 'I can put the whole of NICHOLAS + NICKLEBY.' To the invalid, especially, this use would come as a boon; and + if the instrument were a loud speaker, a circle of listeners could be + entertained. How interesting it would be to have NICHOLAS NICKLEBY read to + us in the voice of Dickens, or TAM O' SHANTER in that of Burns! If the + idea is developed, we may perhaps have circulating libraries which issue + phonograms, and there is already some talk of a phonographic newspaper + which will prattle politics and scandal at the breakfast-table. Addresses, + sermons, and political speeches may be delivered by the phonograph; + languages taught, and dialects preserved; while the study of words cannot + fail to benefit by its performance. + </p> + <p> + Musicians will now be able to record their improvisations by a phonograph + placed near the instrument they are playing. There need in fact be no more + 'lost chords.' Lovers of music, like the inventor himself, will be able to + purchase songs and pieces, sung and played by eminent performers, and + reproduce them in their own homes. Music-sellers will perhaps let them + out, like books, and customers can choose their piece in the shop by + having it rehearsed to them. + </p> + <p> + In preserving for us the words of friends who have passed away, the sound + of voices which are stilled, the phonograph assumes its most beautiful and + sacred character. The Egyptians treasured in their homes the mummies of + their dead. We are able to cherish the very accents of ours, and, as it + were, defeat the course of time and break the silence of the grave. The + voices of illustrious persons, heroes and statesmen, orators, actors, and + singers, will go down to posterity and visit us in our homes. A new + pleasure will be added to life. How pleasant it would be if we could + listen to the cheery voice of Gordon, the playing of Liszt, or the singing + of Jenny Lind! + </p> + <p> + Doubtless the rendering of the phonograph will be still further improved + as time goes on; but even now it is remarkable; and the inventor must be + considered to have redeemed his promises with regard to it. + Notwithstanding his deafness, the development of the instrument has been a + labour of love to him; and those who knew his rare inventive skill + believed that he would some time achieve success. It is his favourite, his + most original, and novel work. For many triumphs of mind over matter + Edison has been called the 'Napoleon of Invention,' and the aptness of the + title is enhanced by his personal resemblance to the great conqueror. But + the phonograph is his victory of Austerlitz; and, like the printing-press + of Gutenberg, it will assuredly immortalise his name. + </p> + <p> + 'The phonograph,' said Edison of his favourite, 'is my baby, and I expect + it to grow up a big fellow and support me in my old age.' Some people are + still in doubt whether it will prove more than a curious plaything; but + even now it seems to be coming into practical use in America, if not in + Europe. + </p> + <p> + After the publication of the phonograph, Edison, owing, it is stated, to + an erroneous description of the instrument by a reporter, received letters + from deaf people inquiring whether it would enable them to hear well. + This, coupled with the fact that he is deaf himself, turned his thoughts + to the invention of the 'megaphone,' a combination of one large speaking + and two ear-trumpets, intended for carrying on a conversation beyond the + ordinary range of the voice—in short, a mile or two. It is said to + render a whisper audible at a distance of 1000 yards; but its very + sensitiveness is a drawback, since it gathers up extraneous sounds. + </p> + <p> + To the same category belongs the 'aerophone,' which may be described as a + gigantic tympanum, vibrated by a piston working in a cylinder of + compressed air, which is regulated by the vibrations of the sound to be + magnified. It was designed to call out fog or other warnings in a loud and + penetrating tone, but it has not been successful. + </p> + <p> + The 'magnetic ore separator' is an application of magnetism to the + extraction of iron particles from powdered ores and unmagnetic matter. The + ground material is poured through a funnel or 'hopper,' and falls in a + shower between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, which draws the + metal aside, thus removing it from the dress. + </p> + <p> + Among Edison's toys and minor inventions may be mentioned a 'voice mill,' + or wheel driven by the vibrations of the air set up in speaking. It + consists of a tympanum or drum, having a stylus attached as in the + phonograph. When the tympanum vibrates under the influence of the voice, + the stylus acts as a pawl and turns a ratchet-wheel. An ingenious smith + might apply it to the construction of a lock which would operate at the + command of 'Open, Sesame!' Another trifle perhaps worthy of note is his + ink, which rises on the paper and solidifies, so that a blind person can + read the writing by passing his fingers over the letters. + </p> + <p> + Edison's next important work was the adaptation of the electric light for + domestic illumination. At the beginning of the century the Cornish + philosopher, Humphrey Davy, had discovered that the electric current + produced a brilliant arch or 'arc' of light when passed between two + charcoal points drawn a little apart, and that it heated a fine rod of + charcoal or a metal wire to incandescence—that is to say, a glowing + condition. A great variety of arc lamps were afterwards introduced; and + Mr. Staite, on or about the year 1844-5, invented an incandescent lamp in + which the current passed through a slender stick of carbon, enclosed in a + vacuum bulb of glass. Faraday discovered that electricity could be + generated by the relative motion of a magnet and a coil of wire, and hence + the dynamo-electric generator, or 'dynamo,' was ere long invented and + improved. + </p> + <p> + In 1878 the boulevards of Paris were lit by the arc lamps of Jablochkoff + during the season of the Exhibition, and the display excited a widespread + interest in the new mode of illumination. It was too brilliant for + domestic use, however, and, as the lamps were connected one after another + in the same circuit like pearls upon a string, the breakage of one would + interrupt the current and extinguish them all but for special precautions. + In short, the electric light was not yet 'subdivided.' + </p> + <p> + Edison, in common with others, turned his attention to the subject, and + took up the neglected incandescent lamp. He improved it by reducing the + rod of carbon to a mere filament of charcoal, having a comparatively high + resistance and resembling a wire in its elasticity, without being so + liable to fuse under the intense heat of the current. This he moulded into + a loop, and mounted inside a pear-shaped bulb of glass. The bulb was then + exhausted of its air to prevent the oxidation of the carbon, and the whole + hermetically sealed. When a sufficient current was passed through the + filament, it glowed with a dazzling lustre. It was not too bright or + powerful for a room; it produced little heat, and absolutely no fumes. + Moreover, it could be connected not in but across the main circuit of the + current, and hence, if one should break, the others would continue + glowing. Edison, in short, had 'subdivided' the electric light. + </p> + <p> + In October, 1878, he telegraphed the news to London and Paris, where, + owing to his great reputation, it caused an immediate panic in the gas + market. As time passed, and the new illuminant was backward in appearing, + the shares recovered their old value. Edison was severely blamed for + causing the disturbance; but, nevertheless, his announcement had been + verified in all but the question of cost. The introduction of a practical + system of electric lighting employed his resources for several years. + Dynamos, types of lamps and conductors, electric meters, safety fuses, and + other appliances had to be invented. In 1882 he returned to New York, to + superintend the installation of his system in that city. + </p> + <p> + His researches on the dynamo caused him to devise what he calls an + 'harmonic engine.' It consists of a tuning-fork, kept in vibration by two + small electro-magnets, excited with three or four battery cells. It is + capable of working a small pump, but is little more than a scientific + curiosity. With the object of transforming heat direct from the furnace + into electricity, he also devised a 'pyro-electric generator,' but it + never passed beyond the experimental stage. + </p> + <p> + The same may be said for his pyro-electric motor. His dynamo-electric + motors and system of electric railways are, however, a more promising + invention. His method of telegraphing to and from a railway train in + motion, by induction through the air to a telegraph wire running along the + line, is very ingenious, and has been tried with a fair amount of success. + </p> + <p> + At present he is working at the 'Kinetograph,' a combination of the + phonograph and the instantaneous photograph as exhibited in the zoetrope, + by which he expects to produce an animated picture or simulacrum of a + scene in real life or the drama, with its appropriate words and sounds. + </p> + <p> + Edison now resides at Llewellyn Park, Orange, a picturesque suburb of New + York. His laboratory there is a glorified edition of Menlo Park, and + realises the inventor's dream. The main building is of brick, in three + stories; but there are several annexes. Each workshop and testing room is + devoted to a particular purpose. The machine shops and dynamo rooms are + equipped with the best engines and tools, the laboratories with the finest + instruments that money can procure. There are drawing, photographic, and + photometric chambers, physical, chemical, and metallurgical laboratories. + There is a fine lecture-hall, and a splendid library and reading-room. He + employs several hundred workmen and assistants, all chosen for their + intelligence and skill. In this retreat Edison is surrounded with + everything that his heart desires. In the words of a reporter, the place + is equally capable of turning out a 'chronometer or a Cunard steamer.' It + is probably the finest laboratory in the world. + </p> + <p> + In 1889, Edison, accompanied by his second wife, paid a holiday visit to + Europe and the Paris Exhibition. He was received everywhere with the + greatest enthusiasm, and the King of Italy created him a Grand Officer of + the Crown of Italy, with the title of Count. But the phonograph speaks + more for his genius than the voice of the multitude, the electric light is + a better illustration of his energy than the ribbon of an order, and the + finest monument to his pluck, sagacity, and perseverance is the + magnificent laboratory which has been built through his own efforts at + Llewellyn Park. [One of his characteristic sayings may be quoted here: + 'Genius is an exhaustless capacity for work in detail, which, combined + with grit and gumption and love of right, ensures to every man success and + happiness in this world and the next.'] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. DAVID EDWIN HUGHES. + </h2> + <p> + There are some leading electricians who enjoy a reputation based partly on + their own efforts and partly on those of their paid assistants. Edison, + for example, has a large following, who not only work out his ideas, but + suggest, improve, and invent of themselves. The master in such a case is + able to avail himself of their abilities and magnify his own genius, so to + speak. He is not one mind, but the chief of many minds, and absorbs into + himself the glory and the work of a hundred willing subjects. + </p> + <p> + Professor Hughes is not one of these. His fame is entirely self-earned. + All that he has accomplished, and he has done great things, has been the + labour of his own hand and brain. He is an artist in invention; working + out his own conceptions in silence and retirement, with the artist's love + and self-absorption. This is but saying that he is a true inventor; for a + mere manufacturer of inventions, who employs others to assist him in the + work, is not an inventor in the old and truest sense. + </p> + <p> + Genius, they say, makes its own tools, and the adage is strikingly + verified in the case of Professor Hughes, who actually discovered the + microphone in his own drawing-room, and constructed it of toy boxes and + sealing wax. He required neither lathe, laboratory, nor assistant to give + the world this remarkable and priceless instrument. + </p> + <p> + Having first become known to fame in America, Professor Hughes is usually + claimed by the Americans as a countryman, and through some error, the very + date and place of his birth there are often given in American + publications; but we have the best authority for the accuracy of the + following facts, namely that of the inventor himself. + </p> + <p> + David Edwin Hughes was born in London in 1831. His parents came from Bala, + at the foot of Snowdon, in North Wales, and in 1838, when David was seven + years old, his father, taking with him his family, emigrated to the United + States, and became a planter in Virginia. The elder Mr. Hughes and his + children seem to have inherited the Welsh musical gift, for they were all + accomplished musicians. While a mere child, David could improvise tunes in + a remarkable manner, and when he grew up this talent attracted the notice + of Herr Hast, an eminent German pianist in America, who procured for him + the professorship of music in the College of Bardstown, Kentucky. Mr. + Hughes entered upon his academical career at Bardstown in 1850, when he + was nineteen years of age. Although very fond of music and endowered by + Nature with exceptional powers for its cultivation, Professor Hughes had, + in addition, an inborn liking and fitness for physical science and + mechanical invention. This duality of taste and genius may seem at first + sight strange; but experience shows that there are many men of science and + inventors who are also votaries of music and art. The source of this + apparent anomaly is to be found in the imagination, which is the + fountain-head of all kinds of creation. + </p> + <p> + Professor Hughes now taught music by day for his livelihood, and studied + science at night for his recreation, thus reversing the usual order of + things. The college authorities, knowing his proficiency in the subject, + also offered him the Chair of Natural Philosophy, which became vacant; and + he united the two seemingly incongruous professorships of music and + physics in himself. He had long cherished the idea of inventing a new + telegraph, and especially one which should print the message in Roman + characters as it is received. So it happened that one evening while he was + under the excitement of a musical improvisation, a solution of the problem + flashed into his ken. His music and his science had met at this nodal + point. + </p> + <p> + All his spare time was thenceforth devoted to the development of his + design and the construction of a practical type-printer. As the work grew + on his hands, the pale young student, beardless but careworn, became more + and more engrossed with it, until his nights were almost entirely given to + experiment. He begrudged the time which had to be spent in teaching his + classes and the fatigue was telling upon his health, so in 1853 he removed + to Bowlingreen, in Warren Co., Kentucky, where he acquired more freedom by + taking pupils. + </p> + <p> + The main principle of his type-printer was the printing of each letter by + a single current; the Morse instrument, then the principal receiver in + America, required, on the other hand, an average of three currents for + each signal. In order to carry out this principle it was necessary that + the sending and receiving apparatus should keep in strict time with each + other, or be synchronous in action; and to effect this was the prime + difficulty which Professor Hughes had to overcome in his work. In + estimating the Hughes' type-printer as an invention we must not forget the + state of science at that early period. He had to devise his own governors + for the synchronous mechanism, and here his knowledge of acoustics helped + him. Centrifugal governors and pendulums would not do, and he tried + vibrators, such as piano-strings and tuning-forks. He at last found what + he wanted in two darning needles, borrowed from an old lady in the house + where he lived. These steel rods fixed at one end vibrated with equal + periods, and could be utilised in such a way that the printing wheel could + be corrected into absolute synchronism by each signal current. + </p> + <p> + In 1854, Professor Hughes went to Louisville to superintend the making of + his first instrument; but it was unprotected by a patent in the United + States until 1855. In that form straight vibrators were used as governors, + and a separate train of wheel-work was employed in correcting: but in + later forms the spiral governor was adopted, and the printing and + correcting is now done by the same action. In 1855, the invention may be + said to have become fit for employment, and no sooner was this the case, + than Professor Hughes received a telegram from the editors of the New York + Associated Press, summoning him to that city. The American Telegraph + Company, then a leading one, was in possession of the Morse instrument, + and levied rates for transmission of news which the editors found + oppressive. They took up the Hughes' instrument in opposition to the + Morse, and introduced it on the lines of several companies. After a time, + however, the separate companies amalgamated into one large corporation, + the Western Union Telegraph Company of to-day. With the Morse, Hughes, and + other apparatus in its power, the editors were again left in the lurch. + </p> + <p> + In 1857, Professor Hughes leaving his instrument in the hands of the + Western Union Telegraph Company, came to England to effect its + introduction here. He endeavoured to get the old Electric Telegraph + Company to adopt it, but after two years of indecision on their part, he + went over to France in 1860, where he met with a more encouraging + reception. The French Government Telegraph Administration became at once + interested in the new receiver, and a commission of eminent electricians, + consisting of Du Moncel, Blavier, Froment, Gaugain, and other practical + and theoretical specialists, was appointed to decide on its merits. The + first trial of the type-printer took place on the Paris to Lyons circuit, + and there is a little anecdote connected with it which is worthy of being + told. The instrument was started, and for a while worked as well as could + be desired; but suddenly it came to a stop, and to the utter discomfiture + of the inventor he could neither find out what was wrong nor get the + printer to go again. In the midst of his confusion, it seemed like satire + to him to hear the commissioners say, as they smiled all round, and bowed + themselves gracefully off, 'TRES-BIEN, MONSIEUR HUGHES—TRES-BIEN, JE + VOUS FELICITE.' But the matter was explained next morning, when Professor + Hughes learned that the transmitting clerk at Lyons had been purposely + instructed to earth the line at the time in question, to test whether + there was no deception in the trial, a proceeding which would have seemed + strange, had not the occurrence of a sham trial some months previous + rendered it a prudent course. The result of this trial was that the French + Government agreed to give the printer a year of practical work on the + French lines, and if found satisfactory, it was to be finally adopted. + Daily reports were furnished of its behaviour during that time, and at the + expiration of the term it was adopted, and Professor Hughes was + constituted by Napoleon III. a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. + </p> + <p> + The patronage of France paved the way of the type-printer into almost all + other European countries; and the French agreement as to its use became + the model of those made by the other nations. On settling with France in + 1862, Professor Hughes went to Italy. Here a commission was likewise + appointed, and a period of probation—only six months—was + settled, before the instrument was taken over. From Italy, Professor + Hughes received the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazare. In 1863, the + United Kingdom Telegraph Co., England, introduced the type-printer in + their system. In 1865, Professor Hughes proceeded to Russia, and in that + country his invention was adopted after six months' trial on the St. + Petersburg to Moscow circuit. At St. Petersburg he had the honour of being + a guest of the Emperor in the summer palace, Czarskoizelo, the Versailles + of Russia, where he was requested to explain his invention, and also to + give a lecture on electricity to the Czar and his court. He was there + created a Commander of the Order of St. Anne. + </p> + <p> + In 1865, Professor Hughes also went to Berlin, and introduced his + apparatus on the Prussian lines. In 1867, he went on a similar mission to + Austria, where he received the Order of the Iron Crown; and to Turkey, + where the reigning Sultan bestowed on him the Grand Cross of the Medjidie. + In this year, too he was awarded at the Paris Exhibition, a grand HORS + LIGNE gold medal, one out of ten supreme honours designed to mark the very + highest achievements. On the same occasion another of these special medals + was bestowed on Cyrus Field and the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. In + 1868, he introduced it into Holland; and in 1869, into Bavaria and + Wurtemburg, where he obtained the Noble Order of St. Michael. In 1870, he + also installed it in Switzerland and Belgium. + </p> + <p> + Coming back to England, the Submarine Telegraph Company adopted the + type-printer in 1872, when they had only two instruments at work. In 1878 + they had twenty of them in constant use, of which number nine were working + direct between London and Paris, one between London and Berlin, one + between London and Cologne, one between London and Antwerp, and one + between London and Brussels. All the continental news for the TIMES and + the DAILY TELEGRAPH is received by the Hughes' type-printer, and is set in + type by a type-setting machine as it arrives. Further, by the + International Telegraph Congress it was settled that for all international + telegrams only the Hughes' instrument and the Morse were to be employed. + Since the Post Office acquired the cables to the Continent in 1889, a room + in St. Martin's-le-Grand has been provided for the printers working to + Paris, Berlin, and Rome. + </p> + <p> + In 1875, Professor Hughes introduced the type-printer into Spain, where he + was made a Commander of the Royal and Distinguished Order of Carlos III. + In every country to which it was taken, the merits of the instrument were + recognised, and Professor Hughes has none but pleasant souvenirs of his + visits abroad. + </p> + <p> + During all these years the inventor was not idle. He was constantly + improving his invention; and in addition to that, he had to act as an + instructor where-ever he went, and give courses of lectures explaining the + principles and practice of his apparatus to the various employees into + whose hands it was to be consigned. + </p> + <p> + The years 1876-8 will be distinguished in the history of our time for a + triad of great inventions which, so to speak, were hanging together. We + have already seen how the telephone and phonograph have originated; and to + these two marvellous contrivances we have now to add a third, the + microphone, which is even more marvellous, because, although in form it is + the simplest of them all, in its action it is still a mystery. The + telephone enables us to speak to distances far beyond the reach of eye or + ear, 'to waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole; 'the phonograph enables us to + seal the living speech on brazen tablets, and store it up for any length + of time; while it is the peculiar function of the microphone to let us + hear those minute sounds which are below the range of our unassisted + powers of hearing. By these three instruments we have thus received a + remarkable extension of the capacity of the human ear, and a growth of + dominion over the sounds of Nature. We have now a command over sound such + as we have over light. For the telephone is to the ear what the telescope + is to the eye, the phonograph is for sound what the photograph is for + light, and the microphone finds its analogue in the microscope. As the + microscope reveals to our wondering sight the rich meshes of creation, so + the microphone can interpret to our ears the jarr of molecular vibrations + for ever going on around us, perchance the clash of atoms as they shape + themselves into crystals, the murmurous ripple of the sap in trees, which + Humboldt fancied to make a continuous music in the ears of the tiniest + insects, the fall of pollen dust on flowers and grasses, the stealthy + creeping of a spider upon his silken web, and even the piping of a pair of + love-sick butterflies, or the trumpeting of a bellicose gnat, like the + 'horns of elf-land faintly blowing.' + </p> + <p> + The success of the Hughes type-printer may be said to have covered its + author with titles and scientific honours, and placed him above the + necessity of regular employment. He left America, and travelled from place + to place. For many years past, however, he has resided privately in + London, an eminent example of that modesty and simplicity which is + generally said to accompany true genius. + </p> + <p> + Mechanical invention is influenced to a very high degree by external + circumstances. It may sound sensational, but it is nevertheless true, that + we owe the microphone to an attack of bronchitis. During the thick foggy + weather of November 1877, Professor Hughes was confined to his home by a + severe cold, and in order to divert his thoughts he began to amuse himself + with a speaking telephone. Then it occurred to him that there might be + some means found of making the wire of the telephone circuit speak of + itself without the need of telephones at all, or at least without the need + of one telephone, namely, that used in transmitting the sounds. The + distinguished physicist Sir William Thomson, had lately discovered the + peculiar fact that when a current of electricity is passed through a wire, + the current augments when the wire is extended, and diminishes when the + wire is compressed, because in the former case the resistance of the + material of the wire to the passage of the current is lessened, and in the + latter case it becomes greater. + </p> + <p> + Now it occurred to Professor Hughes that, if this were so, it might be + possible to cause the air-vibrations of sound to so act upon a wire + conveying a current as to stretch and contract it in sympathy with + themselves, so that the sound-waves would create corresponding electric + waves in the current, and these electric waves, passed through a telephone + connected to the wire, would cause the telephone to give forth the + original sounds. He first set about trying the effect of vibrating a wire + in which a current flowed, to see if the stretching and compressing + thereby produced would affect the current so as to cause sounds in a + telephone connected up in circuit with the wire—but without effect. + He could hear no sound whatever in the telephone. Then he stretched the + wire till it broke altogether, and as the metal began to rupture he heard + a distinct grating in the telephone, followed by a sharp 'click,' when the + wire sundered, which indicated a 'rush' of electricity through the + telephone. This pointed out to him that the wire might be sensitive to + sound when in a state of fracture. Acting on the hint, he placed the two + broken ends of the wire together again, and kept them so by the + application of a definite pressure. To his joy he found that he had + discovered what he had been in search of. The imperfect contact between + the broken ends of the wire proved itself to be a means of transmitting + sounds, and in addition it was found to possess a faculty which he had not + anticipated—it proved to be sensitive to very minute sounds, and was + in fact a rude microphone. Continuing his researches, he soon found that + he had discovered a principle of wide application, and that it was not + necessary to confine his experiments to wires, since any substance which + conducted an electric current would answer the purpose. All that was + necessary was that the materials employed should be in contact with each + other under a slight but definite pressure, and, for the continuance of + the effects, that the materials should not oxidise in air so as to foul + the contact. For different materials a different degree of pressure gives + the best results, and for different sounds to be transmitted a different + degree of pressure is required. Any loose, crazy unstable structure, of + conducting bodies, inserted in a telephone circuit, will act as a + microphone. Such, for example, as a glass tube filled with lead-shot or + black oxide of iron, or 'white bronze' powder under pressure; a metal + watch-chain piled in a heap. Surfaces of platinum, gold, or even iron, + pressed lightly together give excellent results. Three French nails, two + parallel beneath and one laid across them, or better still a log-hut of + French nails, make a perfect transmitter of audible sounds, and a good + microphone. Because of its cheapness, its conducting power, and its + non-oxidisability, carbon is the most select material. A piece of charcoal + no bigger than a pin's head is quite sufficient to produce articulate + speech. Gas-carbon operates admirably, but the best carbon is that known + as willow-charcoal, used by artists in sketching, and when this is + impregnated with minute globules of mercury by heating it white-hot and + quenching it in liquid mercury, it is in a highly sensitive microphonic + condition. The same kind of charcoal permeated by platinum, tin, zinc, or + other unoxidisable metal is also very suitable; and it is a significant + fact that the most resonant woods, such as pine, poplar, and willow, yield + the charcoals best adapted for the microphone. Professor Hughes' + experimental apparatus is of an amusingly simple description. He has no + laboratory at home, and all his experiments were made in the drawing-room. + His first microphones were formed of bits of carbon and scraps of metal, + mounted on slips of match-boxes by means of sealing-wax; and the resonance + pipes on which they were placed to reinforce the effect of minute sounds, + were nothing more than children's toy money boxes, price one halfpenny, + having one of the ends knocked out. With such childish and worthless + materials he has conquered Nature in her strongholds, and shown how great + discoveries can be made. The microphone is a striking illustration of the + truth that in science any phenomenon whatever may be rendered useful. The + trouble of one generation of scientists may be turned to the honour and + service of the next. Electricians have long had sore reasons for regarding + a 'bad contact' as an unmitigated nuisance, the instrument of the evil + one, with no conceivable good in it, and no conceivable purpose except to + annoy and tempt them into wickedness and an expression of hearty but + ignominious emotion. Professor Hughes, however, has with a wizard's power + transformed this electrician's bane into a professional glory and a public + boon. Verily there is a soul of virtue in things evil. + </p> + <p> + The commonest and at the same time one of the most sensitive forms of the + instrument is called the 'pencil microphone,' from the pencil or crayon of + carbon which forms the principal part of it. This pencil may be of + mercurialised charcoal, but the ordinary gas-carbon, which incrusts the + interior of the retorts in gas-works, is usually employed. The crayon is + supported in an upright position by two little brackets of carbon, + hollowed out so as to receive the pointed ends in shallow cups. The weight + of the crayon suffices to give the required pressure on the contacts, both + upper and lower, for the upper end of the Pencil should lean against the + inner wall of the cup in the upper bracket. The brackets are fixed to an + upright board of light, dry, resonant pine-wood, let into a solid base of + the same timber. The baseboard is with advantage borne by four rounded + india-rubber feet, which insulate it from the table on which it may be + placed. To connect the microphone up for use, a small voltaic battery, say + three cells (though a single cell will give surprising results), and a + Bell speaking telephone are necessary. A wire is led from one of the + carbon brackets to one pole of the battery, and another wire is led from + the other bracket to one terminal screw of the telephone, and the circuit + is completed by a wire from the other terminal of the telephone to the + other pole of the battery. If now the slightest mechanical jar be given to + the wooden frame of the microphone, to the table, or even to the walls of + the room in which the experiment takes place, a corresponding noise will + be heard in the microphone. By this delicate arrangement we can play the + eavesdropper on those insensible vibrations in the midst of which we + exist. If a feather or a camel-hair pencil be stroked along the + base-board, we hear a harsh grating sound; if a pin be laid upon it, we + hear a blow like a blacksmith's hammer; and, more astonishing than all, if + a fly walk across it we hear it tramping like a charger, and even its + peculiar cry, which has been likened, with some allowance for imagination, + to the snorting of an elephant. Moreover it should not be forgotten that + the wires connecting up the telephone may be lengthened to any desired + extent, so that, in the words of Professor Hughes, 'the beating of a + pulse, the tick of a watch, the tramp of a fly can then be heard at least + a hundred miles from the source of sound.' If we whisper or speak + distinctly in a monotone to the pencil, our words will be heard in the + telephone; but with this defect, that the TIMBRE or quality is, in this + particular form of the instrument, apt to be lost, making it difficult to + recognise the speaker's voice. But although a single pencil microphone + will under favourable circumstances transmit these varied sounds, the best + effect for each kind of sound is obtained by one specially adjusted. There + is one pressure best adapted for minute sounds, another for speech, and a + third for louder sounds. A simple spring arrangement for adjusting the + pressure of the contacts is therefore an advantage, and it can easily be + applied to a microphone formed of a small rod of carbon pivoted at its + middle, with one end resting on a block or anvil of carbon underneath. The + contact between the rod and the block in this 'hammer-and-anvil' form is, + of course, the portion which is sensitive to sound. + </p> + <p> + The microphone is a discovery as well as an invention, and the true + explanation of its action is as yet merely an hypothesis. It is supposed + that the vibrations put the carbons in a tremor and cause them to approach + more or less nearly, thus closing or opening the breach between them, + which is, as it were, the floodgate of the current. + </p> + <p> + The applications of the microphone were soon of great importance. Dr. B. + W. Richardson succeeded in fitting it for auscultation of the heart and + lungs; while Sir Henry Thompson has effectively used it in those surgical + operations, such as probing wounds for bullets or fragments of bone, in + which the surgeon has hitherto relied entirely on his delicacy of touch + for detecting the jar of the probe on the foreign body. There can be no + doubt that in the science of physiology, in the art of surgery, and in + many other walks of life, the microphone has proved a valuable aid. + </p> + <p> + Professor Hughes communicated his results to the Royal Society in the + early part of 1878, and generously gave the microphone to the world. For + his own sake it would perhaps have been better had he patented and thus + protected it, for Mr. Edison, recognising it as a rival to his + carbon-transmitter, then a valuable property, claimed it as an + infringement of his patents and charged him with plagiarism. A spirited + controversy arose, and several bitter lawsuits were the consequence, in + none of which, however, Professor Hughes took part, as they were only + commercial trials. It was clearly shown that Clerac, and not Edison, had + been the first to utilise the variable resistance of powdered carbon or + plumbage under pressure, a property on which the Edison transmitter was + founded, and that Hughes had discovered a much wider principle, which + embraced not only the so-called 'semi-conducting' bodies, such as carbon; + but even the best conductors, such as gold, silver, and other metals. This + principle was not a mere variation of electrical conductivity in a mass of + material brought about by compression, but a mysterious variation in some + unknown way of the strength of an electric current in traversing a loose + joint or contact between two conductors. This discovery of Hughes really + shed a light on the behaviour of Edison's own transmitter, whose action he + had until then misunderstood. It was now seen that the particles of carbon + dust in contact which formed the button were a congeries of minute + micro-phones. Again it was proved that the diaphragm or tympanum to + receive the impression of the sound and convey it to the carbon button, on + which Edison had laid considerable stress, was non-essential; for the + microphone, pure and simple, was operated by the direct impact of the + sonorous waves, and required no tympanum. Moreover, the microphone, as its + name implies, could magnify a feeble sound, and render audible the + vibrations which would otherwise escape the ear. The discovery of these + remarkable and subtle properties of a delicate contact had indeed + confronted Edison; he had held them in his grasp, they had stared him in + the face, but not-withstanding all his matchless ingenuity and acumen, he, + blinded perhaps by a false hypothesis, entirely failed to discern them. + The significant proof of it lies in the fact that after the researches of + Professor Hughes were published the carbon transmitter was promptly + modified, and finally abandoned for practical work as a telephone, in + favour of a variety of new transmitters, such as the Blake, now employed + in the United Kingdom, in all of which the essential part is a microphone + of hard carbon and metal. The button of soot has vanished into the limbo + of superseded inventions. + </p> + <p> + Science appears to show that every physical process is reciprocal, and may + be reversed. With this principle in our minds, we need not be surprised + that the microphone should not only act as a TRANSMITTER of sounds, but + that it should also act as a RECEIVER. Mr. James Blyth, of Edinburgh, was + the first to announce that he had heard sounds and even speech given out + by a microphone itself when substituted for the telephone. His + transmitting microphone and his receiving one were simply jelly-cans + filled with cinders from the grate. It then transpired that Professor + Hughes had previously obtained the same remarkable effects from his + ordinary 'pencil' microphones. The sounds were extremely feeble, however, + but the transmitting microphones proved the best articulating ones. + Professor Hughes at length constructed an adjustable hammer-and-anvil + microphone of gas-carbon, fixed to the top of a resonating drum, which + articulated fairly well, although not so perfectly as a Bell telephone. + Perhaps a means of improving both the volume and distinctness of the + articulation will yet be forthcoming and we may be able to speak solely by + the microphone, if it is found desirable. The marvellous fact that a + little piece of charcoal can, as it were, both listen and speak, that a + person may talk to it so that his friend can hear him at a similar piece a + hundred miles away, is a miracle of nineteenth century science which far + transcends the oracles of antiquity. + </p> + <p> + The articulating telephone was the forerunner of the phonograph and + microphone, and led to their discovery. They in turn will doubtless lead + to other new inventions, which it is now impossible to foresee. We ask in + vain for an answer to the question which is upon the lips of every + one-What next? The microphone has proved itself highly useful in + strengthening the sounds given out by the telephone, and it is probable + that we shall soon see those three inventions working unitedly; for the + microphone might make the telephone sounds so powerful as to enable them + to be printed by phonograph as they are received, and thus a durable + record of telephonic messages would be obtained. We can now transmit sound + by wire, but it may yet be possible to transmit light, and see by + telegraph. We are apparently on the eve of other wonderful inventions, and + there are symptoms that before many years a great fundamental discovery + will be made, which will elucidate the connection of all the physical + forces, and will illumine the very frame-work of Nature. + </p> + <p> + In 1879, Professor Hughes endowed the scientific world with another + beautiful apparatus, his 'induction balance.' Briefly described, it is an + arrangement of coils whereby the currents inducted by a primary circuit in + the secondary are opposed to each other until they balance, so that a + telephone connected in the secondary circuit is quite silent. Any + disturbance of this delicate balance, however, say by the movement of a + coil or a metallic body in the neighbourhood of the apparatus, will be at + once reported by the induction currents in the telephone. Being sensitive + to the presence of minute masses of metal, the apparatus was applied by + Professor Graham Bell to indicate the whereabouts of the missing bullet in + the frame of President Garfield, as already mentioned, and also by Captain + McEvoy to detect the position of submerged torpedoes or lost anchors. + Professor Roberts-Austen, the Chemist to the Mint, has also employed it + with success in analysing the purity and temper of coins; for, strange to + say, the induction is affected as well by the molecular quality as the + quantity of the disturbing metal. Professor Hughes himself has modified it + for the purpose of sonometry, and the measurement of the hearing powers. + </p> + <p> + To the same year, 1879, belong his laborious investigations on current + induction, and some ingenious plans for eliminating its effects on + telegraph and telephone circuits. + </p> + <p> + Soon after his discovery of the microphone he was invited to become a + Fellow of the Royal Society, and a few years later, in 1885 he received + the Royal Medal of the Society for his experiments, and especially those + of the microphone. In 1881 he represented the United Kingdom as a + Commissioner at the Paris International Exhibition of Electricity, and was + elected President of one of the sections of the International Congress of + Electricians. In 1886 he filled the office of President of the Society of + Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians. + </p> + <p> + The Hughes type-printer was a great mechanical invention, one of the + greatest in telegraphic science, for every organ of it was new, and had to + be fashioned out of chaos; an invention which stamped its author's name + indelibly into the history of telegraphy, and procured for him a special + fame; while the microphone is a discovery which places it on the roll of + investigators, and at the same time brings it to the knowledge of the + people. Two such achievements might well satisfy any scientific ambition. + Professor Hughes has enjoyed a most successful career. Probably no + inventor ever before received so many honours, or bore them with greater + modesty. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS. + </h2> + <p> + CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS was born at Braunschweig on April 30, 1777. His + father, George Dietrich, was a mason, who employed himself otherwise in + the hard winter months, and finally became cashier to a TODTENCASSE, or + burial fund. His mother Dorothy was the daughter of Christian Benze of the + village of Velpke, near Braunschweig, and a woman of talent, industry, and + wit, which her son appears to have inherited. The father died in 1808 + after his son had become distinguished. The mother lived to the age of + ninety-seven, but became totally blind. She preserved her low Saxon + dialect, her blue linen dress and simple country manners, to the last, + while living beside her son at the Observatory of Gottingen. Frederic, her + younger brother, was a damask weaver, but a man with a natural turn for + mathematics and mechanics. + </p> + <p> + When Gauss was a boy, his parents lived in a small house in the + Wendengrahen, on a canal which joined the Ocker, a stream flowing through + Braunschweig. The canal is now covered, and is the site of the + Wilhelmstrasse, but a tablet marks the house. When a child, Gauss used to + play on the bank of the canal, and falling in one day he was nearly + drowned. He learned to read by asking the letters from his friends, and + also by studying an old calendar which hung on a wall of his father's + house, and when four years old he knew all the numbers on it, in spite of + a shortness of sight which afflicted him to the end. On Saturday nights + his father paid his workmen their wages, and once the boy, who had been + listening to his calculations, jumped up and told him that he was wrong. + Revision showed that his son was right. + </p> + <p> + At the age of seven, Gauss went to the Catherine Parish School at + Braunschweig, and remained at it for several years. The master's name was + Buttner, and from a raised seat in the middle of the room, he kept order + by means of a whip suspended at his side. A bigger boy, Bartels by name, + used to cut quill pens, and assist the smaller boys in their lessons. He + became a friend of Gauss, and would procure mathematical books, which they + read together. Bartels subsequently rose to be a professor in the + University of Dorpat, where he died. At the parish school the boys of + fourteen to fifteen years were being examined in arithmetic one day, when + Gauss stepped forward and, to the astonishment of Buttner, requested to be + examined at the same time. Buttner, thinking to punish him for his + audacity, put a 'poser' to him, and awaited the result. Gauss solved the + problem on his slate, and laid it face downward on the table, crying 'Here + it is,' according to the custom. At the end of an hour, during which the + master paced up and down with an air of dignity, the slates were turned + over, and the answer of Gauss was found to be correct while many of the + rest were erroneous. Buttner praised him, and ordered a special book on + arithmetic for him all the way from Hamburg. + </p> + <p> + From the parish school Gauss went to the Catherine Gymnasium, although his + father doubted whether he could afford the money. Bartels had gone there + before him, and they read the higher mathematics. Gauss also devoted much + of his time to acquiring the ancient and modern languages. From there he + passed to the Carolinean College in the spring of 1792. Shortly before + this the Duke Charles William Ferdinand of Braunschweig among others had + noticed his talents, and promised to further his career. + </p> + <p> + In 1793 he published his first papers; and in the autumn of 1795 he + entered the University of Gottingen. At this time he was hesitating + between the pursuit of philology or mathematics; but his studies became + more and more of the latter order. He discovered the division of the + circle, a problem published in his DISQUISITIONES ARITHMETICAE, and + henceforth elected for mathematics. The method of least squares, was also + discovered during his first term. On arriving home the duke received him + in the friendliest manner, and he was promoted to Helmstedt, where with + the assistance of his patron he published his DISQUISITIONES. + </p> + <p> + On January 1, 1801, Piazzi, the astronomer of Palermo, discovered a small + planet, which he named CERES FERDINANDIA, and communicated the news by + post to Bode of Berlin, and Oriani of Milan. The letter was seventy-two + days in going, and the planet by that time was lost in the glory of the + sun, By a method of his own, published in his THEORIA MOTUS CORPORUM + COELESTIUM, Gauss calculated the orbit of this planet, and showed that it + moved between Mars and Jupiter. The planet, after eluding the search of + several astronomers, was ultimately found again by Zach on December 7, + 1801, and on January 1, 1802. The ellipse of Gauss was found to coincide + with its orbit. + </p> + <p> + This feat drew the attention of the Hanoverian Government, and of Dr. + Olbers, the astronomer, to the young mathematician. But some time elapsed + before he was fitted with a suitable appointment. The battle of Austerlitz + had brought the country into danger, and the Duke of Braunschweig was + entrusted with a mission from Berlin to the Court of St. Petersburg. The + fame of Gauss had travelled there, but the duke resisted all attempts to + bring or entice him to the university of that place. On his return home, + however, he raised the salary of Gauss. + </p> + <p> + At the beginning of October 1806, the armies of Napoleon were moving + towards the Saale, and ere the middle of the month the battles of + Auerstadt and Jena were fought and lost. Duke Charles Ferdinand was + mortally wounded, and taken back to Braunschweig. A deputation waited on + the offended Emperor at Halle, and begged him to allow the aged duke to + die in his own house. They were brutally denied by the Emperor, and + returned to Braunschweig to try and save the unhappy duke from + imprisonment. One evening in the late autumn, Gauss, who lived in the + Steinweg (or Causeway), saw an invalid carriage drive slowly out of the + castle garden towards the Wendenthor. It contained the wounded duke on his + way to Altona, where he died on November 10, 1806, in a small house at + Ottensen, 'You will take care,' wrote Zach to Gauss, in 1803, 'that his + great name shall also be written on the firmament.' + </p> + <p> + For a year and a half after the death of the duke Gauss continued in + Braunschweig, but his small allowance, and the absence of scientific + company made a change desirable. Through Olbers and Heeren he received a + call to the directorate of Gottingen University in 1807, and at once + accepted it. He took a house near the chemical laboratory, to which he + brought his wife and family. The building of the observatory, delayed for + want of funds, was finished in 1816, and a year or two later it was fully + equipped with instruments. + </p> + <p> + In 1819, Gauss measured a degree of latitude between Gottingen and Altona. + In geodesy he invented the heliotrope, by which the sunlight reflected + from a mirror is used as a "sight" for the theodolite at a great distance. + Through Professor William Weber he was introduced to the science of + electro-magnetism, and they devised an experimental telegraph, chiefly for + sending time signals, between the Observatory and the Physical Cabinet of + the University. The mirror receiving instrument employed was the heavy + prototype of the delicate reflecting galvanometer of Sir William Thomson. + In 1834 messages were transmitted through the line in presence of H.R.H. + the Duke of Cambridge; but it was hardly fitted for general use. In 1883 + (?) he published an absolute system of magnetic measurements. + </p> + <p> + On July 16, 1849, the jubilee of Gauss was celebrated at the University; + the famous Jacobi, Miller of Cambridge, and others, taking part in it. + After this he completed several works already begun, read a great deal of + German and foreign literature, and visited the Museum daily between eleven + and one o'clock. + </p> + <p> + In the winters of 1854-5 Gauss complained of his declining health, and on + the morning of February 23, 1855, about five minutes past one o'clock, he + breathed his last. He was laid on a bed of laurels, and buried by his + friends. A granite pillar marks his resting-place at Gottingen. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER. + </h2> + <p> + WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER was born on October 24, 1804, at Wittenberg, where + his father, Michael Weber, was professor of theology. William was the + second of three brothers, all of whom were distinguished by an aptitude + for the study of science. After the dissolution of the University of + Wittenberg his father was transferred to Halle in 1815. William had + received his first lessons from his father, but was now sent to the Orphan + Asylum and Grammar School at Halle. After that he entered the University, + and devoted himself to natural philosophy. He distinguished himself so + much in his classes, and by original work, that after taking his degree of + Doctor and becoming a Privat-Docent he was appointed Professor + Extraordinary of natural philosophy at Halle. + </p> + <p> + In 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was called to Gottingen as + professor of physics, although but twenty-seven years of age. His lectures + were interesting, instructive, and suggestive. Weber thought that, in + order to thoroughly understand physics and apply it to daily life, mere + lectures, though illustrated by experiments, were insufficient, and he + encouraged his students to experiment themselves, free of charge, in the + college laboratory. As a student of twenty years he, with his brother, + Ernest Henry Weber, Professor of Anatomy at Leipsic, had written a book on + the 'Wave Theory and Fluidity,' which brought its authors a considerable + reputation. Acoustics was a favourite science of his, and he published + numerous papers upon it in Poggendorff's ANNALEN, Schweigger's JAHRBUCHER + FUR CHEMIE UND PHYSIC, and the musical journal CAECILIA. The 'mechanism of + walking in mankind' was another study, undertaken in conjunction with his + younger brother, Edward Weber. These important investigations were + published between the years 1825 and 1838. + </p> + <p> + Displaced by the Hanoverian Government for his liberal opinions in + politics Weber travelled for a time, visiting England, among other + countries, and became professor of physics in Leipsic from 1843 to 1849, + when he was reinstalled at Gottingen. One of his most important works was + the ATLAS DES ERDMAGNETISMUS, a series of magnetic maps, and it was + chiefly through his efforts that magnetic observatories were instituted. + He studied magnetism with Gauss, and in 1864 published his 'Electrodynamic + Proportional Measures' containing a system of absolute measurements for + electric currents, which forms the basis of those in use. Weber died at + Gottingen on June 23, 1891. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE. + </h2> + <p> + WILLIAM Fothergill Cooke was born near Ealing on May 4, 1806, and was a + son of Dr. William Cooke, a doctor of medicine, and professor of anatomy + at the University of Durham. The boy was educated at a school in Durham, + and at the University of Edinburgh. In 1826 he joined the East India Army, + and held several staff appointments. While in the Madras Native Infantry, + he returned home on furlough, owing to ill-health, and afterwards + relinquished this connection. In 1833-4 he studied anatomy and physiology + in Paris, acquiring great skill at modelling dissections in coloured wax. + </p> + <p> + In the summer of 1835, while touring in Switzerland with his parents, he + visited Heidelberg, and was induced by Professor Tiedeman, director of the + Anatomical Institute, to return there and continue his wax modelling. He + lodged at 97, Stockstrasse, in the house of a brewer, and modelled in a + room nearly opposite. Some of his models have been preserved in the + Anatomical Museum at Heidelberg. In March 1836, hearing accidentally from + Mr. J. W. R. Hoppner, a son of Lord Byron's friend, that the Professor of + Natural Philosophy in the University, Geheime Hofrath Moncke had a model + of Baron Schilling's telegraph, Cooke went to see it on March 6, in the + Professor's lecture room, an upper storey of an old convent of Dominicans, + where he also lived. Struck by what he witnessed, he abandoned his medical + studies, and resolved to apply all his energies to the introduction of the + telegraph. Within three weeks he had made, partly at Heidelberg, and + partly at Frankfort, his first galvanometer, or needle telegraph. It + consisted of three magnetic needles surrounded by multiplying coils, and + actuated by three separate circuits of six wires. The movements of the + needles under the action of the currents produced twenty-six different + signals corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. + </p> + <p> + 'Whilst completing the model of my original plan,' he wrote to his mother + on April 5, 'others on entirely fresh systems suggested themselves, and I + have at length succeeded in combining the UTILE of each, but the mechanism + requires a more delicate hand than mine to execute, or rather instruments + which I do not possess. These I can readily have made for me in London, + and by the aid of a lathe I shall be able to adapt the several parts, + which I shall have made by different mechanicians for secrecy's sake. + Should I succeed, it may be the means of putting some hundreds of pounds + in my pocket. As it is a subject on which I was profoundly ignorant, until + my attention was casually attracted to it the other day, I do not know + what others may have done in the same way; this can best be learned in + London.' + </p> + <p> + The 'fresh systems' referred to was his 'mechanical' telegraph, consisting + of two letter dials, working synchronously, and on which particular + letters of the message were indicated by means of an electro-magnet and + detent. Before the end of March he invented the clock-work alarm, in which + an electro-magnet attracted an armature of soft iron, and thus withdrew a + detent, allowing the works to strike the alarm. This idea was suggested to + him on March 17, 1836, while reading Mrs. Mary Somerville's 'Connexion of + the Physical Sciences,' in travelling from Heidelberg to Frankfort. + </p> + <p> + Cooke arrived in London on April 22, and wrote a pamphlet setting forth + his plans for the establishment of an electric telegraph; but it was never + published. According to his own account he also gave considerable + attention to the escapement principle, or step by step movement, + afterwards perfected by Wheatstone. While busy in preparing his apparatus + for exhibition, part of which was made by a clock-maker in Clerkenwell, he + consulted Faraday about the construction of electro-magnets, The + philosopher saw his apparatus and expressed his opinion that the + 'principle was perfectly correct,' and that the 'instrument appears + perfectly adapted to its intended uses.' Nevertheless he was not very + sanguine of making it a commercial success. 'The electro-magnetic + telegraph shall not ruin me,' he wrote to his mother, 'but will hardly + make my fortune.' He was desirous of taking a partner in the work, and + went to Liverpool in order to meet some gentleman likely to forward his + views, and endeavoured to get his instrument adopted on the incline of the + tunnel at Liverpool; but it gave sixty signals, and was deemed too + complicated by the directors. Soon after his return to London, by the end + of April, he had two simpler instruments in working order. All these + preparations had already cost him nearly four hundred pounds. + </p> + <p> + On February 27, Cooke, being dissatisfied with an experiment on a mile of + wire, consulted Faraday and Dr. Roget as to the action of a current on an + electro-magnet in circuit with a long wire. Dr. Roget sent him to + Wheatstone, where to his dismay he learned that Wheatstone had been + employed for months on the construction of a telegraph for practical + purposes. The end of their conferences was that a partnership in the + undertaking was proposed by Cooke, and ultimately accepted by Wheatstone. + The latter had given Cooke fresh hopes of success when he was worn and + discouraged. 'In truth,' he wrote in a letter, after his first interview + with the Professor, 'I had given the telegraph up since Thursday evening, + and only sought proofs of my being right to do so ere announcing it to + you. This day's enquiries partly revives my hopes, but I am far from + sanguine. The scientific men know little or nothing absolute on the + subject: Wheatstone is the only man near the mark.' + </p> + <p> + It would appear that the current, reduced in strength by its passage + through a long wire, had failed to excite his electro-magnet, and he was + ignorant of the reason. Wheatstone by his knowledge of Ohm's law and the + electro-magnet was probably able to enlighten him. It is clear that Cooke + had made considerable progress with his inventions before he met + Wheatstone; he possessed a needle telegraph like Wheatstone, an alarm, and + a chronometric dial telegraph, which at all events are a proof that he + himself was an inventor, and that he doubtless bore a part in the + production of the Cooke and Wheatstone apparatus. Contrary to a statement + of Wheatstone, it appears from a letter of Cooke dated March 4, 1837, that + Wheatstone 'handsomely acknowledged the advantage' of Cooke's apparatus + had it worked;' his (Wheatstone's) are ingenious, but not practicable.' + But these conflicting accounts are reconciled by the fact that Cooke's + electro-magnetic telegraph would not work, and Wheatstone told him so, + because he knew the magnet was not strong enough when the current had to + traverse a long circuit. + </p> + <p> + Wheatstone subsequently investigated the conditions necessary to obtain + electro-magnetic effects at a long distance. Had he studied the paper of + Professor Henry in SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL for January 1831, he would have + learned that in a long circuit the electro-magnet had to be wound with a + long and fine wire in order to be effective. + </p> + <p> + As the Cooke and Wheatstone apparatus became perfected, Cooke was busy + with schemes for its introduction. Their joint patent is dated June 12, + 1837, and before the end of the month Cooke was introduced to Mr. Robert + Stephenson, and by his address and energy got leave to try the invention + from Euston to Camden Town along the line of the London and Birmingham + Railway. Cooke suspended some thirteen miles of copper, in a shed at the + Euston terminus, and exhibited his needle and his chronometric telegraph + in action to the directors one morning. But the official trial took place + as we have already described in the life of Wheatstone. + </p> + <p> + The telegraph was soon adopted on the Great Western Railway, and also on + the Blackwall Railway in 1841. Three years later it was tried on a + Government line from London to Portsmouth. In 1845, the Electric Telegraph + Company, the pioneer association of its kind, was started, and Mr. Cooke + became a director. Wheatstone and he obtained a considerable sum for the + use of their apparatus. In 1866, Her Majesty conferred the honour of + knighthood on the co-inventors; and in 1871, Cooke was granted a Civil + List pension of L100 a year. His latter years were spent in seclusion, and + he died at Farnham on June 25th, 1879. Outside of telegraphic circles his + name had become well-nigh forgotten. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. ALEXANDER BAIN. + </h2> + <p> + Alexander Bain was born of humble parents in the little town of Thurso, at + the extreme north of Scotland, in the year 1811. At the age of twelve he + went to hear a penny lecture on science which, according to his own + account, set him thinking and influenced his whole future. Learning the + art of clockmaking, he went to Edinburgh, and subsequently removed to + London, where he obtained work in Clerkenwell, then famed for its clocks + and watches. His first patent is dated January 11th, 1841, and is in the + name of John Barwise, chronometer maker, and Alexander Bain, mechanist, + Wigmore Street. It describes his electric clock in which there is an + electro-magnetic pendulum, and the electric current is employed to keep it + going instead of springs or weights. He improved on this idea in following + patents, and also proposed to derive the motive electricity from an 'earth + battery,' by burying plates of zinc and copper in the ground. Gauss and + Steinheil had priority in this device which, owing to 'polarisation' of + the plates and to drought, is not reliable. Long afterwards Mr. Jones of + Chester succeeded in regulating timepieces from a standard astronomical + clock by an improvement on the method of Bain. On December 21, 1841, Bain, + in conjunction with Lieut. Thomas Wright, R.N., of Percival Street, + Clerkenwell, patented means of applying electricity to control railway + engines by turning off the steam, marking time, giving signals, and + printing intelligence at different places. He also proposed to utilise + 'natural bodies of water' for a return wire, but the earlier experimenters + had done so, particularly Steinheil in 1838. The most important idea in + the patent is, perhaps, his plan for inverting the needle telegraph of + Ampere, Wheatstone and others, and instead of making the signals by the + movements of a pivoted magnetic needle under the influence of an + electrified coil, obtaining them by suspending a movable coil traversed by + the current, between the poles of a fixed magnet, as in the later siphon + recorder of Sir William Thomson. Bain also proposed to make the coil + record the message by printing it in type; and he developed the idea in a + subsequent patent. + </p> + <p> + Next year, on December 31st, 1844, he projected a mode of measuring the + speed of ships by vanes revolving in the water and indicating their speed + on deck by means of the current. In the same specification he described a + way of sounding the sea by an electric circuit of wires, and of giving an + alarm when the temperature of a ship's hold reached a certain degree. The + last device is the well-known fire-alarm in which the mercury of a + thermometer completes an electric circuit, when it rises to a particular + point of the tube, and thus actuates an electric bell or other alarm. + </p> + <p> + On December 12, 1846, Bain, who was staying in Edinburgh at that time, + patented his greatest invention, the chemical telegraph, which bears his + name. He recognised that the Morse and other telegraph instruments in use + were comparatively slow in speed, owing to the mechanical inertia of the + parts; and he saw that if the signal currents were made to pass through a + band of travelling paper soaked in a solution which would decompose under + their action, and leave a legible mark, a very high speed could be + obtained. The chemical he employed to saturate the paper was a solution of + nitrate of ammonia and prussiate of potash, which left a blue stain on + being decomposed by the current from an iron contact or stylus. The + signals were the short and long, or 'dots' and 'dashes' of the Morse code. + The speed of marking was so great that hand signalling could not keep up + with it, and Bain devised a plan of automatic signalling by means of a + running band of paper on which the signals of the message were represented + by holes punched through it. Obviously if this tape were passed between + the contact of a signalling key the current would merely flow when the + perforations allowed the contacts of the key to touch. This principle was + afterwards applied by Wheatstone in the construction of his automatic + sender. + </p> + <p> + The chemical telegraph was tried between Paris and Lille before a + committee of the Institute and the Legislative Assembly. The speed of + signalling attained was 282 words in fifty-two seconds, a marvellous + advance on the Morse electro-magnetic instrument, which only gave about + forty words a minute. In the hands of Edison the neglected method of Bain + was seen by Sir William Thomson in the Centennial Exhibition, + Philadelphia, recording at the rate of 1057 words in fifty-seven seconds. + In England the telegraph of Bain was used on the lines of the old Electric + Telegraph Company to a limited extent, and in America about the year 1850 + it was taken up by the energetic Mr. Henry O'Reilly, and widely + introduced. But it incurred the hostility of Morse, who obtained an + injunction against it on the slender ground that the running paper and + alphabet used were covered by his patent. By 1859, as Mr. Shaffner tells + us, there was only one line in America on which the Bain system was in + use, namely, that from Boston to Montreal. Since those days of rivalry the + apparatus has never become general, and it is not easy to understand why, + considering its very high speed, the chemical telegraph has not become a + greater favourite. + </p> + <p> + In 1847 Bain devised an automatic method of playing on wind instruments by + moving a band of perforated paper which controlled the supply of air to + the pipes; and likewise proposed to play a number of keyed instruments at + a distance by means of the electric current. Both of these plans are still + in operation. + </p> + <p> + These and other inventions in the space of six years are a striking + testimony to the fertility of Bain's imagination at this period. But after + this extraordinary outburst he seems to have relapsed into sloth and the + dissipation of his powers. We have been told, and indeed it is plain that + he received a considerable sum for one or other of his inventions, + probably the chemical telegraph. But while he could rise from the ranks, + and brave adversity by dint of ingenuity and labour, it would seem that + his sanguine temperament was ill-fitted for prosperity. He went to + America, and what with litigation, unfortunate investment, and perhaps + extravagance, the fortune he had made was rapidly diminished. + </p> + <p> + Whether his inventive genius was exhausted, or he became disheartened, it + would be difficult to say, but he never flourished again. The rise in his + condition may be inferred from the preamble to his patent for electric + telegraphs and clocks, dated May 29, 1852, wherein he describes himself as + 'Gentleman,' and living at Beevor Lodge, Hammersmith. After an ephemeral + appearance in this character he sank once more into poverty, if not even + wretchedness. Moved by his unhappy circumstances, Sir William Thomson, the + late Sir William Siemens, Mr. Latimer Clark and others, obtained from Mr. + Gladstone, in the early part of 1873, a pension for him under the Civil + List of L80 a year; but the beneficiary lived in such obscurity that it + was a considerable time before his lodging could be discovered, and his + better fortune take effect. The Royal Society had previously made him a + gift of L150. + </p> + <p> + In his latter years, while he resided in Glasgow, his health failed, and + he was struck with paralysis in the legs. The massive forehead once + pregnant with the fire of genius, grew dull and slow of thought, while the + sturdy frame of iron hardihood became a tottering wreck. He was removed to + the Home for Incurables at Broomhill, Kirkintilloch, where he died on + January 2, 1877, and was interred in the Old Aisle Cemetery. He was a + widower, and had two children, but they were said to be abroad at the + time, the son in America and the daughter on the Continent. + </p> + <p> + Several of Bain's earlier patents are taken out in two names, but this was + perhaps owing to his poverty compelling him to take a partner. If these + and other inventions were substantially his own, and we have no reason to + suppose that he received more help from others than is usual with + inventors, we must allow that Bain was a mechanical genius of the first + order—a born inventor. Considering the early date of his + achievements, and his lack of education or pecuniary resource, we cannot + but wonder at the strength, fecundity, and prescience of his creative + faculty. It has been said that he came before his time; but had he been + more fortunate in other respects, there is little doubt that he would have + worked out and introduced all or nearly all his inventions, and probably + some others. His misfortunes and sorrows are so typical of the + 'disappointed inventor' that we would fain learn more about his life; but + beyond a few facts in a little pamphlet (published by himself, we + believe), there is little to be gathered; a veil of silence has fallen + alike upon his triumphs, his errors and his miseries. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. DR. WERNER SIEMENS. + </h2> + <p> + THE leading electrician of Germany is Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens, eldest + brother of the same distinguished family of which our own Sir William + Siemens was a member. Ernst, like his brother William, was born at Lenthe, + near Hanover, on December 13, 1816. He was educated at the College of + Lubeck in Maine, and entered the Prussian Artillery service as a + volunteer. He pursued his scientific studies at the Artillery and + Engineers' School in Berlin, and in 1838 obtained an officer's commission. + </p> + <p> + Physics and chemistry were his favourite studies; and his original + researches in electro-gilding resulted in a Prussian patent in 1841. The + following year he, in conjunction with his brother William, took out + another patent for a differential regulator. In 1844 he was appointed to a + post in the artillery workshops in Berlin, where he learned telegraphy, + and in 1845 patented a dial and printing telegraph, which is still in use + in Germany. + </p> + <p> + In 1846, he was made a member of a commission organised in Berlin to + introduce electric telegraphs in place of the optical ones hitherto + employed in Prussia, and he succeeded in getting the commission to adopt + underground telegraph lines. For the insulation of the wires he + recommended gutta-percha, which was then becoming known as an insulator. + In the following year he constructed a machine for covering copper wire + with the melted gum by means of pressure; and this machine is + substantially the same as that now used for the purpose in cable + factories. + </p> + <p> + In 1848, when the war broke out with Denmark, he was sent to Kiel where, + together with his brother-in-law, Professor C. Himly, he laid the first + submarine mines, fired by electricity and thus protected the town of Kiel + from the advance of the enemies' fleet. + </p> + <p> + Of late years the German Government has laid a great network of + underground lines between the various towns and fortresses of the empire; + preferring them to overhead lines as being less liable to interruption + from mischief, accident, hostile soldiers, or stress of weather. The first + of such lines was, however, laid as long ago as 1848, by Werner Siemens, + who, in the autumn of that year, deposited a subterranean cable between + Berlin and Frankfort-on-the-Main. Next year a second cable was laid from + the Capital to Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Verviers. + </p> + <p> + In 1847 the subject of our memoir had, along with Mr. Halske, founded a + telegraph factory, and he now left the army to give himself up to + scientific work and the development of his business. This factory + prospered well, and is still the chief continental works of the kind. The + new departure made by Werner Siemens was fortunate for electrical science; + and from then till now a number of remarkable inventions have proceeded + from his laboratory. + </p> + <p> + The following are the more notable advances made:—In October 1845, a + machine for the measurement of small intervals of time, and the speed of + electricity by means of electric sparks, and its application in 1875 for + measuring the speed of the electric current in overland lines. + </p> + <p> + In January 1850, a paper on telegraph lines and apparatus, in which the + theory of the electro-static charge in insulated wires, as well as methods + and formula: for the localising of faults in underground wires were first + established. In 1851, the firm erected the first automatic fire telegraphs + in Berlin, and in the same year, Werner Siemens wrote a treatise on the + experience gained with the underground lines of the Prussian telegraph + system. The difficulty of communicating through long underground lines led + him to the invention of automatic translation, which was afterwards + improved upon by Steinheil, and, in 1852, he furnished the + Warsaw-Petersburg line with automatic fast-speed writers. The messages + were punched in a paper band by means of the well-known Siemens' lever + punching apparatus, and then automatically transmitted in a clockwork + instrument. + </p> + <p> + In 1854 the discovery (contemporaneous with that of Frischen) of + simultaneous transmission of messages in opposite directions, and + multiplex transmission of messages by means of electro-magnetic apparatus. + The 'duplex' system which is now employed both on land lines and submarine + cables had been suggested however, before this by Dr. Zetsche, Gintl, and + others. + </p> + <p> + In 1856 he invented the Siemens' magneto-electric dial instrument giving + alternate currents. From this apparatus originated the well-known Siemens' + armature, and from the receiver was developed the Siemens' polarised + relay, with which the working of submarine and other lines could be + effected with alternate currents; and in the same year, during the laying + of the Cagliari to Bona cable, he constructed and first applied the + dynamometer, which has become of such importance in the operations of + cable laying. + </p> + <p> + In 1857, he investigated the electro-static induction and retardation of + currents in insulated wires, a phenomenon which he had observed in 1850, + and communicated an account of it to the French Academy of Sciences. + </p> + <p> + 'In these researches he developed mathematically Faraday's theory of + molecular induction, and thereby paved the way in great measure for its + general acceptance.' His ozone apparatus, his telegraph instrument working + with alternate currents, and his instrument for translating on and + automatically discharging submarine cables also belong to the year 1857. + The latter instruments were applied to the Sardinia, Malta, and Corfu + cable. + </p> + <p> + In 1859, he constructed an electric log; he discovered that a dielectric + is heated by induction; he introduced the well known Siemens' mercury + unit, and many improvements in the manufacture of resistance coils. He + also investigated the law of change of resistance in wires by heating; and + published several formulae and methods for testing resistances and + determining 'faults' by measuring resistances. These methods were adopted + by the electricians of the Government service in Prussia, and by Messrs. + Siemens Brothers in London, during the manufacture of the Malta to + Alexandria cable, which, was, we believe, the first long cable subjected + to a system of continuous tests. + </p> + <p> + 'In 1861, he showed that the electrical resistance of molten alloys is + equal to the sum of the resistances of the separate metals, and that + latent heat increases the specific resistance of metals in a greater + degree than free heat.' In 1864 he made researches on the heating of the + sides of a Leyden jar by the electrical discharge. In 1866 he published + the general theory of dynamo-electric machines, and the principle of + accumulating the magnetic effect, a principle which, however, had been + contemporaneously discovered by Mr. S. A. Varley, and described in a + patent some years before by Mr. Soren Hjorth, a Danish inventor. Hjorth's + patent is to be found in the British Patent Office Library, and until + lately it was thought that he was the first and true inventor of the + 'dynamo' proper, but we understand there is a prior inventor still, though + we have not seen the evidence in support of the statement. + </p> + <p> + The reversibility of the dynamo was enunciated by Werner Siemens in 1867; + but it was not experimentally demonstrated on any practical scale until + 1870, when M. Hippolite Fontaine succeeded in pumping water at the Vienna + international exhibition by the aid of two dynamos connected in circuit; + one, the generator, deriving motion from a hydraulic engine, and in turn + setting in motion the receiving dynamo which worked the pump. Professor + Clerk Maxwell thought this discovery the greatest of the century; and the + remark has been repeated more than once. But it is a remark which derives + its chief importance from the man who made it, and its credentials from + the paradoxical surprise it causes. The discovery in question is certainly + fraught with very great consequences to the mechanical world; but in + itself it is no discovery of importance, and naturally follows from + Faraday's far greater and more original discovery of magneto-electric + generation. + </p> + <p> + In 1874, Dr. Siemens published a treatise on the laying and testing of + submarine cables. In 1875, 1876 and 1877, he investigated the action of + light on crystalline selenium, and in 1878 he studied the action of the + telephone. + </p> + <p> + The recent work of Dr. Siemens has been to improve the pneumatic railway, + railway signalling, electric lamps, dynamos, electro-plating and electric + railways. The electric railway at Berlin in 1880, and Paris in 1881, was + the beginning of electric locomotion, a subject of great importance and + destined in all probability, to very wide extension in the immediate + future. Dr. Siemens has received many honours from learned societies at + home and abroad; and a title equivalent to knighthood from the German + Government. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. LATIMER CLARK. + </h2> + <p> + MR. Clark was born at Great Marlow in 1822, and probably acquired his + scientific bent while engaged at a manufacturing chemist's business in + Dublin. On the outbreak of the railway mania in 1845 he took to surveying, + and through his brother, Mr. Edwin Clark, became assistant engineer to the + late Robert Stephenson on the Britannia Bridge. While thus employed, he + made the acquaintance of Mr. Ricardo, founder of the Electric Telegraph + Company, and joined that Company as an engineer in 1850. He rose to be + chief engineer in 1854, and held the post till 1861, when he entered into + a partnership with Mr. Charles T. Bright. Prior to this, he had made + several original researches; in 1853, he found that the retardation of + current on insulated wires was independent of the strength of current, and + his experiments formed the subject of a Friday evening lecture by Faraday + at the Royal Institution—a sufficient mark of their importance. + </p> + <p> + In 1854 he introduced the pneumatic dispatch into London, and, in 1856, he + patented his well-known double-cup insulator. In 1858, he and Mr. Bright + produced the material known as 'Clark's Compound,' which is so valuable + for protecting submarine cables from rusting in the sea-water. In 1859, + Mr. Clark was appointed engineer to the Atlantic Telegraph Company which + tried to lay an Anglo-American cable in 1865. in partnership with Sir C. + T. Bright, who had taken part in the first Atlantic cable expedition, Mr. + Clark laid a cable for the Indian Government in the Red Sea, in order to + establish a telegraph to India. In 1886, the partnership ceased; but, in + 1869, Mr Clark went out to the Persian Gulf to lay a second cable there. + Here he was nearly lost in the shipwreck of the Carnatic on the Island of + Shadwan in the Red Sea. + </p> + <p> + Subsequently Mr. Clark became the head of a firm of consulting + electricians, well known under the title of Clark, Forde and Company, and + latterly including the late Mr. C. Hockin and Mr. Herbert Taylor. + </p> + <p> + The Mediterranean cable to India, the East Indian Archipelago cable to + Australia, the Brazilian Atlantic cables were all laid under the + supervision of this firm. Mr. Clark is now in partnership with Mr. + Stanfield, and is the joint-inventor of Clark and Stanfield's circular + floating dock. He is also head of the well-known firm of electrical + manufacturers, Messrs. Latimer Clark, Muirhead and Co., of Regency Street, + Westminster. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing sketch is but an imperfect outline of a very successful + life. `But enough has been given to show that we have here an engineer of + various and even brilliant gifts. Mr. Clark has applied himself in divers + directions, and never applied himself in vain. There is always some + practical result to show which will be useful to others. In technical + literature he published a description of the Conway and Britannia Tubular + Bridges as long ago as 1849. There is a valuable communication of his in + the Board of Trade Blue Rook on Submarine Cables. In 1868, he issued a + useful work on ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENTS, and in 1871 joined with Mr. Robert + Sabine in producing the well-known ELECTRICAL TABLES AND FORMULAE, a work + which was for a long time the electrician's VADE-MECUM. In 1873, he + communicated a lengthy paper on the NEW STANDARD OF ELECTROMOTIVE POWER + now known as CLARK'S STANDARD CELL; and quite recently he published a + treatise on the USE OF THE TRANSIT INSTRUMENT. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Clark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, as well as a member + of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Royal Astronomical Society, the + Physical Society, etc., and was elected fourth President of the Society of + Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians, now the Institution of Electrical + Engineers. + </p> + <p> + He is a great lover of books and gardening—two antithetical hobbies—which + are charming in themselves, and healthily counteractive. The rich and + splendid library of electrical works which he is forming, has been + munificently presented to the Institution of Electrical Engineers. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. COUNT DU MONCEL. + </h2> + <p> + Theodose-Achille-Louis, Comte du Moncel, was born at Paris on March 6, + 1821. His father was a peer of France, one of the old nobility, and a + General of Engineers. He possessed a model farm near Cherbourg, and had + set his heart on training his son to carry on this pet project; but young + Du Moncel, under the combined influence of a desire for travel, a love of + archaeology, and a rare talent for drawing, went off to Greece, and filled + his portfolio with views of the Parthenon and many other pictures of that + classic region. His father avenged himself by declining to send him any + money; but the artist sold his sketches and relied solely on his pencil. + On returning to Paris he supported himself by his art, but at the same + time gratified his taste for science in a discursive manner. A beautiful + and accomplished lady of the Court, Mademoiselle Camille Clementine + Adelaide Bachasson de Montalivet, belonging to a noble and distinguished + family, had plighted her troth with him, and, as we have been told, + descended one day from her carriage, and wedded the man of her heart, in + the humble room of a flat not far from the Grand Opera House. They were a + devoted pair, and Madame du Moncel played the double part of a faithful + help-meet, and inspiring genius. Heart and soul she encouraged her husband + to distinguish himself by his talents and energy, and even assisted him in + his labours. + </p> + <p> + About 1852 he began to occupy himself almost exclusively with electrical + science. His most conspicuous discovery is that pressure diminishes the + resistance of contact between two conductors, a fact which Clerac in 1866 + utilised in the construction of a variable resistance from carbon, such as + plumbage, by compressing it with an adjustable screw. It is also the + foundation of the carbon transmitter of Edison, and the more delicate + microphone of Professor Hughes. But Du Moncel is best known as an author + and journalist. His 'Expose des applications de l'electricite' published + in 1856 ET SEQ., and his 'Traite pratique de Telegraphie,' not to mention + his later books on recent marvels, such as the telephone, microphone, + phonograph, and electric light, are standard works of reference. In the + compilation of these his admirable wife assisted him as a literary + amanuensis, for she had acquired a considerable knowledge of electricity. + </p> + <p> + In 1866 he was created an officer of the Legion of Honour, and he became a + member of numerous learned societies. For some time he was an adviser of + the French telegraph administration, but resigned the post in 1873. The + following year he was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences, Paris. + In 1879, he became editor of a new electrical journal established at Paris + under the title of 'La Lumiere Electrique,' and held the position until + his death, which happened at Paris after a few days' illness on February + 16, 1884. His devoted wife was recovering from a long illness which had + caused her affectionate husband much anxiety, and probably affected his + health. She did not long survive him, but died on February 4, 1887, at + Mentone in her fifty-fifth year. Count du Moncel was an indefatigable + worker, who, instead of abandoning himself to idleness and pleasure like + many of his order, believed it his duty to be active and useful in his own + day, as his ancestors had been in the past. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. ELISHA GRAY. + </h2> + <p> + THIS distinguished American electrician was born at Barnesville in Belmont + county, Ohio, on August 2, 1835. His family were Quakers, and in early + life he was apprenticed to a carpenter, but showed a taste for chemistry, + and at the age of twenty-one he went to Oberlin College, where he studied + for five years. At the age of thirty he turned his attention to + electricity, and invented a relay which adapted itself to the varying + insulation of the telegraph line. He was then led to devise several forms + of automatic repeaters, but they are not much employed. In 1870-2, he + brought out a needle annunciator for hotels, and another for elevators, + which had a large sale. His 'Private Telegraph Line Printer' was also a + success. From 1873-5 he was engaged in perfecting his 'Electro-harmonic + telegraph.' His speaking telegraph was likewise the outcome of these + researches. The 'Telautograph,' or telegraph which writes the messages as + a fac-simile of the sender's penmanship by an ingenious application of + intermittent currents, is the latest of his more important works. Mr. Gray + is a member of the firm of Messrs. Gray and Barton, and electrician to the + Western Electric Manufacturing Company of Chicago. His home is at Highland + Park near that city. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heroes of the Telegraph, by J. 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Munro + +Posting Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #979] +Release Date: July, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH + +By J. Munro + +Author Of 'Electricity And Its Uses,' Pioneers Of Electricity,' +'The Wire And The Wave'; And Joint Author Of 'Munro And Jamieson's +Pocket-Book Of Electrical Rules And Tables.' + + +(Note: All accents etc. have been omitted. Italics have been converted +to capital letters. The British 'pound' sign has been written as 'L'. +Footnotes have been placed in square brackets at the place in the text +where a suffix originally indicated their existence.) + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The present work is in some respects a sequel to the PIONEERS OF +ELECTRICITY, and it deals with the lives and principal achievements of +those distinguished men to whom we are indebted for the introduction +of the electric telegraph and telephone, as well as other marvels of +electric science. + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER + I. THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH + II. CHARLES WHEATSTONE + III. SAMUEL MORSE + IV. SIR WILLIAM THOMSON + V. SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS + VI. FLEEMING JENKIN + VII. JOHANN PHILIPP REIS + VIII. GRAHAM BELL + IX. THOMAS ALVA EDISON + X. DAVID EDWIN HUGHES + + APPENDIX. + I. CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS + II. WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER + III. SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE + IV. ALEXANDER BAIN + V. DR. WERNER SIEMENS + VI. LATIMER CLARK + VII. COUNT DU MONCEL + VIII. ELISHA GRAY + + + + +CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH. + +The history of an invention, whether of science or art, may be compared +to the growth of an organism such as a tree. The wind, or the random +visit of a bee, unites the pollen in the flower, the green fruit forms +and ripens to the perfect seed, which, on being planted in congenial +soil, takes root and flourishes. Even so from the chance combination of +two facts in the human mind, a crude idea springs, and after maturing +into a feasible plan is put in practice under favourable conditions, and +so develops. These processes are both subject to a thousand accidents +which are inimical to their achievement. Especially is this the case +when their object is to produce a novel species, or a new and great +invention like the telegraph. It is then a question of raising, not one +seedling, but many, and modifying these in the lapse of time. + +Similarly the telegraph is not to be regarded as the work of any one +mind, but of many, and during a long course of years. Because at length +the final seedling is obtained, are we to overlook the antecedent +varieties from which it was produced, and without which it could not +have existed? Because one inventor at last succeeds in putting the +telegraph in operation, are we to neglect his predecessors, whose +attempts and failures were the steps by which he mounted to success? All +who have extended our knowledge of electricity, or devised a telegraph, +and familiarised the public mind with the advantages of it, are +deserving of our praise and gratitude, as well as he who has entered +into their labours, and by genius and perseverance won the honours of +being the first to introduce it. + +Let us, therefore, trace in a rapid manner the history of the electric +telegraph from the earliest times. + +The sources of a river are lost in the clouds of the mountain, but it +is usual to derive its waters from the lakes or springs which are +its fountain-head. In the same way the origins of our knowledge of +electricity and magnetism are lost in the mists of antiquity, but there +are two facts which have come to be regarded as the starting-points +of the science. It was known to the ancients at least 600 years before +Christ, that a piece of amber when excited by rubbing would attract +straws, and that a lump of lodestone had the property of drawing iron. +Both facts were probably ascertained by chance. Humboldt informs us that +he saw an Indian child of the Orinoco rubbing the seed of a trailing +plant to make it attract the wild cotton; and, perhaps, a prehistoric +tribesman of the Baltic or the plains of Sicily found in the yellow +stone he had polished the mysterious power of collecting dust. A Greek +legend tells us that the lodestone was discovered by Magnes, a shepherd +who found his crook attracted by the rock. + +However this may be, we are told that Thales of Miletus attributed the +attractive properties of the amber and the lodestone to a soul within +them. The name Electricity is derived from ELEKTRON, the Greek for +amber, and Magnetism from Magnes, the name of the shepherd, or, more +likely, from the city of Magnesia, in Lydia, where the stone occurred. + +These properties of amber and lodestone appear to have been widely +known. The Persian name for amber is KAHRUBA, attractor of straws, and +that for lodestone AHANG-RUBA attractor of iron. In the old Persian +romance, THE LOVES OF MAJNOON AND LEILA, the lover sings-- + + 'She was as amber, and I but as straw: + She touched me, and I shall ever cling to her.' + +The Chinese philosopher, Kuopho, who flourished in the fourth century, +writes that, 'the attraction of a magnet for iron is like that of amber +for the smallest grain of mustard seed. It is like a breath of wind +which mysteriously penetrates through both, and communicates itself with +the speed of an arrow.' [Lodestone was probably known in China before +the Christian era.] Other electrical effects were also observed by the +ancients. Classical writers, as Homer, Caesar, and Plutarch, speak of +flames on the points of javelins and the tips of masts. They regarded +them as manifestations of the Deity, as did the soldiers of the Mahdi +lately in the Soudan. It is recorded of Servius Tullus, the sixth king +of Rome, that his hair emitted sparks on being combed; and that sparks +came from the body of Walimer, a Gothic chief, who lived in the year 415 +A.D. + +During the dark ages the mystical virtues of the lodestone drew more +attention than those of the more precious amber, and interesting +experiments were made with it. The Romans knew that it could attract +iron at some distance through an intervening fence of wood, brass, or +stone. One of their experiments was to float a needle on a piece of +cork, and make it follow a lodestone held in the hand. This arrangement +was perhaps copied from the compass of the Phoenician sailors, who +buoyed a lodestone and observed it set towards the north. There is +reason to believe that the magnet was employed by the priests of the +Oracle in answering questions. We are told that the Emperor Valerius, +while at Antioch in 370 A.D., was shown a floating needle which pointed +to the letters of the alphabet when guided by the directive force of +a lodestone. It was also believed that this effect might be produced +although a stone wall intervened, so that a person outside a house or +prison might convey intelligence to another inside. + +This idea was perhaps the basis of the sympathetic telegraph of the +Middle Ages, which is first described in the MAGIAE NATURALIS of John +Baptista Porta, published at Naples in 1558. It was supposed by Porta +and others after him that two similar needles touched by the same +lodestone were sympathetic, so that, although far apart, if both +were freely balanced, a movement of one was imitated by the other. +By encircling each balanced needle with an alphabet, the sympathetic +telegraph was obtained. Although based on error, and opposed by Cabeus +and others, this fascinating notion continued to crop up even to the +days of Addison. It was a prophetic shadow of the coming invention. In +the SCEPSIS SCIENTIFICA, published in 1665, Joseph Glanvil wrote, 'to +confer at the distance of the Indies by sympathetic conveyances may +be as usual to future times as to us in literary correspondence.' [The +Rosicrucians also believed that if two persons transplanted pieces of +their flesh into each other, and tattooed the grafts with letters, a +sympathetic telegraph could be established by pricking the letters.] + +Dr. Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth, by his systematic researches, +discovered the magnetism of the earth, and laid the foundations of +the modern science of electricity and magnetism. Otto von Guericke, +burgomaster of Magdeburg, invented the electrical machine for generating +large quantities of the electric fire. Stephen Gray, a pensioner of +the Charterhouse, conveyed the fire to a distance along a line of pack +thread, and showed that some bodies conducted electricity, while others +insulated it. Dufay proved that there were two qualities of electricity, +now called positive and negative, and that each kind repelled the like, +but attracted the unlike. Von Kleist, a cathedral dean of Kamm, in +Pomerania, or at all events Cuneus, a burgher, and Muschenbroek, a +professor of Leyden, discovered the Leyden jar for holding a charge of +electricity; and Franklin demonstrated the identity of electricity and +lightning. + +The charge from a Leyden jar was frequently sent through a chain of +persons clasping hands, or a length of wire with the earth as part of +the circuit. This experiment was made by Joseph Franz, of Vienna, in +1746, and Dr. Watson, of London, in 1747; while Franklin ignited spirits +by a spark which had been sent across the Schuylkill river by the same +means. But none of these men seem to have grasped the idea of employing +the fleet fire as a telegraph. + +The first suggestion of an electric telegraph on record is that +published by one 'C. M.' in the Scots Magazine for February 17, 1753. +The device consisted in running a number of insulated wires between +two places, one for each letter of the alphabet. The wires were to be +charged with electricity from a machine one at a time, according to the +letter it represented. At its far end the charged wire was to attract a +disc of paper marked with the corresponding letter, and so the message +would be spelt. 'C. M.' also suggested the first acoustic telegraph, +for he proposed to have a set of bells instead of the letters, each of a +different tone, and to be struck by the spark from its charged wire. + +The identity of 'C. M.,' who dated his letter from Renfrew, has not been +established beyond a doubt. There is a tradition of a clever man living +in Renfrew at that time, and afterwards in Paisley, who could 'licht a +room wi' coal reek (smoke), and mak' lichtnin' speak and write upon +the wa'.' By some he was thought to be a certain Charles Marshall, +from Aberdeen; but it seems likelier that he was a Charles Morrison, of +Greenock, who was trained as a surgeon, and became connected with +the tobacco trade of Glasgow. In Renfrew he was regarded as a kind of +wizard, and he is said to have emigrated to Virginia, where he died. + +In the latter half of the eighteenth century, many other suggestions +of telegraphs based on the known properties of the electric fire were +published; for example, by Joseph Bozolus, a Jesuit lecturer of Rome, in +1767; by Odier, a Geneva physicist, in 1773, who states in a letter to +a lady, that he conceived the idea on hearing a casual remark, while +dining at Sir John Pringle's, with Franklin, Priestley, and other great +geniuses. 'I shall amuse you, perhaps, in telling you,' he says,'that I +have in my head certain experiments by which to enter into conversation +with the Emperor of Mogol or of China, the English, the French, or any +other people of Europe... You may intercommunicate all that you wish at +a distance of four or five thousands leagues in less than half an hour. +Will that suffice you for glory?' + +George Louis Lesage, in 1782, proposed a plan similar to 'C. M.'s,' +using underground wires. An anonymous correspondent of the JOURNAL DE +PARIS for May 30, 1782, suggested an alarm bell to call attention to the +message. Lomond, of Paris, devised a telegraph with only one wire; the +signals to be read by the peculiar movements of an attracted pith-ball, +and Arthur Young witnessed his plan in action, as recorded in his diary. +M. Chappe, the inventor of the semaphore, tried about the year 1790 to +introduce a synchronous electric telegraph, and failed. + +Don Francisco Salva y Campillo, of Barcelona, in 1795, proposed to +make a telegraph between Barcelona and Mataro, either overhead or +underground, and he remarks of the wires, 'at the bottom of the sea +their bed would be ready made, and it would be an extraordinary casualty +that should disturb them.' In Salva's telegraph, the signals were to be +made by illuminating letters of tinfoil with the spark. Volta's great +invention of the pile in 1800 furnished a new source of electricity, +better adapted for the telegraph, and Salva was apparently the first +to recognise this, for, in the same year, he proposed to use it +and interpret the signals by the twitching of a frog's limb, or the +decomposition of water. + +In 1802, Jean Alexandre, a reputed natural son of Jean Jacques Rousseau, +brought out a TELEGRAPHE INTIME, or secret telegraph, which appears to +have been a step-by-step apparatus. The inventor concealed its mode of +working, but it was believed to be electrical, and there was a needle +which stopped at various points on a dial. Alexandre stated that he +had found out a strange matter or power which was, perhaps generally +diffused, and formed in some sort the soul of the universe. He +endeavoured to bring his invention under the eye of the First Consul, +but Napoleon referred the matter to Delambre, and would not see it. +Alexandre was born at Paris, and served as a carver and gilder at +Poictiers; then sang in the churches till the Revolution suppressed this +means of livelihood. He rose to influence as a Commissary-general, then +retired from the army and became an inventor. His name is associated +with a method of steering balloons, and a filter for supplying Bordeaux +with water from the Garonne. But neither of these plans appear to have +been put in practice, and he died at Angouleme, leaving his widow in +extreme poverty. + +Sommering, a distinguished Prussian anatomist, in 1809 brought out a +telegraph worked by a voltaic battery, and making signals by decomposing +water. Two years later it was greatly simplified by Schweigger, of +Halle; and there is reason to believe that but for the discovery of +electro-magnetism by Oersted, in 1824 the chemical telegraph would have +come into practical use. + +In 1806, Ralph Wedgwood submitted a telegraph based on frictional +electricity to the Admiralty, but was told that the semaphore was +sufficient for the country. In a pamphlet he suggested the establishment +of a telegraph system with public offices in different centres. Francis +Ronalds, in 1816, brought a similar telegraph of his invention to the +notice of the Admiralty, and was politely informed that 'telegraphs of +any kind are now wholly unnecessary.' + +In 1826-7, Harrison Gray Dyar, of New York, devised a telegraph in +which the spark was made to stain the signals on moist litmus paper by +decomposing nitric acid; but he had to abandon his experiments in Long +Island and fly the country, because of a writ which charged him with +a conspiracy for carrying on secret communication. In 1830 Hubert +Recy published an account of a system of Teletatodydaxie, by which the +electric spark was to ignite alcohol and indicate the signals of a code. + +But spark or frictional electric telegraphs were destined to give way +to those actuated by the voltaic current, as the chemical mode of +signalling was superseded by the electro-magnet. In 1820 the separate +courses of electric and magnetic science were united by the connecting +discovery of Oersted, who found that a wire conveying a current had the +power of moving a compass-needle to one side or the other according to +the direction of the current. + +La Place, the illustrious mathematician, at once saw that this fact +could be utilised as a telegraph, and Ampere, acting on his suggestion, +published a feasible plan. Before the year was out, Schweigger, of +Halle, multiplied the influence of the current on the needle by coiling +the wire about it. Ten years later, Ritchie improved on Ampere's method, +and exhibited a model at the Royal Institution, London. About the same +time, Baron Pawel Schilling, a Russian nobleman, still further modified +it, and the Emperor Nicholas decreed the erection of a line from +Cronstadt to St. Petersburg, with a cable in the Gulf of Finland but +Schilling died in 1837, and the project was never realised. + +In 1833-5 Professors Gauss and Weber constructed a telegraph between the +physical cabinet and the Observatory of the University of Gottingen. +At first they used the voltaic pile, but abandoned it in favour of +Faraday's recent discovery that electricity could be generated in a wire +by the motion of a magnet. The magnetic key with which the message was +sent Produced by its action an electric current which, after traversing +the line, passed through a coil and deflected a suspended magnet to +the right or left, according to the direction of the current. A mirror +attached to the suspension magnified the movement of the needle, +and indicated the signals after the manner of the Thomson mirror +galvanometer. This telegraph, which was large and clumsy, was +nevertheless used not only for scientific, but for general +correspondence. Steinheil, of Munich, simplified it, and added an alarm +in the form of a bell. + +In 1836, Steinheil also devised a recording telegraph, in which the +movable needles indicated the message by marking dots and dashes +with printer's ink on a ribbon of travelling paper, according to an +artificial code in which the fewest signs were given to the commonest +letters in the German language. With this apparatus the message was +registered at the rate of six words a minute. The early experimenters, +as we have seen, especially Salva, had utilised the ground as the return +part of the circuit; and Salva had proposed to use it on his telegraph, +but Steinheil was the first to demonstrate its practical value. In +trying, on the suggestion of Gauss, to employ the rails of the Nurenberg +to Furth railway as the conducting line for a telegraph in the year +1838, he found they would not serve; but the failure led him to employ +the earth as the return half of the circuit. + +In 1837, Professor Stratingh, of Groninque, Holland, devised a telegraph +in which the signals were made by electro-magnets actuating the hammers +of two gongs or bells of different tone; and M. Amyot invented an +automatic sending key in the nature of a musical box. From 1837-8, +Edward Davy, a Devonshire surgeon, exhibited a needle telegraph in +London, and proposed one based on the discovery of Arago, that a piece +of soft iron is temporarily magnetised by the passage of an electric +current through a coil surrounding it. This principle was further +applied by Morse in his electro-magnetic printing telegraph. Davy was a +prolific inventor, and also sketched out a telegraph in which the +gases evolved from water which was decomposed by the current actuated a +recording pen. But his most valuable discovery was the 'relay,' that is +to say, an auxiliary device by which a current too feeble to indicate +the signals could call into play a local battery strong enough to make +them. Davy was in a fair way of becoming one of the fathers of the +working telegraph, when his private affairs obliged him to emigrate to +Australia, and leave the course open to Cooke and Wheatstone. + + + +CHAPTER II. CHARLES WHEATSTONE. + +The electric telegraph, like the steam-engine and the railway, was a +gradual development due to the experiments and devices of a long +train of thinkers. In such a case he who crowns the work, making it +serviceable to his fellow-men, not only wins the pecuniary prize, but +is likely to be hailed and celebrated as the chief, if not the sole +inventor, although in a scientific sense the improvement he has made is +perhaps less than that of some ingenious and forgotten forerunner. He +who advances the work from the phase of a promising idea, to that of a +common boon, is entitled to our gratitude. But in honouring the keystone +of the arch, as it were, let us acknowledge the substructure on which +it rests, and keep in mind the entire bridge. Justice at least is due to +those who have laboured without reward. + +Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone were the first +to bring the electric telegraph into daily use. But we have selected +Wheatstone as our hero, because he was eminent as a man of science, +and chiefly instrumental in perfecting the apparatus. As James Watt +is identified with the steam-engine, and George Stephenson with the +railway, so is Wheatstone with the telegraph. + +Charles Wheatstone was born near Gloucester, in February, 1802. His +father was a music-seller in the town, who, four years later, removed +to 128, Pall Mall, London, and became a teacher of the flute. He used to +say, with not a little pride, that he had been engaged in assisting at +the musical education of the Princess Charlotte. Charles, the second +son, went to a village school, near Gloucester, and afterwards to +several institutions in London. One of them was in Kennington, and kept +by a Mrs. Castlemaine, who was astonished at his rapid progress. From +another he ran away, but was captured at Windsor, not far from the +theatre of his practical telegraph. As a boy he was very shy and +sensitive, liking well to retire into an attic, without any other +company than his own thoughts. When he was about fourteen years old he +was apprenticed to his uncle and namesake, a maker and seller of musical +instruments, at 436, Strand, London; but he showed little taste for +handicraft or business, and loved better to study books. His father +encouraged him in this, and finally took him out of the uncle's charge. + +At the age of fifteen, Wheatstone translated French poetry, and wrote +two songs, one of which was given to his uncle, who published it without +knowing it as his nephew's composition. Some lines of his on the lyre +became the motto of an engraving by Bartolozzi. Small for his age, but +with a fine brow, and intelligent blue eyes, he often visited an old +book-stall in the vicinity of Pall Mall, which was then a dilapidated +and unpaved thoroughfare. Most of his pocket-money was spent in +purchasing the books which had taken his fancy, whether fairy tales, +history, or science. One day, to the surprise of the bookseller, he +coveted a volume on the discoveries of Volta in electricity, but not +having the price, he saved his pennies and secured the volume. It was +written in French, and so he was obliged to save again, till he could +buy a dictionary. Then he began to read the volume, and, with the help +of his elder brother, William, to repeat the experiments described in +it, with a home-made battery, in the scullery behind his father's house. +In constructing the battery the boy philosophers ran short of money to +procure the requisite copper-plates. They had only a few copper coins +left. A happy thought occurred to Charles, who was the leading spirit in +these researches, 'We must use the pennies themselves,' said he, and the +battery was soon complete. + +In September, 1821, Wheatstone brought himself into public notice by +exhibiting the 'Enchanted Lyre,' or 'Aconcryptophone,' at a music-shop +at Pall Mall and in the Adelaide Gallery. It consisted of a mimic lyre +hung from the ceiling by a cord, and emitting the strains of several +instruments--the piano, harp, and dulcimer. In reality it was a mere +sounding box, and the cord was a steel rod that conveyed the vibrations +of the music from the several instruments which were played out of sight +and ear-shot. At this period Wheatstone made numerous experiments +on sound and its transmission. Some of his results are preserved in +Thomson's ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY for 1823. He recognised that sound is +propagated by waves or oscillations of the atmosphere, as light by +undulations of the luminiferous ether. Water, and solid bodies, such +as glass, or metal, or sonorous wood, convey the modulations with high +velocity, and he conceived the plan of transmitting sound-signals, +music, or speech to long distances by this means. He estimated that +sound would travel 200 miles a second through solid rods, and proposed +to telegraph from London to Edinburgh in this way. He even called his +arrangement a 'telephone.' [Robert Hooke, in his MICROGRAPHIA, published +in 1667, writes: 'I can assure the reader that I have, by the help of a +distended wire, propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in +an instant, or with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light.' Nor +was it essential the wire should be straight; it might be bent into +angles. This property is the basis of the mechanical or lover's +telephone, said to have been known to the Chinese many centuries ago. +Hooke also considered the possibility of finding a way to quicken our +powers of hearing.] A writer in the REPOSITORY OF ARTS for September 1, +1821, in referring to the 'Enchanted Lyre,' beholds the prospect of an +opera being performed at the King's Theatre, and enjoyed at the Hanover +Square Rooms, or even at the Horns Tavern, Kennington. The vibrations +are to travel through underground conductors, like to gas in pipes. 'And +if music be capable of being thus conducted,' he observes,'perhaps the +words of speech may be susceptible of the same means of propagation. The +eloquence of counsel, the debates of Parliament, instead of being read +the next day only,--But we shall lose ourselves in the pursuit of this +curious subject.' + +Besides transmitting sounds to a distance, Wheatstone devised a simple +instrument for augmenting feeble sounds, to which he gave the name +of 'Microphone.' It consisted of two slender rods, which conveyed the +mechanical vibrations to both ears, and is quite different from the +electrical microphone of Professor Hughes. + +In 1823, his uncle, the musical instrument maker, died, and Wheatstone, +with his elder brother, William, took over the business. Charles had no +great liking for the commercial part, but his ingenuity found a vent +in making improvements on the existing instruments, and in devising +philosophical toys. At the end of six years he retired from the +undertaking. + +In 1827, Wheatstone introduced his 'kaleidoscope,' a device for +rendering the vibrations of a sounding body apparent to the eye. It +consists of a metal rod, carrying at its end a silvered bead, which +reflects a 'spot' of light. As the rod vibrates the spot is seen to +describe complicated figures in the air, like a spark whirled about in +the darkness. His photometer was probably suggested by this appliance. +It enables two lights to be compared by the relative brightness of their +reflections in a silvered bead, which describes a narrow ellipse, so as +to draw the spots into parallel lines. + +In 1828, Wheatstone improved the German wind instrument, called the MUND +HARMONICA, till it became the popular concertina, patented on June 19, +1829 The portable harmonium is another of his inventions, which gained +a prize medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He also improved the +speaking machine of De Kempelen, and endorsed the opinion of Sir David +Brewster, that before the end of this century a singing and talking +apparatus would be among the conquests of science. + +In 1834, Wheatstone, who had won a name for himself, was appointed to +the Chair of Experimental Physics in King's College, London, But his +first course of lectures on Sound were a complete failure, owing to an +invincible repugnance to public speaking, and a distrust of his powers +in that direction. In the rostrum he was tongue-tied and incapable, +sometimes turning his back on the audience and mumbling to the diagrams +on the wall. In the laboratory he felt himself at home, and ever after +confined his duties mostly to demonstration. + +He achieved renown by a great experiment--the measurement of the +velocity of electricity in a wire. His method was beautiful and +ingenious. He cut the wire at the middle, to form a gap which a spark +might leap across, and connected its ends to the poles of a Leyden jar +filled with electricity. Three sparks were thus produced, one at either +end of the wire, and another at the middle. He mounted a tiny mirror +on the works of a watch, so that it revolved at a high velocity, and +observed the reflections of his three sparks in it. The points of the +wire were so arranged that if the sparks were instantaneous, their +reflections would appear in one straight line; but the middle one was +seen to lag behind the others, because it was an instant later. The +electricity had taken a certain time to travel from the ends of the wire +to the middle. This time was found by measuring the amount of lag, and +comparing it with the known velocity of the mirror. Having got the time, +he had only to compare that with the length of half the wire, and he +found that the velocity of electricity was 288,000 miles a second. + +Till then, many people had considered the electric discharge to be +instantaneous; but it was afterwards found that its velocity depended +on the nature of the conductor, its resistance, and its electro-static +capacity. Faraday showed, for example, that its velocity in a submarine +wire, coated with insulator and surrounded with water, is only 144,000 +miles a second, or still less. Wheatstone's device of the revolving +mirror was afterwards employed by Foucault and Fizeau to measure the +velocity of light. + +In 1835, at the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Wheatstone +showed that when metals were volatilised in the electric spark, their +light, examined through a prism, revealed certain rays which were +characteristic of them. Thus the kind of metals which formed the +sparking points could be determined by analysing the light of the spark. +This suggestion has been of great service in spectrum analysis, and as +applied by Bunsen, Kirchoff, and others, has led to the discovery +of several new elements, such as rubidium and thallium, as well as +increasing our knowledge of the heavenly bodies. Two years later, +he called attention to the value of thermo-electricity as a mode of +generating a current by means of heat, and since then a variety +of thermo-piles have been invented, some of which have proved of +considerable advantage. + +Wheatstone abandoned his idea of transmitting intelligence by the +mechanical vibration of rods, and took up the electric telegraph. In +1835 he lectured on the system of Baron Schilling, and declared that the +means were already known by which an electric telegraph could be made of +great service to the world. He made experiments with a plan of his own, +and not only proposed to lay an experimental line across the Thames, but +to establish it on the London and Birmingham Railway. Before these plans +were carried out, however, he received a visit from Mr. Fothergill +Cooke at his house in Conduit Street on February 27, 1837, which had an +important influence on his future. + +Mr. Cooke was an officer in the Madras army, who, being home on +furlough, was attending some lectures on anatomy at the University of +Heidelberg, where, on March 6, 1836, he witnessed a demonstration +with the telegraph of Professor Moncke, and was so impressed with its +importance, that he forsook his medical studies and devoted all his +efforts to the work of introducing the telegraph. He returned to London +soon after, and was able to exhibit a telegraph with three needles in +January, 1837. Feeling his want of scientific knowledge, he consulted +Faraday and Dr. Roget, the latter of whom sent him to Wheatstone. + +At a second interview, Mr. Cooke told Wheatstone of his intention to +bring out a working telegraph, and explained his method. Wheatstone, +according to his own statement, remarked to Cooke that the method would +not act, and produced his own experimental telegraph. Finally, Cooke +proposed that they should enter into a partnership, but Wheatstone was +at first reluctant to comply. He was a well-known man of science, and +had meant to publish his results without seeking to make capital of +them. Cooke, on the other hand, declared that his sole object was to +make a fortune from the scheme. In May they agreed to join their forces, +Wheatstone contributing the scientific, and Cooke the administrative +talent. The deed of partnership was dated November 19, 1837. A joint +patent was taken out for their inventions, including the five-needle +telegraph of Wheatstone, and an alarm worked by a relay, in which the +current, by dipping a needle into mercury, completed a local circuit, +and released the detent of a clockwork. + +The five-needle telegraph, which was mainly, if not entirely, due to +Wheatstone, was similar to that of Schilling, and based on the principle +enunciated by Ampere--that is to say, the current was sent into the line +by completing the circuit of the battery with a make and break key, and +at the other end it passed through a coil of wire surrounding a magnetic +needle free to turn round its centre. According as one pole of the +battery or the other was applied to the line by means of the key, the +current deflected the needle to one side or the other. There were five +separate circuits actuating five different needles. The latter were +pivoted in rows across the middle of a dial shaped like a diamond, and +having the letters of the alphabet arranged upon it in such a way that +a letter was literally pointed out by the current deflecting two of the +needles towards it. + +An experimental line, with a sixth return wire, was run between the +Euston terminus and Camden Town station of the London and North Western +Railway on July 25, 1837. The actual distance was only one and a half +mile, but spare wire had been inserted in the circuit to increase its +length. It was late in the evening before the trial took place. Mr. +Cooke was in charge at Camden Town, while Mr. Robert Stephenson and +other gentlemen looked on; and Wheatstone sat at his instrument in a +dingy little room, lit by a tallow candle, near the booking-office at +Euston. Wheatstone sent the first message, to which Cooke replied, +and 'never,' said Wheatstone, 'did I feel such a tumultuous sensation +before, as when, all alone in the still room, I heard the needles click, +and as I spelled the words, I felt all the magnitude of the invention +pronounced to be practicable beyond cavil or dispute.' + +In spite of this trial, however, the directors of the railway treated +the 'new-fangled' invention with indifference, and requested its +removal. In July, 1839, however, it was favoured by the Great Western +Railway, and a line erected from the Paddington terminus to West +Drayton station, a distance of thirteen miles. Part of the wire was laid +underground at first, but subsequently all of it was raised on posts +along the line. Their circuit was eventually extended to Slough in 1841, +and was publicly exhibited at Paddington as a marvel of science, which +could transmit fifty signals a distance of 280,000 miles in a minute. +The price of admission was a shilling. + +Notwithstanding its success, the public did not readily patronise the +new invention until its utility was noised abroad by the clever capture +of the murderer Tawell. Between six and seven o'clock one morning a +woman named Sarah Hart was found dead in her home at Salt Hill, and a +man had been observed to leave her house some time before. The police +knew that she was visited from time to time by a Mr. John Tawell, +from Berkhampstead, where he was much respected, and on inquiring and +arriving at Slough, they found that a person answering his description +had booked by a slow train for London, and entered a first-class +carriage. The police telegraphed at once to Paddington, giving the +particulars, and desiring his capture. 'He is in the garb of a Quaker,' +ran the message, 'with a brown coat on, which reaches nearly to his +feet.' There was no 'Q' in the alphabet of the five-needle instrument, +and the clerk at Slough began to spell the word 'Quaker' with a +'kwa'; but when he had got so far he was interrupted by the clerk at +Paddington, who asked him to 'repent.' The repetition fared no better, +until a boy at Paddington suggested that Slough should be allowed to +finish the word. 'Kwaker' was understood, and as soon as Tawell stepped +out on the platform at Paddington he was 'shadowed' by a detective, +who followed him into a New Road omnibus, and arrested him in a coffee +tavern. + +Tawell was tried for the murder of the woman, and astounding revelations +were made as to his character. Transported in 1820 for the crime of +forgery, he obtained a ticket-of-leave, and started as a chemist in +Sydney, where he flourished, and after fifteen years left it a rich man. +Returning to England, he married a Quaker lady as his second wife. He +confessed to the murder of Sarah Hart, by prussic acid, his motive being +a dread of their relations becoming known. + +Tawell was executed, and the notoriety of the case brought the telegraph +into repute. Its advantages as a rapid means of conveying intelligence +and detecting criminals had been signally demonstrated, and it was soon +adopted on a more extensive scale. + +In 1845 Wheatstone introduced two improved forms of the apparatus, +namely, the 'single' and the 'double' needle instruments, in which +the signals were made by the successive deflections of the needles. Of +these, the single-needle instrument, requiring only one wire, is still +in use. + +In 1841 a difference arose between Cooke and Wheatstone as to the share +of each in the honour of inventing the telegraph. The question was +submitted to the arbitration of the famous engineer, Marc Isambard +Brunel, on behalf of Cooke, and Professor Daniell, of King's College, +the inventor of the Daniell battery, on the part of Wheatstone. They +awarded to Cooke the credit of having introduced the telegraph as a +useful undertaking which promised to be of national importance, and +to Wheatstone that of having by his researches prepared the public to +receive it. They concluded with the words: 'It is to the united labours +of two gentlemen so well qualified for mutual assistance that we must +attribute the rapid progress which this important invention has made +during five years since they have been associated.' The decision, +however vague, pronounces the needle telegraph a joint production. If it +was mainly invented by Wheatstone, it was chiefly introduced by Cooke. +Their respective shares in the undertaking might be compared to that of +an author and his publisher, but for the fact that Cooke himself had a +share in the actual work of invention. + +In 1840 Wheatstone had patented an alphabetical telegraph, or, +'Wheatstone A B C instrument,' which moved with a step-by-step motion, +and showed the letters of the message upon a dial. The same principle +was utilised in his type-printing telegraph, patented in 1841. This was +the first apparatus which printed a telegram in type. It was worked +by two circuits, and as the type revolved a hammer, actuated by the +current, pressed the required letter on the paper. In 1840 Wheatstone +also brought out his magneto-electrical machine for generating +continuous currents, and his chronoscope, for measuring minute intervals +of time, which was used in determining the speed of a bullet or the +passage of a star. In this apparatus an electric current actuated an +electro-magnet, which noted the instant of an occurrence by means of +a pencil on a moving paper. It is said to have been capable of +distinguishing 1/7300 part of a second, and the time a body took to fall +from a height of one inch. + +The same year he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society +for his explanation of binocular vision, a research which led him to +construct the stereoscope. He showed that our impression of solidity +is gained by the combination in the mind of two separate pictures of an +object taken by both of our eyes from different points of view. Thus, in +the stereoscope, an arrangement of lenses and mirrors, two photographs +of the same object taken from different points are so combined as +to make the object stand out with a solid aspect. Sir David Brewster +improved the stereoscope by dispensing with the mirrors, and bringing it +into its existing form. + +The 'pseudoscope' (Wheatstone was partial to exotic forms of speech) was +introduced by its professor in 1850, and is in some sort the reverse of +the stereoscope, since it causes a solid object to seem hollow, and a +nearer one to be farther off; thus, a bust appears to be a mask, and a +tree growing outside of a window looks as if it were growing inside the +room. + +On November 26, 1840, he exhibited his electro-magnetic clock in the +library of the Royal Society, and propounded a plan for distributing the +correct time from a standard clock to a number of local timepieces. +The circuits of these were to be electrified by a key or contact-maker +actuated by the arbour of the standard, and their hands corrected by +electro-magnetism. The following January Alexander Bain took out a +patent for an electro-magnetic clock, and he subsequently charged +Wheatstone with appropriating his ideas. It appears that Bain worked as +a mechanist to Wheatstone from August to December, 1840, and he asserted +that he had communicated the idea of an electric clock to Wheatstone +during that period; but Wheatstone maintained that he had experimented +in that direction during May. Bain further accused Wheatstone of +stealing his idea of the electro-magnetic printing telegraph; but +Wheatstone showed that the instrument was only a modification of his own +electro-magnetic telegraph. + +In 1843 Wheatstone communicated an important paper to the Royal Society, +entitled 'An Account of Several New Processes for Determining the +Constants of a Voltaic Circuit.' It contained an exposition of the +well-known balance for measuring the electrical resistance of a +conductor, which still goes by the name of Wheatstone's Bridge or +balance, although it was first devised by Mr. S. W. Christie, of the +Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, who published it in the PHILOSOPHICAL +TRANSACTIONS for 1833. The method was neglected until Wheatstone brought +it into notice. His paper abounds with simple and practical formula: +for the calculation of currents and resistances by the law of Ohm. He +introduced a unit of resistance, namely, a foot of copper wire weighing +one hundred grains, and showed how it might be applied to measure the +length of wire by its resistance. He was awarded a medal for his paper +by the Society. The same year he invented an apparatus which enabled the +reading of a thermometer or a barometer to be registered at a distance +by means of an electric contact made by the mercury. A sound telegraph, +in which the signals were given by the strokes of a bell, was also +patented by Cooke and Wheatstone in May of that year. + +The introduction of the telegraph had so far advanced that, on September +2, 1845, the Electric Telegraph Company was registered, and Wheatstone, +by his deed of partnership with Cooke, received a sum of L33,000 for the +use of their joint inventions. + +From 1836-7 Wheatstone had thought a good deal about submarine +telegraphs, and in 1840 he gave evidence before the Railway Committee of +the House of Commons on the feasibility of the proposed line from Dover +to Calais. He had even designed the machinery for making and laying +the cable. In the autumn of 1844, with the assistance of Mr. J. D. +Llewellyn, he submerged a length of insulated wire in Swansea Bay, and +signalled through it from a boat to the Mumbles Lighthouse. Next year he +suggested the use of gutta-percha for the coating of the intended wire +across the Channel. + +Though silent and reserved in public, Wheatstone was a clear and voluble +talker in private, if taken on his favourite studies, and his small +but active person, his plain but intelligent countenance, was full of +animation. Sir Henry Taylor tells us that he once observed Wheatstone at +an evening party in Oxford earnestly holding forth to Lord Palmerston +on the capabilities of his telegraph. 'You don't say so!' exclaimed the +statesman. 'I must get you to tell that to the Lord Chancellor.' And so +saying, he fastened the electrician on Lord Westbury, and effected his +escape. A reminiscence of this interview may have prompted Palmerston +to remark that a time was coming when a minister might be asked in +Parliament if war had broken out in India, and would reply, 'Wait a +minute; I'll just telegraph to the Governor-General, and let you know.' + +At Christchurch, Marylebone, on February 12, 1847, Wheatstone was +married. His wife was the daughter of a Taunton tradesman, and of +handsome appearance. She died in 1866, leaving a family of five young +children to his care. His domestic life was quiet and uneventful. + +One of Wheatstone's most ingenious devices was the 'Polar clock,' +exhibited at the meeting of the British Association in 1848. It is based +on the fact discovered by Sir David Brewster, that the light of the sky +is polarised in a plane at an angle of ninety degrees from the position +of the sun. It follows that by discovering that plane of polarisation, +and measuring its azimuth with respect to the north, the position of the +sun, although beneath the horizon, could be determined, and the apparent +solar time obtained. The clock consisted of a spy-glass, having a nichol +or double-image prism for an eye-piece, and a thin plate of selenite for +an object-glass. When the tube was directed to the North Pole--that +is, parallel to the earth's axis--and the prism of the eye-piece turned +until no colour was seen, the angle of turning, as shown by an index +moving with the prism over a graduated limb, gave the hour of day. The +device is of little service in a country where watches are reliable; but +it formed part of the equipment of the North Polar expedition commanded +by Captain Nares. Wheatstone's remarkable ingenuity was displayed in the +invention of cyphers which have never been unravelled, and interpreting +cypher manuscripts in the British Museum which had defied the experts. +He devised a cryptograph or machine for turning a message into +cypher which could only be interpreted by putting the cypher into a +corresponding machine adjusted to reproduce it. + +The rapid development of the telegraph in Europe may be gathered +from the fact that in 1855, the death of the Emperor Nicholas at St. +Petersburg, about one o'clock in the afternoon, was announced in the +House of Lords a few hours later; and as a striking proof of its further +progress, it may be mentioned that the result of the Oaks of 1890 +was received in New York fifteen seconds after the horses passed the +winning-post. + +Wheatstone's next great invention was the automatic transmitter, in +which the signals of the message are first punched out on a strip of +paper, which is then passed through the sending-key, and controls the +signal currents. By substituting a mechanism for the hand in sending +the message, he was able to telegraph about 100 words a minute, or five +times the ordinary rate. In the Postal Telegraph service this apparatus +is employed for sending Press telegrams, and it has recently been so +much improved, that messages are now sent from London to Bristol at +a speed of 600 words a minute, and even of 400 words a minute between +London and Aberdeen. On the night of April 8, 1886, when Mr. Gladstone +introduced his Bill for Home Rule in Ireland, no fewer than 1,500,000 +words were despatched from the central station at St. Martin's-le-Grand +by 100 Wheatstone transmitters. Were Mr. Gladstone himself to speak +for a whole week, night and day, and with his usual facility, he could +hardly surpass this achievement. The plan of sending messages by a +running strip of paper which actuates the key was originally patented +by Bain in 1846; but Wheatstone, aided by Mr. Augustus Stroh, an +accomplished mechanician, and an able experimenter, was the first to +bring the idea into successful operation. + +In 1859 Wheatstone was appointed by the Board of Trade to report on the +subject of the Atlantic cables, and in 1864 he was one of the experts +who advised the Atlantic Telegraph Company on the construction of the +successful lines of 1865 and 1866. On February 4, 1867, he published the +principle of reaction in the dynamo-electric machine by a paper to the +Royal Society; but Mr. C. W. Siemens had communicated the identical +discovery ten days earlier, and both papers were read on the same day. +It afterwards appeared that Herr Werner Siemens, Mr. Samuel Alfred +Varley, and Professor Wheatstone had independently arrived at the +principle within a few months of each other. Varley patented it on +December 24, 1866; Siemens called attention to it on January 17, 1867; +and Wheatstone exhibited it in action at the Royal Society on the above +date. But it will be seen from our life of William Siemens that Soren +Hjorth, a Danish inventor, had forestalled them. + +In 1870 the electric telegraph lines of the United Kingdom, worked by +different companies, were transferred to the Post Office, and placed +under Government control. + +Wheatstone was knighted in 1868, after his completion of the automatic +telegraph. He had previously been made a Chevalier of the Legion of +Honour. Some thirty-four distinctions and diplomas of home or foreign +societies bore witness to his scientific reputation. Since 1836 he +had been a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1873 he was appointed a +Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences. The same year he +was awarded the Ampere Medal by the French Society for the Encouragement +of National Industry. In 1875 he was created an honorary member of the +Institution of Civil Engineers. He was a D.C.L. of Oxford and an LL.D. +of Cambridge. + +While on a visit to Paris during the autumn of 1875, and engaged in +perfecting his receiving instrument for submarine cables, he caught a +cold, which produced inflammation of the lungs, an illness from which he +died in Paris, on October 19, 1875. A memorial service was held in the +Anglican Chapel, Paris, and attended by a deputation of the Academy. His +remains were taken to his home in Park Crescent, London, and buried in +Kensal Green. + + + +CHAPTER III. SAMUEL MORSE. + +Cooke and Wheatstone were the first to introduce a public telegraph +worked by electro-magnetism; but it had the disadvantage of not marking +down the message. There was still room for an instrument which would +leave a permanent record that might be read at leisure, and this was +the invention of Samuel Finley Breeze Morse. He was born at the foot of +Breed's Hill, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April, 1791. +The place was a little over a mile from where Benjamin Franklin was +born, and the date was a little over a year after he died. His family +was of British origin. Anthony Morse, of Marlborough, in Wiltshire, had +emigrated to America in 1635, and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, He +and his descendants prospered. The grandfather of Morse was a member +of the Colonial and State Legislatures, and his father, Jedediah Morse, +D.D., was a well-known divine of his day, and the author of Morse's +AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY, as well as a compiler of a UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. His +mother was Elizabeth Ann Breeze, apparently of Welsh extraction, and +the grand-daughter of Samuel Finley, a distinguished President of the +Princeton College. Jedediah Morse is reputed a man of talent, industry, +and vigour, with high aims for the good of his fellow-men, ingenious +to conceive, resolute in action, and sanguine of success. His wife is +described as a woman of calm, reflective mind, animated conversation, +and engaging manners. + +They had two other sons besides Samuel, the second of whom, Sidney E. +Morse, was founder of the New York OBSERVER, an able mathematician, +author of the ART OF CEROGRAPHY, or engraving upon wax, to stereotype +from, and inventor of a barometer for sounding the deep-sea. Sidney was +the trusted friend and companion of his elder brother. + +At the age of four Samuel was sent to an infant school kept by an old +lady, who being lame, was unable to leave her chair, but carried her +authority to the remotest parts of her dominion by the help of a long +rattan. Samuel, like the rest, had felt the sudden apparition of this +monitor. Having scratched a portrait of the dame upon a chest of drawers +with the point of a pin, he was called out and summarily punished. Years +later, when he became notable, the drawers were treasured by one of his +admirers. + +He entered a preparatory school at Andover, Mass., when he was seven +years old, and showed himself an eager pupil. Among other books, he was +delighted with Plutarch's LIVES, and at thirteen he composed a biography +of Demosthenes, long preserved by his family. A year later he entered +Yale College as a freshman. + +During his curriculum he attended the lectures of Professor Jeremiah Day +on natural philosophy and Professor Benjamin Sieliman on chemistry, and +it was then he imbibed his earliest knowledge of electricity. In 1809-10 +Dr. Day was teaching from Enfield's text-book on philosophy, that 'if +the (electric) circuit be interrupted, the fluid will become visible, +and when: it passes it will leave an impression upon any intermediate +body,' and he illustrated this by sending the spark through a metal +chain, so that it became visible between the links, and by causing it to +perforate paper. Morse afterwards declared this experiment to have been +the seed which rooted in his mind and grew into the 'invention of the +telegraph.' + +It is not evident that Morse had any distinct idea of the electric +telegraph in these days; but amidst his lessons in literature and +philosophy he took a special interest in the sciences of electricity +and chemistry. He became acquainted with the voltaic battery through the +lectures of his friend, Professor Sieliman; and we are told that during +one of his vacations at Yale he made a series of electrical experiments +with Dr. Dwight. Some years later he resumed these studies under his +friend Professor James Freeman Dana, of the University of New York, +who exhibited the electro-magnet to his class in 1827, and also under +Professor Renwick, of Columbia College. + +Art seems to have had an equal if not a greater charm than science for +Morse at this period. A boy of fifteen, he made a water-colour sketch +of his family sitting round the table; and while a student at Yale he +relieved his father, who was far from rich, of a part of his education +by painting miniatures on ivory, and selling them to his companions at +five dollars a-piece. Before he was nineteen he completed a painting of +the 'Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,' which formerly hung in the +office of the Mayor, at Charlestown, Massachusetts. + +On graduating at Yale, in 1810, he devoted himself to Art, and became +a pupil of Washington Allston, the well-known American painter. He +accompanied Allston to Europe in 1811, and entered the studio of +Benjamin West, who was then at the zenith of his reputation. +The friendship of West, with his own introductions and agreeable +personality, enabled him to move in good society, to which he was always +partial. William Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay, father of the historian, +Coleridge, and Copley, were among his acquaintances. Leslie, the artist, +then a struggling genius like himself, was his fellow-lodger. His heart +was evidently in the profession of his choice. 'My passion for my +art,' he wrote to his mother, in 1812, 'is so firmly rooted that I am +confident no human power could destroy it. The more I study the greater +I think is its claim to the appellation of divine. I am now going to +begin a picture of the death of Hercules the figure to be as large as +life.' + +After he had perfected this work to his own eyes, he showed it, with not +a little pride, to Mr. West, who after scanning it awhile said, 'Very +good, very good. Go on and finish it.' Morse ventured to say that it was +finished. 'No! no! no!' answered West; 'see there, and there, and there. +There is much to be done yet. Go on and finish it.' Each time the pupil +showed it the master said, 'Go on and finish it.' [THE TELEGRAPH IN +AMERICA, by James D. Reid] This was a lesson in thoroughness of work and +attention to detail which was not lost on the student. The picture was +exhibited at the Royal Academy, in Somerset House, during the summer +of 1813, and West declared that if Morse were to live to his own age he +would never make a better composition. The remark is equivocal, but +was doubtless intended as a compliment to the precocity of the young +painter. + +In order to be correct in the anatomy he had first modelled the figure +of his Hercules in clay, and this cast, by the advice of West, was +entered in competition for a prize in sculpture given by the Society +of Arts. It proved successful, and on May 13 the sculptor was presented +with the prize and a gold medal by the Duke of Norfolk before a +distinguished gathering in the Adelphi. + +Flushed with his triumph, Morse determined to compete for the prize of +fifty guineas and a gold medal offered by the Royal Academy for the best +historical painting, and took for his subject, 'The Judgment of Jupiter +in the case of Apollo, Marpessa, and Idas.' The work was finished to the +satisfaction of West, but the painter was summoned home. He was still, +in part at least, depending on his father, and had been abroad a year +longer than the three at first intended. During this time he had been +obliged to pinch himself in a thousand ways in order to eke out his +modest allowance. 'My drink is water, porter being too expensive,' he +wrote to his parents. 'I have had no new clothes for nearly a year. My +best are threadbare, and my shoes are out at the toes. My stockings all +want to see my mother, and my hat is hoary with age.' + +Mr. West recommended him to stay, since the rules of the competition +required the winner to receive the prize in person. But after trying +in vain to get this regulation waived, he left for America with his +picture, having, a few days prior to his departure, dined with Mr. +Wilberforce as the guns of Hyde Park were signalling the victory of +Waterloo. + +Arriving in Boston on October 18, he lost no time in renting a studio. +His fame had preceded him, and he became the lion of society. His +'Judgment of Jupiter' was exhibited in the town, and people flocked to +see it. But no one offered to buy it. If the line of high art he had +chosen had not supported him in England, it was tantamount to starvation +in the rawer atmosphere of America. Even in Boston, mellowed though it +was by culture, the classical was at a discount. Almost penniless, and +fretting under his disappointment, he went to Concord, New Hampshire, +and contrived to earn a living by painting cabinet portraits. Was this +the end of his ambitious dreams? + +Money was needful to extricate him from this drudgery and let him follow +up his aspirations. Love may have been a still stronger motive for its +acquisition. So he tried his hand at invention, and, in conjunction with +his brother Sidney, produced what was playfully described as 'Morse's +Patent Metallic Double-Headed Ocean-Drinker and Deluge-Spouter +Pump-Box.' The pump was quite as much admired as the 'Jupiter,' and it +proved as great a failure. + +Succeeding as a portrait painter, he went, in 1818, on the invitation +of his uncle, Dr. Finley, to Charleston, in South Carolina, and opened +a studio there. After a single season he found himself in a position +to marry, and on October 1, 1818, was united to Lucretia P. Walker, of +Concord, New Hampshire, a beautiful and accomplished lady. He thrived so +well in the south that he once received as many as one hundred and fifty +orders in a few weeks; and his reputation was such that he was honoured +with a commission from the Common Council of Charleston to execute a +portrait of James Monroe, then President of the United States. It was +regarded as a masterpiece. In January, 1821, he instituted the South +Carolina Academy of Fine Arts, which is now extinct. + +After four years of life in Charleston he returned to the north with +savings to the amount of L600, and settled in New York. He devoted +eighteen months to the execution of a large painting of the House of +Representatives in the Capitol at Washington; but its exhibition proved +a loss, and in helping his brothers to pay his father's debts the +remains of his little fortune were swept away. He stood next to Allston +as an American historical painter, but all his productions in that line +proved a disappointment. The public would not buy them. On the other +hand, he received an order from the Corporation of New York for a +portrait of General Lafayette, the hero of the hour. + +While engaged on this work he lost his wife in February, 1825, and then +his parents. In 1829 he visited Europe, and spent his time among the +artists and art galleries of England, France, and Italy. In Paris he +undertook a picture of the interior of the Louvre, showing some of the +masterpieces in miniature, but it seems that nobody purchased it. He +expected to be chosen to illustrate one of the vacant panels in the +Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington; but in this too he was mistaken. +However, some fellow-artists in America, thinking he had deserved +the honour, collected a sum of money to assist him in painting the +composition he had fixed upon: 'The Signing of the First Compact on +Board the Mayflower.' + +In a far from hopeful mood after his three years' residence abroad he +embarked on the packet Sully, Captain Pell, and sailed from Havre for +New York on October 1, 1832. Among the passengers was Dr. Charles T. +Jackson, of Boston, who had attended some lectures on electricity in +Paris, and carried an electro-magnet in his trunk. One day while Morse +and Dr. Jackson, with a few more, sat round the luncheon table in the +cabin, he began to talk of the experiments he had witnessed. Some +one asked if the speed of the electricity was lessened by its passage +through a long wire, and Dr. Jackson, referring to a trial of Faraday, +replied that the current was apparently instantaneous. Morse, who +probably remembered his old lessons in the subject, now remarked that if +the presence of the electricity could be rendered visible at any point +of the circuit he saw no reason why intelligence might not be sent by +this means. + +The idea became rooted in his mind, and engrossed his thoughts. Until +far into the night he paced the deck discussing the matter with Dr. +Jackson, and pondering it in solitude. Ways of rendering the electricity +sensible at the far end of the line were considered. The spark might +pierce a band of travelling paper, as Professor Day had mentioned years +before; it might decompose a chemical solution, and leave a stain to +mark its passage, as tried by Mr. Dyar in 1827; Or it could excite +an electro-magnet, which, by attracting a piece of soft iron, would +inscribe the passage with a pen or pencil. The signals could be made by +very short currents or jets of electricity, according to a settled code. +Thus a certain number of jets could represent a corresponding numeral, +and the numeral would, in its turn, represent a word in the language. +To decipher the message, a special code-book or dictionary would be +required. In order to transmit the currents through the line, he devised +a mechanical sender, in which the circuit would be interrupted by +a series of types carried on a port-rule or composing-stick, which +travelled at a uniform speed. Each type would have a certain number of +teeth or projections on its upper face, and as it was passed through +a gap in the circuit the teeth would make or break the current. At the +other end of the line the currents thus transmitted would excite the +electro-magnet, actuate the pencil, and draw a zig-zag line on the +paper, every angle being a distinct signal, and the groups of signals +representing a word in the code. + +During the voyage of six weeks the artist jotted his crude ideas in his +sketch-book, which afterwards became a testimony to their date. That +he cherished hopes of his invention may be gathered from his words on +landing, 'Well, Captain Pell, should you ever hear of the telegraph one +of these days as the wonder of the world, remember the discovery was +made on the good ship Sully.' + +Soon after his return his brothers gave him a room on the fifth floor +of a house at the corner of Nassau and Beekman Streets, New York. For +a long time it was his studio and kitchen, his laboratory and bedroom. +With his livelihood to earn by his brush, and his invention to work out, +Morse was now fully occupied. His diet was simple; he denied himself the +pleasures of society, and employed his leisure in making models of +his types. The studio was an image of his mind at this epoch. Rejected +pictures looked down upon his clumsy apparatus, type-moulds lay among +plaster-casts, the paint-pot jostled the galvanic battery, and the easel +shared his attention with the lathe. By degrees the telegraph allured +him from the canvas, and he only painted enough to keep the wolf from +the door. His national picture, 'The Signing of the First Compact on +Board the Mayflower,' was never finished, and the 300 dollars which had +been subscribed for it were finally returned with interest. + +For Morse by nature was proud and independent, with a sensitive horror +of incurring debt. He would rather endure privation than solicit help +or lie under a humiliating obligation. His mother seems to have been +animated with a like spirit, for the Hon. Amos Kendall informs us that +she had suffered much through the kindness of her husband in becoming +surety for his friends, and that when she was dying she exacted a +promise from her son that he would never endanger his peace of mind and +the comfort of his home by doing likewise. + +During the two and a half years from November, 1832, to the summer of +1835 he was obliged to change his residence three times, and want of +money prevented him from combining the several parts of his invention +into a working whole. In 1835, however, his reputation as an historical +painter, and the esteem in which he was held as a man of culture +and refinement, led to his appointment as the first Professor of the +Literature of the Arts of Design in the newly founded University of the +city of New York. In the month of July he took up his quarters in the +new buildings of the University at Washington Square, and was henceforth +able to devote more time to his apparatus. The same year Professor +Daniell, of King's College, London, brought out his constant-current +battery, which befriended Morse in his experiments, as it afterwards did +Cooke and Wheatstone, Hitherto the voltaic battery had been a source of +trouble, owing to the current becoming weak as the battery was kept in +action. + +The length of line through which Morse could work his apparatus was +an important point to be determined, for it was known that the current +grows feebler in proportion to the resistance of the wire it traverses. +Morse saw a way out of the difficulty, as Davy, Cooke, and Wheatstone +did, by the device known as the relay. Were the current too weak to +effect the marking of a message, it might nevertheless be sufficiently +strong to open and close the circuit of a local battery which would +print the signals. Such relays and local batteries, fixed at intervals +along the line, as post-horses on a turnpike, would convey the message +to an immense distance. 'If I can succeed in working a magnet ten +miles,' said Morse,'I can go round the globe. It matters not how +delicate the movement may be.' + +According to his own statement, he devised the relay in 1836 or earlier; +but it was not until the beginning of 1837 that he explained the device, +and showed the working of his apparatus to his friend, Mr. Leonard D. +Gale, Professor of Chemistry in the University. This gentleman took +a lively interest in the apparatus, and proved a generous ally of the +inventor. Until then Morse had only tried his recorder on a few yards +of wire, the battery was a single pair of plates, and the electro-magnet +was of the elementary sort employed by Moll, and illustrated in the +older books. The artist, indeed, was very ignorant of what had been done +by other electricians; and Professor Gale was able to enlighten him. +When Gale acquainted him with some results in telegraphing obtained by +Mr. Barlow, he said he was not aware that anyone had even conceived +the notion of using the magnet for such a purpose. The researches of +Professor Joseph Henry on the electro-magnet, in 1830, were equally +unknown to Morse, until Professor Gale drew his attention to them, +and in accordance with the results, suggested that the simple +electro-magnet, with a few turns of thick wire which he employed, should +be replaced by one having a coil of long thin wire. By this change +a much feebler current would be able to excite the magnet, and the +recorder would mark through a greater length of line. Henry himself, in +1832, had devised a telegraph similar to that of Morse, and signalled +through a mile of wire, by causing the armature of his electro-magnet +to strike a bell. This was virtually the first electro-magnetic acoustic +telegraph.[AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.] + +The year of the telegraph--1837--was an important one for Morse, as +it was for Cooke and Wheatstone. In the privacy of his rooms he had +constructed, with his own hands, a model of his apparatus, and +fortune began to favour him. Thanks to Professor Gale, he improved the +electro-magnet, employed a more powerful battery, and was thus able to +work through a much longer line. In February, 1837, the American House +of Representatives passed a resolution asking the Secretary of the +Treasury to report on the propriety of establishing a system of +telegraphs for the United States, and on March 10 issued a circular of +inquiry, which fell into the hands of the inventor, and probably urged +him to complete his apparatus, and bring it under the notice of the +Government. Lack of mechanical skill, ignorance of electrical science, +as well as want of money, had so far kept it back. + +But the friend in need whom he required was nearer than he anticipated. +On Saturday, September 2, 1837, while Morse was exhibiting the model to +Professor Daubeny, of Oxford, then visiting the States, and others, a +young man named Alfred Vail became one of the spectators, and was +deeply impressed with the results. Vail was born in 1807, a son of +Judge Stephen Vail, master of the Speedwell ironworks at Morristown, +New Jersey. After leaving the village school his father took him and his +brother George into the works; but though Alfred inherited a mechanical +turn of mind, he longed for a higher sphere, and on attaining to his +majority he resolved to enter the Presbyterian Church. In 1832 he +went to the University of the city of New York, where he graduated in +October, 1836. Near the close of the term, however, his health failed, +and he was constrained to relinquish his clerical aims. While in doubts +as to his future he chanced to see the telegraph, and that decided him. +He says: 'I accidentally and without invitation called upon Professor +Morse at the University, and found him with Professors Torrey and +Daubeny in the mineralogical cabinet and lecture-room of Professor Gale, +where Professor Morse was exhibiting to these gentlemen an apparatus +which he called his Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. There were wires +suspended in the room running from one end of it to the other, and +returning many times, making a length of seventeen hundred feet. The +two ends of the wire were connected with an electro-magnet fastened to a +vertical wooden frame. In front of the magnet was its armature, and also +a wooden lever or arm fitted at its extremity to hold a lead-pencil.... +I saw this instrument work, and became thoroughly acquainted with +the principle of its operation, and, I may say, struck with the rude +machine, containing, as I believed, the germ of what was destined to +produce great changes in the conditions and relations of mankind. I well +recollect the impression which was then made upon my mind. I rejoiced to +think that I lived in such a day, and my mind contemplated the future +in which so grand and mighty an agent was about to be introduced for the +benefit of the world. Before leaving the room in which I beheld for the +first time this magnificent invention, I asked Professor Morse if he +intended to make an experiment on a more extended line of conductors. He +replied that he did, but that he desired pecuniary assistance to carry +out his plans. I promised him assistance provided he would admit me +into a share of the invention, to which proposition he assented. I then +returned to my boarding-house, locked the door of my room, threw myself +upon the bed, and gave myself up to reflection upon the mighty results +which were certain to follow the introduction of this new agent in +meeting and serving the wants of the world. With the atlas in my hand I +traced the most important lines which would most certainly be erected in +the United States, and calculated their length. The question then rose +in my mind, whether the electro-magnet could be made to work through +the necessary lengths of line, and after much reflection I came to the +conclusion that, provided the magnet would work even at a distance +of eight or ten miles, there could be no risk in embarking in the +enterprise. And upon this I decided in my own mind to SINK OR SWIM WITH +IT.' + +Young Vail applied to his father, who was a man of enterprise and +intelligence. He it was who forged the shaft of the Savannah, the first +steamship which crossed the Atlantic. Morse was invited to Speedwell +with his apparatus, that the judge might see it for himself, and the +question of a partnership was mooted. Two thousand dollars were required +to procure the patents and construct an instrument to bring before the +Congress. In spite of a financial depression, the judge was brave enough +to lend his assistance, and on September 23, 1837, an agreement was +signed between the inventor and Alfred Vail, by which the latter was to +construct, at his own expense, a model for exhibition to a Committee of +Congress, and to secure the necessary patents for the United States. +In return Vail was to receive one-fourth of the patent rights in that +country. Provision was made also to give Vail an interest in any foreign +patents he might furnish means to obtain. The American patent was +obtained by Morse on October 3, 1837. He had returned to New York, and +was engaged in the preparation of his dictionary. + +For many months Alfred Vail worked in a secret room at the iron factory +making the new model, his only assistant being an apprentice of fifteen, +William Baxter, who subsequently designed the Baxter engine, and died +in 1885. When the workshop was rebuilt this room was preserved as +a memorial of the telegraph, for it was here that the true Morse +instrument, such as we know it, was constructed. + +It must be remembered that in those days almost everything they wanted +had either to be made by themselves or appropriated to their purpose. +Their first battery was set up in a box of cherry-wood, parted into +cells, and lined with bees-wax; their insulated wire was that used by +milliners for giving outline to the 'sky-scraper' bonnets of that day. +The first machine made at Speedwell was a copy of that devised by Morse, +but as Vail grew more intimate with the subject his own ingenuity +came into play, and he soon improved on the original. The pencil was +discarded for a fountain pen, and the zig-zag signals for the short and +long lines now termed 'dots' and 'dashes.' + +This important alteration led him to the 'Morse alphabet,' or code of +signals, by which a letter is transmitted as a group of short and long +jets, indicated as 'dots' and 'dashes' on the paper. Thus the letter E, +which is so common in English words, is now transmitted by a short jet +which makes a dot; T, another common letter, by a long jet, making a +dash; and Q, a rare letter, by the group dash, dash, dot, dash. Vail +tried to compute the relative frequency of all the letters in order to +arrange his alphabet; but a happy idea enabled him to save his time. +He went to the office of the local newspaper, and found the result he +wanted in the type-cases of the compositors. The Morse, or rather Vail +code, is at present the universal telegraphic code of symbols, and its +use is extending to other modes of signalling-for example, by flags, +lights, or trumpets. + +The hard-fisted farmers of New Jersey, like many more at that date, had +no faith in the 'telegraph machine,' and openly declared that the judge +had been a fool for once to put his money in it. The judge, on his part, +wearied with the delay, and irritated by the sarcasm of his neighbours, +grew dispirited and moody. Alfred, and Morse, who had come to assist, +were careful to avoid meeting him. At length, on January 6, 1838, Alfred +told the apprentice to go up to the house and invite his father to come +down to see the telegraph at work. It was a cold day, but the boy was so +eager that he ran off without putting on his coat. In the sitting-room +he found the judge with his hat on as if about to go out, but seated +before the fire leaning his head on his hand, and absorbed in gloomy +reflection. 'Well, William?' he said, looking up, as the boy entered; +and when the message was delivered he started to his feet. In a few +minutes he was standing in the experimental-room, and the apparatus was +explained. Calling for a piece of paper he wrote upon it the words, 'A +PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER,' and handed it to Alfred, with the remark, +'If you can send this, and Mr. Morse can read it at the other end, I +shall be convinced.' The message was transmitted, and for a moment the +judge was fairly mastered by his feelings. + +The apparatus was then exhibited in New York, in Philadelphia, and +subsequently before the Committee of Congress at Washington. At first +the members of this body were somewhat incredulous about the merits of +the uncouth machine; but the Chairman, the Hon. Francis O. J. Smith, +of Maine, took an interest in it, and secured a full attendance of the +others to see it tried through ten miles of wire one day in February. +The demonstration convinced them, and many were the expressions of +amazement from their lips. Some said, 'The world is coming to an end,' +as people will when it is really budding, and putting forth symptoms +of a larger life. Others exclaimed, 'Where will improvements and +discoveries stop?' and 'What would Jefferson think should he rise up and +witness what we have just seen?' One gentleman declared that, 'Time and +space are now annihilated.' + +The practical outcome of the trial was that the Chairman reported a Bill +appropriating 30,000 dollars for the erection of an experimental line +between Washington and Baltimore. Mr. Smith was admitted to a fourth +share in the invention, and resigned his seat in Congress to become +legal adviser to the inventors. Claimants to the invention of the +telegraph now began to spring up, and it was deemed advisable for Mr. +Smith and Morse to proceed to Europe and secure the foreign patents. +Alfred Vail undertook to provide an instrument for exhibition in Europe. + +Among these claimants was Dr. Jackson, chemist and geologist, of Boston, +who had been instrumental in evoking the idea of the telegraph in the +mind of Morse on board the Sully. In a letter to the NEW YORK OBSERVER +he went further than this, and claimed to be a joint inventor; but Morse +indignantly repudiated the suggestion. He declared that his instrument +was not mentioned either by him or Dr. Jackson at the time, and that +they had made no experiments together. 'It is to Professor Gale that I +am most of all indebted for substantial and effective aid in many of my +experiments,' he said; 'but he prefers no claim of any kind.' + +Morse and Smith arrived in London during the month of June. Application +was immediately made for a British patent, but Cooke and Wheatstone and +Edward Davy, it seems, opposed it; and although Morse demonstrated that +his was different from theirs, the patent was refused, owing to a prior +publication in the London MECHANICS' MAGAZINE for February 18, 1838, +in the form of an article quoted from Silliman's AMERICAN JOURNAL OF +SCIENCE for October, 1837. Morse did not attempt to get this legal +disqualification set aside. In France he was equally unfortunate. His +instrument was exhibited by Arago at a meeting of the Institute, and +praised by Humboldt and Gay-Lussac; but the French patent law requires +the invention to be at work in France within two years, and when Morse +arranged to erect a telegraph line on the St. Germain Railway, the +Government declined to sanction it, on the plea that the telegraph must +become a State monopoly. + +All his efforts to introduce the invention into Europe were futile, and +he returned disheartened to the United States on April 15, 1839. +While in Paris, he had met M. Daguerre, who, with M. Niepce, had just +discovered the art of photography. The process was communicated to +Morse, who, with Dr. Draper, fitted up a studio on the roof of the +University, and took the first daguerreotypes in America. + +The American Congress now seemed as indifferent to his inventions as +the European governments. An exciting campaign for the presidency was at +hand, and the proposed grant for the telegraph was forgotten. Mr. +Smith had returned to the political arena, and the Vails were under a +financial cloud, so that Morse could expect no further aid from them. +The next two years were the darkest he had ever known. 'Porte Crayon' +tells us that he had little patronage as a professor, and at one time +only three pupils besides himself. Crayon's fee of fifty dollars for +the second quarter were overdue, owing to his remittance from home not +arriving; and one day the professor said, 'Well, Strother, my boy, +how are we off for money?' Strother explained how he was situated, and +stated that he hoped to have the money next week. + +'Next week!' repeated Morse. 'I shall be dead by that time... dead of +starvation.' + +'Would ten dollars be of any service?' inquired the student, both +astonished and distressed. + +'Ten dollars would save my life,' replied Morse; and Strother paid the +money, which was all he owned. They dined together, and afterwards +the professor remarked, 'This is my first meal for twenty-four hours. +Strother, don't be an artist. It means beggary. A house-dog lives +better. The very sensitiveness that stimulates an artist to work keeps +him alive to suffering.' + +Towards the close of 1841 he wrote to Alfred Vail: 'I have not a cent +in the world;' and to Mr. Smith about the same time he wrote: 'I find +myself without sympathy or help from any who are associated with me, +whose interests, one would think, would impell them at least to inquire +if they could render some assistance. For nearly two years past I have +devoted all my time and scanty means, living on a mere pittance, denying +myself all pleasures, and even necessary food, that I might have a sum +to put my telegraph into such a position before Congress as to insure +success to the common enterprise. I am crushed for want of means, and +means of so trifling a character too, that they who know how to ask +(which I do not) could obtain in a few hours.... As it is, although +everything is favourable, although I have no competition and no +opposition--on the contrary, although every member of Congress, so far +as I can learn, is favourable--yet I fear all will fail because I am +too poor to risk the trifling expense which my journey and residence +in Washington will occasion me. I WILL NOT RUN INTO DEBT, if I lose the +whole matter. So unless I have the means from some source, I shall be +compelled, however reluctantly, to leave it. No one call tell the days +and months of anxiety and labour I have had in perfecting my telegraphic +apparatus. For want of means I have been compelled to make with my own +hands (and to labour for weeks) a piece of mechanism which could be made +much better, and in a tenth part of the time, by a good mechanician, +thus wasting time--time which I cannot recall, and which seems +double-winged to me. + +'"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." It is true, and I have known +the full meaning of it. Nothing but the consciousness that I have an +invention which is to mark an era in human civilisation, and which is to +contribute to the happiness of millions, would have sustained me through +so many and such lengthened trials of patience in perfecting it.' Morse +did not invent for money or scientific reputation; he believed himself +the instrument of a great purpose. + +During the summer of 1842 he insulated a wire two miles long with hempen +threads saturated with pitch-tar and surrounded with india-rubber. On +October 18, during bright moonlight, he submerged this wire in New York +Harbour, between Castle Garden and Governor's Island, by unreeling it +from a small boat rowed by a man. After signals had been sent through +it, the wire was cut by an anchor, and a portion of it carried off by +sailors. This appears to be the first experiment in signalling on a +subaqueous wire. It was repeated on a canal at Washington the following +December, and both are described in a letter to the Secretary of the +Treasury, December 23, 1844, in which Morse states his belief that +'telegraphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with +certainty be established across the Atlantic Ocean. Startling as this +may now seem, I am confident the time will come when the project will be +realised.' + +In December, 1842, the inventor made another effort to obtain the +help of Congress, and the Committee on Commerce again recommended an +appropriation of 30,000 dollars in aid of the telegraph. Morse had come +to be regarded as a tiresome 'crank' by some of the Congressmen, and +they objected that if the magnetic telegraph were endowed, mesmerism or +any other 'ism' might have a claim on the Treasury. The Bill passed +the House by a slender majority of six votes, given orally, some of the +representatives fearing that their support of the measure would alienate +their constituents. Its fate in the Senate was even more dubious; and +when it came up for consideration late one night before the adjournment, +a senator, the Hon. Fernando Wood, went to Morse, who watched in the +gallery, and said,'There is no use in your staying here. The Senate is +not in sympathy with your project. I advise you to give it up, return +home, and think no more about it.' + +Morse retired to his rooms, and after paying his bill for board, +including his breakfast the next morning, he found himself with only +thirty-seven cents and a half in the world. Kneeling by his bed-side +he opened his heart to God, leaving the issue in His hands, and then, +comforted in spirit, fell asleep. While eating his breakfast next +morning, Miss Annie G. Ellsworth, daughter of his friend the Hon. +Henry L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, came up with a beaming +countenance, and holding out her hand, said-- + +'Professor, I have come to congratulate you.' + +'Congratulate me!' replied Morse; 'on what?' + +'Why,' she exclaimed,' on the passage of your Bill by the Senate!' + +It had been voted without debate at the very close of the session. Years +afterwards Morse declared that this was the turning-point in the history +of the telegraph. 'My personal funds,' he wrote,' were reduced to the +fraction of a dollar; and had the passage of the Bill failed from any +cause, there would have been little prospect of another attempt on my +part to introduce to the world my new invention.' + +Grateful to Miss Ellsworth for bringing the good news, he declared that +when the Washington to Baltimore line was complete hers should be the +first despatch. + +The Government now paid him a salary of 2,500 dollars a month to +superintend the laying of the underground line which he had decided +upon. Professors Gale and Fisher became his assistants. Vail was put in +charge, and Mr. Ezra Cornell, who founded the Cornell University on the +site of the cotton mill where he had worked as a mechanic, and who had +invented a machine for laying pipes, was chosen to supervise the running +of the line. The conductor was a five-wire cable laid in pipes; but +after several miles had been run from Baltimore to the house intended +for the relay, the insulation broke down. Cornell, it is stated, injured +his machine to furnish an excuse for the stoppage of the work. The +leaders consulted in secret, for failure was staring them in the face. +Some 23,000 dollars of the Government grant were spent, and Mr. Smith, +who had lost his faith in the undertaking, claimed 4000 of the remaining +7000 dollars under his contract for laying the line. A bitter quarrel +arose between him and Morse, which only ended in the grave. He opposed +an additional grant from Government, and Morse, in his dejection, +proposed to let the patent expire, and if the Government would use his +apparatus and remunerate him, he would reward Alfred Vail, while Smith +would be deprived of his portion. Happily, it was decided to abandon the +subterranean line, and erect the conductor on poles above the ground. A +start was made from the Capitol, Washington, on April 1, 1844, and the +line was carried to the Mount Clare Depot, Baltimore, on May 23, 1843. +Next morning Miss Ellsworth fulfilled her promise by inditing the first +message. She chose the words, 'What hath God wrought?' and they were +transmitted by Morse from the Capitol at 8.45 a.m., and received at +Mount Clare by Alfred Vail. + +This was the first message of a public character sent by the electric +telegraph in the Western World, and it is preserved by the Connecticut +Historical Society. The dots and dashes representing the words were not +drawn with pen and ink, but embossed on the paper with a metal stylus. +The machine itself was kept in the National Museum at Washington, and on +removing it, in 1871, to exhibit it at the Morse Memorial Celebration at +New York, a member of the Vail family discovered a folded paper attached +to its base. A corner of the writing was torn away before its importance +was recognised; but it proved to be a signed statement by Alfred Vail, +to the effect that the method of embossing was invented by him in the +sixth storey of the NEW YORK OBSERVER office during 1844, prior to the +erection of the Washington to Baltimore line, without any hint from +Morse. 'I have not asserted publicly my right as first and sole +inventor,' he says, 'because I wished to preserve the peaceful unity of +the invention, and because I could not, according to my contract with +Professor Morse, have got a patent for it.' + +The powers of the telegraph having been demonstrated, enthusiasm took +the place of apathy, and Morse, who had been neglected before, was in +some danger of being over-praised. A political incident spread the fame +of the telegraph far and wide. The Democratic Convention, sitting in +Baltimore, nominated Mr. James K. Polk as candidate for the Presidency, +and Mr. Silas Wright for the Vice-Presidency. Alfred Vail telegraphed +the news to Morse in Washington, and he at once told Mr. Wright. The +result was that a few minutes later the Convention was dumbfounded to +receive a message from Wright declining to be nominated. They would not +believe it, and appointed a committee to inquire into the matter; but +the telegram was found to be genuine. + +On April 1, 1845, the Baltimore to Washington line was formally opened +for public business. The tariff adopted by the Postmaster-General was +one cent for every four characters, and the receipts of the first four +days were a single cent. At the end of a week they had risen to about a +dollar. + +Morse offered the invention to the Government for 100,000 dollars, but +the Postmaster-General declined it on the plea that its working 'had not +satisfied him that under any rate of postage that could be adopted its +revenues could be made equal to its expenditures.' Thus through the +narrow views and purblindness of its official the nation lost an +excellent opportunity of keeping the telegraph system in its own hands. +Morse was disappointed at this refusal, but it proved a blessing in +disguise. He and his agent, the Hon. Amos Kendall, determined to rely on +private enterprise. + +A line between New York and Philadelphia was projected, and the +apparatus was exhibited in Broadway at a charge of twenty-five cents a +head. But the door-money did not pay the expenses. There was an air +of poverty about the show. One of the exhibitors slept on a couple of +chairs, and the princely founder of Cornell University was grateful to +Providence for a shilling picked up on the side-walk, which enabled +him to enjoy a hearty breakfast. Sleek men of capital, looking with +suspicion on the meagre furniture and miserable apparatus, withheld +their patronage; but humbler citizens invested their hard-won earnings, +the Magnetic Telegraph Company was incorporated, and the line was built. +The following year, 1846, another line was run from Philadelphia to +Baltimore by Mr. Henry O'Reilly, of Rochester, N.Y., an acute pioneer +of the telegraph. In the course of ten years the Atlantic States were +covered by a straggling web of lines under the control of thirty or +forty rival companies working different apparatus, such as that of +Morse, Bain, House, and Hughes, but owing to various causes only one or +two were paying a dividend. It was a fit moment for amalgamation, and +this was accomplished in 1856 by Mr. Hiram Sibley. 'This Western Union,' +says one in speaking of the united corporation, 'seems to me very like +collecting all the paupers in the State and arranging them into a union +so as to make rich men of them.' But 'Sibley's crazy scheme' proved the +salvation of the competing companies. In 1857, after the first stage +coach had crossed the plains to California, Mr. Henry O'Reilly proposed +to build a line of telegraph, and Mr. Sibley urged the Western Union to +undertake it. He encountered a strong opposition. The explorations +of Fremont were still fresh in the public mind, and the country was +regarded as a howling wilderness. It was objected that no poles could +be obtained on the prairies, that the Indians or the buffaloes would +destroy the line, and that the traffic would not pay. 'Well, gentlemen,' +said Sibley, 'if you won't join hands with me in the thing, I'll go +it alone.' He procured a subsidy from the Government, who realised the +value of the line from a national point of view, the money was raised +under the auspices of the Western Union, and the route by Omaha, Fort +Laramie, and Salt Lake City to San Francisco was fixed upon. The work +began on July 4, 1861, and though it was expected to occupy two years, +it was completed in four months and eleven days. The traffic soon became +lucrative, and the Indians, except in time of war, protected the line +out of friendship for Mr. Sibley. A black-tailed buck, the gift of White +Cloud, spent its last years in the park of his home at Rochester. + +The success of the overland wire induced the Company to embark on a +still greater scheme, the project of Mr. Perry MacDonough Collins, for +a trunk line between America and Europe by way of British Columbia, +Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and Siberia. A line already existed +between European Russia and Irkutsk, in Siberia, and it was to be +extended to the mouth of the Amoor, where the American lines were to +join it. Two cables, one across Behring Sea and another across the Bay +of Anadyr, were to link the two continents. + +The expedition started in the summer of 1865 with a fleet of about +thirty vessels, carrying telegraph and other stores. In spite of severe +hardships, a considerable part of the line had been erected when the +successful completion of the trans-Atlantic cable, in 1866, caused the +enterprise to be abandoned after an expenditure of 3,000,000 dollars. A +trace cut for the line through the forests of British Columbia is still +known as the 'telegraph trail.' In spite of this misfortune the Western +Union Telegraph Company has continued to flourish. In 1883 its capital +amounted to 80,000,000 dollars, and it now possesses a virtual monopoly +of telegraphic communication in the United States. + +Morse did not limit his connections to land telegraphy. In 1854, when +Mr. Cyrus Field brought out the Atlantic Telegraph Company, to lay a +cable between Europe and America, he became its electrician, and went to +England for the purpose of consulting with the English engineers on the +execution of the project. But his instrument was never used on the ocean +lines, and, indeed, it was not adapted for them. + +During this time Alfred Vail continued to improve the Morse apparatus, +until it was past recognition. The porte-rule and type of the +transmitter were discarded for a simple 'key' or rocking lever, worked +up and down by the hand, so as to make and break the circuit. The clumsy +framework of the receiver was reduced to a neat and portable size. The +inking pen was replaced by a metal wheel or disc, smeared with ink, and +rolling on the paper at every dot or dash. Vail, as we have seen, also +invented the plan of embossing the message. But he did still more. When +the recording instrument was introduced, it was found that the clerks +persisted in 'reading' the signals by the clicking of the marking lever, +and not from the paper. Threats of instant dismissal did not stop the +practice when nobody was looking on. Morse, who regarded the record +as the distinctive feature of his invention, was very hostile to the +practice; but Nature was too many for him. The mode of interpreting by +sound was the easier and more economical of the two; and Vail, with +his mechanical instinct, adopted it. He produced an instrument in which +there is no paper or marking device, and the message is simply sounded +by the lever of the armature striking on its metal stops. At present the +Morse recorder is rarely used in comparison with the 'sounder.' + +The original telegraph of Morse, exhibited in 1837, has become an +archaic form. Apart from the central idea of employing an electro-magnet +to signal--an idea applied by Henry in 1832, when Morse had only thought +of it--the development of the apparatus is mainly due to Vail. His +working devices made it a success, and are in use to-day, while those of +Morse are all extinct. + +Morse has been highly honoured and rewarded, not only by his countrymen, +but by the European powers. The Queen of Spain sent him a Cross of the +Order of Isabella, the King of Prussia presented him with a jewelled +snuff-box, the Sultan of Turkey decorated him with the Order of Glory, +the Emperor of the French admitted him into the Legion of Honour. +Moreover, the ten European powers in special congress awarded him +400,000 francs (some 80,000 dollars), as an expression of their +gratitude: honorary banquets were a common thing to the man who had +almost starved through his fidelity to an idea. + +But beyond his emoluments as a partner in the invention, Alfred Vail had +no recompense. Morse, perhaps, was somewhat jealous of acknowledging +the services of his 'mechanical assistant,' as he at one time chose to +regard Vail. When personal friends, knowing his services, urged Vail +to insist upon their recognition, he replied, 'I am confident that +Professor Morse will do me justice.' But even ten years after the death +of Vail, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honour by the leading +citizens of New York, Morse, alluding to his invention, said: 'In 1835, +according to the concurrent testimony of many witnesses, it lisped its +first accents, and automatically recorded them a few blocks only distant +from the spot from which I now address you. It was a feeble child +indeed, ungainly in its dress, stammering in its speech; but it had then +all the distinctive features and characteristics of its present manhood. +It found a friend, an efficient friend, in Mr. Alfred Vail, of New +Jersey, who, with his father and brother, furnished the means to give +the child a decent dress, preparatory to its' visit to the seat of +Government.' + +When we remember that even by this time Vail had entirely altered the +system of signals, and introduced the dot-dash code, we cannot but +regard this as a stinted acknowledgment of his colleague's work. But +the man who conceives the central idea, and cherishes it, is apt to be +niggardly in allowing merit to the assistant whose mechanical skill +is able to shape and put it in practice; while, on the other hand, the +assistant is sometimes inclined to attach more importance to the working +out than it deserves. Alfred Vail cannot be charged with that, however, +and it would have been the more graceful on the part of Morse had he +avowed his indebtedness to Vail with a greater liberality. Nor would +this have detracted from his own merit as the originator and preserver +of the idea, without which the improvements of Vail would have had no +existence. In the words of the Hon. Amos Kendall, a friend of both: 'If +justice be done, the name of Alfred Vail will for ever stand associated +with that of Samuel F. B. Morse in the history and introduction into +public use of the electro-magnetic telegraph.' + +Professor Morse spent his declining years at Locust Grove, a charming +retreat on the banks of the River Hudson. In private life he was a fine +example of the Christian gentleman. + +In the summer of 1871, the Telegraphic Brotherhood of the World erected +a statue to his honour in the Central Park, New York. Delegates from +different parts of America were present at the unveiling; and in the +evening there was a reception at the Academy of Music, where the +first recording telegraph used on the Washington to Baltimore line was +exhibited. The inventor himself appeared, and sent a message at a small +table, which was flashed by the connected wires to the remotest parts +of the Union, It ran: 'Greeting and thanks to the telegraph fraternity +throughout the world. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, +goodwill towards men.' + +It was deemed fitting that Morse should unveil the statue of Benjamin +Franklin, which had been erected in Printing House Square, New York. +When his venerable figure appeared on the platform, and the long white +hair was blown about his handsome face by the winter wind, a great cheer +went up from the assembled multitude. But the day was bitterly cold, and +the exposure cost him his life. Some months later, as he lay on his sick +bed, he observed to the doctor, 'The best is yet to come.' In tapping +his chest one day, the physician said,' This is the way we doctors +telegraph, professor,' and Morse replied with a smile, 'Very good--very +good.' These were his last words. He died at New York on April 2, +1872, at the age of eighty-one years, and was buried in the Greenwood +Cemetery. + + + +CHAPTER IV. SIR WILLIAM THOMSON. + +Sir William Thomson, the greatest physicist of the age, and the highest +authority on electrical science, theoretical and applied, was born at +Belfast on June 25, 1824. His father, Dr. James Thomson, the son of a +Scots-Irish farmer, showed a bent for scholarship when a boy, and became +a pupil teacher in a small school near Ballynahinch, in County Down. +With his summer earnings he educated himself at Glasgow University +during winter. Appointed head master of a school in connection with the +Royal Academical Institute, he subsequently obtained the professorship +of mathematics in that academy. In 1832 he was called to the chair of +mathematics in the University of Glasgow, where he achieved a reputation +by his text-books on arithmetic and mathematics. + +William began his course at the same college in his eleventh year, and +was petted by the older students for his extraordinary quickness in +solving the problems of his father's class. It was quite plain that his +genius lay in the direction of mathematics; and on finishing at Glasgow +he was sent to the higher mathematical school of St. Peter's College, +Cambridge. In 1845 he graduated as second wrangler, but won the Smith +prize. This 'consolation stakes' is regarded as a better test of +originality than the tripos. The first, or senior, wrangler probably +beat him by a facility in applying well-known rules, and a readiness +in writing. One of the examiners is said to have declared that he was +unworthy to cut Thomson's pencils. It is certain that while the victor +has been forgotten, the vanquished has created a world-wide renown. + +While at Cambridge he took an active part in the field sports and +athletics of the University. He won the Silver Sculls, and rowed in the +winning boat of the Oxford and Cambridge race. He also took a lively +interest in the classics, in music, and in general literature; but the +real love, the central passion of his intellectual life, was the pursuit +of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of +electricity, had captivated his imagination, and soon engrossed all the +teeming faculties of his mind. At the age of seventeen, when ordinary +lads are fond of games, and the cleverer sort are content to learn +without attempting to originate, young Thomson had begun to make +investigations. The CAMBRIDGE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL of 1842 contains +a paper by him--'On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid +bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity.' +In this he demonstrated the identity of the laws governing the +distribution of electric or magnetic force in general, with the laws +governing the distribution of the lines of the motion of heat in certain +special cases. The paper was followed by others on the mathematical +theory of electricity; and in 1845 he gave the first mathematical +development of Faraday's notion, that electric induction takes place +through an intervening medium, or 'dielectric,' and not by some +incomprehensible 'action at a distance.' He also devised an hypothesis +of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems +of electrostatics, or the science which deals with the forces of +electricity at rest. + +On gaining a fellowship at his college, he spent some time in the +laboratory of the celebrated Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was +appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of +Glasgow. It was due to the brilliant promise he displayed, as much as +to the influence of his father, that at the age of twenty-two he found +himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest +Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was +a freshman but a few years before. + +Thomson became a man of public note in connection with the laying of the +first Atlantic cable. After Cooke and Wheatstone had introduced their +working telegraph in 1839; the idea of a submarine line across the +Atlantic Ocean began to dawn on the minds of men as a possible triumph +of the future. Morse proclaimed his faith in it as early as the year +1840, and in 1842 he submerged a wire, insulated with tarred hemp and +india-rubber, in the water of New York harbour, and telegraphed through +it. The following autumn Wheatstone performed a similar experiment in +the Bay of Swansea. A good insulator to cover the wire and prevent the +electricity from leaking into the water was requisite for the success +of a long submarine line. India-rubber had been tried by Jacobi, the +Russian electrician, as far back as 1811. He laid a wire insulated with +rubber across the Neva at St. Petersburg, and succeeded in firing a mine +by an electric spark sent through it; but india-rubber, although it is +now used to a considerable extent, was not easy to manipulate in those +days. Luckily another gum which could be melted by heat, and readily +applied to the wire, made its appearance. Gutta-percha, the adhesive +juice of the ISONANDRA GUTTA tree, was introduced to Europe in 1842 +by Dr. Montgomerie, a Scotch surveyor in the service of the East India +Company. Twenty years before he had seen whips made of it in Singapore, +and believed that it would be useful in the fabrication of surgical +apparatus. Faraday and Wheatstone soon discovered its merits as an +insulator, and in 1845 the latter suggested that it should be employed +to cover the wire which it was proposed to lay from Dover to Calais. It +was tried on a wire laid across the Rhine between Deutz and Cologne. In +1849 Mr. C. V. Walker, electrician to the South Eastern Railway Company, +submerged a wire coated with it, or, as it is technically called, a +gutta-percha core, along the coast off Dover. + +The following year Mr. John Watkins Brett laid the first line across the +Channel. It was simply a copper wire coated with gutta-percha, without +any other protection. The core was payed out from a reel mounted behind +the funnel of a steam tug, the Goliath, and sunk by means of lead +weights attached to it every sixteenth of a mile. She left Dover about +ten o'clock on the morning of August 28, 1850, with some thirty men on +board and a day's provisions. The route she was to follow was marked by +a line of buoys and flags. By eight o'clock in the evening she arrived +at Cape Grisnez, and came to anchor near the shore. Mr. Brett watched +the operations through a glass at Dover. 'The declining sun,' he says, +'enabled me to discern the moving shadow of the steamer's smoke on the +white cliff; thus indicating her progress. At length the shadow ceased +to move. The vessel had evidently come to an anchor. We gave them +half an hour to convey the end of the wire to shore and attach the +type-printing instrument, and then I sent the first electrical message +across the Channel. This was reserved for Louis Napoleon.' According to +Mr. F. C. Webb, however, the first of the signals were a mere jumble of +letters, which were torn up. He saved a specimen of the slip on which +they were printed, and it was afterwards presented to the Duke of +Wellington. + +Next morning this pioneer line was broken down at a point about 200 +Yards from Cape Grisnez, and it turned out that a Boulogne fisherman +had raised it on his trawl and cut a piece away, thinking he had found a +rare species of tangle with gold in its heart. This misfortune suggested +the propriety of arming the core against mechanical injury by sheathing +it in a cable of hemp and iron wires. The experiment served to keep +alive the concession, and the next year, on November 13, 1851, a +protected core or true cable was laid from a Government hulk, the +Blazer, which was towed across the Channel. + +Next year Great Britain and Ireland were linked together. In May, 1853, +England was joined to Holland by a cable across the North Sea, from +Orfordness to the Hague. It was laid by the Monarch, a paddle steamer +which had been fitted for the work. During the night she met with such +heavy weather that the engineer was lashed near the brakes; and the +electrician, Mr. Latimer Clark, sent the continuity signals by jerking +a needle instrument with a string. These and other efforts in the +Mediterranean and elsewhere were the harbingers of the memorable +enterprise which bound the Old World and the New. + +Bishop Mullock, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland, was +lying becalmed in his yacht one day in sight of Cape Breton Island, and +began to dream of a plan for uniting his savage diocese to the mainland +by a line of telegraph through the forest from St. John's to Cape Ray, +and cables across the mouth of the St. Lawrence from Cape Ray to Nova +Scotia. St. John's was an Atlantic port, and it seemed to him that the +passage of news between America and Europe could thus be shortened by +forty-eight hours. On returning to St. John's he published his idea in +the COURIER by a letter dated November 8, 1850. + +About the same time a similar plan occurred to Mr. F. N. Gisborne, a +telegraph engineer in Nova Scotia. In the spring of 1851 he procured a +grant from the Legislature of Newfoundland, resigned his situation in +Nova Scotia, and having formed a company, began the construction of the +land line. But in 1853 his bills were dishonoured by the company, he was +arrested for debt, and stripped of all his fortune. The following year, +however, he was introduced to Mr. Cyrus Field, of New York, a wealthy +merchant, who had just returned from a six months' tour in South +America. Mr. Field invited Mr. Gisborne to his house in order to discuss +the project. When his visitor was gone, Mr. Field began to turn over a +terrestrial globe which stood in his library, and it flashed upon him +that the telegraph to Newfoundland might be extended across the Atlantic +Ocean. The idea fired him with enthusiasm. It seemed worthy of a man's +ambition, and although he had retired from business to spend his days +in peace, he resolved to dedicate his time, his energies, and fortune to +the accomplishment of this grand enterprise. + +A presentiment of success may have inspired him; but he was ignorant +alike of submarine cables and the deep sea. Was it possible to submerge +the cable in the Atlantic, and would it be safe at the bottom? Again, +would the messages travel through the line fast enough to make it pay! +On the first question he consulted Lieutenant Maury, the great authority +on mareography. Maury told him that according to recent soundings by +Lieutenant Berryman, of the United States brig Dolphin, the bottom +between Ireland and Newfoundland was a plateau covered with microscopic +shells at a depth not over 2000 fathoms, and seemed to have been made +for the very purpose of receiving the cable. He left the question of +finding a time calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a wire long enough, +and a ship big enough,' to lay a line some sixteen hundred miles in +length to other minds. As to the line itself, Mr. Field consulted +Professor Morse, who assured him that it was quite possible to make and +lay a cable of that length. He at once adopted the scheme of Gisborne as +a preliminary step to the vaster undertaking, and promoted the New +York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, to establish a line +of telegraph between America and Europe. Professor Morse was appointed +electrician to the company. + +The first thing to be done was to finish the line between St. John's and +Nova Scotia, and in 1855 an attempt was made to lay a cable across the +Gulf of the St. Lawrence, It was payed out from a barque in tow of a +steamer; but when half was laid a gale rose, and to keep the barque from +sinking the line was cut away. Next summer a steamboat was fitted +out for the purpose, and the cable was submerged. St. John's was now +connected with New York by a thousand miles of land and submarine +telegraph. + +Mr. Field then directed his efforts to the completion of the +trans-oceanic section. He induced the American Government to despatch +Lieutenant Berryman, in the Arctic, and the British Admiralty to send +Lieutenant: Dayman, in the Cyclops, to make a special survey along the +proposed route of the cable. These soundings revealed the existence of a +submarine hill dividing the 'telegraph plateau' from the shoal water on +the coast of Ireland, but its slope was gradual and easy. + +Till now the enterprise had been purely American, and the funds provided +by American capitalists, with the exception of a few shares held by Mr. +J. W. Brett. But seeing that the cable was to land on British soil, it +was fitting that the work should be international, and that the British +people should be asked to contribute towards the manufacture and +submersion of the cable. Mr. Field therefore proceeded to London, and +with the assistance of Mr. Brett the Atlantic Telegraph Company was +floated. Mr. Field himself supplied a quarter of the needed capital; and +we may add that Lady Byron, and Mr. Thackeray, the novelist, were among +the shareholders. + +The design of the cable was a subject of experiment by Professor +Morse and others. It was known that the conductor should be of copper, +possessing a high conductivity for the electric current, and that its +insulating jacket of gutta-percha should offer a great resistance to +the leakage of the current. Moreover, experience had shown that the +protecting sheath or armour of the core should be light and flexible as +well as strong, in order to resist external violence and allow it to be +lifted for repair. There was another consideration, however, which at +this time was rather a puzzle. As early as 1823 Mr. (afterwards Sir) +Francis Ronalds had observed that electric signals were retarded in +passing through an insulated wire or core laid under ground, and the +same effect was noticeable on cores immersed in water, and particularly +on the lengthy cable between England and the Hague. Faraday showed that +it was caused by induction between the electricity in the wire and the +earth or water surrounding it. A core, in fact, is an attenuated Leyden +jar; the wire of the core, its insulating jacket, and the soil or water +around it stand respectively for the inner tinfoil, the glass, and the +outer tinfoil of the jar. When the wire is charged from a battery, the +electricity induces an opposite charge in the water as it travels +along, and as the two charges attract each other, the exciting charge is +restrained. The speed of a signal through the conductor of a submarine +cable is thus diminished by a drag of its own making. The nature of +the phenomenon was clear, but the laws which governed it were still a +mystery. It became a serious question whether, on a long cable such as +that required for the Atlantic, the signals might not be so sluggish +that the work would hardly pay. Faraday had said to Mr. Field that a +signal would take 'about a second,' and the American was satisfied; but +Professor Thomson enunciated the law of retardation, and cleared up the +whole matter. He showed that the velocity of a signal through a given +core was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the +core. That is to say, in any particular cable the speed of a signal is +diminished to one-fourth if the length is doubled, to one-ninth if it +is trebled, to one-sixteenth if it is quadrupled, and so on. It was +now possible to calculate the time taken by a signal in traversing the +proposed Atlantic line to a minute fraction of a second, and to design +the proper core for a cable of any given length. + +The accuracy of Thomson's law was disputed in 1856 by Dr. Edward O. +Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, +who had misinterpreted the results of his own experiments. Thomson +disposed of his contention in a letter to the ATHENAEUM, and the +directors of the company saw that he was a man to enlist in their +adventure. It is not enough to say the young Glasgow professor threw +himself heart and soul into their work. He descended in their midst +like the very genius of electricity, and helped them out of all their +difficulties. In 1857 he published in the ENGINEER the whole theory of +the mechanical forces involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and +showed that when the line is running out of the ship at a constant speed +in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline +from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the +bottom. + +To these gifts of theory, electrical and mechanical, Thomson added a +practical boon in the shape of the reflecting galvanometer, or mirror +instrument. This measurer of the current was infinitely more sensitive +than any which preceded it, and enables the electrician to detect +the slightest flaw in the core of a cable during its manufacture and +submersion. Moreover, it proved the best apparatus for receiving the +messages through a long cable. The Morse and other instruments, however +suitable for land lines and short cables, were all but useless on the +Atlantic line, owing to the retardation of the signals; but the mirror +instrument sprang out of Thomson's study of this phenomenon, and was +designed to match it. Hence this instrument, through being the fittest +for the purpose, drove the others from the field, and allowed the first +Atlantic cables to be worked on a profitable basis. + +The cable consisted of a strand of seven copper wires, one weighing +107 pounds a nautical mile or knot, covered with three coats of +gutta-percha, weighing 261 pounds a knot, and wound with tarred hemp, +over which a sheath of eighteen strands, each of seven iron wires, +was laid in a close spiral. It weighed nearly a ton to the mile, was +flexible as a rope, and able to withstand a pull of several tons. It +was made conjointly by Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., of Greenwich, and +Messrs. R. S. Newall & Co., of Liverpool. + +The British Government promised Mr. Field a subsidy of L1,400 a year, +and the loan of ships to lay the cable. He solicited an equal help from +Congress, but a large number of the senators, actuated by a national +jealousy of England, and looking to the fact that both ends of the line +were to lie in British territory, opposed the grant. It appeared to +these far-sighted politicians that England, the hereditary foe, was +'literally crawling under the sea to get some advantage over the United +States.' The Bill was only passed by a majority of a single vote. In +the House of Representatives it encountered a similar hostility, but was +ultimately signed by President Pierce. + +The Agamemnon, a British man-of-war fitted out for the purpose, took +in the section made at Greenwich, and the Niagara, an American warship, +that made at Liverpool. The vessels and their consorts met in the bay of +Valentia Island, on the south-west coast of Ireland, where on August 5, +1857, the shore end of the cable was landed from the Niagara. It was a +memorable scene. The ships in the bay were dressed in bunting, and +the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland stood on the beach, attended by his +following, to receive the end from the American sailors. Visitors in +holiday attire collected in groups to watch the operations, and eagerly +joined with his excellency in helping to pull the wire ashore. When +it was landed, the Reverend Mr. Day, of Kenmore, offered up a prayer, +asking the Almighty to prosper the undertaking, Next day the expedition +sailed; but ere the Niagara had proceeded five miles on her way the +shore-end parted, and the repairing of it delayed the start for another +day. + +At first the Niagara went slowly ahead to avoid a mishap, but as the +cable ran out easily she increased her speed. The night fell, but hardly +a soul slept. The utmost vigilance was maintained throughout the vessel. +Apart from the noise of the paying-out machinery, there was an awful +stillness on board. Men walked about with a muffled step, or spoke in +whispers, as if they were afraid the sound of their voices would break +the slender line. It seemed as though a great and valued friend lay at +the point of death. + +The submarine hill, with its dangerous slope, was passed in safety, +and the 'telegraph plateau,' nearly two miles deep, was reached, when +suddenly the signals from Ireland, which told that the conductor +was intact, stopped altogether. Professor Morse and De Sauty, the +electricians, failed to restore the communication, and the engineers +were preparing to cut the cable, when quite as suddenly the signals +returned, and every face grew bright. A weather-beaten old sailor said, +'I have watched nearly every mile of it as it came over the side, and +I would have given fifty dollars, poor man as I am, to have saved it, +although I don't expect to make anything by it when it is laid down.' + +But the joy was short-lived. The line was running out at the rate of +six miles an hour, while the vessel was only making four. To check this +waste of cable the engineer tightened the brakes; but as the stern of +the ship rose on the swell, the cable parted under the heavy strain, and +the end was lost in the sea. + +The bad news ran like a flash of lightning through all the ships, and +produced a feeling of sorrow and dismay. + +No attempt was made to grapple the line in such deep water, and the +expedition returned to England. It was too late to try again that +year, but the following summer the Agamemnon and Niagara, after an +experimental trip to the Bay of Biscay, sailed from Plymouth on June +10 with a full supply of cable, better gear than before, and a riper +experience of the work. They were to meet in the middle of the Atlantic, +where the two halves of the cable on board of each were to be spliced +together, and while the Agamemnon payed out eastwards to Valentia Island +the Niagara was to pay out westward to Newfoundland. On her way to the +rendezvous the Agamemnon encountered a terrific gale, which lasted for a +week, and nearly proved her destruction. + +On Saturday, the 26th, the middle splice was effected and the bight +dropped into the deep. The two ships got under weigh, but had not +proceeded three miles when the cable broke in the paying-out machinery +of the Niagara. Another splice, followed by a fresh start, was made +during the same afternoon; but when some fifty miles were payed out +of each vessel, the current which kept up communication between them +suddenly failed owing to the cable having snapped in the sea. Once more +the middle splice was made and lowered, and the ships parted company a +third time. For a day or two all went well; over two hundred miles of +cable ran smoothly out of each vessel, and the anxious chiefs began to +indulge in hopes of ultimate success, when the cable broke about twenty +feet behind the stern of the Agamemnon. + +The expedition returned to Queenstown, and a consultation took place. +Mr. Field, and Professor Thomson, who was on board the Agamemnon, were +in favour of another trial, and it was decided to make one without +delay. The vessels left the Cove of Cork on July 17; but on this +occasion there was no public enthusiasm, and even those on board felt +as if they were going on another wild goose chase. The Agamemnon was now +almost becalmed on her way to the rendezvous; but the middle splice was +finished by 12.30 p.m. on July 29, 1858, and immediately dropped into +the sea. The ships thereupon started, and increased their distance, +while the cable ran easily out of them. Some alarm was caused by the +stoppage of the continuity signals, but after a time they reappeared. +The Niagara deviated from the great arc of a circle on which the cable +was to be laid, and the error was traced to the iron of the cable +influencing her compass. Hence the Gorgon, one of her consorts, was +ordered to go ahead and lead the way. The Niagara passed several +icebergs, but none injured the cable, and on August 4 she arrived in +Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. At 6. a.m. next morning the shore end was +landed into the telegraph-house which had been built for its reception. +Captain Hudson, of the Niagara, then read prayers, and at one p.m. +H.M.S. Gorgon fired a salute of twenty-one guns. + +The Agamemnon made an equally successful run. About six o'clock on the +first evening a huge whale was seen approaching on the starboard bow, +and as he sported in the waves, rolling and lashing them into foam, +the onlookers began to fear that he might endanger the line. Their +excitement became intense as the monster heaved astern, nearer and +nearer to the cable, until his body grazed it where it sank into the +water; but happily no harm was done. Damaged portions of the cable had +to be removed in paying-out, and the stoppage of the continuity signals +raised other alarms on board. Strong head winds kept the Agamemnon back, +and two American ships which got into her course had to be warned off +by firing guns. The signals from the Niagara became very weak, but on +Professor Thomson asking the electricians on board of her to increase +their battery power, they improved at once. At length, on Thursday, +August, 5, the Agamemnon, with her consort, the Valorous, arrived at +Valentia Island, and the shore end was landed into the cable-house at +Knightstown by 3 p.m., and a royal salute announced the completion of +the work. + +The news was received at first with some incredulity, but on being +confirmed it caused a universal joy. On August 16 Queen Victoria sent a +telegram of congratulation to President Buchanan through the line, and +expressed a hope that it would prove 'an additional link between +the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and +reciprocal esteem.' The President responded that, 'it is a triumph +more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by +conqueror on the field of battle. May the Atlantic telegraph, under the +blessing of heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship +between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine +Providence to diffuse religion, civilisation, liberty, and law +throughout the world.' + +These messages were the signal for a fresh outburst of enthusiasm. Next +morning a grand salute of 100 guns resounded in New York, the streets +were decorated with flags, the bells of the churches rung, and at night +the city was illuminated. + +The Atlantic cable was a theme of inspiration for innumerable sermons +and a prodigious quantity of doggerel. Among the happier lines were +these:-- + + ''Tis done! the angry sea consents, + The nations stand no more apart; + With clasped hands the continents + Feel throbbings of each other's heart. + + Speed! speed the cable! let it run + A loving girdle round the earth, + Till all the nations 'neath the sun + Shall be as brothers of one hearth. + + As brothers pledging, hand in hand, + One freedom for the world abroad, + One commerce over every land, + One language, and one God.' + +The rejoicing reached a climax in September, when a public service was +held in Trinity Church, and Mr. Field, the hero of the hour, as head and +mainspring of the expedition, received an ovation in the Crystal Palace +at New York. The mayor presented him with a golden casket as a souvenir +of 'the grandest enterprise of our day and generation.' The band played +'God save the Queen,' and the whole audience rose to their feet. In +the evening there was a magnificent torchlight procession of the city +firemen. + +That very day the cable breathed its last. Its insulation had been +failing for some days, and the only signals which could be read were +those given by the mirror galvanometer.[It is said to have broken down +while Newfoundland was vainly attempting to inform Valentia that it was +sending with THREE HUNDRED AND TWELVE CELLS!] The reaction at this news +was tremendous. Some writers even hinted that the line was a mere hoax, +and others pronounced it a stock exchange speculation. Sensible men +doubted whether the cable had ever 'spoken;' but in addition to the +royal despatch, items of daily news had passed through the wire; for +instance, the announcement of a collision between two ships, the Arabia +and the Europa, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, and an order from London, +countermanding the departure of a regiment in Canada for the seat of the +Indian Mutiny, which had come to an end. + +Mr. Field was by no means daunted at the failure. He was even more eager +to renew the work, since he had come so near to success. But the public +had lost confidence in the scheme, and all his efforts to revive the +company were futile. It was not until 1864 that with the assistance of +Mr. Thomas (afterwards Lord) Brassey, and Mr. (now Sir) John Fender, +that he succeeded in raising the necessary capital. The Glass, Elliot, +and Gutta-Percha Companies were united to form the well-known Telegraph +Construction and Maintenance Company, which undertook to manufacture and +lay the new cable. + +Much experience had been gained in the meanwhile. Long cables had been +submerged in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The Board of Trade +in 1859 had appointed a committee of experts, including Professor +Wheatstone, to investigate the whole subject, and the results were +published in a Blue-book. Profiting by these aids, an improved type of +cable was designed. The core consisted of a strand of seven very +pure copper wires weighing 300 lbs. a knot, coated with Chatterton's +compound, which is impervious to water, then covered with four layers of +gutta-percha alternating with four thin layers of the compound cementing +the whole, and bringing the weight of the insulator to 400 lbs. per +knot. This core was served with hemp saturated in a preservative +solution, and on the hemp as a padding were spirally wound eighteen +single wires of soft steel, each covered with fine strands of Manilla +yam steeped in the preservative. The weight of the new cable was +35.75 cwt. per knot, or nearly twice the weight of the old, and it was +stronger in proportion. + +Ten years before, Mr. Marc Isambard Brunel, the architect of the Great +Eastern, had taken Mr. Field to Blackwall, where the leviathan was +lying, and said to him, 'There is the ship to lay the Atlantic cable.' +She was now purchased to fulfil the mission. Her immense hull was fitted +with three iron tanks for the reception of 2,300 miles of cable, and +her decks furnished with the paying-out gear. Captain (now Sir) James +Anderson, of the Cunard steamer China, a thorough seaman, was appointed +to the command, with Captain Moriarty, R.N., as chief navigating +officer. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Samuel Canning was engineer for the +contractors, the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and Mr. +de Sauty their electrician; Professor Thomson and Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood +Varley were the electricians for the Atlantic Telegraph Company. The +Press was ably represented by Dr. W. H. Russell, correspondent of the +TIMES. The Great Eastern took on board seven or eight thousand tons of +coal to feed her fires, a prodigious quantity of stores, and a multitude +of live stock which turned her decks into a farmyard. Her crew all told +numbered 500 men. + +At noon on Saturday, July 15, 1865, the Great Eastern left the Nore for +Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island, where the shore end was laid by the +Caroline. + +At 5.30 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, amidst the firing of cannon and the +cheers of the telegraph fleet, she started on her voyage at a speed of +about four knots an hour. The weather was fine, and all went well until +next morning early, when the boom of a gun signalled that a fault had +broken out in the cable. It turned out that a splinter of iron wire had +penetrated the core. More faults of the kind were discovered, and as +they always happened in the same watch, there was a suspicion of foul +play. In repairing one of these on July 31, after 1,062 miles had been +payed out, the cable snapped near the stern of the ship, and the end was +lost. 'All is over,' quietly observed Mr. Canning; and though spirited +attempts were made to grapple the sunken line in two miles of water, +they failed to recover it. + +The Great Eastern steamed back to England, where the indomitable Mr. +Field issued another prospectus, and formed the Anglo-American Telegraph +Company, with a capital of L600,000, to lay a new cable and complete +the broken one. On July 7, 1866, the William Cory laid the shore end +at Valentia, and on Friday, July 13, about 3 p.m., the Great Eastern +started paying-out once more. [Friday is regarded as an unlucky, and +Sunday as a lucky day by sailors. The Great Eastern started on Sunday +before and failed; she succeeded now. Columbus sailed on a Friday, and +discovered America on a Friday.] A private service of prayer was held +at Valentia by invitation of two directors of the company, but otherwise +there was no celebration of the event. Professor Thomson was on board; +but Dr. W. H. Russell had gone to the seat of the Austro-Prussian war, +from which telegrams were received through the cable. + +The 'big ship' was attended by three consorts, the Terrible, to act as +a spy on the starboard how, and warn other vessels off the course, the +Medway on the port, and the Albany on the starboard quarter, to drop +or pick up buoys, and make themselves generally useful. Despite the +fickleness of the weather, and a 'foul flake,' or clogging of the line +as it ran out of the tank, there was no interruption of the work. The +'old coffee mill,' as the sailors dubbed the paying-out gear, kept +grinding away. 'I believe we shall do it this time, Jack,' said one of +the crew to his mate. + +On the evening of Friday, July 27, the expedition made the entrance of +Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, in a thick fog, and next morning the Great +Eastern cast her anchor at Heart's Content. Flags were flying from the +little church and the telegraph station on shore. The Great Eastern was +dressed, three cheers were given, and a salute was fired. At 9 a.m. a +message from England cited these words from a leading article in the +current TIMES: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age and nation, +and the men who have achieved it deserve to be honoured among the +benefactors of their race.' 'Treaty of peace signed between Prussia and +Austria.' The shore end was landed during the day by the Medway; and +Captain Anderson, with the officers of the telegraph fleet, went in a +body to the church to return thanks for the success of the expedition. +Congratulations poured in, and friendly telegrams were again exchanged +between Her Majesty and the United States. The great work had been +finally accomplished, and the two worlds were lastingly united. + +On August 9 the Great Eastern put to sea again in order to grapple +the lost cable of 1865, and complete it to Newfoundland. Arriving in +mid-ocean she proceeded to fish for the submerged line in two thousand +fathoms of water, and after repeated failures, involving thirty casts of +the grapnel, she hooked and raised it to surface, then spliced it to +the fresh cable in her hold, and payed out to Heart's Content, where +she arrived on Saturday, September 7. There were now two fibres of +intelligence between the two hemispheres. + +On his return home, Professor Thomson was among those who received +the honour of knighthood for their services in connection with the +enterprise. He deserved it. By his theory and apparatus he probably did +more than any other man, with the exception of Mr. Field, to further the +Atlantic telegraph. We owe it to his admirable inventions, the mirror +instrument of 1857 and the siphon recorder of 1869, that messages +through long cables are so cheap and fast, and, as a consequence, that +ocean telegraphy is now so common. Hence some account of these two +instruments will not be out of place. + +Sir William Thomson's siphon recorder, in all its present completeness, +must take rank as a masterpiece of invention. As used in the recording +or writing in permanent characters of the messages sent through +long submarine cables, it is the acknowledged chief of 'receiving +instruments,' as those apparatus are called which interpret the +electrical condition of the telegraph wire into intelligible signals. +Like other mechanical creations, no doubt its growth in idea and +translation into material fact was a step-by-step process of evolution, +culminating at last in its great fitness and beauty. + +The marvellous development of telegraphy within the last generation has +called into existence a great variety of receiving instruments, each +admirable in its way. The Hughes, or the Stock Exchange instruments, for +instance, print the message in Roman characters; the sounders strike it +out on stops or bells of different tone; the needle instruments indicate +it by oscillations of their needles; the Morse daubs it in ink on paper, +or embosses it by a hard style; while Bain's electro-chemical receiver +stains it on chemically prepared paper. The Meyer-Baudot and the +Quadruple receive four messages at once and record them separately; +while the harmonic telegraph of Elisha Gray can receive as many as +eight simultaneously, by means of notes excited by the current in eight +separate tuning forks. + +But all these instruments have one great drawback for delicate work, +and, however suitable they may be for land lines, they are next to +useless for long cables. They require a certain definite strength of +current to work them, whatever it may be, and in general it is +very considerable. Most of the moving parts of the mechanism are +comparatively heavy, and unless the current is of the proper strength to +move them, the instrument is dumb, while in Bain's the solution requires +a certain power of current to decompose it and leave the stain. + +In overland lines the current traverses the wire suddenly, like a +bullet, and at its full strength, so that if the current be sufficiently +strong these instruments will be worked at once, and no time will be +lost. But it is quite different on submarine cables. There the current +is slow and varying. It travels along the copper wire in the form of +a wave or undulation, and is received feebly at first, then gradually +rising to its maximum strength, and finally dying away again as slowly +as it rose. In the French Atlantic cable no current can be detected +by the most delicate galvanoscope at America for the first tenth of +a second after it has been put on at Brest; and it takes about half +a second for the received current to reach its maximum value. This +is owing to the phenomenon of induction, very important in submarine +cables, but almost entirely absent in land lines. In submarine cables, +as is well known, the copper wire which conveys the current is insulated +from the sea-water by an envelope, usually of gutta-percha. Now the +electricity sent into this wire INDUCES electricity of an opposite kind +to itself in the sea-water outside, and the attraction set up between +these two kinds 'holds back' the current in the wire, and retards its +passage to the receiving station. + +It follows, that with a receiving instrument set to indicate a +particular strength of current, the rate of signalling would be very +slow on long cables compared to land lines; and that a different form +of instrument is required for cable work. This fact stood greatly in +the way of early cable enterprise. Sir William (then Professor) +Thomson first solved the difficulty by his invention of the 'mirror +galvanometer,' and rendered at the same time the first Atlantic cable +company a commercial success. The merit of this receiving instrument +is, that it indicates with extreme sensibility all the variations of +the current in the cable, so that, instead of having to wait until +each signal wave sent into the cable has travelled to the receiving end +before sending another, a series of waves may be sent after each other +in rapid succession. These waves, encroaching upon each other, will +coalesce at their bases; but if the crests remain separate, the delicate +decipherer at the other end will take cognisance of them and make them +known to the eye as the distinct signals of the message. + +The mirror galvanometer is at once beautifully simple and exquisitely +scientific. It consists of a very long fine coil of silk-covered copper +wire, and in the heart of the coil, within a little air-chamber, a small +round mirror, having four tiny magnets cemented to its back, is hung, by +a single fibre of floss silk no thicker than a spider's line. The mirror +is of film glass silvered, the magnets of hair-spring, and both together +sometimes weigh only one-tenth of a grain. A beam of light is thrown +from a lamp upon the mirror, and reflected by it upon a white screen or +scale a few feet distant, where it forms a bright spot of light. + +When there is no current on the instrument, the spot of light remains +stationary at the zero position on the screen; but the instant a +current traverses the long wire of the coil, the suspended magnets twist +themselves horizontally out of their former position, the mirror is of +course inclined with them, and the beam of light is deflected along the +screen to one side or the other, according to the nature of the current. +If a POSITIVE current--that is to say, a current from the copper pole +of the battery--gives a deflection to the RIGHT of zero, a NEGATIVE +current, or a current from the zinc pole of the battery, will give a +deflection to the left of zero, and VICE VERSA. + +The air in the little chamber surrounding the mirror is compressed at +will, so as to act like a cushion, and 'deaden' the movements of the +mirror. The needle is thus prevented from idly swinging about at each +deflection, and the separate signals are rendered abrupt and 'dead +beat,' as it is called. + +At a receiving station the current coming in from the cable has simply +to be passed through the coil of the 'speaker' before it is sent into +the ground, and the wandering light spot on the screen faithfully +represents all its variations to the clerk, who, looking on, interprets +these, and cries out the message word by word. + +The small weight of the mirror and magnets which form the moving part of +this instrument, and the range to which the minute motions of the mirror +can be magnified on the screen by the reflected beam of light, +which acts as a long impalpable hand or pointer, render the mirror +galvanometer marvellously sensitive to the current, especially when +compared with other forms of receiving instruments. Messages have been +sent from England to America through one Atlantic cable and back +again to England through another, and there received on the mirror +galvanometer, the electric current used being that from a toy battery +made out of a lady's silver thimble, a grain of zinc, and a drop of +acidulated water. + +The practical advantage of this extreme delicacy is, that the signal +waves of the current may follow each other so closely as almost entirely +to coalesce, leaving only a very slight rise and fall of their crests, +like ripples on the surface of a flowing stream, and yet the light spot +will respond to each. The main flow of the current will of course shift +the zero of the spot, but over and above this change of place the spot +will follow the momentary fluctuations of the current which form the +individual signals of the message. What with this shifting of the zero +and the very slight rise and fall in the current produced by rapid +signalling, the ordinary land line instruments are quite unserviceable +for work upon long cables. + +The mirror instrument has this drawback, however--it does not 'record' +the message. There is a great practical advantage in a receiving +instrument which records its messages; errors are avoided and time +saved. It was to supply such a desideratum for cable work that Sir +William Thomson invented the siphon recorder, his second important +contribution to the province of practical telegraphy. He aimed at giving +a GRAPHIC representation of the varying strength of the current, just as +the mirror galvanometer gives a visual one. The difficulty of producing +such a recorder was, as he himself says, due to a difficulty in +obtaining marks from a very light body in rapid motion, without +impeding that motion. The moving body must be quite free to follow the +undulations of the current, and at the same time must record its motions +by some indelible mark. As early as 1859, Sir William sent out to +the Red Sea cable a piece of apparatus with this intent. The marker +consisted of a light platinum wire, constantly emitting sparks from a +Rhumkorff coil, so as to perforate a line on a strip of moving +paper; and it was so connected to the movable needle of a species of +galvanometer as to imitate the motions of the needle. But before it +reached the Red Sea the cable had broken down, and the instrument was +returned dismantled, to be superseded at length by the siphon recorder, +in which the marking point is a fine glass siphon emitting ink, and the +moving body a light coil of wire hung between the poles of a magnet. + +The principle of the siphon recorder is exactly the inverse of the +mirror galvanometer. In the latter we have a small magnet suspended in +the centre of a large coil of wire--the wire enclosing the magnet, which +is free to rotate round its own axis. In the former we have a small coil +suspended between the poles of a large magnet--the magnet enclosing the +coil, which is also free to rotate round its own axis. When a current +passes through this coil, so suspended in the highly magnetic space +between the poles of the magnet, the coil itself experiences a +mechanical force, causing it to take up a particular position, which +varies with the nature of the current, and the siphon which is attached +to it faithfully figures its motion on the running paper. + +The point of the siphon does not touch the paper, although it is +very close. It would impede the motion of the coil if it did. But the +'capillary attraction' of so fine a tube will not permit the ink to flow +freely of itself, so the inventor, true to his instincts, again called +in the aid of electricity, and electrified the ink. The siphon and +reservoir are together supported by an EBONITE bracket, separate from +the rest of the instrument, and INSULATED from it; that is to say, +electricity cannot escape from them to the instrument. The ink may, +therefore, be electrified to an exalted state, or high POTENTIAL as it +is called, while the body of the instrument, including the paper and +metal writing-tablet, are in connection with the earth, and at low +potential, or none at all, for the potential of the earth is in general +taken as zero. + +The ink, for example, is like a highly-charged thunder-cloud supported +over the earth's surface. Now the tendency of a charged body is to move +from a place of higher to a place of lower potential, and consequently +the ink tends to flow downwards to the writing-tablet. The only avenue +of escape for it is by the fine glass siphon, and through this it rushes +accordingly and discharges itself in a rain upon the paper. The natural +repulsion between its like electrified particles causes the shower to +issue in spray. As the paper moves over the pulleys a delicate hair line +is marked, straight when the siphon is stationary, but curved when the +siphon is pulled from side to side by the oscillations of the signal +coil. + +It is to the mouse-mill that me must look both for the electricity which +is used to electrify the ink and for the motive power which drives +the paper. This unique and interesting little motor owes its somewhat +epigrammatic title to the resemblance of the drum to one of those +sparred wheels turned by white mice, and to the amusing fact of its +capacity for performing work having been originally computed in terms of +a 'mouse-power.' The mill is turned by a stream of electricity flowing +from the battery above described, and is, in fact, an electro-magnetic +engine worked by the current. + +The alphabet of signals employed is the 'Morse code,' so generally +in vogue throughout the world. In the Morse code the letters of the +alphabet are represented by combinations of two distinct elementary +signals, technically called 'dots' and 'dashes,' from the fact that the +Morse recorder actually marks the message in long and short lines, +or dots and dashes. In the siphon recorder script dots and dashes are +represented by curves of opposite flexure. The condensers are merely +used to sharpen the action of the current, and render the signals more +concise and distinct on long cables. On short cables, say under three +hundred miles long, they are rarely, if ever, used. + +The speed of signalling by the siphon recorder is of course regulated by +the length of cable through which it is worked. The instrument itself +is capable of a wide range of speed. The best operators cannot send over +thirty-five words per minute by hand, but a hundred and twenty words +or more per minute can be transmitted by an automatic sender, and the +recorder has been found on land lines and short cables to write off the +message at this incredible speed. When we consider that every word +is, on the average, composed of fifteen separate waves, we may better +appreciate the rapidity with which the siphon can move. On an ordinary +cable of about a thousand miles long, the working speed is about twenty +words per minute. On the French Atlantic it is usually about thirteen, +although as many as seventeen have sometimes been sent. + +The 'duplex' system, or method of telegraphing in opposite directions +at once through the same wire, has of late years been applied, in +connection with the recorder, to all the long cables of that most +enterprising of telegraph companies--the Eastern--so that both stations +may 'speak' to each other simultaneously. Thus the carrying capacity of +the wire is in practice nearly doubled, and recorders are busy writing +at both ends of the cable at once, as if the messages came up out of the +sea itself. + +We have thus far followed out the recorder in its practical application +to submarine telegraphy. Let us now regard it for a moment in its more +philosophic aspect. We are at once struck with its self-dependence as a +machine, and even its resemblance in some respects to a living creature. +All its activity depends on the galvanic current. From three separate +sources invisible currents are led to its principal parts, and are at +once physically changed. That entering the mouse-mill becomes transmuted +in part into the mechanical motion of the revolving drum, and part into +electricity of a more intense nature--into mimic lightning, in fact, +with its accompaniments of heat and sound. That entering the signal +magnet expends part of its force in the magnetism of the core. That +entering the signal coil, which may be taken as the brain of the +instrument, appears to us as INTELLIGENCE. + +The recorder is now in use in all four quarters of the globe, from +Northern Europe to Southern Brazil, from China to New England. Many and +complete are the adjustments for rendering it serviceable under a wide +range of electrical conditions and climatic changes. The siphon is, +of course, in a mechanical sense, the most delicate part, but, in an +electrical sense, the mouse-mill proves the most susceptible. It is +essential for the fine marking of the siphon that the ink should neither +be too strongly nor too feebly electrified. When the atmosphere is +moderately humid, a proper supply of electricity is generated by the +mouse-mill, the paper is sufficiently moist, and the ink flows freely. +But an excess of moisture in the air diminishes the available supply of +EXALTED electricity. In fact, the damp depositing on the parts leads the +electricity away, and the ink tends to clog in the siphon. On the other +hand, drought not only supercharges the ink, but dries the paper so much +that it INSULATES the siphon point from the metal tablet and the earth. +There is then an insufficient escape for the electricity of the ink to +earth; the ink ceases to flow down the siphon; the siphon itself becomes +highly electrified and agitated with vibrations of its own; the line +becomes spluttered and uncertain. + +Various devices are employed at different stations to cure these local +complaints. The electrician soon learns to diagnose and prescribe for +this, his most valuable charge. At Aden, where they suffer much from +humidity, the mouse-mill is or has been surrounded with burning carbon. +At Malta a gas flame was used for the same purpose. At Suez, where +they suffer from drought, a cloud of steam was kept rising round the +instrument, saturating the air and paper. At more temperate places the +ordinary means of drying the air by taking advantage of the absorbing +power of sulphuric acid for moisture prevailed. At Marseilles the +recorder acted in some respects like a barometer. Marseilles is subject +to sudden incursions of dry northerly winds, termed the MISTRAL. +The recorder never failed to indicate the mistral when it blew, and +sometimes even to predict it by many hours. Before the storm was itself +felt, the delicate glass pen became agitated and disturbed, the frail +blue line broken and irregular. The electrician knew that the mistral +would blow before long, and, as it rarely blows for less than three days +at a time, that rather rude wind, so dreaded by the Marseillaise, was +doubly dreaded by him. + +The recorder was first used experimentally at St. Pierre, on the French +Atlantic cable, in 1869. This was numbered 0, as we were told by Mr. +White of Glasgow, the maker, whose skill has contributed not a little +to the success of the recorder. No. 1 was first used practically on the +Falmouth and Gibraltar cable of the Eastern Telegraph Company in July, +1870. No. 1 was also exhibited at Mr. (now Sir John) Pender's telegraph +soiree in 1870. On that occasion, memorable even beyond telegraphic +circles, 'three hundred of the notabilities of rank and fashion gathered +together at Mr. Pender's house in Arlington Street, Piccadilly, to +celebrate the completion of submarine communication between London and +Bombay by the successful laying of the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta and +the British Indian cable lines.' Mr. Pender's house was literally +turned outside in; the front door was removed, the courtyard temporarily +covered with an iron roof and the whole decorated in the grandest +style. Over the gateway was a gallery filled with the band of the Scots +Fusilier Guards; and over the portico of the house door hung the grapnel +which brought up the 1865 cable, made resplendent to the eye by a +coating of gold leaf. A handsome staircase, newly erected, permitted +the guests to pass from the reception-room to the drawing-room. In the +grounds at the back of the house stood the royal tent, where the Prince +of Wales and a select party, including the Duke of Cambridge and Lady +Mayo, wife of the Viceroy of India at that time, were entertained at +supper. Into this tent were brought wires from India, America, Egypt, +and other places, and Lady Mayo sent off a message to India about +half-past eleven, and had received a reply before twelve, telling her +that her husband and sons were quite well at five o'clock the next +morning. The recorder, which was shown in operation, naturally stood in +the place of honour, and attracted great attention. + +The minor features of the recorder have been simplified by other +inventors of late; for example, magnets of steel have been substituted +for the electro-magnets which influence the swinging coil; and the ink, +instead of being electrified by the mouse-mill, is shed on the paper by +a rapid vibration of the siphon point. + +To introduce his apparatus for signalling on long submarine cables, Sir +William Thomson entered into a partnership with Mr. C. F. Varley, who +first applied condensers to sharpen the signals, and Professor Fleeming +Jenkin, of Edinburgh University. In conjunction with the latter, he also +devised an 'automatic curb sender,' or key, for sending messages on a +cable, as the well-known Wheatstone transmitter sends them on a land +line. + +In both instruments the signals are sent by means of a perforated ribbon +of paper; but the cable sender was the more complicated, because the +cable signals are formed by both positive and negative currents, and not +merely by a single current, whether positive or negative. Moreover, to +curb the prolongation of the signals due to induction, each signal was +made by two opposite currents in succession--a positive followed by a +negative, or a negative followed by a positive, as the case might +be. The after-current had the effect of curbing its precursor. This +self-acting cable key was brought out in 1876, and tried on the lines of +the Eastern Telegraph Company. + +Sir William Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic +cable of 1869, and with Professor Jenkin was engineer of the Western and +Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables. He was present at the laying of +the Para to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873, +and introduced his method of deep-sea sounding, in which a steel +pianoforte wire replaces the ordinary land line. The wire glides so +easily to the bottom that 'flying soundings' can be taken while the ship +is going at full speed. A pressure-gauge to register the depth of the +sinker has been added by Sir William. + +About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's +place at sea, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application. +His most important aid to the mariner is, however, the adjustable +compass, which he brought out soon afterwards. It is a great improvement +on the older instrument, being steadier, less hampered by friction, +and the deviation due to the ship's own magnetism can be corrected by +movable masses of iron at the binnacle. + +Sir William is himself a skilful navigator, and delights to cruise in +his fine yacht, the Lalla Rookh, among the Western Islands, or up +the Mediterranean, or across the Atlantic to Madeira and America. His +interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arose, or at any rate +was fostered, by his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern. +Babbage was among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made +to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light; but Sir +William pointed out the merits of the Morse telegraphic code for the +purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long +flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes. + +Sir William has done more than any other electrician to introduce +accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as +1845 his mind was attracted to this subject. He pointed out that the +experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the +laws of Coulomb. + +In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a +description of his new divided ring electrometer, which is based on +the old electroscope of Bohnenberger and since then he has introduced +a chain or series of beautiful and effective instruments, including the +quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic +measurement. His delicate mirror galvanometer has also been the +forerunner of a later circle of equally precise apparatus for the +measurement of current or dynamic electricity. + +To give even a brief account of all his physical researches would +require a separate volume; and many of them are too abstruse or +mathematical for the general reader. His varied services have been +acknowledged by numerous distinctions, including the highest honour a +British man of science can obtain--the Presidency of the Royal Society +of London, to which he was elected at the end of last year. + +Sir William Thomson has been all his life a firm believer in the truth +of Christianity, and his great scientific attainments add weight to the +following words, spoken by him when in the chair at the annual meeting +of the Christian Evidence Society, May 23, 1889:--'I have long felt that +there was a general impression in the non-scientific world, that the +scientific world believes Science has discovered ways of explaining all +the facts of Nature without adopting any definite belief in a Creator. I +have never doubted that that impression was utterly groundless. It seems +to me that when a scientific man says--as it has been said from time to +time--that there is no God, he does not express his own ideas clearly. +He is, perhaps, struggling with difficulties; but when he says he does +not believe in a creative power, I am convinced he does not faithfully +express what is in his own mind, He does not fully express his own +ideas. He is out of his depth. + +'We are all out of our depth when we approach the subject of life. The +scientific man, in looking at a piece of dead matter, thinking over the +results of certain combinations which he can impose upon it, is himself +a living miracle, proving that there is something beyond that mass of +dead matter of which he is thinking. His very thought is in itself a +contradiction to the idea that there is nothing in existence but dead +matter. Science can do little positively towards the objects of this +society. But it can do something, and that something is vital and +fundamental. It is to show that what we see in the world of dead matter +and of life around us is not a result of the fortuitous concourse of +atoms. + +'I may refer to that old, but never uninteresting subject of the +miracles of geology. Physical science does something for us here. St. +Peter speaks of scoffers who said that "all things continue as they were +from the beginning of the creation;" but the apostle affirms himself +that "all these things shall be dissolved." It seems to me that even +physical science absolutely demonstrates the scientific truth of these +words. We feel that there is no possibility of things going on for ever +as they have done for the last six thousand years. In science, as in +morals and politics, there is absolutely no periodicity. One thing we +may prophesy of the future for certain--it will be unlike the past. +Everything is in a state of evolution and progress. The science of dead +matter, which has been the principal subject of my thoughts during my +life, is, I may say, strenuous on this point, that THE AGE OF THE EARTH +IS DEFINITE. We do not say whether it is twenty million years or more, +or less, but me say it is NOT INDEFINITE. And we can say very definitely +that it is not an inconceivably great number of millions of years. +Here, then, we are brought face to face with the most wonderful of all +miracles, the commencement of life on this earth. This earth, certainly +a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe; all +scientific men of the present day agree that life came upon this earth +somehow. If some form or some part of the life at present existing came +to this earth, carried on some moss-grown stone perhaps broken away from +mountains in other worlds; even if some part of the life had come in +that way--for there is nothing too far-fetched in the idea, and probably +some such action as that did take place, since meteors do come every day +to the earth from other parts of the universe;--still, that does not +in the slightest degree diminish the wonder, the tremendous miracle, we +have in the commencement of life in this world.' + + + +CHAPTER V. CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS. + +Charles William Siemens was born on April 4, 1823, at the little +village of Lenthe, about eight miles from Hanover, where his father, Mr. +Christian Ferdinand Siemens, was 'Domanen-pachter,' and farmed an estate +belonging to the Crown. His mother was Eleonore Deichmann, a lady of +noble disposition, and William, or Carl Wilhelm, was the fourth son of +a family of fourteen children, several of whom have distinguished +themselves in scientific pursuits. Of these, Ernst Werner Siemens, the +fourth child, and now the famous electrician of Berlin, was associated +with William in many of his inventions; Fritz, the ninth child, is the +head of the well-known Dresden glass works; and Carl, the tenth child, +is chief of the equally well-known electrical works at St. Petersburg. +Several of the family died young; others remained in Germany; but +the enterprising spirit, natural to them, led most of the sons +abroad--Walter, the twelfth child, dying at Tiflis as the German Consul +there, and Otto, the fourteenth child, also dying at the same place. +It would be difficult to find a more remarkable family in any age or +country. Soon after the birth of William, Mr. Siemens removed to a +larger estate which he had leased at Menzendorf, near Lubeck. + +As a child William was sensitive and affectionate, the baby of the +family, liking to roam the woods and fields by himself, and curious to +observe, but not otherwise giving any signs of the engineer. He received +his education at a commercial academy in Lubeck, the Industrial School +at Magdeburg (city of the memorable burgomaster, Otto von Guericke), and +at the University of Gottingen, which he entered in 1841, while in his +eighteenth year. Were he attended the chemical lectures of Woehler, the +discoverer of organic synthesis, and of Professor Himly, the well-known +physicist, who was married to Siemens's eldest sister, Mathilde. With +a year at Gottingen, during which he laid the basis of his theoretical +knowledge, the academical training of Siemens came to an end, and he +entered practical life in the engineering works of Count Stolberg, at +Magdeburg. At the University he had been instructed in mechanical +laws and designs; here he learned the nature and use of tools and the +construction of machines. But as his University career at Gottingen +lasted only about a year, so did his apprenticeship at the Stolberg +Works. In this short time, however, he probably reaped as much advantage +as a duller pupil during a far longer term. + +Young Siemens appears to have been determined to push his way +forward. In 1841 his brother Werner obtained a patent in Prussia for +electro-silvering and gilding; and in 1843 Charles William came to +England to try and introduce the process here. In his address on +'Science and Industry,' delivered before the Birmingham and Midland +Institute in 1881, while the Paris Electrical Exhibition was running, +Sir William gave a most interesting account of his experiences during +that first visit to the country of his adoption. + +'When,' said he, 'the electrotype process first became known, it excited +a very general interest; and although I was only a young student at +Gottingen, under twenty years of age, who had just entered upon his +practical career with a mechanical engineer, I joined my brother, Werner +Siemens, then a young lieutenant of artillery in the Prussian service, +in his endeavours to accomplish electro-gilding; the first impulse +in this direction having been given by Professor C. Himly, then +of Gottingen. After attaining some promising results, a spirit of +enterprise came over me, so strong that I tore myself away from the +narrow circumstances surrounding me, and landed at the east end of +London with only a few pounds in my pocket and without friends, but with +an ardent confidence of ultimate success within my breast. + +'I expected to find some office in which inventions were examined into, +and rewarded if found meritorious, but no one could direct me to such +a place. In walking along Finsbury Pavement, I saw written up in large +letters, "So-and-so" (I forget the name), "Undertaker," and the thought +struck me that this must be the place I was in quest of; at any rate, I +thought that a person advertising himself as an "undertaker" would not +refuse to look into my invention with a view of obtaining for me the +sought-for recognition or reward. On entering the place I soon convinced +myself, however, that I came decidedly too soon for the kind of +enterprise here contemplated, and, finding myself confronted with the +proprietor of the establishment, I covered my retreat by what he must +have thought a very lame excuse. By dint of perseverance I found my +way to the patent office of Messrs. Poole and Carpmael, who received me +kindly, and provided me with a letter of introduction to Mr. Elkington. +Armed with this letter, I proceeded to Birmingham, to plead my cause +before your townsman. + +'In looking back to that time, I wonder at the patience with which Mr. +Elkington listened to what I had to say, being very young, and scarcely +able to find English words to convey my meaning. After showing me what +he was doing already in the way of electro-plating, Mr. Elkington sent +me back to London in order to read some patents of his own, asking me to +return if, after perusal, I still thought I could teach him anything. To +my great disappointment, I found that the chemical solutions I had +been using were actually mentioned in one of his patents, although in +a manner that would hardly have sufficed to enable a third person to +obtain practical results. + +On my return to Birmingham I frankly stated what I had found, and with +this frankness I evidently gained the favour of another townsman of +yours, Mr. Josiah Mason, who had just joined Mr. Elkington in business, +and whose name, as Sir Josiah Mason, will ever be remembered for his +munificent endowment of education. It was agreed that I should not +be judged by the novelty of my invention, but by the results which I +promised, namely, of being able to deposit with a smooth surface 30 dwt. +of silver upon a dish-cover, the crystalline structure of the deposit +having theretofore been a source of difficulty. In this I succeeded, and +I was able to return to my native country and my mechanical engineering +a comparative Croesus. + +'But it was not for long, as in the following year (1844) I again landed +in the Thames with another invention, worked out also with my brother, +namely, the chronometric governor, which, though less successful, +commercially speaking, than the first, obtained for me the advantage of +bringing me into contact with the engineering world, and of fixing +me permanently in this country. This invention was in course of time +applied by Sir George Airy, the then Astronomer-Royal, for regulating +the motion of his great transit and touch-recording instrument at the +Royal Observatory, where it still continues to be employed. + +'Another early subject of mine, the anastatic printing process, found +favour with Faraday, "the great and the good," who made it the subject +of a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution. These two +circumstances, combined, obtained for me an entry into scientific +circles, and helped to sustain me in difficulty, until, by dint of a +certain determination to win, I was able to advance step by step up +to this place of honour, situated within a gunshot of the scene of +my earliest success in life, but separated from it by the time of a +generation. But notwithstanding the lapse of time, my heart still +beats quick each time I come back to the scene of this, the determining +incident of my life.' + +The 'anastatic' process, described by Faraday in 1845, and partly due +to Werner Siemens, was a method of reproducing printed matter by +transferring the print from paper to plates of zinc. Caustic baryta was +applied to the printed sheet to convert the resinous ingredients of +the ink into an insoluble soap, the stearine being precipitated with +sulphuric acid. The letters were then transferred to the zinc by +pressure, so as to be printed from. The process, though ingenious and of +much interest at the time, has long ago been superseded by photographic +methods. + +Even at this time Siemens had several irons in the fire. Besides the +printing process and the chronometric governor, which operated by the +differential movement between the engine and a chronometer, he was +occupied with some minor improvements at Hoyle's Calico Printing Works. +He also engaged in railway works from time to time; and in 1846 he +brought out a double cylinder air-pump, in which the two cylinders are +so combined, that the compressing side of the first and larger cylinder +communicated with the suction side of the second and smaller cylinder, +and the limit of exhaustion was thereby much extended. The invention was +well received at the time, but is now almost forgotten. + +Siemens had been trained as a mechanical engineer, and, although he +became an eminent electrician in later life, his most important work at +this early stage was non-electrical; indeed, the greatest achievement of +his life was non-electrical, for we must regard the regenerative furnace +as his MAGNUM OPUS. Though in 1847 he published a paper in Liebig's +ANNALEN DER CHEMIE on the 'Mercaptan of Selenium,' his mind was busy +with the new ideas upon the nature of heat which were promulgated by +Carnot, Clayperon, Joule, Clausius, Mayer, Thomson, and Rankine. He +discarded the older notions of heat as a substance, and accepted it as +a form of energy. Working on this new line of thought, which gave him an +advantage over other inventors of his time, he made his first attempt +to economise heat, by constructing, in 1847, at the factory of Mr. +John Hick, of Bolton, an engine of four horse-power, having a condenser +provided with regenerators, and utilising superheated steam. Two +years later he continued his experiments at the works of Messrs. Fox, +Henderson, and Co., of Smethwick, near Birmingham, who had taken the +matter in hand. The use of superheated steam was, however, attended +with many practical difficulties, and the invention was not entirely +successful, but it embraced the elements of success; and the Society of +Arts, in 1850, acknowledged the value of the principle, by awarding Mr. +Siemens a gold medal for his regenerative condenser. Various papers read +before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Civil +Engineers, or appearing in DINGLER'S JOURNAL and the JOURNAL OF THE +FRANKLIN INSTITUTE about this time, illustrate the workings of his mind +upon the subject. That read in 1853, before the Institution of Civil +Engineers, 'On the Conversion of Heat into Mechanical Effect,' was +the first of a long series of communications to that learned body, and +gained for its author the Telford premium and medal. In it he contended +that a perfect engine would be one in which all the heat applied to the +steam was used up in its expansion behind a working piston, leaving none +to be sent into a condenser or the atmosphere, and that the best results +in any actual engine would be attained by carrying expansion to the +furthest possible limit, or, in practice, by the application of a +regenerator. Anxious to realise his theories further, he constructed a +twenty horse-power engine on the regenerative plan, and exhibited it +at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855; but, not realising his +expectations, he substituted for it another of seven-horse power, +made by M. Farcot, of Paris, which was found to work with considerable +economy. The use of superheated steam, however, still proved a drawback, +and the Siemens engine has not been extensively used. + +On the other hand, the Siemens water-meter, which he introduced in 1851, +has been very widely used, not only in this country, but abroad. It acts +equally well under all variations of pressure, and with a constant or an +intermittent supply. + +Meanwhile his brother Werner had been turning his attention to +telegraphy, and the correspondence which never ceased between the +brothers kept William acquainted with his doings. In 1844, Werner, +then an officer in the Prussian army, was appointed to a berth in the +artillery workshops of Berlin, where he began to take an interest in +the new art of telegraphy. In 1845 Werner patented his dial and printing +telegraph instruments, which came into use all over Germany, and +introduced an automatic alarm on the same principle. These inventions +led to his being made, in 1846, a member of a commission in Berlin +for the introduction of electric telegraphs instead of semaphores. +He advocated the use of gutta-percha, then a new material, for the +insulation of underground wires, and in 1847 designed a screw-press for +coating the wires with the gum rendered plastic by heat. The following +year he laid the first great underground telegraph line from Berlin to +Frankfort-on-the-Main, and soon afterwards left the army to engage +with Mr. Halske in the management of a telegraph factory which they had +conjointly established in 1847. In 1852 William took an office in John +Street, Adelphi, with a view to practise as a civil engineer. Eleven +years later, Mr. Halske and William Siemens founded in London the house +of Siemens, Halske & Co., which began with a small factory at Millbank, +and developed in course of time into the well-known firm of Messrs. +Siemens Brothers, and was recently transformed into a limited liability +company. + +In 1859 William Siemens became a naturalised Englishman, and from this +time forward took an active part in the progress of English engineering +and telegraphy. He devoted a great part of his time to electrical +invention and research; and the number of telegraph apparatus of all +sorts--telegraph cables, land lines, and their accessories--which have +emanated from the Siemens Telegraph Works has been remarkable. The +engineers of this firm have been pioneers of the electric telegraph in +every quarter of the globe, both by land and sea. The most important +aerial line erected by the firm was the Indo-European telegraph line, +through Prussia, Russia, and Persia, to India. The North China cable, +the Platino-Brazileira, and the Direct United States cable, were laid +by the firm, the latter in 1874-5 So also was the French Atlantic cable, +and the two Jay Could Atlantic cables. At the time of his death the +manufacture and laying of the Bennett-Mackay Atlantic cables was in +progress at the company's works, Charlton. Some idea of the extent of +this manufactory may be gathered from the fact that it gives employment +to some 2,000 men. All branches of electrical work are followed out +in its various departments, including the construction of dynamos and +electric lamps. + +On July 23, 1859, Siemens was married at St. James's, Paddington, to +Anne, the youngest daughter of Mr. Joseph Gordon, Writer to the Signet, +Edinburgh, and brother to Mr. Lewis Gordon, Professor of Engineering in +the University of Glasgow, He used to say that on March 19 of that year +he took oath and allegiance to two ladies in one day--to the Queen and +his betrothed. The marriage was a thoroughly happy one. + +Although much engaged in the advancement of telegraphy, he was also +occupied with his favourite idea of regeneration. The regenerative +gas furnace, originally invented in 1848 by his brother Friedrich, +was perfected and introduced by him during many succeeding years. +The difficulties overcome in the development of this invention were +enormous, but the final triumph was complete. + +The principle of this furnace consists in utilising the heat of the +products of combustion to warm up the gaseous fuel and air which +enters the furnace. This is done by making these products pass through +brickwork chambers which absorb their heat and communicate it to the gas +and air currents going to the flame. An extremely high temperature is +thus obtained, and the furnace has, in consequence, been largely used in +the manufacture of glass and steel. + +Before the introduction of this furnace, attempts had been made to +produce cast-steel without the use of a crucible--that is to say, on +the 'open hearth' of the furnace. Reaumur was probably the first to show +that steel could be made by fusing malleable iron with cast-iron. Heath +patented the process in 1845; and a quantity of cast-steel was actually +prepared in this way, on the bed of a reverberatory furnace, by Sudre, +in France, during the year 1860. But the furnace was destroyed in the +act; and it remained for Siemens, with his regenerative furnace, to +realise the object. In 1862 Mr. Charles Atwood, of Tow Law, agreed to +erect such a furnace, and give the process a fair trial; but although +successful in producing the steel, he was afraid its temper was not +satisfactory, and discontinued the experiment. Next year, however, +Siemens, who was not to be disheartened, made another attempt with a +large furnace erected at the Montlucon Works, in France, where he was +assisted by the late M. le Chatellier, Inspecteur-General des Mines. +Some charges of steel were produced; but here again the roof of the +furnace melted down, and the company which had undertaken the trials +gave them up. The temperature required for the manufacture of the +steel was higher than the melting point of most fire-bricks. Further +endeavours also led to disappointments; but in the end the inventor was +successful. He erected experimental works at Birmingham, and gradually +matured his process until it was so far advanced that it could be +trusted to the hands of others. Siemens used a mixture of cast-steel +and iron ore to make the steel; but another manufacturer, M. Martin, +of Sireuil, in France, developed the older plan of mixing the cast-iron +with wrought-iron scrap. While Siemens was improving his means +at Birmingham, Martin was obtaining satisfactory results with a +regenerative furnace of his own design; and at the Paris Exhibition of +1867 samples of good open-hearth steel were shown by both manufacturers. +In England the process is now generally known as the 'Siemens-Martin,' +and on the Continent as the 'Martin-Siemens' process. + +The regenerative furnace is the greatest single invention of Charles +William Siemens. Owing to the large demand for steel for engineering +operations, both at home and abroad, it proved exceedingly remunerative. +Extensive works for the application of the process were erected at +Landore, where Siemens prosecuted his experiments on the subject with +unfailing ardour, and, among other things, succeeded in making a basic +brick for the lining of his furnaces which withstood the intense heat +fairly well. + +The process in detail consists in freeing the bath of melted pig-iron +from excess of carbon by adding broken lumps of pure hematite or +magnetite iron ore. This causes a violent boiling, which is kept up +until the metal becomes soft enough, when it is allowed to stand to let +the metal clear from the slag which floats in scum upon the top. The +separation of the slag and iron is facilitated by throwing in some lime +from time to time. Spiegel, or specular iron, is then added; about 1 per +cent. more than in the scrap process. From 20 to 24 cwt. of ore are used +in a 5-ton charge, and about half the metal is reduced and turned into +steel, so that the yield in ingots is from 1 to 2 per cent. more than +the weight of pig and spiegel iron in the charge. The consumption of +coal is rather larger than in the scrap process, and is from 14 to 15 +cwt. per ton of steel. The two processes of Siemens and Martin are often +combined, both scrap and ore being used in the same charge, the latter +being valuable as a tempering material. + +At present there are several large works engaged in manufacturing the +Siemens-Martin steel in England, namely, the Landore, the Parkhead +Forge, those of the Steel Company of Scotland, of Messrs. Vickers & Co., +Sheffield, and others. These produced no less than 340,000 tons of steel +during the year 1881, and two years later the total output had risen to +half a million tons. In 1876 the British Admiralty built two iron-clads, +the Mercury and Iris, of Siemens-Martin steel, and the experiment +proved so satisfactory, that this material only is now used in the Royal +dockyards for the construction of hulls and boilers. Moreover, the use +of it is gradually extending in the mercantile marine. Contemporaneous +with his development of the open-hearth process, William Siemens +introduced the rotary furnace for producing wrought-iron direct from the +ore without the need of puddling. + +The fervent heat of the Siemens furnace led the inventor to devise a +novel means of measuring high temperatures, which illustrates the value +of a broad scientific training to the inventor, and the happy manner in +which William Siemens, above all others, turned his varied knowledge to +account, and brought the facts and resources of one science to bear upon +another. As early as 1860, while engaged in testing the conductor of the +Malta to Alexandria telegraph cable, then in course of manufacture, he +was struck by the increase of resistance in metallic wires occasioned by +a rise of temperature, and the following year he devised a thermometer +based on the fact which he exhibited before the British Association +at Manchester. Mathiessen and others have since enunciated the +law according to which this rise of resistance varies with rise of +temperature; and Siemens has further perfected his apparatus, and +applied it as a pyrometer to the measurement of furnace fires. It forms +in reality an electric thermometer, which will indicate the temperature +of an inaccessible spot. A coil of platinum or platinum-alloy wire is +enclosed in a suitable fire-proof case and put into the furnace of which +the temperature is wanted. Connecting wires, properly protected, lend +from the coil to a differential voltameter, so that, by means of +the current from a battery circulating in the system, the electric +resistance of the coil in the furnace can be determined at any moment. +Since this resistance depends on the temperature of the furnace, the +temperature call be found from the resistance observed. The instrument +formed the subject of the Bakerian lecture for the year 1871. + +Siemens's researches on this subject, as published in the JOURNAL OF THE +SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS (Vol. I., p. 123, and Vol. III., p. 297), +included a set of curves graphically representing the relation between +temperature and electrical resistance in the case of various metals. + +The electric pyrometer, which is perhaps the most elegant and original +of all William Siemens's inventions, is also the link which connects his +electrical with his metallurgical researches. His invention ran in two +great grooves, one based upon the science of heat, the other based upon +the science of electricity; and the electric thermometer was, as it +were, a delicate cross-coupling which connected both. Siemens might have +been two men, if we are to judge by the work he did; and either half +of the twin-career he led would of itself suffice to make an eminent +reputation. + +The success of his metallurgical enterprise no doubt reacted on his +telegraphic business. The making and laying of the Malta to Alexandria +cable gave rise to researches on the resistance and electrification of +insulating materials under pressure, which formed the subject of a paper +read before the British Association in 1863. The effect of pressure +up to 300 atmospheres was observed, and the fact elicited that the +inductive capacity of gutta-percha is not affected by increased +pressure, whereas that of india-rubber is diminished. The electrical +tests employed during the construction of the Malta and Alexandria +cable, and the insulation and protection of submarine cables, also +formed the subject of a paper which was read before the Institution of +Civil Engineers in 1862. + +It is always interesting to trace the necessity which directly or +indirectly was the parent of a particular invention; and in the great +importance of an accurate record of the sea-depth in which a cable +is being laid, together with the tedious and troublesome character of +ordinary sounding by the lead-line, especially when a ship is actually +paying out cable, we may find the requirements which led to the +invention of the 'bathometer,' an instrument designed to indicate the +depth of water over which a vessel is passing without submerging a line. +The instrument was based on the ingenious idea that the attractive power +of the earth on a body in the ship must depend on the depth of water +interposed between it and the sea bottom; being less as the layer of +water was thicker, owing to the lighter character of water as compared +with the denser land. Siemens endeavoured to render this difference +visible by means of mercury contained in a chamber having a bottom +extremely sensitive to the pressure of the mercury upon it, and +resembling in some respects the vacuous chamber of an aneroid barometer. +Just as the latter instrument indicates the pressure of the atmosphere +above it, so the bathometer was intended to show the pull of the earth +below it; and experiment proved, we believe, that for every 1,000 +fathoms of sea-water below the ship, the total gravity of the mercury +was reduced by 1/3200 part. The bathometer, or attraction-meter, was +brought out in 1876, and exhibited at the Loan Exhibition in South +Kensington. The elastic bottom of the mercury chamber was supported by +volute springs which, always having the same tension, caused a portion +of the mercury to rise or fall in a spiral tube of glass, according to +the variations of the earth's attraction. The whole was kept at an even +temperature, and correction was made for barometric influence. Though +of high scientific interest, the apparatus appears to have failed at the +time from its very sensitiveness; the waves on the surface of the sea +having a greater disturbing action on its readings than the change of +depth. Siemens took a great interest in this very original machine, and +also devised a form applicable to the measurement of heights. Although +he laid the subject aside for some years, he ultimately took it up +again, in hopes of producing a practical apparatus which would be of +immediate service in the cable expeditions of the s.s. Faraday. + +This admirable cable steamer of 5,000 tons register was built for +Messrs. Siemens Brothers by Messrs. Mitchell & Co., at Newcastle. The +designs were mainly inspired by Siemens himself; and after the Hooper, +now the Silvertown, she was the second ship expressly built for cable +purposes. All the latest improvements that electric science and naval +engineering could suggest were in her united. With a length of 360 feet, +a width of 52 feet, and a depth of 36 feet in the hold, she was fitted +with a rudder at each end, either of which could be locked when desired, +and the other brought into play. Two screw propellers, actuated by a +pair of compound engines, were the means of driving the vessel, and they +were placed at a slight angle to each other, so that when the engines +were worked in opposite directions the Faraday could turn completely +round in her own length. Moreover, as the ship could steam forwards +or backwards with equal ease, it became unnecessary to pass the cable +forward before hauling it in, if a fault were discovered in the part +submerged: the motion of the ship had only to be reversed, the stern +rudder fixed, and the bow rudder turned, while a small engine was +employed to haul the cable back over the stern drum, which had been used +a few minutes before to pay it out. + +The first expedition of the Faraday was the laying of the Direct United +States cable in the winter of 1874 a work which, though interrupted by +stormy weather, was resumed and completed in the summer of 1875. She +has been engaged in laying several Atlantic cables since, and has been +fitted with the electric light, a resource which has proved of the +utmost service, not only in facilitating the night operations of +paying-out, but in guarding the ship from collision with icebergs in +foggy weather off the North American coast. + +Mention of the electric light brings us to an important act of the +inventor, which, though done on behalf of his brother Werner, was +pregnant with great consequences. This was his announcement before +a meeting of the Royal Society, held on February 14, 1867, of the +discovery of the principle of reinforcing the field magnetism of +magneto-electric generators by part or the whole of the current +generated in the revolving armature--a principle which has been applied +in the dynamo-electric machines, now so much used for producing electric +light and effecting the transmission of power to a distance by means of +the electric current. By a curious coincidence the same principle was +enunciated by Sir Charles Wheatstone at the very same meeting; while a +few months previously Mr. S. A. Varley had lodged an application for +a British patent, in which the same idea was set forth. The claims +of these three inventors to priority in the discovery were, however, +anticipated by at least one other investigator, Herr Soren Hjorth, +believed to be a Dane by birth, and still remembered by a few living +electricians, though forgotten by the scientific world at large, until +his neglected specification was unexpectedly dug out of the musty +archives of the British Patent Office and brought into the light. + +The announcement of Siemens and Wheatstone came at an apter time than +Hjorth's, and was more conspicuously made. Above all, in the affluent +and enterprising hands of the brothers Siemens, it was not suffered to +lie sterile, and the Siemens dynamo-electric machine was its offspring. +This dynamo, as is well known, differs from those of Gramme and +Paccinotti chiefly in the longitudinal winding of the armature, and it +is unnecessary to describe it here. It has been adapted by its inventors +to all kinds of electrical work, electrotyping, telegraphy, electric +lighting, and the propulsion of vehicles. + +The first electric tramway run at Berlin in 1879 was followed by another +at Dusseldorf in 1880, and a third at Paris in 1881. With all of these +the name of Werner Siemens was chiefly associated; but William Siemens +had also taken up the matter, and established at his country house +of Sherwood, near Tunbridge Wells, an arrangement of dynamos and +water-wheel, by which the power of a neighbouring stream was made to +light the house, cut chaff turn washing-machines, and perform other +household duties. More recently the construction of the electric +railway from Portrush to Bushmills, at the Giant's Causeway, engaged his +attention; and this, the first work of its kind in the United Kingdom, +and to all appearance the pioneer of many similar lines, was one of his +very last undertakings. + +In the recent development of electric lighting, William Siemens, whose +fame had been steadily growing, was a recognised leader, although +he himself made no great discoveries therein. As a public man and +a manufacturer of great resources his influence in assisting the +introduction of the light has been immense. The number of Siemens +machines and Siemens electric lamps, together with measuring instruments +such as the Siemens electro-dynamometer, which has been supplied to +different parts of the world by the firm of which he was the head, is +very considerable, and probably exceeds that of any other manufacturer, +at least in this country. + +Employing a staff of skilful assistants to develop many of his +ideas, Dr. Siemens was able to produce a great variety of electrical +instruments for measuring and other auxiliary purposes, all of which +bear the name of his firm, and have proved exceedingly useful in a +practical sense. + +Among the most interesting of Siemens's investigations were his +experiments on the influence of the electric light in promoting +the growth of plants, carried out during the winter of 1880 in the +greenhouses of Sherwood. These experiments showed that plants do not +require a period of rest, but continue to grow if light and other +necessaries are supplied to them. Siemens enhanced the daylight, and, as +it were, prolonged it through the night by means of arc lamps, with the +result of forcing excellent fruit and flowers to their maturity before +the natural time in this climate. + +While Siemens was testing the chemical and life-promoting influence of +the electric arc light, he was also occupied in trying its temperature +and heating power with an 'electric furnace,' consisting of a plumbago +crucible having two carbon electrodes entering it in such a manner that +the voltaic arc could be produced within it. He succeeded in fusing +a variety of refractory metals in a comparatively short time: thus, a +pound of broken files was melted in a cold crucible in thirteen minutes, +a result which is not surprising when we consider that the temperature +of the voltaic arc, as measured by Siemens and Rosetti, is between +2,000 and 3,000 Deg. Centigrade, or about one-third that of the probable +temperature of the sun. Sir Humphry Davy was the first to observe the +extraordinary fusing power of the voltaic arc, but Siemens first applied +it to a practical purpose in his electric furnace. + +Always ready to turn his inventive genius in any direction, the +introduction of the electric light, which had given an impetus to +improvement in the methods of utilising gas, led him to design a +regenerative gas lamp, which is now employed on a small scale in this +country, either for street lighting or in class-rooms and public +halls. In this burner, as in the regenerative furnace, the products +of combustion are made to warm up the air and gas which go to feed the +flame, and the effect is a full and brilliant light with some economy of +fuel. The use of coal-gas for heating purposes was another subject which +he took up with characteristic earnestness, and he advocated for a time +the use of gas stoves and fires in preference to those which burn coal, +not only on account of their cleanliness and convenience, but on the +score of preventing fogs in great cities, by checking the discharge +of smoke into the atmosphere. He designed a regenerative gas and coke +fireplace, in which the ingoing air was warmed by heat conducted from +the back part of the grate; and by practical trials in his own office, +calculated the economy of the system. The interest in this question, +however, died away after the close of the Smoke Abatement Exhibition; +and the experiments of Mr. Aiken, of Edinburgh, showed how futile was +the hope that gas fires would prevent fogs altogether. They might indeed +ameliorate the noxious character of a fog by checking the discharge +of soot into the atmosphere; but Mr. Aiken's experiments showed that +particles of gas were in themselves capable of condensing the moisture +of the air upon them. The great scheme of Siemens for making London a +smokeless city, by manufacturing gas at the coal-pit and leading it in +pipes from street to street, would not have rendered it altogether a +fogless one, though the coke and gas fires would certainly have reduced +the quantity of soot launched into the air. Siemens's scheme was +rejected by a Committee of the House of Lords on the somewhat mistaken +ground that if the plan were as profitable as Siemens supposed, it would +have been put in practice long ago by private enterprise. + +From the problem of heating a room, the mind of Siemens also passed to +the maintenance of solar fires, and occupied itself with the supply +of fuel to the sun. Some physicists have attributed the continuance +of solar heat to the contraction of the solar mass, and others to the +impact of cometary matter. Imbued with the idea of regeneration, and +seeking in nature for that thrift of power which he, as an inventor, +had always aimed at, Siemens suggested a hypothesis on which the sun +conserves its heat by a circulation of its fuel in space. The elements +dissociated in the intense heat of the glowing orb rush into the cooler +regions of space, and recombine to stream again towards the sun, where +the self-same process is renewed. The hypothesis was a daring one, and +evoked a great deal of discussion, to which the author replied with +interest, afterwards reprinting the controversy in a volume, ON THE +CONSERVATION OF SOLAR ENERGY. Whether true or not--and time will +probably decide--the solar hypothesis of Siemens revealed its author +in a new light. Hitherto he had been the ingenious inventor, the +enterprising man of business, the successful engineer; but now he took a +prominent place in the ranks of pure science and speculative philosophy. +The remarkable breadth of his mind and the abundance of his energies +were also illustrated by the active part he played in public matters +connected with the progress of science. His munificent gifts in the +cause of education, as much as his achievements in science, had brought +him a popular reputation of the best kind; and his public utterances in +connection with smoke abatement, the electric light. Electric railways, +and other topics of current interest, had rapidly brought him into a +foremost place among English scientific men. During the last years of +his life, Siemens advanced from the shade of mere professional celebrity +into the strong light of public fame. + +President of the British Association in 1882, and knighted in 1883, +Siemens was a member of numerous learned societies both at home +and abroad. In 1854 he became a Member of the Institution of Civil +Engineers; and in 1862 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. +He was twice President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and the +Institution of Mechanical Engineers, besides being a Member of Council +of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Vice-President of the Royal +Institution. The Society of Arts, as we have already seen, was the first +to honour him in the country of his adoption, by awarding him a gold +medal for his regenerative condenser in 1850; and in 1883 he became +its chairman. Many honours were conferred upon him in the course of +his career--the Telford prize in 1853, gold medals at the various great +Exhibitions, including that of Paris in 1881, and a GRAND PRIX at the +earlier Paris Exhibition of 1867 for his regenerative furnace. In 1874 +he received the Royal Albert Medal for his researches on heat, and in +1875 the Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute. Moreover, a few +days before his death, the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers +awarded him the Howard Quinquennial prize for his improvements in the +manufacture of iron and steel. At the request of his widow, it took the +form of a bronze copy of the 'Mourners,' a piece of statuary by J. G. +Lough, originally exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, in the +Crystal Palace. In 1869 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the +high distinction of D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law); and besides being +a member of several foreign societies, he was a Dignitario of the +Brazilian Order of the Rose, and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. + +Rich in honours and the appreciation of his contemporaries, in the prime +of his working power and influence for good, and at the very climax of +his career, Sir William Siemens was called away. The news of his death +came with a shock of surprise, for hardly any one knew he had been ill. +He died on the evening of Monday, November 19, 1883, at nine o'clock. A +fortnight before, while returning from a managers' meeting of the Royal +Institution, in company with his friend Sir Frederick Bramwell, he +tripped upon the kerbstone of the pavement, after crossing Hamilton +Place, Piccadilly, and fell heavily to the ground, with his left arm +under him. Though a good deal shaken by the fall, he attended at his +office in Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, the next and for several +following days; but the exertion proved too much for him, and almost for +the first time in his busy life he was compelled to lay up. On his last +visit to the office he was engaged most of the time in dictating to his +private secretary a large portion of the address which he intended to +deliver as Chairman of the Council of the Society of Arts. This was on +Thursday, November 8, and the following Saturday he awoke early in the +morning with an acute pain about the heart and a sense of coldness in +the lower limbs. Hot baths and friction removed the pain, from which he +did not suffer much afterwards. A slight congestion of the left lung was +also relieved; and Sir William had so far recovered that he could leave +his room. On Saturday, the 17th, he was to have gone for a change of air +to his country seat at Sherwood; but on Wednesday, the 14th, he appears +to have caught a chill which affected his lungs, for that night he was +seized with a shortness of breath and a difficulty in breathing. Though +not actually confined to bed, he never left his room again. On the last +day, and within four hours of his death, we are told, his two medical +attendants, after consultation, spoke so hopefully of the future, that +no one was prepared for the sudden end which was then so near. In the +evening, while he was sitting in an arm-chair, very quiet and calm, +a change suddenly came over his face, and he died like one who falls +asleep. Heart disease of long standing, aggravated by the fall, was the +immediate cause; but the opinion has been expressed by one who knew +him well, that Siemens 'literally immolated himself on the shrine of +labour.' At any rate he did not spare himself, and his intense devotion +to his work proved fatal. + +Every day was a busy one with Siemens. His secretary was with him in +his residence by nine o'clock nearly every morning, except on Sundays, +assisting him in work for one society or another, the correction of +proofs, or the dictation of letters giving official or scientific +advice, and the preparation of lectures or patent specifications. Later +on, he hurried across the Park 'almost at racing speed,' to his offices +at Westminster, where the business of the Landore-Siemens Steel Company +and the Electrical Works of Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Company was +transacted. As chairman of these large undertakings, and principal +inventor of the processes and systems carried out by them, he had a +hundred things to attend to in connection with them, visitors to see, +and inquiries to answer. In the afternoon and evenings he was generally +engaged at council meetings of the learned societies, or directory +meetings of the companies in which he was interested. He was a man who +took little or no leisure, and though he never appeared to over-exert +himself, few men could have withstood the strain so long. + +Siemens was buried on Monday, November 26, in Kensal Green Cemetery. The +interment was preceded by a funeral service held in Westminster Abbey, +and attended by representatives of the numerous learned societies of +which he had been a conspicuous member, by many leading men in all +branches of science, and also by a large body of other friends and +admirers, who thus united in doing honour to his memory, and showing +their sense of the loss which all classes had sustained by his death. + +Siemens was above all things a 'labourer.' Unhasting, unresting +labour was the rule of his life; and the only relaxation, not to say +recreation, which he seems to have allowed himself was a change of task +or the calls of sleep. This natural activity was partly due to the spur +of his genius, and partly to his energetic spirit. For a man of his +temperament science is always holding out new problems to solve and +fresh promises of triumph. All he did only revealed more work to be +done; and many a scheme lies buried in his grave. + +Though Siemens was a man of varied powers, and occasionally gave himself +to pure speculation in matters of science, his mind was essentially +practical; and it was rather as an engineer than a discoverer that he +was great. Inventions are associated with his name, not laws or new +phenomena. Standing on the borderland between pure and applied science, +his sympathies were yet with the latter; and as the outgoing President +of the British Association at Southport, in 1882, he expressed the +opinion that 'in the great workshop of nature there are no lines +of demarcation to be drawn between the most exalted speculation and +common-place practice.' The truth of this is not to be gain-said, but it +is the utterance of an engineer who judges the merit of a thing by +its utility. He objected to the pursuit of science apart from its +application, and held that the man of science does most for his kind who +shows the world how to make use of scientific results. Such a view was +natural on the part of Siemens, who was himself a living representative +of the type in question; but it was not the view of such a man as +Faraday or Newton, whose pure aim was to discover truth, well knowing +that it would be turned to use thereafter. In Faraday's eyes the new +principle was a higher boon than the appliance which was founded upon +it. + +Tried by his own standard, however, Siemens was a conspicuous benefactor +of his fellow-men; and at the time of his decease he had become our +leading authority upon applied science. In electricity he was a pioneer +of the new advances, and happily lived to obtain at least a Pisgah view +of the great future which evidently lies before that pregnant force. + +If we look for the secret of Siemens's remarkable success, we shall +assuredly find it in an inventive mind, coupled with a strong commercial +instinct, and supported by a physical energy which enabled him to labour +long and incessantly. It is told that when a mechanical problem was +brought to him for solution, he would suggest six ways of overcoming the +difficulty, three of which would be impracticable, the others feasible, +and one at least successful. From this we gather that his mind was +fertile in expedients. The large works which he established are also a +proof that, unlike most inventors, he did not lose his interest in an +invention, or forsake it for another before it had been brought into the +market. On the contrary, he was never satisfied with an invention until +it was put into practical operation. + +To the ordinary observer, Siemens did not betray any signs of the +untiring energy that possessed him. His countenance was usually serene +and tranquil, as that of a thinker rather than a man of action; his +demeanour was cool and collected; his words few and well-chosen. In his +manner, as well as in his works, there was no useless waste of power. + +To the young he was kind and sympathetic, hearing, encouraging, +advising; a good master, a firm friend. His very presence had a calm and +orderly influence on those about him, which when he presided at a Public +meeting insensibly introduced a gracious tone. The diffident took +heart before him, and the presumptuous were checked. The virtues which +accompanied him into public life did not desert him in private. In +losing him, we have lost not only a powerful intellect, but a bright +example, and an amiable man. + + + +CHAPTER VI. FLEEMING JENKIN. + +The late Fleeming Jenkin, Professor of Engineering in Edinburgh +University, was remarkable for the versatility of his talent. Known to +the world as the inventor of Telpherage, he was an electrician and cable +engineer of the first rank, a lucid lecturer, and a good linguist, a +skilful critic, a writer and actor of plays, and a clever sketcher. In +popular parlance, Jenkin was a dab at everything. + +His father, Captain Charles Jenkin, R.N., was the second son of Mr. +Charles Jenkin, of Stowting Court, himself a naval officer, who had +taken part in the actions with De Grasse. Stowting Court, a small estate +some six miles north of Hythe, had been in the family since the year +1633, and was held of the Crown by the feudal service of six men and a +constable to defend the sea-way at Sandgate. Certain Jenkins had settled +in Kent during the reign of Henry VIII., and claimed to have come from +Yorkshire. They bore the arms of Jenkin ap Phillip of St. Melans, who +traced his descent from 'Guaith Voeth,' Lord of Cardigan. + +While cruising in the West Indies, carrying specie, or chasing +buccaneers and slavers, Charles Jenkin, junior, was introduced to the +family of a fellow midshipman, son of Mr. Jackson, Custos Rotulorum of +Kingston, Jamaica, and fell in love with Henrietta Camilla, the youngest +daughter. Mr. Jackson came of a Yorkshire stock, said to be of Scottish +origin, and Susan, his wife, was a daughter of [Sir] Colin Campbell, +a Greenock merchant, who inherited but never assumed the baronetcy of +Auchinbreck. [According to BURKE'S PEERAGE (1889), the title went to +another branch.] + +Charles Jenkin, senior, died in 1831, leaving his estate so heavily +encumbered, through extravagance and high living, that only the +mill-farm was saved for John, the heir, an easy-going, unpractical +man, with a turn for abortive devices. His brother Charles married soon +afterwards, and with the help of his wife's money bought in most of +Stowting Court, which, however, yielded him no income until late in +life. Charles was a useful officer and an amiable gentleman; but lacking +energy and talent, he never rose above the grade of Commander, and was +superseded after forty-five years of service. He is represented as a +brave, single-minded, and affectionate sailor, who on one occasion saved +several men from suffocation by a burning cargo at the risk of his own +life. Henrietta Camilla Jackson, his wife, was a woman of a strong and +energetic character. Without beauty of countenance, she possessed the +art of pleasing, and in default of genius she was endowed with a variety +of gifts. She played the harp, sang, and sketched with native art. At +seventeen, on hearing Pasta sing in Paris, she sought out the artist +and solicited lessons. Pasta, on hearing her sing, encouraged her, and +recommended a teacher. She wrote novels, which, however, failed to +make their mark. At forty, on losing her voice, she took to playing the +piano, practising eight hours a day; and when she was over sixty she +began the study of Hebrew. + +The only child of this union was Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin, +generally called Fleeming Jenkin, after Admiral Fleeming, one of his +father's patrons. He was born on March 25, 1833, in a building of +the Government near Dungeness, his father at that time being on the +coast-guard service. His versatility was evidently derived from his +mother, who, owing to her husband's frequent absence at sea and his +weaker character, had the principal share in the boy's earlier training. + +Jenkin was fortunate in having an excellent education. His mother took +him to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at Barjarg, she taught +him drawing among other things, and allowed him to ride his pony on the +moors. He went to school at Jedburgh, and afterwards to the Edinburgh +Academy, where he carried off many prizes. Among his schoolfellows were +Clerk Maxwell and Peter Guthrie Tait, the friends of his maturer life. + +On the retirement of his father the family removed to Frankfort in 1847, +partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's instruction. +Here Fleeming and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching +old castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. Fleeming was +precocious, and at thirteen had finished a romance of three hundred +lines in heroic measure, a Scotch novel, and innumerable poetical +fragments, none of which are now extant. He learned German in Frankfort; +and on the family migrating to Paris the following year, he studied +French and mathematics under a certain M. Deluc. While here, Fleeming +witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848, and heard the first +shot. In a letter written to an old schoolfellow while the sound still +rang in his ears, and his hand trembled with excitement, he gives a +boyish account of the circumstances. The family were living in the Rue +Caumartin, and on the evening of February 23 he and his father were +taking a walk along the boulevards, which were illuminated for joy at +the resignation of M. Guizot. They passed the residence of the Foreign +Minister, which was guarded with troops, and further on encountered a +band of rioters marching along the street with torches, and singing the +Marseillaise. After them came a rabble of men and women of all sorts, +rich and poor, some of them armed with sticks and sabres. They turned +back with these, the boy delighted with the spectacle, 'I remarked to +papa' (he writes),'I would not have missed the scene for anything. I +might never see such a splendid one; when PONG went one shot. Every face +went pale: R--R--R--R--R went the whole detachment [of troops], and +the whole crowd of gentlemen and ladies turned and cut. Such a +scene!---ladies, gentlemen, and vagabonds went sprawling in the mud, not +shot but tripped up, and those that went down could not rise--they were +trampled over.... I ran a short time straight on and did not fall, then +turned down a side street, ran fifty yards, and felt tolerably safe; +looked for papa; did not see him; so walked on quickly, giving the news +as I went.' + +Next day, while with his father in the Place de la Concorde, which was +filled with troops, the gates of the Tuileries Garden were suddenly +flung open, and out galloped a troop of cuirassiers, in the midst +of whom was an open carriage containing the king and queen, who had +abdicated. Then came the sacking of the Tuileries, the people mounting +a cannon on the roof, and firing blank cartridges to testify their joy. +'It was a sight to see a palace sacked' (wrote the boy), 'and armed +vagabonds firing out of the windows, and throwing shirts, papers, and +dresses of all kinds out.... They are not rogues, the French; they are +not stealing, burning, or doing much harm.' [MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN, +by R. L. Stevenson.] + +The Revolution obliged the Jenkins to leave Paris, and they proceeded to +Genoa, where they experienced another, and Mrs. Jenkin, with her son +and sister-in-law, had to seek the protection of a British vessel in the +harbour, leaving their house stored with the property of their friends, +and guarded by the Union Jack and Captain Jenkin. + +At Genoa, Fleeming attended the University, and was its first Protestant +student. Professor Bancalari was the professor of natural philosophy, +and lectured on electro-magnetism, his physical laboratory being the +best in Italy. Jenkin took the degree of M.A. with first-class honours, +his special subject having been electro-magnetism. The questions in the +examinations were put in Latin, and answered in Italian. Fleeming also +attended an Art school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a +drawing from one of Raphael's cartoons. His holidays were spent in +sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano; or, when +permissible, at the theatre or opera-house; for ever since hearing +Rachel recite the Marseillaise at the Theatre Francaise, he had +conceived a taste for acting. + +In 1850 Fleeming spent some time in a Genoese locomotive shop under Mr. +Philip Taylor, of Marseilles; but on the death of his Aunt Anna, who +lived with them, Captain Jenkin took his family to England, and settled +in Manchester, where the lad, in 1851, was apprenticed to mechanical +engineering at the works of Messrs. Fairbairn, and from half-past eight +in the morning till six at night had, as he says, 'to file and chip +vigorously, in a moleskin suit, and infernally dirty.' At home he +pursued his studies, and was for a time engaged with Dr. Bell in +working out a geometrical method of arriving at the proportions of Greek +architecture. His stay amidst the smoke and bustle of Manchester, though +in striking contrast to his life in Genoa, was on the whole agreeable. +He liked his work, had the good spirits of youth, and made some pleasant +friends, one of them the authoress, Mrs. Gaskell. Even as a boy he was +disputatious, and his mother tells of his having overcome a Consul at +Genoa in a political discussion when he was only sixteen, 'simply from +being well-informed on the subject, and honest. He is as true as steel,' +she writes, 'and for no one will he bend right or left... Do not fancy +him a Bobadil; he is only a very true, candid boy. I am so glad he +remains in all respects but information a great child.' + +On leaving Fairbairn's he was engaged for a time on a survey for the +proposed Lukmanier Railway, in Switzerland, and in 1856 he entered the +engineering works of Mr. Penn, at Greenwich, as a draughtsman, and was +occupied on the plans of a vessel designed for the Crimean war. He did +not care for his berth, and complained of its late hours, his rough +comrades, with whom he had to be 'as little like himself as possible,' +and his humble lodgings, 'across a dirty green and through some +half-built streets of two-storied houses.... Luckily,' he adds, 'I +am fond of my profession, or I could not stand this life.' There was +probably no real hardship in his present situation, and thousands of +young engineers go through the like experience at the outset of their +career without a murmur,' and even with enjoyment; but Jenkin had +been his mother's pet until then, with a girl's delicate training, and +probably felt the change from home more keenly on that account. At +night he read engineering and mathematics, or Carlyle and the poets, and +cheered his drooping spirits with frequent trips to London to see his +mother. + +Another social pleasure was his visits to the house of Mr. Alfred +Austin, a barrister, who became permanent secretary to Her Majesty's +Office of Works and Public Buildings, and retired in 1868 with the title +of C.B. His wife, Eliza Barron, was the youngest daughter of Mr. +E. Barron, a gentleman of Norwich, the son of a rich saddler, or +leather-seller, in the Borough, who, when a child, had been patted on +the head, in his father's shop, by Dr. Johnson, while canvassing for Mr. +Thrale. Jenkin had been introduced to the Austins by a letter from Mrs. +Gaskell, and was charmed with the atmosphere of their choice home, where +intellectual conversation was happily united with kind and courteous +manners, without any pretence or affectation. 'Each of the Austins,' +says Mr. Stevenson, in his memoir of Jenkin, to which we are much +indebted, 'was full of high spirits; each practised something of the +same repression; no sharp word was uttered in the house. The same point +of honour ruled them: a guest was sacred, and stood within the pale from +criticism.' In short, the Austins were truly hospitable and cultured, +not merely so in form and appearance. It was a rare privilege and +preservative for a solitary young man in Jenkin's position to have the +entry into such elevating society, and he appreciated his good fortune. + +Annie Austin, their only child, had been highly educated, and knew Greek +among other things. Though Jenkin loved and admired her parents, he did +not at first care for Annie, who, on her part, thought him vain, and +by no means good-looking. Mr. Stevenson hints that she vanquished his +stubborn heart by correcting a 'false quantity' of his one day, for he +was the man to reflect over a correction, and 'admire the castigator.' +Be this as it may, Jenkin by degrees fell deeply in love with her. + +He was poor and nameless, and this made him diffident; but the liking of +her parents for him gave him hope. Moreover, he had entered the service +of Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, who were engaged in the new work of +submarine telegraphy, which satisfied his aspirations, and promised him +a successful career. With this new-born confidence in his future, he +solicited the Austins for leave to court their daughter, and it was not +withheld. Mrs. Austin consented freely, and Mr. Austin only reserved +the right to inquire into his character. Neither of them mentioned his +income or prospects, and Jenkin, overcome by their disinterestedness, +exclaimed in one of his letters, 'Are these people the same as other +people?' Thus permitted, he addressed himself to Annie, and was nearly +rejected for his pains. Miss Austin seems to have resented his courtship +of her parents first; but the mother's favour, and his own spirited +behaviour, saved him, and won her consent. + +Then followed one of the happiest epochs in Jenkin's life. After leaving +Penn's he worked at railway engineering for a time under Messrs. Liddell +and Gordon; and, in 1857, became engineer to Messrs. R. S. Newall & Co., +of Gateshead, who shared the work of making the first Atlantic cable +with Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co., of Greenwich. Jenkin was busy +designing and fitting up machinery for cableships, and making electrical +experiments. 'I am half crazy with work,' he wrote to his betrothed; +'I like it though: it's like a good ball, the excitement carries you +through.' Again he wrote, 'My profession gives me all the excitement and +interest I ever hope for.'... 'I am at the works till ten, and sometimes +till eleven. But I have a nice office to sit in, with a fire to myself, +and bright brass scientific instruments all round me, and books to read, +and experiments to make, and enjoy myself amazingly. I find the study of +electricity so entertaining that I am apt to neglect my other +work.'... 'What shall I compare them to,' he writes of some electrical +experiments, 'a new song? or a Greek play?' In the spring of 1855 he +was fitting out the s.s. Elba, at Birkenhead, for his first telegraph +cruise. It appears that in 1855 Mr. Henry Brett attempted to lay a +cable across the Mediterranean between Cape Spartivento, in the south +of Sardinia, and a point near Bona, on the coast of Algeria. It was +a gutta-percha cable of six wires or conductors, and manufactured by +Messrs. Glass & Elliott, of Greenwich--a firm which afterwards combined +with the Gutta-Percha Company, and became the existing Telegraph +Construction and Maintenance Company. Mr. Brett laid the cable from the +Result, a sailing ship in tow, instead of a more manageable steamer; +and, meeting with 600 fathoms of water when twenty-five miles from land, +the cable ran out so fast that a tangled skein came up out of the hold, +and the line had to be severed. Having only 150 miles on board to span +the whole distance of 140 miles, he grappled the lost cable near the +shore, raised it, and 'under-run' or passed it over the ship, for some +twenty miles, then cut it, leaving the seaward end on the bottom. He +then spliced the ship's cable to the shoreward end and resumed his +paying-out; but after seventy miles in all were laid, another rapid rush +of cable took place, and Mr. Brett was obliged to cut and abandon the +line. + +Another attempt was made the following year, but with no better +success. Mr. Brett then tried to lay a three-wire cable from the steamer +Dutchman, but owing to the deep water--in some places 1500 fathoms--its +egress was so rapid, that when he came to a few miles from Galita, his +destination on the Algerian coast, he had not enough cable to reach the +land. He therefore telegraphed to London for more cable to be made and +sent out, while the ship remained there holding to the end. For five +days he succeeded in doing so, sending and receiving messages; but heavy +weather came on, and the cable parted, having, it is said, been chafed +through by rubbing on the bottom. After that Mr. Brett went home. + +It was to recover the lost cable of these expeditions that the Elba was +got ready for sea. Jenkin had fitted her out the year before for laying +the Cagliari to Malta and Corfu cables; but on this occasion she was +better equipped. She had a new machine for picking up the cable, and +a sheave or pulley at the bows for it to run over, both designed by +Jenkin, together with a variety of wooden buoys, ropes, and chains. Mr. +Liddell, assisted by Mr. F. C. Webb and Fleeming Jenkin, were in charge +of the expedition. The latter had nothing to do with the electrical +work, his care being the deck machinery for raising the cable; but +it entailed a good deal of responsibility, which was flattering and +agreeable to a young man of his parts. + +'I own I like responsibility,' he wrote to Miss Austin, while fitting +up the vessel; 'it flatters one; and then, your father might say, I have +more to gain than lose. Moreover, I do like this bloodless, painless +combat with wood and iron, forcing the stubborn rascals to do my will, +licking the clumsy cubs into an active shape, seeing the child of +to-day's thought working to-morrow in full vigour at his appointed +task.' Another letter, dated May 17, gives a picture of the start. 'Not +a sailor will join us till the last moment; and then, just as the ship +forges ahead through the narrow pass, beds and baggage fly on board, the +men, half tipsy, clutch at the rigging, the captain swears, the women +scream and sob, the crowd cheer and laugh, while one or two pretty +little girls stand still and cry outright, regardless of all eyes.' + +The Elba arrived at Bona on June 3, and Jenkin landed at Fort Genova, +on Cape Hamrah, where some Arabs were building a land line. 'It was +a strange scene,' he writes, 'far more novel than I had imagined; the +high, steep bank covered with rich, spicy vegetation, of which I hardly +knew one plant. The dwarf palm, with fan-like leaves, growing about two +feet high, forms the staple verdure.' After dining in Fort Genova, he +had nothing to do but watch the sailors ordering the Arabs about under +the 'generic term "Johnny."' He began to tire of the scene, although, +as he confesses, he had willingly paid more money for less strange and +lovely sights. Jenkin was not a dreamer; he disliked being idle, and if +he had had a pencil he would have amused himself in sketching what he +saw. That his eyes were busy is evident from the particulars given +in his letter, where he notes the yellow thistles and 'Scotch-looking +gowans' which grow there, along with the cistus and the fig-tree. + +They left Bona on June 5, and, after calling at Cagliari and Chia, +arrived at Cape Spartivento on the morning of June 8. The coast here +is a low range of heathy hills, with brilliant green bushes and marshy +pools. Mr. Webb remarks that its reputation for fever was so bad as to +cause Italian men-of-war to sheer off in passing by. Jenkin suffered +a little from malaria, but of a different origin. 'A number of the +SATURDAY REVIEW here,' he writes; 'it reads so hot and feverish, so +tomb-like and unhealthy, in the midst of dear Nature's hills and sea, +with good wholesome work to do.' + +There were several pieces of submerged cable to lift, two with their +ends on shore, and one or two lying out at sea. Next day operations +were begun on the shore end, which had become buried under the sand, and +could not be raised without grappling. After attempts to free the cable +from the sand in small boats, the Elba came up to help, and anchored +in shallow water about sunset. Curiously enough, the anchor happened to +hook, and so discover the cable, which was thereupon grappled, cut, and +the sea end brought on board over the bow sheave. After being passed six +times round the picking-up drum it was led into the hold, and the +Elba slowly forged ahead, hauling in the cable from the bottom as she +proceeded. At half-past nine she anchored for the night some distance +from the shore, and at three next morning resumed her picking up. 'With +a small delay for one or two improvements I had seen to be necessary +last night,' writes Jenkin, 'the engine started, and since that time I +do not think there has been half an hour's stoppage. A rope to splice, a +block to change, a wheel to oil, an old rusted anchor to disengage from +the cable, which brought it up--these have been our only obstructions. +Sixty, seventy, eighty, a hundred, a hundred and twenty revolutions at +last my little engine tears away. The even black rope comes straight +out of the blue, heaving water, passes slowly round an open-hearted, +good-tempered-looking pulley, five feet in diameter, aft past a vicious +nipper, to bring all up should anything go wrong, through a gentle guide +on to a huge bluff drum, who wraps him round his body, and says, "Come +you must," as plain as drum can speak; the chattering pauls say, "I've +got him, I've got him; he can't come back," whilst black cable, much +slacker and easier in mind and body, is taken by a slim V-pulley +and passed down into the huge hold, where half a dozen men put him +comfortably to bed after his exertion in rising from his long bath. + +'I am very glad I am here, for my machines are my own children, and I +look on their little failings with a parent's eye, and lead them into +the path of duty with gentleness and firmness. I am naturally in good +spirits, but keep very quiet, for misfortunes may arise at any instant; +moreover, to-morrow my paying-out apparatus will be wanted should all +go well, and that will be another nervous operation. Fifteen miles are +safely in, but no one knows better than I do that nothing is done till +all is done.' + +JUNE 11.--'It would amuse you to see how cool (in head) and jolly +everybody is. A testy word now and then shows the nerves are strained +a little, but every one laughs and makes his little jokes as if it were +all in fun....I enjoy it very much.' + +JUNE 13, SUNDAY.--'It now (at 10.30) blows a pretty stiff gale, and the +sea has also risen, and the Elba's bows rise and fall about nine feet. +We make twelve pitches to the minute, and the poor cable must feel very +sea-sick by this time. We are quite unable to do anything, and continue +riding at anchor in one thousand fathoms, the engines going constantly, +so as to keep the ship's bows close up to the cable, which by this means +hangs nearly vertical, and sustains no strain but that caused by its own +weight and the pitching of the vessel. We were all up at four, but the +weather entirely forbade work for to-day; so some went to bed, and +most lay down, making up our lee-way, as we nautically term our loss of +sleep. I must say Liddell is a fine fellow, and keeps his patience and +his temper wonderfully; and yet how he does fret and fume about trifles +at home!' + +JUNE 16.--'By some odd chance a TIMES of June 7 has found its way on +board through the agency of a wretched old peasant who watches the end +of the line here. A long account of breakages in the Atlantic trial +trip. To-night we grapple for the heavy cable, eight tons to the mile. I +long to have a tug at him; he may puzzle me; and though misfortunes, +or rather difficulties, are a bore at the time, life, when working with +cables, is tame without them.--2 p.m. Hurrah! he is hooked--the big +fellow--almost at the first cast. He hangs under our bows, looking so +huge and imposing that I could find it in my heart to be afraid of him.' + +JUNE 17.--'We went to a little bay called Chia, where a fresh-water +stream falls into the sea, and took in water. This is rather a long +operation, so I went up the valley with Mr. Liddell. The coast here +consists of rocky mountains 800 to 1000 feet high, covered with shrubs +of a brilliant green. On landing, our first amusement was watching the +hundreds of large fish who lazily swam in shoals about the river. The +big canes on the further side hold numberless tortoises, we are told, +but see none, for just now they prefer taking a siesta. A little further +on, and what is this with large pink flowers in such abundance?--the +oleander in full flower! At first I fear to pluck them, thinking they +must be cultivated and valuable; but soon the banks show a long line of +thick tall shrubs, one mass of glorious pink and green, set there in a +little valley, whose rocks gleam out blue and purple colours, such +as pre-Raphaelites only dare attempt, shining out hard and weird-like +amongst the clumps of castor-oil plants, cistus, arbor-vitae, and many +other evergreens, whose names, alas! I know not; the cistus is brown +now, the rest all deep and brilliant green. Large herds of cattle +browse on the baked deposit at the foot of these large crags. One or +two half-savage herdsmen in sheepskin kilts, etc., ask for cigars; +partridges whirr up on either side of us; pigeons coo and nightingales +sing amongst the blooming oleander. We get six sheep, and many fowls +too, from the priest of the small village, and then run back to +Spartivento and make preparations for the morning.' + +JUNE 18.--'The short length (of the big-cable) we have picked up was +covered at places with beautiful sprays of coral, twisted and twined +with shells of those small fairy animals we saw in the aquarium at +home. Poor little things! they died at once, with their little bells and +delicate bright tints.' + +JUNE 19.--'Hour after hour I stand on the fore-castle-head picking off +little specimens of polypi and coral, or lie on the saloon deck reading +back numbers of the TIMES, till something hitches, and then all is +hurly-burly once more. There are awnings all along the ship, and a most +ancient and fish-like smell (from the decaying polypi) beneath.' + +JUNE 22.--'Yesterday the cable was often a lovely sight, coming out of +the water one large incrustation of delicate net-like corals and long +white curling shells. No portion of the dirty black wire was visible; +instead we had a garland of soft pink, with little scarlet sprays and +white enamel intermixed. All was fragile, however, and could hardly +be secured in safety; and inexorable iron crushed the tender leaves to +atoms.' + +JUNE 24.--'The whole day spent in dredging, without success. This +operation consists in allowing the ship to drift slowly across the line +where you expect the cable to be, while at the end of a long rope, +fast either to the bow or stern, a grapnel drags along the ground. The +grapnel is a small anchor, made like four pot-hooks tied back to back. +When the rope gets taut the ship is stopped and the grapnel hauled up to +the surface in the hopes of finding the cable on its prongs. I am much +discontented with myself for idly lounging about and reading WESTWARD +HO! for the second time instead of taking to electricity or picking up +nautical information.' + +During the latter part of the work much of the cable was found to be +looped and twisted into 'kinks' from having been so slackly laid, and +two immense tangled skeins were raised on board, one by means of the +mast-head and fore-yard tackle. Photographs of this ravelled cable +were for a long time exhibited as a curiosity in the windows of Messrs. +Newall & Co's. shop in the Strand, where we remember to have seen them. + +By July 5 the whole of the six-wire cable had been recovered, and a +portion of the three-wire cable, the rest being abandoned as unfit +for use, owing to its twisted condition. Their work was over, but an +unfortunate accident marred its conclusion. On the evening of the 2nd +the first mate, while on the water unshackling a buoy, was struck in +the back by a fluke of the ship's anchor as she drifted, and so severely +injured that he lay for many weeks at Cagliari. Jenkin's knowledge of +languages made him useful as an interpreter; but in mentioning this +incident to Miss Austin, he writes, 'For no fortune would I be a doctor +to witness these scenes continually. Pain is a terrible thing.' + +In the beginning of 1859 he made the acquaintance of Sir William +Thomson, his future friend and partner. Mr. Lewis Gordon, of Messrs. R. +S. Newall & Co., afterwards the earliest professor of engineering in a +British University, was then in Glasgow seeing Sir William's instruments +for testing and signalling on the first Atlantic cable during the six +weeks of its working. Mr. Gordon said he should like to show them to 'a +young man of remarkable ability,' engaged at their Birkenhead Works, and +Jenkin, being telegraphed for, arrived next morning, and spent a week +in Glasgow, mostly in Sir William's class-room and laboratory at the old +college. Sir William tells us that he was struck not only with Jenkin's +brightness and ability, but with his resolution to understand everything +spoken of; to see, if possible, thoroughly into every difficult +question, and to slur over nothing. 'I soon found,' he remarks, 'that +thoroughness of honesty was as strongly engrained in the scientific +as in the moral side of his character.' Their talk was chiefly on +the electric telegraph; but Jenkin was eager, too, on the subject of +physics. After staying a week he returned to the factory; but he began +experiments, and corresponded briskly with Sir William about cable +work. That great electrician, indeed, seems to have infected his visitor +during their brief contact with the magnetic force of his personality +and enthusiasm. + +The year was propitious, and, in addition to this friend, Fortune about +the same time bestowed a still better gift on Jenkin. On Saturday, +February 26, during a four days' leave, he was married to Miss Austin +at Northiam, returning to his work the following Tuesday. This was the +great event of his life; he was strongly attached to his wife, and his +letters reveal a warmth of affection, a chivalry of sentiment, and +even a romance of expression, which a casual observer would never have +suspected in him. Jenkin seemed to the outside world a man without a +heart, and yet we find him saying in the year 1869, 'People may write +novels, and other people may write poems, but not a man or woman among +them can say how happy a man can be who is desperately in love with his +wife after ten years of marriage.' Five weeks before his death he +wrote to her, 'Your first letter from Bournemouth gives me heavenly +pleasure--for which I thank Heaven and you, too, who are my heaven on +earth.' + +During the summer he enjoyed another telegraph cruise in the +Mediterranean, a sea which for its classical memories, its lovely +climate, and diversified scenes, is by far the most interesting in the +world. This time the Elba was to lay a cable from the Greek islands of +Syra and Candia to Egypt. Cable-laying is a pleasant mode of travel. +Many of those on board the ship are friends and comrades in former +expeditions, and all are engaged in the same venture. Some have seen a +good deal of the world, both in and out of the beaten track; they have +curious 'yarns to spin,' and useful hints or scraps of worldly wisdom to +bestow. The voyage out is like a holiday excursion, for it is only +the laying that is arduous, and even that is lightened by excitement. +Glimpses are got of hide-away spots, where the cable is landed, perhaps. +on the verge of the primeval forest or near the port of a modern city, +or by the site of some ruined monument of the past. The very magic of +the craft and its benefit to the world are a source of pleasure to the +engineer, who is generally made much of in the distant parts he has come +to join. No doubt there are hardships to be borne, sea-sickness, broken +rest, and anxiety about the work--for cables are apt suddenly to fail, +and the ocean is treacherous; but with all its drawbacks this happy +mixture of changing travel and profitable labour is very attractive, +especially to a young man. + +The following extracts from letters to his wife will illustrate the +nature of the work, and also give an idea of Jenkin's clear and graphic +style of correspondence:--May 14.--'Syra is semi-eastern. The pavement, +huge shapeless blocks sloping to a central gutter; from this base +two-storeyed houses, sometimes plaster, many-coloured, sometimes +rough-hewn marble, rise, dirty and ill-finished, to straight, plain, +flat roofs; shops guiltless of windows, with signs in Greek letters; +dogs, Greeks in blue, baggy, Zouave breeches and a fez, a few +narghilehs, and a sprinkling of the ordinary continental shop-boys. +In the evening I tried one more walk in Syra with A----, but in +vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to spend money, the first effort +resulting in singing DOODAH to a passing Greek or two, the second in +spending--no, in making A---- spend--threepence on coffee for three.' + +Canea Bay, in Candia (or Crete), which they reached on May 16, appeared +to Jenkin one of the loveliest sights that man could witness. + +May 23.--'I spent the day at the little station where the cable was +landed, which has apparently been first a Venetian monastery and then +a Turkish mosque. At any rate the big dome is very cool, and the little +ones hold batteries capitally. A handsome young Bashi-Bazouk guards it, +and a still handsomer mountaineer is the servant; so I draw them and the +monastery and the hill till I'm black in the face with heat, and come on +board to hear the Canea cable is still bad.' + +May 23.--'We arrived in the morning at the east end of Candia, and had a +glorious scramble over the mountains, which seem built of adamant. +Time has worn away the softer portions of the rock, only leaving sharp, +jagged edges of steel; sea eagles soaring above our heads--old tanks, +ruins, and desolation at our feet. The ancient Arsinoe stood here: a +few blocks of marble with the cross attest the presence of Venetian +Christians; but now--the desolation of desolations. Mr. Liddell and I +separated from the rest, and when we had found a sure bay for the cable, +had a tremendous lively scramble back to the boat. These are the bits of +our life which I enjoy; which have some poetry, some grandeur in them. + +May 29.-'Yesterday we ran round to the new harbour (of Alexandria), +landed the shore end of the cable close to Cleopatra's Bath, and made a +very satisfactory start about one in the afternoon. We had scarcely +gone 200 yards when I noticed that the cable ceased to run out, and I +wondered why the ship had stopped.' + +The Elba had run her nose on a sandbank. After trying to force her over +it, an anchor was put out astern and the rope wound by a steam winch, +while the engines were backed; but all in vain. At length a small +Turkish steamer, the consort of the Elba, came to her assistance, and by +means of a hawser helped to tug her off: The pilot again ran her aground +soon after, but she was delivered by the same means without much damage. +When two-thirds of this cable was laid the line snapped in deep water, +and had to be recovered. On Saturday, June 4, they arrived at Syra, +where they had to perform four days' quarantine, during which, however, +they started repairing the Canea cable. + +Bad weather coming on, they took shelter in Siphano, of which Jenkin +writes: 'These isles of Greece are sad, interesting places. They are +not really barren all over, but they are quite destitute of verdure; and +tufts of thyme, wild mastic, or mint, though they sound well, are not +nearly so pretty as grass. Many little churches, glittering white, dot +the islands; most of them, I believe, abandoned during the whole year +with the exception of one day sacred to their patron saint. The villages +are mean; but the inhabitants do not look wretched, and the men are +capital sailors. There is something in this Greek race yet; they will +become a powerful Levantine nation in the course of time.' + +In 1861 Jenkin left the service of Newall & Co., and entered into +partnership with Mr. H. C. Forde, who had acted as engineer under +the British Government for the Malta-Alexandria cable, and was now +practising as a civil engineer. For several years after this business +was bad, and with a young family coming, it was an anxious time for him; +but he seems to have borne his troubles lightly. Mr. Stevenson says +it was his principle 'to enjoy each day's happiness as it arises, like +birds and children.' + +In 1863 his first son was born, and the family removed to a cottage at +Claygate, near Esher. Though ill and poor at this period, he kept up +his self-confidence. 'The country,' he wrote to his wife, 'will give us, +please God, health and strength. I will love and cherish you more than +ever. You shall go where you wish, you shall receive whom you wish, and +as for money, you shall have that too. I cannot be mistaken. I have now +measured myself with many men. I do not feel weak. I do not feel that I +shall fail. In many things I have succeeded, and I will in this.... And +meanwhile, the time of waiting, which, please Heaven, shall not be so +long, shall also not be so bitter. Well, well, I promise much, and do +not know at this moment how you and the dear child are. If he is but +better, courage, my girl, for I see light.' + +He took to gardening, without a natural liking for it, and soon became +an ardent expert. He wrote reviews, and lectured, or amused himself in +playing charades, and reading poetry. Clerk Maxwell, and Mr. Ricketts, +who was lost in the La Plata, were among his visitors. During October, +1860, he superintended the repairs of the Bona-Spartivento cable, +revisiting Chia and Cagliari, then full of Garibaldi's troops. The +cable, which had been broken by the anchors of coral fishers, was +grapnelled with difficulty. 'What rocks we did hook!' writes Jenkin. 'No +sooner was the grapnel down than the ship was anchored; and then came +such a business: ship's engines going, deck engine thundering, belt +slipping, tear of breaking ropes; actually breaking grapnels. It was +always an hour or more before we could get the grapnels down again.' + +In 1865, on the birth of his second son, Mrs. Jenkin was very ill, +and Jenkin, after running two miles for a doctor, knelt by her bedside +during the night in a draught, not wishing to withdraw his hand from +hers. Never robust, he suffered much from flying rheumatism and sciatica +ever afterwards. It nearly disabled him while laying the Lowestoft +to Norderney cable for Mr. Reuter, in 1866. This line was designed by +Messrs. Forde & Jenkin, manufactured by Messrs. W. T. Henley & Co., and +laid by the Caroline and William Cory. Miss Clara Volkman, a niece of +Mr. Reuter, sent the first message, Mr. C. F, Varley holding her hand. + +In 1866 Jenkin was appointed to the professorship of Engineering in +University College, London. Two years later his prospects suddenly +improved; the partnership began to pay, and he was selected to fill the +Chair of Engineering, which had been newly established, in Edinburgh +University. What he thought of the change may be gathered from a letter +to his wife: 'With you in the garden (at Claygate), with Austin in the +coach-house, with pretty songs in the little low white room, with the +moonlight in the dear room upstairs--ah! it was perfect; but the long +walk, wondering, pondering, fearing, scheming, and the dusty jolting +railway, and the horrid fusty office, with its endless disappointments, +they are well gone. It is well enough to fight, and scheme, and bustle +about in the eager crowd here (in London) for awhile now and then; but +not for a lifetime. What I have now is just perfect. Study for winter, +action for summer, lovely country for recreation, a pleasant town for +talk.' + +The liberality of the Scotch universities allowed him to continue his +private enterprises, and the summer holiday was long enough to make a +trip round the globe. + +The following June he was on board the Great Eastern while she laid the +French Atlantic cable from Brest to St. Pierre. Among his shipmates +were Sir William Thomson, Sir James Anderson, C. F. Varley, Mr. Latimer +Clark, and Willoughby Smith. Jenkin's sketches of Clark and Varley are +particularly happy. At St. Pierre, where they arrived in a fog, which +lifted to show their consort, the William Cory, straight ahead, and the +Gulnare signalling a welcome, Jenkin made the curious observation +that the whole island was electrified by the battery at the telegraph +station. + +Jenkin's position at Edinburgh led to a partnership in cable work with +Sir William Thomson, for whom he always had a love and admiration. +Jenkin's clear, practical, and business-like abilities were doubtless +an advantage to Sir William, relieving him of routine, and sparing +his great abilities for higher work. In 1870 the siphon recorder, for +tracing a cablegram in ink, instead of merely flashing it by the moving +ray of the mirror galvanometer, was introduced on long cables, and +became a source of profit to Jenkin and Varley as well as to Sir +William, its inventor. + +In 1873 Thomson and Jenkin were engineers for the Western and Brazilian +cable. It was manufactured by Messrs. Hooper & Co., of Millwall, and the +wire was coated with india-rubber, then a new insulator. The Hooper left +Plymouth in June, and after touching at Madeira, where Sir William was +up 'sounding with his special toy' (the pianoforte wire) 'at half-past +three in the morning,' they reached Pernambuco by the beginning of +August, and laid a cable to Para. + +During the next two years the Brazilian system was connected to the +West Indies and the River Plate; but Jenkin was not present on the +expeditions. While engaged in this work, the ill-fated La Plata, bound +with cable from Messrs. Siemens Brothers to Monte Video, perished in +a cyclone off Cape Ushant, with the loss of nearly all her crew. The +Mackay-Bennett Atlantic cables were also laid under their charge. + +As a professor Jenkin's appearance was against him; but he was a clear, +fluent speaker, and a successful teacher. Of medium height, and very +plain, his manner was youthful, and alert, but unimposing. Nevertheless, +his class was always in good order, for his eye instantly lighted on any +unruly member, and his reproof was keen. + +His experimental work was not strikingly original. At Birkenhead he made +some accurate measurements of the electrical properties of materials +used in submarine cables. Sir William Thomson says he was the first to +apply the absolute methods of measurement introduced by Gauss and Weber. +He also investigated there the laws of electric signals in submarine +cables. As Secretary to the British Association Committee on Electrical +Standards he played a leading part in providing electricians with +practical standards of measurement. His Cantor lectures on submarine +cables, and his treatise on ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM, published +in 1873, were notable works at the time, and contained the latest +development of their subjects. He was associated with Sir William +Thomson in an ingenious 'curb-key' for sending signals automatically +through a long cable; but although tried, it was not adopted. His most +important invention was Telpherage, a means of transporting goods and +passengers to a distance by electric panniers supported on a wire or +conductor, which supplied them with electricity. It was first patented +in 1882, and Jenkin spent his last years on this work, expecting great +results from it; but ere the first public line was opened for traffic at +Glynde, in Sussex, he was dead. + +In mechanical engineering his graphical methods of calculating strains +in bridges, and determining the efficiency of mechanism, are of much +value. The latter, which is based on Reulaux's prior work, procured him +the honour of the Keith Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. +Another successful work of his was the founding of the Sanitary +Protection Association, for the supervision of houses with regard to +health. + +In his leisure hours Jenkin wrote papers on a wide variety of subjects. +To the question, 'Is one man's gain another man's loss?' he answered +'Not in every case.' He attacked Darwin's theory of development, and +showed its inadequacy, especially in demanding more time than the +physicist could grant for the age of the habitable world. Darwin himself +confessed that some of his arguments were convincing; and Munro, the +scholar, complimented him for his paper on Lucretius and the Atomic +Theory.' In 1878 he constructed a phonograph from the newspaper reports +of this new invention, and lectured on it at a bazaar in Edinburgh, +then employed it to study the nature of vowel and consonantal sounds. An +interesting paper on Rhythm in English Verse,' was also published by him +in the SATURDAY REVIEW for 1883. + +He was clever with his pencil, and could seize a likeness with +astonishing rapidity. He has been known while on a cable expedition to +stop a peasant woman in a shop for a few minutes and sketch her on the +spot. His artistic side also shows itself in a paper on 'Artist and +Critic,' in which he defines the difference between the mechanical and +fine arts. 'In mechanical arts,' he says, 'the craftsman uses his skill +to produce something useful, but (except in the rare case when he is at +liberty to choose what he shall produce) his sole merit lies in skill. +In the fine arts the student uses skill to produce something beautiful. +He is free to choose what that something shall be, and the layman claims +that he may and must judge the artist chiefly by the value in beauty of +the thing done. Artistic skill contributes to beauty, or it would not be +skill; but beauty is the result of many elements, and the nobler the art +the lower is the rank which skill takes among them.' + +A clear and matter-of-fact thinker, Jenkin was an equally clear and +graphic writer. He read the best literature, preferring, among other +things, the story of David, the ODYSSEY, the ARCADIA, the saga of Burnt +Njal, and the GRAND CYRUS. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ariosto, +Boccaccio, Scott, Dumas, Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot, were +some of his favourite authors. He once began a review of George Eliot's +biography, but left it unfinished. Latterly he had ceased to admire +her work as much as before. He was a rapid, fluent talker, with excited +utterance at times. Some of his sayings were shrewd and sharp; but +he was sometimes aggressive. 'People admire what is pretty in an ugly +thing,' he used to say 'not the ugly thing.' A lady once said to him she +would never be happy again. 'What does that signify?' cried Jenkin; 'we +are not here to be happy, but to be good.' On a friend remarking that +Salvini's acting in OTHELLO made him want to pray, Jenkin answered, +'That is prayer.' + +Though admired and liked by his intimates, Jenkin was never popular with +associates. His manner was hard, rasping, and unsympathetic. 'Whatever +virtues he possessed,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'he could never count on +being civil.' He showed so much courtesy to his wife, however, that a +Styrian peasant who observed it spread a report in the village that Mrs. +Jenkin, a great lady, had married beneath her. At the Saville Club, +in London, he was known as the 'man who dines here and goes up to +Scotland.' Jenkin was conscious of this churlishness, and latterly +improved. 'All my life,' he wrote,'I have talked a good deal, with the +almost unfailing result of making people sick of the sound of my +tongue. It appeared to me that I had various things to say, and I had +no malevolent feelings; but, nevertheless, the result was that expressed +above. Well, lately some change has happened. If I talk to a person one +day they must have me the next. Faces light up when they see me. "Ah! +I say, come here." "Come and dine with me." It's the most preposterous +thing I ever experienced. It is curiously pleasant.' + +Jenkin was a good father, joining in his children's play as well as +directing their studies. The boys used to wait outside his office +for him at the close of business hours; and a story is told of little +Frewen, the second son, entering in to him one day, while he was at +work, and holding out a toy crane he was making, with the request, 'Papa +you might finiss windin' this for me, I'm so very busy to-day.' He was +fond of animals too, and his dog Plate regularly accompanied him to the +University. But, as he used to say, 'It's a cold home where a dog is the +only representative of a child.' + +In summer his holidays were usually spent in the Highlands, where Jenkin +learned to love the Highland character and ways of life. He was a +good shot, rode and swam well, and taught his boys athletic exercises, +boating, salmon fishing, and such like. He learned to dance a Highland +reel, and began the study of Gaelic; but that speech proved too +stubborn, craggy, and impregnable even for Jenkin. Once he took his +family to Alt Aussee, in the Stiermark, Styria, where he hunted chamois, +won a prize for shooting at the Schutzen-fest, learned the dialect of +the country, sketched the neighbourhood, and danced the STEIERISCH and +LANDLER with the peasants. He never seemed to be happy unless he was +doing, and what he did was well done. + +Above all, he was clear-headed and practical, mastering many things; +no dreamer, but an active, business man. Had he confined himself to +engineering he might have adorned his profession more, for he liked and +fitted it; but with his impulses on other lines repressed, he might have +been less happy. Moreover, he was one who believed, with the sage, that +all good work is profitable, having its value, if only in exercise and +skill. + +His own parents and those of his wife had come to live in Edinburgh; +but he lost them all within ten months of each other. Jenkin had showed +great devotion to them in their illnesses, and was worn out with grief +and watching. His telpherage, too, had given him considerable anxiety to +perfect; and his mother's illness, which affected her mind, had caused +himself to fear. + +He was meditating a holiday to Italy with his wife in order to +recuperate, and had a trifling operation performed on his foot, which +resulted, it is believed, in blood poisoning. There seemed to be no +danger, and his wife was reading aloud to him as he lay in bed, when his +intellect began to wander. It is doubtful whether he regained his senses +before he died, on June 12, 1885. + +At one period of his life Jenkin was a Freethinker, holding, as Mr. +Stevenson says, all dogmas as 'mere blind struggles to express the +inexpressible.' Nevertheless, as time went on he came back to a belief +in Christianity. 'The longer I live,' he wrote, 'the more convinced +I become of a direct care by God--which is reasonably impossible--but +there it is.' In his last year he took the Communion. + + + +CHAPTER VII. JOHANN PHILIPP REIS. + +Johann Philipp Reis, the first inventor of an electric telephone, was +born on January 7, 1834, at the little town of Gelnhausen, in Cassel, +where his father was a master baker and petty farmer. The boy lost +his mother during his infancy, and was brought up by his paternal +grandmother, a well-read, intelligent woman, of a religious turn. While +his father taught him to observe the material world, his grandmother +opened his mind to the Unseen. + +At the age of six he was sent to the common school of the town, where +his talents attracted the notice of his instructors, who advised his +father to extend his education at a higher college. Mr. Reis died before +his son was ten years old; but his grandmother and guardians afterwards +placed him at Garnier's Institute, in Friedrichsdorf, where he showed a +taste for languages, and acquired both French and English, as well as a +stock of miscellaneous information from the library. At the end of +his fourteenth year he passed to Hassel's Institute, at +Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he picked up Latin and Italian. A love of +science now began to show itself, and his guardians were recommended to +send him to the Polytechnic School of Carlsruhe; but one of them, his +uncle, wished him to become a merchant, and on March 1, 1850, Reis +was apprenticed to the colour trade in the establishment of Mr. J. F +Beyerbach, of Frankfort, against his own will. He told his uncle that he +would learn the business chosen for him, but should continue his proper +studies by-and-by. + +By diligent service he won the esteem of Mr. Beyerbach, and devoted his +leisure to self-improvement, taking private lessons in mathematics and +physics, and attending the lectures of Professor R. Bottger on mechanics +at the Trade School. When his apprenticeship ended he attended the +Institute of Dr. Poppe, in Frankfort, and as neither history nor +geography was taught there, several of the students agreed to instruct +each other in these subjects. Reis undertook geography, and believed +he had found his true vocation in the art of teaching. He also became a +member of the Physical Society of Frankfort. + +In 1855 he completed his year of military service at Cassel, then +returned to Frankfort to qualify himself as a teacher of mathematics and +science in the schools by means of private study and public lectures. +His intention was to finish his training at the University of +Heidelberg, but in the spring of 1858 he visited his old friend and +master, Hofrath Garnier, who offered him a post in Garnier's Institute. +In the autumn of 1855 he removed to Friedrichsdorf, to begin his new +career, and in September following he took a wife and settled down. + +Reis imagined that electricity could be propagated through space, as +light can, without the aid of a material conductor, and he made some +experiments on the subject. The results were described in a paper 'On +the Radiation of Electricity,' which, in 1859, he posted to Professor +Poggendorff; for insertion in the well-known periodical, the ANNALEN +DER PHYSIK. The memoir was declined, to the great disappointment of the +sensitive young teacher. + +Reis had studied the organs of hearing, and the idea of an apparatus for +transmitting sound by means of electricity had been floating in his +mind for years. Incited by his lessons on physics, in the year 1860 he +attacked the problem, and was rewarded with success. In 1862 he again +tried Poggendorff, with an account of his 'Telephon,' as he called +it;[The word 'telephone' occurs in Timbs' REPOSITORY OF SCIENCE AND ART +for 1845, in connection With a signal trumpet operated by compressed +air.] but his second offering was rejected like the first. The learned +professor, it seems, regarded the transmission of speech by electricity +as a chimera; but Reis, in the bitterness of wounded feeling, attributed +the failure to his being 'only a poor schoolmaster.' + +Since the invention of the telephone, attention has been called to the +fact that, in 1854, M. Charles Bourseul, a French telegraphist, [Happily +still alive (1891).] had conceived a plan for conveying sounds and even +speech by electricity. 'Suppose,' he explained, 'that a man speaks near +a movable disc sufficiently flexible to lose none of the vibrations of +the voice; that this disc alternately makes and breaks the currents +from a battery: you may have at a distance another disc which will +simultaneously execute the same vibrations.... It is certain that, in a +more or less distant future, speech will be transmitted by electricity. +I have made experiments in this direction; they are delicate and demand +time and patience, but the approximations obtained promise a favourable +result.'[See Du Moncel's EXPOSE DES APPLICATIONS, etc.] + +Bourseul deserves the credit of being perhaps the first to devise an +electric telephone and try to make it; but to Reis belongs the honour of +first realising the idea. A writer may plot a story, or a painter invent +a theme for a picture; but unless he execute the work, of what benefit +is it to the world? True, a suggestion in mechanics may stimulate +another to apply it in practice, and in that case the suggester is +entitled to some share of the credit, as well as the distinction of +being the first to think of the matter. But it is best when the original +deviser also carries out the work; and if another should independently +hit upon the same idea and bring it into practice, we are bound to +honour him in full, though we may also recognise the merit of his +predecessor. + +Bourseul's idea seems to have attracted little notice at the time, and +was soon forgotten. Even the Count du Moncel, who was ever ready to +welcome a promising invention, evidently regarded it as a fantastic +notion. It is very doubtful if Reis had ever heard of it. He was led to +conceive a similar apparatus by a study of the mechanism of the human +ear, which he knew to contain a membrane, or 'drum,' vibrating under the +waves of sound, and communicating its vibrations through the hammer-bone +behind it to the auditory nerve. It therefore occurred to him, that if +he made a diaphragm in imitation of the drum, and caused it by vibrating +to make and break the circuit of an electric current, he would be able +through the magnetic power of the interrupted current to reproduce the +original sounds at a distance. + +In 1837-8 Professor Page, of Massachusetts, had discovered that' a +needle or thin bar of iron, placed in the hollow of a coil or bobbin of +insulated wire, would emit an audible 'tick' at each interruption of a +current, flowing in the coil, and that if these separate ticks followed +each other fast enough, by a rapid interruption of the current, they +would run together into a continuous hum, to which he gave the name of +'galvanic music.' The pitch of this note would correspond to the rate of +interruption of the current. From these and other discoveries which had +been made by Noad, Wertheim, Marrian, and others, Reis knew that if +the current which had been interrupted by his vibrating diaphragm were +conveyed to a distance by a metallic circuit, and there passed through +a coil like that of Page, the iron needle would emit a note like that +which had caused the oscillation of the transmitting diaphragm. Acting +on this knowledge, he constructed a rude telephone. + +Dr. Messel informs us that his first transmitter consisted of the bung +of a beer barrel hollowed out in imitation of the external ear. The cup +or mouth-piece thus formed was closed by the skin of a German sausage to +serve as a drum or diaphragm. To the back of this he fixed, with a +drop of sealing-wax, a little strip of platinum, representing the +hammer-bone, which made and broke the metallic circuit of the current as +the membrane oscillated under the sounds which impinged against it. The +current thus interrupted was conveyed by wires to the receiver, which +consisted of a knitting-needle loosely surrounded by a coil of wire +fastened to the breast of a violin as a sounding-board. When a musical +note was struck near the bung, the drum vibrated in harmony with the +pitch of the note, the platinum lever interrupted the metallic circuit +of the current, which, after traversing the conducting wire, passed +through the coil of the receiver, and made the needle hum the original +tone. This primitive arrangement, we are told, astonished all who heard +it. [It is now in the museum of the Reichs Post-Amt, Berlin.] + +Another of his early transmitters was a rough model of the human ear, +carved in oak, and provided with a drum which actuated a bent and +pivoted lever of platinum, making it open and close a springy contact +of platinum foil in the metallic circuit of the current. He devised some +ten or twelve different forms, each an improvement on its predecessors, +which transmitted music fairly well, and even a word or two of speech +with more or less perfection. But the apparatus failed as a practical +means of talking to a distance. + +The discovery of the microphone by Professor Hughes has enabled us to +understand the reason of this failure. The transmitter of Reis was based +on the plan of interrupting the current, and the spring was intended to +close the contact after it had been opened by the shock of a vibration. +So long as the sound was a musical tone it proved efficient, for a +musical tone is a regular succession of vibrations. But the vibrations +of speech are irregular and complicated, and in order to transmit +them the current has to be varied in strength without being altogether +broken. The waves excited in the air by the voice should merely produce +corresponding waves in the current. In short, the current ought to +UNDULATE in sympathy with the oscillations of the air. It appears +from the report of Herr Von Legat, inspector of the Royal Prussian +Telegraphs, on the Reis telephone, published in 1862, that the inventor +was quite aware of this principle, but his instrument was not well +adapted to apply it. No doubt the platinum contacts he employed in the +transmitter behaved to some extent as a crude metal microphone, and +hence a few words, especially familiar or expected ones, could be +transmitted and distinguished at the other end of the line. But Reis +does not seem to have realised the importance of not entirely breaking +the circuit of the current; at all events, his metal spring is not in +practice an effective provision against this, for it allows the metal +contacts to jolt too far apart, and thus interrupt the current. Had he +lived to modify the spring and the form or material of his contacts so +as to keep the current continuous--as he might have done, for example, +by using carbon for platinum--he would have forestalled alike Bell, +Edison, and Hughes in the production of a good speaking telephone. Reis +in fact was trembling on the verge of a great discovery, which was, +however, reserved for others. + +His experiments were made in a little workshop behind his home at +Friedrichsdorff; and wires were run from it to an upper chamber. Another +line was erected between the physical cabinet at Garnier's Institute +across the playground to one of the class-rooms, and there was a +tradition in the school that the boys were afraid of creating an uproar +in the room for fear Herr Reis should hear them with his 'telephon.' + +The new invention was published to the world in a lecture before the +Physical Society of Frankfort on October 26, 1861, and a description, +written by himself for the JAHRESBERICHT, a month or two later. It +excited a good deal of scientific notice in Germany; models of it were +sent abroad, to London, Dublin, Tiflis, and other places. It became a +subject for popular lectures, and an article for scientific cabinets. +Reis obtained a brief renown, but the reaction soon set in. The Physical +Society of Frankfort turned its back on the apparatus which had given +it lustre. Reis resigned his membership in 1867; but the Free German +Institute of Frankfort, which elected him an honorary member, also +slighted the instrument as a mere 'philosophical toy.' At first it was +a dream, and now it is a plaything. Have we not had enough of that +superior wisdom which is another name for stupidity? The dreams of the +imagination are apt to become realities, and the toy of to-day has a +knack of growing into the mighty engine of to-morrow. + +Reis believed in his invention, if no one else did; and had he been +encouraged by his fellows from the beginning, he might have brought it +into a practical shape. But rebuffs had preyed upon his sensitive heart, +and he was already stricken with consumption. It is related that, after +his lecture on the telephone at Geissen, in 1854, Professor Poggendorff, +who was present, invited him to send a description of his instrument +to the ANNALEN. Reis answered him,'Ich danke Ihnen recht Sehr, Herr +Professor; es ist zu spaty. Jetzt will ICH nicht ihn schickeny. Mein +Apparat wird ohne Beschreibung in den ANNALEN bekannt werden.' ('Thank +you very much, Professor, but it is too late. I shall not send it now. +My apparatus will become known without any writing in the ANNALEN.') + +Latterly Reis had confined his teaching and study to matters of science; +but his bad health was a serious impediment. For several years it was +only by the exercise of a strong will that he was able to carry on his +duties. His voice began to fail as the disease gained upon his lungs, +and in the summer of 1873 he was obliged to forsake tuition during +several weeks. The autumn vacation strengthened his hopes of recovery, +and he resumed his teaching with his wonted energy. But this was the +last flicker of the expiring flame. It was announced that he would show +his new gravity-machine at a meeting of the Deutscher Naturforscher of +Wiesbaden in September, but he was too ill to appear. In December he lay +down, and, after a long and painful illness, breathed his last at five +o'clock in the afternoon of January 14, 1874. + +In his CURRICULUM VITAE he wrote these words: 'As I look back upon my +life I call indeed say with the Holy Scriptures that it has been "labour +and sorrow." But I have also to thank the Lord that He has given me His +blessing in my calling and in my family, and has bestowed more good upon +me than I have known how to ask of Him. The Lord has helped hitherto; He +will help yet further.' + +Reis was buried in the cemetery of Friedrichsdorff, and in 1878, after +the introduction of the speaking telephone, the members of the Physical +Society of Frankfort erected over his grave an obelisk of red sandstone +bearing a medallion portrait. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. GRAHAM BELL. + +The first to produce a practicable speaking telephone was Alexander +Graham Bell. He was born at Edinburgh on March 1, 1847, and comes of +a family associated with the teaching of elocution. His grandfather in +London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, Mr. Andrew Melville Bell, +in Edinburgh, were all professed elocutionists. The latter has published +a variety of works on the subject, several of which are well known, +especially his treatise on Visible Speech, which appeared in Edinburgh +in 1868. In this he explains his ingenious method of instructing deaf +mutes, by means of their eyesight, how to articulate words, and also +how to read what other persons are saying by the motions of their lips. +Graham Bell, his distinguished son, was educated at the high school of +Edinburgh, and subsequently at Warzburg, in Germany, where he obtained +the degree of Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy). While still in Scotland he +is said to have turned his attention to the science of acoustics, with a +view to ameliorate the deafness of his mother. + +In 1873 he accompanied his father to Montreal, in Canada, where he was +employed in teaching the system of visible speech. The elder Bell was +invited to introduce it into a large day-school for mutes at Boston, but +he declined the post in favour of his son, who soon became famous in the +United States for his success in this important work. He published more +than one treatise on the subject at Washington, and it is, we believe, +mainly through his efforts that thousands of deaf mutes in America are +now able to speak almost, if not quite, as well as those who are able to +hear. + +Before he left Scotland Mr. Graham Bell had turned his attention to +telephony, and in Canada he designed a piano which could transmit its +music to a distance by means of electricity. At Boston he continued his +researches in the same field, and endeavoured to produce a telephone +which would not only send musical notes, but articulate speech. + +If it be interesting to trace the evolution of an animal from its +rudimentary germ through the lower phases to the perfect organism, it +is almost as interesting to follow an invention from the original model +through the faultier types to the finished apparatus. + +In 1860 Philipp Reis, as we have seen, produced a telephone which could +transmit musical notes, and even a lisping word or two; and some ten +years later Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, F.R.S., a well-known English +electrician, patented a number of ingenious devices for applying the +musical telephone to transmit messages by dividing the notes into short +or long signals, after the Morse code, which could be interpreted by +the ear or by the eye in causing them to mark a moving paper. These +inventions were not put in practice; but four years afterwards Herr Paul +la Cour, a Danish inventor, experimented with a similar appliance on a +line of telegraph between Copenhagen and Fredericia in Jutland. In this +a vibrating tuning-fork interrupted the current, which, after traversing +the line, passed through an electro-magnet, and attracted the limbs of +another fork, making it strike a note like the transmitting fork. By +breaking up the note at the sending station with a signalling key, the +message was heard as a series of long and short hums. Moreover, the hums +were made to record themselves on paper by turning the electro-magnetic +receiver into a relay, which actuated a Morse printer by means of a +local battery. + +Mr. Elisha Gray, of Chicago, also devised a tone telegraph of this kind +about the same time as Herr La Cour. In this apparatus a vibrating +steel tongue interrupted the current, which at the other end of the line +passed through the electro-magnet and vibrated a band or tongue of iron +near its poles. Gray's 'harmonic telegraph,' with the vibrating tongues +or reeds, was afterwards introduced on the lines of the Western Union +Telegraph Company in America. As more than one set of vibrations--that +is to say, more than one note--can be sent over the same wire +simultaneously, it is utilised as a 'multiplex' or many-ply telegraph, +conveying several messages through the same wire at once; and these can +either be interpreted by the sound, or the marks drawn on a ribbon of +travelling paper by a Morse recorder. + +Gray also invented a 'physiological receiver,' which has a curious +history. Early in 1874 his nephew was playing with a small induction +coil, and, having connected one end of the secondary circuit to the zinc +lining of a bath, which was dry, he was holding the other end in his +left hand. While he rubbed the zinc with his right hand Gray noticed +that a sound proceeded from it, which had the pitch and quality of the +note emitted by the vibrating contact or electrotome of the coil. 'I +immediately took the electrode in my hand,' he writes, 'and, repeating +the operation, found to my astonishment that by rubbing hard and rapidly +I could make a much louder sound than the electrotome. I then changed +the pitch of the vibration, and found that the pitch of the sound under +my hand was also changed, agreeing with that of the vibration.' +Gray lost no time in applying this chance discovery by designing the +physiological receiver, which consists of a sounding-box having a zinc +face and mounted on an axle, so that it can be revolved by a handle. One +wire of the circuit is connected to the revolving zinc, and the other +wire is connected to the finger which rubs on the zinc. The sounds are +quite distinct, and would seem to be produced by a microphonic action +between the skin and the metal. + +All these apparatus follow in the track of Reis and Bourseul--that is +to say, the interruption of the current by a vibrating contact. It +was fortunate for Bell that in working with his musical telephone an +accident drove him into a new path, which ultimately brought him to the +invention of a speaking telephone. He began his researches in 1874 with +a musical telephone, in which he employed the interrupted current to +vibrate the receiver, which consisted of an electro-magnet causing an +iron reed or tongue to vibrate; but, while trying it one day with his +assistant, Mr. Thomas A. Watson, it was found that a reed failed to +respond to the intermittent current. Mr. Bell desired his assistant, +who was at the other end of the line, to pluck the reed, thinking it +had stuck to the pole of the magnet. Mr. Watson complied, and to his +astonishment Bell observed that the corresponding reed at his end of the +line thereupon began to vibrate and emit the same note, although there +was no interrupted current to make it. A few experiments soon showed +that his reed had been set in vibration by the magneto-electric currents +induced in the line by the mere motion of the distant reed in the +neighbourhood of its magnet. This discovery led him to discard the +battery current altogether and rely upon the magneto-induction currents +of the reeds themselves. Moreover, it occurred to him that, since the +circuit was never broken, all the complex vibrations of speech might be +converted into sympathetic currents, which in turn would reproduce the +speech at a distance. + +Reis had seen that an undulatory current was needed to transmit sounds +in perfection, especially vocal sounds; but his mode of producing the +undulations was defective from a mechanical and electrical point of +view. By forming 'waves' of magnetic disturbance near a coil of wire, +Professor Bell could generate corresponding waves of electricity in the +line so delicate and continuous that all the modulations of sound could +be reproduced at a distance. + +As Professor of Vocal Physiology in the University of Boston, he was +engaged in training teachers in the art of instructing deaf mutes how to +speak, and experimented with the Leon Scott phonautograph in recording +the vibrations of speech. This apparatus consists essentially of a thin +membrane vibrated by the voice and carrying a light stylus, which traces +an undulatory line on a plate of smoked glass. The line is a graphic +representation of the vibrations of the membrane and the waves of sound +in the air. + +On the suggestion of Dr. Clarence J. Blake, an eminent Boston aurist, +Professor Bell abandoned the phonautograph for the human ear, which it +resembled; and, having removed the stapes bone, moistened the drum with +glycerine and water, attached a stylus of hay to the nicus or anvil, and +obtained a beautiful series of curves in imitation of the vocal sounds. +The disproportion between the slight mass of the drum and the bones +it actuated, is said to have suggested to him the employment of +goldbeater's skin as membrane in his speaking telephone. Be this as it +may, he devised a receiver, consisting of a stretched diaphragm or drum +of this material having an armature of magnetised iron attached to its +middle, and free to vibrate in front of the pole of an electro-magnet in +circuit with the line. + +This apparatus was completed on June 2, 1875, and the same day he +succeeded in transmitting SOUNDS and audible signals by magneto-electric +currents and without the aid of a battery. On July 1, 1875, he +instructed his assistant to make a second membrane-receiver which could +be used with the first, and a few days later they were tried together, +one at each end of the line, which ran from a room in the inventor's +house at Boston to the cellar underneath. Bell, in the room, held one +instrument in his hands, while Watson in the cellar listened at the +other. The inventor spoke into his instrument, 'Do you understand what +I say?' and we can imagine his delight when Mr. Watson rushed into the +room, under the influence of his excitement, and answered,'Yes.' + +A finished instrument was then made, having a transmitter formed of +a double electro-magnet, in front of which a membrane, stretched on a +ring, carried an oblong piece of soft iron cemented to its middle. A +mouthpiece before the diaphragm directed the sounds upon it, and as +it vibrated with them, the soft iron 'armature' induced corresponding +currents in the cells of the electro-magnet. These currents after +traversing the line were passed through the receiver, which consisted +of a tubular electro-magnet, having one end partially closed by a thin +circular disc of soft iron fixed at one point to the end of the tube. +This receiver bore a resemblance to a cylindrical metal box with thick +sides, having a thin iron lid fastened to its mouth by a single screw. +When the undulatory current passed through the coil of this magnet, the +disc, or armature-lid, was put into vibration and the sounds evolved +from it. + +The apparatus was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, +in 1876, and at the meeting of the British Association in Glasgow, +during the autumn of that year, Sir William Thomson revealed its +existence to the European public. In describing his visit to the +Exhibition, he went on to say: 'In the Canadian department I heard, +"To be or not to be... there's the rub," through an electric wire; +but, scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher +flights, and gave me passages taken at random from the New York +newspapers: "s.s. Cox has arrived" (I failed to make out the s.s. Cox); +"The City of New York," "Senator Morton," "The Senate has resolved to +print a thousand extra copies," "The Americans in London have resolved +to celebrate the coming Fourth of July!" All this my own ears heard +spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then circular disc +armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this I hold in my +hand.' + +To hear the immortal words of Shakespeare uttered by the small inanimate +voice which had been given to the world must indeed have been a rare +delight to the ardent soul of the great electrician. + +The surprise created among the public at large by this unexpected +communication will be readily remembered. Except one or two inventors, +nobody had ever dreamed of a telegraph that could actually speak, +any more than they had ever fancied one that could see or feel; and +imagination grew busy in picturing the outcome of it. Since it was +practically equivalent to a limitless extension of the vocal powers, +the ingenious journalist soon conjured up an infinity of uses for the +telephone, and hailed the approaching time when ocean-parted friends +would be able to whisper to one another under the roaring billows of the +Atlantic. Curiosity, however, was not fully satisfied until Professor +Bell, the inventor of the instrument, himself showed it to British +audiences, and received the enthusiastic applause of his admiring +countrymen. + +The primitive telephone has been greatly improved, the double +electro-magnet being replaced by a single bar magnet having a small coil +or bobbin of fine wire surrounding one pole, in front of which a thin +disc of ferrotype is fixed in a circular mouthpiece, and serves as a +combined membrane and armature. On speaking into the mouthpiece, the +iron diaphragm vibrates with the voice in the magnetic field of the +pole, and thereby excites the undulatory currents in the coil, which, +after travelling through the wire to the distant place, are received in +an identical apparatus. [This form was patented January 30, 1877.] In +traversing the coil of the latter they reinforce or weaken the magnetism +of the pole, and thus make the disc armature vibrate so as to give out +a mimesis of the original voice. The sounds are small and elfin, a minim +of speech, and only to be heard when the ear is close to the mouthpiece, +but they are remarkably distinct, and, in spite of a disguising twang, +due to the fundamental note of the disc itself, it is easy to recognise +the speaker. + +This later form was publicly exhibited on May 4, 1877 at a lecture +given by Professor Bell in the Boston Music Hall. 'Going to the small +telephone box with its slender wire attachments,' says a report, 'Mr. +Bell coolly asked, as though addressing some one in an adjoining room, +"Mr. Watson, are you ready!" Mr. Watson, five miles away in Somerville, +promptly answered in the affirmative, and soon was heard a voice singing +"America."....Going to another instrument, connected by wire with +Providence, forty-three miles distant, Mr. Bell listened a moment, and +said, "Signor Brignolli, who is assisting at a concert in Providence +Music Hall, will now sing for us." In a moment the cadence of the +tenor's voice rose and fell, the sound being faint, sometimes lost, and +then again audible. Later, a cornet solo played in Somerville was very +distinctly heard. Still later, a three-part song floated over the +wire from the Somerville terminus, and Mr. Bell amused his audience +exceedingly by exclaiming, "I will switch off the song from one part of +the room to another, so that all can hear." At a subsequent lecture +in Salem, Massachusetts, communication was established with Boston, +eighteen miles distant, and Mr. Watson at the latter place sang "Auld +Lang Syne," the National Anthem, and "Hail Columbia," while the audience +at Salem joined in the chorus.' + +Bell had overcome the difficulty which baffled Reis, and succeeded in +making the undulations of the current fit the vibrations of the voice +as a glove will fit the hand. But the articulation, though distinct, was +feeble, and it remained for Edison, by inventing the carbon transmitter, +and Hughes, by discovering the microphone, to render the telephone the +useful and widespread apparatus which we see it now. + +Bell patented his speaking telephone in the United States at the +beginning of 1876, and by a strange coincidence, Mr. Elisha Gray applied +on the same day for another patent of a similar kind. Gray's transmitter +is supposed to have been suggested by the very old device known as +the 'lovers' telephone,' in which two diaphragms are joined by a taut +string, and in speaking against one the voice is conveyed through the +string, solely by mechanical vibration, to the other. Gray employed +electricity, and varied the strength of the current in conformity with +the voice by causing the diaphragm in vibrating to dip a metal probe +attached to its centre more or less deep into a well of conducting +liquid in circuit with the line. As the current passed from the probe +through the liquid to the line a greater or less thickness of liquid +intervened as the probe vibrated up and down, and thus the strength of +the current was regulated by the resistance offered to the passage of +the current. His receiver was an electro-magnet having an iron plate as +an armature capable of vibrating under the attractions of the varying +current. But Gray allowed his idea to slumber, whereas Bell continued +to perfect his apparatus. However, when Bell achieved an unmistakable +success, Gray brought a suit against him, which resulted in a +compromise, one public company acquiring both patents. + +Bell's invention has been contested over and over again, and more than +one claimant for the honour and reward of being the original inventor +of the telephone have appeared. The most interesting case was that +of Signor Antonio Meucci, an Italian emigrant, who produced a mass of +evidence to show that in 1849, while in Havanna, Cuba, he experimented +with the view of transmitting speech by the electric current. He +continued his researches in 1852-3, and subsequently at Staten Island, +U.S.; and in 1860 deputed a friend visiting Europe to interest people +in his invention. In 1871 he filed a caveat in the United States Patent +Office, and tried to get Mr. Grant, President of the New York District +Telegraph Company, to give the apparatus a trial. Ill-health and +poverty, consequent on an injury due to an explosion on board the Staten +Island ferry boat Westfield, retarded his experiments, and prevented +him from completing his patent. Meucci's experimental apparatus was +exhibited at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1884, and attracted much +attention. But the evidence he adduces in support of His early claims is +that of persons ignorant of electrical science, and the model shown +was not complete. The caveat of 1871 is indeed a reliable document; but +unfortunately for him it is not quite clear from it whether he employed +a 'lovers' telephone,' with a wire instead of a string, and joined a +battery to it in the hope of enhancing the effect. 'I employ,' he says, +'the well known conducting effect of continuous metallic conductors as +a medium for sound, and increase the effect by electrically insulating +both the conductor and the parties who are communicating. It forms +a speaking telegraph without the necessity of any hollow tube.' In +connection with the telephone he used an electric alarm. It is by +no means evident from this description that Meucci had devised a +practicable speaking telephone; but he may have been the first to employ +electricity in connection with the transmission of speech. [Meucci is +dead.] + +'This crowning marvel of the electric telegraph,' as Sir William Thomson +happily expressed it, was followed by another invention in some respects +even more remarkable. During the winter of 1878 Professor Bell was +in England, and while lecturing at the Royal Institution, London, he +conceived the idea of the photophone. It was known that crystalline +selenium is a substance peculiarly sensitive to light, for when a ray +strikes it an electric current passes far more easily through it than if +it were kept in the dark. It therefore occurred to Professor Bell that +if a telephone were connected in circuit with the current, and the ray +of light falling on the selenium was eclipsed by means of the vibrations +of sound, the current would undulate in keeping with the light, and +the telephone would emit a corresponding note. In this way it might be +literally possible 'to hear a shadow fall athwart the stillness.' + +He was not the first to entertain the idea, for in the summer of 1878, +one 'L. F. W.,' writing from Kew on June 3 to the scientific journal +NATURE describes an arrangement of the kind. To Professor Bell, in +conjunction with Mr. Summer Tainter, belongs the honour of having, by +dint of patient thought and labour, brought the photophone into material +existence. By constructing sensitive selenium cells through which the +current passed, then directing a powerful beam of light upon them, and +occulting it by a rotary screen, he was able to vary the strength of the +current in such a manner as to elicit musical tones from the telephone +in circuit with the cells. Moreover, by reflecting the beam from a +mirror upon the cells, and vibrating the mirror by the action of the +voice, he was able to reproduce the spoken words in the telephone. In +both cases the only connecting line between the transmitting screen or +mirror and the receiving cells and telephone was the ray of light. With +this apparatus, which reminds us of the invocation to Apollo in the +MARTYR OF ANTIOCH-- + + 'Lord of the speaking lyre, + That with a touch of fire + Strik'st music which delays the charmed spheres.' + +Professor Bell has accomplished the curious feat of speaking along a +beam of sunshine 830 feet long. The apparatus consisted of a transmitter +with a mouthpiece, conveying the sound of the voice to a silvered +diaphragm or mirror, which reflected the vibratory beam through a lens +towards the selenium receiver, which was simply a parabolic reflector, +in the focus of which was placed the selenium cells connected in +circuit with a battery and a pair of telephones, one for each ear. +The transmitter was placed in the top of the Franklin schoolhouse, +at Washington, and the receiver in the window of Professor Bell's +laboratory in L Street. 'It was impossible,' says the inventor, +'to converse by word of mouth across that distance; and while I was +observing Mr. Tainter, on the top of the schoolhouse, almost blinded by +the light which was coming in at the window of my laboratory, and vainly +trying to understand the gestures he was making to me at that great +distance, the thought occurred to me to listen to the telephones +connected with the selenium receiver. Mr. Tainter saw me disappear from +the window, and at once spoke to the transmitter. I heard him distinctly +say, "Mr. Bell, if you hear what I say, come to the window and wave your +hat!" It is needless to say with what gusto I obeyed.' + +The spectroscope has demonstrated the truth of the poet, who said that +'light is the voice of the stars,' and we have it on the authority +of Professor Bell and M. Janssen, the celebrated astronomer, that the +changing brightness of the photosphere, as produced by solar hurricanes, +has produced a feeble echo in the photophone. + +Pursuing these researches, Professor Bell discovered that not only +the selenium cell, but simple discs of wood, glass, metal, ivory, +india-rubber, and so on, yielded a distinct note when the intermittent +ray of light fell upon them. Crystals of sulphate of copper, chips +of pine, and even tobacco-smoke, in a test-tube held before the beam, +emitted a musical tone. With a thin disc of vulcanite as receiver, the +dark heat rays which pass through an opaque screen were found to yield a +note. Even the outer ear is itself a receiver, for when the intermittent +beam is focussed in the cavity a faint musical tone is heard. + +Another research of Professor Bell was that in which he undertook to +localise the assassin's bullet in the body of the lamented President +Garfield. In 1879 Professor Hughes brought out his beautiful induction +balance, and the following year Professor Bell, who had already worked +in the same field, consulted him by telegraph as to the best mode of +applying the balance to determining the place of the bullet, which had +hitherto escaped the probes of the President's physicians. Professor +Hughes advised him by telegraph, and with this and other assistance an +apparatus was devised which indicated the locality of the ball. A full +account of his experiments was given in a paper read before the American +Association for the Advancement of Science in August, 1882. + +Professor Bell continues to reside in the United States, of which he is +a naturalised citizen. He is married to a daughter of Mr. Gardiner G. +Hubbard, who in 1860, when she was four years of age, lost her hearing +by an illness, but has learned to converse by the Horace-Mann system of +watching the lips. Both he and his father-in-law (who had a pecuniary +interest in his patents) have made princely fortunes by the introduction +of the telephone. + + + +CHAPTER IX. THOMAS ALVA EDISON. + +Thomas Alva Edison, the most famous inventor of his time and country, +was born at Milan, Erie County, Ohio, in the United States, on February +11, 1847. His pedigree has been traced for two centuries to a family +of prosperous millers in Holland, some of whom emigrated to America +in 1730. Thomas, his great-grandfather, was an officer of a bank in +Manhattan Island during the Revolution, and his signature is extant on +the old notes of the American currency. Longevity seems a characteristic +of the strain, for Thomas lived to the patriarchal term of 102, his son +to 103, and Samuel, the father of the inventor, is, we understand, a +brisk and hale old man of eighty-six. + +Born at Digby, in the county of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, on August 16, +1804, Samuel was apprenticed to a tailor, but in his manhood he forsook +the needle to engage in the lumber trade, and afterwards in grain. He +resided for a time in Canada, where, at Vienna, he was married to Miss +Nancy Elliott, a popular teacher in the high school. She was of Scotch +descent, and born in Chenango County, New York, on January 10, 1810. +After his marriage he removed, in 1837, to Detroit, Michigan, and the +following year settled in Milan. + +In his younger days Samuel Edison was a man of fine appearance. He stood +6 feet 2 inches in his stockings, and even at the age of sixty-four +he was known to outjump 260 soldiers of a regiment quartered at Fort +Gratiot, in Michigan. His wife was a fine-looking woman, intelligent, +well-educated, and a social favourite. The inventor probably draws his +physical endurance from his father, and his intellect from his mother. + +Milan is situated on the Huron River, about ten miles from the lake, and +was then a rising town of 3,000 inhabitants, mostly occupied with the +grain and timber trade. Mr. Edison dwelt in a plain cottage with a low +fence in front, which stood beside the roadway under the shade of one or +two trees. + +The child was neither pale nor prematurely thoughtful; he was +rosy-cheeked, laughing, and chubby. He liked to ramble in the woods, +or play on the banks of the river, and could repeat the songs of the +boatmen ere he was five years old. Still he was fond of building little +roads with planks, and scooping out canals or caverns in the sand. + +An amusing anecdote is imputed to his sister, Mrs. Homer Page, of Milan. +Having been told one day that a goose hatches her goslings by the warmth +of her body, the child was missed, and subsequently found in the barn +curled up in a nest beside a quantity of eggs! + +The Lake Shore Railway having injured the trade of Milan, the family +removed to Port Huron, in Michigan, when Edison was about seven years +old. Here they lived in an old-fashioned white frame-house, surrounded +by a grove, and commanding a fine view of the broad river, with the +Canadian hills beyond. His mother undertook his education, and with +the exception of two months he never went to school. She directed his +opening mind to the acquisition of knowledge, and often read aloud to +the family in the evening. She and her son were a loving pair, and it +is pleasant to know that although she died on April 9, 1871, before he +finally emerged from his difficulties, her end was brightened by the +first rays of his coming glory. + +Mr. Edison tells us that his son never had any boyhood in the ordinary +sense, his early playthings being steam-engines and the mechanical +powers. But it is like enough that he trapped a wood-chuck now and then, +or caught a white-fish with the rest. + +He was greedy of knowledge, and by the age of ten had read the PENNY +ENCYCLOPAEDIA; Hume's HISTORY OF ENGLAND; Dubigne's HISTORY OF THE +REFORMATION; Gibbon's DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, and Sears' +HISTORY OF THE WORLD. His father, we are told, encouraged his love of +study by making him a small present for every book he read. + +At the age of twelve he became a train-boy, or vendor of candy, fruit, +and journals to the passengers on the Grand Trunk Railway, between Port +Huron and Detroit. The post enabled him to sleep at home, and to extend +his reading by the public library at Detroit. Like the boy Ampere, he +proposed, it is said, to master the whole collection, shelf by shelf, +and worked his way through fifteen feet of the bottom one before he +began to select his fare. + +Even the PRINCIPIA of Newton never daunted him; and if he did not +understand the problems which have puzzled some of the greatest +minds, he read them religiously, and pressed on. Burton's ANATOMY OF +MELANCHOLY, Ure's DICTIONARY OF CHEMISTRY, did not come amiss; but +in Victor Hugo's LES MISERABLES and THE TOILERS OF THE SEA he found +a treasure after his own heart. Like Ampere, too, he was noted for a +memory which retained many of the facts thus impressed upon it, as the +sounds are printed on a phonogram. + +The boy student was also a keen man of business, and his pursuit of +knowledge in the evening did not sap his enterprises of the day. He soon +acquired a virtual monopoly for the sale of newspapers on the line, and +employed four boy assistants. His annual profits amounted to about 500 +dollars, which were a substantial aid to his parents. To increase the +sale of his papers, he telegraphed the headings of the war news to +the stations in advance of the trains, and placarded them to tempt the +passengers. Ere long he conceived the plan of publishing a newspaper +of his own. Having bought a quantity of old type at the office of the +DETROIT FREE PRESS, he installed it in a spingless car, or 'caboose' of +the train meant for a smoking-room, but too uninviting to be much used +by the passengers. Here he set the type, and printed a smallsheet about +a foot square by pressing it with his hand. The GRAND TRUNK HERALD, +as he called it, was a weekly organ, price three cents, containing a +variety of local news, and gossip of the line. It was probably the only +journal ever published on a railway train; at all events with a boy for +editor and staff, printer and 'devil,' publisher and hawker. Mr. Robert +Stephenson, then building the tubular bridge at Montreal, was taken with +the venture, and ordered an extra edition for his own use. The London +TIMES correspondent also noticed the paper as a curiosity of journalism. +This was a foretaste of notoriety. + +Unluckily, however, the boy did not keep his scientific and literary +work apart, and the smoking-car was transformed into a laboratory as +well as a printing house. + +Having procured a copy of Fresenius' QUALITIVE ANALYSIS and some +old chemical gear; he proceeded to improve his leisure by making +experiments. One day, through an extra jolt of the car, a bottle of +phosphorus broke on the floor, and the car took fire. The incensed +conductor of the train, after boxing his ears, evicted him with all his +chattels. + +Finding an asylum in the basement of his father's house (where he +took the precaution to label all his bottles 'poison'), he began the +publication of a new and better journal, entitled the PAUL PRY. It +boasted of several contributors and a list of regular subscribers. +One of these (Mr. J.H.B.), while smarting under what he considered a +malicious libel, met the editor one day on the brink of the St. Clair, +and taking the law into his own hands, soused him in the river. The +editor avenged his insulted dignity by excluding the subscriber's name +from the pages of the PAUL PRY. + +Youthful genius is apt to prove unlucky, and another story (we hope +they are all true, though we cannot vouch for them), is told of his +partiality for riding with the engine-driver on the locomotive. After +he had gained an insight into the working of the locomotive he would run +the train himself; but on one occasion he pumped so much water into the +boiler that it was shot from the funnel, and deluged the engine with +soot. By using his eyes and haunting the machine shops he was able to +construct a model of a locomotive. + +But his employment of the telegraph seems to have diverted his thoughts +in that direction, and with the help of a book on the telegraph he +erected a makeshift line between his new laboratory and the house of +James Ward, one of his boy helpers. The conductor was run on trees, and +insulated with bottles, and the apparatus was home-made, but it seems +to have been of some use. Mr. James D. Reid, author of THE TELEGRAPH IN +AMERICA, would have us believe that an attempt was made to utilise the +electricity obtained by rubbing a cat connected up in lieu of a battery; +but the spirit of Artemus Ward is by no means dead in the United States, +and the anecdote may be taken with a grain of salt. Such an experiment +was at all events predestined to an ignominious failure. + +An act of heroism was the turning-point in his career. One day, at the +risk of his life, he saved the child of the station-master at Mount +Clemens, near Port Huron, from being run over by an approaching train, +and the grateful father, Mr. J. A. Mackenzie, learning of his interest +in the telegraph, offered to teach him the art of sending and receiving +messages. After his daily service was over, Edison returned to Mount +Clemens on a luggage train and received his lesson. + +At the end of five months, while only sixteen years of age, he forsook +the trains, and accepted an offer of twenty-five dollars a month, with +extra pay for overtime, as operator in the telegraph office at Port +Huron, a small installation in a jewelry store. He worked hard to +acquire more skill; and after six months, finding his extra pay +withheld, he obtained an engagement as night operator at Stratford, in +Canada. To keep him awake the operator was required to report the word +'six,' an office call, every half-hour to the manager of the circuit. +Edison fulfilled the regulation by inventing a simple device which +transmitted the required signals. It consisted of a wheel with the +characters cut on the rim, and connected with the circuit in such a +way that the night watchman, by turning the wheel, could transmit the +signals while Edison slept or studied. + +His employment at Stratford came to a grievous end. One night he +received a service message ordering a certain train to stop, and before +showing it to the conductor he, perhaps for greater certainty, repeated +it back again. When he rushed out of the office to deliver it the train +was gone, and a collision seemed inevitable; but, fortunately, the +opposing trains met on a straight portion of the track, and the accident +was avoided. The superintendent of the railway threatened to prosecute +Edison, who was thoroughly frightened, and returned home without his +baggage. + +During this vacation at Port Huron his ingenuity showed itself in a more +creditable guise. An 'ice-jam' occurred on the St. Clair, and broke the +telegraph cable between Port Huron and Sarnia, on the opposite +shore. Communication was therefore interrupted until Edison mounted a +locomotive and sounded the whistle in short and long calls according to +the well-known 'Morse,' or telegraphic code. After a time the reporter +at Sarnia caught the idea, and messages were exchanged by the new +system. + +His next situation was at Adrian, in Michigan, where he fitted up a +small shop, and employed his spare time in repairing telegraph apparatus +and making crude experiments. One day he violated the rules of the +office by monopolising the use of the line on the strength of having a +message from the superintendent, and was discharged. + +He was next engaged at Fort Wayne, and behaved so well that he was +promoted to a station at Indianapolis. While there he invented an +'automatic repeater,' by which a message is received on one line and +simultaneously transmitted on another without the assistance of an +operator. Like other young operators, he was ambitious to send or +receive the night reports for the press, which demand the highest speed +and accuracy of sending. But although he tried to overcome his faults by +the device of employing an auxiliary receiver working at a slower rate +than the direct one, he was found incompetent, and transferred to a day +wire at Cincinnati. Determined to excel, however, he took shift for +the night men as often as he could, and after several months, when +a delegation of Cleveland operators came to organise a branch of the +Telegraphers' Union, and the night men were out on 'strike,' he received +the press reports as well as he was able, working all the night. For +this feat his salary was raised next day from sixty-five to one hundred +and five dollars, and he was appointed to the Louisville circuit, one +of the most desirable in the office. The clerk at Louisville was Bob +Martin, one of the most expert telegraphists in America, and Edison soon +became a first-class operator. + +In 1864, tempted by a better salary, he removed to Memphis, where +he found an opportunity of introducing his automatic repeater, +thus enabling Louisville to communicate with New Orleans without an +intermediary clerk. For this innovation he was complimented; but nothing +more. He embraced the subject of duplex telegraphy, or the simultaneous +transmission of two messages on the same wire, one from each end; but +his efforts met with no encouragement. Men of routine are apt to look +with disfavour on men of originality; they do not wish to be disturbed +from the official groove; and if they are not jealous of improvement, +they have often a narrow-minded contempt or suspicion of the servant who +is given to invention, thinking him an oddity who is wasting time which +might be better employed in the usual way. A telegraph operator, in +their eyes, has no business to invent. His place is to sit at his +instrument and send or receive the messages as fast as he can, without +troubling his mind with inventions or anything else. When his shift is +over he can amuse himself as he likes, provided he is always fit for +work. Genius is not wanted. + +The clerks themselves, reckless of a culture which is not required, and +having a good string to their bow in the matter of livelihood, namely, +the mechanical art of signalling, are prone to lead a careless, gay, and +superficial life, roving from town to town throughout: the length and +breadth of the States. But for his genius and aspirations, Edison +might have yielded to the seductions of this happy-go-lucky, free, and +frivolous existence. Dissolute comrades at Memphis won upon his good +nature; but though he lent them money, he remained abstemious, working +hard, and spending his leisure upon books and experiments. To them he +appeared an extraordinary fellow; and so far from sympathising with his +inventions, they dubbed him 'Luny,' and regarded him as daft. + +What with the money he had lent, or spent on books or apparatus, when +the Memphis lines were transferred from the Government to a private +company and Edison was discharged, he found himself without a dollar. +Transported to Decatur, he walked to Nashville, where he found another +operator, William Foley, in the like straits, and they went in company +to Louisville. Foley's reputation as an operator was none of the best; +but on his recommendation Edison obtained a situation, and supported +Foley until he too got employment. + +The squalid office was infested with rats, and its discipline was lax, +in all save speed and quality of work, and some of his companions were +of a dissipated stamp. To add to his discomforts, the line he worked was +old and defective; but he improved the signals by adjusting three sets +of instruments, and utilising them for three different states of +the line. During nearly two years of drudgery under these depressing +circumstances, Edison's prospects of becoming an inventor seemed further +off than ever. Perhaps he began to fear that stern necessity would +grind him down, and keep him struggling for a livelihood. None of his +improvements had brought him any advantage. His efforts to invent had +been ridiculed and discountenanced. Nobody had recognised his talent, +at least as a thing of value and worthy of encouragement, let alone +support. All his promotion had come from trying to excel in his routine +work. Perhaps he lost faith in himself, or it may be that the glowing +accounts he received of South America induced him to seek his fortune +there. At all events he caught the 'craze' for emigration that swept +the Southern States on the conclusion of the Civil War, and resolved to +emigrate with two companions, Keen and Warren. + +But on their arriving at New Orleans the vessel had sailed. In this +predicament Edison fell in with a travelled Spaniard, who depicted the +inferiority of other countries, and especially of South America, in +such vivid colours, that he changed his intention and returned home +to Michigan. After a pleasant holiday with his friends he resumed his +occupation in the Louisville office. + +Contact with home seems to have charged him with fresh courage. He wrote +a work on electricity, which for lack of means was never published, and +improved his penmanship until he could write a fair round backhand at +the rate of forty-five words a minute--that is to say, the utmost that +an operator can send by the Morse code. The style was chosen for its +clearness, each letter being distinctly formed, with little or no +shading. + +His comrades were no better than before. On returning from his work in +the small hours, Edison would sometimes find two or three of them asleep +in his bed with their boots on, and have to shift them to the floor in +order that he might 'turn in.' + +A new office was opened, but strict orders were issued that nobody was +to interfere with the instruments and their connections. He could +not resist the infringement of this rule, however, and continued his +experiments. + +In drawing some vitriol one night, he upset the carboy, and the acid +eating its way through the floor, played havoc with the furniture of a +luxurious bank in the flat below. He was discharged for this, but soon +obtained another engagement as a press operator in Cincinnati. He spent +his leisure in the Mechanics' Library, studying works on electricity and +general science. He also developed his ideas on the duplex system; +and if they were not carried out, they at least directed him to the +quadruplex system with which his name was afterwards associated. + +These attempts to improve his time seem to have made him unpopular, for +after a short term in Cincinnati, he returned to Port Huron. A friend, +Mr. F. Adams, operator in the Boston office of the Western Union +Telegraph Company, recommended Edison to his manager, Mr. G. F. +Milliken, as a good man to work the New York wire, and the berth was +offered to Edison by telegraph. He accepted, and left at once for Boston +by the Grand Trunk Railway, but the train was snowed up for two days +near the bluffs of the St. Lawrence. The consequence might have been +serious had provisions not been found by a party of foragers. + +Mr. Milliken was the first of Edison's masters, and perhaps his fellows, +who appreciated him. Mediocrity had only seen the gawky stripling, with +his moonstruck air, and pestilent habit of trying some new crotchet. +Himself an inventor, Milliken recognised in his deep-set eye and musing +brow the fire of a suppressed genius. He was then just twenty-one. The +friendship of Mr. Milliken, and the opportunity for experiment, rendered +the Boston office a congenial one. + +His by-hours were spent in a little workshop he had opened. Among his +inventions at this period were a dial telegraph, and a 'printer' for +use on private lines, and an electro-chemical vote recorder, which the +Legislature of Massachusetts declined to adopt. With the assistance of +Mr. F. L. Pope, patent adviser to the Western Union Telegraph Company, +his duplex system was tried, with encouraging results. + +The ready ingenuity of Edison is shown by his device for killing the +cockroaches which overran the Boston office. He arranged some strips of +tinfoil on the wall, and connected these to the poles of a battery +in such a way that when the insects ran towards the bait which he had +provided, they stepped from one foil to the other, and completed the +circuit of the current, thus receiving a smart shock, which dislodged +them into a pail of water, standing below. + +In 1870, after two years in Boston, where he had spent all his earnings, +chiefly on his books and workshop, he found himself in New York, +tramping the streets on the outlook for a job, and all but destitute. +After repeated failures he chanced to enter the office of the Laws Gold +Reporting Telegraph Company while the instrument which Mr. Laws had +invented to report the fluctuations of the money market had broken down. +No one could set it right; there was a fever in the market, and Mr. +Laws, we are told, was in despair. Edison volunteered to set it right, +and though his appearance was unpromising, he was allowed to try. + +The insight of the born mechanic, the sleight of hand which marks the +true experimenter, have in them something magical to the ignorant. In +Edison's hands the instrument seemed to rectify itself. This was his +golden opportunity. He was engaged by the company, and henceforth his +career as an inventor was secure. The Gold Indicator Company afterwards +gave him a responsible position. He improved their indicator, and +invented the Gold and Stock Quotation Printer, an apparatus for a +similar purpose. He entered into partnership with Mr. Pope and Mr. +Ashley, and introduced the Pope and Edison Printer. A private line which +he established was taken over by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, +and soon their system was worked almost exclusively with Edison's +invention. + +He was retained in their service, and that of the Western Union +Telegraph Company, as a salaried inventor, they having the option of +buying all his telegraphic inventions at a price to be agreed upon. + +At their expense a large electrical factory was established under his +direction at Newark, New Jersey, where he was free to work out his +ideas and manufacture his apparatus. Now that he was emancipated from +drudgery, and fairly started on the walk which Nature had intended for +him, he rejoiced in the prolific freedom of his mind, which literally +teemed with projects. His brain was no longer a prey to itself from +the 'local action,' or waste energy of restrained ideas and revolving +thoughts. [The term 'local action' is applied by electricians to the +waste which goes on in a voltaic battery, although its current is not +flowing in the outer circuit and doing useful work.] If anything, he +attempted too much. Patents were taken out by the score, and at one time +there were no less than forty-five distinct inventions in progress. The +Commissioner of Patents described him as 'the young man who kept the +path to the Patent Office hot with his footsteps.' + +His capacity for labouring without rest is very remarkable. On one +occasion, after improving his Gold and Stock Quotation Printer, an order +for the new instruments, to the extent of 30,000 dollars, arrived at the +factory. The model had acted well, but the first instruments made after +it proved a failure. Edison thereupon retired to the upper floor of the +factory with some of his best workmen, and intimated that they must +all remain there until the defect was put right. After sixty hours of +continuous toil, the fault was remedied, and Edison went to bed, where +he slept for thirty-six hours. + +Mr. Johnson, one of his assistants, informs us that for ten years he +worked on an average eighteen hours a day, and that he has been known +to continue an experiment for three months day and night, with the +exception of a nap from six o'clock to nine of the morning. In the +throes of invention, and under the inspiration of his ideas, he is apt +to make no distinction between day and night, until he arrives at a +result which he considers to be satisfactory one way or the other. His +meals are brought to him in the laboratory, and hastily eaten, although +his dwelling is quite near. Long watchfulness and labour seem to +heighten the activity of his mind, which under its 'second wind,' so +to speak, becomes preternaturally keen and suggestive. He likes best +to work at night in the silence and solitude of his laboratory when the +noise of the benches or the rumble of the engines is stilled, and all +the world about him is asleep. + +Fortunately, he can work without stimulants, and, when the strain is +over, rest without narcotics; otherwise his exhausted constitution, +sound as it is, would probably break down. Still, he appears to be +ageing before his time, and some of his assistants, not so well endowed +with vitality, have, we believe, overtaxed their strength in trying to +keep up with him. + +At this period he devised his electric pen, an ingenious device for +making copies of a document. It consists essentially of a needle, +rapidly jogged up and down by means of an electro-magnet actuated by +an intermittent current of electricity. The writing is traced with the +needle, which perforates another sheet of paper underneath, thus forming +a stencil-plate, which when placed on a clean paper, and evenly inked +with a rolling brush, reproduces the original writing. + +In 1873 Edison was married to Miss Mary Stillwell, of Newark, one of his +employees. His eldest child, Mary Estelle, was playfully surnamed 'Dot,' +and his second, Thomas Alva, jun., 'Dash,' after the signals of the +Morse code. Mrs. Edison died several years ago. + +While seeking to improve the method of duplex working introduced by +Mr. Steams, Edison invented the quadruplex, by which four messages are +simultaneously sent through one wire, two from each end. Brought out +in association with Mr. Prescott, it was adopted by the Western Union +Telegraph Company, and, later, by the British Post Office. The President +of the Western Union reported that it had saved the Company 500,000 +dollars a year in the construction of new lines. Edison also improved +the Bain chemical telegraph, until it attained an incredible speed. Bain +had left it capable of recording 200 words a minute; but Edison, by dint +of searching a pile of books ordered from New York, Paris, and London, +making copious notes, and trying innumerable experiments, while eating +at his desk and sleeping in his chair, ultimately prepared a solution +which enabled it to register over 1000 words a minute. It was exhibited +at the Philadelphia Centenial Exhibition in 1876, where it astonished +Sir William Thomson. + +In 1876, Edison sold his factory at Newark, and retired to Menlo Park, a +sequestered spot near Metuchin, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and about +twenty-four miles from New York. Here on some rising ground he built a +wooden tenement, two stories high, and furnished it as a workshop and +laboratory. His own residence and the cottages of his servants completed +the little colony. + +The basement of the main building was occupied by his office, a choice +library, a cabinet replete with instruments of precision, and a large +airy workshop, provided with lathes and steam power, where his workmen +shaped his ideas into wood and metal. + +The books lying about, the designs and placards on the walls, the +draught-board on the table, gave it the appearance of a mechanics' +club-room. The free and lightsome behaviour of the men, the humming at +the benches, recalled some school of handicraft. There were no rigid +hours, no grinding toil under the jealous eye of the overseer. The +spirit of competition and commercial rivalry was absent. It was not +a question of wringing as much work as possible out of the men in the +shortest time and at the lowest price. Moreover, they were not mere +mechanical drudges--they were interested in their jobs, which demanded +thought as well as skill. + +Upstairs was the laboratory proper--a long room containing an array of +chemicals; for Edison likes to have a sample of every kind, in case it +might suddenly be requisite. On the tables and in the cupboards were +lying all manner of telegraphic apparatus, lenses, crucibles, and pieces +of his own inventions. A perfect tangle of telegraph wires coming +from all parts of the Union were focussed at one end of the room. An +ash-covered forge, a cabinet organ, a rusty stove with an old pivot +chair, a bench well stained with oils and acids, completed the equipment +of this curious den, into which the sunlight filtered through the +chemical jars and fell in coloured patches along the dusty floor. + +The moving spirit of this haunt by day and night is well described as an +overgrown school-boy. He is a man of a slim, but wiry figure, about +five feet ten inches in height. His face at this period was juvenile and +beardless. The nose and chin were shapely and prominent, the mouth firm, +the forehead wide and full above, but not very high. It was shaded +by dark chestnut hair, just silvered with grey. His most remarkable +features were his eyes, which are blue-grey and deeply set, with an +intense and piercing expression. When his attention was not aroused, he +seemed to retire into himself, as though his mind had drifted far away, +and came back slowly to the present. He was pale with nightwork, and his +thoughtful eyes had an old look in serious moments. But his smile was +boyish and pleasant, and his manner a trifle shy. + +There was nothing of the dandy about Edison, He boasted no jewelled +fingers or superfine raiment. An easy coat soiled with chemicals, a +battered wide-awake, and boots guiltless of polish, were good enough +for this inspired workman. An old silver watch, sophisticated with +magnetism, and keeping an eccentric time peculiar to it, was his only +ornament. On social occasions, of course, he adopted a more +conventional costume. Visitors to the laboratory often found him in his +shirt-sleeves, with dishevelled hair and grimy hands. + +The writer of 'A Night with Edison' has described him as bending like +a wizard over the smoky fumes of some lurid lamps arranged on a brick +furnace, as if he were summoning the powers of darkness. + +'It is much after midnight now,' says this author. 'The machinery below +has ceased to rumble, and the tired hands have gone to their homes. +A hasty lunch has been sent up. We are at the thermoscope. Suddenly a +telegraph instrument begins to click. The inventor strikes a grotesque +attitude, a herring in one hand and a biscuit in the other, and with +a voice a little muffled with a mouthful of both, translates aloud, +slowly, the sound intelligible to him alone: "London.--News of death +of Lord John Russell premature." "John Blanchard, whose failure was +announced yesterday, has suicided (no, that was a bad one) SUCCEEDED! in +adjusting his affairs, and will continue in business."' + +His tastes are simple and his habits are plain. On one occasion, when +invited to a dinner at Delmonico's restaurant, he contented himself +with a slice of pie and a cup of tea. Another time he is said to have +declined a public dinner with the remark that 100,000 dollars would +not tempt him to sit through two hours of 'personal glorification.' He +dislikes notoriety, thinking that a man is to be 'measured by what he +does, not by what is said about him.' But he likes to talk about his +inventions and show them to visitors at Menlo Park. In disposition he +is sociable, affectionate, and generous, giving himself no airs, and +treating all alike. His humour is native, and peculiar to himself, so +there is some excuse for the newspaper reporters who take his jokes +about the capabilities of Nature AU SERIEUX; and publish them for +gospel. + +His assistants are selected for their skill and physical endurance. The +chief at Menlo Park was Mr. Charles Batchelor, a Scotchman, who had +a certain interest in the inventions, but the others, including +mathematicians, chemists, electricians, secretary, bookkeeper, and +mechanics, were paid a salary. They were devoted to Edison, who, though +he worked them hard at times, was an indulgent master, and sometimes +joined them in a general holiday. All of them spoke in the highest terms +of the inventor and the man. + +The Menlo establishment was unique in the world. It was founded for the +sole purpose of applying the properties of matter to the production +of new inventions. For love of science or the hope of gain, men had +experimented before, and worked out their inventions in the laboratories +of colleges and manufactories. But Edison seems to have been the first +to organise a staff of trained assistants to hunt up useful facts in +books, old and modern, and discover fresh ones by experiment, in order +to develop his ideas or suggest new ones, together with skilled workmen +to embody them in the fittest manner; and all with the avowed object of +taking out patents, and introducing the novel apparatus as a commercial +speculation. He did not manufacture his machines for sale; he simply +created the models, and left their multiplication to other people. There +are different ways of looking at Nature: + + 'To some she is the goddess great; + To some the milch-cow of the field; + Their business is to calculate + The butter she will yield.' + +The institution has proved a remarkable success. From it has emanated +a series of marvellous inventions which have carried the name of Edison +throughout the whole civilised world. Expense was disregarded in making +the laboratory as efficient as possible; the very best equipment was +provided, the ablest assistants employed, and the profit has been +immense. Edison is a millionaire; the royalties from his patents alone +are said to equal the salary of a Prime Minister. + +Although Edison was the master spirit of the band, it must not be +forgotten that his assistants were sometimes co-inventors with himself. +No doubt he often supplied the germinal ideas, while his assistants only +carried them out. But occasionally the suggestion was nothing more than +this: 'I want something that will do so-and-so. I believe it will be +a good thing, and can be done.' The assistant was on his mettle, +and either failed or triumphed. The results of the experiments and +researches were all chronicled in a book, for the new facts, if not then +required, might become serviceable at a future time. If a rare material +was wanted, it was procured at any cost. + +With such facilities, an invention is rapidly matured. Sometimes the +idea was conceived in the morning, and a working model was constructed +by the evening. One day, we are told, a discovery was made at 4 P.M., +and Edison telegraphed it to his patent agent, who immediately drew up +the specification, and at nine o'clock next morning cabled it to London. +Before the inventor was out of bed, he received an intimation that +his patent had been already deposited in the British Patent Office. Of +course, the difference of time was in his favour. + +When Edison arrived at the laboratory in the morning, he read his +letters, and then overlooked his employees, witnessing their results and +offering his suggestions; but it often happened that he became totally +engrossed with one experiment or invention. His work was frequently +interrupted by curious visitors, who wished to see the laboratory and +the man. Although he had chosen that out-of-the-way place to avoid +disturbance, they were never denied: and he often took a pleasure in +showing his models, or explaining the work on which he was engaged. +There was no affectation of mystery, no attempt at keeping his +experiments a secret. Even the laboratory notes were open to inspection. +Menlo Park became a kind of Mecca to the scientific pilgrim; the +newspapers and magazines despatched reporters to the scene; excursion +parties came by rail, and country farmers in their buggies; till at last +an enterprising Yankee even opened a refreshment room. + +The first of Edison's greater inventions in Menlo Park was the +'loud-speaking telephone.' Professor Graham Bell had introduced his +magneto-electric telephone, but its effect was feeble. It is, we +believe, a maxim in biology that a similarity between the extremities +of a creature is an infallible sign of its inferiority, and that in +proportion as it rises in the scale of being, its head is found to +differ from its tail. Now, in the Bell apparatus, the transmitter and +the receiver were alike, and hence Clerk Maxwell hinted that it would +never be good for much until they became differentiated from each other. +Consciously or unconsciously Edison accomplished the feat. With the +hardihood of genius, he attempted to devise a telephone which would +speak out loud enough to be heard in any corner of a large hall. + +In the telephone of Bell, the voice of the speaker is the motive power +which generates the current in the line. The vibrations of the sound may +be said to transform themselves into electrical undulations. Hence the +current is very weak, and the reproduction of the voice is relatively +faint. Edison adopted the principle of making the vibrations of the +voice control the intensity of a current which was independently +supplied to the line by a voltaic battery. The plan of Bell, in short, +may be compared to a man who employs his strength to pump a quantity +of water into a pipe, and that of Edison to one who uses his to open a +sluice, through which a stream of water flows from a capacious dam into +the pipe. Edison was acquainted with two experimental facts on which to +base the invention. + +In 1873, or thereabout, he claimed to have observed, while constructing +rheostats, or electrical resistances for making an artificial telegraph +line, that powdered plumbago and carbon has the property of varying in +its resistance to the passage of the current when under pressure. The +variation seemed in a manner proportional to the pressure. As a matter +of fact, powdered carbon and plumbago had been used in making small +adjustable rheostats by M. Clerac, in France, and probably also in +Germany, as early as 1865 or 1866. Clerac's device consisted of a small +wooden tube containing the material, and fitted with contacts for the +current, which appear to have adjusted the pressure. Moreover, the +Count Du Moncel, as far back as 1856, had clearly discovered that when +powdered carbon was subjected to pressure, its electrical resistance +altered, and had made a number of experiments on the phenomenon. Edison +may have independently observed the fact, but it is certain he was not +the first, and his claim to priority has fallen to the ground. + +Still he deserves the full credit of utilising it in ways which were +highly ingenious and bold. The 'pressure-relay,' produced in 1877, was +the first relay in which the strength of the local current working +the local telegraph instrument was caused to vary in proportion to +the variation; of the current in the main line. It consisted of an +electro-magnet with double poles and an armature which pressed upon a +disc or discs of plumbago, through which the local current Passed. The +electro-magnet was excited by the main line current and the armature +attracted to its poles at every signal, thus pressing on the plumbago, +and by reducing its resistance varying the current in the local circuit. +According as the main line current was strong or weak, the pressure +on the plumbago was more or less, and the current in the local circuit +strong or weak. Hence the signals of the local receiver were in +accordance with the currents in the main line. + +Edison found that the same property might be applied to regulate the +strength of a current in conformity with the vibrations of the +voice, and after a great number of experiments produced his 'carbon +transmitter.' Plumbago in powder, in sticks, or rubbed on fibres and +sheets of silk, were tried as the sensitive material, but finally +abandoned in favour of a small cake or wafer of compressed lamp-black, +obtained from the smoke of burning oil, such as benzolene or rigolene. +This was the celebrated 'carbon button,' which on being placed between +two platinum discs by way of contact, and traversed by the electric +current, was found to vary in resistance under the pressure of the sound +waves. The voice was concentrated upon it by means of a mouthpiece and a +diaphragm. + +The property on which the receiver was based had been observed and +applied by him some time before. When a current is passed from a +metal contact through certain chemical salts, a lubricating effect was +noticeable. Thus if a metal stylus were rubbed or drawn over a prepared +surface, the point of the stylus was found to slip or 'skid' every time +a current passed between them, as though it had been oiled. If your pen +were the stylus, and the paper on which you write the surface, each +wave of electricity passing from the nib to the paper would make the +pen start, and jerk your fingers with it. He applied the property to the +recording of telegraph signals without the help of an electro-magnet, +by causing the currents to alter the friction between the two rubbing +surfaces, and so actuate a marker, which registered the message as in +the Morse system. + +This instrument was called the 'electromotograph,' and it occurred to +Edison that in a similar way the undulatory currents from his carbon +transmitter might, by varying the friction between a metal stylus and +the prepared surface, put a tympanum in vibration, and reproduce the +original sounds. Wonderful as it may appear, he succeeded in doing so +by the aid of a piece of chalk, a brass pin, and a thin sheet or disc +of mica. He attached the pin or stylus to the centre of the mica, and +brought its point to bear on a cylindrical surface of prepared chalk. +The undulatory current from the line was passed through the stylus and +the chalk, while the latter was moved by turning a handle; and at every +pulse of the electricity the friction between the pin and chalk was +diminished, so that the stylus slipped upon its surface. The consequence +was a vibration of the mica diaphragm to which the stylus was attached. +Thus the undulatory current was able to establish vibrations of the +disc, which communicated themselves to the air and reproduced the +original sounds. The replica was loud enough to be heard by a large +audience, and by reducing the strength of the current it could be +lowered to a feeble murmur. The combined transmitter and receiver took +the form of a small case with a mouthpiece to speak into, an car-piece +on a hinged bracket for listening to it, press-keys for manipulating the +call-bell and battery, and a small handle by which to revolve the +little chalk cylinder. This last feature was a practical drawback to the +system, which was patented in 1877. + +The Edison telephone, when at its best, could transmit all kinds of +noises, gentle or harsh; it could lift up its voice and cry aloud, or +sink it to a confidential whisper. There was a slight Punchinellian +twang about its utterances, which, if it did not altogether disguise the +individuality of the distant speaker, gave it the comicality of a clever +parody, and to hear it singing a song, and quavering jauntily on the +high notes, was irresistibly funny. Instrumental notes were given in all +their purity, and, after the phonograph, there was nothing more magical +in the whole range of science than to hear that fragment of common chalk +distilling to the air the liquid melody of sweet bells jingling in tune. +It brought to mind that wonderful stone of Memnon, which responded +to the rays of sunrise. It seemed to the listener that if the age of +miracles was past that of marvels had arrived, and considering the +simplicity of the materials, and the obscurity of its action, the +loud-speaking telephone was one of the most astonishing of recent +inventions. + +After Professor Hughes had published his discovery of the microphone, +Edison, recognising, perhaps, that it and the carbon transmitter were +based on the same principle, and having learnt his knowledge of the +world in the hard school of adversity, hastily claimed the microphone as +a variety of his invention, but imprudently charged Professor Hughes and +his friend, Mr. W. H. Preece, who had visited Edison at Menlo Park, with +having 'stolen his thunder.' The imputation was indignantly denied, and +it was obvious to all impartial electricians that Professor Hughes +had arrived at his results by a path quite independent of the carbon +transmitter, and discovered a great deal more than Edison had done. For +one thing, Edison believed the action of his transmitter as due to a +property of certain poor or 'semi-conductors,' whereby their electric +resistance varied under pressure. Hughes taught us to understand that +it was owing to a property of loose electrical contact between any two +conductors. + +The soft and springy button of lamp-black became no longer necessary, +since it was not so much the resistance of the material which varied as +the resistance at the contacts of its parts and the platinum electrodes. +Two metals, or two pieces of hard carbon, or a piece of metal and a +piece of hard carbon, were found to regulate the current in accordance +with the vibrations of the voice. Edison therefore discarded the soft +and fragile button, replacing it by contacts of hard carbon and +metal, in short, by a form of microphone. The carbon, or microphone +transmitter, was found superior to the magneto-electric transmitter of +Bell; but the latter was preferable as a receiver to the louder but +less convenient chemical receiver of Edison, and the most successful +telephonic system of the day is a combination of the microphone, or new +carbon transmitter, with the Bell receiver. + +The 'micro-tasimeter,' a delicate thermoscope, was constructed in 1878, +and is the outcome of Edison's experiments with the carbon button. +Knowing the latter to be extremely sensitive to minute changes of +pressure, for example, those of sonorous vibrations, he conceived the +idea of measuring radiant heat by causing it to elongate a thin bar +or strip of metal or vulcanite, bearing at one end on the button. To +indicate the effect, he included a galvanometer in the circuit of the +battery and the button. The apparatus consisted of a telephone button +placed between two discs of platinum and connected in circuit with the +battery and a sensitive galvanometer. The strip was supported so that +one end bore upon the button with a pressure which could be regulated by +an adjustable screw at the other. The strip expanded or contracted when +exposed to heat or cold, and thrust itself upon the button more or less, +thereby varying the electric current and deflecting the needle of +the galvanometer to one side or the other. The instrument was said to +indicate a change of temperature equivalent to one-millionth of a degree +Fahrenheit. It was tested by Edison on the sun's corona during the +eclipse observations of July 29, 1875, at Rawlings, in the territory of +Wyoming. The trial was not satisfactory, however, for the apparatus was +mounted on a hen-house, which trembled to the gale, and before he could +get it properly adjusted the eclipse was over. + +It is reported that on another trial the light from the star Arcturus, +when focussed on the vulcanite, was capable of deflecting the needle +of the galvanometer. When gelatine is substituted for vulcanite, the +humidity of the atmosphere can also be measured in the same way. + +Edison's crowning discovery at Menlo Park was the celebrated +'phonograph,' or talking machine. It was first announced by one of +his assistants in the pages of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN for 1878. The +startling news created a general feeling of astonishment, mingled with +incredulity or faith. People had indeed heard of the talking heads of +antiquity, and seen the articulating machines of De Kempelen and Faber, +with their artificial vocal organs and complicated levers, manipulated +by an operator. But the phonograph was automatic, and returned the +words which had been spoken into it by a purely mechanical mimicry. It +captured and imprisoned the sounds as the photograph retained the images +of light. The colours of Nature were lost in the photograph, but the +phonograph was said to preserve the qualities even of the human voice. +Yet this wonderful appliance had neither tongue nor teeth, larynx nor +pharynx. It appeared as simple as a coffee-mill. A vibrating diaphragm +to collect the sounds, and a stylus to impress them on a sheet of +tinfoil, were its essential parts. Looking on the record of the sound, +one could see only the scoring of the stylus on the yielding surface of +the metal, like the track of an Alpine traveller across the virgin snow. +These puzzling scratches were the foot-prints of the voice. + +Speech is the most perfect utterance of man; but its powers are limited +both in time and space. The sounds of the voice are fleeting, and do not +carry far; hence the invention of letters to record them, and of signals +to extend their range. These twin lines of invention, continued through +the ages, have in our own day reached their consummation. The smoke +of the savage, the semaphore, and the telegraph have ended in the +telephone, by which the actual voice can speak to a distance; and now +at length the clay tablet of the Assyrian, the wax of the ancient +Greek, the papyrus of the Egyptian, and the modern printing-press have +culminated in the phonograph, by which the living words can be preserved +into the future. In the light of a new discovery, we are apt to wonder +why our fathers were so blind as not to see it. When a new invention +has been made, we ask ourselves, Why was it not thought of before? The +discovery seems obvious, and the invention simple, after we know them. +Now that speech itself can be sent a thousand miles away, or heard a +thousand years after, we discern in these achievements two goals toward +which we have been making, and at which we should arrive some day. We +marvel that we had no prescience of these, and that we did not attain +to them sooner. Why has it taken so many generations to reach a foregone +conclusion? Alas! they neither knew the conclusion nor the means of +attaining to it. Man works from ignorance towards greater knowledge with +very limited powers. His little circle of light is surrounded by a wall +of darkness, which he strives to penetrate and lighten, now groping +blindly on its verge, now advancing his taper light and peering forward; +yet unable to go far, and even afraid to venture, in case he should be +lost. + +To the Infinite Intelligence which knows all that is hidden in that +darkness, and all that man will discover therein, how poor a thing +is the telephone or phonograph, how insignificant are all his 'great +discoveries'! This thought should imbue a man of science with humility +rather than with pride. Seen from another standpoint than his own, from +without the circle of his labours, not from within, in looking back, not +forward, even his most remarkable discovery is but the testimony of his +own littleness. The veil of darkness only serves to keep these little +powers at work. Men have sometimes a foreshadowing of what will come to +pass without distinctly seeing it. In mechanical affairs, the notion of +a telegraph is very old, and probably immemorial. Centuries ago the poet +and philosopher entertained the idea of two persons far apart being able +to correspond through the sympathetic property of the lodestone. The +string or lovers' telephone was known to the Chinese, and even the +electric telephone was thought about some years before it was invented. +Bourseul, Reis, and others preceded Graham Bell. + +The phonograph was more of a surprise; but still it was no exception to +the rule. Naturally, men and women had desired to preserve the accents +as well as the lineaments of some beloved friend who had passed away. +The Chinese have a legend of a mother whose voice was so beautiful that +her children tried to store it in a bamboo cane, which was carefully +sealed up. Long after she was dead the cane was opened, and her voice +came out in all its sweetness, but was never heard again. A similar +idea (which reminds us of Munchausen's trumpet) is found in the NATURAL +MAGICK of John Baptista Porta, the celebrated Neapolitan philosopher, +and published at London in 1658. He proposes to confine the sound of +the voice in leaden pipes, such as are used for speaking through; and he +goes on to say that 'if any man, as the words are spoken, shall stop the +end of the pipe, and he that is at the other end shall do the like, the +voice may be intercepted in the middle, and be shut up as in a prison, +and when the mouth is opened, the voice will come forth as out of his +mouth that spake it.... I am now upon trial of it. If before my book +be printed the business take effect, I will set it down; if not, if +God please, I shall write of it elsewhere.' Porta also refers to the +speaking head of Albertus Magnus, whom, however, he discredits. He +likewise mentions a colossal trumpeter of brass, stated to have been +erected in some ancient cities, and describes a plan for making a kind +of megaphone, 'wherewith we may hear many miles.' + +In the VOYAGE A LA LUNE of De Cyrano Bergerac, published at Paris in +1650, and subsequently translated into English, there is a long account +of a 'mechanical book' which spoke its contents to the listener. 'It was +a book, indeed,' says Cyrano, 'but a strange and wonderful book, which +had neither leaves nor letters,' and which instructed the Youth in their +walks, so that they knew more than the Greybeards of Cyrano's country, +and need never lack the company of all the great men living or dead to +entertain them with living voices. Sir David Brewster surmised that a +talking machine mould be invented before the end of the century. Mary +Somerville, in her CONNECTION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, wrote some +fifty years ago: 'It may be presumed that ultimately the utterances or +pronunciation of modern languages will be conveyed, not only to the eye, +but also to the ear of posterity. Had the ancients possessed the means +of transmitting such definite sounds, the civilised world must have +responded in sympathetic notes at the distance of many ages.' In the +MEMOIRES DU GEANT of M. Nadar, published in 1864, the author says: +'These last fifteen years I have amused myself in thinking there is +nothing to prevent a man one of these days from finding a way to give us +a daguerreotype of sound--the phonograph--something like a box in +which melodies will be fixed and kept, as images are fixed in the dark +chamber.' It is also on record that, before Edison had published his +discovery to the world, M. Charles Cros deposited a sealed packet at the +Academie des Sciences, Paris, giving an account of an invention similar +to the phonograph. + +Ignorance of the true nature of sound had prevented the introduction of +such an instrument. But modern science, and in particular the invention +of the telephone with its vibrating plate, had paved the way for it. The +time was ripe, and Edison was the first to do it. + +In spite of the unbridled fancies of the poets and the hints of +ingenious writers, the announcement that a means of hoarding speech had +been devised burst like a thunderclap upon the world. + +[In seeing his mother's picture Byron wished that he might hear her +voice. Tennyson exclaims, 'Oh for the touch of a vanished hand, and the +sound of a voice that is still!' Shelley, in the WITCH OF ATLAS, wrote: + + 'The deep recesses of her odorous dwelling + Were stored with magic treasures--sounds of air, + Which had the power all spirits of compelling, + Folded in cells of crystal silence there; + Such as we hear in youth, and think the feeling + Will never die--yet ere we are aware, + The feeling and the sound are fled and gone, + And the regret they leave remains alone.' + Again, in his SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE, we find: + 'The fire of those soft orbs has ceased to burn, + And silence too enamoured of that voice + Locks its mute music in her rugged cell,'] + +The phonograph lay under the very eyes of Science, and yet she did not +see it. The logograph had traced all the curves of speech with ink on +paper; and it only remained to impress them on a solid surface in such a +manner as to regulate the vibrations of an artificial tympanum or +drum. Yet no professor of acoustics thought of this, and it was left +to Edison, a telegraphic inventor, to show them what was lying at their +feet. + +Mere knowledge, uncombined in the imagination, does not bear fruit in +new inventions. It is from the union of different facts that a new +idea springs. A scholar is apt to be content with the acquisition of +knowledge, which remains passive in his mind. An inventor seizes upon +fresh facts, and combines them with the old, which thereby become +nascent. Through accident or premeditation he is able by uniting +scattered thoughts to add a novel instrument to a domain of science with +which he has little acquaintance. Nay, the lessons of experience and the +scruples of intimate knowledge sometimes deter a master from attempting +what the tyro, with the audacity of genius and the hardihood of +ignorance, achieves. Theorists have been known to pronounce against a +promising invention which has afterwards been carried to success, and it +is not improbable that if Edison had been an authority in acoustics +he would never have invented the phonograph. It happened in this wise. +During the spring of 1877, he was trying a device for making a telegraph +message, received on one line, automatically repeat itself along another +line. This he did by embossing the Morse signals on the travelling paper +instead of merely inking them, and then causing the paper to pass under +the point of a stylus, which, by rising and falling in the indentations, +opened and closed a sending key included in the circuit of the second +line. In this way the received message transmitted itself further, +without the aid of a telegraphist. Edison was running the cylinder which +carried the embossed paper at a high speed one day, partly, as we are +told, for amusement, and partly to test the rate at which a clerk could +read a message. As the speed was raised, the paper gave out a humming +rhythmic sound in passing under the stylus. The separate signals of the +message could no longer be distinguished by the ear, and the instrument +seemed to be speaking in a language of its own, resembling 'human talk +heard indistinctly.' Immediately it flashed on the inventor that if +he could emboss the waves of speech upon the paper the words would be +returned to him. To conceive was to execute, and it was but the work +of an hour to provide a vibrating diaphragm or tympanum fitted with an +indenting stylus, and adapt it to the apparatus. Paraffined paper was +selected to receive the indentations, and substituted for the Morse +paper on the cylinder of the machine. On speaking to the tympanum, as +the cylinder was revolved, a record of the vibrations was indented on +the paper, and by re-passing this under the indenting point an imperfect +reproduction of the sounds was heard. Edison 'saw at once that the +problem of registering human speech, so that it could be repeated by +mechanical means as often as might he desired, was solved.' [T. A. +Edison, NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, June, 1888; New York ELECTRICAL REVIEW, +1888,] + +The experiment shows that it was partly by accident, and not by +reasoning on theoretical knowledge, that the phonograph was discovered. +The sound resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly' seems to have +suggested it to his mind. This was the germ which fell upon the soil +prepared for it. Edison's thoughts had been dwelling on the telephone; +he knew that a metal tympanum was capable of vibrating with all the +delicacies of speech, and it occurred to him that if these vibrations +could be impressed on a yielding material, as the Morse signals were +embossed upon the paper, the indentations would reproduce the speech, +just as the furrows of the paper reproduced the Morse signals. The +tympanum vibrating in the curves of speech was instantly united in +his imagination with the embossing stylus and the long and short +indentations on the Morse paper; the idea of the phonograph flashed upon +him. Many a one versed in acoustics would probably have been restrained +by the practical difficulty of impressing the vibrations on a yielding +material, and making them react upon the reproducing tympanum. But +Edison, with that daring mastery over matter which is a characteristic +of his mechanical genius, put it confidently to the test. + +Soon after this experiment, a phonograph was constructed, in which a +sheet of tinfoil was wrapped round a revolving barrel having a spiral +groove cut in its surface to allow the point of the indenting stylus +to sink into the yielding foil as it was thrust up and down by the +vibrating tympanum. This apparatus--the first phonograph--was published +to the world in 1878, and created a universal sensation. [SCIENTIFIC +AMERICAN, March 30, 1878] It is now in the South Kensington Museum, to +which it was presented by the inventor. + +The phonograph was first publicly exhibited in England at a meeting of +the Society of Telegraph Engineers, where its performances filled the +audience with astonishment and delight. A greeting from Edison to +his electrical brethren across the Atlantic had been impressed on the +tinfoil, and was spoken by the machine. Needless to say, the voice of +the inventor, however imperfectly reproduced, was hailed with great +enthusiasm, which those who witnessed will long remember. In this +machine, the barrel was fitted with a crank, and rotated by handle. A +heavy flywheel was attached to give it uniformity of motion. A sheet of +tinfoil formed the record, and the delivery could be heard by a roomful +of people. But articulation was sacrificed at the expense of loudness. +It was as though a parrot or a punchinello spoke, and sentences which +were unexpected could not be understood. Clearly, if the phonograph +were to become a practical instrument, it required to be much improved. +Nevertheless this apparatus sufficiently demonstrated the feasibility of +storing up and reproducing speech, music, and other sounds. Numbers of +them were made, and exhibited to admiring audiences, by license, and +never failed to elicit both amusement and applause. To show how striking +were its effects, and how surprising, even to scientific men, it may be +mentioned that a certain learned SAVANT, on hearing it at a SEANCE of +the Academie des Sciences, Paris, protested that it was a fraud, a piece +of trickery or ventriloquism, and would not be convinced. + +After 1878 Edison became too much engaged with the development of the +electric light to give much attention to the phonograph, which, however, +was not entirely overlooked. His laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, +where the original experiments were made, was turned into a factory for +making electric light machinery, and Edison removed to New York until +his new laboratory at Orange, New Jersey, was completed. Of late he has +occupied the latter premises, and improved the phonograph so far that it +is now a serviceable instrument. In one of his 1878 patents, the use +of wax to take the records in place of tinfoil is indicated, and it +is chiefly to the adoption of this material that the success of the +'perfected phonograph' is due. Wax is also employed in the 'graphophone' +of Mr. Tainter and Professor Bell, which is merely a phonograph under +another name. Numerous experiments have been made by Edison to find +the bees-wax which is best adapted to receive the record, and he has +recently discovered a new material or mixture which is stated to yield +better results than white wax. + +The wax is moulded into the form of a tube or hollow cylinder, usually 4 +1/4 inches long by 2 inches in diameter, and 1/8 inch thick. Such a size +is capable of taking a thousand words on its surface along a delicate +spiral trace; and by paring off one record after another can be used +fifteen times. There are a hundred or more lines of the trace in the +width of an inch, and they are hardly visible to the naked eye. Only +with a magnifying glass can the undulations caused by the vibrating +stylus be distinguished. This tube of wax is filed upon a metal barrel +like a sleeve, and the barrel, which forms part of a horizontal spindle, +is rotated by means of a silent electro-motor, controlled by a very +sensitive governor. A motion of translation is also given to the barrel +as it revolves, so that the marking stylus held over it describes +a spiral path upon its surface. In front of the wax two small metal +tympanums are supported, each carrying a fine needle point or stylus on +its under centre. One of these is the recording diaphragm, which prints +the sounds in the first place; the other is the reproducing diaphragm, +which emits the sounds recorded on the wax. They are used, one at a +time, as the machine is required, to take down or to render back a +phonographic message. + +The recording tympanum, which is about the size of a crown-piece, is +fitted with a mouthpiece, and when it is desired to record a sentence +the spindle is started, and you speak into the mouthpiece. The tympanum +vibrates under your voice, and the stylus, partaking of its motion, digs +into the yielding surface of the wax which moves beneath, and leaves a +tiny furrow to mark its passage. This is the sonorous record which, on +being passed under the stylus of the reproducing tympanum, will cause +it to give out a faithful copy of the original speech. A flexible +india-rubber tube, branching into two ear-pieces, conveys the sound +emitted by the reproducing diaphragm to the ears. This trumpet is used +for privacy and loudness; but it may be replaced by a conical funnel +inserted by its small end over the diaphragm, which thereby utters its +message aloud. It is on this plan that Edison has now constructed a +phonograph which delivers its reproduction to a roomful of people. +Keys and pedals are provided with which to stop the apparatus either in +recording or receiving, and in the latter case to hark back and repeat a +word or sentence if required. This is a convenient arrangement in using +the phonograph for correspondence or dictation. Each instrument, as we +have seen, can be employed for receiving as well as recording; and as +all are made to one pattern, a phonogram coming from any one, in any art +of the world, can be reproduced in any other instrument. A little box +with double walls has been introduced for transmitting the phonograms by +post. A knife or cutter is attached to the instrument for the purpose of +paring off an old message, and preparing a fresh surface of the wax for +the reception of a new one. This can be done in advance while the new +record is being made, so that no time is lost in the operation. A small +voltaic battery, placed under the machine, serves to work the electric +motor, and has to be replenished from time to time. A process has +also been devised for making copies of the phonograms in metal by +electro-deposition, so as to produce permanent records. But even the wax +phonogram may be used over and over again, hundreds of times, without +diminishing the fidelity of the reproduction. + +The entire phonograph is shown in our figure. [The figure is omitted +from this e-text] It consists of a box, B, containing the silent +electro-motor which drives the machine, and supporting the works for +printing and reproducing the sounds. Apart from the motive power, which +might, as in the graphophone, be supplied by foot, the apparatus is +purely mechanical, the parts acting with smoothness and precision. These +are, chiefly, the barrel or cylinder, C, on which the hollow wax is +placed; the spindle, S, which revolves the cylinder and wax; and the two +tympana, T, T', which receive the sounds and impress them on the +soft surface of the wax. A governor, G, regulates the movement of the +spindle; and there are other ingenious devices for starting and stopping +the apparatus. The tympanum T is that which is used for recording +the sounds, and M is a mouthpiece, which is fixed to it for speaking +purposes. The other tympanum, T', reproduces the sounds; and E E is a +branched ear-piece, conveying them to the two ears of the listener. The +separate wax tube, P, is a phonogram with the spiral trace of the sounds +already printed on its surface, and ready for posting. + +The box below the table contains the voltaic battery which actuates the +electro-motor. A machine which aims at recording and reproducing actual +speech or music is, of course, capable of infinite refinement, and +Edison is still at work improving the instrument, but even now it is +substantially perfected. + +Phonographs have arrived in London, and through the kindness of Mr. +Edison and his English representative, Colonel G. E. Gouraud, we have +had an opportunity of testing one. A number of phonograms, taken in +Edison's laboratory, were sent over with the instruments, and several of +them were caused to deliver in our hearing the sounds which were + + 'sealed in crystal silence there.' + +The first was a piece which had been played on the piano, quick time, +and the fidelity and loudness with which it was delivered by the hearing +tube was fairly astonishing, especially when one considered the frail +and hair-like trace upon the wax which had excited it. There seemed to +be something magical in the effect, which issued, as it were, from the +machine itself. Then followed a cornet solo, concert piece of cornet, +violin, and piano, and a very beautiful duet of cornet and piano. The +tones and cadences were admirably rendered, and the ear could also +faintly distinguish the noises of the laboratory. Speaking was +represented by a phonogram containing a dialogue between Mr. Edison +and Colonel Gouraud which had been imprinted some three weeks before in +America. With this we could hear the inventor addressing his old friend, +and telling him to correspond entirely with the phonograph. Colonel +Gouraud answers that he will be delighted to do so, and be spared the +trouble of writing; while Edison rejoins that he also will be glad to +escape the pains of reading the gallant colonel's letters. The sally is +greeted with a laugh, which is also faithfully rendered. + +One day a workman in Edison's laboratory caught up a crying child and +held it over the phonograph. Here is the phonogram it made, and here +in England we can listen to its wailing, for the phonograph reproduces +every kind of sound, high or low, whistling, coughing, sneezing, or +groaning. It gives the accent, the expression, and the modulation, so +that one has to be careful how one speaks, and probably its use will +help us to improve our utterance. + +By speaking into the phonograph and reproducing the words, we are +enabled for the first time to hear ourselves speak as others hear us; +for the vibrations of the head are understood to mask the voice a little +to our own ears. Moreover, by altering the speed of the barrel the voice +can be altered, music can be executed in slow or quick time, however it +is played, inaudible notes can be raised or lowered, as the case may +be, to audibility. The phonograph will register notes as low as ten +vibrations a second, whereas it is well known the lowest note audible to +the human ear is sixteen vibrations a second. The instrument is equally +capable of service and entertainment. It can be used as a stenograph, or +shorthand-writer. A business man, for instance, can dictate his letters +or instructions into it, and they can be copied out by his secretary. +Callers can leave a verbal message in the phonograph instead of a note. +An editor or journalist can dictate articles, which may be written out +or composed by the printer, word by word, as they are spoken by the +reproducer in his ears. + +Correspondence can be carried on by phonograms, distant friends and +lovers being able thus to hear each other's accents as though they +were together, a result more conducive to harmony and good feeling than +letter-writing. In matters of business and diplomacy the phonogram will +teach its users to be brief, accurate, and honest in their speech; for +the phonograph is a mechanical memory more faithful than the living one. +Its evidence may even be taken in a court of law in place of documents, +and it is conceivable that some important action might be settled by +the voice of this DEUS EX MACHINA. Will it therefore add a new terror +to modern life? Shall a visitor have to be careful what he says in a +neighbour's house, in case his words are stored up in some concealed +phonograph, just as his appearance may be registered by a detective +camera? In ordinary life--no; for the phonograph has its limitations, +like every other machine, and it is not sufficiently sensitive to record +a conversation unless it is spoken close at hand. But there is here a +chance for the sensational novelist to hang a tale upon. + +The 'interviewer' may make use of it to supply him with 'copy,' but this +remains to be seen. There are practical difficulties in the way which +need not be told over. Perhaps in railway trains, steamers, and other +unsteady vehicles, it will be-used for communications. The telephone may +yet be adapted to work in conjunction with it, so that a phonogram can +be telephoned, or a telephone message recorded in the phonograph. Such +a 'telephonograph' is, however, a thing of the future. Wills and other +private deeds may of course be executed by phonograph. Moreover, the +loud-speaking instrument which Edison is engaged upon will probably be +applied to advertising and communicating purposes. The hours of the +day, for example, can be called out by a clock, the starting of a train +announced, and the merits of a particular commodity descanted on. +All these uses are possible; but it is in a literary sense that the +phonograph is more interesting. Books can now be spoken by their +authors, or a good elocutionist, and published in phonograms, which +will appeal to the ear of the 'reader' instead of to his eye. 'On, four +cylinders 8 inches long, with a diameter of 5,' says Edison, 'I can put +the whole of NICHOLAS NICKLEBY.' To the invalid, especially, this use +would come as a boon; and if the instrument were a loud speaker, a +circle of listeners could be entertained. How interesting it would be +to have NICHOLAS NICKLEBY read to us in the voice of Dickens, or TAM O' +SHANTER in that of Burns! If the idea is developed, we may perhaps have +circulating libraries which issue phonograms, and there is already some +talk of a phonographic newspaper which will prattle politics and scandal +at the breakfast-table. Addresses, sermons, and political speeches +may be delivered by the phonograph; languages taught, and dialects +preserved; while the study of words cannot fail to benefit by its +performance. + +Musicians will now be able to record their improvisations by a +phonograph placed near the instrument they are playing. There need +in fact be no more 'lost chords.' Lovers of music, like the inventor +himself, will be able to purchase songs and pieces, sung and played by +eminent performers, and reproduce them in their own homes. Music-sellers +will perhaps let them out, like books, and customers can choose their +piece in the shop by having it rehearsed to them. + +In preserving for us the words of friends who have passed away, the +sound of voices which are stilled, the phonograph assumes its most +beautiful and sacred character. The Egyptians treasured in their homes +the mummies of their dead. We are able to cherish the very accents of +ours, and, as it were, defeat the course of time and break the silence +of the grave. The voices of illustrious persons, heroes and statesmen, +orators, actors, and singers, will go down to posterity and visit us in +our homes. A new pleasure will be added to life. How pleasant it would +be if we could listen to the cheery voice of Gordon, the playing of +Liszt, or the singing of Jenny Lind! + +Doubtless the rendering of the phonograph will be still further improved +as time goes on; but even now it is remarkable; and the inventor must +be considered to have redeemed his promises with regard to it. +Notwithstanding his deafness, the development of the instrument has been +a labour of love to him; and those who knew his rare inventive skill +believed that he would some time achieve success. It is his favourite, +his most original, and novel work. For many triumphs of mind over matter +Edison has been called the 'Napoleon of Invention,' and the aptness +of the title is enhanced by his personal resemblance to the great +conqueror. But the phonograph is his victory of Austerlitz; and, like +the printing-press of Gutenberg, it will assuredly immortalise his name. + +'The phonograph,' said Edison of his favourite, 'is my baby, and I +expect it to grow up a big fellow and support me in my old age.' Some +people are still in doubt whether it will prove more than a curious +plaything; but even now it seems to be coming into practical use in +America, if not in Europe. + +After the publication of the phonograph, Edison, owing, it is stated, +to an erroneous description of the instrument by a reporter, received +letters from deaf people inquiring whether it would enable them to hear +well. This, coupled with the fact that he is deaf himself, turned his +thoughts to the invention of the 'megaphone,' a combination of one large +speaking and two ear-trumpets, intended for carrying on a conversation +beyond the ordinary range of the voice--in short, a mile or two. It is +said to render a whisper audible at a distance of 1000 yards; but its +very sensitiveness is a drawback, since it gathers up extraneous sounds. + +To the same category belongs the 'aerophone,' which may be described +as a gigantic tympanum, vibrated by a piston working in a cylinder of +compressed air, which is regulated by the vibrations of the sound to be +magnified. It was designed to call out fog or other warnings in a loud +and penetrating tone, but it has not been successful. + +The 'magnetic ore separator' is an application of magnetism to the +extraction of iron particles from powdered ores and unmagnetic matter. +The ground material is poured through a funnel or 'hopper,' and falls in +a shower between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, which draws the +metal aside, thus removing it from the dress. + +Among Edison's toys and minor inventions may be mentioned a 'voice +mill,' or wheel driven by the vibrations of the air set up in speaking. +It consists of a tympanum or drum, having a stylus attached as in the +phonograph. When the tympanum vibrates under the influence of the voice, +the stylus acts as a pawl and turns a ratchet-wheel. An ingenious smith +might apply it to the construction of a lock which would operate at the +command of 'Open, Sesame!' Another trifle perhaps worthy of note is his +ink, which rises on the paper and solidifies, so that a blind person can +read the writing by passing his fingers over the letters. + +Edison's next important work was the adaptation of the electric light +for domestic illumination. At the beginning of the century the Cornish +philosopher, Humphrey Davy, had discovered that the electric current +produced a brilliant arch or 'arc' of light when passed between two +charcoal points drawn a little apart, and that it heated a fine rod of +charcoal or a metal wire to incandescence--that is to say, a glowing +condition. A great variety of arc lamps were afterwards introduced; and +Mr. Staite, on or about the year 1844-5, invented an incandescent lamp +in which the current passed through a slender stick of carbon, enclosed +in a vacuum bulb of glass. Faraday discovered that electricity could +be generated by the relative motion of a magnet and a coil of wire, and +hence the dynamo-electric generator, or 'dynamo,' was ere long invented +and improved. + +In 1878 the boulevards of Paris were lit by the arc lamps of Jablochkoff +during the season of the Exhibition, and the display excited a +widespread interest in the new mode of illumination. It was too +brilliant for domestic use, however, and, as the lamps were connected +one after another in the same circuit like pearls upon a string, the +breakage of one would interrupt the current and extinguish them all +but for special precautions. In short, the electric light was not yet +'subdivided.' + +Edison, in common with others, turned his attention to the subject, and +took up the neglected incandescent lamp. He improved it by reducing the +rod of carbon to a mere filament of charcoal, having a comparatively +high resistance and resembling a wire in its elasticity, without being +so liable to fuse under the intense heat of the current. This he moulded +into a loop, and mounted inside a pear-shaped bulb of glass. The bulb +was then exhausted of its air to prevent the oxidation of the carbon, +and the whole hermetically sealed. When a sufficient current was passed +through the filament, it glowed with a dazzling lustre. It was not too +bright or powerful for a room; it produced little heat, and absolutely +no fumes. Moreover, it could be connected not in but across the main +circuit of the current, and hence, if one should break, the others would +continue glowing. Edison, in short, had 'subdivided' the electric light. + +In October, 1878, he telegraphed the news to London and Paris, where, +owing to his great reputation, it caused an immediate panic in the +gas market. As time passed, and the new illuminant was backward in +appearing, the shares recovered their old value. Edison was severely +blamed for causing the disturbance; but, nevertheless, his announcement +had been verified in all but the question of cost. The introduction of a +practical system of electric lighting employed his resources for several +years. Dynamos, types of lamps and conductors, electric meters, safety +fuses, and other appliances had to be invented. In 1882 he returned to +New York, to superintend the installation of his system in that city. + +His researches on the dynamo caused him to devise what he calls an +'harmonic engine.' It consists of a tuning-fork, kept in vibration by +two small electro-magnets, excited with three or four battery cells. It +is capable of working a small pump, but is little more than a scientific +curiosity. With the object of transforming heat direct from the furnace +into electricity, he also devised a 'pyro-electric generator,' but it +never passed beyond the experimental stage. + +The same may be said for his pyro-electric motor. His dynamo-electric +motors and system of electric railways are, however, a more promising +invention. His method of telegraphing to and from a railway train in +motion, by induction through the air to a telegraph wire running along +the line, is very ingenious, and has been tried with a fair amount of +success. + +At present he is working at the 'Kinetograph,' a combination of +the phonograph and the instantaneous photograph as exhibited in +the zoetrope, by which he expects to produce an animated picture or +simulacrum of a scene in real life or the drama, with its appropriate +words and sounds. + +Edison now resides at Llewellyn Park, Orange, a picturesque suburb of +New York. His laboratory there is a glorified edition of Menlo Park, and +realises the inventor's dream. The main building is of brick, in three +stories; but there are several annexes. Each workshop and testing room +is devoted to a particular purpose. The machine shops and dynamo rooms +are equipped with the best engines and tools, the laboratories with +the finest instruments that money can procure. There are drawing, +photographic, and photometric chambers, physical, chemical, and +metallurgical laboratories. There is a fine lecture-hall, and a splendid +library and reading-room. He employs several hundred workmen and +assistants, all chosen for their intelligence and skill. In this retreat +Edison is surrounded with everything that his heart desires. In the +words of a reporter, the place is equally capable of turning out a +'chronometer or a Cunard steamer.' It is probably the finest laboratory +in the world. + +In 1889, Edison, accompanied by his second wife, paid a holiday visit +to Europe and the Paris Exhibition. He was received everywhere with the +greatest enthusiasm, and the King of Italy created him a Grand Officer +of the Crown of Italy, with the title of Count. But the phonograph +speaks more for his genius than the voice of the multitude, the electric +light is a better illustration of his energy than the ribbon of an +order, and the finest monument to his pluck, sagacity, and perseverance +is the magnificent laboratory which has been built through his own +efforts at Llewellyn Park. [One of his characteristic sayings may be +quoted here: 'Genius is an exhaustless capacity for work in detail, +which, combined with grit and gumption and love of right, ensures to +every man success and happiness in this world and the next.'] + + + +CHAPTER X. DAVID EDWIN HUGHES. + +There are some leading electricians who enjoy a reputation based partly +on their own efforts and partly on those of their paid assistants. +Edison, for example, has a large following, who not only work out his +ideas, but suggest, improve, and invent of themselves. The master in +such a case is able to avail himself of their abilities and magnify +his own genius, so to speak. He is not one mind, but the chief of many +minds, and absorbs into himself the glory and the work of a hundred +willing subjects. + +Professor Hughes is not one of these. His fame is entirely self-earned. +All that he has accomplished, and he has done great things, has been the +labour of his own hand and brain. He is an artist in invention; working +out his own conceptions in silence and retirement, with the artist's +love and self-absorption. This is but saying that he is a true inventor; +for a mere manufacturer of inventions, who employs others to assist him +in the work, is not an inventor in the old and truest sense. + +Genius, they say, makes its own tools, and the adage is strikingly +verified in the case of Professor Hughes, who actually discovered the +microphone in his own drawing-room, and constructed it of toy boxes and +sealing wax. He required neither lathe, laboratory, nor assistant to +give the world this remarkable and priceless instrument. + +Having first become known to fame in America, Professor Hughes is +usually claimed by the Americans as a countryman, and through some +error, the very date and place of his birth there are often given in +American publications; but we have the best authority for the accuracy +of the following facts, namely that of the inventor himself. + +David Edwin Hughes was born in London in 1831. His parents came from +Bala, at the foot of Snowdon, in North Wales, and in 1838, when David +was seven years old, his father, taking with him his family, emigrated +to the United States, and became a planter in Virginia. The elder Mr. +Hughes and his children seem to have inherited the Welsh musical gift, +for they were all accomplished musicians. While a mere child, David +could improvise tunes in a remarkable manner, and when he grew up this +talent attracted the notice of Herr Hast, an eminent German pianist in +America, who procured for him the professorship of music in the College +of Bardstown, Kentucky. Mr. Hughes entered upon his academical career at +Bardstown in 1850, when he was nineteen years of age. Although very +fond of music and endowered by Nature with exceptional powers for its +cultivation, Professor Hughes had, in addition, an inborn liking and +fitness for physical science and mechanical invention. This duality of +taste and genius may seem at first sight strange; but experience shows +that there are many men of science and inventors who are also votaries +of music and art. The source of this apparent anomaly is to be found in +the imagination, which is the fountain-head of all kinds of creation. + +Professor Hughes now taught music by day for his livelihood, and studied +science at night for his recreation, thus reversing the usual order of +things. The college authorities, knowing his proficiency in the subject, +also offered him the Chair of Natural Philosophy, which became vacant; +and he united the two seemingly incongruous professorships of music and +physics in himself. He had long cherished the idea of inventing a new +telegraph, and especially one which should print the message in Roman +characters as it is received. So it happened that one evening while he +was under the excitement of a musical improvisation, a solution of the +problem flashed into his ken. His music and his science had met at this +nodal point. + +All his spare time was thenceforth devoted to the development of his +design and the construction of a practical type-printer. As the work +grew on his hands, the pale young student, beardless but careworn, +became more and more engrossed with it, until his nights were almost +entirely given to experiment. He begrudged the time which had to be +spent in teaching his classes and the fatigue was telling upon his +health, so in 1853 he removed to Bowlingreen, in Warren Co., Kentucky, +where he acquired more freedom by taking pupils. + +The main principle of his type-printer was the printing of each letter +by a single current; the Morse instrument, then the principal receiver +in America, required, on the other hand, an average of three currents +for each signal. In order to carry out this principle it was necessary +that the sending and receiving apparatus should keep in strict time +with each other, or be synchronous in action; and to effect this was the +prime difficulty which Professor Hughes had to overcome in his work. In +estimating the Hughes' type-printer as an invention we must not forget +the state of science at that early period. He had to devise his own +governors for the synchronous mechanism, and here his knowledge of +acoustics helped him. Centrifugal governors and pendulums would not do, +and he tried vibrators, such as piano-strings and tuning-forks. He at +last found what he wanted in two darning needles, borrowed from an old +lady in the house where he lived. These steel rods fixed at one end +vibrated with equal periods, and could be utilised in such a way that +the printing wheel could be corrected into absolute synchronism by each +signal current. + +In 1854, Professor Hughes went to Louisville to superintend the making +of his first instrument; but it was unprotected by a patent in the +United States until 1855. In that form straight vibrators were used +as governors, and a separate train of wheel-work was employed in +correcting: but in later forms the spiral governor was adopted, and the +printing and correcting is now done by the same action. In 1855, the +invention may be said to have become fit for employment, and no sooner +was this the case, than Professor Hughes received a telegram from the +editors of the New York Associated Press, summoning him to that city. +The American Telegraph Company, then a leading one, was in possession +of the Morse instrument, and levied rates for transmission of news which +the editors found oppressive. They took up the Hughes' instrument in +opposition to the Morse, and introduced it on the lines of several +companies. After a time, however, the separate companies amalgamated +into one large corporation, the Western Union Telegraph Company of +to-day. With the Morse, Hughes, and other apparatus in its power, the +editors were again left in the lurch. + +In 1857, Professor Hughes leaving his instrument in the hands of +the Western Union Telegraph Company, came to England to effect its +introduction here. He endeavoured to get the old Electric Telegraph +Company to adopt it, but after two years of indecision on their part, +he went over to France in 1860, where he met with a more encouraging +reception. The French Government Telegraph Administration became at +once interested in the new receiver, and a commission of eminent +electricians, consisting of Du Moncel, Blavier, Froment, Gaugain, and +other practical and theoretical specialists, was appointed to decide on +its merits. The first trial of the type-printer took place on the Paris +to Lyons circuit, and there is a little anecdote connected with it which +is worthy of being told. The instrument was started, and for a while +worked as well as could be desired; but suddenly it came to a stop, and +to the utter discomfiture of the inventor he could neither find out +what was wrong nor get the printer to go again. In the midst of his +confusion, it seemed like satire to him to hear the commissioners +say, as they smiled all round, and bowed themselves gracefully off, +'TRES-BIEN, MONSIEUR HUGHES--TRES-BIEN, JE VOUS FELICITE.' But the +matter was explained next morning, when Professor Hughes learned that +the transmitting clerk at Lyons had been purposely instructed to earth +the line at the time in question, to test whether there was no deception +in the trial, a proceeding which would have seemed strange, had not the +occurrence of a sham trial some months previous rendered it a prudent +course. The result of this trial was that the French Government agreed +to give the printer a year of practical work on the French lines, and +if found satisfactory, it was to be finally adopted. Daily reports were +furnished of its behaviour during that time, and at the expiration +of the term it was adopted, and Professor Hughes was constituted by +Napoleon III. a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. + +The patronage of France paved the way of the type-printer into almost +all other European countries; and the French agreement as to its use +became the model of those made by the other nations. On settling with +France in 1862, Professor Hughes went to Italy. Here a commission was +likewise appointed, and a period of probation--only six months--was +settled, before the instrument was taken over. From Italy, Professor +Hughes received the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazare. In 1863, the +United Kingdom Telegraph Co., England, introduced the type-printer in +their system. In 1865, Professor Hughes proceeded to Russia, and in that +country his invention was adopted after six months' trial on the St. +Petersburg to Moscow circuit. At St. Petersburg he had the honour of +being a guest of the Emperor in the summer palace, Czarskoizelo, the +Versailles of Russia, where he was requested to explain his invention, +and also to give a lecture on electricity to the Czar and his court. He +was there created a Commander of the Order of St. Anne. + +In 1865, Professor Hughes also went to Berlin, and introduced his +apparatus on the Prussian lines. In 1867, he went on a similar mission +to Austria, where he received the Order of the Iron Crown; and to +Turkey, where the reigning Sultan bestowed on him the Grand Cross of the +Medjidie. In this year, too he was awarded at the Paris Exhibition, a +grand HORS LIGNE gold medal, one out of ten supreme honours designed +to mark the very highest achievements. On the same occasion another of +these special medals was bestowed on Cyrus Field and the Anglo-American +Telegraph Company. In 1868, he introduced it into Holland; and in 1869, +into Bavaria and Wurtemburg, where he obtained the Noble Order of St. +Michael. In 1870, he also installed it in Switzerland and Belgium. + +Coming back to England, the Submarine Telegraph Company adopted the +type-printer in 1872, when they had only two instruments at work. In +1878 they had twenty of them in constant use, of which number nine were +working direct between London and Paris, one between London and Berlin, +one between London and Cologne, one between London and Antwerp, and one +between London and Brussels. All the continental news for the TIMES and +the DAILY TELEGRAPH is received by the Hughes' type-printer, and is +set in type by a type-setting machine as it arrives. Further, by +the International Telegraph Congress it was settled that for all +international telegrams only the Hughes' instrument and the Morse +were to be employed. Since the Post Office acquired the cables to the +Continent in 1889, a room in St. Martin's-le-Grand has been provided for +the printers working to Paris, Berlin, and Rome. + +In 1875, Professor Hughes introduced the type-printer into Spain, where +he was made a Commander of the Royal and Distinguished Order of +Carlos III. In every country to which it was taken, the merits of the +instrument were recognised, and Professor Hughes has none but pleasant +souvenirs of his visits abroad. + +During all these years the inventor was not idle. He was constantly +improving his invention; and in addition to that, he had to act as an +instructor where-ever he went, and give courses of lectures explaining +the principles and practice of his apparatus to the various employees +into whose hands it was to be consigned. + +The years 1876-8 will be distinguished in the history of our time for a +triad of great inventions which, so to speak, were hanging together. We +have already seen how the telephone and phonograph have originated; and +to these two marvellous contrivances we have now to add a third, the +microphone, which is even more marvellous, because, although in form it +is the simplest of them all, in its action it is still a mystery. The +telephone enables us to speak to distances far beyond the reach of eye +or ear, 'to waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole; 'the phonograph enables +us to seal the living speech on brazen tablets, and store it up for any +length of time; while it is the peculiar function of the microphone +to let us hear those minute sounds which are below the range of our +unassisted powers of hearing. By these three instruments we have thus +received a remarkable extension of the capacity of the human ear, and a +growth of dominion over the sounds of Nature. We have now a command over +sound such as we have over light. For the telephone is to the ear +what the telescope is to the eye, the phonograph is for sound what the +photograph is for light, and the microphone finds its analogue in the +microscope. As the microscope reveals to our wondering sight the rich +meshes of creation, so the microphone can interpret to our ears the jarr +of molecular vibrations for ever going on around us, perchance the clash +of atoms as they shape themselves into crystals, the murmurous ripple of +the sap in trees, which Humboldt fancied to make a continuous music in +the ears of the tiniest insects, the fall of pollen dust on flowers and +grasses, the stealthy creeping of a spider upon his silken web, and even +the piping of a pair of love-sick butterflies, or the trumpeting of a +bellicose gnat, like the 'horns of elf-land faintly blowing.' + +The success of the Hughes type-printer may be said to have covered its +author with titles and scientific honours, and placed him above the +necessity of regular employment. He left America, and travelled from +place to place. For many years past, however, he has resided privately +in London, an eminent example of that modesty and simplicity which is +generally said to accompany true genius. + +Mechanical invention is influenced to a very high degree by external +circumstances. It may sound sensational, but it is nevertheless true, +that we owe the microphone to an attack of bronchitis. During the thick +foggy weather of November 1877, Professor Hughes was confined to his +home by a severe cold, and in order to divert his thoughts he began to +amuse himself with a speaking telephone. Then it occurred to him that +there might be some means found of making the wire of the telephone +circuit speak of itself without the need of telephones at all, or +at least without the need of one telephone, namely, that used in +transmitting the sounds. The distinguished physicist Sir William +Thomson, had lately discovered the peculiar fact that when a current of +electricity is passed through a wire, the current augments when the wire +is extended, and diminishes when the wire is compressed, because in the +former case the resistance of the material of the wire to the passage of +the current is lessened, and in the latter case it becomes greater. + +Now it occurred to Professor Hughes that, if this were so, it might +be possible to cause the air-vibrations of sound to so act upon a wire +conveying a current as to stretch and contract it in sympathy with +themselves, so that the sound-waves would create corresponding electric +waves in the current, and these electric waves, passed through a +telephone connected to the wire, would cause the telephone to give forth +the original sounds. He first set about trying the effect of vibrating a +wire in which a current flowed, to see if the stretching and compressing +thereby produced would affect the current so as to cause sounds in a +telephone connected up in circuit with the wire--but without effect. +He could hear no sound whatever in the telephone. Then he stretched +the wire till it broke altogether, and as the metal began to rupture he +heard a distinct grating in the telephone, followed by a sharp 'click,' +when the wire sundered, which indicated a 'rush' of electricity through +the telephone. This pointed out to him that the wire might be sensitive +to sound when in a state of fracture. Acting on the hint, he placed +the two broken ends of the wire together again, and kept them so by +the application of a definite pressure. To his joy he found that he had +discovered what he had been in search of. The imperfect contact between +the broken ends of the wire proved itself to be a means of transmitting +sounds, and in addition it was found to possess a faculty which he had +not anticipated--it proved to be sensitive to very minute sounds, and +was in fact a rude microphone. Continuing his researches, he soon found +that he had discovered a principle of wide application, and that it was +not necessary to confine his experiments to wires, since any substance +which conducted an electric current would answer the purpose. All that +was necessary was that the materials employed should be in contact +with each other under a slight but definite pressure, and, for the +continuance of the effects, that the materials should not oxidise in air +so as to foul the contact. For different materials a different degree +of pressure gives the best results, and for different sounds to be +transmitted a different degree of pressure is required. Any loose, +crazy unstable structure, of conducting bodies, inserted in a telephone +circuit, will act as a microphone. Such, for example, as a glass tube +filled with lead-shot or black oxide of iron, or 'white bronze' powder +under pressure; a metal watch-chain piled in a heap. Surfaces of +platinum, gold, or even iron, pressed lightly together give excellent +results. Three French nails, two parallel beneath and one laid across +them, or better still a log-hut of French nails, make a perfect +transmitter of audible sounds, and a good microphone. Because of its +cheapness, its conducting power, and its non-oxidisability, carbon is +the most select material. A piece of charcoal no bigger than a pin's +head is quite sufficient to produce articulate speech. Gas-carbon +operates admirably, but the best carbon is that known as +willow-charcoal, used by artists in sketching, and when this is +impregnated with minute globules of mercury by heating it white-hot and +quenching it in liquid mercury, it is in a highly sensitive microphonic +condition. The same kind of charcoal permeated by platinum, tin, +zinc, or other unoxidisable metal is also very suitable; and it is a +significant fact that the most resonant woods, such as pine, poplar, and +willow, yield the charcoals best adapted for the microphone. Professor +Hughes' experimental apparatus is of an amusingly simple description. +He has no laboratory at home, and all his experiments were made in the +drawing-room. His first microphones were formed of bits of carbon +and scraps of metal, mounted on slips of match-boxes by means of +sealing-wax; and the resonance pipes on which they were placed to +reinforce the effect of minute sounds, were nothing more than children's +toy money boxes, price one halfpenny, having one of the ends knocked +out. With such childish and worthless materials he has conquered Nature +in her strongholds, and shown how great discoveries can be made. The +microphone is a striking illustration of the truth that in science +any phenomenon whatever may be rendered useful. The trouble of one +generation of scientists may be turned to the honour and service of +the next. Electricians have long had sore reasons for regarding a 'bad +contact' as an unmitigated nuisance, the instrument of the evil one, +with no conceivable good in it, and no conceivable purpose except to +annoy and tempt them into wickedness and an expression of hearty but +ignominious emotion. Professor Hughes, however, has with a wizard's +power transformed this electrician's bane into a professional glory and +a public boon. Verily there is a soul of virtue in things evil. + +The commonest and at the same time one of the most sensitive forms of +the instrument is called the 'pencil microphone,' from the pencil or +crayon of carbon which forms the principal part of it. This pencil +may be of mercurialised charcoal, but the ordinary gas-carbon, which +incrusts the interior of the retorts in gas-works, is usually employed. +The crayon is supported in an upright position by two little brackets of +carbon, hollowed out so as to receive the pointed ends in shallow cups. +The weight of the crayon suffices to give the required pressure on the +contacts, both upper and lower, for the upper end of the Pencil should +lean against the inner wall of the cup in the upper bracket. The +brackets are fixed to an upright board of light, dry, resonant +pine-wood, let into a solid base of the same timber. The baseboard is +with advantage borne by four rounded india-rubber feet, which insulate +it from the table on which it may be placed. To connect the microphone +up for use, a small voltaic battery, say three cells (though a single +cell will give surprising results), and a Bell speaking telephone are +necessary. A wire is led from one of the carbon brackets to one pole +of the battery, and another wire is led from the other bracket to one +terminal screw of the telephone, and the circuit is completed by a +wire from the other terminal of the telephone to the other pole of the +battery. If now the slightest mechanical jar be given to the wooden +frame of the microphone, to the table, or even to the walls of the room +in which the experiment takes place, a corresponding noise will be +heard in the microphone. By this delicate arrangement we can play the +eavesdropper on those insensible vibrations in the midst of which +we exist. If a feather or a camel-hair pencil be stroked along the +base-board, we hear a harsh grating sound; if a pin be laid upon it, we +hear a blow like a blacksmith's hammer; and, more astonishing than all, +if a fly walk across it we hear it tramping like a charger, and even +its peculiar cry, which has been likened, with some allowance for +imagination, to the snorting of an elephant. Moreover it should not be +forgotten that the wires connecting up the telephone may be lengthened +to any desired extent, so that, in the words of Professor Hughes, 'the +beating of a pulse, the tick of a watch, the tramp of a fly can then be +heard at least a hundred miles from the source of sound.' If we whisper +or speak distinctly in a monotone to the pencil, our words will be heard +in the telephone; but with this defect, that the TIMBRE or quality is, +in this particular form of the instrument, apt to be lost, making it +difficult to recognise the speaker's voice. But although a single pencil +microphone will under favourable circumstances transmit these varied +sounds, the best effect for each kind of sound is obtained by one +specially adjusted. There is one pressure best adapted for minute +sounds, another for speech, and a third for louder sounds. A simple +spring arrangement for adjusting the pressure of the contacts is +therefore an advantage, and it can easily be applied to a microphone +formed of a small rod of carbon pivoted at its middle, with one end +resting on a block or anvil of carbon underneath. The contact between +the rod and the block in this 'hammer-and-anvil' form is, of course, the +portion which is sensitive to sound. + +The microphone is a discovery as well as an invention, and the true +explanation of its action is as yet merely an hypothesis. It is supposed +that the vibrations put the carbons in a tremor and cause them to +approach more or less nearly, thus closing or opening the breach between +them, which is, as it were, the floodgate of the current. + +The applications of the microphone were soon of great importance. Dr. B. +W. Richardson succeeded in fitting it for auscultation of the heart +and lungs; while Sir Henry Thompson has effectively used it in those +surgical operations, such as probing wounds for bullets or fragments of +bone, in which the surgeon has hitherto relied entirely on his delicacy +of touch for detecting the jar of the probe on the foreign body. +There can be no doubt that in the science of physiology, in the art of +surgery, and in many other walks of life, the microphone has proved a +valuable aid. + +Professor Hughes communicated his results to the Royal Society in the +early part of 1878, and generously gave the microphone to the world. For +his own sake it would perhaps have been better had he patented and +thus protected it, for Mr. Edison, recognising it as a rival to +his carbon-transmitter, then a valuable property, claimed it as an +infringement of his patents and charged him with plagiarism. A spirited +controversy arose, and several bitter lawsuits were the consequence, in +none of which, however, Professor Hughes took part, as they were only +commercial trials. It was clearly shown that Clerac, and not Edison, had +been the first to utilise the variable resistance of powdered carbon or +plumbage under pressure, a property on which the Edison transmitter was +founded, and that Hughes had discovered a much wider principle, which +embraced not only the so-called 'semi-conducting' bodies, such as +carbon; but even the best conductors, such as gold, silver, and +other metals. This principle was not a mere variation of electrical +conductivity in a mass of material brought about by compression, but a +mysterious variation in some unknown way of the strength of an electric +current in traversing a loose joint or contact between two conductors. +This discovery of Hughes really shed a light on the behaviour of +Edison's own transmitter, whose action he had until then misunderstood. +It was now seen that the particles of carbon dust in contact which +formed the button were a congeries of minute micro-phones. Again it was +proved that the diaphragm or tympanum to receive the impression of +the sound and convey it to the carbon button, on which Edison had laid +considerable stress, was non-essential; for the microphone, pure and +simple, was operated by the direct impact of the sonorous waves, and +required no tympanum. Moreover, the microphone, as its name implies, +could magnify a feeble sound, and render audible the vibrations which +would otherwise escape the ear. The discovery of these remarkable and +subtle properties of a delicate contact had indeed confronted Edison; +he had held them in his grasp, they had stared him in the face, but +not-withstanding all his matchless ingenuity and acumen, he, blinded +perhaps by a false hypothesis, entirely failed to discern them. The +significant proof of it lies in the fact that after the researches of +Professor Hughes were published the carbon transmitter was promptly +modified, and finally abandoned for practical work as a telephone, in +favour of a variety of new transmitters, such as the Blake, now +employed in the United Kingdom, in all of which the essential part is +a microphone of hard carbon and metal. The button of soot has vanished +into the limbo of superseded inventions. + +Science appears to show that every physical process is reciprocal, +and may be reversed. With this principle in our minds, we need not be +surprised that the microphone should not only act as a TRANSMITTER of +sounds, but that it should also act as a RECEIVER. Mr. James Blyth, of +Edinburgh, was the first to announce that he had heard sounds and +even speech given out by a microphone itself when substituted for the +telephone. His transmitting microphone and his receiving one were simply +jelly-cans filled with cinders from the grate. It then transpired that +Professor Hughes had previously obtained the same remarkable effects +from his ordinary 'pencil' microphones. The sounds were extremely +feeble, however, but the transmitting microphones proved the best +articulating ones. Professor Hughes at length constructed an adjustable +hammer-and-anvil microphone of gas-carbon, fixed to the top of a +resonating drum, which articulated fairly well, although not so +perfectly as a Bell telephone. Perhaps a means of improving both the +volume and distinctness of the articulation will yet be forthcoming +and we may be able to speak solely by the microphone, if it is found +desirable. The marvellous fact that a little piece of charcoal can, as +it were, both listen and speak, that a person may talk to it so that +his friend can hear him at a similar piece a hundred miles away, is a +miracle of nineteenth century science which far transcends the oracles +of antiquity. + +The articulating telephone was the forerunner of the phonograph and +microphone, and led to their discovery. They in turn will doubtless lead +to other new inventions, which it is now impossible to foresee. We ask +in vain for an answer to the question which is upon the lips of every +one-What next? The microphone has proved itself highly useful in +strengthening the sounds given out by the telephone, and it is probable +that we shall soon see those three inventions working unitedly; for the +microphone might make the telephone sounds so powerful as to enable them +to be printed by phonograph as they are received, and thus a durable +record of telephonic messages would be obtained. We can now transmit +sound by wire, but it may yet be possible to transmit light, and see by +telegraph. We are apparently on the eve of other wonderful inventions, +and there are symptoms that before many years a great fundamental +discovery will be made, which will elucidate the connection of all the +physical forces, and will illumine the very frame-work of Nature. + +In 1879, Professor Hughes endowed the scientific world with another +beautiful apparatus, his 'induction balance.' Briefly described, it +is an arrangement of coils whereby the currents inducted by a primary +circuit in the secondary are opposed to each other until they balance, +so that a telephone connected in the secondary circuit is quite silent. +Any disturbance of this delicate balance, however, say by the movement +of a coil or a metallic body in the neighbourhood of the apparatus, will +be at once reported by the induction currents in the telephone. Being +sensitive to the presence of minute masses of metal, the apparatus was +applied by Professor Graham Bell to indicate the whereabouts of the +missing bullet in the frame of President Garfield, as already mentioned, +and also by Captain McEvoy to detect the position of submerged torpedoes +or lost anchors. Professor Roberts-Austen, the Chemist to the Mint, +has also employed it with success in analysing the purity and temper +of coins; for, strange to say, the induction is affected as well by the +molecular quality as the quantity of the disturbing metal. Professor +Hughes himself has modified it for the purpose of sonometry, and the +measurement of the hearing powers. + +To the same year, 1879, belong his laborious investigations on current +induction, and some ingenious plans for eliminating its effects on +telegraph and telephone circuits. + +Soon after his discovery of the microphone he was invited to become a +Fellow of the Royal Society, and a few years later, in 1885 he received +the Royal Medal of the Society for his experiments, and especially +those of the microphone. In 1881 he represented the United Kingdom as a +Commissioner at the Paris International Exhibition of Electricity, +and was elected President of one of the sections of the International +Congress of Electricians. In 1886 he filled the office of President of +the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians. + +The Hughes type-printer was a great mechanical invention, one of the +greatest in telegraphic science, for every organ of it was new, and had +to be fashioned out of chaos; an invention which stamped its author's +name indelibly into the history of telegraphy, and procured for him a +special fame; while the microphone is a discovery which places it on the +roll of investigators, and at the same time brings it to the knowledge +of the people. Two such achievements might well satisfy any scientific +ambition. Professor Hughes has enjoyed a most successful career. +Probably no inventor ever before received so many honours, or bore them +with greater modesty. + + +***** + +APPENDIX. + + + + +I. CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS. + +CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS was born at Braunschweig on April 30, 1777. His +father, George Dietrich, was a mason, who employed himself otherwise in +the hard winter months, and finally became cashier to a TODTENCASSE, or +burial fund. His mother Dorothy was the daughter of Christian Benze +of the village of Velpke, near Braunschweig, and a woman of talent, +industry, and wit, which her son appears to have inherited. The father +died in 1808 after his son had become distinguished. The mother lived to +the age of ninety-seven, but became totally blind. She preserved her low +Saxon dialect, her blue linen dress and simple country manners, to +the last, while living beside her son at the Observatory of Gottingen. +Frederic, her younger brother, was a damask weaver, but a man with a +natural turn for mathematics and mechanics. + +When Gauss was a boy, his parents lived in a small house in the +Wendengrahen, on a canal which joined the Ocker, a stream flowing +through Braunschweig. The canal is now covered, and is the site of the +Wilhelmstrasse, but a tablet marks the house. When a child, Gauss used +to play on the bank of the canal, and falling in one day he was nearly +drowned. He learned to read by asking the letters from his friends, and +also by studying an old calendar which hung on a wall of his father's +house, and when four years old he knew all the numbers on it, in spite +of a shortness of sight which afflicted him to the end. On Saturday +nights his father paid his workmen their wages, and once the boy, who +had been listening to his calculations, jumped up and told him that he +was wrong. Revision showed that his son was right. + +At the age of seven, Gauss went to the Catherine Parish School at +Braunschweig, and remained at it for several years. The master's name +was Buttner, and from a raised seat in the middle of the room, he kept +order by means of a whip suspended at his side. A bigger boy, Bartels +by name, used to cut quill pens, and assist the smaller boys in their +lessons. He became a friend of Gauss, and would procure mathematical +books, which they read together. Bartels subsequently rose to be a +professor in the University of Dorpat, where he died. At the parish +school the boys of fourteen to fifteen years were being examined in +arithmetic one day, when Gauss stepped forward and, to the astonishment +of Buttner, requested to be examined at the same time. Buttner, thinking +to punish him for his audacity, put a 'poser' to him, and awaited the +result. Gauss solved the problem on his slate, and laid it face downward +on the table, crying 'Here it is,' according to the custom. At the end +of an hour, during which the master paced up and down with an air of +dignity, the slates were turned over, and the answer of Gauss was found +to be correct while many of the rest were erroneous. Buttner praised +him, and ordered a special book on arithmetic for him all the way from +Hamburg. + +From the parish school Gauss went to the Catherine Gymnasium, although +his father doubted whether he could afford the money. Bartels had gone +there before him, and they read the higher mathematics. Gauss also +devoted much of his time to acquiring the ancient and modern languages. +From there he passed to the Carolinean College in the spring of 1792. +Shortly before this the Duke Charles William Ferdinand of Braunschweig +among others had noticed his talents, and promised to further his +career. + +In 1793 he published his first papers; and in the autumn of 1795 he +entered the University of Gottingen. At this time he was hesitating +between the pursuit of philology or mathematics; but his studies became +more and more of the latter order. He discovered the division of the +circle, a problem published in his DISQUISITIONES ARITHMETICAE, and +henceforth elected for mathematics. The method of least squares, +was also discovered during his first term. On arriving home the +duke received him in the friendliest manner, and he was promoted to +Helmstedt, where with the assistance of his patron he published his +DISQUISITIONES. + +On January 1, 1801, Piazzi, the astronomer of Palermo, discovered a +small planet, which he named CERES FERDINANDIA, and communicated the +news by post to Bode of Berlin, and Oriani of Milan. The letter was +seventy-two days in going, and the planet by that time was lost in the +glory of the sun, By a method of his own, published in his THEORIA MOTUS +CORPORUM COELESTIUM, Gauss calculated the orbit of this planet, and +showed that it moved between Mars and Jupiter. The planet, after eluding +the search of several astronomers, was ultimately found again by Zach on +December 7, 1801, and on January 1, 1802. The ellipse of Gauss was found +to coincide with its orbit. + +This feat drew the attention of the Hanoverian Government, and of +Dr. Olbers, the astronomer, to the young mathematician. But some time +elapsed before he was fitted with a suitable appointment. The battle +of Austerlitz had brought the country into danger, and the Duke of +Braunschweig was entrusted with a mission from Berlin to the Court of +St. Petersburg. The fame of Gauss had travelled there, but the duke +resisted all attempts to bring or entice him to the university of that +place. On his return home, however, he raised the salary of Gauss. + +At the beginning of October 1806, the armies of Napoleon were moving +towards the Saale, and ere the middle of the month the battles of +Auerstadt and Jena were fought and lost. Duke Charles Ferdinand was +mortally wounded, and taken back to Braunschweig. A deputation waited on +the offended Emperor at Halle, and begged him to allow the aged duke +to die in his own house. They were brutally denied by the Emperor, +and returned to Braunschweig to try and save the unhappy duke from +imprisonment. One evening in the late autumn, Gauss, who lived in the +Steinweg (or Causeway), saw an invalid carriage drive slowly out of the +castle garden towards the Wendenthor. It contained the wounded duke on +his way to Altona, where he died on November 10, 1806, in a small house +at Ottensen, 'You will take care,' wrote Zach to Gauss, in 1803, 'that +his great name shall also be written on the firmament.' + +For a year and a half after the death of the duke Gauss continued in +Braunschweig, but his small allowance, and the absence of scientific +company made a change desirable. Through Olbers and Heeren he received +a call to the directorate of Gottingen University in 1807, and at once +accepted it. He took a house near the chemical laboratory, to which he +brought his wife and family. The building of the observatory, delayed +for want of funds, was finished in 1816, and a year or two later it was +fully equipped with instruments. + +In 1819, Gauss measured a degree of latitude between Gottingen and +Altona. In geodesy he invented the heliotrope, by which the sunlight +reflected from a mirror is used as a "sight" for the theodolite at a +great distance. Through Professor William Weber he was introduced to +the science of electro-magnetism, and they devised an experimental +telegraph, chiefly for sending time signals, between the Observatory and +the Physical Cabinet of the University. The mirror receiving instrument +employed was the heavy prototype of the delicate reflecting galvanometer +of Sir William Thomson. In 1834 messages were transmitted through the +line in presence of H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge; but it was hardly +fitted for general use. In 1883 (?) he published an absolute system of +magnetic measurements. + +On July 16, 1849, the jubilee of Gauss was celebrated at the University; +the famous Jacobi, Miller of Cambridge, and others, taking part in it. +After this he completed several works already begun, read a great deal +of German and foreign literature, and visited the Museum daily between +eleven and one o'clock. + +In the winters of 1854-5 Gauss complained of his declining health, +and on the morning of February 23, 1855, about five minutes past one +o'clock, he breathed his last. He was laid on a bed of laurels, and +buried by his friends. A granite pillar marks his resting-place at +Gottingen. + + + + +II. WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER. + +WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER was born on October 24, 1804, at Wittenberg, where +his father, Michael Weber, was professor of theology. William was the +second of three brothers, all of whom were distinguished by an aptitude +for the study of science. After the dissolution of the University of +Wittenberg his father was transferred to Halle in 1815. William had +received his first lessons from his father, but was now sent to the +Orphan Asylum and Grammar School at Halle. After that he entered the +University, and devoted himself to natural philosophy. He distinguished +himself so much in his classes, and by original work, that after taking +his degree of Doctor and becoming a Privat-Docent he was appointed +Professor Extraordinary of natural philosophy at Halle. + +In 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was called to Gottingen +as professor of physics, although but twenty-seven years of age. His +lectures were interesting, instructive, and suggestive. Weber thought +that, in order to thoroughly understand physics and apply it to +daily life, mere lectures, though illustrated by experiments, were +insufficient, and he encouraged his students to experiment themselves, +free of charge, in the college laboratory. As a student of twenty +years he, with his brother, Ernest Henry Weber, Professor of Anatomy +at Leipsic, had written a book on the 'Wave Theory and Fluidity,' which +brought its authors a considerable reputation. Acoustics was a +favourite science of his, and he published numerous papers upon it in +Poggendorff's ANNALEN, Schweigger's JAHRBUCHER FUR CHEMIE UND PHYSIC, +and the musical journal CAECILIA. The 'mechanism of walking in mankind' +was another study, undertaken in conjunction with his younger brother, +Edward Weber. These important investigations were published between the +years 1825 and 1838. + +Displaced by the Hanoverian Government for his liberal opinions in +politics Weber travelled for a time, visiting England, among other +countries, and became professor of physics in Leipsic from 1843 to 1849, +when he was reinstalled at Gottingen. One of his most important works +was the ATLAS DES ERDMAGNETISMUS, a series of magnetic maps, and it was +chiefly through his efforts that magnetic observatories were +instituted. He studied magnetism with Gauss, and in 1864 published his +'Electrodynamic Proportional Measures' containing a system of absolute +measurements for electric currents, which forms the basis of those in +use. Weber died at Gottingen on June 23, 1891. + + + + +III. SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE. + +WILLIAM Fothergill Cooke was born near Ealing on May 4, 1806, and was a +son of Dr. William Cooke, a doctor of medicine, and professor of anatomy +at the University of Durham. The boy was educated at a school in Durham, +and at the University of Edinburgh. In 1826 he joined the East India +Army, and held several staff appointments. While in the Madras Native +Infantry, he returned home on furlough, owing to ill-health, and +afterwards relinquished this connection. In 1833-4 he studied anatomy +and physiology in Paris, acquiring great skill at modelling dissections +in coloured wax. + +In the summer of 1835, while touring in Switzerland with his parents, he +visited Heidelberg, and was induced by Professor Tiedeman, director +of the Anatomical Institute, to return there and continue his wax +modelling. He lodged at 97, Stockstrasse, in the house of a brewer, +and modelled in a room nearly opposite. Some of his models have been +preserved in the Anatomical Museum at Heidelberg. In March 1836, hearing +accidentally from Mr. J. W. R. Hoppner, a son of Lord Byron's friend, +that the Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University, Geheime +Hofrath Moncke had a model of Baron Schilling's telegraph, Cooke went +to see it on March 6, in the Professor's lecture room, an upper storey +of an old convent of Dominicans, where he also lived. Struck by what he +witnessed, he abandoned his medical studies, and resolved to apply all +his energies to the introduction of the telegraph. Within three weeks +he had made, partly at Heidelberg, and partly at Frankfort, his first +galvanometer, or needle telegraph. It consisted of three magnetic +needles surrounded by multiplying coils, and actuated by three separate +circuits of six wires. The movements of the needles under the action of +the currents produced twenty-six different signals corresponding to the +letters of the alphabet. + +'Whilst completing the model of my original plan,' he wrote to +his mother on April 5, 'others on entirely fresh systems suggested +themselves, and I have at length succeeded in combining the UTILE of +each, but the mechanism requires a more delicate hand than mine to +execute, or rather instruments which I do not possess. These I can +readily have made for me in London, and by the aid of a lathe I shall +be able to adapt the several parts, which I shall have made by different +mechanicians for secrecy's sake. Should I succeed, it may be the means +of putting some hundreds of pounds in my pocket. As it is a subject +on which I was profoundly ignorant, until my attention was casually +attracted to it the other day, I do not know what others may have done +in the same way; this can best be learned in London.' + +The 'fresh systems' referred to was his 'mechanical' telegraph, +consisting of two letter dials, working synchronously, and on which +particular letters of the message were indicated by means of an +electro-magnet and detent. Before the end of March he invented the +clock-work alarm, in which an electro-magnet attracted an armature of +soft iron, and thus withdrew a detent, allowing the works to strike the +alarm. This idea was suggested to him on March 17, 1836, while reading +Mrs. Mary Somerville's 'Connexion of the Physical Sciences,' in +travelling from Heidelberg to Frankfort. + +Cooke arrived in London on April 22, and wrote a pamphlet setting forth +his plans for the establishment of an electric telegraph; but it was +never published. According to his own account he also gave considerable +attention to the escapement principle, or step by step movement, +afterwards perfected by Wheatstone. While busy in preparing his +apparatus for exhibition, part of which was made by a clock-maker +in Clerkenwell, he consulted Faraday about the construction of +electro-magnets, The philosopher saw his apparatus and expressed +his opinion that the 'principle was perfectly correct,' and that +the 'instrument appears perfectly adapted to its intended uses.' +Nevertheless he was not very sanguine of making it a commercial success. +'The electro-magnetic telegraph shall not ruin me,' he wrote to his +mother, 'but will hardly make my fortune.' He was desirous of taking +a partner in the work, and went to Liverpool in order to meet some +gentleman likely to forward his views, and endeavoured to get his +instrument adopted on the incline of the tunnel at Liverpool; but it +gave sixty signals, and was deemed too complicated by the directors. +Soon after his return to London, by the end of April, he had two simpler +instruments in working order. All these preparations had already cost +him nearly four hundred pounds. + +On February 27, Cooke, being dissatisfied with an experiment on a mile +of wire, consulted Faraday and Dr. Roget as to the action of a current +on an electro-magnet in circuit with a long wire. Dr. Roget sent him +to Wheatstone, where to his dismay he learned that Wheatstone had been +employed for months on the construction of a telegraph for practical +purposes. The end of their conferences was that a partnership in +the undertaking was proposed by Cooke, and ultimately accepted by +Wheatstone. The latter had given Cooke fresh hopes of success when he +was worn and discouraged. 'In truth,' he wrote in a letter, after his +first interview with the Professor, 'I had given the telegraph up since +Thursday evening, and only sought proofs of my being right to do so ere +announcing it to you. This day's enquiries partly revives my hopes, +but I am far from sanguine. The scientific men know little or nothing +absolute on the subject: Wheatstone is the only man near the mark.' + +It would appear that the current, reduced in strength by its passage +through a long wire, had failed to excite his electro-magnet, and he was +ignorant of the reason. Wheatstone by his knowledge of Ohm's law and +the electro-magnet was probably able to enlighten him. It is clear that +Cooke had made considerable progress with his inventions before he met +Wheatstone; he possessed a needle telegraph like Wheatstone, an alarm, +and a chronometric dial telegraph, which at all events are a proof that +he himself was an inventor, and that he doubtless bore a part in +the production of the Cooke and Wheatstone apparatus. Contrary to a +statement of Wheatstone, it appears from a letter of Cooke dated March +4, 1837, that Wheatstone 'handsomely acknowledged the advantage' of +Cooke's apparatus had it worked;' his (Wheatstone's) are ingenious, but +not practicable.' But these conflicting accounts are reconciled by +the fact that Cooke's electro-magnetic telegraph would not work, and +Wheatstone told him so, because he knew the magnet was not strong enough +when the current had to traverse a long circuit. + +Wheatstone subsequently investigated the conditions necessary to obtain +electro-magnetic effects at a long distance. Had he studied the paper +of Professor Henry in SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL for January 1831, he would have +learned that in a long circuit the electro-magnet had to be wound with a +long and fine wire in order to be effective. + +As the Cooke and Wheatstone apparatus became perfected, Cooke was busy +with schemes for its introduction. Their joint patent is dated June 12, +1837, and before the end of the month Cooke was introduced to Mr. Robert +Stephenson, and by his address and energy got leave to try the invention +from Euston to Camden Town along the line of the London and Birmingham +Railway. Cooke suspended some thirteen miles of copper, in a shed at the +Euston terminus, and exhibited his needle and his chronometric telegraph +in action to the directors one morning. But the official trial took +place as we have already described in the life of Wheatstone. + +The telegraph was soon adopted on the Great Western Railway, and also +on the Blackwall Railway in 1841. Three years later it was tried on +a Government line from London to Portsmouth. In 1845, the Electric +Telegraph Company, the pioneer association of its kind, was started, and +Mr. Cooke became a director. Wheatstone and he obtained a considerable +sum for the use of their apparatus. In 1866, Her Majesty conferred the +honour of knighthood on the co-inventors; and in 1871, Cooke was granted +a Civil List pension of L100 a year. His latter years were spent +in seclusion, and he died at Farnham on June 25th, 1879. Outside of +telegraphic circles his name had become well-nigh forgotten. + + + + +IV. ALEXANDER BAIN. + +Alexander Bain was born of humble parents in the little town of Thurso, +at the extreme north of Scotland, in the year 1811. At the age of twelve +he went to hear a penny lecture on science which, according to his own +account, set him thinking and influenced his whole future. Learning the +art of clockmaking, he went to Edinburgh, and subsequently removed to +London, where he obtained work in Clerkenwell, then famed for its clocks +and watches. His first patent is dated January 11th, 1841, and is in the +name of John Barwise, chronometer maker, and Alexander Bain, mechanist, +Wigmore Street. It describes his electric clock in which there is an +electro-magnetic pendulum, and the electric current is employed to keep +it going instead of springs or weights. He improved on this idea in +following patents, and also proposed to derive the motive electricity +from an 'earth battery,' by burying plates of zinc and copper in the +ground. Gauss and Steinheil had priority in this device which, owing +to 'polarisation' of the plates and to drought, is not reliable. Long +afterwards Mr. Jones of Chester succeeded in regulating timepieces from +a standard astronomical clock by an improvement on the method of Bain. +On December 21, 1841, Bain, in conjunction with Lieut. Thomas Wright, +R.N., of Percival Street, Clerkenwell, patented means of applying +electricity to control railway engines by turning off the steam, marking +time, giving signals, and printing intelligence at different places. He +also proposed to utilise 'natural bodies of water' for a return wire, +but the earlier experimenters had done so, particularly Steinheil in +1838. The most important idea in the patent is, perhaps, his plan for +inverting the needle telegraph of Ampere, Wheatstone and others, and +instead of making the signals by the movements of a pivoted magnetic +needle under the influence of an electrified coil, obtaining them by +suspending a movable coil traversed by the current, between the poles of +a fixed magnet, as in the later siphon recorder of Sir William Thomson. +Bain also proposed to make the coil record the message by printing it in +type; and he developed the idea in a subsequent patent. + +Next year, on December 31st, 1844, he projected a mode of measuring +the speed of ships by vanes revolving in the water and indicating their +speed on deck by means of the current. In the same specification he +described a way of sounding the sea by an electric circuit of wires, +and of giving an alarm when the temperature of a ship's hold reached a +certain degree. The last device is the well-known fire-alarm in which +the mercury of a thermometer completes an electric circuit, when it +rises to a particular point of the tube, and thus actuates an electric +bell or other alarm. + +On December 12, 1846, Bain, who was staying in Edinburgh at that time, +patented his greatest invention, the chemical telegraph, which bears his +name. He recognised that the Morse and other telegraph instruments in +use were comparatively slow in speed, owing to the mechanical inertia +of the parts; and he saw that if the signal currents were made to pass +through a band of travelling paper soaked in a solution which would +decompose under their action, and leave a legible mark, a very high +speed could be obtained. The chemical he employed to saturate the paper +was a solution of nitrate of ammonia and prussiate of potash, which left +a blue stain on being decomposed by the current from an iron contact or +stylus. The signals were the short and long, or 'dots' and 'dashes' of +the Morse code. The speed of marking was so great that hand signalling +could not keep up with it, and Bain devised a plan of automatic +signalling by means of a running band of paper on which the signals of +the message were represented by holes punched through it. Obviously +if this tape were passed between the contact of a signalling key the +current would merely flow when the perforations allowed the contacts of +the key to touch. This principle was afterwards applied by Wheatstone in +the construction of his automatic sender. + +The chemical telegraph was tried between Paris and Lille before a +committee of the Institute and the Legislative Assembly. The speed of +signalling attained was 282 words in fifty-two seconds, a marvellous +advance on the Morse electro-magnetic instrument, which only gave about +forty words a minute. In the hands of Edison the neglected method of +Bain was seen by Sir William Thomson in the Centennial Exhibition, +Philadelphia, recording at the rate of 1057 words in fifty-seven +seconds. In England the telegraph of Bain was used on the lines of the +old Electric Telegraph Company to a limited extent, and in America about +the year 1850 it was taken up by the energetic Mr. Henry O'Reilly, and +widely introduced. But it incurred the hostility of Morse, who obtained +an injunction against it on the slender ground that the running paper +and alphabet used were covered by his patent. By 1859, as Mr. Shaffner +tells us, there was only one line in America on which the Bain system +was in use, namely, that from Boston to Montreal. Since those days of +rivalry the apparatus has never become general, and it is not easy to +understand why, considering its very high speed, the chemical telegraph +has not become a greater favourite. + +In 1847 Bain devised an automatic method of playing on wind instruments +by moving a band of perforated paper which controlled the supply of +air to the pipes; and likewise proposed to play a number of keyed +instruments at a distance by means of the electric current. Both of +these plans are still in operation. + +These and other inventions in the space of six years are a striking +testimony to the fertility of Bain's imagination at this period. But +after this extraordinary outburst he seems to have relapsed into sloth +and the dissipation of his powers. We have been told, and indeed it +is plain that he received a considerable sum for one or other of his +inventions, probably the chemical telegraph. But while he could rise +from the ranks, and brave adversity by dint of ingenuity and labour, it +would seem that his sanguine temperament was ill-fitted for prosperity. +He went to America, and what with litigation, unfortunate investment, +and perhaps extravagance, the fortune he had made was rapidly +diminished. + +Whether his inventive genius was exhausted, or he became disheartened, +it would be difficult to say, but he never flourished again. The rise +in his condition may be inferred from the preamble to his patent for +electric telegraphs and clocks, dated May 29, 1852, wherein he describes +himself as 'Gentleman,' and living at Beevor Lodge, Hammersmith. +After an ephemeral appearance in this character he sank once more into +poverty, if not even wretchedness. Moved by his unhappy circumstances, +Sir William Thomson, the late Sir William Siemens, Mr. Latimer Clark +and others, obtained from Mr. Gladstone, in the early part of 1873, a +pension for him under the Civil List of L80 a year; but the beneficiary +lived in such obscurity that it was a considerable time before his +lodging could be discovered, and his better fortune take effect. The +Royal Society had previously made him a gift of L150. + +In his latter years, while he resided in Glasgow, his health failed, +and he was struck with paralysis in the legs. The massive forehead once +pregnant with the fire of genius, grew dull and slow of thought, while +the sturdy frame of iron hardihood became a tottering wreck. He was +removed to the Home for Incurables at Broomhill, Kirkintilloch, where he +died on January 2, 1877, and was interred in the Old Aisle Cemetery. He +was a widower, and had two children, but they were said to be abroad at +the time, the son in America and the daughter on the Continent. + +Several of Bain's earlier patents are taken out in two names, but this +was perhaps owing to his poverty compelling him to take a partner. If +these and other inventions were substantially his own, and we have no +reason to suppose that he received more help from others than is usual +with inventors, we must allow that Bain was a mechanical genius of +the first order--a born inventor. Considering the early date of his +achievements, and his lack of education or pecuniary resource, we cannot +but wonder at the strength, fecundity, and prescience of his creative +faculty. It has been said that he came before his time; but had he been +more fortunate in other respects, there is little doubt that he would +have worked out and introduced all or nearly all his inventions, and +probably some others. His misfortunes and sorrows are so typical of the +'disappointed inventor' that we would fain learn more about his life; +but beyond a few facts in a little pamphlet (published by himself, we +believe), there is little to be gathered; a veil of silence has fallen +alike upon his triumphs, his errors and his miseries. + + + + +V. DR. WERNER SIEMENS. + +THE leading electrician of Germany is Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens, eldest +brother of the same distinguished family of which our own Sir William +Siemens was a member. Ernst, like his brother William, was born at +Lenthe, near Hanover, on December 13, 1816. He was educated at the +College of Lubeck in Maine, and entered the Prussian Artillery service +as a volunteer. He pursued his scientific studies at the Artillery +and Engineers' School in Berlin, and in 1838 obtained an officer's +commission. + +Physics and chemistry were his favourite studies; and his original +researches in electro-gilding resulted in a Prussian patent in 1841. +The following year he, in conjunction with his brother William, took out +another patent for a differential regulator. In 1844 he was appointed +to a post in the artillery workshops in Berlin, where he learned +telegraphy, and in 1845 patented a dial and printing telegraph, which is +still in use in Germany. + +In 1846, he was made a member of a commission organised in Berlin to +introduce electric telegraphs in place of the optical ones hitherto +employed in Prussia, and he succeeded in getting the commission to +adopt underground telegraph lines. For the insulation of the wires he +recommended gutta-percha, which was then becoming known as an insulator. +In the following year he constructed a machine for covering copper +wire with the melted gum by means of pressure; and this machine is +substantially the same as that now used for the purpose in cable +factories. + +In 1848, when the war broke out with Denmark, he was sent to Kiel where, +together with his brother-in-law, Professor C. Himly, he laid the first +submarine mines, fired by electricity and thus protected the town of +Kiel from the advance of the enemies' fleet. + +Of late years the German Government has laid a great network of +underground lines between the various towns and fortresses of the +empire; preferring them to overhead lines as being less liable to +interruption from mischief, accident, hostile soldiers, or stress of +weather. The first of such lines was, however, laid as long ago as +1848, by Werner Siemens, who, in the autumn of that year, deposited a +subterranean cable between Berlin and Frankfort-on-the-Main. Next year a +second cable was laid from the Capital to Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, and +Verviers. + +In 1847 the subject of our memoir had, along with Mr. Halske, founded +a telegraph factory, and he now left the army to give himself up to +scientific work and the development of his business. This factory +prospered well, and is still the chief continental works of the kind. +The new departure made by Werner Siemens was fortunate for electrical +science; and from then till now a number of remarkable inventions have +proceeded from his laboratory. + +The following are the more notable advances made:--In October 1845, a +machine for the measurement of small intervals of time, and the speed of +electricity by means of electric sparks, and its application in 1875 for +measuring the speed of the electric current in overland lines. + +In January 1850, a paper on telegraph lines and apparatus, in which +the theory of the electro-static charge in insulated wires, as well as +methods and formula: for the localising of faults in underground wires +were first established. In 1851, the firm erected the first automatic +fire telegraphs in Berlin, and in the same year, Werner Siemens wrote +a treatise on the experience gained with the underground lines of the +Prussian telegraph system. The difficulty of communicating through long +underground lines led him to the invention of automatic translation, +which was afterwards improved upon by Steinheil, and, in 1852, he +furnished the Warsaw-Petersburg line with automatic fast-speed writers. +The messages were punched in a paper band by means of the well-known +Siemens' lever punching apparatus, and then automatically transmitted in +a clockwork instrument. + +In 1854 the discovery (contemporaneous with that of Frischen) of +simultaneous transmission of messages in opposite directions, and +multiplex transmission of messages by means of electro-magnetic +apparatus. The 'duplex' system which is now employed both on land lines +and submarine cables had been suggested however, before this by Dr. +Zetsche, Gintl, and others. + +In 1856 he invented the Siemens' magneto-electric dial instrument +giving alternate currents. From this apparatus originated the well-known +Siemens' armature, and from the receiver was developed the Siemens' +polarised relay, with which the working of submarine and other lines +could be effected with alternate currents; and in the same year, during +the laying of the Cagliari to Bona cable, he constructed and first +applied the dynamometer, which has become of such importance in the +operations of cable laying. + +In 1857, he investigated the electro-static induction and retardation of +currents in insulated wires, a phenomenon which he had observed in 1850, +and communicated an account of it to the French Academy of Sciences. + +'In these researches he developed mathematically Faraday's theory of +molecular induction, and thereby paved the way in great measure for +its general acceptance.' His ozone apparatus, his telegraph instrument +working with alternate currents, and his instrument for translating on +and automatically discharging submarine cables also belong to the year +1857. The latter instruments were applied to the Sardinia, Malta, and +Corfu cable. + +In 1859, he constructed an electric log; he discovered that a dielectric +is heated by induction; he introduced the well known Siemens' mercury +unit, and many improvements in the manufacture of resistance coils. He +also investigated the law of change of resistance in wires by heating; +and published several formulae and methods for testing resistances +and determining 'faults' by measuring resistances. These methods were +adopted by the electricians of the Government service in Prussia, and by +Messrs. Siemens Brothers in London, during the manufacture of the +Malta to Alexandria cable, which, was, we believe, the first long cable +subjected to a system of continuous tests. + +'In 1861, he showed that the electrical resistance of molten alloys is +equal to the sum of the resistances of the separate metals, and that +latent heat increases the specific resistance of metals in a greater +degree than free heat.' In 1864 he made researches on the heating of the +sides of a Leyden jar by the electrical discharge. In 1866 he published +the general theory of dynamo-electric machines, and the principle of +accumulating the magnetic effect, a principle which, however, had been +contemporaneously discovered by Mr. S. A. Varley, and described in +a patent some years before by Mr. Soren Hjorth, a Danish inventor. +Hjorth's patent is to be found in the British Patent Office Library, and +until lately it was thought that he was the first and true inventor of +the 'dynamo' proper, but we understand there is a prior inventor still, +though we have not seen the evidence in support of the statement. + +The reversibility of the dynamo was enunciated by Werner Siemens in +1867; but it was not experimentally demonstrated on any practical scale +until 1870, when M. Hippolite Fontaine succeeded in pumping water at the +Vienna international exhibition by the aid of two dynamos connected in +circuit; one, the generator, deriving motion from a hydraulic engine, +and in turn setting in motion the receiving dynamo which worked the +pump. Professor Clerk Maxwell thought this discovery the greatest of the +century; and the remark has been repeated more than once. But it is a +remark which derives its chief importance from the man who made it, and +its credentials from the paradoxical surprise it causes. The discovery +in question is certainly fraught with very great consequences to the +mechanical world; but in itself it is no discovery of importance, and +naturally follows from Faraday's far greater and more original discovery +of magneto-electric generation. + +In 1874, Dr. Siemens published a treatise on the laying and testing of +submarine cables. In 1875, 1876 and 1877, he investigated the action of +light on crystalline selenium, and in 1878 he studied the action of the +telephone. + +The recent work of Dr. Siemens has been to improve the pneumatic +railway, railway signalling, electric lamps, dynamos, electro-plating +and electric railways. The electric railway at Berlin in 1880, and Paris +in 1881, was the beginning of electric locomotion, a subject of great +importance and destined in all probability, to very wide extension in +the immediate future. Dr. Siemens has received many honours from learned +societies at home and abroad; and a title equivalent to knighthood from +the German Government. + + + + +VI. LATIMER CLARK. + +MR. Clark was born at Great Marlow in 1822, and probably acquired his +scientific bent while engaged at a manufacturing chemist's business +in Dublin. On the outbreak of the railway mania in 1845 he took to +surveying, and through his brother, Mr. Edwin Clark, became assistant +engineer to the late Robert Stephenson on the Britannia Bridge. While +thus employed, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Ricardo, founder of the +Electric Telegraph Company, and joined that Company as an engineer in +1850. He rose to be chief engineer in 1854, and held the post till 1861, +when he entered into a partnership with Mr. Charles T. Bright. Prior to +this, he had made several original researches; in 1853, he found that +the retardation of current on insulated wires was independent of the +strength of current, and his experiments formed the subject of a Friday +evening lecture by Faraday at the Royal Institution--a sufficient mark +of their importance. + +In 1854 he introduced the pneumatic dispatch into London, and, in 1856, +he patented his well-known double-cup insulator. In 1858, he and Mr. +Bright produced the material known as 'Clark's Compound,' which is so +valuable for protecting submarine cables from rusting in the sea-water. +In 1859, Mr. Clark was appointed engineer to the Atlantic Telegraph +Company which tried to lay an Anglo-American cable in 1865. in +partnership with Sir C. T. Bright, who had taken part in the first +Atlantic cable expedition, Mr. Clark laid a cable for the Indian +Government in the Red Sea, in order to establish a telegraph to India. +In 1886, the partnership ceased; but, in 1869, Mr Clark went out to the +Persian Gulf to lay a second cable there. Here he was nearly lost in the +shipwreck of the Carnatic on the Island of Shadwan in the Red Sea. + +Subsequently Mr. Clark became the head of a firm of consulting +electricians, well known under the title of Clark, Forde and Company, +and latterly including the late Mr. C. Hockin and Mr. Herbert Taylor. + +The Mediterranean cable to India, the East Indian Archipelago cable +to Australia, the Brazilian Atlantic cables were all laid under the +supervision of this firm. Mr. Clark is now in partnership with Mr. +Stanfield, and is the joint-inventor of Clark and Stanfield's circular +floating dock. He is also head of the well-known firm of electrical +manufacturers, Messrs. Latimer Clark, Muirhead and Co., of Regency +Street, Westminster. + +The foregoing sketch is but an imperfect outline of a very successful +life. `But enough has been given to show that we have here an engineer +of various and even brilliant gifts. Mr. Clark has applied himself in +divers directions, and never applied himself in vain. There is always +some practical result to show which will be useful to others. In +technical literature he published a description of the Conway and +Britannia Tubular Bridges as long ago as 1849. There is a valuable +communication of his in the Board of Trade Blue Rook on Submarine +Cables. In 1868, he issued a useful work on ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENTS, +and in 1871 joined with Mr. Robert Sabine in producing the well-known +ELECTRICAL TABLES AND FORMULAE, a work which was for a long time the +electrician's VADE-MECUM. In 1873, he communicated a lengthy paper on +the NEW STANDARD OF ELECTROMOTIVE POWER now known as CLARK'S STANDARD +CELL; and quite recently he published a treatise on the USE OF THE +TRANSIT INSTRUMENT. + +Mr. Clark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, as well as a +member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Royal Astronomical +Society, the Physical Society, etc., and was elected fourth President +of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians, now the +Institution of Electrical Engineers. + +He is a great lover of books and gardening--two antithetical +hobbies--which are charming in themselves, and healthily counteractive. +The rich and splendid library of electrical works which he is forming, +has been munificently presented to the Institution of Electrical +Engineers. + + + + +VII. COUNT DU MONCEL. + +Theodose-Achille-Louis, Comte du Moncel, was born at Paris on March 6, +1821. His father was a peer of France, one of the old nobility, and a +General of Engineers. He possessed a model farm near Cherbourg, and +had set his heart on training his son to carry on this pet project; but +young Du Moncel, under the combined influence of a desire for travel, a +love of archaeology, and a rare talent for drawing, went off to Greece, +and filled his portfolio with views of the Parthenon and many other +pictures of that classic region. His father avenged himself by declining +to send him any money; but the artist sold his sketches and relied +solely on his pencil. On returning to Paris he supported himself by +his art, but at the same time gratified his taste for science in a +discursive manner. A beautiful and accomplished lady of the Court, +Mademoiselle Camille Clementine Adelaide Bachasson de Montalivet, +belonging to a noble and distinguished family, had plighted her +troth with him, and, as we have been told, descended one day from her +carriage, and wedded the man of her heart, in the humble room of a flat +not far from the Grand Opera House. They were a devoted pair, and Madame +du Moncel played the double part of a faithful help-meet, and inspiring +genius. Heart and soul she encouraged her husband to distinguish himself +by his talents and energy, and even assisted him in his labours. + +About 1852 he began to occupy himself almost exclusively with electrical +science. His most conspicuous discovery is that pressure diminishes the +resistance of contact between two conductors, a fact which Clerac in +1866 utilised in the construction of a variable resistance from carbon, +such as plumbage, by compressing it with an adjustable screw. It is +also the foundation of the carbon transmitter of Edison, and the more +delicate microphone of Professor Hughes. But Du Moncel is best known as +an author and journalist. His 'Expose des applications de l'electricite' +published in 1856 ET SEQ., and his 'Traite pratique de Telegraphie,' +not to mention his later books on recent marvels, such as the telephone, +microphone, phonograph, and electric light, are standard works of +reference. In the compilation of these his admirable wife assisted him +as a literary amanuensis, for she had acquired a considerable knowledge +of electricity. + +In 1866 he was created an officer of the Legion of Honour, and he became +a member of numerous learned societies. For some time he was an adviser +of the French telegraph administration, but resigned the post in 1873. +The following year he was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences, +Paris. In 1879, he became editor of a new electrical journal established +at Paris under the title of 'La Lumiere Electrique,' and held the +position until his death, which happened at Paris after a few days' +illness on February 16, 1884. His devoted wife was recovering from a +long illness which had caused her affectionate husband much anxiety, and +probably affected his health. She did not long survive him, but died on +February 4, 1887, at Mentone in her fifty-fifth year. Count du Moncel +was an indefatigable worker, who, instead of abandoning himself to +idleness and pleasure like many of his order, believed it his duty to be +active and useful in his own day, as his ancestors had been in the past. + + + + +VIII. ELISHA GRAY. + +THIS distinguished American electrician was born at Barnesville in +Belmont county, Ohio, on August 2, 1835. His family were Quakers, and +in early life he was apprenticed to a carpenter, but showed a taste +for chemistry, and at the age of twenty-one he went to Oberlin College, +where he studied for five years. At the age of thirty he turned his +attention to electricity, and invented a relay which adapted itself to +the varying insulation of the telegraph line. He was then led to devise +several forms of automatic repeaters, but they are not much employed. In +1870-2, he brought out a needle annunciator for hotels, and another for +elevators, which had a large sale. His 'Private Telegraph Line Printer' +was also a success. From 1873-5 he was engaged in perfecting his +'Electro-harmonic telegraph.' His speaking telegraph was likewise the +outcome of these researches. The 'Telautograph,' or telegraph which +writes the messages as a fac-simile of the sender's penmanship by an +ingenious application of intermittent currents, is the latest of his +more important works. Mr. Gray is a member of the firm of Messrs. +Gray and Barton, and electrician to the Western Electric Manufacturing +Company of Chicago. His home is at Highland Park near that city. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heroes of the Telegraph, by J. Munro + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH *** + +***** This file should be named 979.txt or 979.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/7/979/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Italics have been converted +to capital letters. The British 'pound' sign has been written as 'L'. +Footnotes have been placed in square brackets at the place in the text +where a suffix originally indicated their existence.) + + + +PREFACE. + + +The present work is in some respects a sequel to the PIONEERS OF +ELECTRICITY, and it deals with the lives and principal achievements of +those distinguished men to whom we are indebted for the introduction of +the electric telegraph and telephone, as well as other marvels of +electric science. + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER + I. THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH + II. CHARLES WHEATSTONE + III. SAMUEL MORSE + IV. SIR WILLIAM THOMSON + V. SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS + VI. FLEEMING JENKIN + VII. JOHANN PHILIPP REIS +VIII. GRAHAM BELL + IX. THOMAS ALVA EDISON + X. DAVID EDWIN HUGHES + +APPENDIX. + I. CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS + II. WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER + III. SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE + IV. ALEXANDER BAIN + V. DR. WERNER SIEMENS + VI. LATIMER CLARK + VII. COUNT DU MONCEL +VIII. ELISHA GRAY + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH. + +The history of an invention, whether of science or art, may be compared +to the growth of an organism such as a tree. The wind, or the random +visit of a bee, unites the pollen in the flower, the green fruit forms +and ripens to the perfect seed, which, on being planted in congenial +soil, takes root and flourishes. Even so from the chance combination of +two facts in the human mind, a crude idea springs, and after maturing +into a feasible plan is put in practice under favourable conditions, and +so develops. These processes are both subject to a thousand accidents +which are inimical to their achievement. Especially is this the case +when their object is to produce a novel species, or a new and great +invention like the telegraph. It is then a question of raising, not one +seedling, but many, and modifying these in the lapse of time. + +Similarly the telegraph is not to be regarded as the work of any one +mind, but of many, and during a long course of years. Because at length +the final seedling is obtained, are we to overlook the antecedent +varieties from which it was produced, and without which it could not +have existed? Because one inventor at last succeeds in putting the +telegraph in operation, are we to neglect his predecessors, whose +attempts and failures were the steps by which he mounted to success? +All who have extended our knowledge of electricity, or devised a +telegraph, and familiarised the public mind with the advantages of it, +are deserving of our praise and gratitude, as well as he who has entered +into their labours, and by genius and perseverance won the honours of +being the first to introduce it. + +Let us, therefore, trace in a rapid manner the history of the electric +telegraph from the earliest times. + +The sources of a river are lost in the clouds of the mountain, but it is +usual to derive its waters from the lakes or springs which are its +fountain-head. In the same way the origins of our knowledge of +electricity and magnetism are lost in the mists of antiquity, but there +are two facts which have come to be regarded as the starting-points of +the science. It was known to the ancients at least 600 years before +Christ, that a piece of amber when excited by rubbing would attract +straws, and that a lump of lodestone had the property of drawing iron. +Both facts were probably ascertained by chance. Humboldt informs us +that he saw an Indian child of the Orinoco rubbing the seed of a +trailing plant to make it attract the wild cotton; and, perhaps, a +prehistoric tribesman of the Baltic or the plains of Sicily found in the +yellow stone he had polished the mysterious power of collecting dust. A +Greek legend tells us that the lodestone was discovered by Magnes, a +shepherd who found his crook attracted by the rock. + +However this may be, we are told that Thales of Miletus attributed the +attractive properties of the amber and the lodestone to a soul within +them. The name Electricity is derived from ELEKTRON, the Greek for +amber, and Magnetism from Magnes, the name of the shepherd, or, more +likely, from the city of Magnesia, in Lydia, where the stone occurred. + +These properties of amber and lodestone appear to have been widely +known. The Persian name for amber is KAHRUBA, attractor of straws, and +that for lodestone AHANG-RUBA attractor of iron. In the old Persian +romance, THE LOVES OF MAJNOON AND LEILA, the lover sings-- + + 'She was as amber, and I but as straw: + She touched me, and I shall ever cling to her.' + +The Chinese philosopher, Kuopho, who flourished in the fourth century, +writes that, 'the attraction of a magnet for iron is like that of amber +for the smallest grain of mustard seed. It is like a breath of wind +which mysteriously penetrates through both, and communicates itself with +the speed of an arrow.' [Lodestone was probably known in China before +the Christian era.] Other electrical effects were also observed by the +ancients. Classical writers, as Homer, Caesar, and Plutarch, speak of +flames on the points of javelins and the tips of masts. They regarded +them as manifestations of the Deity, as did the soldiers of the Mahdi +lately in the Soudan. It is recorded of Servius Tullus, the sixth king +of Rome, that his hair emitted sparks on being combed; and that sparks +came from the body of Walimer, a Gothic chief, who lived in the year +415 A.D. + +During the dark ages the mystical virtues of the lodestone drew more +attention than those of the more precious amber, and interesting +experiments were made with it. The Romans knew that it could attract +iron at some distance through an intervening fence of wood, brass, or +stone. One of their experiments was to float a needle on a piece of +cork, and make it follow a lodestone held in the hand. This arrangement +was perhaps copied from the compass of the Phoenician sailors, who +buoyed a lodestone and observed it set towards the north. There is +reason to believe that the magnet was employed by the priests of the +Oracle in answering questions. We are told that the Emperor Valerius, +while at Antioch in 370 A.D., was shown a floating needle which pointed +to the letters of the alphabet when guided by the directive force of a +lodestone. It was also believed that this effect might be produced +although a stone wall intervened, so that a person outside a house or +prison might convey intelligence to another inside. + +This idea was perhaps the basis of the sympathetic telegraph of the +Middle Ages, which is first described in the MAGIAE NATURALIS of John +Baptista Porta, published at Naples in 1558. It was supposed by Porta +and others after him that two similar needles touched by the same +lodestone were sympathetic, so that, although far apart, if both were +freely balanced, a movement of one was imitated by the other. By +encircling each balanced needle with an alphabet, the sympathetic +telegraph was obtained. Although based on error, and opposed by Cabeus +and others, this fascinating notion continued to crop up even to the +days of Addison. It was a prophetic shadow of the coming invention. In +the SCEPSIS SCIENTIFICA, published in 1665, Joseph Glanvil wrote, 'to +confer at the distance of the Indies by sympathetic conveyances may be +as usual to future times as to us in literary correspondence.' [The +Rosicrucians also believed that if two persons transplanted pieces of +their flesh into each other, and tattooed the grafts with letters, a +sympathetic telegraph could be established by pricking the letters.] + +Dr. Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth, by his systematic researches, +discovered the magnetism of the earth, and laid the foundations of the +modern science of electricity and magnetism. Otto von Guericke, +burgomaster of Magdeburg, invented the electrical machine for generating +large quantities of the electric fire. Stephen Gray, a pensioner of the +Charterhouse, conveyed the fire to a distance along a line of pack +thread, and showed that some bodies conducted electricity, while others +insulated it. Dufay proved that there were two qualities of +electricity, now called positive and negative, and that each kind +repelled the like, but attracted the unlike. Von Kleist, a cathedral +dean of Kamm, in Pomerania, or at all events Cuneus, a burgher, and +Muschenbroek, a professor of Leyden, discovered the Leyden jar for +holding a charge of electricity; and Franklin demonstrated the identity +of electricity and lightning. + +The charge from a Leyden jar was frequently sent through a chain of +persons clasping hands, or a length of wire with the earth as part of +the circuit. This experiment was made by Joseph Franz, of Vienna, in +1746, and Dr. Watson, of London, in 1747; while Franklin ignited spirits +by a spark which had been sent across the Schuylkill river by the same +means. But none of these men seem to have grasped the idea of employing +the fleet fire as a telegraph. + +The first suggestion of an electric telegraph on record is that +published by one 'C. M.' in the Scots Magazine for February 17, 1753. +The device consisted in running a number of insulated wires between two +places, one for each letter of the alphabet. The wires were to be +charged with electricity from a machine one at a time, according to the +letter it represented. At its far end the charged wire was to attract a +disc of paper marked with the corresponding letter, and so the message +would be spelt. 'C. M.' also suggested the first acoustic telegraph, +for he proposed to have a set of bells instead of the letters, each of a +different tone, and to be struck by the spark from its charged wire. + +The identity of 'C. M.,' who dated his letter from Renfrew, has not been +established beyond a doubt. There is a tradition of a clever man living +in Renfrew at that time, and afterwards in Paisley, who could 'licht a +room wi' coal reek (smoke), and mak' lichtnin' speak and write upon the +wa'.' By some he was thought to be a certain Charles Marshall, from +Aberdeen; but it seems likelier that he was a Charles Morrison, of +Greenock, who was trained as a surgeon, and became connected with the +tobacco trade of Glasgow. In Renfrew he was regarded as a kind of +wizard, and he is said to have emigrated to Virginia, where he died. + +In the latter half of the eighteenth century, many other suggestions of +telegraphs based on the known properties of the electric fire were +published; for example, by Joseph Bozolus, a Jesuit lecturer of Rome, in +1767; by Odier, a Geneva physicist, in 1773, who states in a letter to a +lady, that he conceived the idea on hearing a casual remark, while +dining at Sir John Pringle's, with Franklin, Priestley, and other great +geniuses. 'I shall amuse you, perhaps, in telling you,' he says,'that I +have in my head certain experiments by which to enter into conversation +with the Emperor of Mogol or of China, the English, the French, or any +other people of Europe ... You may intercommunicate all that you wish at +a distance of four or five thousands leagues in less than half an hour. +Will that suffice you for glory?' + +George Louis Lesage, in 1782, proposed a plan similar to 'C. M.'s,' +using underground wires. An anonymous correspondent of the JOURNAL DE +PARIS for May 30, 1782, suggested an alarm bell to call attention to the +message. Lomond, of Paris, devised a telegraph with only one wire; the +signals to be read by the peculiar movements of an attracted pith-ball, +and Arthur Young witnessed his plan in action, as recorded in his diary. +M. Chappe, the inventor of the semaphore, tried about the year 1790 to +introduce a synchronous electric telegraph, and failed. + +Don Francisco Salva y Campillo, of Barcelona, in 1795, proposed to make +a telegraph between Barcelona and Mataro, either overhead or +underground, and he remarks of the wires, 'at the bottom of the sea +their bed would be ready made, and it would be an extraordinary casualty +that should disturb them.' In Salva's telegraph, the signals were to be +made by illuminating letters of tinfoil with the spark. Volta's great +invention of the pile in 1800 furnished a new source of electricity, +better adapted for the telegraph, and Salva was apparently the first to +recognise this, for, in the same year, he proposed to use it and +interpret the signals by the twitching of a frog's limb, or the +decomposition of water. + +In 1802, Jean Alexandre, a reputed natural son of Jean Jacques Rousseau, +brought out a TELEGRAPHE INTIME, or secret telegraph, which appears to +have been a step-by-step apparatus. The inventor concealed its mode of +working, but it was believed to be electrical, and there was a needle +which stopped at various points on a dial. Alexandre stated that he had +found out a strange matter or power which was, perhaps generally +diffused, and formed in some sort the soul of the universe. He +endeavoured to bring his invention under the eye of the First Consul, +but Napoleon referred the matter to Delambre, and would not see it. +Alexandre was born at Paris, and served as a carver and gilder at +Poictiers; then sang in the churches till the Revolution suppressed this +means of livelihood. He rose to influence as a Commissary-general, then +retired from the army and became an inventor. His name is associated +with a method of steering balloons, and a filter for supplying Bordeaux +with water from the Garonne. But neither of these plans appear to have +been put in practice, and he died at Angouleme, leaving his widow in +extreme poverty. + +Sommering, a distinguished Prussian anatomist, in 1809 brought out a +telegraph worked by a voltaic battery, and making signals by decomposing +water. Two years later it was greatly simplified by Schweigger, of +Halle; and there is reason to believe that but for the discovery of +electro-magnetism by Oersted, in 1824 the chemical telegraph would have +come into practical use. + +In 1806, Ralph Wedgwood submitted a telegraph based on frictional +electricity to the Admiralty, but was told that the semaphore was +sufficient for the country. In a pamphlet he suggested the +establishment of a telegraph system with public offices in different +centres. Francis Ronalds, in 1816, brought a similar telegraph of his +invention to the notice of the Admiralty, and was politely informed that +'telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary.' + +In 1826-7, Harrison Gray Dyar, of New York, devised a telegraph in which +the spark was made to stain the signals on moist litmus paper by +decomposing nitric acid; but he had to abandon his experiments in Long +Island and fly the country, because of a writ which charged him with a +conspiracy for carrying on secret communication. In 1830 Hubert Recy +published an account of a system of Teletatodydaxie, by which the +electric spark was to ignite alcohol and indicate the signals of a code. + +But spark or frictional electric telegraphs were destined to give way to +those actuated by the voltaic current, as the chemical mode of +signalling was superseded by the electro-magnet. In 1820 the separate +courses of electric and magnetic science were united by the connecting +discovery of Oersted, who found that a wire conveying a current had the +power of moving a compass-needle to one side or the other according to +the direction of the current. + +La Place, the illustrious mathematician, at once saw that this fact +could be utilised as a telegraph, and Ampere, acting on his suggestion, +published a feasible plan. Before the year was out, Schweigger, of +Halle, multiplied the influence of the current on the needle by coiling +the wire about it. Ten years later, Ritchie improved on Ampere's +method, and exhibited a model at the Royal Institution, London. About +the same time, Baron Pawel Schilling, a Russian nobleman, still further +modified it, and the Emperor Nicholas decreed the erection of a line +from Cronstadt to St. Petersburg, with a cable in the Gulf of Finland +but Schilling died in 1837, and the project was never realised. + +In 1833-5 Professors Gauss and Weber constructed a telegraph between the +physical cabinet and the Observatory of the University of Gottingen. At +first they used the voltaic pile, but abandoned it in favour of +Faraday's recent discovery that electricity could be generated in a wire +by the motion of a magnet. The magnetic key with which the message was +sent Produced by its action an electric current which, after traversing +the line, passed through a coil and deflected a suspended magnet to the +right or left, according to the direction of the current. A mirror +attached to the suspension magnified the movement of the needle, and +indicated the signals after the manner of the Thomson mirror +galvanometer. This telegraph, which was large and clumsy, was +nevertheless used not only for scientific, but for general +correspondence. Steinheil, of Munich, simplified it, and added an alarm +in the form of a bell. + +In 1836, Steinheil also devised a recording telegraph, in which the +movable needles indicated the message by marking dots and dashes with +printer's ink on a ribbon of travelling paper, according to an +artificial code in which the fewest signs were given to the commonest +letters in the German language. With this apparatus the message was +registered at the rate of six words a minute. The early experimenters, +as we have seen, especially Salva, had utilised the ground as the return +part of the circuit; and Salva had proposed to use it on his telegraph, +but Steinheil was the first to demonstrate its practical value. In +trying, on the suggestion of Gauss, to employ the rails of the Nurenberg +to Furth railway as the conducting line for a telegraph in the year +1838, he found they would not serve; but the failure led him to employ +the earth as the return half of the circuit. + +In 1837, Professor Stratingh, of Groninque, Holland, devised a telegraph +in which the signals were made by electro-magnets actuating the hammers +of two gongs or bells of different tone; and M. Amyot invented an +automatic sending key in the nature of a musical box. From 1837-8, +Edward Davy, a Devonshire surgeon, exhibited a needle telegraph in +London, and proposed one based on the discovery of Arago, that a piece +of soft iron is temporarily magnetised by the passage of an electric +current through a coil surrounding it. This principle was further +applied by Morse in his electro-magnetic printing telegraph. Davy was a +prolific inventor, and also sketched out a telegraph in which the gases +evolved from water which was decomposed by the current actuated a +recording pen. But his most valuable discovery was the 'relay,' that is +to say, an auxiliary device by which a current too feeble to indicate +the signals could call into play a local battery strong enough to make +them. Davy was in a fair way of becoming one of the fathers of the +working telegraph, when his private affairs obliged him to emigrate to +Australia, and leave the course open to Cooke and Wheatstone. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHARLES WHEATSTONE. + +The electric telegraph, like the steam-engine and the railway, was a +gradual development due to the experiments and devices of a long train +of thinkers. In such a case he who crowns the work, making it +serviceable to his fellow-men, not only wins the pecuniary prize, but is +likely to be hailed and celebrated as the chief, if not the sole +inventor, although in a scientific sense the improvement he has made is +perhaps less than that of some ingenious and forgotten forerunner. He +who advances the work from the phase of a promising idea, to that of a +common boon, is entitled to our gratitude. But in honouring the +keystone of the arch, as it were, let us acknowledge the substructure on +which it rests, and keep in mind the entire bridge. Justice at least is +due to those who have laboured without reward. + +Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone were the first +to bring the electric telegraph into daily use. But we have selected +Wheatstone as our hero, because he was eminent as a man of science, and +chiefly instrumental in perfecting the apparatus. As James Watt is +identified with the steam-engine, and George Stephenson with the +railway, so is Wheatstone with the telegraph. + +Charles Wheatstone was born near Gloucester, in February, 1802. His +father was a music-seller in the town, who, four years later, removed to +128, Pall Mall, London, and became a teacher of the flute. He used to +say, with not a little pride, that he had been engaged in assisting at +the musical education of the Princess Charlotte. Charles, the second +son, went to a village school, near Gloucester, and afterwards to +several institutions in London. One of them was in Kennington, and kept +by a Mrs. Castlemaine, who was astonished at his rapid progress. From +another he ran away, but was captured at Windsor, not far from the +theatre of his practical telegraph. As a boy he was very shy and +sensitive, liking well to retire into an attic, without any other +company than his own thoughts. When he was about fourteen years old he +was apprenticed to his uncle and namesake, a maker and seller of musical +instruments, at 436, Strand, London; but he showed little taste for +handicraft or business, and loved better to study books. His father +encouraged him in this, and finally took him out of the uncle's charge. + +At the age of fifteen, Wheatstone translated French poetry, and wrote +two songs, one of which was given to his uncle, who published it without +knowing it as his nephew's composition. Some lines of his on the lyre +became the motto of an engraving by Bartolozzi. Small for his age, but +with a fine brow, and intelligent blue eyes, he often visited an old +book-stall in the vicinity of Pall Mall, which was then a dilapidated +and unpaved thoroughfare. Most of his pocket-money was spent in +purchasing the books which had taken his fancy, whether fairy tales, +history, or science. One day, to the surprise of the bookseller, he +coveted a volume on the discoveries of Volta in electricity, but not +having the price, he saved his pennies and secured the volume. It was +written in French, and so he was obliged to save again, till he could +buy a dictionary. Then he began to read the volume, and, with the help +of his elder brother, William, to repeat the experiments described in +it, with a home-made battery, in the scullery behind his father's house. +In constructing the battery the boy philosophers ran short of money to +procure the requisite copper-plates. They had only a few copper coins +left. A happy thought occurred to Charles, who was the leading spirit +in these researches, 'We must use the pennies themselves,' said he, and +the battery was soon complete. + +In September, 1821, Wheatstone brought himself into public notice by +exhibiting the 'Enchanted Lyre,' or 'Aconcryptophone,' at a music-shop +at Pall Mall and in the Adelaide Gallery. It consisted of a mimic lyre +hung from the ceiling by a cord, and emitting the strains of several +instruments--the piano, harp, and dulcimer. In reality it was a mere +sounding box, and the cord was a steel rod that conveyed the vibrations +of the music from the several instruments which were played out of sight +and ear-shot. At this period Wheatstone made numerous experiments on +sound and its transmission. Some of his results are preserved in +Thomson's ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY for 1823. He recognised that sound is +propagated by waves or oscillations of the atmosphere, as light by +undulations of the luminiferous ether. Water, and solid bodies, such as +glass, or metal, or sonorous wood, convey the modulations with high +velocity, and he conceived the plan of transmitting sound-signals, +music, or speech to long distances by this means. He estimated that +sound would travel 200 miles a second through solid rods, and proposed +to telegraph from London to Edinburgh in this way. He even called his +arrangement a 'telephone.' [Robert Hooke, in his MICROGRAPHIA, published +in 1667, writes: 'I can assure the reader that I have, by the help of a +distended wire, propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in +an instant, or with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light.' Nor +was it essential the wire should be straight; it might be bent into +angles. This property is the basis of the mechanical or lover's +telephone, said to have been known to the Chinese many centuries ago. +Hooke also considered the possibility of finding a way to quicken our +powers of hearing.] A writer in the REPOSITORY OF ARTS for September 1, +1821, in referring to the 'Enchanted Lyre,' beholds the prospect of an +opera being performed at the King's Theatre, and enjoyed at the Hanover +Square Rooms, or even at the Horns Tavern, Kennington. The vibrations +are to travel through underground conductors, like to gas in pipes. +'And if music be capable of being thus conducted,' he observes,'perhaps +the words of speech may be susceptible of the same means of propagation. +The eloquence of counsel, the debates of Parliament, instead of being +read the next day only,--But we shall lose ourselves in the pursuit of +this curious subject.' + +Besides transmitting sounds to a distance, Wheatstone devised a simple +instrument for augmenting feeble sounds, to which he gave the name of +'Microphone.' It consisted of two slender rods, which conveyed the +mechanical vibrations to both ears, and is quite different from the +electrical microphone of Professor Hughes. + +In 1823, his uncle, the musical instrument maker, died, and Wheatstone, +with his elder brother, William, took over the business. Charles had no +great liking for the commercial part, but his ingenuity found a vent in +making improvements on the existing instruments, and in devising +philosophical toys. At the end of six years he retired from the +undertaking. + +In 1827, Wheatstone introduced his 'kaleidoscope,' a device for +rendering the vibrations of a sounding body apparent to the eye. It +consists of a metal rod, carrying at its end a silvered bead, which +reflects a 'spot' of light. As the rod vibrates the spot is seen to +describe complicated figures in the air, like a spark whirled about in +the darkness. His photometer was probably suggested by this appliance. +It enables two lights to be compared by the relative brightness of their +reflections in a silvered bead, which describes a narrow ellipse, so as +to draw the spots into parallel lines. + +In 1828, Wheatstone improved the German wind instrument, called the MUND +HARMONICA, till it became the popular concertina, patented on June 19, +1829 The portable harmonium is another of his inventions, which gained a +prize medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He also improved the +speaking machine of De Kempelen, and endorsed the opinion of Sir David +Brewster, that before the end of this century a singing and talking +apparatus would be among the conquests of science. + +In 1834, Wheatstone, who had won a name for himself, was appointed to +the Chair of Experimental Physics in King's College, London, But his +first course of lectures on Sound were a complete failure, owing to an +invincible repugnance to public speaking, and a distrust of his powers +in that direction. In the rostrum he was tongue-tied and incapable, +sometimes turning his back on the audience and mumbling to the diagrams +on the wall. In the laboratory he felt himself at home, and ever after +confined his duties mostly to demonstration. + +He achieved renown by a great experiment--the measurement of the +velocity of electricity in a wire. His method was beautiful and +ingenious. He cut the wire at the middle, to form a gap which a spark +might leap across, and connected its ends to the poles of a Leyden jar +filled with electricity. Three sparks were thus produced, one at either +end of the wire, and another at the middle. He mounted a tiny mirror on +the works of a watch, so that it revolved at a high velocity, and +observed the reflections of his three sparks in it. The points of the +wire were so arranged that if the sparks were instantaneous, their +reflections would appear in one straight line; but the middle one was +seen to lag behind the others, because it was an instant later. The +electricity had taken a certain time to travel from the ends of the wire +to the middle. This time was found by measuring the amount of lag, and +comparing it with the known velocity of the mirror. Having got the +time, he had only to compare that with the length of half the wire, and +he found that the velocity of electricity was 288,000 miles a second. + +Till then, many people had considered the electric discharge to be +instantaneous; but it was afterwards found that its velocity depended on +the nature of the conductor, its resistance, and its electro-static +capacity. Faraday showed, for example, that its velocity in a submarine +wire, coated with insulator and surrounded with water, is only 144,000 +miles a second, or still less. Wheatstone's device of the revolving +mirror was afterwards employed by Foucault and Fizeau to measure the +velocity of light. + +In 1835, at the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Wheatstone +showed that when metals were volatilised in the electric spark, their +light, examined through a prism, revealed certain rays which were +characteristic of them. Thus the kind of metals which formed the +sparking points could be determined by analysing the light of the spark. +This suggestion has been of great service in spectrum analysis, and as +applied by Bunsen, Kirchoff, and others, has led to the discovery of +several new elements, such as rubidium and thallium, as well as +increasing our knowledge of the heavenly bodies. Two years later, he +called attention to the value of thermo-electricity as a mode of +generating a current by means of heat, and since then a variety of +thermo-piles have been invented, some of which have proved of +considerable advantage. + +Wheatstone abandoned his idea of transmitting intelligence by the +mechanical vibration of rods, and took up the electric telegraph. In +1835 he lectured on the system of Baron Schilling, and declared that the +means were already known by which an electric telegraph could be made of +great service to the world. He made experiments with a plan of his own, +and not only proposed to lay an experimental line across the Thames, but +to establish it on the London and Birmingham Railway. Before these +plans were carried out, however, he received a visit from Mr. Fothergill +Cooke at his house in Conduit Street on February 27, 1837, which had an +important influence on his future. + +Mr. Cooke was an officer in the Madras army, who, being home on +furlough, was attending some lectures on anatomy at the University of +Heidelberg, where, on March 6, 1836, he witnessed a demonstration with +the telegraph of Professor Moncke, and was so impressed with its +importance, that he forsook his medical studies and devoted all his +efforts to the work of introducing the telegraph. He returned to London +soon after, and was able to exhibit a telegraph with three needles in +January, 1837. Feeling his want of scientific knowledge, he consulted +Faraday and Dr. Roget, the latter of whom sent him to Wheatstone. + +At a second interview, Mr. Cooke told Wheatstone of his intention to +bring out a working telegraph, and explained his method. Wheatstone, +according to his own statement, remarked to Cooke that the method would +not act, and produced his own experimental telegraph. Finally, Cooke +proposed that they should enter into a partnership, but Wheatstone was +at first reluctant to comply. He was a well-known man of science, and +had meant to publish his results without seeking to make capital of +them. Cooke, on the other hand, declared that his sole object was to +make a fortune from the scheme. In May they agreed to join their +forces, Wheatstone contributing the scientific, and Cooke the +administrative talent. The deed of partnership was dated November 19, +1837. A joint patent was taken out for their inventions, including the +five-needle telegraph of Wheatstone, and an alarm worked by a relay, in +which the current, by dipping a needle into mercury, completed a local +circuit, and released the detent of a clockwork. + +The five-needle telegraph, which was mainly, if not entirely, due to +Wheatstone, was similar to that of Schilling, and based on the principle +enunciated by Ampere--that is to say, the current was sent into the line +by completing the circuit of the battery with a make and break key, and +at the other end it passed through a coil of wire surrounding a magnetic +needle free to turn round its centre. According as one pole of the +battery or the other was applied to the line by means of the key, the +current deflected the needle to one side or the other. There were five +separate circuits actuating five different needles. The latter were +pivoted in rows across the middle of a dial shaped like a diamond, and +having the letters of the alphabet arranged upon it in such a way that a +letter was literally pointed out by the current deflecting two of the +needles towards it. + +An experimental line, with a sixth return wire, was run between the +Euston terminus and Camden Town station of the London and North Western +Railway on July 25, 1837. The actual distance was only one and a half +mile, but spare wire had been inserted in the circuit to increase its +length. It was late in the evening before the trial took place. Mr. +Cooke was in charge at Camden Town, while Mr. Robert Stephenson and +other gentlemen looked on; and Wheatstone sat at his instrument in a +dingy little room, lit by a tallow candle, near the booking-office at +Euston. Wheatstone sent the first message, to which Cooke replied, and +'never,' said Wheatstone, 'did I feel such a tumultuous sensation +before, as when, all alone in the still room, I heard the needles click, +and as I spelled the words, I felt all the magnitude of the invention +pronounced to be practicable beyond cavil or dispute.' + +In spite of this trial, however, the directors of the railway treated +the 'new-fangled' invention with indifference, and requested its +removal. In July, 1839, however, it was favoured by the Great Western +Railway, and a line erected from the Paddington terminus to West Drayton +station, a distance of thirteen miles. Part of the wire was laid +underground at first, but subsequently all of it was raised on posts +along the line. Their circuit was eventually extended to Slough in +1841, and was publicly exhibited at Paddington as a marvel of science, +which could transmit fifty signals a distance of 280,000 miles in a +minute. The price of admission was a shilling. + +Notwithstanding its success, the public did not readily patronise the +new invention until its utility was noised abroad by the clever capture +of the murderer Tawell. Between six and seven o'clock one morning a +woman named Sarah Hart was found dead in her home at Salt Hill, and a +man had been observed to leave her house some time before. The police +knew that she was visited from time to time by a Mr. John Tawell, from +Berkhampstead, where he was much respected, and on inquiring and +arriving at Slough, they found that a person answering his description +had booked by a slow train for London, and entered a first-class +carriage. The police telegraphed at once to Paddington, giving the +particulars, and desiring his capture. 'He is in the garb of a Quaker,' +ran the message, 'with a brown coat on, which reaches nearly to his +feet.' There was no 'Q' in the alphabet of the five-needle instrument, +and the clerk at Slough began to spell the word 'Quaker' with a 'kwa'; +but when he had got so far he was interrupted by the clerk at +Paddington, who asked him to 'repent.' The repetition fared no better, +until a boy at Paddington suggested that Slough should be allowed to +finish the word. 'Kwaker' was understood, and as soon as Tawell stepped +out on the platform at Paddington he was 'shadowed' by a detective, who +followed him into a New Road omnibus, and arrested him in a coffee +tavern. + +Tawell was tried for the murder of the woman, and astounding revelations +were made as to his character. Transported in 1820 for the crime of +forgery, he obtained a ticket-of-leave, and started as a chemist in +Sydney, where he flourished, and after fifteen years left it a rich man. +Returning to England, he married a Quaker lady as his second wife. He +confessed to the murder of Sarah Hart, by prussic acid, his motive being +a dread of their relations becoming known. + +Tawell was executed, and the notoriety of the case brought the telegraph +into repute. Its advantages as a rapid means of conveying intelligence +and detecting criminals had been signally demonstrated, and it was soon +adopted on a more extensive scale. + +In 1845 Wheatstone introduced two improved forms of the apparatus, +namely, the 'single' and the 'double' needle instruments, in which the +signals were made by the successive deflections of the needles. Of +these, the single-needle instrument, requiring only one wire, is still +in use. + +In 1841 a difference arose between Cooke and Wheatstone as to the share +of each in the honour of inventing the telegraph. The question was +submitted to the arbitration of the famous engineer, Marc Isambard +Brunel, on behalf of Cooke, and Professor Daniell, of King's College, +the inventor of the Daniell battery, on the part of Wheatstone. They +awarded to Cooke the credit of having introduced the telegraph as a +useful undertaking which promised to be of national importance, and to +Wheatstone that of having by his researches prepared the public to +receive it. They concluded with the words: 'It is to the united +labours of two gentlemen so well qualified for mutual assistance that +we must attribute the rapid progress which this important invention has +made during five years since they have been associated.' The decision, +however vague, pronounces the needle telegraph a joint production. If +it was mainly invented by Wheatstone, it was chiefly introduced by +Cooke. Their respective shares in the undertaking might be compared to +that of an author and his publisher, but for the fact that Cooke himself +had a share in the actual work of invention. + +In 1840 Wheatstone had patented an alphabetical telegraph, or, +'Wheatstone A B C instrument,' which moved with a step-by-step motion, +and showed the letters of the message upon a dial. The same principle +was utilised in his type-printing telegraph, patented in 1841. This was +the first apparatus which printed a telegram in type. It was worked by +two circuits, and as the type revolved a hammer, actuated by the +current, pressed the required letter on the paper. in 1840 Wheatstone +also brought out his magneto-electrical machine for generating +continuous currents, and his chronoscope, for measuring minute intervals +of time, which was used in determining the speed of a bullet or the +passage of a star. In this apparatus an electric current actuated an +electro-magnet, which noted the instant of an occurrence by means of a +pencil on a moving paper. It is said to have been capable of +distinguishing 1/7300 part of a second, and the time a body took to fall +from a height of one inch. + +The same year he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society for +his explanation of binocular vision, a research which led him to +construct the stereoscope. He showed that our impression of solidity is +gained by the combination in the mind of two separate pictures of an +object taken by both of our eyes from different points of view. Thus, +in the stereoscope, an arrangement of lenses and mirrors, two +photographs of the same object taken from different points are so +combined as to make the object stand out with a solid aspect. Sir David +Brewster improved the stereoscope by dispensing with the mirrors, and +bringing it into its existing form. + +The 'pseudoscope' (Wheatstone was partial to exotic forms of speech) was +introduced by its professor in 1850, and is in some sort the reverse of +the stereoscope, since it causes a solid object to seem hollow, and a +nearer one to be farther off; thus, a bust appears to be a mask, and a +tree growing outside of a window looks as if it were growing inside the +room. + +On November 26, 1840, he exhibited his electro-magnetic clock in the +library of the Royal Society, and propounded a plan for distributing the +correct time from a standard clock to a number of local timepieces. The +circuits of these were to be electrified by a key or contact-maker +actuated by the arbour of the standard, and their hands corrected by +electro-magnetism. The following January Alexander Bain took out a +patent for an electro-magnetic clock, and he subsequently charged +Wheatstone with appropriating his ideas. It appears that Bain worked as +a mechanist to Wheatstone from August to December, 1840, and he asserted +that he had communicated the idea of an electric clock to Wheatstone +during that period; but Wheatstone maintained that he had experimented +in that direction during May. Bain further accused Wheatstone of +stealing his idea of the electro-magnetic printing telegraph; but +Wheatstone showed that the instrument was only a modification of his own +electro-magnetic telegraph. + +In 1843 Wheatstone communicated an important paper to the Royal Society, +entitled 'An Account of Several New Processes for Determining the +Constants of a Voltaic Circuit.' It contained an exposition of the well- +known balance for measuring the electrical resistance of a conductor, +which still goes by the name of Wheatstone's Bridge or balance, although +it was first devised by Mr. S. W. Christie, of the Royal Military +Academy, Woolwich, who published it in the PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS +for 1833. The method was neglected until Wheatstone brought it into +notice. His paper abounds with simple and practical formula: for the +calculation of currents and resistances by the law of Ohm. He +introduced a unit of resistance, namely, a foot of copper wire weighing +one hundred grains, and showed how it might be applied to measure the +length of wire by its resistance. He was awarded a medal for his paper +by the Society. The same year he invented an apparatus which enabled +the reading of a thermometer or a barometer to be registered at a +distance by means of an electric contact made by the mercury. A sound +telegraph, in which the signals were given by the strokes of a bell, was +also patented by Cooke and Wheatstone in May of that year. + +The introduction of the telegraph had so far advanced that, on September +2, 1845, the Electric Telegraph Company was registered, and Wheatstone, +by his deed of partnership with Cooke, received a sum of L33,000 for the +use of their joint inventions. + +>From 1836-7 Wheatstone had thought a good deal about submarine +telegraphs, and in 1840 he gave evidence before the Railway Committee of +the House of Commons on the feasibility of the proposed line from Dover +to Calais. He had even designed the machinery for making and laying the +cable. In the autumn of 1844, with the assistance of Mr. J. D. +Llewellyn, he submerged a length of insulated wire in Swansea Bay, and +signalled through it from a boat to the Mumbles Lighthouse. Next year he +suggested the use of gutta-percha for the coating of the intended wire +across the Channel. + +Though silent and reserved in public, Wheatstone was a clear and voluble +talker in private, if taken on his favourite studies, and his small but +active person, his plain but intelligent countenance, was full of +animation. Sir Henry Taylor tells us that he once observed Wheatstone +at an evening party in Oxford earnestly holding forth to Lord Palmerston +on the capabilities of his telegraph. 'You don't say so!' exclaimed the +statesman. 'I must get you to tell that to the Lord Chancellor.' And so +saying, he fastened the electrician on Lord Westbury, and effected his +escape. A reminiscence of this interview may have prompted Palmerston +to remark that a time was coming when a minister might be asked in +Parliament if war had broken out in India, and would reply, 'Wait a +minute; I'll just telegraph to the Governor-General, and let you know.' + +At Christchurch, Marylebone, on February 12, 1847, Wheatstone was +married. His wife was the daughter of a Taunton tradesman, and of +handsome appearance. She died in 1866, leaving a family of five young +children to his care. His domestic life was quiet and uneventful. + +One of Wheatstone's most ingenious devices was the 'Polar clock,' +exhibited at the meeting of the British Association in 1848. It is +based on the fact discovered by Sir David Brewster, that the light of +the sky is polarised in a plane at an angle of ninety degrees from the +position of the sun. It follows that by discovering that plane of +polarisation, and measuring its azimuth with respect to the north, the +position of the sun, although beneath the horizon, could be determined, +and the apparent solar time obtained. The clock consisted of a spy- +glass, having a nichol or double-image prism for an eye-piece, and a +thin plate of selenite for an object-glass. When the tube was directed +to the North Pole--that is, parallel to the earth's axis--and the prism +of the eye-piece turned until no colour was seen, the angle of turning, +as shown by an index moving with the prism over a graduated limb, gave +the hour of day. The device is of little service in a country where +watches are reliable; but it formed part of the equipment of the North +Polar expedition commanded by Captain Nares. Wheatstone's remarkable +ingenuity was displayed in the invention of cyphers which have never +been unravelled, and interpreting cypher manuscripts in the British +Museum which had defied the experts. He devised a cryptograph or +machine for turning a message into cypher which could only be +interpreted by putting the cypher into a corresponding machine adjusted +to reproduce it. + +The rapid development of the telegraph in Europe may be gathered from +the fact that in 1855, the death of the Emperor Nicholas at St. +Petersburg, about one o'clock in the afternoon, was announced in the +House of Lords a few hours later; and as a striking proof of its further +progress, it may be mentioned that the result of the Oaks of 1890 was +received in New York fifteen seconds after the horses passed the +winning-post. + +Wheatstone's next great invention was the automatic transmitter, in +which the signals of the message are first punched out on a strip of +paper, which is then passed through the sending-key, and controls the +signal currents. By substituting a mechanism for the hand in sending +the message, he was able to telegraph about 100 words a minute, or five +times the ordinary rate. In the Postal Telegraph service this apparatus +is employed for sending Press telegrams, and it has recently been so +much improved, that messages are now sent from London to Bristol at a +speed of 600 words a minute, and even of 400 words a minute between +London and Aberdeen. On the night of April 8, 1886, when Mr. Gladstone +introduced his Bill for Home Rule in Ireland, no fewer than 1,500,000 +words were despatched from the central station at St. Martin's-le-Grand +by 100 Wheatstone transmitters. Were Mr. Gladstone himself to speak for +a whole week, night and day, and with his usual facility, he could +hardly surpass this achievement. The plan of sending messages by a +running strip of paper which actuates the key was originally patented by +Bain in 1846; but Wheatstone, aided by Mr. Augustus Stroh, an +accomplished mechanician, and an able experimenter, was the first to +bring the idea into successful operation. + +In 1859 Wheatstone was appointed by the Board of Trade to report on the +subject of the Atlantic cables, and in 1864 he was one of the experts +who advised the Atlantic Telegraph Company on the construction of the +successful lines of 1865 and 1866. On February 4, 1867, he published +the principle of reaction in the dynamo-electric machine by a paper to +the Royal Society; but Mr. C. W. Siemens had communicated the identical +discovery ten days earlier, and both papers were read on the same day. +It afterwards appeared that Herr Werner Siemens, Mr. Samuel Alfred +Varley, and Professor Wheatstone had independently arrived at the +principle within a few months of each other. Varley patented it on +December 24, 1866; Siemens called attention to it on January 17, 1867; +and Wheatstone exhibited it in action at the Royal Society on the above +date. But it will be seen from our life of William Siemens that Soren +Hjorth, a Danish inventor, had forestalled them. + +In 1870 the electric telegraph lines of the United Kingdom, worked by +different companies, were transferred to the Post Office, and placed +under Government control. + +Wheatstone was knighted in 1868, after his completion of the automatic +telegraph. He had previously been made a Chevalier of the Legion of +Honour. Some thirty-four distinctions and diplomas of home or foreign +societies bore witness to his scientific reputation. Since 1836 he had +been a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1873 he was appointed a +Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences. The same year he +was awarded the Ampere Medal by the French Society for the Encouragement +of National Industry. In 1875 he was created an honorary member of the +Institution of Civil Engineers. He was a D.C.L. of Oxford and an LL.D. +of Cambridge. + +While on a visit to Paris during the autumn of 1875, and engaged in +perfecting his receiving instrument for submarine cables, he caught a +cold, which produced inflammation of the lungs, an illness from which he +died in Paris, on October 19, 1875. A memorial service was held in the +Anglican Chapel, Paris, and attended by a deputation of the Academy. +His remains were taken to his home in Park Crescent, London, and buried +in Kensal Green. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +SAMUEL MORSE. + +Cooke and Wheatstone were the first to introduce a public telegraph +worked by electro-magnetism; but it had the disadvantage of not marking +down the message. There was still room for an instrument which would +leave a permanent record that might he read at leisure, and this was the +invention of Samuel Finley Breeze Morse. He was born at the foot of +Breed's Hill, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April, 1791. +The place was a little over a mile from where Benjamin Franklin was +born, and the date was a little over a year after he died. His family +was of British origin. Anthony Morse, of Marlborough, in Wiltshire, had +emigrated to America in 1635, and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, He +and his descendants prospered. The grandfather of Morse was a member of +the Colonial and State Legislatures, and his father, Jedediah Morse, +D.D., was a well-known divine of his day, and the author of Morse's +AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY, as well as a compiler of a UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER His +mother was Elizabeth Ann Breeze, apparently of Welsh extraction, and the +grand-daughter of Samuel Finley, a distinguished President of the +Princeton College. Jedediah Morse is reputed a man of talent, industry, +and vigour, with high aims for the good of his fellow-men, ingenious to +conceive, resolute in action, and sanguine of success. His wife is +described as a woman of calm, reflective mind, animated conversation, +and engaging manners. + +They had two other sons besides Samuel, the second of whom, Sidney E. +Morse, was founder of the New York OBSERVER, an able mathematician, +author of the ART OF CEROGRAPHY, or engraving upon wax, to stereotype +from, and inventor of a barometer for sounding the deep-sea. Sidney was +the trusted friend and companion of his elder brother. + +At the age of four Samuel was sent to an infant school kept by an old +lady, who being lame, was unable to leave her chair, but carried her +authority to the remotest parts of her dominion by the help of a long +rattan. Samuel, like the rest, had felt the sudden apparition of this +monitor. Having scratched a portrait of the dame upon a chest of drawers +with the point of a pin, he was called out and summarily punished. Years +later, when he became notable, the drawers were treasured by one of his +admirers. + +He entered a preparatory school at Andover, Mass., when he was seven +years old, and showed himself an eager pupil. Among other books, he was +delighted with Plutarch's LIVES, and at thirteen he composed a biography +of Demosthenes, long preserved by his family. A year later he entered +Yale College as a freshman. + +During his curriculum he attended the lectures of Professor Jeremiah +Day on natural philosophy and Professor Benjamin Sieliman on chemistry, +and it was then he imbibed his earliest knowledge of electricity. In +1809-10 Dr. Day was teaching from Enfield's text-book on philosophy, +that 'if the (electric) circuit be interrupted, the fluid will become +visible, and when: it passes it will leave an impression upon any +intermediate body,' and he illustrated this by sending the spark through +a metal chain, so that it became visible between the links, and by +causing it to perforate paper. Morse afterwards declared this experiment +to have been the seed which rooted in his mind and grew into the +'invention of the telegraph.' + +It is not evident that Morse had any distinct idea of the electric +telegraph in these days; but amidst his lessons in literature and +philosophy he took a special interest in the sciences of electricity and +chemistry. He became acquainted with the voltaic battery through the +lectures of his friend, Professor Sieliman; and we are told that during +one of his vacations at Yale he made a series of electrical experiments +with Dr. Dwight. Some years later he resumed these studies under his +friend Professor James Freeman Dana, of the University of New York, who +exhibited the electro-magnet to his class in 1827, and also under +Professor Renwick, of Columbia College. + +Art seems to have had an equal if not a greater charm than science +for Morse at this period. A boy of fifteen, he made a water-colour +sketch of his family sitting round the table; and while a student at +Yale he relieved his father, who was far from rich, of a part of his +education by painting miniatures on ivory, and selling them to his +companions at five dollars a-piece. Before he was nineteen he completed +a painting of the 'Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,' which formerly +hung in the office of the Mayor, at Charlestown, Massachusetts. + +On graduating at Yale, in 1810, he devoted himself to Art, and became +a pupil of Washington Allston, the well-known American painter. He +accompanied Allston to Europe in 1811, and entered the studio of +Benjamin West, who was then at the zenith of his reputation. The +friendship of West, with his own introductions and agreeable +personality, enabled him to move in good society, to which he was always +partial. William Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay, father of the historian, +Coleridge, and Copley, were among his acquaintances. Leslie, the artist, +then a struggling genius like himself, was his fellow-lodger. His heart +was evidently in the profession of his choice. 'My passion for my art,' +he wrote to his mother, in 1812, 'is so firmly rooted that I am +confident no human power could destroy it. The more I study the greater +I think is its claim to the appellation of divine. I am now going to +begin a picture of the death of Hercules the figure to be as large as +life.' + +After he had perfected this work to his own eyes, he showed it, with +not a little pride, to Mr. West, who after scanning it awhile said, +'Very good, very good. Go on and finish it.' Morse ventured to say +that it was finished. 'No! no! no!' answered West; 'see there, and +there, and there. There is much to be done yet. Go on and finish it.' +Each time the pupil showed it the master said, 'Go on and finish it.' +[THE TELEGRAPH IN AMERICA, by James D. Reid] This was a lesson in +thoroughness of work and attention to detail which was not lost on the +student. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy, in Somerset +House, during the summer of 1813, and West declared that if Morse were +to live to his own age he would never make a better composition. The +remark is equivocal, but was doubtless intended as a compliment to the +precocity of the young painter. + +In order to be correct in the anatomy he had first modelled the +figure of his Hercules in clay, and this cast, by the advice of West, +was entered in competition for a prize in sculpture given by the Society +of Arts. It proved successful, and on May 13 the sculptor was presented +with the prize and a gold medal by the Duke of Norfolk before a +distinguished gathering in the Adelphi. + +Flushed with his triumph, Morse determined to compete for the prize +of fifty guineas and a gold medal offered by the Royal Academy for the +best historical painting, and took for his subject, 'The Judgment of +Jupiter in the case of Apollo, Marpessa, and Idas.' The work was +finished to the satisfaction of West, but the painter was summoned home. +He was still, in part at least, depending on his father, and had been +abroad a year longer than the three at first intended. During this time +he had been obliged to pinch himself in a thousand ways in order to eke +out his modest allowance. 'My drink is water, porter being too +expensive,' he wrote to his parents. 'I have had no new clothes for +nearly a year. My best are threadbare, and my shoes are out at the +toes. My stockings all want to see my mother, and my hat is hoary with +age.' + +Mr. West recommended him to stay, since the rules of the competition +required the winner to receive the prize in person. But after trying in +vain to get this regulation waived, he left for America with his +picture, having, a few days prior to his departure, dined with Mr. +Wilberforce as the guns of Hyde Park were signalling the victory of +Waterloo. + +Arriving in Boston on October 18, he lost no time in renting a +studio. His fame had preceded him, and he became the lion of society. +His 'Judgment of Jupiter' was exhibited in the town, and people flocked +to see it. But no one offered to buy it. If the line of high art he had +chosen had not supported him in England, it was tantamount to starvation +in the rawer atmosphere of America. Even in Boston, mellowed though it +was by culture, the classical was at a discount. Almost penniless, and +fretting under his disappointment, he went to Concord, New Hampshire, +and contrived to earn a living by painting cabinet portraits. Was this +the end of his ambitious dreams? + +Money was needful to extricate him from this drudgery and let him +follow up his aspirations. Love may have been a still stronger motive +for its acquisition. So he tried his hand at invention, and, in +conjunction with his brother Sidney, produced what was playfully +described as 'Morse's Patent Metallic Double-Headed Ocean-Drinker and +Deluge-Spouter Pump-Box.' The pump was quite as much admired as the +'Jupiter,' and it proved as great a failure. + +Succeeding as a portrait painter, he went, in 1818, on the invitation +of his uncle, Dr. Finley, to Charleston, in South Carolina, and opened a +studio there. After a single season he found himself in a position to +marry, and on October 1, 1818, was united to Lucretia P. Walker, of +Concord, New Hampshire, a beautiful and accomplished lady. He thrived so +well in the south that he once received as many as one hundred and fifty +orders in a few weeks; and his reputation was such that he was honoured +with a commission from the Common Council of Charleston to execute a +portrait of James Monroe, then President of the United States. It was +regarded as a masterpiece. In January, 1821, he instituted the South +Carolina Academy of Fine Arts, which is now extinct. + +After four years of life in Charleston he returned to the north with +savings to the amount of L600, and settled in New York. He devoted +eighteen months to the execution of a large painting of the House of +Representatives in the Capitol at Washington; but its exhibition proved +a loss, and in helping his brothers to pay his father's debts the +remains of his little fortune were swept away. He stood next to Allston +as an American historical painter, but all his productions in that line +proved a disappointment. The public would not buy them. On the other +hand, he received an order from the Corporation of New York for a +portrait of General Lafayette, the hero of the hour. + +While engaged on this work he lost his wife in February, 1825, and +then his parents. In 1829 he visited Europe, and spent his time among +the artists and art galleries of England, France, and Italy. In Paris he +undertook a picture of the interior of the Louvre, showing some of the +masterpieces in miniature, but it seems that nobody purchased it. He +expected to be chosen to illustrate one of the vacant panels in the +Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington; but in this too he was mistaken. +However, some fellow-artists in America, thinking he had deserved the +honour, collected a sum of money to assist him in painting the +composition he had fixed upon: 'The Signing of the First Compact on +Board the Mayflower.' + +In a far from hopeful mood after his three years' residence abroad he +embarked on the packet Sully, Captain Pell, and sailed from Havre for +New York on October 1, 1832. Among the passengers was Dr. Charles T. +Jackson, of Boston, who had attended some lectures on electricity in +Paris, and carried an electro-magnet in his trunk. One day while Morse +and Dr. Jackson, with a few more, sat round the luncheon table in the +cabin, he began to talk of the experiments he had witnessed. Some one +asked if the speed of the electricity was lessened by its passage +through a long wire, and Dr. Jackson, referring to a trial of Faraday, +replied that the current was apparently instantaneous. Morse, who +probably remembered his old lessons in the subject, now remarked that if +the presence of the electricity could be rendered visible at any point +of the circuit he saw no reason why intelligence might not be sent by +this means. + +The idea became rooted in his mind, and engrossed his thoughts. Until +far into the night he paced the deck discussing the matter with Dr. +Jackson, and pondering it in solitude. Ways of rendering the electricity +sensible at the far end of the line were considered. The spark might +pierce a band of travelling paper, as Professor Day had mentioned years +before; it might decompose a chemical solution, and leave a stain to +mark its passage, as tried by Mr. Dyar in 1827; Or it could excite an +electro-magnet, which, by attracting a piece of soft iron, would +inscribe the passage with a pen or pencil. The signals could be made by +very short currents or jets of electricity, according to a settled code. +Thus a certain number of jets could represent a corresponding numeral, +and the numeral would, in its turn, represent a word in the language. To +decipher the message, a special code-book or dictionary would be +required. In order to transmit the currents through the line, he devised +a mechanical sender, in which the circuit would be interrupted by a +series of types carried on a port-rule or composing-stick, which +travelled at a uniform speed. Each type would have a certain number of +teeth or projections on its upper face, and as it was passed through a +gap in the circuit the teeth would make or break the current. At the +other end of the line the currents thus transmitted would excite the +electro-magnet, actuate the pencil, and draw a zig-zag line on the +paper, every angle being a distinct signal, and the groups of signals +representing a word in the code. + +During the voyage of six weeks the artist jotted his crude ideas in +his sketch-book, which afterwards became a testimony to their date. That +he cherished hopes of his invention may be gathered from his words on +landing, 'Well, Captain Pell, should you ever hear of the telegraph one +of these days as the wonder of the world, remember the discovery was +made on the good ship Sully.' + +Soon after his return his brothers gave him a room on the fifth floor +of a house at the corner of Nassau and Beekman Streets, New York. For a +long time it was his studio and kitchen, his laboratory and bedroom. +With his livelihood to earn by his brush, and his invention to work out, +Morse was now fully occupied. His diet was simple; he denied himself the +pleasures of society, and employed his leisure in making models of his +types. The studio was an image of his mind at this epoch. Rejected +pictures looked down upon his clumsy apparatus, type-moulds lay among +plaster-casts, the paint-pot jostled the galvanic battery, and the easel +shared his attention with the lathe. By degrees the telegraph allured +him from the canvas, and he only painted enough to keep the wolf from +the door. His national picture, 'The Signing of the First Compact on +Board the Mayflower,' was never finished, and the 300 dollars which had +been subscribed for it were finally returned with interest. + +For Morse by nature was proud and independent, with a sensitive +horror of incurring debt. He would rather endure privation than solicit +help or lie under a humiliating obligation. His mother seems to have +been animated with a like spirit, for the Hon. Amos Kendall informs us +that she had suffered much through the kindness of her husband in +becoming surety for his friends, and that when she was dying she exacted +a promise from her son that he would never endanger his peace of mind +and the comfort of his home by doing likewise. + +During the two and a half years from November, 1832, to the summer of +1835 he was obliged to change his residence three times, and want of +money prevented him from combining the several parts of his invention +into a working whole. In 1835, however, his reputation as an historical +painter, and the esteem in which he was held as a man of culture and +refinement, led to his appointment as the first Professor of the +Literature of the Arts of Design in the newly founded University of the +city of New York. In the month of July he took up his quarters in the +new buildings of the University at Washington Square, and was henceforth +able to devote more time to his apparatus. The same year Professor +Daniell, of King's College, London, brought out his constant-current +battery, which befriended Morse in his experiments, as it afterwards did +Cooke and Wheatstone, Hitherto the voltaic battery had been a source of +trouble, owing to the current becoming weak as the battery was kept in +action. + +The length of line through which Morse could work his apparatus was +an important point to be determined, for it was known that the current +grows feebler in proportion to the resistance of the wire it traverses. +Morse saw a way out of the difficulty, as Davy, Cooke, and Wheatstone +did, by the device known as the relay. Were the current too weak to +effect the marking of a message, it might nevertheless be sufficiently +strong to open and close the circuit of a local battery which would +print the signals. Such relays and local batteries, fixed at intervals +along the line, as post-horses on a turnpike, would convey the message +to an immense distance. 'If I can succeed in working a magnet ten +miles,' said Morse,'I can go round the globe. It matters not how +delicate the movement may be.' + +According to his own statement, he devised the relay in 1836 or +earlier; but it was not until the beginning of 1837 that he explained +the device, and showed the working of his apparatus to his friend, Mr. +Leonard D. Gale, Professor of Chemistry in the University. This +gentleman took a lively interest in the apparatus, and proved a generous +ally of the inventor. Until then Morse had only tried his recorder on a +few yards of wire, the battery was a single pair of plates, and the +electro-magnet was of the elementary sort employed by Moll, and +illustrated in the older books. The artist, indeed, was very ignorant of +what had been done by other electricians; and Professor Gale was able to +enlighten him. When Gale acquainted him with some results in +telegraphing obtained by Mr. Barlow, he said he was not aware that +anyone had even conceived the notion of using the magnet for such a +purpose. The researches of Professor Joseph Henry on the electro-magnet, +in 1830, were equally unknown to Morse, until Professor Gale drew his +attention to them, and in accordance with the results, suggested that +the simple electro-magnet, with a few turns of thick wire which he +employed, should be replaced by one having a coil of long thin wire. By +this change a much feebler current would be able to excite the magnet, +and the recorder would mark through a greater length of line. Henry +himself, in 1832, had devised a telegraph similar to that of Morse, and +signalled through a mile of wire, by causing the armature of his +electro-magnet to strike a bell. This was virtually the first electro- +magnetic acoustic telegraph.[AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.] + +The year of the telegraph--1837--was an important one for Morse, as +it was for Cooke and Wheatstone. In the privacy of his rooms he had +constructed, with his own hands, a model of his apparatus, and fortune +began to favour him. Thanks to Professor Gale, he improved the electro- +magnet, employed a more powerful battery, and was thus able to work +through a much longer line. In February, 1837, the American House of +Representatives passed a resolution asking the Secretary of the Treasury +to report on the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for +the United States, and on March 10 issued a circular of inquiry, which +fell into the hands of the inventor, and probably urged him to complete +his apparatus, and bring it under the notice of the Government. Lack of +mechanical skill, ignorance of electrical science, as well as want of +money, had so far kept it back. + +But the friend in need whom he required was nearer than he anticipated. +On Saturday, September 2, 1837, while Morse was exhibiting the model to +Professor Daubeny, of Oxford, then visiting the States, and others, a +young man named Alfred Vail became one of the spectators, and was deeply +impressed with the results. Vail was born in 1807, a son of Judge +Stephen Vail, master of the Speedwell ironworks at Morristown, New +Jersey. After leaving the village school his father took him and his +brother George into the works; but though Alfred inherited a mechanical +turn of mind, he longed for a higher sphere, and on attaining to his +majority he resolved to enter the Presbyterian Church. In 1832 he went +to the University of the city of New York, where he graduated in +October, 1836. Near the close of the term, however, his health failed, +and he was constrained to relinquish his clerical aims. While in doubts +as to his future he chanced to see the telegraph, and that decided him. +He says: 'I accidentally and without invitation called upon Professor +Morse at the University, and found him with Professors Torrey and +Daubeny in the mineralogical cabinet and lecture-room of Professor Gale, +where Professor Morse was exhibiting to these gentlemen an apparatus +which he called his Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. There were wires +suspended in the room running from one end of it to the other, and +returning many times, making a length of seventeen hundred feet. The +two ends of the wire were connected with an electro-magnet fastened to a +vertical wooden frame. In front of the magnet was its armature, and +also a wooden lever or arm fitted at its extremity to hold a lead- +pencil.... I saw this instrument work, and became thoroughly acquainted +with the principle of its operation, and, I may say, struck with the +rude machine, containing, as I believed, the germ of what was destined +to produce great changes in the conditions and relations of mankind. I +well recollect the impression which was then made upon my mind. I +rejoiced to think that I lived in such a day, and my mind contemplated +the future in which so grand and mighty an agent was about to be +introduced for the benefit of the world. Before leaving the room in +which I beheld for the first time this magnificent invention, I asked +Professor Morse if he intended to make an experiment on a more extended +line of conductors. He replied that he did, but that he desired +pecuniary assistance to carry out his plans. I promised him assistance +provided he would admit me into a share of the invention, to which +proposition he assented. I then returned to my boarding-house, locked +the door of my room, threw myself upon the bed, and gave myself up to +reflection upon the mighty results which were certain to follow the +introduction of this new agent in meeting and serving the wants of the +world. With the atlas in my hand I traced the most important lines +which would most certainly be erected in the United States, and +calculated their length. The question then rose in my mind, whether +the electro-magnet could be made to work through the necessary lengths +of line, and after much reflection I came to the conclusion that, +provided the magnet would work even at a distance of eight or ten miles, +there could be no risk in embarking in the enterprise. And upon this I +decided in my own mind to SINK OR SWIM WITH IT.' + +Young Vail applied to his father, who was a man of enterprise and +intelligence. He it was who forged the shaft of the Savannah, the first +steamship which crossed the Atlantic. Morse was invited to Speedwell +with his apparatus, that the judge might see it for himself, and the +question of a partnership was mooted. Two thousand dollars were required +to procure the patents and construct an instrument to bring before the +Congress. In spite of a financial depression, the judge was brave enough +to lend his assistance, and on September 23, 1837, an agreement was +signed between the inventor and Alfred Vail, by which the latter was to +construct, at his own expense, a model for exhibition to a Committee of +Congress, and to secure the necessary patents for the United States. In +return Vail was to receive one-fourth of the patent rights in that +country. Provision was made also to give Vail an interest in any foreign +patents he might furnish means to obtain. The American patent was +obtained by Morse on October 3, 1837. He had returned to New York, and +was engaged in the preparation of his dictionary. + +For many months Alfred Vail worked in a secret room at the iron +factory making the new model, his only assistant being an apprentice of +fifteen, William Baxter, who subsequently designed the Baxter engine, +and died in 1885. When the workshop was rebuilt this room was preserved +as a memorial of the telegraph, for it was here that the true Morse +instrument, such as we know it, was constructed. + +It must be remembered that in those days almost everything they +wanted had either to be made by themselves or appropriated to their +purpose. Their first battery was set up in a box of cherry-wood, parted +into cells, and lined with bees-wax; their insulated wire was that used +by milliners for giving outline to the 'sky-scraper' bonnets of that +day. The first machine made at Speedwell was a copy of that devised by +Morse, but as Vail grew more intimate with the subject his own ingenuity +came into play, and he soon improved on the original. The pencil was +discarded for a fountain pen, and the zig-zag signals for the short and +long lines now termed 'dots ' and 'dashes.' + +This important alteration led him to the 'Morse alphabet,' or code of +signals, by which a letter is transmitted as a group of short and long +jets, indicated as 'dots' and 'dashes' on the paper. Thus the letter E, +which is so common in English words, is now transmitted by a short jet +which makes a dot; T, another common letter, by a long jet, making a +dash; and Q, a rare letter, by the group dash, dash, dot, dash. Vail +tried to compute the relative frequency of all the letters in order to +arrange his alphabet; but a happy idea enabled him to save his time. He +went to the office of the local newspaper, and found the result he +wanted in the type-cases of the compositors. The Morse, or rather Vail +code, is at present the universal telegraphic code of symbols, and its +use is extending to other modes of signalling-for example, by flags, +lights, or trumpets. + +The hard-fisted farmers of New Jersey, like many more at that date, +had no faith in the 'telegraph machine,' and openly declared that the +judge had been a fool for once to put his money in it. The judge, on +his part, wearied with the delay, and irritated by the sarcasm of his +neighbours, grew dispirited and moody. Alfred, and Morse, who had come +to assist, were careful to avoid meeting him. At length, on January 6, +1838, Alfred told the apprentice to go up to the house and invite his +father to come down to see the telegraph at work. It was a cold day, +but the boy was so eager that he ran off without putting on his coat. +In the sitting-room he found the judge with his hat on as if about to go +out, but seated before the fire leaning his head on his hand, and +absorbed in gloomy reflection. 'Well, William ?' he said, looking up, +as the boy entered; and when the message was delivered he started to his +feet. In a few minutes he was standing in the experimental-room, and +the apparatus was explained. Calling for a piece of paper he wrote upon +it the words, 'A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER,' and handed it to Alfred, +with the remark, 'If you can send this, and Mr. Morse can read it at the +other end, I shall be convinced.' The message was transmitted, and for +a moment the judge was fairly mastered by his feelings. + +The apparatus was then exhibited in New York, in Philadelphia, and +subsequently before the Committee of Congress at Washington. At first +the members of this body were somewhat incredulous about the merits of +the uncouth machine; but the Chairman, the Hon. Francis O. J. Smith, of +Maine, took an interest in it, and secured a full attendance of the +others to see it tried through ten miles of wire one day in February. +The demonstration convinced them, and many were the expressions of +amazement from their lips. Some said, 'The world is coming to an end,' +as people will when it is really budding, and putting forth symptoms of +a larger life. Others exclaimed, 'Where will improvements and +discoveries stop?' and 'What would Jefferson think should he rise up and +witness what we have just seen?' One gentleman declared that, 'Time and +space are now annihilated.' + +The practical outcome of the trial was that the Chairman reported a +Bill appropriating 30,000 dollars for the erection of an experimental +line between Washington and Baltimore. Mr. Smith was admitted to a +fourth share in the invention, and resigned his seat in Congress to +become legal adviser to the inventors. Claimants to the invention of +the telegraph now began to spring up, and it was deemed advisable for +Mr. Smith and Morse to proceed to Europe and secure the foreign patents. +Alfred Vail undertook to provide an instrument for exhibition in Europe. + +Among these claimants was Dr. Jackson, chemist and geologist, of +Boston, who had been instrumental in evoking the idea of the telegraph +in the mind of Morse on board the Sully. In a letter to the NEW YORK +OBSERVER he went further than this, and claimed to be a joint inventor; +but Morse indignantly repudiated the suggestion. He declared that his +instrument was not mentioned either by him or Dr. Jackson at the time, +and that they had made no experiments together. 'It is to Professor +Gale that I am most of all indebted for substantial and effective aid in +many of my experiments,' he said; 'but he prefers no claim of any kind.' + +Morse and Smith arrived in London during the month of June. +Application was immediately made for a British patent, but Cooke and +Wheatstone and Edward Davy, it seems, opposed it; and although Morse +demonstrated that his was different from theirs, the patent was refused, +owing to a prior publication in the London MECHANICS' MAGAZINE for +February 18, 1838, in the form of an article quoted from Silliman's +AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE for October, 1837. Morse did not attempt to +get this legal disqualification set aside. In France he was equally +unfortunate. His instrument was exhibited by Arago at a meeting of the +Institute, and praised by Humboldt and Gay-Lussac; but the French patent +law requires the invention to be at work in France within two years, and +when Morse arranged to erect a telegraph line on the St. Germain +Railway, the Government declined to sanction it, on the plea that the +telegraph must become a State monopoly. + +All his efforts to introduce the invention into Europe were futile, +and he returned disheartened to the United States on April 15, 1839. +While in Paris, he had met M. Daguerre, who, with M. Niepce, had just +discovered the art of photography. The process was communicated to +Morse, who, with Dr. Draper, fitted up a studio on the roof of the +University, and took the first daguerreotypes in America. + +The American Congress now seemed as indifferent to his inventions as +the European governments. An exciting campaign for the presidency was +at hand, and the proposed grant for the telegraph was forgotten. Mr. +Smith had returned to the political arena, and the Vails were under a +financial cloud, so that Morse could expect no further aid from them. +The next two years were the darkest he had ever known. 'Porte Crayon' +tells us that he had little patronage as a professor, and at one time +only three pupils besides himself. Crayon's fee of fifty dollars for +the second quarter were overdue, owing to his remittance from home not +arriving; and one day the professor said, 'Well, Strother, my boy, how +are we off for money?' Strother explained how he was situated, and +stated that he hoped to have the money next week. + +'Next week!' repeated Morse. 'I shall be dead by that time . . . dead +of starvation.' + +'Would ten dollars be of any service?' inquired the student, both +astonished and distressed. + +'Ten dollars would save my life,' replied Morse; and Strother paid +the money, which was all he owned. They dined together, and afterwards +the professor remarked, 'This is my first meal for twenty-four hours. +Strother, don't be an artist. It means beggary. A house-dog lives +better. The very sensitiveness that stimulates an artist to work keeps +him alive to suffering.' + +Towards the close of 1841 he wrote to Alfred Vail: 'I have not a cent +in the world;' and to Mr. Smith about the same time he wrote: 'I find +myself without sympathy or help from any who are associated with me, +whose interests, one would think, would impell them at least to inquire +if they could render some assistance. For nearly two years past I have +devoted all my time and scanty means, living on a mere pittance, denying +myself all pleasures, and even necessary food, that I might have a sum +to put my telegraph into such a position before Congress as to insure +success to the common enterprise. I am crushed for want of means, and +means of so trifling a character too, that they who know how to ask +(which I do not) could obtain in a few hours.... As it is, although +everything is favourable, although I have no competition and no +opposition--on the contrary, although every member of Congress, so far +as I can learn, is favourable--yet I fear all will fail because I am too +poor to risk the trifling expense which my journey and residence in +Washington will occasion me. I WILL NOT RUN INTO DEBT, if I lose the +whole matter. So unless I have the means from some source, I shall he +compelled, however reluctantly, to leave it. No one call tell the days +and months of anxiety and labour I have had in perfecting my +telegraphic apparatus. For want of means I have been compelled to make +with my own hands (and to labour for weeks) a piece of mechanism which +could be made much better, and in a tenth part of the time, by a good +mechanician, thus wasting time--time which I cannot recall, and which +seems double-winged to me. + +'"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." It is true, and I have known +the full meaning of it. Nothing but the consciousness that I have an +invention which is to mark an era in human civilisation, and which is to +contribute to the happiness of millions, would have sustained me through +so many and such lengthened trials of patience in perfecting it.' Morse +did not invent for money or scientific reputation; he believed himself +the instrument of a great purpose. + +During the summer of 1842 he insulated a wire two miles long with +hempen threads saturated with pitch-tar and surrounded with india- +rubber. On October 18, during bright moonlight, he submerged this wire +in New York Harbour, between Castle Garden and Governor's Island, by +unreeling it from a small boat rowed by a man. After signals had been +sent through it, the wire was cut by an anchor, and a portion of it +carried off by sailors. This appears to be the first experiment in +signalling on a subaqueous wire. It was repeated on a canal at +Washington the following December, and both are described in a letter to +the Secretary of the Treasury, December 23, 1844, in which Morse states +his belief that 'telegraphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan +may with certainty be established across the Atlantic Ocean. Startling +as this may now seem, I am confident the time will come when the project +will be realised.' + +In December, 1842, the inventor made another effort to obtain the +help of Congress, and the Committee on Commerce again recommended an +appropriation of 30,000 dollars in aid of the telegraph. Morse had come +to be regarded as a tiresome 'crank' by some of the Congressmen, and +they objected that if the magnetic telegraph were endowed, mesmerism or +any other 'ism' might have a claim on the Treasury. The Bill passed the +House by a slender majority of six votes, given orally, some of the +representatives fearing that their support of the measure would alienate +their constituents. Its fate in the Senate was even more dubious; and +when it came up for consideration late one night before the adjournment, +a senator, the Hon. Fernando Wood, went to Morse, who watched in the +gallery, and said,'There is no use in your staying here. The Senate is +not in sympathy with your project. I advise you to give it up, return +home, and think no more about it.' + +Morse retired to his rooms, and after paying his bill for board, +including his breakfast the next morning, he found himself with only +thirty-seven cents and a half in the world. Kneeling by his bed-side he +opened his heart to God, leaving the issue in His hands, and then, +comforted in spirit, fell asleep. While eating his breakfast next +morning, Miss Annie G. Ellsworth, daughter of his friend the Hon. Henry +L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, came up with a beaming +countenance, and holding out her hand, said-- + +'Professor, I have come to congratulate you.' + +'Congratulate me!' replied Morse; 'on what ?' + +'Why,' she exclaimed,' on the passage of your Bill by the Senate!' + +It had been voted without debate at the very close of the session. +Years afterwards Morse declared that this was the turning-point in the +history of the telegraph. 'My personal funds,' he wrote,' were reduced +to the fraction of a dollar; and had the passage of the Bill failed from +any cause, there would have been little prospect of another attempt on +my part to introduce to the world my new invention.' + +Grateful to Miss Ellsworth for bringing the good news, he declared +that when the Washington to Baltimore line was complete hers should be +the first despatch. + +The Government now paid him a salary of 2,500 dollars a month to +superintend the laying of the underground line which he had decided +upon. Professors Gale and Fisher became his assistants. Vail was put in +charge, and Mr. Ezra Cornell, who founded the Cornell University on the +site of the cotton mill where he had worked as a mechanic, and who had +invented a machine for laying pipes, was chosen to supervise the running +of the line. The conductor was a five-wire cable laid in pipes; but +after several miles had been run from Baltimore to the house intended +for the relay, the insulation broke down. Cornell, it is stated, +injured his machine to furnish an excuse for the stoppage of the work. +The leaders consulted in secret, for failure was staring them in the +face. Some 23,000 dollars of the Government grant were spent, and Mr. +Smith, who had lost his faith in the undertaking, claimed 4000 of the +remaining 7000 dollars under his contract for laying the line. A bitter +quarrel arose between him and Morse, which only ended in the grave. He +opposed an additional grant from Government, and Morse, in his +dejection, proposed to let the patent expire, and if the Government +would use his apparatus and remunerate him, he would reward Alfred Vail, +while Smith would be deprived of his portion. Happily, it was decided +to abandon the subterranean line, and erect the conductor on poles above +the ground. A start was made from the Capitol, Washington, on April 1, +1844, and the line was carried to the Mount Clare Depot, Baltimore, on +May 23, 1843. Next morning Miss Ellsworth fulfilled her promise by +inditing the first message. She chose the words, 'What hath God +wrought?' and they were transmitted by Morse from the Capitol at +8.45 a.m., and received at Mount Clare by Alfred Vail. + +This was the first message of a public character sent by the electric +telegraph in the Western World, and it is preserved by the Connecticut +Historical Society. The dots and dashes representing the words were not +drawn with pen and ink, but embossed on the paper with a metal stylus. +The machine itself was kept in the National Museum at Washington, and on +removing it, in 1871, to exhibit it at the Morse Memorial Celebration at +New York, a member of the Vail family discovered a folded paper attached +to its base. A corner of the writing was torn away before its importance +was recognised; but it proved to be a signed statement by Alfred Vail, +to the effect that the method of embossing was invented by him in the +sixth storey of the NEW YORK OBSERVER office during 1844, prior to the +erection of the Washington to Baltimore line, without any hint from +Morse. 'I have not asserted publicly my right as first and sole +inventor,' he says, 'because I wished to preserve the peaceful unity of +the invention, and because I could not, according to my contract with +Professor Morse, have got a patent for it.' + +The powers of the telegraph having been demonstrated, enthusiasm took +the place of apathy, and Morse, who had been neglected before, was in +some danger of being over-praised. A political incident spread the fame +of the telegraph far and wide. The Democratic Convention, sitting in +Baltimore, nominated Mr. James K. Polk as candidate for the Presidency, +and Mr. Silas Wright for the Vice-Presidency. Alfred Vail telegraphed +the news to Morse in Washington, and he at once told Mr. Wright. The +result was that a few minutes later the Convention was dumbfounded to +receive a message from Wright declining to be nominated. They would not +believe it, and appointed a committee to inquire into the matter; but +the telegram was found to be genuine. + +On April 1, 1845, the Baltimore to Washington line was formally +opened for public business. The tariff adopted by the Postmaster-General +was one cent for every four characters, and the receipts of the first +four days were a single cent. At the end of a week they had risen to +about a dollar. + +Morse offered the invention to the Government for 100,000 dollars, +but the Postmaster-General declined it on the plea that its working 'had +not satisfied him that under any rate of postage that could be adopted +its revenues could be made equal to its expenditures.' Thus through the +narrow views and purblindness of its official the nation lost an +excellent opportunity of keeping the telegraph system in its own hands. +Morse was disappointed at this refusal, but it proved a blessing in +disguise. He and his agent, the Hon. Amos Kendall, determined to rely on +private enterprise. + +A line between New York and Philadelphia was projected, and the +apparatus was exhibited in Broadway at a charge of twenty-five cents a +head. But the door-money did not pay the expenses. There was an air of +poverty about the show. One of the exhibitors slept on a couple of +chairs, and the princely founder of Cornell University was grateful to +Providence for a shilling picked up on the side-walk, which enabled him +to enjoy a hearty breakfast. Sleek men of capital, looking with +suspicion on the meagre furniture and miserable apparatus, withheld +their patronage; but humbler citizens invested their hard-won earnings, +the Magnetic Telegraph Company was incorporated, and the line was built. +The following year, 1846, another line was run from Philadelphia to +Baltimore by Mr. Henry O'Reilly, of Rochester, N.Y., an acute pioneer of +the telegraph. In the course of ten years the Atlantic States were +covered by a straggling web of lines under the control of thirty or +forty rival companies working different apparatus, such as that of +Morse, Bain, House, and Hughes, but owing to various causes only one or +two were paying a dividend. It was a fit moment for amalgamation, and +this was accomplished in 1856 by Mr. Hiram Sibley. 'This Western +Union,' says one in speaking of the united corporation, 'seems to me +very like collecting all the paupers in the State and arranging them +into a union so as to make rich men of them.' But 'Sibley's crazy +scheme' proved the salvation of the competing companies. In 1857, after +the first stage coach had crossed the plains to California, Mr. Henry +O'Reilly proposed to build a line of telegraph, and Mr. Sibley urged the +Western Union to undertake it. He encountered a strong opposition. The +explorations of Fremont were still fresh in the public mind, and the +country was regarded as a howling wilderness. It was objected that no +poles could be obtained on the prairies, that the Indians or the +buffaloes would destroy the line, and that the traffic would not pay. +'Well, gentlemen,' said Sibley, 'if you won't join hands with me in the +thing, I'll go it alone.' He procured a subsidy from the Government, who +realised the value of the line from a national point of view, the money +was raised under the auspices of the Western Union, and the route by +Omaha, Fort Laramie, and Salt Lake City to San Francisco was fixed upon. +The work began on July 4, 1861, and though it was expected to occupy two +years, it was completed in four months and eleven days. The traffic +soon became lucrative, and the Indians, except in time of war, protected +the line out of friendship for Mr. Sibley. A black-tailed buck, the +gift of White Cloud, spent its last years in the park of his home at +Rochester. + +The success of the overland wire induced the Company to embark on a +still greater scheme, the project of Mr. Perry MacDonough Collins, for a +trunk line between America and Europe by way of British Columbia, +Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and Siberia. A line already existed +between European Russia and Irkutsk, in Siberia, and it was to be +extended to the mouth of the Amoor, where the American lines were to +join it. Two cables, one across Behring Sea and another across the Bay +of Anadyr, were to link the two continents. + +The expedition started in the summer of 1865 with a fleet of about +thirty vessels, carrying telegraph and other stores. In spite of severe +hardships, a considerable part of the line had been erected when the +successful completion of the trans-Atlantic cable, in 1866, caused the +enterprise to be abandoned after an expenditure of 3,000,000 dollars. A +trace cut for the line through the forests of British Columbia is still +known as the 'telegraph trail.' In spite of this misfortune the Western +Union Telegraph Company has continued to flourish. In 1883 its capital +amounted to 80,000,000 dollars, and it now possesses a virtual monopoly +of telegraphic communication in the United States. + +Morse did not limit his connections to land telegraphy. In 1854, when +Mr. Cyrus Field brought out the Atlantic Telegraph Company, to lay a +cable between Europe and America, he became its electrician, and went to +England for the purpose of consulting with the English engineers on the +execution of the project. But his instrument was never used on the ocean +lines, and, indeed, it was not adapted for them. + +During this time Alfred Vail continued to improve the Morse +apparatus, until it was past recognition. The porte-rule and type of the +transmitter were discarded for a simple 'key' or rocking lever, worked +up and down by the hand, so as to make and break the circuit. The clumsy +framework of the receiver was reduced to a neat and portable size. The +inking pen was replaced by a metal wheel or disc, smeared with ink, and +rolling on the paper at every dot or dash. Vail, as we have seen, also +invented the plan of embossing the message. But he did still more. When +the recording instrument was introduced, it was found that the clerks +persisted in 'reading' the signals by the clicking of the marking lever, +and not from the paper. Threats of instant dismissal did not stop the +practice when nobody was looking on. Morse, who regarded the record as +the distinctive feature of his invention, was very hostile to the +practice; but Nature was too many for him. The mode of interpreting by +sound was the easier and more economical of the two; and Vail, with his +mechanical instinct, adopted it. He produced an instrument in which +there is no paper or marking device, and the message is simply sounded +by the lever of the armature striking on its metal stops. At present the +Morse recorder is rarely used in comparison with the 'sounder.' + +The original telegraph of Morse, exhibited in 1837, has become an +archaic form. Apart from the central idea of employing an electro-magnet +to signal--an idea applied by Henry in 1832, when Morse had only thought +of it--the development of the apparatus is mainly due to Vail. His +working devices made it a success, and are in use to-day, while those of +Morse are all extinct. + +Morse has been highly honoured and rewarded, not only by his +countrymen, but by the European powers. The Queen of Spain sent him a +Cross of the Order of Isabella, the King of Prussia presented him with a +jewelled snuff-box, the Sultan of Turkey decorated him with the Order of +Glory, the Emperor of the French admitted him into the Legion of Honour. +Moreover, the ten European powers in special congress awarded him +400,000 francs (some 80,000 dollars), as an expression of their +gratitude: honorary banquets were a common thing to the man who had +almost starved through his fidelity to an idea. + +But beyond his emoluments as a partner in the invention, Alfred Vail +had no recompense. Morse, perhaps, was somewhat jealous of acknowledging +the services of his 'mechanical assistant,' as he at one time chose to +regard Vail. When personal friends, knowing his services, urged Vail to +insist upon their recognition, he replied, 'I am confident that +Professor Morse will do me justice.' But even ten years after the death +of Vail, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honour by the leading +citizens of New York, Morse, alluding to his invention, said: 'In 1835, +according to the concurrent testimony of many witnesses, it lisped its +first accents, and automatically recorded them a few blocks only distant +from the spot from which I now address you. It was a feeble child +indeed, ungainly in its dress, stammering in its speech; but it had then +all the distinctive features and characteristics of its present manhood. +It found a friend, an efficient friend, in Mr. Alfred Vail, of New +Jersey, who, with his father and brother, furnished the means to give +the child a decent dress, preparatory to its' visit to the seat of +Government.' + +When we remember that even by this time Vail had entirely altered the +system of signals, and introduced the dot-dash code, we cannot but +regard this as a stinted acknowledgment of his colleague's work. But +the man who conceives the central idea, and cherishes it, is apt to be +niggardly in allowing merit to the assistant whose mechanical skill is +able to shape and put it in practice; while, on the other hand, the +assistant is sometimes inclined to attach more importance to the working +out than it deserves. Alfred Vail cannot be charged with that, however, +and it would have been the more graceful on the part of Morse had he +avowed his indebtedness to Vail with a greater liberality. Nor would +this have detracted from his own merit as the originator and preserver +of the idea, without which the improvements of Vail would have had no +existence. In the words of the Hon. Amos Kendall, a friend of both: +'If justice be done, the name of Alfred Vail will for ever stand +associated with that of Samuel F. B. Morse in the history and +introduction into public use of the electro-magnetic telegraph.' + +Professor Morse spent his declining years at Locust Grove, a charming +retreat on the banks of the River Hudson. In private life he was a fine +example of the Christian gentleman. + +In the summer of 1871, the Telegraphic Brotherhood of the World +erected a statue to his honour in the Central Park, New York. Delegates +from different parts of America were present at the unveiling; and in +the evening there was a reception at the Academy of Music, where the +first recording telegraph used on the Washington to Baltimore line was +exhibited. The inventor himself appeared, and sent a message at a small +table, which was flashed by the connected wires to the remotest parts of +the Union, It ran: 'Greeting and thanks to the telegraph fraternity +throughout the world. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, +goodwill towards men.' + +It was deemed fitting that Morse should unveil the statue of Benjamin +Franklin, which had been erected in Printing House Square, New York. +When his venerable figure appeared on the platform, and the long white +hair was blown about his handsome face by the winter wind, a great cheer +went up from the assembled multitude. But the day was bitterly cold, and +the exposure cost him his life. Some months later, as he lay on his sick +bed, he observed to the doctor, 'The best is yet to come.' In tapping +his chest one day, the physician said,' This is the way we doctors +telegraph, professor,' and Morse replied with a smile, 'Very good--very +good.' These were his last words. He died at New York on April 2, 1872, +at the age of eighty-one years, and was buried in the Greenwood +Cemetery. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SIR WILLIAM THOMSON. + +Sir William Thomson, the greatest physicist of the age, and the highest +authority on electrical science, theoretical and applied, was born at +Belfast on June 25, 1824. His father, Dr. James Thomson, the son of a +Scots-Irish farmer, showed a bent for scholarship when a boy, and became +a pupil teacher in a small school near Ballynahinch, in County Down. +With his summer earnings he educated himself at Glasgow University +during winter. Appointed head master of a school in connection with the +Royal Academical Institute, he subsequently obtained the professorship +of mathematics in that academy. In 1832 he was called to the chair of +mathematics in the University of Glasgow, where he achieved a reputation +by his text-books on arithmetic and mathematics. + +William began his course at the same college in his eleventh year, and +was petted by the older students for his extraordinary quickness in +solving the problems of his father's class. It was quite plain that his +genius lay in the direction of mathematics; and on finishing at Glasgow +he was sent to the higher mathematical school of St. Peter's College, +Cambridge. In 1845 he graduated as second wrangler, but won the Smith +prize. This 'consolation stakes' is regarded as a better test of +originality than the tripos. The first, or senior, wrangler probably +beat him by a facility in applying well-known rules, and a readiness in +writing. One of the examiners is said to have declared that he was +unworthy to cut Thomson's pencils. It is certain that while the victor +has been forgotten, the vanquished has created a world-wide renown. + +While at Cambridge he took an active part in the field sports and +athletics of the University. He won the Silver Sculls, and rowed in the +winning boat of the Oxford and Cambridge race. He also took a lively +interest in the classics, in music, and in general literature; but the +real love, the central passion of his intellectual life, was the pursuit +of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of +electricity, had captivated his imagination, and soon engrossed all the +teeming faculties of his mind. At the age of seventeen, when ordinary +lads are fond of games, and the cleverer sort are content to learn +without attempting to originate, young Thomson had begun to make +investigations. The CAMBRIDGE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL of 1842 contains a +paper by him--'On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid +bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity.' +In this he demonstrated the identity of the laws governing the +distribution of electric or magnetic force in general, with the laws +governing the distribution of the lines of the motion of heat in certain +special cases. The paper was followed by others on the mathematical +theory of electricity; and in 1845 he gave the first mathematical +development of Faraday's notion, that electric induction takes place +through an intervening medium, or 'dielectric,' and not by some +incomprehensible 'action at a distance.' He also devised an hypothesis +of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems +of electrostatics, or the science which deals with the forces of +electricity at rest. + +On gaining a fellowship at his college, he spent some time in the +laboratory of the celebrated Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was +appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of +Glasgow. It was due to the brilliant promise he displayed, as much as +to the influence of his father, that at the age of twenty-two he found +himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest +Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was +a freshman but a few years before. + +Thomson became a man of public note in connection with the laying of +the first Atlantic cable. After Cooke and Wheatstone had introduced +their working telegraph in 1839; the idea of a submarine line across the +Atlantic Ocean began to dawn on the minds of men as a possible triumph +of the future. Morse proclaimed his faith in it as early as the year +1840, and in 1842 he submerged a wire, insulated with tarred hemp and +india-rubber, in the water of New York harbour, and telegraphed through +it. The following autumn Wheatstone performed a similar experiment in +the Bay of Swansea. A good insulator to cover the wire and prevent the +electricity from leaking into the water was requisite for the success of +a long submarine line. India-rubber had been tried by Jacobi, the +Russian electrician, as far back as 1811. He laid a wire insulated with +rubber across the Neva at St. Petersburg, and succeeded in firing a mine +by an electric spark sent through it; but india-rubber, although it is +now used to a considerable extent, was not easy to manipulate in those +days. Luckily another gum which could be melted by heat, and readily +applied to the wire, made its appearance. Gutta-percha, the adhesive +juice of the ISONANDRA GUTTA tree, was introduced to Europe in 1842 by +Dr. Montgomerie, a Scotch surveyor in the service of the East India +Company. Twenty years before he had seen whips made of it in Singapore, +and believed that it would be useful in the fabrication of surgical +apparatus. Faraday and Wheatstone soon discovered its merits as an +insulator, and in 1845 the latter suggested that it should be employed +to cover the wire which it was proposed to lay from Dover to Calais. It +was tried on a wire laid across the Rhine between Deutz and Cologne. In +1849 Mr. C. V. Walker, electrician to the South Eastern Railway Company, +submerged a wire coated with it, or, as it is technically called, a +gutta-percha core, along the coast off Dover. + +The following year Mr. John Watkins Brett laid the first line across the +Channel. It was simply a copper wire coated with gutta-percha, without +any other protection. The core was payed out from a reel mounted behind +the funnel of a steam tug, the Goliath, and sunk by means of lead +weights attached to it every sixteenth of a mile. She left Dover about +ten o'clock on the morning of August 28, 1850, with some thirty men on +board and a day's provisions. The route she was to follow was marked by +a line of buoys and flags. By eight o'clock in the evening she arrived +at Cape Grisnez, and came to anchor near the shore. Mr. Brett watched +the operations through a glass at Dover. 'The declining sun,' he says, +'enabled me to discern the moving shadow of the steamer's smoke on the +white cliff; thus indicating her progress. At length the shadow ceased +to move. The vessel had evidently come to an anchor. We gave them half +an hour to convey the end of the wire to shore and attach the type- +printing instrument, and then I sent the first electrical message across +the Channel. This was reserved for Louis Napoleon.' According to Mr. F. +C. Webb, however, the first of the signals were a mere jumble of +letters, which were torn up. He saved a specimen of the slip on which +they were printed, and it was afterwards presented to the Duke of +Wellington. + +Next morning this pioneer line was broken down at a point about 200 +Yards from Cape Grisnez, and it turned out that a Boulogne fisherman had +raised it on his trawl and cut a piece away, thinking he had found a +rare species of tangle with gold in its heart. This misfortune +suggested the propriety of arming the core against mechanical injury by +sheathing it in a cable of hemp and iron wires. The experiment served +to keep alive the concession, and the next year, on November 13, 1851, a +protected core or true cable was laid from a Government hulk, the +Blazer, which was towed across the Channel. + +Next year Great Britain and Ireland were linked together. In May, 1853, +England was joined to Holland by a cable across the North Sea, from +Orfordness to the Hague. It was laid by the Monarch, a paddle steamer +which had been fitted for the work. During the night she met with such +heavy weather that the engineer was lashed near the brakes; and the +electrician, Mr. Latimer Clark, sent the continuity signals by jerking a +needle instrument with a string. These and other efforts in the +Mediterranean and elsewhere were the harbingers of the memorable +enterprise which bound the Old World and the New. + +Bishop Mullock, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland, was +lying becalmed in his yacht one day in sight of Cape Breton Island, and +began to dream of a plan for uniting his savage diocese to the mainland +by a line of telegraph through the forest from St. John's to Cape Ray, +and cables across the mouth of the St. Lawrence from Cape Ray to Nova +Scotia. St. John's was an Atlantic port, and it seemed to him that the +passage of news between America and Europe could thus be shortened by +forty-eight hours. On returning to St. John's he published his idea in +the COURIER by a letter dated November 8, 1850. + +About the same time a similar plan occurred to Mr. F. N. Gisborne, a +telegraph engineer in Nova Scotia. In the spring of 1851 he procured a +grant from the Legislature of Newfoundland, resigned his situation in +Nova Scotia, and having formed a company, began the construction of the +land line. But in 1853 his bills were dishonoured by the company, he +was arrested for debt, and stripped of all his fortune. The following +year, however, he was introduced to Mr. Cyrus Field, of New York, a +wealthy merchant, who had just returned from a six months' tour in South +America. Mr. Field invited Mr. Gisborne to his house in order to +discuss the project. When his visitor was gone, Mr. Field began to turn +over a terrestrial globe which stood in his library, and it flashed upon +him that the telegraph to Newfoundland might be extended across the +Atlantic Ocean. The idea fired him with enthusiasm. It seemed worthy +of a man's ambition, and although he had retired from business to spend +his days in peace, he resolved to dedicate his time, his energies, and +fortune to the accomplishment of this grand enterprise. + +A presentiment of success may have inspired him; but he was ignorant +alike of submarine cables and the deep sea. Was it possible to submerge +the cable in the Atlantic, and would it be safe at the bottom? Again, +would the messages travel through the line fast enough to make it pay! +On the first question he consulted Lieutenant Maury, the great authority +on mareography. Maury told him that according to recent soundings by +Lieutenant Berryman, of the United States brig Dolphin, the bottom +between Ireland and Newfoundland was a plateau covered with microscopic +shells at a depth not over 2000 fathoms, and seemed to have been made +for the very purpose of receiving the cable. He left the question of +finding a time calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a wire long enough, +and a ship big enough,' to lay a line some sixteen hundred miles in +length to other minds. As to the line itself, Mr. Field consulted +Professor Morse, who assured him that it was quite possible to make and +lay a cable of that length. He at once adopted the scheme of Gisborne +as a preliminary step to the vaster undertaking, and promoted the New +York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, to establish a line of +telegraph between America and Europe. Professor Morse was appointed +electrician to the company. + +The first thing to be done was to finish the line between St. John's and +Nova Scotia, and in 1855 an attempt was made to lay a cable across the +Gulf of the St. Lawrence, It was payed out from a barque in tow of a +steamer; but when half was laid a gale rose, and to keep the barque from +sinking the line was cut away. Next summer a steamboat was fitted out +for the purpose, and the cable was submerged. St. John's was now +connected with New York by a thousand miles of land and submarine +telegraph. + +Mr. Field then directed his efforts to the completion of the trans- +oceanic section. He induced the American Government to despatch +Lieutenant Berryman, in the Arctic, and the British Admiralty to send +Lieutenant: Dayman, in the Cyclops, to make a special survey along the +proposed route of the cable. These soundings revealed the existence of +a submarine hill dividing the 'telegraph plateau' from the shoal water +on the coast of Ireland, but its slope was gradual and easy. + +Till now the enterprise had been purely American, and the funds provided +by American capitalists, with the exception of a few shares held by Mr. +J. W. Brett. But seeing that the cable was to land on British soil, it +was fitting that the work should be international, and that the British +people should be asked to contribute towards the manufacture and +submersion of the cable. Mr. Field therefore proceeded to London, and +with the assistance of Mr. Brett the Atlantic Telegraph Company was +floated. Mr. Field himself supplied a quarter of the needed capital; +and we may add that Lady Byron, and Mr. Thackeray, the novelist, were +among the shareholders. + +The design of the cable was a subject of experiment by Professor Morse +and others. It was known that the conductor should be of copper, +possessing a high conductivity for the electric current, and that its +insulating jacket of gutta-percha should offer a great resistance to the +leakage of the current. Moreover, experience had shown that the +protecting sheath or armour of the core should be light and flexible as +well as strong, in order to resist external violence and allow it to be +lifted for repair. There was another consideration, however, which at +this time was rather a puzzle. As early as 1823 Mr. (afterwards Sir) +Francis Ronalds had observed that electric signals were retarded in +passing through an insulated wire or core laid under ground, and the +same effect was noticeable on cores immersed in water, and particularly +on the lengthy cable between England and the Hague. Faraday showed that +it was caused by induction between the electricity in the wire and the +earth or water surrounding it. A core, in fact, is an attenuated Leyden +jar; the wire of the core, its insulating jacket, and the soil or water +around it stand respectively for the inner tinfoil, the glass, and the +outer tinfoil of the jar. When the wire is charged from a battery, the +electricity induces an opposite charge in the water as it travels along, +and as the two charges attract each other, the exciting charge is +restrained. The speed of a signal through the conductor of a submarine +cable is thus diminished by a drag of its own making. The nature of the +phenomenon was clear, but the laws which governed it were still a +mystery. It became a serious question whether, on a long cable such as +that required for the Atlantic, the signals might not be so sluggish +that the work would hardly pay. Faraday had said to Mr. Field that a +signal would take 'about a second,' and the American was satisfied; but +Professor Thomson enunciated the law of retardation, and cleared up the +whole matter. He showed that the velocity of a signal through a given +core was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the core. +That is to say, in any particular cable the speed of a signal is +diminished to one-fourth if the length is doubled, to one-ninth if it is +trebled, to one-sixteenth if it is quadrupled, and so on. It was now +possible to calculate the time taken by a signal in traversing the +proposed Atlantic line to a minute fraction of a second, and to design +the proper core for a cable of any given length. + +The accuracy of Thomson's law was disputed in 1856 by Dr. Edward O. +Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, +who had misinterpreted the results of his own experiments. Thomson +disposed of his contention in a letter to the ATHENAEUM, and the +directors of the company saw that he was a man to enlist in their +adventure. It is not enough to say the young Glasgow professor threw +himself heart and soul into their work. He descended in their midst +like the very genius of electricity, and helped them out of all their +difficulties. In 1857 he published in the ENGINEER the whole theory of +the mechanical forces involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and +showed that when the line is running out of the ship at a constant speed +in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline +from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the +bottom. + +To these gifts of theory, electrical and mechanical, Thomson added a +practical boon in the shape of the reflecting galvanometer, or mirror +instrument. This measurer of the current was infinitely more sensitive +than any which preceded it, and enables the electrician to detect the +slightest flaw in the core of a cable during its manufacture and +submersion. Moreover, it proved the best apparatus for receiving the +messages through a long cable. The Morse and other instruments, +however suitable for land lines and short cables, were all but useless +on the Atlantic line, owing to the retardation of the signals; but the +mirror instrument sprang out of Thomson's study of this phenomenon, and +was designed to match it. Hence this instrument, through being the +fittest for the purpose, drove the others from the field, and allowed +the first Atlantic cables to be worked on a profitable basis. + +The cable consisted of a strand of seven copper wires, one weighing 107 +pounds a nautical mile or knot, covered with three coats of gutta- +percha, weighing 261 pounds a knot, and wound with tarred hemp, over +which a sheath of eighteen strands, each of seven iron wires, was laid +in a close spiral. It weighed nearly a ton to the mile, was flexible as +a rope, and able to withstand a pull of several tons. It was made +conjointly by Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., of Greenwich, and Messrs. R. +S. Newall & Co., of Liverpool. + +The British Government promised Mr. Field a subsidy of L1,400 a year, +and the loan of ships to lay the cable. He solicited an equal help from +Congress, but a large number of the senators, actuated by a national +jealousy of England, and looking to the fact that both ends of the line +were to lie in British territory, opposed the grant. It appeared to +these far-sighted politicians that England, the hereditary foe, was +'literally crawling under the sea to get some advantage over the United +States.' The Bill was only passed by a majority of a single vote. In +the House of Representatives it encountered a similar hostility, but was +ultimately signed by President Pierce. + +The Agamemnon, a British man-of-war fitted out for the purpose, took in +the section made at Greenwich, and the Niagara, an American warship, +that made at Liverpool. The vessels and their consorts met in the bay +of Valentia Island, on the south-west coast of Ireland, where on August +5, 1857, the shore end of the cable was landed from the Niagara. It was +a memorable scene. The ships in the bay were dressed in bunting, and +the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland stood on the beach, attended by his +following, to receive the end from the American sailors. Visitors in +holiday attire collected in groups to watch the operations, and eagerly +joined with his excellency in helping to pull the wire ashore. When it +was landed, the Reverend Mr. Day, of Kenmore, offered up a prayer, +asking the Almighty to prosper the undertaking, Next day the expedition +sailed; but ere the Niagara had proceeded five miles on her way the +shore-end parted, and the repairing of it delayed the start for another +day. + +At first the Niagara went slowly ahead to avoid a mishap, but as the +cable ran out easily she increased her speed. The night fell, but +hardly a soul slept. The utmost vigilance was maintained throughout the +vessel. Apart from the noise of the paying-out machinery, there was an +awful stillness on board. Men walked about with a muffled step, or +spoke in whispers, as if they were afraid the sound of their voices +would break the slender line. It seemed as though a great and valued +friend lay at the point of death. + +The submarine hill, with its dangerous slope, was passed in safety, and +the 'telegraph plateau,' nearly two miles deep, was reached, when +suddenly the signals from Ireland, which told that the conductor was +intact, stopped altogether. Professor Morse and De Sauty, the +electricians, failed to restore the communication, and the engineers +were preparing to cut the cable, when quite as suddenly the signals +returned, and every face grew bright. A weather-beaten old sailor +said, 'I have watched nearly every mile of it as it came over the side, +and I would have given fifty dollars, poor man as I am, to have saved +it, although I don't expect to make anything by it when it is laid +down.' + +But the joy was short-lived. The line was running out at the rate of +six miles an hour, while the vessel was only making four. To check this +waste of cable the engineer tightened the brakes; but as the stern of +the ship rose on the swell, the cable parted under the heavy strain, and +the end was lost in the sea. + +The bad news ran like a flash of lightning through all the ships, and +produced a feeling of sorrow and dismay. + +No attempt was made to grapple the line in such deep water, and the +expedition returned to England. It was too late to try again that +year, but the following summer the Agamemnon and Niagara, after an +experimental trip to the Bay of Biscay, sailed from Plymouth on June 10 +with a full supply of cable, better gear than before, and a riper +experience of the work. They were to meet in the middle of the +Atlantic, where the two halves of the cable on board of each were to be +spliced together, and while the Agamemnon payed out eastwards to +Valentia Island the Niagara was to pay out westward to Newfoundland. On +her way to the rendezvous the Agamemnon encountered a terrific gale, +which lasted for a week, and nearly proved her destruction. + +On Saturday, the 26th, the middle splice was effected and the bight +dropped into the deep. The two ships got under weigh, but had not +proceeded three miles when the cable broke in the paying-out machinery +of the Niagara. Another splice, followed by a fresh start, was made +during the same afternoon; but when some fifty miles were payed out of +each vessel, the current which kept up communication between them +suddenly failed owing to the cable having snapped in the sea. Once more +the middle splice was made and lowered, and the ships parted company a +third time. For a day or two all went well; over two hundred miles of +cable ran smoothly out of each vessel, and the anxious chiefs began to +indulge in hopes of ultimate success, when the cable broke about twenty +feet behind the stern of the Agamemnon. + +The expedition returned to Queenstown, and a consultation took place. +Mr. Field, and Professor Thomson, who was on board the Agamemnon, were +in favour of another trial, and it was decided to make one without +delay. The vessels left the Cove of Cork on July 17; but on this +occasion there was no public enthusiasm, and even those on board felt as +if they were going on another wild goose chase. The Agamemnon was now +almost becalmed on her way to the rendezvous; but the middle splice was +finished by 12.30 p.m. on July 29, 1858, and immediately dropped into +the sea. The ships thereupon started, and increased their distance, +while the cable ran easily out of them. Some alarm was caused by the +stoppage of the continuity signals, but after a time they reappeared. +The Niagara deviated from the great arc of a circle on which the cable +was to be laid, and the error was traced to the iron of the cable +influencing her compass. Hence the Gorgon, one of her consorts, was +ordered to go ahead and lead the way. The Niagara passed several +icebergs, but none injured the cable, and on August 4 she arrived in +Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. At 6. a.m. next morning the shore end was +landed into the telegraph-house which had been built for its reception. +Captain Hudson, of the Niagara, then read prayers, and at one p.m. +H.M.S. Gorgon fired a salute of twenty-one guns. + +The Agamemnon made an equally successful run. About six o'clock on the +first evening a huge whale was seen approaching on the starboard bow, +and as he sported in the waves, rolling and lashing them into foam, the +onlookers began to fear that he might endanger the line. Their +excitement became intense as the monster heaved astern, nearer and +nearer to the cable, until his body grazed it where it sank into the +water; but happily no harm was done. Damaged portions of the cable had +to be removed in paying-out, and the stoppage of the continuity signals +raised other alarms on board. Strong head winds kept the Agamemnon +back, and two American ships which got into her course had to be warned +off by firing guns. The signals from the Niagara became very weak, but +on Professor Thomson asking the electricians on board of her to increase +their battery power, they improved at once. At length, on Thursday, +August, 5, the Agamemnon, with her consort, the Valorous, arrived at +Valentia Island, and the shore end was landed into the cable-house at +Knightstown by 3 p.m., and a royal salute announced the completion of +the work. + +The news was received at first with some incredulity, but on being +confirmed it caused a universal joy. On August 16 Queen Victoria sent a +telegram of congratulation to President Buchanan through the line, and +expressed a hope that it would prove 'an additional link between the +nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and +reciprocal esteem.' The President responded that, 'it is a triumph more +glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by +conqueror on the field of battle. May the Atlantic telegraph, under the +blessing of heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship +between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine +Providence to diffuse religion, civilisation, liberty, and law +throughout the world.' + +These messages were the signal for a fresh outburst of enthusiasm. Next +morning a grand salute of 100 guns resounded in New York, the streets +were decorated with flags, the bells of the churches rung, and at night +the city was illuminated. + +The Atlantic cable was a theme of inspiration for innumerable sermons +and a prodigious quantity of doggerel. Among the happier lines were +these :- + + ''Tis done! the angry sea consents, + The nations stand no more apart; + With clasped hands the continents + Feel throbbings of each other's heart. + + Speed! speed the cable! let it run + A loving girdle round the earth, + Till all the nations 'neath the sun + Shall be as brothers of one hearth. + + As brothers pledging, hand in hand, + One freedom for the world abroad, + One commerce over every land, + One language, and one God.' + +The rejoicing reached a climax in September, when a public service was +held in Trinity Church, and Mr. Field, the hero of the hour, as head and +mainspring of the expedition, received an ovation in the Crystal Palace +at New York. The mayor presented him with a golden casket as a souvenir +of 'the grandest enterprise of our day and generation.' The band played +'God save the Queen,' and the whole audience rose to their feet. In the +evening there was a magnificent torchlight procession of the city +firemen. + +That very day the cable breathed its last. Its insulation had been +failing for some days, and the only signals which could be read were +those given by the mirror galvanometer.[It is said to have broken down +while Newfoundland was vainly attempting to inform Valentia that it was +sending with THREE HUNDRED AND TWELVE CELLS!] The reaction at this news +was tremendous. Some writers even hinted that the line was a mere hoax, +and others pronounced it a stock exchange speculation. Sensible men +doubted whether the cable had ever 'spoken;' but in addition to the +royal despatch, items of daily news had passed through the wire; for +instance, the announcement of a collision between two ships, the Arabia +and the Europa, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, and an order from London, +countermanding the departure of a regiment in Canada for the seat of +the Indian Mutiny, which had come to an end. + +Mr. Field was by no means daunted at the failure. He was even more +eager to renew the work, since he had come so near to success. But the +public had lost confidence in the scheme, and all his efforts to revive +the company were futile. It was not until 1864 that with the assistance +of Mr. Thomas (afterwards Lord) Brassey, and Mr. (now Sir) John Fender, +that he succeeded in raising the necessary capital. The Glass, Elliot, +and Gutta-Percha Companies were united to form the well-known Telegraph +Construction and Maintenance Company, which undertook to manufacture and +lay the new cable. + +Much experience had been gained in the meanwhile. Long cables had been +submerged in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The Board of Trade in +1859 had appointed a committee of experts, including Professor +Wheatstone, to investigate the whole subject, and the results were +published in a Blue-book. Profiting by these aids, an improved type of +cable was designed. The core consisted of a strand of seven very pure +copper wires weighing 300 lbs. a knot, coated with Chatterton's +compound, which is impervious to water, then covered with four layers of +gutta-percha alternating with four thin layers of the compound +cementing the whole, and bringing the weight of the insulator to 400 +lbs. per knot. This core was served with hemp saturated in a +preservative solution, and on the hemp as a padding were spirally wound +eighteen single wires of soft steel, each covered with fine strands of +Manilla yam steeped in the preservative. The weight of the new cable +was 35.75 cwt. per knot, or nearly twice the weight of the old, and it +was stronger in proportion. + +Ten years before, Mr. Marc Isambard Brunel, the architect of the Great +Eastern, had taken Mr. Field to Blackwall, where the leviathan was +lying, and said to him, 'There is the ship to lay the Atlantic cable.' +She was now purchased to fulfil the mission. Her immense hull was +fitted with three iron tanks for the reception of 2,300 miles of cable, +and her decks furnished with the paying-out gear. Captain (now Sir) +James Anderson, of the Cunard steamer China, a thorough seaman, was +appointed to the command, with Captain Moriarty, R.N., as chief +navigating officer. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Samuel Canning was engineer +for the contractors, the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, +and Mr. de Sauty their electrician; Professor Thomson and Mr. Cromwell +Fleetwood Varley were the electricians for the Atlantic Telegraph +Company. The Press was ably represented by Dr. W. H. Russell, +correspondent of the TIMES. The Great Eastern took on board seven or +eight thousand tons of coal to feed her fires, a prodigious quantity of +stores, and a multitude of live stock which turned her decks into a +farmyard. Her crew all told numbered 500 men. + +At noon on Saturday, July 15, 1865, the Great Eastern left the Nore for +Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island, where the shore end was laid by the +Caroline. + +At 5.30 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, amidst the firing of cannon and the +cheers of the telegraph fleet, she started on her voyage at a speed of +about four knots an hour. The weather was fine, and all went well until +next morning early, when the boom of a gun signalled that a fault had +broken out in the cable. It turned out that a splinter of iron wire had +penetrated the core. More faults of the kind were discovered, and as +they always happened in the same watch, there was a suspicion of foul +play. In repairing one of these on July 31, after 1,062 miles had been +payed out, the cable snapped near the stern of the ship, and the end was +lost. 'All is over,' quietly observed Mr. Canning; and though spirited +attempts were made to grapple the sunken line in two miles of water, +they failed to recover it. + +The Great Eastern steamed back to England, where the indomitable Mr. +Field issued another prospectus, and formed the Anglo-American Telegraph +Company, with a capital of L600,000, to lay a new cable and complete the +broken one. On July 7, 1866, the William Cory laid the shore end at +Valentia, and on Friday, July 13,.about 3 p.m., the Great Eastern +started paying-out once more. [Friday is regarded as an unlucky, and +Sunday as a lucky day by sailors. The Great Eastern started on Sunday +before and failed; she succeeded now. Columbus sailed on a Friday, and +discovered America on a Friday.] A private service of prayer was held +at Valentia by invitation of two directors of the company, but otherwise +there was no celebration of the event. Professor Thomson was on board; +but Dr. W. H. Russell had gone to the seat of the Austro-Prussian war, +from which telegrams were received through the cable. + +The 'big ship' was attended by three consorts, the Terrible, to act as a +spy on the starboard how, and warn other vessels off the course, the +Medway on the port, and the Albany on the starboard quarter, to drop or +pick up buoys, and make themselves generally useful. Despite the +fickleness of the weather, and a 'foul flake,' or clogging of the line +as it ran out of the tank, there was no interruption of the work. The +'old coffee mill,' as the sailors dubbed the paying-out gear, kept +grinding away. 'I believe we shall do it this time, Jack,' said one of +the crew to his mate. + +On the evening of Friday, July 27, the expedition made the entrance of +Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, in a thick fog, and next morning the Great +Eastern cast her anchor at Heart's Content. Flags were flying from the +little church and the telegraph station on shore. The Great Eastern was +dressed, three cheers were given, and a salute was fired. At 9 a.m. a +message from England cited these words from a leading article in the +current TIMES: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age and nation, and +the men who have achieved it deserve to be honoured among the +benefactors of their race.' 'Treaty of peace signed between Prussia and +Austria.' The shore end was landed during the day by the Medway; and +Captain Anderson, with the officers of the telegraph fleet, went in a +body to the church to return thanks for the success of the expedition. +Congratulations poured in, and friendly telegrams were again exchanged +between Her Majesty and the United States. The great work had been +finally accomplished, and the two worlds were lastingly united. + +On August 9 the Great Eastern put to sea again in order to grapple the +lost cable of 1865, and complete it to Newfoundland. Arriving in mid- +ocean she proceeded to fish for the submerged line in two thousand +fathoms of water, and after repeated failures, involving thirty casts of +the grapnel, she hooked and raised it to surface, then spliced it to the +fresh cable in her hold, and payed out to Heart's Content, where she +arrived on Saturday, September 7. There were now two fibres of +intelligence between the two hemispheres. + +On his return home, Professor Thomson was among those who received the +honour of knighthood for their services in connection with the +enterprise. He deserved it. By his theory and apparatus he probably +did more than any other man, with the exception of Mr. Field, to further +the Atlantic telegraph. We owe it to his admirable inventions, the +mirror instrument of 1857 and the siphon recorder of 1869, that messages +through long cables are so cheap and fast, and, as a consequence, that +ocean telegraphy is now so common. Hence some account of these two +instruments will not be out of place. + +Sir William Thomson's siphon recorder, in all its present completeness, +must take rank as a masterpiece of invention. As used in the recording +or writing in permanent characters of the messages sent through long +submarine cables, it is the acknowledged chief of 'receiving +instruments,' as those apparatus are called which interpret the +electrical condition of the telegraph wire into intelligible signals. +Like other mechanical creations, no doubt its growth in idea and +translation into material fact was a step-by-step process of evolution, +culminating at last in its great fitness and beauty. + +The marvellous development of telegraphy within the last generation has +called into existence a great variety of receiving instruments, each +admirable in its way. The Hughes, or the Stock Exchange instruments, +for instance, print the message in Roman characters; the sounders strike +it out on stops or bells of different tone; the needle instruments +indicate it by oscillations of their needles; the Morse daubs it in ink +on paper, or embosses it by a hard style; while Bain's electro-chemical +receiver stains it on chemically prepared paper. The Meyer-Baudot and +the Quadruple receive four messages at once and record them +separately; while the harmonic telegraph of Elisha Gray can receive as +many as eight simultaneously, by means of notes excited by the current +in eight separate tuning forks. + +But all these instruments have one great drawback for delicate work, +and, however suitable they may be for land lines, they are next to +useless for long cables. They require a certain definite strength of +current to work them, whatever it may be, and in general it is very +considerable. Most of the moving parts of the mechanism are +comparatively heavy, and unless the current is of the proper strength to +move them, the instrument is dumb, while in Bain's the solution requires +a certain power of current to decompose it and leave the stain. + +In overland lines the current traverses the wire suddenly, like a +bullet, and at its full strength, so that if the current be sufficiently +strong these instruments will be worked at once, and no time will be +lost. But it is quite different on submarine cables. There the current +is slow and varying. It travels along the copper wire in the form of a +wave or undulation, and is received feebly at first, then gradually +rising to its maximum strength, and finally dying away again as slowly +as it rose. In the French Atlantic cable no current can be detected by +the most delicate galvanoscope at America for the first tenth of a +second after it has been put on at Brest; and it takes about half a +second for the received current to reach its maximum value. This is +owing to the phenomenon of induction, very important in submarine +cables, but almost entirely absent in land lines. In submarine cables, +as is well known, the copper wire which conveys the current is insulated +from the sea-water by an envelope, usually of gutta-percha. Now the +electricity sent into this wire INDUCES electricity of an opposite kind +to itself in the sea-water outside, and the attraction set up between +these two kinds 'holds back' the current in the wire, and retards its +passage to the receiving station. + +It follows, that with a receiving instrument set to indicate a +particular strength of current, the rate of signalling would be very +slow on long cables compared to land lines; and that a different form of +instrument is required for cable work. This fact stood greatly in the +way of early cable enterprise. Sir William (then Professor) Thomson +first solved the difficulty by his invention of the 'mirror +galvanometer,' and rendered at the same time the first Atlantic cable +company a commercial success. The merit of this receiving instrument +is, that it indicates with extreme sensibility all the variations of the +current in the cable, so that, instead of having to wait until each +signal wave sent into the cable has travelled to the receiving end +before sending another, a series of waves may be sent after each other +in rapid succession. These waves, encroaching upon each other, will +coalesce at their bases; but if the crests remain separate, the delicate +decipherer at the other end will take cognisance of them and make them +known to the eye as the distinct signals of the message. + +The mirror galvanometer is at once beautifully simple and exquisitely +scientific. It consists of a very long fine coil of silk-covered copper +wire, and in the heart of the coil, within a little air-chamber, a small +round mirror, having four tiny magnets cemented to its back, is hung, by +a single fibre of floss silk no thicker than a spider's line. The +mirror is of film glass silvered, the magnets of hair-spring, and both +together sometimes weigh only one-tenth of a grain. A beam of light is +thrown from a lamp upon the mirror, and reflected by it upon a white +screen or scale a few feet distant, where it forms a bright spot of +light. + +When there is no current on the instrument, the spot of light remains +stationary at the zero position on the screen; but the instant a current +traverses the long wire of the coil, the suspended magnets twist +themselves horizontally out of their former position, the mirror is of +course inclined with them, and the beam of light is deflected along the +screen to one side or the other, according to the nature of the current. +If a POSITIVE current--that is to say, a current from the copper pole of +the battery--gives a deflection to the RIGHT of zero, a NEGATIVE +current, or a current from the zinc pole of the battery, will give a +deflection to the left of zero, and VICE VERSA. + +The air in the little chamber surrounding the mirror is compressed at +will, so as to act like a cushion, and 'deaden' the movements of the +mirror. The needle is thus prevented from idly swinging about at each +deflection, and the separate signals are rendered abrupt and 'dead +beat,' as it is called. + +At a receiving station the current coming in from the cable has simply +to be passed through the coil of the 'speaker' before it is sent into +the ground, and the wandering light spot on the screen faithfully +represents all its variations to the clerk, who, looking on, interprets +these, and cries out the message word by word. + +The small weight of the mirror and magnets which form the moving part of +this instrument, and the range to which the minute motions of the mirror +can be magnified on the screen by the reflected beam of light, which +acts as a long impalpable hand or pointer, render the mirror +galvanometer marvellously sensitive to the current, especially when +compared with other forms of receiving instruments. Messages have been +sent from England to America through one Atlantic cable and back again +to England through another, and there received on the mirror +galvanometer, the electric current used being that from a toy battery +made out of a lady's silver thimble, a grain of zinc, and a drop of +acidulated water. + +The practical advantage of this extreme delicacy is, that the signal +waves of the current may follow each other so closely as almost entirely +to coalesce, leaving only a very slight rise and fall of their crests, +like ripples on the surface of a flowing stream, and yet the light spot +will respond to each. The main flow of the current will of course shift +the zero of the spot, but over and above this change of place the spot +will follow the momentary fluctuations of the current which form the +individual signals of the message. What with this shifting of the zero +and the very slight rise and fall in the current produced by rapid +signalling, the ordinary land line instruments are quite unserviceable +for work upon long cables. + +The mirror instrument has this drawback, however --it does not 'record' +the message. There is a great practical advantage in a receiving +instrument which records its messages; errors are avoided and time +saved. It was to supply such a desideratum for cable work that Sir +William Thomson invented the siphon recorder, his second important +contribution to the province of practical telegraphy. He aimed at +giving a GRAPHIC representation of the varying strength of the current, +just as the mirror galvanometer gives a visual one. The difficulty of +producing such a recorder was, as he himself says, due to a difficulty +in obtaining marks from a very light body in rapid motion, without +impeding that motion. The moving body must be quite free to follow the +undulations of the current, and at the same time must record its motions +by some indelible mark. As early as 1859, Sir William sent out to the +Red Sea cable a piece of apparatus with this intent. The marker +consisted of a light platinum wire, constantly emitting sparks from a +Rhumkorff coil, so as to perforate a line on a strip of moving paper; +and it was so connected to the movable needle of a species of +galvanometer as to imitate the motions of the needle. But before it +reached the Red Sea the cable had broken down, and the instrument was +returned dismantled, to be superseded at length by the siphon recorder, +in which the marking point is a fine glass siphon emitting ink, and the +moving body a light coil of wire hung between the poles of a magnet. + +The principle of the siphon recorder is exactly the inverse of the +mirror galvanometer. In the latter we have a small magnet suspended in +the centre of a large coil of wire--the wire enclosing the magnet, which +is free to rotate round its own axis. In the former we have a small +coil suspended between the poles of a large magnet--the magnet enclosing +the coil, which is also free to rotate round its own axis. When a +current passes through this coil, so suspended in the highly magnetic +space between the poles of the magnet, the coil itself experiences a +mechanical force, causing it to take up a particular position, which +varies with the nature of the current, and the siphon which is attached +to it faithfully figures its motion on the running paper. + +The point of the siphon does not touch the paper, although it is very +close. It would impede the motion of the coil if it did. But the +'capillary attraction' of so fine a tube will not permit the ink to flow +freely of itself, so the inventor, true to his instincts, again called +in the aid of electricity, and electrified the ink. The siphon and +reservoir are together supported by an EBONITE bracket, separate from +the rest of the instrument, and INSULATED from it; that is to say, +electricity cannot escape from them to the instrument. The ink may, +therefore, be electrified to an exalted state, or high POTENTIAL as it +is called, while the body of the instrument, including the paper and +metal writing-tablet, are in connection with the earth, and at low +potential, or none at all, for the potential of the earth is in general +taken as zero. + +The ink, for example, is like a highly-charged thunder-cloud supported +over the earth's surface. Now the tendency of a charged body is to move +from a place of higher to a place of lower potential, and consequently +the ink tends to flow downwards to the writing-tablet. The only avenue +of escape for it is by the fine glass siphon, and through this it rushes +accordingly and discharges itself in a rain upon the paper. The natural +repulsion between its like electrified particles causes the shower to +issue in spray. As the paper moves over the pulleys a delicate hair +line is marked, straight when the siphon is stationary, but curved when +the siphon is pulled from side to side by the oscillations of the signal +coil. + +It is to the mouse-mill that me must look both for the electricity which +is used to electrify the ink and for the motive power which drives the +paper. This unique and interesting little motor owes its somewhat +epigrammatic title to the resemblance of the drum to one of those +sparred wheels turned by white mice, and to the amusing fact of its +capacity for performing work having been originally computed in terms of +a 'mouse-power.' The mill is turned by a stream of electricity flowing +from the battery above described, and is, in fact, an electro-magnetic +engine worked by the current. + +The alphabet of signals employed is the 'Morse code,' so generally in +vogue throughout the world. In the Morse code the letters of the +alphabet are represented by combinations of two distinct elementary +signals, technically called 'dots' and 'dashes,' from the fact that the +Morse recorder actually marks the message in long and short lines, or +dots and dashes. In the siphon recorder script dots and dashes are +represented by curves of opposite flexure. The condensers are merely +used to sharpen the action of the current, and render the signals more +concise and distinct on long cables. On short cables, say under three +hundred miles long, they are rarely, if ever, used. + +The speed of signalling by the siphon recorder is of course regulated by +the length of cable through which it is worked. The instrument itself +is capable of a wide range of speed. The best operators cannot send +over thirty-five words per minute by hand, but a hundred and twenty +words or more per minute can be transmitted by an automatic sender, and +the recorder has been found on land lines and short cables to write off +the message at this incredible speed. When we consider that every word +is, on the average, composed of fifteen separate waves, we may better +appreciate the rapidity with which the siphon can move. On an ordinary +cable of about a thousand miles long, the working speed is about twenty +words per minute. On the French Atlantic it is usually about thirteen, +although as many as seventeen have sometimes been sent. + +The 'duplex' system, or method of telegraphing in opposite directions at +once through the same wire, has of late years been applied, in +connection with the recorder, to all the long cables of that most +enterprising of telegraph companies--the Eastern--so that both stations +may 'speak' to each other simultaneously. Thus the carrying capacity +of the wire is in practice nearly doubled, and recorders are busy +writing at both ends of the cable at once, as if the messages came up +out of the sea itself. + +We have thus far followed out the recorder in its practical application +to submarine telegraphy. Let us now regard it for a moment in its more +philosophic aspect. We are at once struck with its self-dependence as +a machine, and even its resemblance in some respects to a living +creature. All its activity depends on the galvanic current. From +three separate sources invisible currents are led to its principal +parts, and are at once physically changed. That entering the mouse-mill +becomes transmuted in part into the mechanical motion of the revolving +drum, and part into electricity of a more intense nature--into mimic +lightning, in fact, with its accompaniments of heat and sound. That +entering the signal magnet expends part of its force in the magnetism +of the core. That entering the signal coil, which may be taken as the +brain of the instrument, appears to us as INTELLIGENCE. + +The recorder is now in use in all four quarters of the globe, from +Northern Europe to Southern Brazil, from China to New England. Many and +complete are the adjustments for rendering it serviceable under a wide +range of electrical conditions and climatic changes. The siphon is, of +course, in a mechanical sense, the most delicate part, but, in an +electrical sense, the mouse-mill proves the most susceptible. It is +essential for the fine marking of the siphon that the ink should neither +be too strongly nor too feebly electrified. When the atmosphere is +moderately humid, a proper supply of electricity is generated by the +mouse-mill, the paper is sufficiently moist, and the ink flows freely. +But an excess of moisture in the air diminishes the available supply of +EXALTED electricity. In fact, the damp depositing on the parts leads +the electricity away, and the ink tends to clog in the siphon. On the +other hand, drought not only supercharges the ink, but dries the paper +so much that it INSULATES the siphon point from the metal tablet and the +earth. There is then an insufficient escape for the electricity of the +ink to earth; the ink ceases to flow down the siphon; the siphon itself +becomes highly electrified and agitated with vibrations of its own; the +line becomes spluttered and uncertain. + +Various devices are employed at different stations to cure these local +complaints. The electrician soon learns to diagnose and prescribe for +this, his most valuable charge. At Aden, where they suffer much from +humidity, the mouse-mill is or has been surrounded with burning carbon. +At Malta a gas flame was used for the same purpose. At Suez, where they +suffer from drought, a cloud of steam was kept rising round the +instrument, saturating the air and paper. At more temperate places the +ordinary means of drying the air by taking advantage of the absorbing +power of sulphuric acid for moisture prevailed. At Marseilles the +recorder acted in some respects like a barometer. Marseilles is subject +to sudden incursions of dry northerly winds, termed the MISTRAL. The +recorder never failed to indicate the mistral when it blew, and +sometimes even to predict it by many hours. Before the storm was itself +felt, the delicate glass pen became agitated and disturbed, the frail +blue line broken and irregular. The electrician knew that the mistral +would blow before long, and, as it rarely blows for less than three days +at a time, that rather rude wind, so dreaded by the Marseillaise, was +doubly dreaded by him. + +The recorder was first used experimentally at St. Pierre, on the French +Atlantic cable, in 1869. This was numbered 0, as we were told by Mr. +White of Glasgow, the maker, whose skill has contributed not a little to +the success of the recorder. No. 1 was first used practically on the +Falmouth and Gibraltar cable of the Eastern Telegraph Company in July, +1870. No. 1 was also exhibited at Mr. (now Sir John) Pender's telegraph +soiree in 1870. On that occasion, memorable even beyond telegraphic +circles, 'three hundred of the notabilities of rank and fashion gathered +together at Mr. Pender's house in Arlington Street, Piccadilly, to +celebrate the completion of submarine communication between London and +Bombay by the successful laying of the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta and +the British Indian cable lines.' Mr. Pender's house was literally turned +outside in; the front door was removed, the courtyard temporarily +covered with an iron roof and the whole decorated in the grandest style. +Over the gateway was a gallery filled with the band of the Scots +Fusilier Guards; and over the portico of the house door hung the grapnel +which brought up the 1865 cable, made resplendent to the eye by a +coating of gold leaf. A handsome staircase, newly erected, permitted +the guests to pass from the reception-room to the drawing-room. In the +grounds at the back of the house stood the royal tent, where the Prince +of Wales and a select party, including the Duke of Cambridge and Lady +Mayo, wife of the Viceroy of India at that time, were entertained at +supper. Into this tent were brought wires from India, America, Egypt, +and other places, and Lady Mayo sent off a message to India about half- +past eleven, and had received a reply before twelve, telling her that +her husband and sons were quite well at five o'clock the next morning. +The recorder, which was shown in operation, naturally stood in the place +of honour, and attracted great attention. + +The minor features of the recorder have been simplified by other +inventors of late; for example, magnets of steel have been substituted +for the electro-magnets which influence the swinging coil; and the ink, +instead of being electrified by the mouse-mill, is shed on the paper by +a rapid vibration of the siphon point. + +To introduce his apparatus for signalling on long submarine cables, Sir +William Thomson entered into a partnership with Mr. C. F. Varley, who +first applied condensers to sharpen the signals, and Professor Fleeming +Jenkin, of Edinburgh University. In conjunction with the latter, he +also devised an 'automatic curb sender,' or key, for sending messages on +a cable, as the well-known Wheatstone transmitter sends them on a land +line. + +In both instruments the signals are sent by means of a perforated ribbon +of paper; but the cable sender was the more complicated, because the +cable signals are formed by both positive and negative currents, and not +merely by a single current, whether positive or negative. Moreover, to +curb the prolongation of the signals due to induction, each signal was +made by two opposite currents in succession--a positive followed by a +negative, or a negative followed by a positive, as the case might be. +The after-current had the effect of curbing its precursor. This self- +acting cable key was brought out in 1876, and tried on the lines of the +Eastern Telegraph Company. + +Sir William Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic cable +of 1869, and with Professor Jenkin was engineer of the Western and +Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables. He was present at the laying of +the Para to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873, +and introduced his method of deep-sea sounding, in which a steel +pianoforte wire replaces the ordinary land line. The wire glides so +easily to the bottom that 'flying soundings' can be taken while the ship +is going at full speed. A pressure-gauge to register the depth of the +sinker has been added by Sir William. + +About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's +place at sea, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application. +His most important aid to the mariner is, however, the adjustable +compass, which he brought out soon afterwards. It is a great +improvement on the older instrument, being steadier, less hampered by +friction, and the deviation due to the ship's own magnetism can be +corrected by movable masses of iron at the binnacle. + +Sir William is himself a skilful navigator, and delights to cruise in +his fine yacht, the Lalla Rookh, among the Western Islands, or up the +Mediterranean, or across the Atlantic to Madeira and America. His +interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arose, or at any rate +was fostered, by his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern. +Babbage was among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made +to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light; but Sir +William pointed out the merits of the Morse telegraphic code for the +purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long +flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes. + +Sir William has done more than any other electrician to introduce +accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as +1845 his mind was attracted to this subject. He pointed out that the +experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the +laws of Coulomb. + +In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a +description of his new divided ring electrometer, which is based on the +old electroscope of Bohnenberger and since then he has introduced a +chain or series of beautiful and effective instruments, including the +quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic +measurement. His delicate mirror galvanometer has also been the +forerunner of a later circle of equally precise apparatus for the +measurement of current or dynamic electricity. + +To give even a brief account of all his physical researches would +require a separate volume; and many of them are too abstruse or +mathematical for the general reader. His varied services have been +acknowledged by numerous distinctions, including the highest honour a +British man of science can obtain-- the Presidency of the Royal Society +of London, to which he was elected at the end of last year. + +Sir William Thomson has been all his life a firm believer in the truth +of Christianity, and his great scientific attainments add weight to the +following words, spoken by him when in the chair at the annual meeting +of the Christian Evidence Society, May 23, 1889 :- + +'I have long felt that there was a general impression in the non- +scientific world, that the scientific world believes Science has +discovered ways of explaining all the facts of Nature without adopting +any definite belief in a Creator. I have never doubted that that +impression was utterly groundless. It seems to me that when a +scientific man says--as it has been said from time to time--that there +is no God, he does not express his own ideas clearly. He is, perhaps, +struggling with difficulties; but when he says he does not believe in a +creative power, I am convinced he does not faithfully express what is in +his own mind, He does not fully express his own ideas. He is out of his +depth. + +'We are all out of our depth when we approach the subject of life. The +scientific man, in looking at a piece of dead matter, thinking over the +results of certain combinations which he can impose upon it, is himself +a living miracle, proving that there is something beyond that mass of +dead matter of which he is thinking. His very thought is in itself a +contradiction to the idea that there is nothing in existence but dead +matter. Science can do little positively towards the objects of this +society. But it can do something, and that something is vital and +fundamental. It is to show that what we see in the world of dead matter +and of life around us is not a result of the fortuitous concourse of +atoms. + +'I may refer to that old, but never uninteresting subject of the +miracles of geology. Physical science does something for us here. St. +Peter speaks of scoffers who said that "all things continue as they were +from the beginning of the creation;" but the apostle affirms himself +that "all these things shall be dissolved." It seems to me that even +physical science absolutely demonstrates the scientific truth of these +words. We feel that there is no possibility of things going on for ever +as they have done for the last six thousand years. In science, as in +morals and politics, there is absolutely no periodicity. One thing we +may prophesy of the future for certain--it will be unlike the past. +Everything is in a state of evolution and progress. The science of dead +matter, which has been the principal subject of my thoughts during my +life, is, I may say, strenuous on this point, that THE AGE OF THE EARTH +IS DEFINITE. We do not say whether it is twenty million years or more, +or less, but me say it is NOT INDEFINITE. And we can say very +definitely that it is not an inconceivably great number of millions of +years. Here, then, we are brought face to face with the most wonderful +of all miracles, the commencement of life on this earth. This earth, +certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot +globe; all scientific men of the present day agree that life came upon +this earth somehow. If some form or some part of the life at present +existing came to this earth, carried on some moss-grown stone perhaps +broken away from mountains in other worlds; even if some part of the +life had come in that way--for there is nothing too far-fetched in the +idea, and probably some such action as that did take place, since +meteors do come every day to the earth from other parts of the +universe;--still, that does not in the slightest degree diminish the +wonder, the tremendous miracle, we have in the commencement of life in +this world.' + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS. + +Charles William Siemens was born on April 4, 1823, at the little +village of Lenthe, about eight miles from Hanover, where his father, Mr. +Christian Ferdinand Siemens, was 'Domanen-pachter,' and farmed an +estate belonging to the Crown. His mother was Eleonore Deichmann, a lady +of noble disposition, and William, or Carl Wilhelm, was the fourth son +of a family of fourteen children, several of whom have distinguished +themselves in scientific pursuits. Of these, Ernst Werner Siemens, the +fourth child, and now the famous electrician of Berlin, was associated +with William in many of his inventions; Fritz, the ninth child, is the +head of the well-known Dresden glass works; and Carl, the tenth child, +is chief of the equally well-known electrical works at St. Petersburg. +Several of the family died young; others remained in Germany; but the +enterprising spirit, natural to them, led most of the sons abroad-- +Walter, the twelfth child, dying at Tiflis as the German Consul there, +and Otto, the fourteenth child, also dying at the same place. It would +be difficult to find a more remarkable family in any age or country. +Soon after the birth of William, Mr. Siemens removed to a larger estate +which he had leased at Menzendorf, near Lubeck. + +As a child William was sensitive and affectionate, the baby of the +family, liking to roam the woods and fields by himself, and curious to +observe, but not otherwise giving any signs of the engineer. He +received his education at a commercial academy in Lubeck, the Industrial +School at Magdeburg (city of the memorable burgomaster, Otto von +Guericke), and at the University of Gottingen, which he entered in 1841, +while in his eighteenth year. Were he attended the chemical lectures of +Woehler, the discoverer of organic synthesis, and of Professor Himly, +the well-known physicist, who was married to Siemens's eldest sister, +Mathilde. With a year at Gottingen, during which he laid the basis of +his theoretical knowledge, the academical training of Siemens came to an +end, and he entered practical life in the engineering works of Count +Stolberg, at Magdeburg. At the University he had been instructed in +mechanical laws and designs; here he learned the nature and use of tools +and the construction of machines. But as his University career at +Gottingen lasted only about a year, so did his apprenticeship at the +Stolberg Works. In this short time, however, he probably reaped as much +advantage as a duller pupil during a far longer term. + +Young Siemens appears to have been determined to push his way +forward. In 1841 his brother Werner obtained a patent in Prussia for +electro-silvering and gilding; and in 1843 Charles William came to +England to try and introduce the process here. In his address on +'Science and Industry,' delivered before the Birmingham and Midland +Institute in 1881, while the Paris Electrical Exhibition was running, +Sir William gave a most interesting account of his experiences during +that first visit to the country of his adoption. + +'When,' said he, 'the electrotype process first became known, it +excited a very general interest; and although I was only a young student +at Gottingen, under twenty years of age, who had just entered upon his +practical career with a mechanical engineer, I joined my brother, Werner +Siemens, then a young lieutenant of artillery in the Prussian service, +in his endeavours to accomplish electro-gilding; the first impulse in +this direction having been given by Professor C. Himly, then of +Gottingen. After attaining some promising results, a spirit of +enterprise came over me, so strong that I tore myself away from the +narrow circumstances surrounding me, and landed at the east end of +London with only a few pounds in my pocket and without friends, but with +an ardent confidence of ultimate success within my breast. + +'I expected to find some office in which inventions were examined +into, and rewarded if found meritorious, but no one could direct me to +such a place. In walking along Finsbury Pavement, I saw written up in +large letters, "So-and-so" (I forget the name), "Undertaker," and the +thought struck me that this must be the place I was in quest of; at any +rate, I thought that a person advertising himself as an "undertaker" +would not refuse to look into my invention with a view of obtaining for +me the sought-for recognition or reward. On entering the place I soon +convinced myself, however, that I came decidedly too soon for the kind +of enterprise here contemplated, and, finding myself confronted with the +proprietor of the establishment, I covered my retreat by what he must +have thought a very lame excuse. By dint of perseverance I found my way +to the patent office of Messrs. Poole and Carpmael, who received me +kindly, and provided me with a letter of introduction to Mr. Elkington. +Armed with this letter, I proceeded to Birmingham, to plead my cause +before your townsman. + +'In looking back to that time, I wonder at the patience with which +Mr. Elkington listened to what I had to say, being very young, and +scarcely able to find English words to convey my meaning. After showing +me what he was doing already in the way of electro-plating, Mr. +Elkington sent me back to London in order to read some patents of his +own, asking me to return if, after perusal, I still thought I could +teach him anything. To my great disappointment, I found that the +chemical solutions I had been using were actually mentioned in one of +his patents, although in a manner that would hardly have sufficed to +enable a third person to obtain practical results. + +On my return to Birmingham I frankly stated what I had found, and +with this frankness I evidently gained the favour of another townsman of +yours, Mr. Josiah Mason, who had just joined Mr. Elkington in business, +and whose name, as Sir Josiah Mason, will ever be remembered for his +munificent endowment of education. It was agreed that I should not be +judged by the novelty of my invention, but by the results which I +promised, namely, of being able to deposit with a smooth surface 30 dwt. +of silver upon a dish-cover, the crystalline structure of the deposit +having theretofore been a source of difficulty. In this I succeeded, +and I was able to return to my native country and my mechanical +engineering a comparative Croesus. + +'But it was not for long, as in the following year (1844) I again +landed in the Thames with another invention, worked out also with my +brother, namely, the chronometric governor, which, though less +successful, commercially speaking, than the first, obtained for me the +advantage of bringing me into contact with the engineering world, and +of fixing me permanently in this country. This invention was in course +of time applied by Sir George Airy, the then Astronomer-Royal, for +regulating the motion of his great transit and touch-recording +instrument at the Royal Observatory, where it still continues to be +employed. + +'Another early subject of mine, the anastatic printing process, +found favour with Faraday, "the great and the good," who made it the +subject of a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution. These two +circumstances, combined, obtained for me an entry into scientific +circles, and helped to sustain me in difficulty, until, by dint of a +certain determination to win, I was able to advance step by step up to +this place of honour, situated within a gunshot of the scene of my +earliest success in life, but separated from it by the time of a +generation. But notwithstanding the lapse of time, my heart still beats +quick each time I come back to the scene of this, the determining +incident of my life.' + +The 'anastatic' process, described by Faraday in 1845, and partly due +to Werner Siemens, was a method of reproducing printed matter by +transferring the print from paper to plates of zinc. Caustic baryta was +applied to the printed sheet to convert the resinous ingredients of the +ink into an insoluble soap, the stearine being precipitated with +sulphuric acid. The letters were then transferred to the zinc by +pressure, so as to be printed from. The process, though ingenious and +of much interest at the time, has long ago been superseded by +photographic methods. + +Even at this time Siemens had several irons in the fire. Besides the +printing process and the chronometric governor, which operated by the +differential movement between the engine and a chronometer, he was +occupied with some minor improvements at Hoyle's Calico Printing Works. +He also engaged in railway works from time to time; and in 1846 he +brought out a double cylinder air-pump, in which the two cylinders are +so combined, that the compressing side of the first and larger cylinder +communicated with the suction side of the second and smaller cylinder, +and the limit of exhaustion was thereby much extended. The invention was +well received at the time, but is now almost forgotten. + +Siemens had been trained as a mechanical engineer, and, although he +became an eminent electrician in later life, his most important work at +this early stage was non-electrical; indeed, the greatest achievement of +his life was non-electrical, for we must regard the regenerative furnace +as his MAGNUM OPUS. Though in 1847 he published a paper in Liebig's +ANNALEN DER CHEMIE on the 'Mercaptan of Selenium,' his mind was busy +with the new ideas upon the nature of heat which were promulgated by +Carnot, Clayperon, Joule, Clausius, Mayer, Thomson, and Rankine. He +discarded the older notions of heat as a substance, and accepted it as a +form of energy. Working on this new line of thought, which gave him an +advantage over other inventors of his time, he made his first attempt to +economise heat, by constructing, in 1847, at the factory of Mr. John +Hick, of Bolton, an engine of four horse-power, having a condenser +provided with regenerators, and utilising superheated steam. Two years +later he continued his experiments at the works of Messrs. Fox, +Henderson, and Co., of Smethwick, near Birmingham, who had taken the +matter in hand. The use of superheated steam was, however, attended with +many practical difficulties, and the invention was not entirely +successful, but it embraced the elements of success; and the Society of +Arts, in 1850, acknowledged the value of the principle, by awarding Mr. +Siemens a gold medal for his regenerative condenser. Various papers read +before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Civil +Engineers, or appearing in DINGLER'S JOURNAL and the JOURNAL OF THE +FRANKLIN INSTITUTE about this time, illustrate the workings of his mind +upon the subject. That read in 1853, before the Institution of Civil +Engineers, 'On the Conversion of Heat into Mechanical Effect,' was the +first of a long series of communications to that learned body, and +gained for its author the Telford premium and medal. In it he contended +that a perfect engine would be one in which all the heat applied to the +steam was used up in its expansion behind a working piston, leaving none +to be sent into a condenser or the atmosphere, and that the best results +in any actual engine would be attained by carrying expansion to the +furthest possible limit, or, in practice, by the application of a +regenerator. Anxious to realise his theories further, he constructed a +twenty horse-power engine on the regenerative plan, and exhibited it at +the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855; but, not realising his +expectations, he substituted for it another of seven-horse power, made +by M. Farcot, of Paris, which was found to work with considerable +economy. The use of superheated steam, however, still proved a +drawback, and the Siemens engine has not been extensively used. + +On the other hand, the Siemens water-meter, which he introduced in +1851, has been very widely used, not only in this country, but abroad. +It acts equally well under all variations of pressure, and with a +constant or an intermittent supply. + +Meanwhile his brother Werner had been turning his attention to +telegraphy, and the correspondence which never ceased between the +brothers kept William acquainted with his doings. In 1844, Werner, then +an officer in the Prussian army, was appointed to a berth in the +artillery workshops of Berlin, where he began to take an interest in the +new art of telegraphy. In 1845 Werner patented his dial and printing +telegraph instruments, which came into use all over Germany, and +introduced an automatic alarm on the same principle. These inventions +led to his being made, in 1846, a member of a commission in Berlin for +the introduction of electric telegraphs instead of semaphores. He +advocated the use of gutta-percha, then a new material, for the +insulation of underground wires, and in 1847 designed a screw-press for +coating the wires with the gum rendered plastic by heat. The following +year he laid the first great underground telegraph line from Berlin to +Frankfort-on-the-Main, and soon afterwards left the army to engage with +Mr. Halske in the management of a telegraph factory which they had +conjointly established in 1847. In 1852 William took an office in John +Street, Adelphi, with a view to practise as a civil engineer. Eleven +years later, Mr. Halske and William Siemens founded in London the house +of Siemens, Halske & Co., which began with a small factory at Millbank, +and developed in course of time into the well-known firm of Messrs. +Siemens Brothers, and was recently transformed into a limited liability +company. + +In 1859 William Siemens became a naturalised Englishman, and from +this time forward took an active part in the progress of English +engineering and telegraphy. He devoted a great part of his time to +electrical invention and research; and the number of telegraph apparatus +of all sorts--telegraph cables, land lines, and their accessories--which +have emanated from the Siemens Telegraph Works has been remarkable. The +engineers of this firm have been pioneers of the electric telegraph in +every quarter of the globe, both by land and sea. The most important +aerial line erected by the firm was the Indo-European telegraph line, +through Prussia, Russia, and Persia, to India. The North China cable, +the Platino-Brazileira, and the Direct United States cable, were laid by +the firm, the latter in 1874-5 So also was the French Atlantic cable, +and the two Jay Could Atlantic cables. At the time of his death the +manufacture and laying of the Bennett-Mackay Atlantic cables was in +progress at the company's works, Charlton. Some idea of the extent of +this manufactory may be gathered from the fact that it gives employment +to some 2,000 men. All branches of electrical work are followed out in +its various departments, including the construction of dynamos and +electric lamps. + +On July 23, 1859, Siemens was married at St. James's, Paddington, to +Anne, the youngest daughter of Mr. Joseph Gordon, Writer to the Signet, +Edinburgh, and brother to Mr. Lewis Gordon, Professor of Engineering in +the University of Glasgow, He used to say that on March 19 of that year +he took oath and allegiance to two ladies in one day--to the Queen and +his betrothed. The marriage was a thoroughly happy one. + +Although much engaged in the advancement of telegraphy, he was also +occupied with his favourite idea of regeneration. The regenerative gas +furnace, originally invented in 1848 by his brother Friedrich, was +perfected and introduced by him during many succeeding years. The +difficulties overcome in the development of this invention were +enormous, but the final triumph was complete. + +The principle of this furnace consists in utilising the heat of the +products of combustion to warm up the gaseous fuel and air which enters +the furnace. This is done by making these products pass through +brickwork chambers which absorb their heat and communicate it to the gas +and air currents going to the flame. An extremely high temperature is +thus obtained, and the furnace has, in consequence, been largely used in +the manufacture of glass and steel. + +Before the introduction of this furnace, attempts had been made to +produce cast-steel without the use of a crucible--that is to say, on the +'open hearth' of the furnace. Reaumur was probably the first to show +that steel could be made by fusing malleable iron with cast-iron. Heath +patented the process in 1845; and a quantity of cast-steel was actually +prepared in this way, on the bed of a reverberatory furnace, by Sudre, +in France, during the year 1860. But the furnace was destroyed in the +act; and it remained for Siemens, with his regenerative furnace, to +realise the object. In 1862 Mr. Charles Atwood, of Tow Law, agreed to +erect such a furnace, and give the process a fair trial; but although +successful in producing the steel, he was afraid its temper was not +satisfactory, and discontinued the experiment. Next year, however, +Siemens, who was not to be disheartened, made another attempt with a +large furnace erected at the Montlucon Works, in France, where he was +assisted by the late M. le Chatellier, Inspecteur-General des Mines. +Some charges of steel were produced; but here again the roof of the +furnace melted down, and the company which had undertaken the trials +gave them up. The temperature required for the manufacture of the steel +was higher than the melting point of most fire-bricks. Further +endeavours also led to disappointments; but in the end the inventor was +successful. He erected experimental works at Birmingham, and gradually +matured his process until it was so far advanced that it could be +trusted to the hands of others. Siemens used a mixture of cast-steel +and iron ore to make the steel; but another manufacturer, M. Martin, of +Sireuil, in France, developed the older plan of mixing the cast-iron +with wrought-iron scrap. While Siemens was improving his means at +Birmingham, Martin was obtaining satisfactory results with a +regenerative furnace of his own design; and at the Paris Exhibition of +1867 samples of good open-hearth steel were shown by both +manufacturers. In England the process is now generally known as the +'Siemens-Martin,' and on the Continent as the 'Martin-Siemens' process. + +The regenerative furnace is the greatest single invention of Charles +William Siemens. Owing to the large demand for steel for engineering +operations, both at home and abroad, it proved exceedingly remunerative. +Extensive works for the application of the process were erected at +Landore, where Siemens prosecuted his experiments on the subject with +unfailing ardour, and, among other things, succeeded in making a basic +brick for the lining of his furnaces which withstood the intense heat +fairly well. + +The process in detail consists in freeing the bath of melted pig-iron +from excess of carbon by adding broken lumps of pure hematite or +magnetite iron ore. This causes a violent boiling, which is kept up +until the metal becomes soft enough, when it is allowed to stand to let +the metal clear from the slag which floats in scum upon the top. The +separation of the slag and iron is facilitated by throwing in some lime +from time to time. Spiegel, or specular iron, is then added; about 1 +per cent. more than in the scrap process. From 20 to 24 cwt. of ore are +used in a 5-ton charge, and about half the metal is reduced and turned +into steel, so that the yield in ingots is from 1 to 2 per cent. more +than the weight of pig and spiegel iron in the charge. The consumption +of coal is rather larger than in the scrap process, and is from 14 to 15 +cwt. per ton of steel. The two processes of Siemens and Martin are +often combined, both scrap and ore being used in the same charge, the +latter being valuable as a tempering material. + +At present there are several large works engaged in manufacturing the +Siemens-Martin steel in England, namely, the Landore, the Parkhead +Forge, those of the Steel Company of Scotland, of Messrs. Vickers & Co., +Sheffield, and others. These produced no less than 340,000 tons of +steel during the year 1881, and two years later the total output had +risen to half a million tons. In 1876 the British Admiralty built two +iron-clads, the Mercury and Iris, of Siemens-Martin steel, and the +experiment proved so satisfactory, that this material only is now used +in the Royal dockyards for the construction of hulls and boilers. +Moreover, the use of it is gradually extending in the mercantile marine. +Contemporaneous with his development of the open-hearth process, William +Siemens introduced the rotary furnace for producing wrought-iron direct +from the ore without the need of puddling. + +The fervent heat of the Siemens furnace led the inventor to devise a +novel means of measuring high temperatures, which illustrates the value +of a broad scientific training to the inventor, and the happy manner in +which William Siemens, above all others, turned his varied knowledge to +account, and brought the facts and resources of one science to bear upon +another. As early as 1860, while engaged in testing the conductor of +the Malta to Alexandria telegraph cable, then in course of manufacture, +he was struck by the increase of resistance in metallic wires occasioned +by a rise of temperature, and the following year he devised a +thermometer based on the fact which he exhibited before the British +Association at Manchester. Mathiessen and others have since enunciated +the law according to which this rise of resistance varies with rise of +temperature; and Siemens has further perfected his apparatus, and +applied it as a pyrometer to the measurement of furnace fires. It forms +in reality an electric thermometer, which will indicate the temperature +of an inaccessible spot. A coil of platinum or platinum-alloy wire is +enclosed in a suitable fire-proof case and put into the furnace of which +the temperature is wanted. Connecting wires, properly protected, lend +from the coil to a differential voltameter, so that, by means of the +current from a battery circulating in the system, the electric +resistance of the coil in the furnace can be determined at any moment. +Since this resistance depends on the temperature of the furnace, the +temperature call be found from the resistance observed. The instrument +formed the subject of the Bakerian lecture for the year 1871. + +Siemens's researches on this subject, as published in the JOURNAL OF +THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS (Vol. I., p. 123, and Vol. III., p. +297), included a set of curves graphically representing the relation +between temperature and electrical resistance in the case of various +metals. + +The electric pyrometer, which is perhaps the most elegant and +original of all William Siemens's inventions, is also the link which +connects his electrical with his metallurgical researches. His invention +ran in two great grooves, one based upon the science of heat, the other +based upon the science of electricity; and the electric thermometer was, +as it were, a delicate cross-coupling which connected both. Siemens +might have been two men, if we are to judge by the work he did; and +either half of the twin-career he led would of itself suffice to make an +eminent reputation. + +The success of his metallurgical enterprise no doubt reacted on his +telegraphic business. The making and laying of the Malta to Alexandria +cable gave rise to researches on the resistance and electrification of +insulating materials under pressure, which formed the subject of a paper +read before the British Association in 1863. The effect of pressure up +to 300 atmospheres was observed, and the fact elicited that the +inductive capacity of gutta-percha is not affected by increased +pressure, whereas that of india-rubber is diminished. The electrical +tests employed during the construction of the Malta and Alexandria +cable, and the insulation and protection of submarine cables, also +formed the subject of a paper which was read before the Institution of +Civil Engineers in 1862. + +It is always interesting to trace the necessity which directly or +indirectly was the parent of a particular invention; and in the great +importance of an accurate record of the sea-depth in which a cable is +being laid, together with the tedious and troublesome character of +ordinary sounding by the lead-line, especially when a ship is actually +paying out cable, we may find the requirements which led to the +invention of the 'bathometer,' an instrument designed to indicate the +depth of water over which a vessel is passing without submerging a line. +The instrument was based on the ingenious idea that the attractive power +of the earth on a body in the ship must depend on the depth of water +interposed between it and the sea bottom; being less as the layer of +water was thicker, owing to the lighter character of water as compared +with the denser land. Siemens endeavoured to render this difference +visible by means of mercury contained in a chamber having a bottom +extremely sensitive to the pressure of the mercury upon it, and +resembling in some respects the vacuous chamber of an aneroid barometer. +Just as the latter instrument indicates the pressure of the atmosphere +above it, so the bathometer was intended to show the pull of the earth +below it; and experiment proved, we believe, that for every 1,000 +fathoms of sea-water below the ship, the total gravity of the mercury +was reduced by 1/3200 part. The bathometer, or attraction-meter, was +brought out in 1876, and exhibited at the Loan Exhibition in South +Kensington. The elastic bottom of the mercury chamber was supported by +volute springs which, always having the same tension, caused a portion +of the mercury to rise or fall in a spiral tube of glass, according to +the variations of the earth's attraction. The whole was kept at an even +temperature, and correction was made for barometric influence. Though of +high scientific interest, the apparatus appears to have failed at the +time from its very sensitiveness; the waves on the surface of the sea +having a greater disturbing action on its readings than the change of +depth. Siemens took a great interest in this very original machine, and +also devised a form applicable to the measurement of heights. Although +he laid the subject aside for some years, he ultimately took it up +again, in hopes of producing a practical apparatus which would be of +immediate service in the cable expeditions of the s.s. Faraday. + +This admirable cable steamer of 5,000 tons register was built for +Messrs. Siemens Brothers by Messrs. Mitchell & Co., at Newcastle. The +designs were mainly inspired by Siemens himself; and after the Hooper, +now the Silvertown, she was the second ship expressly built for cable +purposes. All the latest improvements that electric science and naval +engineering could suggest were in her united. With a length of 360 +feet, a width of 52 feet, and a depth of 36 feet in the hold, she was +fitted with a rudder at each end, either of which could be locked when +desired, and the other brought into play. Two screw propellers, actuated +by a pair of compound engines, were the means of driving the vessel, and +they were placed at a slight angle to each other, so that when the +engines were worked in opposite directions the Faraday could turn +completely round in her own length. Moreover, as the ship could steam +forwards or backwards with equal ease, it became unnecessary to pass the +cable forward before hauling it in, if a fault were discovered in the +part submerged: the motion of the ship had only to be reversed, the +stern rudder fixed, and the bow rudder turned, while a small engine was +employed to haul the cable back over the stern drum, which had been used +a few minutes before to pay it out. + +The first expedition of the Faraday was the laying of the Direct +United States cable in the winter of 1874 a work which, though +interrupted by stormy weather, was resumed and completed in the summer +of 1875. She has been engaged in laying several Atlantic cables since, +and has been fitted with the electric light, a resource which has proved +of the utmost service, not only in facilitating the night operations of +paying-out, but in guarding the ship from collision with icebergs in +foggy weather off the North American coast. + +Mention of the electric light brings us to an important act of the +inventor, which, though done on behalf of his brother Werner, was +pregnant with great consequences. This was his announcement before a +meeting of the Royal Society, held on February 14, 1867, of the +discovery of the principle of reinforcing the field magnetism of +magneto-electric generators by part or the whole of the current +generated in the revolving armature--a principle which has been applied +in the dynamo-electric machines, now so much used for producing electric +light and effecting the transmission of power to a distance by means of +the electric current. By a curious coincidence the same principle was +enunciated by Sir Charles Wheatstone at the very same meeting; while a +few months previously Mr. S. A. Varley had lodged an application for a +British patent, in which the same idea was set forth. The claims of +these three inventors to priority in the discovery were, however, +anticipated by at least one other investigator, Herr Soren Hjorth, +believed to be a Dane by birth, and still remembered by a few living +electricians, though forgotten by the scientific world at large, until +his neglected specification was unexpectedly dug out of the musty +archives of the British Patent Office and brought into the light. + +The announcement of Siemens and Wheatstone came at an apter time than +Hjorth's, and was more conspicuously made. Above all, in the affluent +and enterprising hands of the brothers Siemens, it was not suffered to +lie sterile, and the Siemens dynamo-electric machine was its offspring. +This dynamo, as is well known, differs from those of Gramme and +Paccinotti chiefly in the longitudinal winding of the armature, and it +is unnecessary to describe it here. It has been adapted by its inventors +to all kinds of electrical work, electrotyping, telegraphy, electric +lighting, and the propulsion of vehicles. + +The first electric tramway run at Berlin in 1879 was followed by +another at Dusseldorf in 1880, and a third at Paris in 1881. With all of +these the name of Werner Siemens was chiefly associated; but William +Siemens had also taken up the matter, and established at his country +house of Sherwood, near Tunbridge Wells, an arrangement of dynamos and +water-wheel, by which the power of a neighbouring stream was made to +light the house, cut chaff turn washing-machines, and perform other +household duties. More recently the construction of the electric railway +from Portrush to Bushmills, at the Giant's Causeway, engaged his +attention; and this, the first work of its kind in the United Kingdom, +and to all appearance the pioneer of many similar lines, was one of his +very last undertakings. + +In the recent development of electric lighting, William Siemens, +whose fame had been steadily growing, was a recognised leader, although +he himself made no great discoveries therein. As a public man and a +manufacturer of great resources his influence in assisting the +introduction of the light has been immense. The number of Siemens +machines and Siemens electric lamps, together with measuring instruments +such as the Siemens electro-dynamometer, which has been supplied to +different parts of the world by the firm of which he was the head, is +very considerable, and probably exceeds that of any other manufacturer, +at least in this country. + +Employing a staff of skilful assistants to develop many of his ideas, +Dr. Siemens was able to produce a great variety of electrical +instruments for measuring and other auxiliary purposes, all of which +bear the name of his firm, and have proved exceedingly useful in a +practical sense. + +Among the most interesting of Siemens's investigations were his +experiments on the influence of the electric light in promoting the +growth of plants, carried out during the winter of 1880 in the +greenhouses of Sherwood. These experiments showed that plants do not +require a period of rest, but continue to grow if light and other +necessaries are supplied to them. Siemens enhanced the daylight, and, as +it were, prolonged it through the night by means of arc lamps, with the +result of forcing excellent fruit and flowers to their maturity before +the natural time in this climate. + +While Siemens was testing the chemical and life-promoting influence +of the electric arc light, he was also occupied in trying its +temperature and heating power with an 'electric furnace,' consisting of +a plumbago crucible having two carbon electrodes entering it in such a +manner that the voltaic arc could be produced within it. He succeeded +in fusing a variety of refractory metals in a comparatively short time: +thus, a pound of broken files was melted in a cold crucible in thirteen +minutes, a result which is not surprising when we consider that the +temperature of the voltaic arc, as measured by Siemens and Rosetti, is +between 2,000 and 3,000 Deg. Centigrade, or about one-third that of the +probable temperature of the sun. Sir Humphry Davy was the first to +observe the extraordinary fusing power of the voltaic arc, but Siemens +first applied it to a practical purpose in his electric furnace. + +Always ready to turn his inventive genius in any direction, the +introduction of the electric light, which had given an impetus to +improvement in the methods of utilising gas, led him to design a +regenerative gas lamp, which is now employed on a small scale in this +country, either for street lighting or in class-rooms and public halls. +In this burner, as in the regenerative furnace, the products of +combustion are made to warm up the air and gas which go to feed the +flame, and the effect is a full and brilliant light with some economy of +fuel. The use of coal-gas for heating purposes was another subject which +he took up with characteristic earnestness, and he advocated for a time +the use of gas stoves and fires in preference to those which burn coal, +not only on account of their cleanliness and convenience, but on the +score of preventing fogs in great cities, by checking the discharge of +smoke into the atmosphere. He designed a regenerative gas and coke +fireplace, in which the ingoing air was warmed by heat conducted from +the back part of the grate; and by practical trials in his own office, +calculated the economy of the system. The interest in this question, +however, died away after the close of the Smoke Abatement Exhibition; +and the experiments of Mr. Aiken, of Edinburgh, showed how futile was +the hope that gas fires would prevent fogs altogether. They might +indeed ameliorate the noxious character of a fog by checking the +discharge of soot into the atmosphere; but Mr. Aiken's experiments +showed that particles of gas were in themselves capable of condensing +the moisture of the air upon them. The great scheme of Siemens for +making London a smokeless city, by manufacturing gas at the coal-pit and +leading it in pipes from street to street, would not have rendered it +altogether a fogless one, though the coke and gas fires would certainly +have reduced the quantity of soot launched into the air. Siemens's +scheme was rejected by a Committee of the House of Lords on the somewhat +mistaken ground that if the plan were as profitable as Siemens supposed, +it would have been put in practice long ago by private enterprise. + +>From the problem of heating a room, the mind of Siemens also passed +to the maintenance of solar fires, and occupied itself with the supply +of fuel to the sun. Some physicists have attributed the continuance of +solar heat to the contraction of the solar mass, and others to the +impact of cometary matter. Imbued with the idea of regeneration, and +seeking in nature for that thrift of power which he, as an inventor, had +always aimed at, Siemens suggested a hypothesis on which the sun +conserves its heat by a circulation of its fuel in space. The elements +dissociated in the intense heat of the glowing orb rush into the cooler +regions of space, and recombine to stream again towards the sun, where +the self-same process is renewed. The hypothesis was a daring one, and +evoked a great deal of discussion, to which the author replied with +interest, afterwards reprinting the controversy in a volume, ON THE +CONSERVATION OF SOLAR ENERGY. Whether true or not--and time will +probably decide--the solar hypothesis of Siemens revealed its author in +a new light. Hitherto he had been the ingenious inventor, the +enterprising man of business, the successful engineer; but now he took a +prominent place in the ranks of pure science and speculative philosophy. +The remarkable breadth of his mind and the abundance of his energies +were also illustrated by the active part he played in public matters +connected with the progress of science. His munificent gifts in the +cause of education, as much as his achievements in science, had brought +him a popular reputation of the best kind; and his public utterances in +connection with smoke abatement, the electric light. Electric railways, +and other topics of current interest, had rapidly brought him into a +foremost place among English scientific men. During the last years of +his life, Siemens advanced from the shade of mere professional celebrity +into the strong light of public fame. + +President of the British Association in 1882, and knighted in 1883, +Siemens was a member of numerous learned societies both at home and +abroad. In 1854 he became a Member of the Institution of Civil +Engineers; and in 1862 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He +was twice President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and the +Institution of Mechanical Engineers, besides being a Member of Council +of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Vice-President of the Royal +Institution. The Society of Arts, as we have already seen, was the first +to honour him in the country of his adoption, by awarding him a gold +medal for his regenerative condenser in 1850; and in 1883 he became its +chairman. Many honours were conferred upon him in the course of his +career--the Telford prize in 1853, gold medals at the various great +Exhibitions, including that of Paris in 1881, and a GRAND PRIX at the +earlier Paris Exhibition of 1867 for his regenerative furnace. In 1874 +he received the Royal Albert Medal for his researches on heat, and in +1875 the Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute. Moreover, a few +days before his death, the Council of the Institution of Civil +Engineers awarded him the Howard Quinquennial prize for his improvements +in the manufacture of iron and steel. At the request of his widow, it +took the form of a bronze copy of the 'Mourners,' a piece of statuary by +J. G. Lough, originally exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, in +the Crystal Palace. In 1869 the University of Oxford conferred upon him +the high distinction of D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law); and besides being +a member of several foreign societies, he was a Dignitario of the +Brazilian Order of the Rose, and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. + +Rich in honours and the appreciation of his contemporaries, in the +prime of his working power and influence for good, and at the very +climax of his career, Sir William Siemens was called away. The news of +his death came with a shock of surprise, for hardly any one knew he had +been ill. He died on the evening of Monday, November 19, 1883, at nine +o'clock. A fortnight before, while returning from a managers' meeting of +the Royal Institution, in company with his friend Sir Frederick +Bramwell, he tripped upon the kerbstone of the pavement, after crossing +Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, and fell heavily to the ground, with his +left arm under him. Though a good deal shaken by the fall, he attended +at his office in Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, the next and for +several following days; but the exertion proved too much for him, and +almost for the first time in his busy life he was compelled to lay up. +On his last visit to the office he was engaged most of the time in +dictating to his private secretary a large portion of the address which +he intended to deliver as Chairman of the Council of the Society of +Arts. This was on Thursday, November 8, and the following Saturday he +awoke early in the morning with an acute pain about the heart and a +sense of coldness in the lower limbs. Hot baths and friction removed the +pain, from which he did not suffer much afterwards. A slight congestion +of the left lung was also relieved; and Sir William had so far +recovered that he could leave his room. On Saturday, the 17th, he was to +have gone for a change of air to his country seat at Sherwood; but on +Wednesday, the 14th, he appears to have caught a chill which affected +his lungs, for that night he was seized with a shortness of breath and a +difficulty in breathing. Though not actually confined to bed, he never +left his room again. On the last day, and within four hours of his +death, we are told, his two medical attendants, after consultation, +spoke so hopefully of the future, that no one was prepared for the +sudden end which was then so near. In the evening, while he was sitting +in an arm-chair, very quiet and calm, a change suddenly came over his +face, and he died like one who falls asleep. Heart disease of long +standing, aggravated by the fall, was the immediate cause; but the +opinion has been expressed by one who knew him well, that Siemens +'literally immolated himself on the shrine of labour.' At any rate he +did not spare himself, and his intense devotion to his work proved +fatal. + +Every day was a busy one with Siemens. His secretary was with him in +his residence by nine o'clock nearly every morning, except on Sundays, +assisting him in work for one society or another, the correction of +proofs, or the dictation of letters giving official or scientific +advice, and the preparation of lectures or patent specifications. Later +on, he hurried across the Park 'almost at racing speed,' to his offices +at Westminster, where the business of the Landore-Siemens Steel Company +and the Electrical Works of Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Company was +transacted. As chairman of these large undertakings, and principal +inventor of the processes and systems carried out by them, he had a +hundred things to attend to in connection with them, visitors to see, +and inquiries to answer. In the afternoon and evenings he was generally +engaged at council meetings of the learned societies, or directory +meetings of the companies in which he was interested. He was a man who +took little or no leisure, and though he never appeared to over-exert +himself, few men could have withstood the strain so long. + +Siemens was buried on Monday, November 26, in Kensal Green Cemetery. +The interment was preceded by a funeral service held in Westminster +Abbey, and attended by representatives of the numerous learned societies +of which he had been a conspicuous member, by many leading men in all +branches of science, and also by a large body of other friends and +admirers, who thus united in doing honour to his memory, and showing +their sense of the loss which all classes had sustained by his death. + +Siemens was above all things a 'labourer.' Unhasting, unresting +labour was the rule of his life; and the only relaxation, not to say +recreation, which he seems to have allowed himself was a change of task +or the calls of sleep. This natural activity was partly due to the spur +of his genius, and partly to his energetic spirit. For a man of his +temperament science is always holding out new problems to solve and +fresh promises of triumph. All he did only revealed more work to be +done; and many a scheme lies buried in his grave. + +Though Siemens was a man of varied powers, and occasionally gave +himself to pure speculation in matters of science, his mind was +essentially practical; and it was rather as an engineer than a +discoverer that he was great. Inventions are associated with his name, +not laws or new phenomena. Standing on the borderland between pure and +applied science, his sympathies were yet with the latter; and as the +outgoing President of the British Association at Southport, in 1882, he +expressed the opinion that 'in the great workshop of nature there are no +lines of demarcation to be drawn between the most exalted speculation +and common-place practice.' The truth of this is not to be gain-said, +but it is the utterance of an engineer who judges the merit of a thing +by its utility. He objected to the pursuit of science apart from its +application, and held that the man of science does most for his kind who +shows the world how to make use of scientific results. Such a view was +natural on the part of Siemens, who was himself a living representative +of the type in question; but it was not the view of such a man as +Faraday or Newton, whose pure aim was to discover truth, well knowing +that it would be turned to use thereafter. In Faraday's eyes the new +principle was a higher boon than the appliance which was founded upon +it. + +Tried by his own standard, however, Siemens was a conspicuous +benefactor of his fellow-men; and at the time of his decease he had +become our leading authority upon applied science. In electricity he was +a pioneer of the new advances, and happily lived to obtain at least a +Pisgah view of the great future which evidently lies before that +pregnant force. + +If we look for the secret of Siemens's remarkable success, we shall +assuredly find it in an inventive mind, coupled with a strong commercial +instinct, and supported by a physical energy which enabled him to labour +long and incessantly. It is told that when a mechanical problem was +brought to him for solution, he would suggest six ways of overcoming the +difficulty, three of which would be impracticable, the others feasible, +and one at least successful. From this we gather that his mind was +fertile in expedients. The large works which he established are also a +proof that, unlike most inventors, he did not lose his interest in an +invention, or forsake it for another before it had been brought into the +market. On the contrary, he was never satisfied with an invention until +it was put into practical operation. + +To the ordinary observer, Siemens did not betray any signs of the +untiring energy that possessed him. His countenance was usually serene +and tranquil, as that of a thinker rather than a man of action; his +demeanour was cool and collected; his words few and well-chosen. In his +manner, as well as in his works, there was no useless waste of power. + +To the young he was kind and sympathetic, hearing, encouraging, +advising; a good master, a firm friend. His very presence had a calm and +orderly influence on those about him, which when he presided at a +Public meeting insensibly introduced a gracious tone. The diffident took +heart before him, and the presumptuous were checked. The virtues which +accompanied him into public life did not desert him in private. In +losing him, we have lost not only a powerful intellect, but a bright +example, and an amiable man. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FLEEMING JENKIN. + +The late Fleeming Jenkin, Professor of Engineering in Edinburgh +University, was remarkable for the versatility of his talent. Known to +the world as the inventor of Telpherage, he was an electrician and cable +engineer of the first rank, a lucid lecturer, and a good linguist, a +skilful critic, a writer and actor of plays, and a clever sketcher. In +popular parlance, Jenkin was a dab at everything. + +His father, Captain Charles Jenkin, R.N., was the second son of Mr. +Charles Jenkin, of Stowting Court, himself a naval officer, who had +taken part in the actions with De Grasse. Stowting Court, a small +estate some six miles north of Hythe, had been in the family since the +year 1633, and was held of the Crown by the feudal service of six men +and a constable to defend the sea-way at Sandgate. Certain Jenkins had +settled in Kent during the reign of Henry VIII., and claimed to have +come from Yorkshire. They bore the arms of Jenkin ap Phillip of St. +Melans, who traced his descent from 'Guaith Voeth,' Lord of Cardigan. + +While cruising in the West Indies, carrying specie, or chasing +buccaneers and slavers, Charles Jenkin, junior, was introduced to the +family of a fellow midshipman, son of Mr. Jackson, Custos Rotulorum of +Kingston, Jamaica, and fell in love with Henrietta Camilla, the youngest +daughter. Mr. Jackson came of a Yorkshire stock, said to be of Scottish +origin, and Susan, his wife, was a daughter of [Sir] Colin Campbell, a +Greenock merchant, who inherited but never assumed the baronetcy of +Auchinbreck. [According to BURKE'S PEERAGE (1889), the title went to +another branch.] + +Charles Jenkin, senior, died in 1831, leaving his estate so heavily +encumbered, through extravagance and high living, that only the mill- +farm was saved for John, the heir, an easy-going, unpractical man, with +a turn for abortive devices. His brother Charles married soon +afterwards, and with the help of his wife's money bought in most of +Stowting Court, which, however, yielded him no income until late in +life. Charles was a useful officer and an amiable gentleman; but +lacking energy and talent, he never rose above the grade of Commander, +and was superseded after forty-five years of service. He is represented +as a brave, single-minded, and affectionate sailor, who on one occasion +saved several men from suffocation by a burning cargo at the risk of his +own life. Henrietta Camilla Jackson, his wife, was a woman of a strong +and energetic character. Without beauty of countenance, she possessed +the art of pleasing, and in default of genius she was endowed with a +variety of gifts. She played the harp, sang, and sketched with native +art. At seventeen, on hearing Pasta sing in Paris, she sought out the +artist and solicited lessons. Pasta, on hearing her sing, encouraged +her, and recommended a teacher. She wrote novels, which, however, +failed to make their mark. At forty, on losing her voice, she took to +playing the piano, practising eight hours a day; and when she was over +sixty she began the study of Hebrew. + +The only child of this union was Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin, +generally called Fleeming Jenkin, after Admiral Fleeming, one of his +father's patrons. He was born on March 25, 1833, in a building of the +Government near Dungeness, his father at that time being on the coast- +guard service. His versatility was evidently derived from his mother, +who, owing to her husband's frequent absence at sea and his weaker +character, had the principal share in the boy's earlier training. + +Jenkin was fortunate in having an excellent education. His mother took +him to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at Barjarg, she taught him +drawing among other things, and allowed him to ride his pony on the +moors. He went to school at Jedburgh, and afterwards to the Edinburgh +Academy, where he carried off many prizes. Among his schoolfellows were +Clerk Maxwell and Peter Guthrie Tait, the friends of his maturer life. + +On the retirement of his father the family removed to Frankfort in 1847, +partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's instruction. +Here Fleeming and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching +old castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. Fleeming was +precocious, and at thirteen had finished a romance of three hundred +lines in heroic measure, a Scotch novel, and innumerable poetical +fragments, none of which are now extant. He learned German in +Frankfort; and on the family migrating to Paris the following year, he +studied French and mathematics under a certain M. Deluc. While here, +Fleeming witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848, and heard the +first shot. In a letter written to an old schoolfellow while the sound +still rang in his ears, and his hand trembled with excitement, he gives +a boyish account of the circumstances. The family were living in the +Rue Caumartin, and on the evening of February 23 he and his father were +taking a walk along the boulevards, which were illuminated for joy at +the resignation of M. Guizot. They passed the residence of the Foreign +Minister, which was guarded with troops, and further on encountered a +band of rioters marching along the street with torches, and singing the +Marseillaise. After them came a rabble of men and women of all sorts, +rich and poor, some of them armed with sticks and sabres. They turned +back with these, the boy delighted with the spectacle, 'I remarked to +papa' (he writes),'I would not have missed the scene for anything. I +might never see such a splendid one ; when PONG went one shot. Every +face went pale: R--R--R--R--R went the whole detachment [of troops], +and the whole crowd of gentlemen and ladies turned and cut. Such a +scene!---ladies, gentlemen, and vagabonds went sprawling in the mud, +not shot but tripped up, and those that went down could not rise--they +were trampled over. . . . I ran a short time straight on and did not +fall, then turned down a side street, ran fifty yards, and felt +tolerably safe; looked for papa; did not see him; so walked on quickly, +giving the news as I went.' + +Next day, while with his father in the Place de la Concorde, which was +filled with troops, the gates of the Tuileries Garden were suddenly +flung open, and out galloped a troop of cuirassiers, in the midst of +whom was an open carriage containing the king and queen, who had +abdicated. Then came the sacking of the Tuileries, the people mounting +a cannon on the roof, and firing blank cartridges to testify their joy. +'It was a sight to see a palace sacked' (wrote the boy), 'and armed +vagabonds firing out of the windows, and throwing shirts, papers, and +dresses of all kinds out.... They are not rogues, the French; they are +not stealing, burning, or doing much harm.' [MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN, +by R. L. Stevenson.] + +The Revolution obliged the Jenkins to leave Paris, and they proceeded to +Genoa, where they experienced another, and Mrs. Jenkin, with her son and +sister-in-law, had to seek the protection of a British vessel in the +harbour, leaving their house stored with the property of their friends, +and guarded by the Union Jack and Captain Jenkin. + +At Genoa, Fleeming attended the University, and was its first Protestant +student. Professor Bancalari was the professor of natural philosophy, +and lectured on electro-magnetism, his physical laboratory being the +best in Italy. Jenkin took the degree of M.A. with first-class honours, +his special subject having been electro-magnetism. The questions in the +examinations were put in Latin, and answered in Italian. Fleeming also +attended an Art school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a +drawing from one of Raphael's cartoons. His holidays were spent in +sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano; or, when +permissible, at the theatre or opera-house; for ever since hearing +Rachel recite the Marseillaise at the Theatre Francaise, he had +conceived a taste for acting. + +In 1850 Fleeming spent some time in a Genoese locomotive shop under Mr. +Philip Taylor, of Marseilles; but on the death of his Aunt Anna, who +lived with them, Captain Jenkin took his family to England, and settled +in Manchester, where the lad, in 1851, was apprenticed to mechanical +engineering at the works of Messrs. Fairbairn, and from half-past eight +in the morning till six at night had, as he says, 'to file and chip +vigorously, in a moleskin suit, and infernally dirty.' At home he +pursued his studies, and was for a time engaged with Dr. Bell in working +out a geometrical method of arriving at the proportions of Greek +architecture. His stay amidst the smoke and bustle of Manchester, +though in striking contrast to his life in Genoa, was on the whole +agreeable. He liked his work, had the good spirits of youth, and made +some pleasant friends, one of them the authoress, Mrs. Gaskell. Even as +a boy he was disputatious, and his mother tells of his having overcome a +Consul at Genoa in a political discussion when he was only sixteen, +'simply from being well-informed on the subject, and honest. He is as +true as steel,' she writes, 'and for no one will he bend right or +left... Do not fancy him a Bobadil; he is only a very true, candid boy. +I am so glad he remains in all respects but information a great child.' + +On leaving Fairbairn's he was engaged for a time on a survey for the +proposed Lukmanier Railway, in Switzerland, and in 1856 he entered the +engineering works of Mr. Penn, at Greenwich, as a draughtsman, and was +occupied on the plans of a vessel designed for the Crimean war. He did +not care for his berth, and complained of its late hours, his rough +comrades, with whom he had to be 'as little like himself as possible,' +and his humble lodgings, 'across a dirty green and through some half- +built streets of two-storied houses.... Luckily,' he adds, 'I am fond of +my profession, or I could not stand this life.' There was probably no +real hardship in his present situation, and thousands of young engineers +go through the like experience at the outset of their career without a +murmur,' and even with enjoyment; but Jenkin had been his mother's pet +until then, with a girl's delicate training, and probably felt the +change from home more keenly on that account. At night he read +engineering and mathematics, or Carlyle and the poets, and cheered his +drooping spirits with frequent trips to London to see his mother. + +Another social pleasure was his visits to the house of Mr. Alfred +Austin, a barrister, who became permanent secretary to Her Majesty's +Office of Works and Public Buildings, and retired in 1868 with the title +of C.B. His wife, Eliza Barron, was the youngest daughter of Mr. E. +Barron, a gentleman of Norwich, the son of a rich saddler, or leather- +seller, in the Borough, who, when a child, had been patted on the head, +in his father's shop, by Dr. Johnson, while canvassing for Mr. Thrale. +Jenkin had been introduced to the Austins by a letter from Mrs. Gaskell, +and was charmed with the atmosphere of their choice home, where +intellectual conversation was happily united with kind and courteous +manners, without any pretence or affectation. 'Each of the Austins,' +says Mr. Stevenson, in his memoir of Jenkin, to which we are much +indebted, 'was full of high spirits; each practised something of the +same repression; no sharp word was uttered in the house. The same point +of honour ruled them: a guest was sacred, and stood within the pale +from criticism.' In short, the Austins were truly hospitable and +cultured, not merely so in form and appearance. It was a rare privilege +and preservative for a solitary young man in Jenkin's position to have +the entry into such elevating society, and he appreciated his good +fortune. + +Annie Austin, their only child, had been highly educated, and knew Greek +among other things. Though Jenkin loved and admired her parents, he did +not at first care for Annie, who, on her part, thought him vain, and by +no means good-looking. Mr. Stevenson hints that she vanquished his +stubborn heart by correcting a 'false quantity' of his one day, for he +was the man to reflect over a correction, and 'admire the castigator.' +Be this as it may, Jenkin by degrees fell deeply in love with her. + +He was poor and nameless, and this made him diffident; but the liking of +her parents for him gave him hope. Moreover, he had entered the service +of Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, who were engaged in the new work of +submarine telegraphy, which satisfied his aspirations, and promised him +a successful career. With this new-born confidence in his future, he +solicited the Austins for leave to court their daughter, and it was not +withheld. Mrs. Austin consented freely, and Mr. Austin only reserved +the right to inquire into his character. Neither of them mentioned his +income or prospects, and Jenkin, overcome by their disinterestedness, +exclaimed in one of his letters, 'Are these people the same as other +people?' Thus permitted, he addressed himself to Annie, and was nearly +rejected for his pains. Miss Austin seems to have resented his +courtship of her parents first; but the mother's favour, and his own +spirited behaviour, saved him, and won her consent. + +Then followed one of the happiest epochs in Jenkin's life. After +leaving Penn's he worked at railway engineering for a time under Messrs. +Liddell and Gordon; and, in 1857, became engineer to Messrs. R. S. +Newall & Co., of Gateshead, who shared the work of making the first +Atlantic cable with Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co., of Greenwich. Jenkin +was busy designing and fitting up machinery for cableships, and making +electrical experiments. 'I am half crazy with work,' he wrote to his +betrothed; 'I like it though: it's like a good ball, the excitement +carries you through.' Again he wrote, 'My profession gives me all the +excitement and interest I ever hope for.'... 'I am at the works till +ten, and sometimes till eleven. But I have a nice office to sit in, +with a fire to myself, and bright brass scientific instruments all round +me, and books to read, and experiments to make, and enjoy myself +amazingly. I find the study of electricity so entertaining that I am +apt to neglect my other work.'... 'What shall I compare them to,' he +writes of some electrical experiments, 'a new song? or a Greek play?' In +the spring of 1855 he was fitting out the s.s. Elba, at Birkenhead, for +his first telegraph cruise. It appears that in 1855 Mr. Henry Brett +attempted to lay a cable across the Mediterranean between Cape +Spartivento, in the south of Sardinia, and a point near Bona, on the +coast of Algeria. It was a gutta-percha cable of six wires or +conductors, and manufactured by Messrs. Glass & Elliott, of Greenwich--a +firm which afterwards combined with the Gutta-Percha Company, and became +the existing Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. Mr. Brett +laid the cable from the Result, a sailing ship in tow, instead of a more +manageable steamer; and, meeting with 600 fathoms of water when twenty- +five miles from land, the cable ran out so fast that a tangled skein +came up out of the hold, and the line had to be severed. Having only +150 miles on board to span the whole distance of 140 miles, he grappled +the lost cable near the shore, raised it, and 'under-run' or passed it +over the ship, for some twenty miles, then cut it, leaving the seaward +end on the bottom. He then spliced the ship's cable to the shoreward +end and resumed his paying-out; but after seventy miles in all were +laid, another rapid rush of cable took place, and Mr. Brett was obliged +to cut and abandon the line. + +Another attempt was made the following year, but with no better success. +Mr. Brett then tried to lay a three-wire cable from the steamer +Dutchman, but owing to the deep water--in some places 1500 fathoms --its +egress was so rapid, that when he came to a few miles from Galita, his +destination on the Algerian coast, he had not enough cable to reach the +land. He therefore telegraphed to London for more cable to be made and +sent out, while the ship remained there holding to the end. For five +days he succeeded in doing so, sending and receiving messages ; but +heavy weather came on, and the cable parted, having, it is said, been +chafed through by rubbing on the bottom. After that Mr. Brett went +home. + +It was to recover the lost cable of these expeditions that the Elba was +got ready for sea. Jenkin had fitted her out the year before for laying +the Cagliari to Malta and Corfu cables; but on this occasion she was +better equipped. She had a new machine for picking up the cable, and a +sheave or pulley at the bows for it to run over, both designed by +Jenkin, together with a variety of wooden buoys, ropes, and chains. Mr. +Liddell, assisted by Mr. F. C. Webb and Fleeming Jenkin, were in charge +of the expedition. The latter had nothing to do with the electrical +work, his care being the deck machinery for raising the cable; but it +entailed a good deal of responsibility, which was flattering and +agreeable to a young man of his parts. + +'I own I like responsibility,' he wrote to Miss Austin, while fitting up +the vessel; 'it flatters one; and then, your father might say, I have +more to gain than lose. Moreover, I do like this bloodless, painless +combat with wood and iron, forcing the stubborn rascals to do my will, +licking the clumsy cubs into an active shape, seeing the child of to- +day's thought working to-morrow in full vigour at his appointed task.' +Another letter, dated May 17, gives a picture of the start. 'Not a +sailor will join us till the last moment; and then, just as the ship +forges ahead through the narrow pass, beds and baggage fly on board, the +men, half tipsy, clutch at the rigging, the captain swears, the women +scream and sob, the crowd cheer and laugh, while one or two pretty +little girls stand still and cry outright, regardless of all eyes.' + +The Elba arrived at Bona on June 3, and Jenkin landed at Fort Genova, on +Cape Hamrah, where some Arabs were building a land line. 'It was a +strange scene,' he writes, 'far more novel than I had imagined; the +high, steep bank covered with rich, spicy vegetation, of which I hardly +knew one plant. The dwarf palm, with fan-like leaves, growing about two +feet high, forms the staple verdure.' After dining in Fort Genova, he +had nothing to do but watch the sailors ordering the Arabs about under +the 'generic term "Johnny." ' He began to tire of the scene, although, +as he confesses, he had willingly paid more money for less strange and +lovely sights. Jenkin was not a dreamer; he disliked being idle, and if +he had had a pencil he would have amused himself in sketching what he +saw. That his eyes were busy is evident from the particulars given in +his letter, where he notes the yellow thistles and 'Scotch-looking +gowans' which grow there, along with the cistus and the fig-tree. + +They left Bona on June 5, and, after calling at Cagliari and Chia, +arrived at Cape Spartivento on the morning of June 8. The coast here is +a low range of heathy hills, with brilliant green bushes and marshy +pools. Mr. Webb remarks that its reputation for fever was so bad as to +cause Italian men-of-war to sheer off in passing by. Jenkin suffered a +little from malaria, but of a different origin. 'A number of the +SATURDAY REVIEW here,' he writes; 'it reads so hot and feverish, so +tomb-like and unhealthy, in the midst of dear Nature's hills and sea, +with good wholesome work to do.' + +There were several pieces of submerged cable to lift, two with their +ends on shore, and one or two lying out at sea. Next day operations +were begun on the shore end, which had become buried under the sand, and +could not be raised without grappling. After attempts to free the cable +from the sand in small boats, the Elba came up to help, and anchored in +shallow water about sunset. Curiously enough, the anchor happened to +hook, and so discover the cable, which was thereupon grappled, cut, and +the sea end brought on board over the bow sheave. After being passed +six times round the picking-up drum it was led into the hold, and the +Elba slowly forged ahead, hauling in the cable from the bottom as she +proceeded. At half-past nine she anchored for the night some distance +from the shore, and at three next morning resumed her picking up. 'With +a small delay for one or two improvements I had seen to be necessary +last night,' writes Jenkin, 'the engine started, and since that time I +do not think there has been half an hour's stoppage. A rope to splice, +a block to change, a wheel to oil, an old rusted anchor to disengage +from the cable, which brought it up-- these have been our only +obstructions. Sixty, seventy, eighty, a hundred, a hundred and twenty +revolutions at last my little engine tears away. The even black rope +comes straight out of the blue, heaving water, passes slowly round an +open-hearted, good-tempered-looking pulley, five feet in diameter, aft +past a vicious nipper, to bring all up should anything go wrong, through +a gentle guide on to a huge bluff drum, who wraps him round his body, +and says, " Come you must," as plain as drum can speak; the chattering +pauls say, "I've got him, I've got him; he can't come back," whilst +black cable, much slacker and easier in mind and body, is taken by a +slim V-pulley and passed down into the huge hold, where half a dozen men +put him comfortably to bed after his exertion in rising from his long +bath. + +'I am very glad I am here, for my machines are my own children, and I +look on their little failings with a parent's eye, and lead them into +the path of duty with gentleness and firmness. I am naturally in good +spirits, but keep very quiet, for misfortunes may arise at any instant; +moreover, to-morrow my paying-out apparatus will be wanted should all go +well, and that will be another nervous operation. Fifteen miles are +safely in, but no one knows better than I do that nothing is done till +all is done.' + +JUNE 11.--'It would amuse you to see how cool (in head) and jolly +everybody is. A testy word now and then shows the nerves are strained a +little, but every one laughs and makes his little jokes as if it were +all in fun....I enjoy it very much.' + +JUNE 13, SUNDAY.--'It now (at 10.30) blows a pretty stiff gale, and the +sea has also risen, and the Elba's bows rise and fall about nine feet. +We make twelve pitches to the minute, and the poor cable must feel very +sea-sick by this time. We are quite unable to do anything, and continue +riding at anchor in one thousand fathoms, the engines going constantly, +so as to keep the ship's bows close up to the cable, which by this means +hangs nearly vertical, and sustains no strain but that caused by its own +weight and the pitching of the vessel. We were all up at four, but the +weather entirely forbade work for to-day; so some went to bed, and most +lay down, making up our lee-way, as we nautically term our loss of +sleep. I must say Liddell is a fine fellow, and keeps his patience and +his temper wonderfully; and yet how he does fret and fume about trifles +at home!' + +JUNE 16.--'By some odd chance a TIMES of June 7 has found its way on +board through the agency of a wretched old peasant who watches the end +of the line here. A long account of breakages in the Atlantic trial +trip. To-night we grapple for the heavy cable, eight tons to the mile. +I long to have a tug at him; he may puzzle me; and though misfortunes, +or rather difficulties, are a bore at the time, life, when working with +cables, is tame without them.--2 p.m. Hurrah! he is hooked--the big +fellow--almost at the first cast. He hangs under our bows, looking so +huge and imposing that I could find it in my heart to be afraid of him.' + +JUNE 17.--'We went to a little bay called Chia, where a fresh-water +stream falls into the sea, and took in water. This is rather a long +operation, so I went up the valley with Mr. Liddell. The coast here +consists of rocky mountains 800 to 1000 feet high, covered with shrubs +of a brilliant green. On landing, our first amusement was watching the +hundreds of large fish who lazily swam in shoals about the river. The +big canes on the further side hold numberless tortoises, we are told, +but see none, for just now they prefer taking a siesta. A little +further on, and what is this with large pink flowers in such abundance?- +-the oleander in full flower! At first I fear to pluck them, thinking +they must be cultivated and valuable; but soon the banks show a long +line of thick tall shrubs, one mass of glorious pink and green, set +there in a little valley, whose rocks gleam out blue and purple colours, +such as pre-Raphaelites only dare attempt, shining out hard and weird- +like amongst the clumps of castor-oil plants, cistus, arbor-vitae, and +many other evergreens, whose names, alas! I know not; the cistus is +brown now, the rest all deep and brilliant green. Large herds of cattle +browse on the baked deposit at the foot of these large crags. One or +two half-savage herdsmen in sheepskin kilts, etc., ask for cigars; +partridges whirr up on either side of us; pigeons coo and nightingales +sing amongst the blooming oleander. We get six sheep, and many fowls +too, from the priest of the small village, and then run back to +Spartivento and make preparations for the morning.' + +JUNE 18.--'The short length (of the big-cable) we have picked up was +covered at places with beautiful sprays of coral, twisted and twined +with shells of those small fairy animals we saw in the aquarium at home. +Poor little things! they died at once, with their little bells and +delicate bright tints.' + +JUNE 19.--'Hour after hour I stand on the fore-castle-head picking off +little specimens of polypi and coral, or lie on the saloon deck reading +back numbers of the TIMES, till something hitches, and then all is +hurly-burly once more. There are awnings all along the ship, and a most +ancient and fish-like smell (from the decaying polypi) beneath.' + +JUNE 22.--'Yesterday the cable was often a lovely sight, coming out of +the water one large incrustation of delicate net-like corals and long +white curling shells. No portion of the dirty black wire was visible; +instead we had a garland of soft pink, with little scarlet sprays and +white enamel intermixed. All was fragile, however, and could hardly be +secured in safety; and inexorable iron crushed the tender leaves to +atoms.' + +JUNE 24.--'The whole day spent in dredging, without success. This +operation consists in allowing the ship to drift slowly across the line +where you expect the cable to be, while at the end of a long rope, fast +either to the bow or stern, a grapnel drags along the ground. The +grapnel is a small anchor, made like four pot-hooks tied back to back. +When the rope gets taut the ship is stopped and the grapnel hauled up to +the surface in the hopes of finding the cable on its prongs. I am much +discontented with myself for idly lounging about and reading WESTWARD +HO! for the second time instead of taking to electricity or picking up +nautical information.' + +During the latter part of the work much of the cable was found to be +looped and twisted into 'kinks' from having been so slackly laid, and +two immense tangled skeins were raised on board, one by means of the +mast-head and fore-yard tackle. Photographs of this ravelled cable were +for a long time exhibited as a curiosity in the windows of Messrs. +Newall & Co's. shop in the Strand, where we remember to have seen them. + +By July 5 the whole of the six-wire cable had been recovered, and a +portion of the three-wire cable, the rest being abandoned as unfit for +use, owing to its twisted condition. Their work was over, but an +unfortunate accident marred its conclusion. On the evening of the 2nd +the first mate, while on the water unshackling a buoy, was struck in the +back by a fluke of the ship's anchor as she drifted, and so severely +injured that he lay for many weeks at Cagliari. Jenkin's knowledge of +languages made him useful as an interpreter; but in mentioning this +incident to Miss Austin, he writes, 'For no fortune would I be a doctor +to witness these scenes continually. Pain is a terrible thing.' + +In the beginning of 1859 he made the acquaintance of Sir William +Thomson, his future friend and partner. Mr. Lewis Gordon, of Messrs. R. +S. Newall & Co., afterwards the earliest professor of engineering in a +British University, was then in Glasgow seeing Sir William's instruments +for testing and signalling on the first Atlantic cable during the six +weeks of its working. Mr. Gordon said he should like to show them to 'a +young man of remarkable ability,' engaged at their Birkenhead Works, and +Jenkin, being telegraphed for, arrived next morning, and spent a week in +Glasgow, mostly in Sir William's class-room and laboratory at the old +college. Sir William tells us that he was struck not only with Jenkin's +brightness and ability, but with his resolution to understand everything +spoken of; to see, if possible, thoroughly into every difficult +question, and to slur over nothing. 'I soon found,' he remarks, 'that +thoroughness of honesty was as strongly engrained in the scientific as +in the moral side of his character.' Their talk was chiefly on the +electric telegraph; but Jenkin was eager, too, on the subject of +physics. After staying a week he returned to the factory; but he began +experiments, and corresponded briskly with Sir William about cable work. +That great electrician, indeed, seems to have infected his visitor +during their brief contact with the magnetic force of his personality +and enthusiasm. + +The year was propitious, and, in addition to this friend, Fortune about +the same time bestowed a still better gift on Jenkin. On Saturday, +February 26, during a four days' leave, he was married to Miss Austin at +Northiam, returning to his work the following Tuesday. This was the +great event of his life; he was strongly attached to his wife, and his +letters reveal a warmth of affection, a chivalry of sentiment, and even +a romance of expression, which a casual observer would never have +suspected in him. Jenkin seemed to the outside world a man without a +heart, and yet we find him saying in the year 1869, 'People may write +novels, and other people may write poems, but not a man or woman among +them can say how happy a man can be who is desperately in love with his +wife after ten years of marriage.' Five weeks before his death he wrote +to her, 'Your first letter from Bournemouth gives me heavenly pleasure +--for which I thank Heaven and you, too, who are my heaven on earth.' + +During the summer he enjoyed another telegraph cruise in the +Mediterranean, a sea which for its classical memories, its lovely +climate, and diversified scenes, is by far the most interesting in the +world. This time the Elba was to lay a cable from the Greek islands of +Syra and Candia to Egypt. Cable-laying is a pleasant mode of travel. +Many of those on board the ship are friends and comrades in former +expeditions, and all are engaged in the same venture. Some have seen a +good deal of the world, both in and out of the beaten track ; they have +curious 'yarns to spin,' and useful hints or scraps of worldly wisdom to +bestow. The voyage out is like a holiday excursion, for it is only the +laying that is arduous, and even that is lightened by excitement. +Glimpses are got of hide-away spots, where the cable is landed, perhaps. +on the verge of the primeval forest or near the port of a modern city, +or by the site of some ruined monument of the past. The very magic of +the craft and its benefit to the world are a source of pleasure to the +engineer, who is generally made much of in the distant parts he has come +to join. No doubt there are hardships to be borne, sea-sickness, +broken rest, and anxiety about the work--for cables are apt suddenly to +fail, and the ocean is treacherous; but with all its drawbacks this +happy mixture of changing travel and profitable labour is very +attractive, especially to a young man. + +The following extracts from letters to his wife will illustrate the +nature of the work, and also give an idea of Jenkin's clear and graphic +style of correspondence :- + +May 14.--'Syra is semi-eastern. The pavement, huge shapeless blocks +sloping to a central gutter; from this base two-storeyed houses, +sometimes plaster, many-coloured, sometimes rough-hewn marble, rise, +dirty and ill-finished, to straight, plain, flat roofs; shops guiltless +of windows, with signs in Greek letters; dogs, Greeks in blue, baggy, +Zouave breeches and a fez, a few narghilehs, and a sprinkling of the +ordinary continental shop-boys. In the evening I tried one more walk in +Syra with A----, but in vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to spend +money, the first effort resulting in singing DOODAH to a passing Greek +or two, the second in spending--no, in making A---- spend--threepence on +coffee for three.' + +Canea Bay, in Candia (or Crete), which they reached on May 16, appeared +to Jenkin one of the loveliest sights that man could witness. + +May 23.--'I spent the day at the little station where the cable was +landed, which has apparently been first a Venetian monastery and then a +Turkish mosque. At any rate the big dome is very cool, and the little +ones hold batteries capitally. A handsome young Bashi-Bazouk guards it, +and a still handsomer mountaineer is the servant; so I draw them and the +monastery and the hill till I'm black in the face with heat, and come on +board to hear the Canea cable is still bad.' + +May 23.--'We arrived in the morning at the east end of Candia, and had a +glorious scramble over the mountains, which seem built of adamant. Time +has worn away the softer portions of the rock, only leaving sharp, +jagged edges of steel; sea eagles soaring above our heads--old tanks, +ruins, and desolation at our feet. The ancient Arsinoe stood here: a +few blocks of marble with the cross attest the presence of Venetian +Christians; but now--the desolation of desolations. Mr. Liddell and I +separated from the rest, and when we had found a sure bay for the cable, +had a tremendous lively scramble back to the boat. These are the bits +of our life which I enjoy; which have some poetry, some grandeur in +them. + +May 29.-'Yesterday we ran round to the new harbour (of Alexandria), +landed the shore end of the cable close to Cleopatra's Bath, and made a +very satisfactory start about one in the afternoon. We had scarcely +gone 200 yards when I noticed that the cable ceased to run out, and I +wondered why the ship had stopped.' + +The Elba had run her nose on a sandbank. After trying to force her over +it, an anchor was put out astern and the rope wound by a steam winch, +while the engines were backed; but all in vain. At length a small +Turkish steamer, the consort of the Elba, came to her assistance, and by +means of a hawser helped to tug her off: The pilot again ran her +aground soon after, but she was delivered by the same means without much +damage. When two-thirds of this cable was laid the line snapped in deep +water, and had to be recovered. On Saturday, June 4, they arrived at +Syra, where they had to perform four days' quarantine, during which, +however, they started repairing the Canea cable. + +Bad weather coming on, they took shelter in Siphano, of which Jenkin +writes: 'These isles of Greece are sad, interesting places. They are +not really barren all over, but they are quite destitute of verdure; and +tufts of thyme, wild mastic, or mint, though they sound well, are not +nearly so pretty as grass. Many little churches, glittering white, dot +the islands; most of them, I believe, abandoned during the whole year +with the exception of one day sacred to their patron saint. The +villages are mean; but the inhabitants do not look wretched, and the men +are capital sailors. There is something in this Greek race yet; they +will become a powerful Levantine nation in the course of time.' + +In 1861 Jenkin left the service of Newall & Co., and entered into +partnership with Mr. H. C. Forde, who had acted as engineer under the +British Government for the Malta-Alexandria cable, and was now +practising as a civil engineer. For several years after this business +was bad, and with a young family coming, it was an anxious time for him; +but he seems to have borne his troubles lightly. Mr. Stevenson says it +was his principle 'to enjoy each day's happiness as it arises, like +birds and children.' + +In 1863 his first son was born, and the family removed to a cottage at +Claygate, near Esher. Though ill and poor at this period, he kept up +his self-confidence. 'The country,' he wrote to his wife, 'will give +us, please God, health and strength. I will love and cherish you more +than ever. You shall go where you wish, you shall receive whom you +wish, and as for money, you shall have that too. I cannot be mistaken. +I have now measured myself with many men. I do not feel weak. I do not +feel that I shall fail. In many things I have succeeded, and I will in +this.... And meanwhile, the time of waiting, which, please Heaven, shall +not be so long, shall also not be so bitter. Well, well, I promise +much, and do not know at this moment how you and the dear child are. If +he is but better, courage, my girl, for I see light.' + +He took to gardening, without a natural liking for it, and soon became +an ardent expert. He wrote reviews, and lectured, or amused himself in +playing charades, and reading poetry. Clerk Maxwell, and Mr. Ricketts, +who was lost in the La Plata, were among his visitors. During October, +1860, he superintended the repairs of the Bona-Spartivento cable, +revisiting Chia and Cagliari, then full of Garibaldi's troops. The +cable, which had been broken by the anchors of coral fishers, was +grapnelled with difficulty. 'What rocks we did hook!' writes Jenkin. +'No sooner was the grapnel down than the ship was anchored; and then +came such a business: ship's engines going, deck engine thundering, +belt slipping, tear of breaking ropes; actually breaking grapnels. It +was always an hour or more before we could get the grapnels down again.' + +In 1865, on the birth of his second son, Mrs. Jenkin was very ill, and +Jenkin, after running two miles for a doctor, knelt by her bedside +during the night in a draught, not wishing to withdraw his hand from +hers. Never robust, he suffered much from flying rheumatism and +sciatica ever afterwards. It nearly disabled him while laying the +Lowestoft to Norderney cable for Mr. Reuter, in 1866. This line was +designed by Messrs. Forde & Jenkin, manufactured by Messrs. W. T. +Henley & Co., and laid by the Caroline and William Cory. Miss Clara +Volkman, a niece of Mr. Reuter, sent the first message, Mr. C. F, Varley +holding her hand. + +In 1866 Jenkin was appointed to the professorship of Engineering in +University College, London. Two years later his prospects suddenly +improved; the partnership began to pay, and he was selected to fill the +Chair of Engineering, which had been newly established, in Edinburgh +University. What he thought of the change may be gathered from a letter +to his wife: 'With you in the garden (at Claygate), with Austin in the +coach-house, with pretty songs in the little low white room, with the +moonlight in the dear room upstairs--ah! it was perfect; but the long +walk, wondering, pondering, fearing, scheming, and the dusty jolting +railway, and the horrid fusty office, with its endless disappointments, +they are well gone. It is well enough to fight, and scheme, and bustle +about in the eager crowd here (in London) for awhile now and then; but +not for a lifetime. What I have now is just perfect. Study for winter, +action for summer, lovely country for recreation, a pleasant town for +talk.' + +The liberality of the Scotch universities allowed him to continue his +private enterprises, and the summer holiday was long enough to make a +trip round the globe. + +The following June he was on board the Great Eastern while she laid the +French Atlantic cable from Brest to St. Pierre. Among his shipmates +were Sir William Thomson, Sir James Anderson, C. F. Varley, Mr. Latimer +Clark, and Willoughby Smith. Jenkin's sketches of Clark and Varley are +particularly happy. At St. Pierre, where they arrived in a fog, which +lifted to show their consort, the William Cory, straight ahead, and the +Gulnare signalling a welcome, Jenkin made the curious observation that +the whole island was electrified by the battery at the telegraph +station. + +Jenkin's position at Edinburgh led to a partnership in cable work with +Sir William Thomson, for whom he always had a love and admiration. +Jenkin's clear, practical, and business-like abilities were doubtless an +advantage to Sir William, relieving him of routine, and sparing his +great abilities for higher work. In 1870 the siphon recorder, for +tracing a cablegram in ink, instead of merely flashing it by the moving +ray of the mirror galvanometer, was introduced on long cables, and +became a source of profit to Jenkin and Varley as well as to Sir +William, its inventor. + +In 1873 Thomson and Jenkin were engineers for the Western and Brazilian +cable. It was manufactured by Messrs. Hooper & Co., of Millwall, and +the wire was coated with india-rubber, then a new insulator. The Hooper +left Plymouth in June, and after touching at Madeira, where Sir William +was up 'sounding with his special toy' (the pianoforte wire) 'at half- +past three in the morning,' they reached Pernambuco by the beginning of +August, and laid a cable to Para. + +During the next two years the Brazilian system was connected to the West +Indies and the River Plate; but Jenkin was not present on the +expeditions. While engaged in this work, the ill-fated La Plata, bound +with cable from Messrs. Siemens Brothers to Monte Video, perished in a +cyclone off Cape Ushant, with the loss of nearly all her crew. The +Mackay-Bennett Atlantic cables were also laid under their charge. + +As a professor Jenkin's appearance was against him; but he was a clear, +fluent speaker, and a successful teacher. Of medium height, and very +plain, his manner was youthful, and alert, but unimposing. +nevertheless, his class was always in good order, for his eye instantly +lighted on any unruly member, and his reproof was keen. + +His experimental work was not strikingly original. At Birkenhead he +made some accurate measurements of the electrical properties of +materials used in submarine cables. Sir William Thomson says he was +the first to apply the absolute methods of measurement introduced by +Gauss and Weber. He also investigated there the laws of electric +signals in submarine cables. As Secretary to the British Association +Committee on Electrical Standards he played a leading part in providing +electricians with practical standards of measurement. His Cantor +lectures on submarine cables, and his treatise on ELECTRICITY AND +MAGNETISM, published in 1873, were notable works at the time, and +contained the latest development of their subjects. He was associated +with Sir William Thomson in an ingenious 'curb-key' for sending signals +automatically through a long cable; but although tried, it was not +adopted. His most important invention was Telpherage, a means of +transporting goods and passengers to a distance by electric panniers +supported on a wire or conductor, which supplied them with electricity. +It was first patented in 1882, and Jenkin spent his last years on this +work, expecting great results from it; but ere the first public line was +opened for traffic at Glynde, in Sussex, he was dead. + +In mechanical engineering his graphical methods of calculating strains +in bridges, and determining the efficiency of mechanism, are of much +value. The latter, which is based on Reulaux's prior work, procured +him the honour of the Keith Gold Medal from the Royal Society of +Edinburgh. Another successful work of his was the founding of the +Sanitary Protection Association, for the supervision of houses with +regard to health. + +In his leisure hours Jenkin wrote papers on a wide variety of subjects. +To the question, 'Is one man's gain another man's loss?' he answered +'Not in every case.' He attacked Darwin's theory of development, and +showed its inadequacy, especially in demanding more time than the +physicist could grant for the age of the habitable world. Darwin +himself confessed that some of his arguments were convincing; and Munro, +the scholar, complimented him for his paper on Lucretius and the Atomic +Theory.' In 1878 he constructed a phonograph from the newspaper reports +of this new invention, and lectured on it at a bazaar in Edinburgh, then +employed it to study the nature of vowel and consonantal sounds. An +interesting paper on Rhythm in English Verse,' was also published by him +in the SATURDAY REVIEW for 1883. + +He was clever with his pencil, and could seize a likeness with +astonishing rapidity. He has been known while on a cable expedition to +stop a peasant woman in a shop for a few minutes and sketch her on the +spot. His artistic side also shows itself in a paper on 'Artist and +Critic,' in which he defines the difference between the mechanical and +fine arts. 'In mechanical arts,' he says, 'the craftsman uses his skill +to produce something useful, but (except in the rare case when he is at +liberty to choose what he shall produce) his sole merit lies in skill. +In the fine arts the student uses skill to produce something beautiful. +He is free to choose what that something shall be, and the layman claims +that he may and must judge the artist chiefly by the value in beauty of +the thing done. Artistic skill contributes to beauty, or it would not +be skill; but beauty is the result of many elements, and the nobler the +art the lower is the rank which skill takes among them.' + +A clear and matter-of-fact thinker, Jenkin was an equally clear and +graphic writer. He read the best literature, preferring, among other +things, the story of David, the ODYSSEY, the ARCADIA, the saga of Burnt +Njal, and the GRAND CYRUS. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ariosto, +Boccaccio, Scott, Dumas, Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot, were some +of his favourite authors. He once began a review of George Eliot's +biography, but left it unfinished. Latterly he had ceased to admire her +work as much as before. He was a rapid, fluent talker, with excited +utterance at times. Some of his sayings were shrewd and sharp; but he +was sometimes aggressive. 'People admire what is pretty in an ugly +thing,' he used to say 'not the ugly thing.' A lady once said to him she +would never be happy again. 'What does that signify?' cried Jenkin ; +'we are not here to be happy, but to be good.' On a friend remarking +that Salvini's acting in OTHELLO made him want to pray, Jenkin answered, +'That is prayer.' + +Though admired and liked by his intimates, Jenkin was never popular with +associates. His manner was hard, rasping, and unsympathetic. 'Whatever +virtues he possessed,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'he could never count on +being civil.' He showed so much courtesy to his wife, however, that a +Styrian peasant who observed it spread a report in the village that Mrs. +Jenkin, a great lady, had married beneath her. At the Saville Club, in +London, he was known as the 'man who dines here and goes up to +Scotland.' Jenkin was conscious of this churlishness, and latterly +improved. 'All my life,' he wrote,'I have talked a good deal, with the +almost unfailing result of making people sick of the sound of my tongue. +It appeared to me that I had various things to say, and I had no +malevolent feelings; but, nevertheless, the result was that expressed +above. Well, lately some change has happened. If I talk to a person +one day they must have me the next. Faces light up when they see me. +"Ah! I say, come here." " Come and dine with me." It's the most +preposterous thing I ever experienced. It is curiously pleasant.' + +Jenkin was a good father, joining in his children's play as well as +directing their studies. The boys used to wait outside his office for +him at the close of business hours; and a story is told of little +Frewen, the second son, entering in to him one day, while he was at +work, and holding out a toy crane he was making, with the request, 'Papa +you might finiss windin' this for me, I'm so very busy to-day.' He was +fond of animals too, and his dog Plate regularly accompanied him to the +University. But, as he used to say, 'It's a cold home where a dog is +the only representative of a child.' + +In summer his holidays were usually spent in the Highlands, where Jenkin +learned to love the Highland character and ways of life. He was a good +shot, rode and swam well, and taught his boys athletic exercises, +boating, salmon fishing, and such like. He learned to dance a Highland +reel, and began the study of Gaelic; but that speech proved too +stubborn, craggy, and impregnable even for Jenkin. Once he took his +family to Alt Aussee, in the Stiermark, Styria, where he hunted chamois, +won a prize for shooting at the Schutzen-fest, learned the dialect of +the country, sketched the neighbourhood, and danced the STEIERISCH and +LANDLER with the peasants. He never seemed to be happy unless he was +doing, and what he did was well done. + +Above all, he was clear-headed and practical, mastering many things; no +dreamer, but an active, business man. Had he confined himself to +engineering he might have adorned his profession more, for he liked and +fitted it; but with his impulses on other lines repressed, he might have +been less happy. Moreover, he was one who believed, with the sage, that +all good work is profitable, having its value, if only in exercise and +skill. + +His own parents and those of his wife had come to live in Edinburgh ; +but he lost them all within ten months of each other. Jenkin had showed +great devotion to them in their illnesses, and was worn out with grief +and watching. His telpherage, too, had given him considerable anxiety +to perfect; and his mother's illness, which affected her mind, had +caused himself to fear. + +He was meditating a holiday to Italy with his wife in order to +recuperate, and had a trifling operation performed on his foot, which +resulted, it is believed, in blood poisoning. There seemed to be no +danger, and his wife was reading aloud to him as he lay in bed, when his +intellect began to wander. It is doubtful whether he regained his +senses before he died, on June 12, 1885. + +At one period of his life Jenkin was a Freethinker, holding, as Mr. +Stevenson says, all dogmas as 'mere blind struggles to express the +inexpressible.' Nevertheless, as time went on he came back to a belief +in Christianity. 'The longer I live,' he wrote, 'the more convinced I +become of a direct care by God--which is reasonably impossible--but +there it is.' In his last year he took the Communion. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +JOHANN PHILIPP REIS. + +Johann Philipp Reis, the first inventor of an electric telephone, was +born on January 7, 1834, at the little town of Gelnhausen, in Cassel, +where his father was a master baker and petty farmer. The boy lost his +mother during his infancy, and was brought up by his paternal +grandmother, a well-read, intelligent woman, of a religious turn. While +his father taught him to observe the material world, his grandmother +opened his mind to the Unseen. + +At the age of six he was sent to the common school of the town, where +his talents attracted the notice of his instructors, who advised his +father to extend his education at a higher college. Mr. Reis died +before his son was ten years old; but his grandmother and guardians +afterwards placed him at Garnier's Institute, in Friedrichsdorf, where +he showed a taste for languages, and acquired both French and English, +as well as a stock of miscellaneous information from the library. At +the end of his fourteenth year he passed to Hassel's Institute, at +Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he picked up Latin and Italian. A love of +science now began to show itself, and his guardians were recommended to +send him to the Polytechnic School of Carlsruhe ; but one of them, his +uncle, wished him to become a merchant, and on March 1, 1850, Reis was +apprenticed to the colour trade in the establishment of Mr. J. F +Beyerbach, of Frankfort, against his own will. He told his uncle that +he would learn the business chosen for him, but should continue his +proper studies by-and-by. + +By diligent service he won the esteem of Mr. Beyerbach, and devoted his +leisure to self-improvement, taking private lessons in mathematics and +physics, and attending the lectures of Professor R. Bottger on mechanics +at the Trade School. When his apprenticeship ended he attended the +Institute of Dr. Poppe, in Frankfort, and as neither history nor +geography was taught there, several of the students agreed to instruct +each other in these subjects. Reis undertook geography, and believed +he had found his true vocation in the art of teaching. He also became a +member of the Physical Society of Frankfort. + +In 1855 he completed his year of military service at Cassel, then +returned to Frankfort to qualify himself as a teacher of mathematics and +science in the schools by means of private study and public lectures. +His intention was to finish his training at the University of +Heidelberg, but in the spring of 1858 he visited his old friend and +master, Hofrath Garnier, who offered him a post in Garnier's Institute. +In the autumn of 1855 he removed to Friedrichsdorf, to begin his new +career, and in September following he took a wife and settled down. + +Reis imagined that electricity could be propagated through space, as +light can, without the aid of a material conductor, and he made some +experiments on the subject. The results were described in a paper 'On +the Radiation of Electricity,' which, in 1859, he posted to Professor +Poggendorff; for insertion in the well-known periodical, the ANNALEN DER +PHYSIK. The memoir was declined, to the great disappointment of the +sensitive young teacher. + +Reis had studied the organs of hearing, and the idea of an apparatus for +transmitting sound by means of electricity had been floating in his mind +for years. Incited by his lessons on physics, in the year 1860 he +attacked the problem, and was rewarded with success. In 1862 he again +tried Poggendorff, with an account of his 'Telephon,' as he called +it;[The word 'telephone' occurs in Timbs' REPOSITORY OF SCIENCE AND ART +for 1845, in connection With a signal trumpet operated by compressed +air.] but his second offering was rejected like the first. The learned +professor, it seems, regarded the transmission of speech by electricity +as a chimera; but Reis, in the bitterness of wounded feeling, attributed +the failure to his being 'only a poor schoolmaster.' + +Since the invention of the telephone, attention has been called to the +fact that, in 1854, M. Charles Bourseul, a French telegraphist, [Happily +still alive (1891).] had conceived a plan for conveying sounds and even +speech by electricity. 'Suppose,' he explained, 'that a man speaks near +a movable disc sufficiently flexible to lose none of the vibrations of +the voice; that this disc alternately makes and breaks the currents from +a battery: you may have at a distance another disc which will +simultaneously execute the same vibrations.... It is certain that, in a +more or less distant future, speech will be transmitted by electricity. +I have made experiments in this direction; they are delicate and demand +time and patience, but the approximations obtained promise a favourable +result.'[See Du Moncel's EXPOSE DES APPLICATIONS, etc.] + +Bourseul deserves the credit of being perhaps the first to devise an +electric telephone and try to make it; but to Reis belongs the honour of +first realising the idea. A writer may plot a story, or a painter +invent a theme for a picture; but unless he execute the work, of what +benefit is it to the world? True, a suggestion in mechanics may +stimulate another to apply it in practice, and in that case the +suggester is entitled to some share of the credit, as well as the +distinction of being the first to think of the matter. But it is best +when the original deviser also carries out the work; and if another +should independently hit upon the same idea and bring it into practice, +we are bound to honour him in full, though we may also recognise the +merit of his predecessor. + +Bourseul's idea seems to have attracted little notice at the time, and +was soon forgotten. Even the Count du Moncel, who was ever ready to +welcome a promising invention, evidently regarded it as a fantastic +notion. It is very doubtful if Reis had ever heard of it. He was led +to conceive a similar apparatus by a study of the mechanism of the human +ear, which he knew to contain a membrane, or 'drum,' vibrating under the +waves of sound, and communicating its vibrations through the hammer-bone +behind it to the auditory nerve. It therefore occurred to him, that if +he made a diaphragm in imitation of the drum, and caused it by vibrating +to make and break the circuit of an electric current, he would be able +through the magnetic power of the interrupted current to reproduce the +original sounds at a distance. + +In 1837-8 Professor Page, of Massachusetts, had discovered that' a +needle or thin bar of iron, placed in the hollow of a coil or bobbin of +insulated wire, would emit an audible 'tick' at each interruption of a +current, flowing in the coil, and that if these separate ticks followed +each other fast enough, by a rapid interruption of the current, they +would run together into a continuous hum, to which he gave the name of +'galvanic music.' The pitch of this note would correspond to the rate +of interruption of the current. From these and other discoveries which +had been made by Noad, Wertheim, Marrian, and others, Reis knew that if +the current which had been interrupted by his vibrating diaphragm were +conveyed to a distance by a metallic circuit, and there passed through +a coil like that of Page, the iron needle would emit a note like that +which had caused the oscillation of the transmitting diaphragm. Acting +on this knowledge, he constructed a rude telephone. + +Dr. Messel informs us that his first transmitter consisted of the bung +of a beer barrel hollowed out in imitation of the external ear. The cup +or mouth-piece thus formed was closed by the skin of a German sausage to +serve as a drum or diaphragm. To the back of this he fixed, with a drop +of sealing-wax, a little strip of platinum, representing the hammer- +bone, which made and broke the metallic circuit of the current as the +membrane oscillated under the sounds which impinged against it. The +current thus interrupted was conveyed by wires to the receiver, which +consisted of a knitting-needle loosely surrounded by a coil of wire +fastened to the breast of a violin as a sounding-board. When a musical +note was struck near the bung, the drum vibrated in harmony with the +pitch of the note, the platinum lever interrupted the metallic circuit +of the current, which, after traversing the conducting wire, passed +through the coil of the receiver, and made the needle hum the original +tone. This primitive arrangement, we are told, astonished all who heard +it. [It is now in the museum of the Reichs Post-Amt, Berlin.] + +Another of his early transmitters was a rough model of the human ear, +carved in oak, and provided with a drum which actuated a bent and +pivoted lever of platinum, making it open and close a springy contact of +platinum foil in the metallic circuit of the current. He devised some +ten or twelve different forms, each an improvement on its predecessors, +which transmitted music fairly well, and even a word or two of speech +with more or less perfection. But the apparatus failed as a practical +means of talking to a distance. + +The discovery of the microphone by Professor Hughes has enabled us to +understand the reason of this failure. The transmitter of Reis was +based on the plan of interrupting the current, and the spring was +intended to close the contact after it had been opened by the shock of a +vibration. So long as the sound was a musical tone it proved efficient, +for a musical tone is a regular succession of vibrations. But the +vibrations of speech are irregular and complicated, and in order to +transmit them the current has to be varied in strength without being +altogether broken. The waves excited in the air by the voice should +merely produce corresponding waves in the current. In short, the +current ought to UNDULATE in sympathy with the oscillations of the air. +It appears from the report of Herr Von Legat, inspector of the Royal +Prussian Telegraphs, on the Reis telephone, published in 1862, that the +inventor was quite aware of this principle, but his instrument was not +well adapted to apply it. No doubt the platinum contacts he employed in +the transmitter behaved to some extent as a crude metal microphone, +and hence a few words, especially familiar or expected ones, could be +transmitted and distinguished at the other end of the line. But Reis +does not seem to have realised the importance of not entirely breaking +the circuit of the current; at all events, his metal spring is not in +practice an effective provision against this, for it allows the metal +contacts to jolt too far apart, and thus interrupt the current. Had he +lived to modify the spring and the form or material of his contacts so +as to keep the current continuous--as he might have done, for example, +by using carbon for platinum--he would have forestalled alike Bell, +Edison, and Hughes in the production of a good speaking telephone. Reis +in fact was trembling on the verge of a great discovery, which was, +however, reserved for others. + +His experiments were made in a little workshop behind his home at +Friedrichsdorff; and wires were run from it to an upper chamber. +Another line was erected between the physical cabinet at Garnier's +Institute across the playground to one of the class-rooms, and there was +a tradition in the school that the boys were afraid of creating an +uproar in the room for fear Herr Reis should hear them with his +'telephon.' + +The new invention was published to the world in a lecture before the +Physical Society of Frankfort on October 26, 1861, and a description, +written by himself for the JAHRESBERICHT, a month or two later. It +excited a good deal of scientific notice in Germany; models of it were +sent abroad, to London, Dublin, Tiflis, and other places. It became a +subject for popular lectures, and an article for scientific cabinets. +Reis obtained a brief renown, but the reaction soon set in. The +Physical Society of Frankfort turned its back on the apparatus which had +given it lustre. Reis resigned his membership in 1867; but the Free +German Institute of Frankfort, which elected him an honorary member, +also slighted the instrument as a mere 'philosophical toy.' At first it +was a dream, and now it is a plaything. Have we not had enough of that +superior wisdom which is another name for stupidity? The dreams of the +imagination are apt to become realities, and the toy of to-day has a +knack of growing into the mighty engine of to-morrow. + +Reis believed in his invention, if no one else did; and had he been +encouraged by his fellows from the beginning, he might have brought it +into a practical shape. But rebuffs had preyed upon his sensitive +heart, and he was already stricken with consumption. It is related +that, after his lecture on the telephone at Geissen, in 1854, Professor +Poggendorff, who was present, invited him to send a description of his +instrument to the ANNALEN. Reis answered him,'Ich danke Ihnen recht +Sehr, Herr Professor ; es ist zu spaty. Jetzt will ICH nicht ihn +schickeny. Mein Apparat wird ohne Beschreibung in den ANNALEN bekannt +werden.' ('Thank you very much, Professor, but it is too late. I shall +not send it now. My apparatus will become known without any writing in +the ANNALEN.') + +Latterly Reis had confined his teaching and study to matters of science; +but his bad health was a serious impediment. For several years it was +only by the exercise of a strong will that he was able to carry on his +duties. His voice began to fail as the disease gained upon his lungs, +and in the summer of 1873 he was obliged to forsake tuition during +several weeks. The autumn vacation strengthened his hopes of recovery, +and he resumed his teaching with his wonted energy. But this was the +last flicker of the expiring flame. It was announced that he would show +his new gravity-machine at a meeting of the Deutscher Naturforscher of +Wiesbaden in September, but he was too ill to appear. In December he +lay down, and, after a long and painful illness, breathed his last at +five o'clock in the afternoon of January 14, 1874 + +In his CURRICULUM VITAE he wrote these words: 'As I look back upon my +life I call indeed say with the Holy Scriptures that it has been "labour +and sorrow." But I have also to thank the Lord that He has given me His +blessing in my calling and in my family, and has bestowed more good upon +me than I have known how to ask of Him. The Lord has helped hitherto; +He will help yet further.' + +Reis was buried in the cemetery of Friedrichsdorff, and in 1878, after +the introduction of the speaking telephone, the members of the Physical +Society of Frankfort erected over his grave an obelisk of red sandstone +bearing a medallion portrait. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +GRAHAM BELL. + +The first to produce a practicable speaking telephone was Alexander +Graham Bell. He was born at Edinburgh on March 1, 1847, and comes of a +family associated with the teaching of elocution. His grandfather in +London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, Mr. Andrew Melville Bell, +in Edinburgh, were all professed elocutionists. The latter has +published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are well +known, especially his treatise on Visible Speech, which appeared in +Edinburgh in 1868. In this he explains his ingenious method of +instructing deaf mutes, by means of their eyesight, how to articulate +words, and also how to read what other persons are saying by the motions +of their lips. Graham Bell, his distinguished son, was educated at the +high school of Edinburgh, and subsequently at Warzburg, in Germany, +where he obtained the degree of Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy). While +still in Scotland he is said to have turned his attention to the science +of acoustics, with a view to ameliorate the deafness of his mother. + +In 1873 he accompanied his father to Montreal, in Canada, where he was +employed in teaching the system of visible speech. The elder Bell was +invited to introduce it into a large day-school for mutes at Boston, but +he declined the post in favour of his son, who soon became famous in the +United States for his success in this important work. He published more +than one treatise on the subject at Washington, and it is, we believe, +mainly through his efforts that thousands of deaf mutes in America are +now able to speak almost, if not quite, as well as those who are able to +hear. + +Before he left Scotland Mr. Graham Bell had turned his attention to +telephony, and in Canada he designed a piano which could transmit its +music to a distance by means of electricity. At Boston he continued his +researches in the same field, and endeavoured to produce a telephone +which would not only send musical notes, but articulate speech. + +If it be interesting to trace the evolution of an animal from its +rudimentary germ through the lower phases to the perfect organism, it is +almost as interesting to follow an invention from the original model +through the faultier types to the finished apparatus. + +In 1860 Philipp Reis, as we have seen, produced a telephone which could +transmit musical notes, and even a lisping word or two; and some ten +years later Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, F.R.S., a well-known English +electrician, patented a number of ingenious devices for applying the +musical telephone to transmit messages by dividing the notes into short +or long signals, after the Morse code, which could be interpreted by +the ear or by the eye in causing them to mark a moving paper. These +inventions were not put in practice; but four years afterwards Herr Paul +la Cour, a Danish inventor, experimented with a similar appliance on a +line of telegraph between Copenhagen and Fredericia in Jutland. In +this a vibrating tuning-fork interrupted the current, which, after +traversing the line, passed through an electro-magnet, and attracted +the limbs of another fork, making it strike a note like the transmitting +fork. By breaking up the note at the sending station with a signalling +key, the message was heard as a series of long and short hums. +Moreover, the hums were made to record themselves on paper by turning +the electro-magnetic receiver into a relay, which actuated a Morse +printer by means of a local battery. + +Mr. Elisha Gray, of Chicago, also devised a tone telegraph of this kind +about the same time as Herr La Cour. In this apparatus a vibrating +steel tongue interrupted the current, which at the other end of the line +passed through the electro-magnet and vibrated a band or tongue of iron +near its poles. Gray's 'harmonic telegraph,' with the vibrating tongues +or reeds, was afterwards introduced on the lines of the Western Union +Telegraph Company in America. As more than one set of vibrations--that +is to say, more than one note--can be sent over the same wire +simultaneously, it is utilised as a 'multiplex' or many-ply telegraph, +conveying several messages through the same wire at once; and these can +either be interpreted by the sound, or the marks drawn on a ribbon of +travelling paper by a Morse recorder. + +Gray also invented a 'physiological receiver,' which has a curious +history. Early in 1874 his nephew was playing with a small induction +coil, and, having connected one end of the secondary circuit to the zinc +lining of a bath, which was dry, he was holding the other end in his +left hand. While he rubbed the zinc with his right hand Gray noticed +that a sound proceeded from it, which had the pitch and quality of the +note emitted by the vibrating contact or electrotome of the coil. 'I +immediately took the electrode in my hand,' he writes, 'and, repeating +the operation, found to my astonishment that by rubbing hard and rapidly +I could make a much louder sound than the electrotome. I then changed +the pitch of the vibration, and found that the pitch of the sound under +my hand was also changed, agreeing with that of the vibration.' Gray +lost no time in applying this chance discovery by designing the +physiological receiver, which consists of a sounding-box having a zinc +face and mounted on an axle, so that it can be revolved by a handle. +One wire of the circuit is connected to the revolving zinc, and the +other wire is connected to the finger which rubs on the zinc. The +sounds are quite distinct, and would seem to be produced by a +microphonic action between the skin and the metal. + +All these apparatus follow in the track of Reis and Bourseul--that is to +say, the interruption of the current by a vibrating contact. It was +fortunate for Bell that in working with his musical telephone an +accident drove him into a new path, which ultimately brought him to the +invention of a speaking telephone. He began his researches in 1874 with +a musical telephone, in which he employed the interrupted current to +vibrate the receiver, which consisted of an electro-magnet causing an +iron reed or tongue to vibrate; but, while trying it one day with his +assistant, Mr. Thomas A. Watson, it was found that a reed failed to +respond to the intermittent current. Mr. Bell desired his assistant, +who was at the other end of the line, to pluck the reed, thinking it had +stuck to the pole of the magnet. Mr. Watson complied, and to his +astonishment Bell observed that the corresponding reed at his end of the +line thereupon began to vibrate and emit the same note, although there +was no interrupted current to make it. A few experiments soon showed +that his reed had been set in vibration by the magneto-electric currents +induced in the line by the mere motion of the distant reed in the +neighbourhood of its magnet. This discovery led him to discard the +battery current altogether and rely upon the magneto-induction currents +of the reeds themselves. Moreover, it occurred to him that, since the +circuit was never broken, all the complex vibrations of speech might be +converted into sympathetic currents, which in turn would reproduce the +speech at a distance. + +Reis had seen that an undulatory current was needed to transmit sounds +in perfection, especially vocal sounds; but his mode of producing the +undulations was defective from a mechanical and electrical point of +view. By forming 'waves' of magnetic disturbance near a coil of wire, +Professor Bell could generate corresponding waves of electricity in the +line so delicate and continuous that all the modulations of sound could +be reproduced at a distance. + +As Professor of Vocal Physiology in the University of Boston, he was +engaged in training teachers in the art of instructing deaf mutes how to +speak, and experimented with the Leon Scott phonautograph in recording +the vibrations of speech. This apparatus consists essentially of a thin +membrane vibrated by the voice and carrying a light stylus, which traces +an undulatory line on a plate of smoked glass. The line is a graphic +representation of the vibrations of the membrane and the waves of sound +in the air. + +On the suggestion of Dr. Clarence J. Blake, an eminent Boston aurist, +Professor Bell abandoned the phonautograph for the human ear, which it +resembled; and, having removed the stapes bone, moistened the drum with +glycerine and water, attached a stylus of hay to the nicus or anvil, and +obtained a beautiful series of curves in imitation of the vocal sounds. +The disproportion between the slight mass of the drum and the bones it +actuated, is said to have suggested to him the employment of +goldbeater's skin as membrane in his speaking telephone. Be this as it +may, he devised a receiver, consisting of a stretched diaphragm or drum +of this material having an armature of magnetised iron attached to its +middle, and free to vibrate in front of the pole of an electro-magnet in +circuit with the line. + +This apparatus was completed on June 2, 1875, and the same day he +succeeded in transmitting SOUNDS and audible signals by magneto-electric +currents and without the aid of a battery. On July 1, 1875, he +instructed his assistant to make a second membrane-receiver which could +be used with the first, and a few days later they were tried together, +one at each end of the line, which ran from a room in the inventor's +house at Boston to the cellar underneath. Bell, in the room, held one +instrument in his hands, while Watson in the cellar listened at the +other. The inventor spoke into his instrument, 'Do you understand what +I say?' and we can imagine his delight when Mr. Watson rushed into the +room, under the influence of his excitement, and answered,'Yes.' + +A finished instrument was then made, having a transmitter formed of a +double electro-magnet, in front of which a membrane, stretched on a +ring, carried an oblong piece of soft iron cemented to its middle. A +mouthpiece before the diaphragm directed the sounds upon it, and as it +vibrated with them, the soft iron 'armature' induced corresponding +currents in the cells of the electro-magnet. These currents after +traversing the line were passed through the receiver, which consisted of +a tubular electro-magnet, having one end partially closed by a thin +circular disc of soft iron fixed at one point to the end of the tube. +This receiver bore a resemblance to a cylindrical metal box with thick +sides, having a thin iron lid fastened to its mouth by a single screw. +When the undulatory current passed through the coil of this magnet, the +disc, or armature-lid, was put into vibration and the sounds evolved +from it. + +The apparatus was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, +in 1876, and at the meeting of the British Association in Glasgow, +during the autumn of that year, Sir William Thomson revealed its +existence to the European public. In describing his visit to the +Exhibition, he went on to say: 'In the Canadian department I heard, "To +be or not to be . . . there's the rub," through an electric wire; but, +scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher +flights, and gave me passages taken at random from the New York +newspapers: "s.s. Cox has arrived" (I failed to make out the s.s. Cox); +"The City of New York," "Senator Morton," "The Senate has resolved to +print a thousand extra copies," "The Americans in London have resolved +to celebrate the coming Fourth of July!" All this my own ears heard +spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then circular disc +armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this I hold in my +hand.' + +To hear the immortal words of Shakespeare uttered by the small inanimate +voice which had been given to the world must indeed have been a rare +delight to the ardent soul of the great electrician. + +The surprise created among the public at large by this unexpected +communication will be readily remembered. Except one or two inventors, +nobody had ever dreamed of a telegraph that could actually speak, any +more than they had ever fancied one that could see or feel; and +imagination grew busy in picturing the outcome of it. Since it was +practically equivalent to a limitless extension of the vocal powers, the +ingenious journalist soon conjured up an infinity of uses for the +telephone, and hailed the approaching time when ocean-parted friends +would be able to whisper to one another under the roaring billows of the +Atlantic. Curiosity, however, was not fully satisfied until Professor +Bell, the inventor of the instrument, himself showed it to British +audiences, and received the enthusiastic applause of his admiring +countrymen. + +The primitive telephone has been greatly improved, the double electro- +magnet being replaced by a single bar magnet having a small coil or +bobbin of fine wire surrounding one pole, in front of which a thin disc +of ferrotype is fixed in a circular mouthpiece, and serves as a combined +membrane and armature. On speaking into the mouthpiece, the iron +diaphragm vibrates with the voice in the magnetic field of the pole, and +thereby excites the undulatory currents in the coil, which, after +travelling through the wire to the distant place, are received in an +identical apparatus. [This form was patented January 30, 1877.] In +traversing the coil of the latter they reinforce or weaken the magnetism +of the pole, and thus make the disc armature vibrate so as to give out +a mimesis of the original voice. The sounds are small and elfin, a +minim of speech, and only to be heard when the ear is close to the +mouthpiece, but they are remarkably distinct, and, in spite of a +disguising twang, due to the fundamental note of the disc itself, it is +easy to recognise the speaker. + +This later form was publicly exhibited on May 4, 1877 at a lecture given +by Professor Bell in the Boston Music Hall. 'Going to the small +telephone box with its slender wire attachments,' says a report, 'Mr. +Bell coolly asked, as though addressing some one in an adjoining room, +"Mr. Watson, are you ready!" Mr. Watson, five miles away in Somerville, +promptly answered in the affirmative, and soon was heard a voice singing +"America."....Going to another instrument, connected by wire with +Providence, forty-three miles distant, Mr. Bell listened a moment, and +said, "Signor Brignolli, who is assisting at a concert in Providence +Music Hall, will now sing for us." In a moment the cadence of the +tenor's voice rose and fell, the sound being faint, sometimes lost, and +then again audible. Later, a cornet solo played in Somerville was very +distinctly heard. Still later, a three-part song floated over the wire +from the Somerville terminus, and Mr. Bell amused his audience +exceedingly by exclaiming, "I will switch off the song from one part of +the room to another, so that all can hear." At a subsequent lecture in +Salem, Massachusetts, communication was established with Boston, +eighteen miles distant, and Mr. Watson at the latter place sang "Auld +Lang Syne," the National Anthem, and "Hail Columbia," while the +audience at Salem joined in the chorus.' + +Bell had overcome the difficulty which baffled Reis, and succeeded in +making the undulations of the current fit the vibrations of the voice as +a glove will fit the hand. But the articulation, though distinct, was +feeble, and it remained for Edison, by inventing the carbon transmitter, +and Hughes, by discovering the microphone, to render the telephone the +useful and widespread apparatus which we see it now. + +Bell patented his speaking telephone in the United States at the +beginning of 1876, and by a strange coincidence, Mr. Elisha Gray +applied on the same day for another patent of a similar kind. Gray's +transmitter is supposed to have been suggested by the very old device +known as the 'lovers' telephone,' in which two diaphragms are joined by +a taut string, and in speaking against one the voice is conveyed through +the string, solely by mechanical vibration, to the other. Gray employed +electricity, and varied the strength of the current in conformity with +the voice by causing the diaphragm in vibrating to dip a metal probe +attached to its centre more or less deep into a well of conducting +liquid in circuit with the line. As the current passed from the probe +through the liquid to the line a greater or less thickness of liquid +intervened as the probe vibrated up and down, and thus the strength of +the current was regulated by the resistance offered to the passage of +the current. His receiver was an electro-magnet having an iron plate as +an armature capable of vibrating under the attractions of the varying +current. But Gray allowed his idea to slumber, whereas Bell continued +to perfect his apparatus. However, when Bell achieved an unmistakable +success, Gray brought a suit against him, which resulted in a +compromise, one public company acquiring both patents. + +Bell's invention has been contested over and over again, and more than +one claimant for the honour and reward of being the original inventor of +the telephone have appeared. The most interesting case was that of +Signor Antonio Meucci, an Italian emigrant, who produced a mass of +evidence to show that in 1849, while in Havanna, Cuba, he experimented +with the view of transmitting speech by the electric current. He +continued his researches in 1852-3, and subsequently at Staten Island, +U.S.; and in 1860 deputed a friend visiting Europe to interest people in +his invention. In 1871 he filed a caveat in the United States Patent +Office, and tried to get Mr. Grant, President of the New York District +Telegraph Company, to give the apparatus a trial. Ill-health and +poverty, consequent on an injury due to an explosion on board the Staten +Island ferry boat Westfield, retarded his experiments, and prevented him +from completing his patent. Meucci's experimental apparatus was +exhibited at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1884, and attracted much +attention. But the evidence he adduces in support of His early claims +is that of persons ignorant of electrical science, and the model shown +was not complete. The caveat of 1871 is indeed a reliable document; but +unfortunately for him it is not quite clear from it whether he employed +a 'lovers' telephone,' with a wire instead of a string, and joined a +battery to it in the hope of enhancing the effect. 'I employ,' he says, +'the well known conducting effect of continuous metallic conductors as a +medium for sound, and increase the effect by electrically insulating +both the conductor and the parties who are communicating. It forms a +speaking telegraph without the necessity of any hollow tube.' In +connection with the telephone he used an electric alarm. It is by no +means evident from this description that Meucci had devised a +practicable speaking telephone; but he may have been the first to employ +electricity in connection with the transmission of speech. [Meucci is +dead.] + +'This crowning marvel of the electric telegraph,' as Sir William Thomson +happily expressed it, was followed by another invention in some respects +even more remarkable. During the winter of 1878 Professor Bell was in +England, and while lecturing at the Royal Institution, London, he +conceived the idea of the photophone. It was known that crystalline +selenium is a substance peculiarly sensitive to light, for when a ray +strikes it an electric current passes far more easily through it than if +it were kept in the dark. It therefore occurred to Professor Bell that +if a telephone were connected in circuit with the current, and the ray +of light falling on the selenium was eclipsed by means of the vibrations +of sound, the current would undulate in keeping with the light, and the +telephone would emit a corresponding note. In this way it might be +literally possible 'to hear a shadow fall athwart the stillness.' + +He was not the first to entertain the idea, for in the summer of 1878, +one 'L. F. W.,' writing from Kew on June 3 to the scientific journal +NATURE describes an arrangement of the kind. To Professor Bell, in +conjunction with Mr. Summer Tainter, belongs the honour of having, by +dint of patient thought and labour, brought the photophone into material +existence. By constructing sensitive selenium cells through which the +current passed, then directing a powerful beam of light upon them, and +occulting it by a rotary screen, he was able to vary the strength of the +current in such a manner as to elicit musical tones from the telephone +in circuit with the cells. Moreover, by reflecting the beam from a +mirror upon the cells, and vibrating the mirror by the action of the +voice, he was able to reproduce the spoken words in the telephone. In +both cases the only connecting line between the transmitting screen or +mirror and the receiving cells and telephone was the ray of light. With +this apparatus, which reminds us of the invocation to Apollo in the +MARTYR OF ANTIOCH-- + + 'Lord of the speaking lyre, + That with a touch of fire + Strik'st music which delays the charmed spheres.' + +Professor Bell has accomplished the curious feat of speaking along a +beam of sunshine 830 feet long. The apparatus consisted of a +transmitter with a mouthpiece, conveying the sound of the voice to a +silvered diaphragm or mirror, which reflected the vibratory beam +through a lens towards the selenium receiver, which was simply a +parabolic reflector, in the focus of which was placed the selenium cells +connected in circuit with a battery and a pair of telephones, one for +each ear. The transmitter was placed in the top of the Franklin +schoolhouse, at Washington, and the receiver in the window of Professor +Bell's laboratory in L Street. 'It was impossible,' says the inventor, +'to converse by word of mouth across that distance; and while I was +observing Mr. Tainter, on the top of the schoolhouse, almost blinded by +the light which was coming in at the window of my laboratory, and +vainly trying to understand the gestures he was making to me at that +great distance, the thought occurred to me to listen to the telephones +connected with the selenium receiver. Mr. Tainter saw me disappear +from the window, and at once spoke to the transmitter. I heard him +distinctly say, "Mr. Bell, if you hear what I say, come to the window +and wave your hat! " It is needless to say with what gusto I obeyed.' + +The spectroscope has demonstrated the truth of the poet, who said that +'light is the voice of the stars,' and we have it on the authority of +Professor Bell and M. Janssen, the celebrated astronomer, that the +changing brightness of the photosphere, as produced by solar hurricanes, +has produced a feeble echo in the photophone. + +Pursuing these researches, Professor Bell discovered that not only the +selenium cell, but simple discs of wood, glass, metal, ivory, india- +rubber, and so on, yielded a distinct note when the intermittent ray of +light fell upon them. Crystals of sulphate of copper, chips of pine, +and even tobacco-smoke, in a test-tube held before the beam, emitted a +musical tone. With a thin disc of vulcanite as receiver, the dark heat +rays which pass through an opaque screen were found to yield a note. +Even the outer ear is itself a receiver, for when the intermittent beam +is focussed in the cavity a faint musical tone is heard. + +Another research of Professor Bell was that in which he undertook to +localise the assassin's bullet in the body of the lamented President +Garfield. In 1879 Professor Hughes brought out his beautiful induction +balance, and the following year Professor Bell, who had already worked +in the same field, consulted him by telegraph as to the best mode of +applying the balance to determining the place of the bullet, which had +hitherto escaped the probes of the President's physicians. Professor +Hughes advised him by telegraph, and with this and other assistance an +apparatus was devised which indicated the locality of the ball. A full +account of his experiments was given in a paper read before the American +Association for the Advancement of Science in August, 1882. + +Professor Bell continues to reside in the United States, of which he is +a naturalised citizen. He is married to a daughter of Mr. Gardiner G. +Hubbard, who in 1860, when she was four years of age, lost her hearing +by an illness, but has learned to converse by the Horace-Mann system of +watching the lips. Both he and his father-in-law (who had a pecuniary +interest in his patents) have made princely fortunes by the introduction +of the telephone. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THOMAS ALVA EDISON. + +Thomas Alva Edison, the most famous inventor of his time and country, +was born at Milan, Erie County, Ohio, in the United States, on February +11, 1847. His pedigree has been traced for two centuries to a family of +prosperous millers in Holland, some of whom emigrated to America in +1730. Thomas, his great-grandfather, was an officer of a bank in +Manhattan Island during the Revolution, and his signature is extant on +the old notes of the American currency. Longevity seems a +characteristic of the strain, for Thomas lived to the patriarchal term +of 102, his son to 103, and Samuel, the father of the inventor, is, we +understand, a brisk and hale old man of eighty-six. + +Born at Digby, in the county of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, on August 16, +1804, Samuel was apprenticed to a tailor, but in his manhood he forsook +the needle to engage in the lumber trade, and afterwards in grain. He +resided for a time in Canada, where, at Vienna, he was married to Miss +Nancy Elliott, a popular teacher in the high school. She was of Scotch +descent, and born in Chenango County, New York, on January 10, 1810. +After his marriage he removed, in 1837, to Detroit, Michigan, and the +following year settled in Milan. + +In his younger days Samuel Edison was a man of fine appearance. He +stood 6 feet 2 inches in his stockings, and even at the age of sixty- +four he was known to outjump 260 soldiers of a regiment quartered at +Fort Gratiot, in Michigan. His wife was a fine-looking woman, +intelligent, well-educated, and a social favourite. The inventor +probably draws his physical endurance from his father, and his intellect +from his mother. + +Milan is situated on the Huron River, about ten miles from the lake, and +was then a rising town of 3,000 inhabitants, mostly occupied with the +grain and timber trade. Mr. Edison dwelt in a plain cottage with a low +fence in front, which stood beside the roadway under the shade of one or +two trees. + +The child was neither pale nor prematurely thoughtful; he was rosy- +cheeked, laughing, and chubby. He liked to ramble in the woods, or play +on the banks of the river, and could repeat the songs of the boatmen ere +he was five years old. Still he was fond of building little roads with +planks, and scooping out canals or caverns in the sand. + +An amusing anecdote is imputed to his sister, Mrs. Homer Page, of Milan. +Having been told one day that a goose hatches her goslings by the warmth +of her body, the child was missed, and subsequently found in the barn +curled up in a nest beside a quantity of eggs! + +The Lake Shore Railway having injured the trade of Milan, the family +removed to Port Huron, in Michigan, when Edison was about seven years +old. Here they lived in an old-fashioned white frame-house, surrounded +by a grove, and commanding a fine view of the broad river, with the +Canadian hills beyond. His mother undertook his education, and with the +exception of two months he never went to school. She directed his +opening mind to the acquisition of knowledge, and often read aloud to +the family in the evening. She and her son were a loving pair, and it +is pleasant to know that although she died on April 9, 1871, before he +finally emerged from his difficulties, her end was brightened by the +first rays of his coming glory. + +Mr. Edison tells us that his son never had any boyhood in the ordinary +sense, his early playthings being steam-engines and the mechanical +powers. But it is like enough that he trapped a wood-chuck now and +then, or caught a white-fish with the rest. + +He was greedy of knowledge, and by the age of ten had read the PENNY +ENCYCLOPAEDIA; Hume's HISTORY OF ENGLAND; Dubigne's HISTORY OF THE +REFORMATION; Gibbon's DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, and Sears' +HISTORY OF THE WORLD. His father, we are told, encouraged his love of +study by making him a small present for every book he read. + +At the age of twelve he became a train-boy, or vendor of candy, fruit, +and journals to the passengers on the Grand Trunk Railway, between Port +Huron and Detroit. The post enabled him to sleep at home, and to extend +his reading by the public library at Detroit. Like the boy Ampere, he +proposed, it is said, to master the whole collection, shelf by shelf, +and worked his way through fifteen feet of the bottom one before he +began to select his fare. + +Even the PRINCIPIA of Newton never daunted him; and if he did not +understand the problems which have puzzled some of the greatest minds, +he read them religiously, and pressed on. Burton's ANATOMY OF +MELANCHOLY, Ure's DICTIONARY OF CHEMISTRY, did not come amiss; but in +Victor Hugo's LES MISERABLES and THE TOILERS OF THE SEA he found a +treasure after his own heart. Like Ampere, too, he was noted for a +memory which retained many of the facts thus impressed upon it, as the +sounds are printed on a phonogram. + +The boy student was also a keen man of business, and his pursuit of +knowledge in the evening did not sap his enterprises of the day. He +soon acquired a virtual monopoly for the sale of newspapers on the line, +and employed four boy assistants. His annual profits amounted to about +500 dollars, which were a substantial aid to his parents. To increase +the sale of his papers, he telegraphed the headings of the war news to +the stations in advance of the trains, and placarded them to tempt the +passengers. Ere long he conceived the plan of publishing a newspaper of +his own. Having bought a quantity of old type at the office of the +DETROIT FREE PRESS, he installed it in a spingless car, or 'caboose' of +the train meant for a smoking-room, but too uninviting to be much used +by the passengers. Here he set the type, and printed a smallsheet about +a foot square by pressing it with his hand. The GRAND TRUNK HERALD, as +he called it, was a weekly organ, price three cents, containing a +variety of local news, and gossip of the line. It was probably the only +journal ever published on a railway train; at all events with a boy for +editor and staff, printer and 'devil,' publisher and hawker. Mr. Robert +Stephenson, then building the tubular bridge at Montreal, was taken with +the venture, and ordered an extra edition for his own use. The London +TIMES correspondent also noticed the paper as a curiosity of journalism. +This was a foretaste of notoriety. + +Unluckily, however, the boy did not keep his scientific and literary +work apart, and the smoking-car was transformed into a laboratory as +well as a printing house. + +Having procured a copy of Fresenius' QUALITIVE ANALYSIS and some old +chemical gear; he proceeded to improve his leisure by making +experiments. One day, through an extra jolt of the car, a bottle of +phosphorus broke on the floor, and the car took fire. The incensed +conductor of the train, after boxing his ears, evicted him with all his +chattels. + +Finding an asylum in the basement of his father's house (where he took +the precaution to label all his bottles 'poison'), he began the +publication of a new and better journal, entitled the PAUL PRY. It +boasted of several contributors and a list of regular subscribers. One +of these (Mr. J.H.B.), while smarting under what he considered a +malicious libel, met the editor one day on the brink of the St. Clair, +and taking the law into his own hands, soused him in the river. The +editor avenged his insulted dignity by excluding the subscriber's name +from the pages of the PAUL PRY. + +Youthful genius is apt to prove unlucky, and another story (we hope they +are all true, though we cannot vouch for them), is told of his +partiality for riding with the engine-driver on the locomotive. After he +had gained an insight into the working of the locomotive he would run +the train himself; but on one occasion he pumped so much water into the +boiler that it was shot from the funnel, and deluged the engine with +soot. By using his eyes and haunting the machine shops he was able to +construct a model of a locomotive. + +But his employment of the telegraph seems to have diverted his thoughts +in that direction, and with the help of a book on the telegraph he +erected a makeshift line between his new laboratory and the house of +James Ward, one of his boy helpers. The conductor was run on trees, and +insulated with bottles, and the apparatus was home-made, but it seems to +have been of some use. Mr. James D. Reid, author of THE TELEGRAPH IN +AMERICA, would have us believe that an attempt was made to utilise the +electricity obtained by rubbing a cat connected up in lieu of a battery; +but the spirit of Artemus Ward is by no means dead in the United States, +and the anecdote may be taken with a grain of salt. Such an experiment +was at all events predestined to an ignominious failure. + +An act of heroism was the turning-point in his career. One day, at the +risk of his life, he saved the child of the station-master at Mount +Clemens, near Port Huron, from being run over by an approaching train, +and the grateful father, Mr. J. A. Mackenzie, learning of his interest +in the telegraph, offered to teach him the art of sending and receiving +messages. After his daily service was over, Edison returned to Mount +Clemens on a luggage train and received his lesson. + +At the end of five months, while only sixteen years of age, he forsook +the trains, and accepted an offer of twenty-five dollars a month, with +extra pay for overtime, as operator in the telegraph office at Port +Huron, a small installation in a jewelry store. He worked hard to +acquire more skill; and after six months, finding his extra pay +withheld, he obtained an engagement as night operator at Stratford, in +Canada. To keep him awake the operator was required to report the word +'six,' an office call, every half-hour to the manager of the circuit. +Edison fulfilled the regulation by inventing a simple device which +transmitted the required signals. It consisted of a wheel with the +characters cut on the rim, and connected with the circuit in such a way +that the night watchman, by turning the wheel, could transmit the +signals while Edison slept or studied. + +His employment at Stratford came to a grievous end. One night he +received a service message ordering a certain train to stop, and before +showing it to the conductor he, perhaps for greater certainty, repeated +it back again. When he rushed out of the office to deliver it the +train was gone, and a collision seemed inevitable; but, fortunately, the +opposing trains met on a straight portion of the track, and the accident +was avoided. The superintendent of the railway threatened to prosecute +Edison, who was thoroughly frightened, and returned home without his +baggage. + +During this vacation at Port Huron his ingenuity showed itself in a more +creditable guise. An 'ice-jam' occurred on the St. Clair, and broke +the telegraph cable between Port Huron and Sarnia, on the opposite +shore. Communication was therefore interrupted until Edison mounted a +locomotive and sounded the whistle in short and long calls according to +the well-known 'Morse,' or telegraphic code. After a time the reporter +at Sarnia caught the idea, and messages were exchanged by the new +system. + +His next situation was at Adrian, in Michigan, where he fitted up a +small shop, and employed his spare time in repairing telegraph apparatus +and making crude experiments. One day he violated the rules of the +office by monopolising the use of the line on the strength of having a +message from the superintendent, and was discharged. + +He was next engaged at Fort Wayne, and behaved so well that he was +promoted to a station at Indianapolis. While there he invented an +'automatic repeater,' by which a message is received on one line and +simultaneously transmitted on another without the assistance of an +operator. Like other young operators, he was ambitious to send or +receive the night reports for the press, which demand the highest speed +and accuracy of sending. But although he tried to overcome his faults +by the device of employing an auxiliary receiver working at a slower +rate than the direct one, he was found incompetent, and transferred to +a day wire at Cincinnati. Determined to excel, however, he took shift +for the night men as often as he could, and after several months, when a +delegation of Cleveland operators came to organise a branch of the +Telegraphers' Union, and the night men were out on 'strike,' he received +the press reports as well as he was able, working all the night. For +this feat his salary was raised next day from sixty-five to one hundred +and five dollars, and he was appointed to the Louisville circuit, one of +the most desirable in the office. The clerk at Louisville was Bob +Martin, one of the most expert telegraphists in America, and Edison soon +became a first-class operator. + +In 1864, tempted by a better salary, he removed to Memphis, where he +found an opportunity of introducing his automatic repeater, thus +enabling Louisville to communicate with New Orleans without an +intermediary clerk. For this innovation he was complimented ; but +nothing more. He embraced the subject of duplex telegraphy, or the +simultaneous transmission of two messages on the same wire, one from +each end; but his efforts met with no encouragement. Men of routine are +apt to look with disfavour on men of originality; they do not wish to be +disturbed from the official groove ; and if they are not jealous of +improvement, they have often a narrow-minded contempt or suspicion of +the servant who is given to invention, thinking him an oddity who is +wasting time which might be better employed in the usual way. A +telegraph operator, in their eyes, has no business to invent. His place +is to sit at his instrument and send or receive the messages as fast as +he can, without troubling his mind with inventions or anything else. +When his shift is over he can amuse himself as he likes, provided he is +always fit for work. Genius is not wanted. + +The clerks themselves, reckless of a culture which is not required, and +having a good string to their bow in the matter of livelihood, namely, +the mechanical art of signalling, are prone to lead a careless, gay, and +superficial life, roving from town to town throughout: the length and +breadth of the States. But for his genius and aspirations, Edison might +have yielded to the seductions of this happy-go-lucky, free, and +frivolous existence. Dissolute comrades at Memphis won upon his good +nature; but though he lent them money, he remained abstemious, working +hard, and spending his leisure upon books and experiments. To them he +appeared an extraordinary fellow; and so far from sympathising with his +inventions, they dubbed him 'Luny,' and regarded him as daft. + +What with the money he had lent, or spent on books or apparatus, when +the Memphis lines were transferred from the Government to a private +company and Edison was discharged, he found himself without a dollar. +Transported to Decatur, he walked to Nashville, where he found another +operator, William Foley, in the like straits, and they went in company +to Louisville. Foley's reputation as an operator was none of the best; +but on his recommendation Edison obtained a situation, and supported +Foley until he too got employment. + +The squalid office was infested with rats, and its discipline was lax, +in all save speed and quality of work, and some of his companions were +of a dissipated stamp. To add to his discomforts, the line he worked +was old and defective; but he improved the signals by adjusting three +sets of instruments, and utilising them for three different states of +the line. During nearly two years of drudgery under these depressing +circumstances, Edison's prospects of becoming an inventor seemed further +off than ever. Perhaps he began to fear that stern necessity would +grind him down, and keep him struggling for a livelihood. None of his +improvements had brought him any advantage. His efforts to invent had +been ridiculed and discountenanced. Nobody had recognised his talent, +at least as a thing of value and worthy of encouragement, let alone +support. All his promotion had come from trying to excel in his routine +work. Perhaps he lost faith in himself, or it may be that the glowing +accounts he received of South America induced him to seek his fortune +there. At all events he caught the 'craze' for emigration that swept +the Southern States on the conclusion of the Civil War, and resolved to +emigrate with two companions, Keen and Warren. + +But on their arriving at New Orleans the vessel had sailed. In this +predicament Edison fell in with a travelled Spaniard, who depicted the +inferiority of other countries, and especially of South America, in such +vivid colours, that he changed his intention and returned home to +Michigan. After a pleasant holiday with his friends he resumed his +occupation in the Louisville office. + +Contact with home seems to have charged him with fresh courage. He +wrote a work on electricity, which for lack of means was never +published, and improved his penmanship until he could write a fair round +backhand at the rate of forty-five words a minute--that is to say, the +utmost that an operator can send by the Morse code. The style was +chosen for its clearness, each letter being distinctly formed, with +little or no shading. + +His comrades were no better than before. On returning from his work in +the small hours, Edison would sometimes find two or three of them asleep +in his bed with their boots on, and have to shift them to the floor in +order that he might 'turn in.' + +A new office was opened, but strict orders were issued that nobody was +to interfere with the instruments and their connections. He could not +resist the infringement of this rule, however, and continued his +experiments. + +In drawing some vitriol one night, he upset the carboy, and the acid +eating its way through the floor, played havoc with the furniture of a +luxurious bank in the flat below. He was discharged for this, but soon +obtained another engagement as a press operator in Cincinnati. He spent +his leisure in the Mechanics' Library, studying works on electricity and +general science. He also developed his ideas on the duplex system; and +if they were not carried out, they at least directed him to the +quadruplex system with which his name was afterwards associated. + +These attempts to improve his time seem to have made him unpopular, for +after a short term in Cincinnati, he returned to Port Huron. A friend, +Mr. F. Adams, operator in the Boston office of the Western Union +Telegraph Company, recommended Edison to his manager, Mr. G. F. +Milliken, as a good man to work the New York wire, and the berth was +offered to Edison by telegraph. He accepted, and left at once for +Boston by the Grand Trunk Railway, but the train was snowed up for two +days near the bluffs of the St. Lawrence. The consequence might have +been serious had provisions not been found by a party of foragers. + +Mr. Milliken was the first of Edison's masters, and perhaps his fellows, +who appreciated him. Mediocrity had only seen the gawky stripling, with +his moonstruck air, and pestilent habit of trying some new crotchet. +Himself an inventor, Milliken recognised in his deep-set eye and musing +brow the fire of a suppressed genius. He was then just twenty-one. The +friendship of Mr. Milliken, and the opportunity for experiment, rendered +the Boston office a congenial one. + +His by-hours were spent in a little workshop he had opened. Among his +inventions at this period were a dial telegraph, and a 'printer' for use +on private lines, and an electro-chemical vote recorder, which the +Legislature of Massachusetts declined to adopt. With the assistance of +Mr. F. L. Pope, patent adviser to the Western Union Telegraph Company, +his duplex system was tried, with encouraging results. + +The ready ingenuity of Edison is shown by his device for killing the +cockroaches which overran the Boston office. He arranged some strips of +tinfoil on the wall, and connected these to the poles of a battery in +such a way that when the insects ran towards the bait which he had +provided, they stepped from one foil to the other, and completed the +circuit of the current, thus receiving a smart shock, which dislodged +them into a pail of water, standing below. + +In 1870, after two years in Boston, where he had spent all his earnings, +chiefly on his books and workshop, he found himself in New York, +tramping the streets on the outlook for a job, and all but destitute. +After repeated failures he chanced to enter the office of the Laws Gold +Reporting Telegraph Company while the instrument which Mr. Laws had +invented to report the fluctuations of the money market had broken down. +No one could set it right; there was a fever in the market, and Mr. +Laws, we are told, was in despair. Edison volunteered to set it right, +and though his appearance was unpromising, he was allowed to try. + +The insight of the born mechanic, the sleight of hand which marks the +true experimenter, have in them something magical to the ignorant. In +Edison's hands the instrument seemed to rectify itself. This was his +golden opportunity. He was engaged by the company, and henceforth his +career as an inventor was secure. The Gold Indicator Company afterwards +gave him a responsible position. He improved their indicator, and +invented the Gold and Stock Quotation Printer, an apparatus for a +similar purpose. He entered into partnership with Mr. Pope and Mr. +Ashley, and introduced the Pope and Edison Printer. A private line +which he established was taken over by the Gold and Stock Telegraph +Company, and soon their system was worked almost exclusively with +Edison's invention. + +He was retained in their service, and that of the Western Union +Telegraph Company, as a salaried inventor, they having the option of +buying all his telegraphic inventions at a price to be agreed upon. + +At their expense a large electrical factory was established under his +direction at Newark, New Jersey, where he was free to work out his ideas +and manufacture his apparatus. Now that he was emancipated from +drudgery, and fairly started on the walk which Nature had intended for +him, he rejoiced in the prolific freedom of his mind, which literally +teemed with projects. His brain was no longer a prey to itself from the +'local action,' or waste energy of restrained ideas and revolving +thoughts. [The term 'local action' is applied by electricians to the +waste which goes on in a voltaic battery, although its current is not +flowing in the outer circuit and doing useful work.] If anything, he +attempted too much. Patents were taken out by the score, and at one +time there were no less than forty-five distinct inventions in progress. +The Commissioner of Patents described him as 'the young man who kept the +path to the Patent Office hot with his footsteps.' + +His capacity for labouring without rest is very remarkable. On one +occasion, after improving his Gold and Stock Quotation Printer, an order +for the new instruments, to the extent of 30,000 dollars, arrived at the +factory. The model had acted well, but the first instruments made after +it proved a failure. Edison thereupon retired to the upper floor of the +factory with some of his best workmen, and intimated that they must all +remain there until the defect was put right. After sixty hours of +continuous toil, the fault was remedied, and Edison went to bed, where +he slept for thirty-six hours. + +Mr. Johnson, one of his assistants, informs us that for ten years he +worked on an average eighteen hours a day, and that he has been known to +continue an experiment for three months day and night, with the +exception of a nap from six o'clock to nine of the morning. In the +throes of invention, and under the inspiration of his ideas, he is apt +to make no distinction between day and night, until he arrives at a +result which he considers to be satisfactory one way or the other. His +meals are brought to him in the laboratory, and hastily eaten, although +his dwelling is quite near. Long watchfulness and labour seem to +heighten the activity of his mind, which under its 'second wind,' so to +speak, becomes preternaturally keen and suggestive. He likes best to +work at night in the silence and solitude of his laboratory when the +noise of the benches or the rumble of the engines is stilled, and all +the world about him is asleep. + +Fortunately, he can work without stimulants, and, when the strain is +over, rest without narcotics; otherwise his exhausted constitution, +sound as it is, would probably break down. Still, he appears to be +ageing before his time, and some of his assistants, not so well endowed +with vitality, have, we believe, overtaxed their strength in trying to +keep up with him. + +At this period he devised his electric pen, an ingenious device for +making copies of a document. It consists essentially of a needle, +rapidly jogged up and down by means of an electro-magnet actuated by an +intermittent current of electricity. The writing is traced with the +needle, which perforates another sheet of paper underneath, thus forming +a stencil-plate, which when placed on a clean paper, and evenly inked +with a rolling brush, reproduces the original writing. + +In 1873 Edison was married to Miss Mary Stillwell, of Newark, one of his +employees. His eldest child, Mary Estelle, was playfully surnamed +'Dot,' and his second, Thomas Alva, jun., 'Dash,' after the signals of +the Morse code. Mrs. Edison died several years ago. + +While seeking to improve the method of duplex working introduced by Mr. +Steams, Edison invented the quadruplex, by which four messages are +simultaneously sent through one wire, two from each end. Brought out in +association with Mr. Prescott, it was adopted by the Western Union +Telegraph Company, and, later, by the British Post Office. The +President of the Western Union reported that it had saved the Company +500,000 dollars a year in the construction of new lines. Edison also +improved the Bain chemical telegraph, until it attained an incredible +speed. Bain had left it capable of recording 200 words a minute; but +Edison, by dint of searching a pile of books ordered from New York, +Paris, and London, making copious notes, and trying innumerable +experiments, while eating at his desk and sleeping in his chair, +ultimately prepared a solution which enabled it to register over 1000 +words a minute. It was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centenial +Exhibition in 1876, where it astonished Sir William Thomson. + +In 1876, Edison sold his factory at Newark, and retired to Menlo Park, +a sequestered spot near Metuchin, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and +about twenty-four miles from New York. Here on some rising ground he +built a wooden tenement, two stories high, and furnished it as a +workshop and laboratory. His own residence and the cottages of his +servants completed the little colony. + +The basement of the main building was occupied by his office, a choice +library, a cabinet replete with instruments of precision, and a large +airy workshop, provided with lathes and steam power, where his workmen +shaped his ideas into wood and metal. + +The books lying about, the designs and placards on the walls, the +draught-board on the table, gave it the appearance of a mechanics' club- +room. The free and lightsome behaviour of the men, the humming at the +benches, recalled some school of handicraft. There were no rigid hours, +no grinding toil under the jealous eye of the overseer. The spirit of +competition and commercial rivalry was absent. It was not a question of +wringing as much work as possible out of the men in the shortest time +and at the lowest price. Moreover, they were not mere mechanical +drudges--they were interested in their jobs, which demanded thought as +well as skill. + +Upstairs was the laboratory proper--a long room containing an array of +chemicals; for Edison likes to have a sample of every kind, in case it +might suddenly be requisite. On the tables and in the cupboards were +lying all manner of telegraphic apparatus, lenses, crucibles, and pieces +of his own inventions. A perfect tangle of telegraph wires coming from +all parts of the Union were focussed at one end of the room. An ash- +covered forge, a cabinet organ, a rusty stove with an old pivot chair, a +bench well stained with oils and acids, completed the equipment of this +curious den, into which the sunlight filtered through the chemical jars +and fell in coloured patches along the dusty floor. + +The moving spirit of this haunt by day and night is well described as an +overgrown school-boy. He is a man of a slim, but wiry figure, about +five feet ten inches in height. His face at this period was juvenile +and beardless. The nose and chin were shapely and prominent, the mouth +firm, the forehead wide and full above, but not very high. It was +shaded by dark chestnut hair, just silvered with grey. His most +remarkable features were his eyes, which are blue-grey and deeply set, +with an intense and piercing expression. When his attention was not +aroused, he seemed to retire into himself, as though his mind had +drifted far away, and came back slowly to the present. He was pale with +nightwork, and his thoughtful eyes had an old look in serious moments. +But his smile was boyish and pleasant, and his manner a trifle shy. + +There was nothing of the dandy about Edison, He boasted no jewelled +fingers or superfine raiment. An easy coat soiled with chemicals, a +battered wide-awake, and boots guiltless of polish, were good enough for +this inspired workman. An old silver watch, sophisticated with +magnetism, and keeping an eccentric time peculiar to it, was his only +ornament. On social occasions, of course, he adopted a more +conventional costume. Visitors to the laboratory often found him in his +shirt-sleeves, with dishevelled hair and grimy hands. + +The writer of 'A Night with Edison' has described him as bending like a +wizard over the smoky fumes of some lurid lamps arranged on a brick +furnace, as if he were summoning the powers of darkness. + +'It is much after midnight now,' says this author. 'The machinery below +has ceased to rumble, and the tired hands have gone to their homes. A +hasty lunch has been sent up. We are at the thermoscope. Suddenly a +telegraph instrument begins to click. The inventor strikes a grotesque +attitude, a herring in one hand and a biscuit in the other, and with a +voice a little muffled with a mouthful of both, translates aloud, +slowly, the sound intelligible to him alone: "London.--News of death of +Lord John Russell premature." "John Blanchard, whose failure was +announced yesterday, has suicided (no, that was a bad one) SUCCEEDED! in +adjusting his affairs, and will continue in business."' + +His tastes are simple and his habits are plain. On one occasion, when +invited to a dinner at Delmonico's restaurant, he contented himself with +a slice of pie and a cup of tea. Another time he is said to have +declined a public dinner with the remark that 100,000 dollars would not +tempt him to sit through two hours of 'personal glorification.' He +dislikes notoriety, thinking that a man is to be 'measured by what he +does, not by what is said about him.' But he likes to talk about his +inventions and show them to visitors at Menlo Park. In disposition he +is sociable, affectionate, and generous, giving himself no airs, and +treating all alike. His humour is native, and peculiar to himself, so +there is some excuse for the newspaper reporters who take his jokes +about the capabilities of Nature AU SERIEUX; and publish them for +gospel. + +His assistants are selected for their skill and physical endurance. The +chief at Menlo Park was Mr. Charles Batchelor, a Scotchman, who had a +certain interest in the inventions, but the others, including +mathematicians, chemists, electricians, secretary, bookkeeper, and +mechanics, were paid a salary. They were devoted to Edison, who, though +he worked them hard at times, was an indulgent master, and sometimes +joined them in a general holiday. All of them spoke in the highest +terms of the inventor and the man. + +The Menlo establishment was unique in the world. It was founded for the +sole purpose of applying the properties of matter to the production of +new inventions. For love of science or the hope of gain, men had +experimented before, and worked out their inventions in the laboratories +of colleges and manufactories. But Edison seems to have been the first +to organise a staff of trained assistants to hunt up useful facts in +books, old and modern, and discover fresh ones by experiment, in order +to develop his ideas or suggest new ones, together with skilled workmen +to embody them in the fittest manner; and all with the avowed object of +taking out patents, and introducing the novel apparatus as a commercial +speculation. He did not manufacture his machines for sale; he simply +created the models, and left their multiplication to other people. +There are different ways of looking at Nature: + + 'To some she is the goddess great; + To some the milch-cow of the field; + Their business is to calculate + The butter she will yield.' + +The institution has proved a remarkable success. From it has emanated a +series of marvellous inventions which have carried the name of Edison +throughout the whole civilised world. Expense was disregarded in making +the laboratory as efficient as possible; the very best equipment was +provided, the ablest assistants employed, and the profit has been +immense. Edison is a millionaire; the royalties from his patents alone +are said to equal the salary of a Prime Minister. + +Although Edison was the master spirit of the band, it must not be +forgotten that his assistants were sometimes co-inventors with himself. +No doubt he often supplied the germinal ideas, while his assistants only +carried them out. But occasionally the suggestion was nothing more than +this: 'I want something that will do so-and-so. I believe it will be +a good thing, and can be done.' The assistant was on his mettle, and +either failed or triumphed. The results of the experiments and +researches were all chronicled in a book, for the new facts, if not then +required, might become serviceable at a future time. If a rare material +was wanted, it was procured at any cost. + +With such facilities, an invention is rapidly matured. Sometimes the +idea was conceived in the morning, and a working model was constructed +by the evening. One day, we are told, a discovery was made at 4 P.M., +and Edison telegraphed it to his patent agent, who immediately drew up +the specification, and at nine o'clock next morning cabled it to London. +Before the inventor was out of bed, he received an intimation that his +patent had been already deposited in the British Patent Office. Of +course, the difference of time was in his favour. + +When Edison arrived at the laboratory in the morning, he read his +letters, and then overlooked his employees, witnessing their results and +offering his suggestions; but it often happened that he became totally +engrossed with one experiment or invention. His work was frequently +interrupted by curious visitors, who wished to see the laboratory and +the man. Although he had chosen that out-of-the-way place to avoid +disturbance, they were never denied: and he often took a pleasure in +showing his models, or explaining the work on which he was engaged. +There was no affectation of mystery, no attempt at keeping his +experiments a secret. Even the laboratory notes were open to +inspection. Menlo Park became a kind of Mecca to the scientific +pilgrim; the newspapers and magazines despatched reporters to the +scene; excursion parties came by rail, and country farmers in their +buggies; till at last an enterprising Yankee even opened a refreshment +room. + +The first of Edison's greater inventions in Menlo Park was the 'loud- +speaking telephone.' Professor Graham Bell had introduced his magneto- +electric telephone, but its effect was feeble. It is, we believe, a +maxim in biology that a similarity between the extremities of a creature +is an infallible sign of its inferiority, and that in proportion as it +rises in the scale of being, its head is found to differ from its tail. +Now, in the Bell apparatus, the transmitter and the receiver were alike, +and hence Clerk Maxwell hinted that it would never be good for much +until they became differentiated from each other. Consciously or +unconsciously Edison accomplished the feat. With the hardihood of +genius, he attempted to devise a telephone which would speak out loud +enough to be heard in any corner of a large hall. + +In the telephone of Bell, the voice of the speaker is the motive power +which generates the current in the line. The vibrations of the sound +may be said to transform themselves into electrical undulations. Hence +the current is very weak, and the reproduction of the voice is +relatively faint. Edison adopted the principle of making the vibrations +of the voice control the intensity of a current which was independently +supplied to the line by a voltaic battery. The plan of Bell, in short, +may be compared to a man who employs his strength to pump a quantity of +water into a pipe, and that of Edison to one who uses his to open a +sluice, through which a stream of water flows from a capacious dam into +the pipe. Edison was acquainted with two experimental facts on which to +base the invention. + +In 1873, or thereabout, he claimed to have observed, while constructing +rheostats, or electrical resistances for making an artificial telegraph +line, that powdered plumbago and carbon has the property of varying in +its resistance to the passage of the current when under pressure. The +variation seemed in a manner proportional to the pressure. As a matter +of fact, powdered carbon and plumbago had been used in making small +adjustable rheostats by M. Clerac, in France, and probably also in +Germany, as early as 1865 or 1866. Clerac's device consisted of a small +wooden tube containing the material, and fitted with contacts for the +current, which appear to have adjusted the pressure. Moreover, the Count +Du Moncel, as far back as 1856, had clearly discovered that when +powdered carbon was subjected to pressure, its electrical resistance +altered, and had made a number of experiments on the phenomenon. Edison +may have independently observed the fact, but it is certain he was not +the first, and his claim to priority has fallen to the ground. + +Still he deserves the full credit of utilising it in ways which were +highly ingenious and bold. The 'pressure-relay,' produced in 1877, was +the first relay in which the strength of the local current working the +local telegraph instrument was caused to vary in proportion to the +variation; of the current in the main line. It consisted of an electro- +magnet with double poles and an armature which pressed upon a disc or +discs of plumbago, through which the local current Passed. The electro- +magnet was excited by the main line current and the armature attracted +to its poles at every signal, thus pressing on the plumbago, and by +reducing its resistance varying the current in the local circuit. +According as the main line current was strong or weak, the pressure on +the plumbago was more or less, and the current in the local circuit +strong or weak. Hence the signals of the local receiver were in +accordance with the currents in the main line. + +Edison found that the same property might be applied to regulate the +strength of a current in conformity with the vibrations of the voice, +and after a great number of experiments produced his 'carbon +transmitter.' Plumbago in powder, in sticks, or rubbed on fibres and +sheets of silk, were tried as the sensitive material, but finally +abandoned in favour of a small cake or wafer of compressed lamp-black, +obtained from the smoke of burning oil, such as benzolene or rigolene. +This was the celebrated 'carbon button,' which on being placed between +two platinum discs by way of contact, and traversed by the electric +current, was found to vary in resistance under the pressure of the sound +waves. The voice was concentrated upon it by means of a mouthpiece and +a diaphragm. + +The property on which the receiver was based had been observed and +applied by him some time before. When a current is passed from a metal +contact through certain chemical salts, a lubricating effect was +noticeable. Thus if a metal stylus were rubbed or drawn over a prepared +surface, the point of the stylus was found to slip or 'skid' every time +a current passed between them, as though it had been oiled. If your pen +were the stylus, and the paper on which you write the surface, each wave +of electricity passing from the nib to the paper would make the pen +start, and jerk your fingers with it. He applied the property to the +recording of telegraph signals without the help of an electro-magnet, by +causing the currents to alter the friction between the two rubbing +surfaces, and so actuate a marker, which registered the message as in +the Morse system. + +This instrument was called the 'electromotograph,' and it occurred to +Edison that in a similar way the undulatory currents from his carbon +transmitter might, by varying the friction between a metal stylus and +the prepared surface, put a tympanum in vibration, and reproduce the +original sounds. Wonderful as it may appear, he succeeded in doing so +by the aid of a piece of chalk, a brass pin, and a thin sheet or disc of +mica. He attached the pin or stylus to the centre of the mica, and +brought its point to bear on a cylindrical surface of prepared chalk. +The undulatory current from the line was passed through the stylus and +the chalk, while the latter was moved by turning a handle; and at every +pulse of the electricity the friction between the pin and chalk was +diminished, so that the stylus slipped upon its surface. The +consequence was a vibration of the mica diaphragm to which the stylus +was attached. Thus the undulatory current was able to establish +vibrations of the disc, which communicated themselves to the air and +reproduced the original sounds. The replica was loud enough to be heard +by a large audience, and by reducing the strength of the current it +could be lowered to a feeble murmur. The combined transmitter and +receiver took the form of a small case with a mouthpiece to speak into, +an car-piece on a hinged bracket for listening to it, press-keys for +manipulating the call-bell and battery, and a small handle by which to +revolve the little chalk cylinder. This last feature was a practical +drawback to the system, which was patented in 1877. + +The Edison telephone, when at its best, could transmit all kinds of +noises, gentle or harsh; it could lift up its voice and cry aloud, or +sink it to a confidential whisper. There was a slight Punchinellian +twang about its utterances, which, if it did not altogether disguise the +individuality of the distant speaker, gave it the comicality of a clever +parody, and to hear it singing a song, and quavering jauntily on the +high notes, was irresistibly funny. Instrumental notes were given in +all their purity, and, after the phonograph, there was nothing more +magical in the whole range of science than to hear that fragment of +common chalk distilling to the air the liquid melody of sweet bells +jingling in tune. It brought to mind that wonderful stone of Memnon, +which responded to the rays of sunrise. It seemed to the listener that +if the age of miracles was past that of marvels had arrived, and +considering the simplicity of the materials, and the obscurity of its +action, the loud-speaking telephone was one of the most astonishing of +recent inventions. + +After Professor Hughes had published his discovery of the microphone, +Edison, recognising, perhaps, that it and the carbon transmitter were +based on the same principle, and having learnt his knowledge of the +world in the hard school of adversity, hastily claimed the microphone as +a variety of his invention, but imprudently charged Professor Hughes and +his friend, Mr. W. H. Preece, who had visited Edison at Menlo Park, with +having 'stolen his thunder.' The imputation was indignantly denied, and +it was obvious to all impartial electricians that Professor Hughes had +arrived at his results by a path quite independent of the carbon +transmitter, and discovered a great deal more than Edison had done. For +one thing, Edison believed the action of his transmitter as due to a +property of certain poor or 'semi-conductors,' whereby their electric +resistance varied under pressure. Hughes taught us to understand that it +was owing to a property of loose electrical contact between any two +conductors. + +The soft and springy button of lamp-black became no longer necessary, +since it was not so much the resistance of the material which varied as +the resistance at the contacts of its parts and the platinum +electrodes. Two metals, or two pieces of hard carbon, or a piece of +metal and a piece of hard carbon, were found to regulate the current in +accordance with the vibrations of the voice. Edison therefore discarded +the soft and fragile button, replacing it by contacts of hard carbon and +metal, in short, by a form of microphone. The carbon, or microphone +transmitter, was found superior to the magneto-electric transmitter of +Bell; but the latter was preferable as a receiver to the louder but less +convenient chemical receiver of Edison, and the most successful +telephonic system of the day is a combination of the microphone, or new +carbon transmitter, with the Bell receiver. + +The 'micro-tasimeter,' a delicate thermoscope, was constructed in 1878, +and is the outcome of Edison's experiments with the carbon button. +Knowing the latter to be extremely sensitive to minute changes of +pressure, for example, those of sonorous vibrations, he conceived the +idea of measuring radiant heat by causing it to elongate a thin bar or +strip of metal or vulcanite, bearing at one end on the button. To +indicate the effect, he included a galvanometer in the circuit of the +battery and the button. The apparatus consisted of a telephone button +placed between two discs of platinum and connected in circuit with the +battery and a sensitive galvanometer. The strip was supported so that +one end bore upon the button with a pressure which could be regulated by +an adjustable screw at the other. The strip expanded or contracted when +exposed to heat or cold, and thrust itself upon the button more or less, +thereby varying the electric current and deflecting the needle of the +galvanometer to one side or the other. The instrument was said to +indicate a change of temperature equivalent to one-millionth of a +degree Fahrenheit. It was tested by Edison on the sun's corona during +the eclipse observations of July 29, 1875, at Rawlings, in the +territory of Wyoming. The trial was not satisfactory, however, for the +apparatus was mounted on a hen-house, which trembled to the gale, and +before he could get it properly adjusted the eclipse was over. + +It is reported that on another trial the light from the star Arcturus, +when focussed on the vulcanite, was capable of deflecting the needle of +the galvanometer. When gelatine is substituted for vulcanite, the +humidity of the atmosphere can also be measured in the same way. + +Edison's crowning discovery at Menlo Park was the celebrated +'phonograph,' or talking machine. It was first announced by one of his +assistants in the pages of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN for 1878. The +startling news created a general feeling of astonishment, mingled with +incredulity or faith. People had indeed heard of the talking heads of +antiquity, and seen the articulating machines of De Kempelen and Faber, +with their artificial vocal organs and complicated levers, manipulated +by an operator. But the phonograph was automatic, and returned the +words which had been spoken into it by a purely mechanical mimicry. It +captured and imprisoned the sounds as the photograph retained the images +of light. The colours of Nature were lost in the photograph, but the +phonograph was said to preserve the qualities even of the human voice. +Yet this wonderful appliance had neither tongue nor teeth, larynx nor +pharynx. It appeared as simple as a coffee-mill. A vibrating diaphragm +to collect the sounds, and a stylus to impress them on a sheet of +tinfoil, were its essential parts. Looking on the record of the sound, +one could see only the scoring of the stylus on the yielding surface of +the metal, like the track of an Alpine traveller across the virgin snow. +These puzzling scratches were the foot-prints of the voice. + +Speech is the most perfect utterance of man; but its powers are limited +both in time and space. The sounds of the voice are fleeting, and do +not carry far; hence the invention of letters to record them, and of +signals to extend their range. These twin lines of invention, continued +through the ages, have in our own day reached their consummation. The +smoke of the savage, the semaphore, and the telegraph have ended in the +telephone, by which the actual voice can speak to a distance; and now at +length the clay tablet of the Assyrian, the wax of the ancient Greek, +the papyrus of the Egyptian, and the modern printing-press have +culminated in the phonograph, by which the living words can be preserved +into the future. In the light of a new discovery, we are apt to wonder +why our fathers were so blind as not to see it. When a new invention +has been made, we ask ourselves, Why was it not thought of before? The +discovery seems obvious, and the invention simple, after we know them. +Now that speech itself can be sent a thousand miles away, or heard a +thousand years after, we discern in these achievements two goals toward +which we have been making, and at which we should arrive some day. We +marvel that we had no prescience of these, and that we did not attain to +them sooner. Why has it taken so many generations to reach a foregone +conclusion? Alas! they neither knew the conclusion nor the means of +attaining to it. Man works from ignorance towards greater knowledge +with very limited powers. His little circle of light is surrounded by a +wall of darkness, which he strives to penetrate and lighten, now groping +blindly on its verge, now advancing his taper light and peering forward; +yet unable to go far, and even afraid to venture, in case he should be +lost. + +To the Infinite Intelligence which knows all that is hidden in that +darkness, and all that man will discover therein, how poor a thing is +the telephone or phonograph, how insignificant are all his 'great +discoveries'! This thought should imbue a man of science with humility +rather than with pride. Seen from another standpoint than his own, from +without the circle of his labours, not from within, in looking back, not +forward, even his most remarkable discovery is but the testimony of his +own littleness. The veil of darkness only serves to keep these little +powers at work. Men have sometimes a foreshadowing of what will come to +pass without distinctly seeing it. In mechanical affairs, the notion of +a telegraph is very old, and probably immemorial. Centuries ago the +poet and philosopher entertained the idea of two persons far apart being +able to correspond through the sympathetic property of the lodestone. +The string or lovers' telephone was known to the Chinese, and even the +electric telephone was thought about some years before it was invented. +Bourseul, Reis, and others preceded Graham Bell. + +The phonograph was more of a surprise; but still it was no exception to +the rule. Naturally, men and women had desired to preserve the accents +as well as the lineaments of some beloved friend who had passed away. +The Chinese have a legend of a mother whose voice was so beautiful that +her children tried to store it in a bamboo cane, which was carefully +sealed up. Long after she was dead the cane was opened, and her voice +came out in all its sweetness, but was never heard again. A similar +idea (which reminds us of Munchausen's trumpet) is found in the NATURAL +MAGICK of John Baptista Porta, the celebrated Neapolitan philosopher, +and published at London in 1658. He proposes to confine the sound of the +voice in leaden pipes, such as are used for speaking through; and he +goes on to say that 'if any man, as the words are spoken, shall stop the +end of the pipe, and he that is at the other end shall do the like, the +voice may be intercepted in the middle, and be shut up as in a prison, +and when the mouth is opened, the voice will come forth as out of his +mouth that spake it. . . . I am now upon trial of it. If before my book +be printed the business take effect, I will set it down; if not, if God +please, I shall write of it elsewhere.' Porta also refers to the +speaking head of Albertus Magnus, whom, however, he discredits. He +likewise mentions a colossal trumpeter of brass, stated to have been +erected in some ancient cities, and describes a plan for making a kind +of megaphone, 'wherewith we may hear many miles.' + +In the VOYAGE A LA LUNE of De Cyrano Bergerac, published at Paris in +1650, and subsequently translated into English, there is a long account +of a 'mechanical book' which spoke its contents to the listener. 'It +was a book, indeed,' says Cyrano, 'but a strange and wonderful book, +which had neither leaves nor letters,' and which instructed the Youth in +their walks, so that they knew more than the Greybeards of Cyrano's +country, and need never lack the company of all the great men living or +dead to entertain them with living voices. Sir David Brewster surmised +that a talking machine mould be invented before the end of the century. +Mary Somerville, in her CONNECTION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, wrote some +fifty years ago: 'It may be presumed that ultimately the utterances or +pronunciation of modern languages will be conveyed, not only to the eye, +but also to the ear of posterity. Had the ancients possessed the means +of transmitting such definite sounds, the civilised world must have +responded in sympathetic notes at the distance of many ages.' In the +MEMOIRES DU GEANT of M. Nadar, published in 1864, the author says: +'These last fifteen years I have amused myself in thinking there is +nothing to prevent a man one of these days from finding a way to give us +a daguerreotype of sound--the phonograph --something like a box in which +melodies will be fixed and kept, as images are fixed in the dark +chamber.' It is also on record that, before Edison had published his +discovery to the world, M. Charles Cros deposited a sealed packet at the +Academie des Sciences, Paris, giving an account of an invention similar +to the phonograph. + +Ignorance of the true nature of sound had prevented the introduction of +such an instrument. But modern science, and in particular the invention +of the telephone with its vibrating plate, had paved the way for it. The +time was ripe, and Edison was the first to do it. + +In spite of the unbridled fancies of the poets and the hints of +ingenious writers, the announcement that a means of hoarding speech had +been devised burst like a thunderclap upon the world. + +[In seeing his mother's picture Byron wished that he might hear her +voice. Tennyson exclaims, 'Oh for the touch of a vanished hand, and the +sound of a voice that is still!' Shelley, in the WITCH OF ATLAS, wrote: +'The deep recesses of her odorous dwelling +Were stored with magic treasures--sounds of air, +Which had the power all spirits of compelling, +Folded in cells of crystal silence there; +Such as we hear in youth, and think the feeling +Will never die--yet ere we are aware, +The feeling and the sound are fled and gone, +And the regret they leave remains alone.' +Again, in his SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE, we find: +'The fire of those soft orbs has ceased to burn, +And silence too enamoured of that voice +Locks its mute music in her rugged cell,'] + +The phonograph lay under the very eyes of Science, and yet she did not +see it. The logograph had traced all the curves of speech with ink on +paper; and it only remained to impress them on a solid surface in such a +manner as to regulate the vibrations of an artificial tympanum or drum. +Yet no professor of acoustics thought of this, and it was left to +Edison, a telegraphic inventor, to show them what was lying at their +feet. + +Mere knowledge, uncombined in the imagination, does not bear fruit in +new inventions. It is from the union of different facts that a new idea +springs. A scholar is apt to be content with the acquisition of +knowledge, which remains passive in his mind. An inventor seizes upon +fresh facts, and combines them with the old, which thereby become +nascent. Through accident or premeditation he is able by uniting +scattered thoughts to add a novel instrument to a domain of science with +which he has little acquaintance. Nay, the lessons of experience and +the scruples of intimate knowledge sometimes deter a master from +attempting what the tyro, with the audacity of genius and the hardihood +of ignorance, achieves. Theorists have been known to pronounce against +a promising invention which has afterwards been carried to success, and +it is not improbable that if Edison had been an authority in acoustics +he would never have invented the phonograph. It happened in this wise. +During the spring of 1877, he was trying a device for making a telegraph +message, received on one line, automatically repeat itself along +another line. This he did by embossing the Morse signals on the +travelling paper instead of merely inking them, and then causing the +paper to pass under the point of a stylus, which, by rising and falling +in the indentations, opened and closed a sending key included in the +circuit of the second line. In this way the received message +transmitted itself further, without the aid of a telegraphist. Edison +was running the cylinder which carried the embossed paper at a high +speed one day, partly, as we are told, for amusement, and partly to test +the rate at which a clerk could read a message. As the speed was +raised, the paper gave out a humming rhythmic sound in passing under the +stylus. The separate signals of the message could no longer be +distinguished by the ear, and the instrument seemed to be speaking in a +language of its own, resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly.' +Immediately it flashed on the inventor that if he could emboss the waves +of speech upon the paper the words would be returned to him. To +conceive was to execute, and it was but the work of an hour to provide a +vibrating diaphragm or tympanum fitted with an indenting stylus, and +adapt it to the apparatus. Paraffined paper was selected to receive the +indentations, and substituted for the Morse paper on the cylinder of the +machine. On speaking to the tympanum, as the cylinder was revolved, a +record of the vibrations was indented on the paper, and by re-passing +this under the indenting point an imperfect reproduction of the sounds +was heard. Edison 'saw at once that the problem of registering human +speech, so that it could be repeated by mechanical means as often as +might he desired, was solved.' [T. A. Edison, NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, +June, 1888; New York ELECTRICAL REVIEW, 1888,] + +The experiment shows that it was partly by accident, and not by +reasoning on theoretical knowledge, that the phonograph was discovered. +The sound resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly' seems to have +suggested it to his mind. This was the germ which fell upon the soil +prepared for it. Edison's thoughts had been dwelling on the telephone; +he knew that a metal tympanum was capable of vibrating with all the +delicacies of speech, and it occurred to him that if these vibrations +could be impressed on a yielding material, as the Morse signals were +embossed upon the paper, the indentations would reproduce the speech, +just as the furrows of the paper reproduced the Morse signals. The +tympanum vibrating in the curves of speech was instantly united in his +imagination with the embossing stylus and the long and short +indentations on the Morse paper; the idea of the phonograph flashed upon +him. Many a one versed in acoustics would probably have been restrained +by the practical difficulty of impressing the vibrations on a yielding +material, and making them react upon the reproducing tympanum. But +Edison, with that daring mastery over matter which is a characteristic +of his mechanical genius, put it confidently to the test. + +Soon after this experiment, a phonograph was constructed, in which a +sheet of tinfoil was wrapped round a revolving barrel having a spiral +groove cut in its surface to allow the point of the indenting stylus to +sink into the yielding foil as it was thrust up and down by the +vibrating tympanum. This apparatus-- the first phonograph--was +published to the world in 1878, and created a universal sensation. +[SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, March 30, 1878] It is now in the South Kensington +Museum, to which it was presented by the inventor. + +The phonograph was first publicly exhibited in England at a meeting of +the Society of Telegraph Engineers, where its performances filled the +audience with astonishment and delight. A greeting from Edison to his +electrical brethren across the Atlantic had been impressed on the +tinfoil, and was spoken by the machine. Needless to say, the voice of +the inventor, however imperfectly reproduced, was hailed with great +enthusiasm, which those who witnessed will long remember. In this +machine, the barrel was fitted with a crank, and rotated by handle. A +heavy flywheel was attached to give it uniformity of motion. A sheet +of tinfoil formed the record, and the delivery could he heard by a +roomful of people. But articulation was sacrificed at the expense of +loudness. It was as though a parrot or a punchinello spoke, and +sentences which were unexpected could not be understood. Clearly, if +the phonograph were to become a practical instrument, it required to be +much improved. Nevertheless this apparatus sufficiently demonstrated the +feasibility of storing up and reproducing speech, music, and other +sounds. Numbers of them were made, and exhibited to admiring audiences, +by license, and never failed to elicit both amusement and applause. To +show how striking were its effects, and how surprising, even to +scientific men, it may be mentioned that a certain learned SAVANT, on +hearing it at a SEANCE of the Academie des Sciences, Paris, protested +that it was a fraud, a piece of trickery or ventriloquism, and would not +be convinced. + +After 1878 Edison became too much engaged with the development of the +electric light to give much attention to the phonograph, which, however, +was not entirely overlooked. His laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, +where the original experiments were made, was turned into a factory for +making electric light machinery, and Edison removed to New York until +his new laboratory at Orange, New Jersey, was completed. Of late he has +occupied the latter premises, and improved the phonograph so far that it +is now a serviceable instrument. In one of his 1878 patents, the use of +wax to take the records in place of tinfoil is indicated, and it is +chiefly to the adoption of this material that the success of the +'perfected phonograph' is due. Wax is also employed in the +'graphophone' of Mr. Tainter and Professor Bell, which is merely a +phonograph under another name. Numerous experiments have been made by +Edison to find the bees-wax which is best adapted to receive the record, +and he has recently discovered a new material or mixture which is stated +to yield better results than white wax. + +The wax is moulded into the form of a tube or hollow cylinder, usually 4 +1/4 inches long by 2 inches in diameter, and 1/8 inch thick. Such a +size is capable of taking a thousand words on its surface along a +delicate spiral trace; and by paring off one record after another can be +used fifteen times. There are a hundred or more lines of the trace in +the width of an inch, and they are hardly visible to the naked eye. +Only with a magnifying glass can the undulations caused by the vibrating +stylus be distinguished. This tube of wax is filed upon a metal barrel +like a sleeve, and the barrel, which forms part of a horizontal spindle, +is rotated by means of a silent electro-motor, controlled by a very +sensitive governor. A motion of translation is also given to the +barrel as it revolves, so that the marking stylus held over it describes +a spiral path upon its surface. In front of the wax two small metal +tympanums are supported, each carrying a fine needle point or stylus on +its under centre. One of these is the recording diaphragm, which prints +the sounds in the first place; the other is the reproducing diaphragm, +which emits the sounds recorded on the wax. They are used, one at a +time, as the machine is required, to take down or to render back a +phonographic message. + +The recording tympanum, which is about the size of a crown-piece, is +fitted with a mouthpiece, and when it is desired to record a sentence +the spindle is started, and you speak into the mouthpiece. The tympanum +vibrates under your voice, and the stylus, partaking of its motion, digs +into the yielding surface of the wax which moves beneath, and leaves a +tiny furrow to mark its passage. This is the sonorous record which, on +being passed under the stylus of the reproducing tympanum, will cause it +to give out a faithful copy of the original speech. A flexible india- +rubber tube, branching into two ear-pieces, conveys the sound emitted by +the reproducing diaphragm to the ears. This trumpet is used for privacy +and loudness; but it may be replaced by a conical funnel inserted by its +small end over the diaphragm, which thereby utters its message aloud. +It is on this plan that Edison has now constructed a phonograph which +delivers its reproduction to a roomful of people. Keys and pedals are +provided with which to stop the apparatus either in recording or +receiving, and in the latter case to hark back and repeat a word or +sentence if required. This is a convenient arrangement in using the +phonograph for correspondence or dictation. Each instrument, as we +have seen, can be employed for receiving as well as recording; and as +all are made to one pattern, a phonogram coming from any one, in any art +of the world, can be reproduced in any other instrument. A little box +with double walls has been introduced for transmitting the phonograms by +post. A knife or cutter is attached to the instrument for the purpose of +paring off an old message, and preparing a fresh surface of the wax for +the reception of a new one. This can be done in advance while the new +record is being made, so that no time is lost in the operation. A small +voltaic battery, placed under the machine, serves to work the electric +motor, and has to be replenished from time to time. A process has also +been devised for making copies of the phonograms in metal by electro- +deposition, so as to produce permanent records. But even the wax +phonogram may be used over and over again, hundreds of times, without +diminishing the fidelity of the reproduction. + +The entire phonograph is shown in our figure. [The figure is omitted +from this e-text] It consists of a box, B, containing the silent +electro-motor which drives the machine, and supporting the works for +printing and reproducing the sounds. Apart from the motive power, which +might, as in the graphophone, be supplied by foot, the apparatus is +purely mechanical, the parts acting with smoothness and precision. +These are, chiefly, the barrel or cylinder, C, on which the hollow wax +is placed; the spindle, S, which revolves the cylinder and wax; and the +two tympana, T, T', which receive the sounds and impress them on the +soft surface of the wax. A governor, G, regulates the movement of the +spindle; and there are other ingenious devices for starting and stopping +the apparatus. The tympanum T is that which is used for recording the +sounds, and M is a mouthpiece, which is fixed to it for speaking +purposes. The other tympanum, T', reproduces the sounds; and E E is a +branched ear-piece, conveying them to the two ears of the listener. The +separate wax tube, P, is a phonogram with the spiral trace of the sounds +already printed on its surface, and ready for posting. + +The box below the table contains the voltaic battery which actuates the +electro-motor. A machine which aims at recording and reproducing actual +speech or music is, of course, capable of infinite refinement, and +Edison is still at work improving the instrument, but even now it is +substantially perfected. + +Phonographs have arrived in London, and through the kindness of Mr. +Edison and his English representative, Colonel G. E. Gouraud, we have +had an opportunity of testing one. A number of phonograms, taken in +Edison's laboratory, were sent over with the instruments, and several of +them were caused to deliver in our hearing the sounds which were + + 'sealed in crystal silence there.' + +The first was a piece which had been played on the piano, quick time, +and the fidelity and loudness with which it was delivered by the hearing +tube was fairly astonishing, especially when one considered the frail +and hair-like trace upon the wax which had excited it. There seemed to +be something magical in the effect, which issued, as it were, from the +machine itself. Then followed a cornet solo, concert piece of cornet, +violin, and piano, and a very beautiful duet of cornet and piano. The +tones and cadences were admirably rendered, and the ear could also +faintly distinguish the noises of the laboratory. Speaking was +represented by a phonogram containing a dialogue between Mr. Edison and +Colonel Gouraud which had been imprinted some three weeks before in +America. With this we could hear the inventor addressing his old +friend, and telling him to correspond entirely with the phonograph. +Colonel Gouraud answers that he will be delighted to do so, and be +spared the trouble of writing; while Edison rejoins that he also will +be glad to escape the pains of reading the gallant colonel's letters. +The sally is greeted with a laugh, which is also faithfully rendered. + +One day a workman in Edison's laboratory caught up a crying child and +held it over the phonograph. Here is the phonogram it made, and here in +England we can listen to its wailing, for the phonograph reproduces +every kind of sound, high or low, whistling, coughing, sneezing, or +groaning. It gives the accent, the expression, and the modulation, so +that one has to be careful how one speaks, and probably its use will +help us to improve our utterance. + +By speaking into the phonograph and reproducing the words, we are +enabled for the first time to hear ourselves speak as others hear us; +for the vibrations of the head are understood to mask the voice a little +to our own ears. Moreover, by altering the speed of the barrel the +voice can be altered, music can be executed in slow or quick time, +however it is played, inaudible notes can be raised or lowered, as the +case may be, to audibility. The phonograph will register notes as low +as ten vibrations a second, whereas it is well known the lowest note +audible to the human ear is sixteen vibrations a second. The instrument +is equally capable of service and entertainment. It can be used as a +stenograph, or shorthand-writer. A business man, for instance, can +dictate his letters or instructions into it, and they can be copied out +by his secretary. Callers can leave a verbal message in the phonograph +instead of a note. An editor or journalist can dictate articles, which +may be written out or composed by the printer, word by word, as they are +spoken by the reproducer in his ears. + +Correspondence can be carried on by phonograms, distant friends and +lovers being able thus to hear each other's accents as though they were +together, a result more conducive to harmony and good feeling than +letter-writing. In matters of business and diplomacy the phonogram will +teach its users to be brief, accurate, and honest in their speech; for +the phonograph is a mechanical memory more faithful than the living +one. Its evidence may even be taken in a court of law in place of +documents, and it is conceivable that some important action might be +settled by the voice of this DEUS EX MACHINA. Will it therefore add a +new terror to modern life? Shall a visitor have to be careful what he +says in a neighbour's house, in case his words are stored up in some +concealed phonograph, just as his appearance may be registered by a +detective camera? In ordinary life--no; for the phonograph has its +limitations, like every other machine, and it is not sufficiently +sensitive to record a conversation unless it is spoken close at hand. +But there is here a chance for the sensational novelist to hang a tale +upon. + +The 'interviewer' may make use of it to supply him with 'copy,' but this +remains to be seen. There are practical difficulties in the way which +need not be told over. Perhaps in railway trains, steamers, and other +unsteady vehicles, it will be-used for communications. The telephone +may yet be adapted to work in conjunction with it, so that a phonogram +can be telephoned, or a telephone message recorded in the phonograph. +Such a 'telephonograph' is, however, a thing of the future. Wills and +other private deeds may of course be executed by phonograph. Moreover, +the loud-speaking instrument which Edison is engaged upon will probably +be applied to advertising and communicating purposes. The hours of the +day, for example, can be called out by a clock, the starting of a train +announced, and the merits of a particular commodity descanted on. All +these uses are possible; but it is in a literary sense that the +phonograph is more interesting. Books can now be spoken by their +authors, or a good elocutionist, and published in phonograms, which will +appeal to the ear of the 'reader' instead of to his eye. 'On, four +cylinders 8 inches long, with a diameter of 5,' says Edison, 'I can put +the whole of NICHOLAS NICKLEBY.' To the invalid, especially, this use +would come as a boon; and if the instrument were a loud speaker, a +circle of listeners could be entertained. How interesting it would be +to have NICHOLAS NICKLEBY read to us in the voice of Dickens, or TAM O' +SHANTER in that of Burns! If the idea is developed, we may perhaps have +circulating libraries which issue phonograms, and there is already some +talk of a phonographic newspaper which will prattle politics and scandal +at the breakfast-table. Addresses, sermons, and political speeches may +be delivered by the phonograph; languages taught, and dialects +preserved; while the study of words cannot fail to benefit by its +performance. + +Musicians will now be able to record their improvisations by a +phonograph placed near the instrument they are playing. There need in +fact be no more 'lost chords.' Lovers of music, like the inventor +himself, will be able to purchase songs and pieces, sung and played by +eminent performers, and reproduce them in their own homes. Music- +sellers will perhaps let them out, like books, and customers can choose +their piece in the shop by having it rehearsed to them. + +In preserving for us the words of friends who have passed away, the +sound of voices which are stilled, the phonograph assumes its most +beautiful and sacred character. The Egyptians treasured in their homes +the mummies of their dead. We are able to cherish the very accents of +ours, and, as it were, defeat the course of time and break the silence +of the grave. The voices of illustrious persons, heroes and statesmen, +orators, actors, and singers, will go down to posterity and visit us in +our homes. A new pleasure will be added to life. How pleasant it would +be if we could listen to the cheery voice of Gordon, the playing of +Liszt, or the singing of Jenny Lind! + +Doubtless the rendering of the phonograph will be still further improved +as time goes on ; but even now it is remarkable ; and the inventor must +be considered to have redeemed his promises with regard to it. +Notwithstanding his deafness, the development of the instrument has been +a labour of love to him; and those who knew his rare inventive skill +believed that he would some time achieve success. It is his favourite, +his most original, and novel work. For many triumphs of mind over +matter Edison has been called the 'Napoleon of Invention,' and the +aptness of the title is enhanced by his personal resemblance to the +great conqueror. But the phonograph is his victory of Austerlitz; and, +like the printing-press of Gutenberg, it will assuredly immortalise his +name. + +'The phonograph,' said Edison of his favourite, 'is my baby, and I +expect it to grow up a big fellow and support me in my old age.' Some +people are still in doubt whether it will prove more than a curious +plaything; but even now it seems to be coming into practical use in +America, if not in Europe. + +After the publication of the phonograph, Edison, owing, it is stated, to +an erroneous description of the instrument by a reporter, received +letters from deaf people inquiring whether it would enable them to hear +well. This, coupled with the fact that he is deaf himself, turned his +thoughts to the invention of the 'megaphone,' a combination of one large +speaking and two ear-trumpets, intended for carrying on a conversation +beyond the ordinary range of the voice--in short, a mile or two. It is +said to render a whisper audible at a distance of 1000 yards; but its +very sensitiveness is a drawback, since it gathers up extraneous +sounds. + +To the same category belongs the 'aerophone,' which may be described as +a gigantic tympanum, vibrated by a piston working in a cylinder of +compressed air, which is regulated by the vibrations of the sound to be +magnified. It was designed to call out fog or other warnings in a loud +and penetrating tone, but it has not been successful. + +The 'magnetic ore separator' is an application of magnetism to the +extraction of iron particles from powdered ores and unmagnetic matter. +The ground material is poured through a funnel or 'hopper,' and falls in +a shower between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, which draws the +metal aside, thus removing it from the dress. + +Among Edison's toys and minor inventions may be mentioned a 'voice +mill,' or wheel driven by the vibrations of the air set up in speaking. +It consists of a tympanum or drum, having a stylus attached as in the +phonograph. When the tympanum vibrates under the influence of the +voice, the stylus acts as a pawl and turns a ratchet-wheel. An +ingenious smith might apply it to the construction of a lock which would +operate at the command of 'Open, Sesame!' Another trifle perhaps worthy +of note is his ink, which rises on the paper and solidifies, so that a +blind person can read the writing by passing his fingers over the +letters. + +Edison's next important work was the adaptation of the electric light +for domestic illumination. At the beginning of the century the Cornish +philosopher, Humphrey Davy, had discovered that the electric current +produced a brilliant arch or 'arc' of light when passed between two +charcoal points drawn a little apart, and that it heated a fine rod of +charcoal or a metal wire to incandescence--that is to say, a glowing +condition. A great variety of arc lamps were afterwards introduced; and +Mr. Staite, on or about the year 1844-5, invented an incandescent lamp +in which the current passed through a slender stick of carbon, enclosed +in a vacuum bulb of glass. Faraday discovered that electricity could be +generated by the relative motion of a magnet and a coil of wire, and +hence the dynamo-electric generator, or 'dynamo,' was ere long invented +and improved. + +In 1878 the boulevards of Paris were lit by the arc lamps of Jablochkoff +during the season of the Exhibition, and the display excited a +widespread interest in the new mode of illumination. It was too +brilliant for domestic use, however, and, as the lamps were connected +one after another in the same circuit like pearls upon a string, the +breakage of one would interrupt the current and extinguish them all but +for special precautions. In short, the electric light was not yet +'subdivided.' + +Edison, in common with others, turned his attention to the subject, and +took up the neglected incandescent lamp. He improved it by reducing the +rod of carbon to a mere filament of charcoal, having a comparatively +high resistance and resembling a wire in its elasticity, without being +so liable to fuse under the intense heat of the current. This he +moulded into a loop, and mounted inside a pear-shaped bulb of glass. +The bulb was then exhausted of its air to prevent the oxidation of the +carbon, and the whole hermetically sealed. When a sufficient current +was passed through the filament, it glowed with a dazzling lustre. It +was not too bright or powerful for a room; it produced little heat, and +absolutely no fumes. Moreover, it could be connected not in but across +the main circuit of the current, and hence, if one should break, the +others would continue glowing. Edison, in short, had 'subdivided' the +electric light. + +In October, 1878, he telegraphed the news to London and Paris, where, +owing to his great reputation, it caused an immediate panic in the gas +market. As time passed, and the new illuminant was backward in +appearing, the shares recovered their old value. Edison was severely +blamed for causing the disturbance; but, nevertheless, his announcement +had been verified in all but the question of cost. The introduction of +a practical system of electric lighting employed his resources for +several years. Dynamos, types of lamps and conductors, electric meters, +safety fuses, and other appliances had to be invented. In 1882 he +returned to New York, to superintend the installation of his system in +that city. + +His researches on the dynamo caused him to devise what he calls an +'harmonic engine.' It consists of a tuning-fork, kept in vibration by +two small electro-magnets, excited with three or four battery cells. +It is capable of working a small pump, but is little more than a +scientific curiosity. With the object of transforming heat direct from +the furnace into electricity, he also devised a 'pyro-electric +generator,' but it never passed beyond the experimental stage. + +The same may be said for his pyro-electric motor. His dynamo-electric +motors and system of electric railways are, however, a more promising +invention. His method of telegraphing to and from a railway train in +motion, by induction through the air to a telegraph wire running along +the line, is very ingenious, and has been tried with a fair amount of +success. + +At present he is working at the 'Kinetograph,' a combination of the +phonograph and the instantaneous photograph as exhibited in the +zoetrope, by which he expects to produce an animated picture or +simulacrum of a scene in real life or the drama, with its appropriate +words and sounds. + +Edison now resides at Llewellyn Park, Orange, a picturesque suburb of +New York. His laboratory there is a glorified edition of Menlo Park, +and realises the inventor's dream. The main building is of brick, in +three stories; but there are several annexes. Each workshop and testing +room is devoted to a particular purpose. The machine shops and dynamo +rooms are equipped with the best engines and tools, the laboratories +with the finest instruments that money can procure. There are drawing, +photographic, and photometric chambers, physical, chemical, and +metallurgical laboratories. There is a fine lecture-hall, and a +splendid library and reading-room. He employs several hundred workmen +and assistants, all chosen for their intelligence and skill. In this +retreat Edison is surrounded with everything that his heart desires. In +the words of a reporter, the place is equally capable of turning out a +'chronometer or a Cunard steamer.' It is probably the finest laboratory +in the world. + +In 1889, Edison, accompanied by his second wife, paid a holiday visit to +Europe and the Paris Exhibition. He was received everywhere with the +greatest enthusiasm, and the King of Italy created him a Grand Officer +of the Crown of Italy, with the title of Count. But the phonograph +speaks more for his genius than the voice of the multitude, the electric +light is a better illustration of his energy than the ribbon of an +order, and the finest monument to his pluck, sagacity, and perseverance +is the magnificent laboratory which has been built through his own +efforts at Llewellyn Park. [One of his characteristic sayings may be +quoted here: 'Genius is an exhaustless capacity for work in detail, +which, combined with grit and gumption and love of right, ensures to +every man success and happiness in this world and the next.'] + + + +CHAPTER X. + +DAVID EDWIN HUGHES. + +There are some leading electricians who enjoy a reputation based partly +on their own efforts and partly on those of their paid assistants. +Edison, for example, has a large following, who not only work out his +ideas, but suggest, improve, and invent of themselves. The master in +such a case is able to avail himself of their abilities and magnify his +own genius, so to speak. He is not one mind, but the chief of many +minds, and absorbs into himself the glory and the work of a hundred +willing subjects. + +Professor Hughes is not one of these. His fame is entirely self-earned. +All that he has accomplished, and he has done great things, has been the +labour of his own hand and brain. He is an artist in invention; working +out his own conceptions in silence and retirement, with the artist's +love and self-absorption. This is but saying that he is a true +inventor; for a mere manufacturer of inventions, who employs others to +assist him in the work, is not an inventor in the old and truest sense. + +Genius, they say, makes its own tools, and the adage is strikingly +verified in the case of Professor Hughes, who actually discovered the +microphone in his own drawing-room, and constructed it of toy boxes and +sealing wax. He required neither lathe, laboratory, nor assistant to +give the world this remarkable and priceless instrument. + +Having first become known to fame in America, Professor Hughes is +usually claimed by the Americans as a countryman, and through some +error, the very date and place of his birth there are often given in +American publications; but we have the best authority for the accuracy +of the following facts, namely that of the inventor himself. + +David Edwin Hughes was born in London in 1831. His parents came from +Bala, at the foot of Snowdon, in North Wales, and in 1838, when David +was seven years old, his father, taking with him his family, emigrated +to the United States, and became a planter in Virginia. The elder Mr. +Hughes and his children seem to have inherited the Welsh musical gift, +for they were all accomplished musicians. While a mere child, David +could improvise tunes in a remarkable manner, and when he grew up this +talent attracted the notice of Herr Hast, an eminent German pianist in +America, who procured for him the professorship of music in the College +of Bardstown, Kentucky. Mr. Hughes entered upon his academical career +at Bardstown in 1850, when he was nineteen years of age. Although very +fond of music and endowered by Nature with exceptional powers for its +cultivation, Professor Hughes had, in addition, an inborn liking and +fitness for physical science and mechanical invention. This duality of +taste and genius may seem at first sight strange; but experience shows +that there are many men of science and inventors who are also votaries +of music and art. The source of this apparent anomaly is to be found in +the imagination, which is the fountain-head of all kinds of creation. + +Professor Hughes now taught music by day for his livelihood, and studied +science at night for his recreation, thus reversing the usual order of +things. The college authorities, knowing his proficiency in the +subject, also offered him the Chair of Natural Philosophy, which became +vacant; and he united the two seemingly incongruous professorships of +music and physics in himself. He had long cherished the idea of +inventing a new telegraph, and especially one which should print the +message in Roman characters as it is received. So it happened that one +evening while he was under the excitement of a musical improvisation, a +solution of the problem flashed into his ken. His music and his science +had met at this nodal point. + +All his spare time was thenceforth devoted to the development of his +design and the construction of a practical type-printer. As the work +grew on his hands, the pale young student, beardless but careworn, +became more and more engrossed with it, until his nights were almost +entirely given to experiment. He begrudged the time which had to be +spent in teaching his classes and the fatigue was telling upon his +health, so in 1853 he removed to Bowlingreen, in Warren Co., Kentucky, +where he acquired more freedom by taking pupils. + +The main principle of his type-printer was the printing of each letter +by a single current; the Morse instrument, then the principal receiver +in America, required, on the other hand, an average of three currents +for each signal. In order to carry out this principle it was necessary +that the sending and receiving apparatus should keep in strict time +with each other, or be synchronous in action; and to effect this was the +prime difficulty which Professor Hughes had to overcome in his work. In +estimating the Hughes' type-printer as an invention we must not forget +the state of science at that early period. He had to devise his own +governors for the synchronous mechanism, and here his knowledge of +acoustics helped him. Centrifugal governors and pendulums would not do, +and he tried vibrators, such as piano-strings and tuning-forks. He at +last found what he wanted in two darning needles, borrowed from an old +lady in the house where he lived. These steel rods fixed at one end +vibrated with equal periods, and could be utilised in such a way that +the printing wheel could be corrected into absolute synchronism by each +signal current. + +In 1854, Professor Hughes went to Louisville to superintend the making +of his first instrument; but it was unprotected by a patent in the +United States until 1855. In that form straight vibrators were used as +governors, and a separate train of wheel-work was employed in +correcting: but in later forms the spiral governor was adopted, and the +printing and correcting is now done by the same action. In 1855, the +invention may be said to have become fit for employment, and no sooner +was this the case, than Professor Hughes received a telegram from the +editors of the New York Associated Press, summoning him to that city. +The American Telegraph Company, then a leading one, was in possession of +the Morse instrument, and levied rates for transmission of news which +the editors found oppressive. They took up the Hughes' instrument in +opposition to the Morse, and introduced it on the lines of several +companies. After a time, however, the separate companies amalgamated +into one large corporation, the Western Union Telegraph Company of to- +day. With the Morse, Hughes, and other apparatus in its power, the +editors were again left in the lurch. + +In 1857, Professor Hughes leaving his instrument in the hands of the +Western Union Telegraph Company, came to England to effect its +introduction here. He endeavoured to get the old Electric Telegraph +Company to adopt it, but after two years of indecision on their part, he +went over to France in 1860, where he met with a more encouraging +reception. The French Government Telegraph Administration became at +once interested in the new receiver, and a commission of eminent +electricians, consisting of Du Moncel, Blavier, Froment, Gaugain, and +other practical and theoretical specialists, was appointed to decide on +its merits. The first trial of the type-printer took place on the Paris +to Lyons circuit, and there is a little anecdote connected with it which +is worthy of being told. The instrument was started, and for a while +worked as well as could be desired; but suddenly it came to a stop, and +to the utter discomfiture of the inventor he could neither find out what +was wrong nor get the printer to go again. In the midst of his +confusion, it seemed like satire to him to hear the commissioners say, +as they smiled all round, and bowed themselves gracefully off, 'TRES- +BIEN, MONSIEUR HUGHES--TRES-BIEN, JE VOUS FELICITE.' But the matter was +explained next morning, when Professor Hughes learned that the +transmitting clerk at Lyons had been purposely instructed to earth the +line at the time in question, to test whether there was no deception in +the trial, a proceeding which would have seemed strange, had not the +occurrence of a sham trial some months previous rendered it a prudent +course. The result of this trial was that the French Government agreed +to give the printer a year of practical work on the French lines, and if +found satisfactory, it was to be finally adopted. Daily reports were +furnished of its behaviour during that time, and at the expiration of +the term it was adopted, and Professor Hughes was constituted by +Napoleon III. a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. + +The patronage of France paved the way of the type-printer into almost +all other European countries; and the French agreement as to its use +became the model of those made by the other nations. On settling with +France in 1862, Professor Hughes went to Italy. Here a commission was +likewise appointed, and a period of probation--only six months--was +settled, before the instrument was taken over. From Italy, Professor +Hughes received the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazare. In 1863, the +United Kingdom Telegraph Co., England, introduced the type-printer in +their system. In 1865, Professor Hughes proceeded to Russia, and in +that country his invention was adopted after six months' trial on the +St. Petersburg to Moscow circuit. At St. Petersburg he had the honour +of being a guest of the Emperor in the summer palace, Czarskoizelo, the +Versailles of Russia, where he was requested to explain his invention, +and also to give a lecture on electricity to the Czar and his court. He +was there created a Commander of the Order of St. Anne. + +In 1865, Professor Hughes also went to Berlin, and introduced his +apparatus on the Prussian lines. In 1867, he went on a similar mission +to Austria, where he received the Order of the Iron Crown; and to +Turkey, where the reigning Sultan bestowed on him the Grand Cross of the +Medjidie. In this year, too he was awarded at the Paris Exhibition, a +grand HORS LIGNE gold medal, one out of ten supreme honours designed to +mark the very highest achievements. On the same occasion another of +these special medals was bestowed on Cyrus Field and the Anglo-American +Telegraph Company. In 1868, he introduced it into Holland; and in +1869, into Bavaria and Wurtemburg, where he obtained the Noble Order of +St. Michael. In 1870, he also installed it in Switzerland and Belgium. + +Coming back to England, the Submarine Telegraph Company adopted the +type-printer in 1872, when they had only two instruments at work. In +1878 they had twenty of them in constant use, of which number nine were +working direct between London and Paris, one between London and Berlin, +one between London and Cologne, one between London and Antwerp, and one +between London and Brussels. All the continental news for the TIMES and +the DAILY TELEGRAPH is received by the Hughes' type-printer, and is set +in type by a type-setting machine as it arrives. Further, by the +International Telegraph Congress it was settled that for all +international telegrams only the Hughes' instrument and the Morse were +to be employed. Since the Post Office acquired the cables to the +Continent in 1889, a room in St. Martin's-le-Grand has been provided for +the printers working to Paris, Berlin, and Rome. + +In 1875, Professor Hughes introduced the type-printer into Spain, where +he was made a Commander of the Royal and Distinguished Order of Carlos +III. In every country to which it was taken, the merits of the +instrument were recognised, and Professor Hughes has none but pleasant +souvenirs of his visits abroad. + +During all these years the inventor was not idle. He was constantly +improving his invention; and in addition to that, he had to act as an +instructor where-ever he went, and give courses of lectures explaining +the principles and practice of his apparatus to the various employees +into whose hands it was to be consigned. + +The years 1876-8 will be distinguished in the history of our time for a +triad of great inventions which, so to speak, were hanging together. We +have already seen how the telephone and phonograph have originated; and +to these two marvellous contrivances we have now to add a third, the +microphone, which is even more marvellous, because, although in form it +is the simplest of them all, in its action it is still a mystery. The +telephone enables us to speak to distances far beyond the reach of eye +or ear, 'to waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole; 'the phonograph enables +us to seal the living speech on brazen tablets, and store it up for any +length of time; while it is the peculiar function of the microphone to +let us hear those minute sounds which are below the range of our +unassisted powers of hearing. By these three instruments we have thus +received a remarkable extension of the capacity of the human ear, and a +growth of dominion over the sounds of Nature. We have now a command +over sound such as we have over light. For the telephone is to the ear +what the telescope is to the eye, the phonograph is for sound what the +photograph is for light, and the microphone finds its analogue in the +microscope. As the microscope reveals to our wondering sight the rich +meshes of creation, so the microphone can interpret to our ears the jarr +of molecular vibrations for ever going on around us, perchance the clash +of atoms as they shape themselves into crystals, the murmurous ripple of +the sap in trees, which Humboldt fancied to make a continuous music in +the ears of the tiniest insects, the fall of pollen dust on flowers and +grasses, the stealthy creeping of a spider upon his silken web, and even +the piping of a pair of love-sick butterflies, or the trumpeting of a +bellicose gnat, like the 'horns of elf-land faintly blowing.' + +The success of the Hughes type-printer may be said to have covered its +author with titles and scientific honours, and placed him above the +necessity of regular employment. He left America, and travelled from +place to place. For many years past, however, he has resided privately +in London, an eminent example of that modesty and simplicity which is +generally said to accompany true genius. + +Mechanical invention is influenced to a very high degree by external +circumstances. It may sound sensational, but it is nevertheless true, +that we owe the microphone to an attack of bronchitis. During the thick +foggy weather of November 1877, Professor Hughes was confined to his +home by a severe cold, and in order to divert his thoughts he began to +amuse himself with a speaking telephone. Then it occurred to him that +there might be some means found of making the wire of the telephone +circuit speak of itself without the need of telephones at all, or at +least without the need of one telephone, namely, that used in +transmitting the sounds. The distinguished physicist Sir William +Thomson, had lately discovered the peculiar fact that when a current of +electricity is passed through a wire, the current augments when the wire +is extended, and diminishes when the wire is compressed, because in the +former case the resistance of the material of the wire to the passage of +the current is lessened, and in the latter case it becomes greater. + +Now it occurred to Professor Hughes that, if this were so, it might be +possible to cause the air-vibrations of sound to so act upon a wire +conveying a current as to stretch and contract it in sympathy with +themselves, so that the sound-waves would create corresponding electric +waves in the current, and these electric waves, passed through a +telephone connected to the wire, would cause the telephone to give forth +the original sounds. He first set about trying the effect of vibrating +a wire in which a current flowed, to see if the stretching and +compressing thereby produced would affect the current so as to cause +sounds in a telephone connected up in circuit with the wire--but without +effect. He could hear no sound whatever in the telephone. Then he +stretched the wire till it broke altogether, and as the metal began to +rupture he heard a distinct grating in the telephone, followed by a +sharp 'click,' when the wire sundered, which indicated a 'rush' of +electricity through the telephone. This pointed out to him that the +wire might be sensitive to sound when in a state of fracture. Acting on +the hint, he placed the two broken ends of the wire together again, and +kept them so by the application of a definite pressure. To his joy he +found that he had discovered what he had been in search of. The +imperfect contact between the broken ends of the wire proved itself to +be a means of transmitting sounds, and in addition it was found to +possess a faculty which he had not anticipated--it proved to be +sensitive to very minute sounds, and was in fact a rude microphone. +Continuing his researches, he soon found that he had discovered a prin- +ciple of wide application, and that it was not necessary to confine his +experiments to wires, since any substance which conducted an electric +current would answer the purpose. All that was necessary was that the +materials employed should be in contact with each other under a slight +but definite pressure, and, for the continuance of the effects, that +the materials should not oxidise in air so as to foul the contact. For +different materials a different degree of pressure gives the best +results, and for different sounds to be transmitted a different degree +of pressure is required. Any loose, crazy unstable structure, of +conducting bodies, inserted in a telephone circuit, will act as a +microphone. Such, for example, as a glass tube filled with lead-shot or +black oxide of iron, or 'white bronze' powder under pressure; a metal +watch-chain piled in a heap. Surfaces of platinum, gold, or even iron, +pressed lightly together give excellent results. Three French nails, +two parallel beneath and one laid across them, or better still a log- +hut of French nails, make a perfect transmitter of audible sounds, and a +good microphone. Because of its cheapness, its conducting power, and +its non-oxidisability, carbon is the most select material. A piece of +charcoal no bigger than a pin's head is quite sufficient to produce +articulate speech. Gas-carbon operates admirably, but the best carbon +is that known as willow-charcoal, used by artists in sketching, and when +this is impregnated with minute globules of mercury by heating it white- +hot and quenching it in liquid mercury, it is in a highly sensitive +microphonic condition. The same kind of charcoal permeated by platinum, +tin, zinc, or other unoxidisable metal is also very suitable; and it is +a significant fact that the most resonant woods, such as pine, poplar, +and willow, yield the charcoals best adapted for the microphone. +Professor Hughes' experimental apparatus is of an amusingly simple +description. He has no laboratory at home, and all his experiments were +made in the drawing-room. His first microphones were formed of bits of +carbon and scraps of metal, mounted on slips of match-boxes by means of +sealing-wax; and the resonance pipes on which they were placed to +reinforce the effect of minute sounds, were nothing more than children's +toy money boxes, price one halfpenny, having one of the ends knocked +out. With such childish and worthless materials he has conquered Nature +in her strongholds, and shown how great discoveries can be made. The +microphone is a striking illustration of the truth that in science any +phenomenon whatever may be rendered useful. The trouble of one +generation of scientists may be turned to the honour and service of the +next. Electricians have long had sore reasons for regarding a 'bad +contact' as an unmitigated nuisance, the instrument of the evil one, +with no conceivable good in it, and no conceivable purpose except to +annoy and tempt them into wickedness and an expression of hearty but +ignominious emotion. Professor Hughes, however, has with a wizard's +power transformed this electrician's bane into a professional glory and +a public boon. Verily there is a soul of virtue in things evil. + +The commonest and at the same time one of the most sensitive forms of +the instrument is called the 'pencil microphone,' from the pencil or +crayon of carbon which forms the principal part of it. This pencil may +be of mercurialised charcoal, but the ordinary gas-carbon, which +incrusts the interior of the retorts in gas-works, is usually employed. +The crayon is supported in an upright position by two little brackets of +carbon, hollowed out so as to receive the pointed ends in shallow cups. +The weight of the crayon suffices to give the required pressure on the +contacts, both upper and lower, for the upper end of the Pencil should +lean against the inner wall of the cup in the upper bracket. The +brackets are fixed to an upright board of light, dry, resonant pine- +wood, let into a solid base of the same timber. The baseboard is with +advantage borne by four rounded india-rubber feet, which insulate it +from the table on which it may be placed. To connect the microphone up +for use, a small voltaic battery, say three cells (though a single cell +will give surprising results), and a Bell speaking telephone are +necessary. A wire is led from one of the carbon brackets to one pole of +the battery, and another wire is led from the other bracket to one +terminal screw of the telephone, and the circuit is completed by a wire +from the other terminal of the telephone to the other pole of the +battery. If now the slightest mechanical jar be given to the wooden +frame of the microphone, to the table, or even to the walls of the room +in which the experiment takes place, a corresponding noise will be heard +in the microphone. By this delicate arrangement we can play the +eavesdropper on those insensible vibrations in the midst of which we +exist. If a feather or a camel-hair pencil be stroked along the base- +board, we hear a harsh grating sound; if a pin be laid upon it, we hear +a blow like a blacksmith's hammer; and, more astonishing than all, if a +fly walk across it we hear it tramping like a charger, and even its +peculiar cry, which has been likened, with some allowance for +imagination, to the snorting of an elephant. Moreover it should not be +forgotten that the wires connecting up the telephone may be lengthened +to any desired extent, so that, in the words of Professor Hughes, 'the +beating of a pulse, the tick of a watch, the tramp of a fly can then be +heard at least a hundred miles from the source of sound.' If we whisper +or speak distinctly in a monotone to the pencil, our words will be heard +in the telephone; but with this defect, that the TIMBRE or quality is, +in this particular form of the instrument, apt to be lost, making it +difficult to recognise the speaker's voice. But although a single +pencil microphone will under favourable circumstances transmit these +varied sounds, the best effect for each kind of sound is obtained by one +specially adjusted. There is one pressure best adapted for minute +sounds, another for speech, and a third for louder sounds. A simple +spring arrangement for adjusting the pressure of the contacts is +therefore an advantage, and it can easily be applied to a microphone +formed of a small rod of carbon pivoted at its middle, with one end +resting on a block or anvil of carbon underneath. The contact between +the rod and the block in this 'hammer-and-anvil' form is, of course, the +portion which is sensitive to sound. + +The microphone is a discovery as well as an invention, and the true +explanation of its action is as yet merely an hypothesis. It is +supposed that the vibrations put the carbons in a tremor and cause them +to approach more or less nearly, thus closing or opening the breach +between them, which is, as it were, the floodgate of the current. + +The applications of the microphone were soon of great importance. Dr. +B. W. Richardson succeeded in fitting it for auscultation of the heart +and lungs; while Sir Henry Thompson has effectively used it in those +surgical operations, such as probing wounds for bullets or fragments of +bone, in which the surgeon has hitherto relied entirely on his delicacy +of touch for detecting the jar of the probe on the foreign body. There +can be no doubt that in the science of physiology, in the art of +surgery, and in many other walks of life, the microphone has proved a +valuable aid. + +Professor Hughes communicated his results to the Royal Society in the +early part of 1878, and generously gave the microphone to the world. +For his own sake it would perhaps have been better had he patented and +thus protected it, for Mr. Edison, recognising it as a rival to his +carbon-transmitter, then a valuable property, claimed it as an +infringement of his patents and charged him with plagiarism. A spirited +controversy arose, and several bitter lawsuits were the consequence, in +none of which, however, Professor Hughes took part, as they were only +commercial trials. It was clearly shown that Clerac, and not Edison, +had been the first to utilise the variable resistance of powdered +carbon or plumbage under pressure, a property on which the Edison +transmitter was founded, and that Hughes had discovered a much wider +principle, which embraced not only the so-called 'semi-conducting' +bodies, such as carbon; but even the best conductors, such as gold, +silver, and other metals. This principle was not a mere variation of +electrical conductivity in a mass of material brought about by +compression, but a mysterious variation in some unknown way of the +strength of an electric current in traversing a loose joint or contact +between two conductors. This discovery of Hughes really shed a light on +the behaviour of Edison's own transmitter, whose action he had until +then misunderstood. It was now seen that the particles of carbon dust +in contact which formed the button were a congeries of minute micro- +phones. Again it was proved that the diaphragm or tympanum to receive +the impression of the sound and convey it to the carbon button, on +which Edison had laid considerable stress, was non-essential; for the +microphone, pure and simple, was operated by the direct impact of the +sonorous waves, and required no tympanum. Moreover, the microphone, as +its name implies, could magnify a feeble sound, and render audible the +vibrations which would otherwise escape the ear. The discovery of these +remarkable and subtle properties of a delicate contact had indeed +confronted Edison; he had held them in his grasp, they had stared him in +the face, but not-withstanding all his matchless ingenuity and acumen, +he, blinded perhaps by a false hypothesis, entirely failed to discern +them. The significant proof of it lies in the fact that after the +researches of Professor Hughes were published the carbon transmitter was +promptly modified, and finally abandoned for practical work as a +telephone, in favour of a variety of new transmitters, such as the +Blake, now employed in the United Kingdom, in all of which the essential +part is a microphone of hard carbon and metal. The button of soot has +vanished into the limbo of superseded inventions. + +Science appears to show that every physical process is reciprocal, and +may be reversed. With this principle in our minds, we need not be +surprised that the microphone should not only act as a TRANSMITTER of +sounds, but that it should also act as a RECEIVER. Mr. James Blyth, of +Edinburgh, was the first to announce that he had heard sounds and even +speech given out by a microphone itself when substituted for the +telephone. His transmitting microphone and his receiving one were +simply jelly-cans filled with cinders from the grate. It then +transpired that Professor Hughes had previously obtained the same +remarkable effects from his ordinary 'pencil' microphones. The sounds +were extremely feeble, however, but the transmitting microphones proved +the best articulating ones. Professor Hughes at length constructed an +adjustable hammer-and-anvil microphone of gas-carbon, fixed to the top +of a resonating drum, which articulated fairly well, although not so +perfectly as a Bell telephone. Perhaps a means of improving both the +volume and distinctness of the articulation will yet be forthcoming and +we may be able to speak solely by the microphone, if it is found +desirable. The marvellous fact that a little piece of charcoal can, as +it were, both listen and speak, that a person may talk to it so that his +friend can hear him at a similar piece a hundred miles away, is a +miracle of nineteenth century science which far transcends the oracles +of antiquity. + +The articulating telephone was the forerunner of the phonograph and +microphone, and led to their discovery. They in turn will doubtless +lead to other new inventions, which it is now impossible to foresee. We +ask in vain for an answer to the question which is upon the lips of +every one-What next? The microphone has proved itself highly useful in +strengthening the sounds given out by the telephone, and it is probable +that we shall soon see those three inventions working unitedly; for the +microphone might make the telephone sounds so powerful as to enable them +to be printed by phonograph as they are received, and thus a durable +record of telephonic messages would be obtained. We can now transmit +sound by wire, but it may yet be possible to transmit light, and see by +telegraph. We are apparently on the eve of other wonderful inventions, +and there are symptoms that before many years a great fundamental +discovery will be made, which will elucidate the connection of all the +physical forces, and will illumine the very frame-work of Nature. + +In 1879, Professor Hughes endowed the scientific world with another +beautiful apparatus, his 'induction balance.' Briefly described, it is +an arrangement of coils whereby the currents inducted by a primary +circuit in the secondary are opposed to each other until they balance, +so that a telephone connected in the secondary circuit is quite silent. +Any disturbance of this delicate balance, however, say by the movement +of a coil or a metallic body in the neighbourhood of the apparatus, will +be at once reported by the induction currents in the telephone. Being +sensitive to the presence of minute masses of metal, the apparatus was +applied by Professor Graham Bell to indicate the whereabouts of the +missing bullet in the frame of President Garfield, as already mentioned, +and also by Captain McEvoy to detect the position of submerged +torpedoes or lost anchors. Professor Roberts-Austen, the Chemist to +the Mint, has also employed it with success in analysing the purity and +temper of coins; for, strange to say, the induction is affected as well +by the molecular quality as the quantity of the disturbing metal. +Professor Hughes himself has modified it for the purpose of sonometry, +and the measurement of the hearing powers. + +To the same year, 1879, belong his laborious investigations on current +induction, and some ingenious plans for eliminating its effects on +telegraph and telephone circuits. + +Soon after his discovery of the microphone he was invited to become a +Fellow of the Royal Society, and a few years later, in 1885 he received +the Royal Medal of the Society for his experiments, and especially +those of the microphone. In 1881 he represented the United Kingdom as a +Commissioner at the Paris International Exhibition of Electricity, and +was elected President of one of the sections of the International +Congress of Electricians. In 1886 he filled the office of President of +the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians. + +The Hughes type-printer was a great mechanical invention, one of the +greatest in telegraphic science, for every organ of it was new, and had +to be fashioned out of chaos; an invention which stamped its author's +name indelibly into the history of telegraphy, and procured for him a +special fame; while the microphone is a discovery which places it on +the roll of investigators, and at the same time brings it to the +knowledge of the people. Two such achievements might well satisfy any +scientific ambition. Professor Hughes has enjoyed a most successful +career. Probably no inventor ever before received so many honours, or +bore them with greater modesty. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +APPENDIX. +--------- + + +I. CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS. + +CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS was born at Braunschweig on April 30, 1777. His +father, George Dietrich, was a mason, who employed himself otherwise in +the hard winter months, and finally became cashier to a TODTENCASSE, or +burial fund. His mother Dorothy was the daughter of Christian Benze of +the village of Velpke, near Braunschweig, and a woman of talent, +industry, and wit, which her son appears to have inherited. The father +died in 1808 after his son had become distinguished. The mother lived +to the age of ninety-seven, but became totally blind. She preserved her +low Saxon dialect, her blue linen dress and simple country manners, to +the last, while living beside her son at the Observatory of Gottingen. +Frederic, her younger brother, was a damask weaver, but a man with a +natural turn for mathematics and mechanics. + +When Gauss was a boy, his parents lived in a small house in the +Wendengrahen, on a canal which joined the Ocker, a stream flowing +through Braunschweig. The canal is now covered, and is the site of the +Wilhelmstrasse, but a tablet marks the house. When a child, Gauss used +to play on the bank of the canal, and falling in one day he was nearly +drowned. He learned to read by asking the letters from his friends, and +also by studying an old calendar which hung on a wall of his father's +house, and when four years old he knew all the numbers on it, in spite +of a shortness of sight which afflicted him to the end. On Saturday +nights his father paid his workmen their wages, and once the boy, who +had been listening to his calculations, jumped up and told him that he +was wrong. Revision showed that his son was right. + +At the age of seven, Gauss went to the Catherine Parish School at +Braunschweig, and remained at it for several years. The master's name +was Buttner, and from a raised seat in the middle of the room, he kept +order by means of a whip suspended at his side. A bigger boy, Bartels +by name, used to cut quill pens, and assist the smaller boys in their +lessons. He became a friend of Gauss, and would procure mathematical +books, which they read together. Bartels subsequently rose to be a +professor in the University of Dorpat, where he died. At the parish +school the boys of fourteen to fifteen years were being examined in +arithmetic one day, when Gauss stepped forward and, to the astonishment +of Buttner, requested to be examined at the same time. Buttner, +thinking to punish him for his audacity, put a 'poser' to him, and +awaited the result. Gauss solved the problem on his slate, and laid it +face downward on the table, crying 'Here it is,' according to the +custom. At the end of an hour, during which the master paced up and +down with an air of dignity, the slates were turned over, and the answer +of Gauss was found to be correct while many of the rest were erroneous. +Buttner praised him, and ordered a special book on arithmetic for him +all the way from Hamburg. + +>From the parish school Gauss went to the Catherine Gymnasium, although +his father doubted whether he could afford the money. Bartels had gone +there before him, and they read the higher mathematics. Gauss also +devoted much of his time to acquiring the ancient and modern languages. +>From there he passed to the Carolinean College in the spring of 1792. +Shortly before this the Duke Charles William Ferdinand of Braunschweig +among others had noticed his talents, and promised to further his +career. + +In 1793 he published his first papers; and in the autumn of 1795 he +entered the University of Gottingen. At this time he was hesitating +between the pursuit of philology or mathematics; but his studies became +more and more of the latter order. He discovered the division of the +circle, a problem published in his DISQUISITIONES ARITHMETICAE, and +henceforth elected for mathematics. The method of least squares, was +also discovered during his first term. On arriving home the duke +received him in the friendliest manner, and he was promoted to +Helmstedt, where with the assistance of his patron he published his +DISQUISITIONES. + +On January 1, 1801, Piazzi, the astronomer of Palermo, discovered a +small planet, which he named CERES FERDINANDIA, and communicated the +news by post to Bode of Berlin, and Oriani of Milan. The letter was +seventy-two days in going, and the planet by that time was lost in the +glory of the sun, By a method of his own, published in his THEORIA MOTUS +CORPORUM COELESTIUM, Gauss calculated the orbit of this planet, and +showed that it moved between Mars and Jupiter. The planet, after +eluding the search of several astronomers, was ultimately found again by +Zach on December 7, 1801, and on January 1, 1802. The ellipse of Gauss +was found to coincide with its orbit. + +This feat drew the attention of the Hanoverian Government, and of Dr. +Olbers, the astronomer, to the young mathematician. But some time +elapsed before he was fitted with a suitable appointment. The battle of +Austerlitz had brought the country into danger, and the Duke of +Braunschweig was entrusted with a mission from Berlin to the Court of +St. Petersburg. The fame of Gauss had travelled there, but the duke +resisted all attempts to bring or entice him to the university of that +place. On his return home, however, he raised the salary of Gauss. + +At the beginning of October 1806, the armies of Napoleon were moving +towards the Saale, and ere the middle of the month the battles of +Auerstadt and Jena were fought and lost. Duke Charles Ferdinand was +mortally wounded, and taken back to Braunschweig. A deputation waited +on the offended Emperor at Halle, and begged him to allow the aged duke +to die in his own house. They were brutally denied by the Emperor, and +returned to Braunschweig to try and save the unhappy duke from +imprisonment. One evening in the late autumn, Gauss, who lived in the +Steinweg (or Causeway), saw an invalid carriage drive slowly out of the +castle garden towards the Wendenthor. It contained the wounded duke on +his way to Altona, where he died on November 10, 1806, in a small house +at Ottensen, 'You will take care,' wrote Zach to Gauss, in 1803, 'that +his great name shall also be written on the firmament.' + +For a year and a half after the death of the duke Gauss continued in +Braunschweig, but his small allowance, and the absence of scientific +company made a change desirable. Through Olbers and Heeren he received +a call to the directorate of Gottingen University in 1807, and at once +accepted it. He took a house near the chemical laboratory, to which he +brought his wife and family. The building of the observatory, delayed +for want of funds, was finished in 1816, and a year or two later it was +fully equipped with instruments. + +In 1819, Gauss measured a degree of latitude between Gottingen and +Altona. In geodesy he invented the heliotrope, by which the sunlight +reflected from a mirror is used as a "sight" for the theodolite at a +great distance. Through Professor William Weber he was introduced to +the science of electro-magnetism, and they devised an experimental +telegraph, chiefly for sending time signals, between the Observatory and +the Physical Cabinet of the University. The mirror receiving instrument +employed was the heavy prototype of the delicate reflecting galvanometer +of Sir William Thomson. In 1834 messages were transmitted through the +line in presence of H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge; but it was hardly +fitted for general use. In 1883 (?) he published an absolute system of +magnetic measurements. + +On July 16, 1849, the jubilee of Gauss was celebrated at the University; +the famous Jacobi, Miller of Cambridge, and others, taking part in it. +After this he completed several works already begun, read a great deal +of German and foreign literature, and visited the Museum daily between +eleven and one o'clock. + +In the winters of 1854-5 Gauss complained of his declining health, and +on the morning of February 23, 1855, about five minutes past one +o'clock, he breathed his last. He was laid on a bed of laurels, and +buried by his friends. A granite pillar marks his resting-place at +Gottingen. + + + +II. WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER. + +WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER was born on October 24, 1804, at Wittenberg, where +his father, Michael Weber, was professor of theology. William was the +second of three brothers, all of whom were distinguished by an aptitude +for the study of science. After the dissolution of the University of +Wittenberg his father was transferred to Halle in 1815. William had +received his first lessons from his father, but was now sent to the +Orphan Asylum and Grammar School at Halle. After that he entered the +University, and devoted himself to natural philosophy. He distinguished +himself so much in his classes, and by original work, that after taking +his degree of Doctor and becoming a Privat-Docent he was appointed +Professor Extraordinary of natural philosophy at Halle. + +In 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was called to Gottingen as +professor of physics, although but twenty-seven years of age. His +lectures were interesting, instructive, and suggestive. Weber thought +that, in order to thoroughly understand physics and apply it to daily +life, mere lectures, though illustrated by experiments, were +insufficient, and he encouraged his students to experiment themselves, +free of charge, in the college laboratory. As a student of twenty years +he, with his brother, Ernest Henry Weber, Professor of Anatomy at +Leipsic, had written a book on the 'Wave Theory and Fluidity,' which +brought its authors a considerable reputation. Acoustics was a +favourite science of his, and he published numerous papers upon it in +Poggendorff's ANNALEN, Schweigger's JAHRBUCHER FUR CHEMIE UND PHYSIC, +and the musical journal CAECILIA. The 'mechanism of walking in mankind' +was another study, undertaken in conjunction with his younger brother, +Edward Weber. These important investigations were published between the +years 1825 and 1838. + +Displaced by the Hanoverian Government for his liberal opinions in +politics Weber travelled for a time, visiting England, among other +countries, and became professor of physics in Leipsic from 1843 to 1849, +when he was reinstalled at Gottingen. One of his most important works +was the ATLAS DES ERDMAGNETISMUS, a series of magnetic maps, and it was +chiefly through his efforts that magnetic observatories were instituted. +He studied magnetism with Gauss, and in 1864 published his +'Electrodynamic Proportional Measures' containing a system of absolute +measurements for electric currents, which forms the basis of those in +use. Weber died at Gottingen on June 23, 1891. + + + +III. SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE. + +WILLIAM Fothergill Cooke was born near Ealing on May 4, 1806, and was a +son of Dr. William Cooke, a doctor of medicine, and professor of anatomy +at the University of Durham. The boy was educated at a school in +Durham, and at the University of Edinburgh. In 1826 he joined the East +India Army, and held several staff appointments. While in the Madras +Native Infantry, he returned home on furlough, owing to ill-health, and +afterwards relinquished this connection. In 1833-4 he studied anatomy +and physiology in Paris, acquiring great skill at modelling dissections +in coloured wax. + +In the summer of 1835, while touring in Switzerland with his parents, he +visited Heidelberg, and was induced by Professor Tiedeman, director of +the Anatomical Institute, to return there and continue his wax +modelling. He lodged at 97, Stockstrasse, in the house of a brewer, +and modelled in a room nearly opposite. Some of his models have been +preserved in the Anatomical Museum at Heidelberg. In March 1836, +hearing accidentally from Mr. J. W. R. Hoppner, a son of Lord Byron's +friend, that the Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University, +Geheime Hofrath Moncke. had a model of Baron Schilling's telegraph, +Cooke went to see it on March 6, in the Professor's lecture room, an +upper storey of an old convent of Dominicans, where he also lived. +Struck by what he witnessed, he abandoned his medical studies, and +resolved to apply all his energies to the introduction of the telegraph. +Within three weeks he had made, partly at Heidelberg, and partly at +Frankfort, his first galvanometer, or needle telegraph. It consisted of +three magnetic needles surrounded by multiplying coils, and actuated by +three separate circuits of six wires. The movements of the needles +under the action of the currents produced twenty-six different signals +corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. + +'Whilst completing the model of my original plan,' he wrote to his +mother on April 5, 'others on entirely fresh systems suggested +themselves, and I have at length succeeded in combining the UTILE of +each, but the mechanism requires a more delicate hand than mine to +execute, or rather instruments which I do not possess. These I can +readily have made for me in London, and by the aid of a lathe I shall he +able to adapt the several parts, which I shall have made by different +mechanicians for secrecy's sake. Should I succeed, it may be the means +of putting some hundreds of pounds in my pocket. As it is a subject on +which I was profoundly ignorant, until my attention was casually +attracted to it the other day, I do not know what others may have done +in the same way; this can best be learned in London.' + +The 'fresh systems' referred to was his 'mechanical' telegraph, +consisting of two letter dials, working synchronously, and on which +particular letters of the message were indicated by means of an electro- +magnet and detent. Before the end of March he invented the clock-work +alarm, in which an electro-magnet attracted an armature of soft iron, +and thus withdrew a detent, allowing the works to strike the alarm. +This idea was suggested to him on March 17, 1836, while reading Mrs. +Mary Somerville's 'Connexion of the Physical Sciences,' in travelling +from Heidelberg to Frankfort. + +Cooke arrived in London on April 22, and wrote a pamphlet setting forth +his plans for the establishment of an electric telegraph; but it was +never published. According to his own account he also gave considerable +attention to the escapement principle, or step by step movement, +afterwards perfected by Wheatstone. While busy in preparing his +apparatus for exhibition, part of which was made by a clock-maker in +Clerkenwell, he consulted Faraday about the construction of electro- +magnets, The philosopher saw his apparatus and expressed his opinion +that the 'principle was perfectly correct,' and that the 'instrument +appears perfectly adapted to its intended uses.' Nevertheless he was not +very sanguine of making it a commercial success. 'The electro-magnetic +telegraph shall not ruin me,' he wrote to his mother, 'but will hardly +make my fortune.' He was desirous of taking a partner in the work, and +went to Liverpool in order to meet some gentleman likely to forward his +views, and endeavoured to get his instrument adopted on the incline of +the tunnel at Liverpool; but it gave sixty signals, and was deemed too +complicated by the directors. Soon after his return to London, by the +end of April, he had two simpler instruments in working order. All +these preparations had already cost him nearly four hundred pounds. + +On February 27, Cooke, being dissatisfied with an experiment on a mile +of wire, consulted Faraday and Dr. Roget as to the action of a current +on an electro-magnet in circuit with a long wire. Dr. Roget sent him to +Wheatstone, where to his dismay he learned that Wheatstone had been +employed for months on the construction of a telegraph for practical +purposes. The end of their conferences was that a partnership in the +undertaking was proposed by Cooke, and ultimately accepted by +Wheatstone. The latter had given Cooke fresh hopes of success when he +was worn and discouraged. 'In truth,' he wrote in a letter, after his +first interview with the Professor, 'I had given the telegraph up since +Thursday evening, and only sought proofs of my being right to do so ere +announcing it to you. This day's enquiries partly revives my hopes, but +I am far from sanguine. The scientific men know little or nothing +absolute on the subject: Wheatstone is the only man near the mark.' + +It would appear that the current, reduced in strength by its passage +through a long wire, had failed to excite his electro-magnet, and he was +ignorant of the reason. Wheatstone by his knowledge of Ohm's law and +the electro-magnet was probably able to enlighten him. It is clear that +Cooke had made considerable progress with his inventions before he met +Wheatstone; he possessed a needle telegraph like Wheatstone, an alarm, +and a chronometric dial telegraph, which at all events are a proof that +he himself was an inventor, and that he doubtless bore a part in the +production of the Cooke and Wheatstone apparatus. Contrary to a +statement of Wheatstone, it appears from a letter of Cooke dated March +4, 1837, that Wheatstone 'handsomely acknowledged the advantage' of +Cooke's apparatus had it worked;' his (Wheatstone's) are ingenious, but +not practicable.' But these conflicting accounts are reconciled by the +fact that Cooke's electro-magnetic telegraph would not work, and +Wheatstone told him so, because he knew the magnet was not strong enough +when the current had to traverse a long circuit. + +Wheatstone subsequently investigated the conditions necessary to obtain +electro-magnetic effects at a long distance. Had he studied the paper +of Professor Henry in SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL for January 1831, he would have +learned that in a long circuit the electro-magnet had to be wound with a +long and fine wire in order to be effective. + +As the Cooke and Wheatstone apparatus became perfected, Cooke was busy +with schemes for its introduction. Their joint patent is dated June 12, +1837, and before the end of the month Cooke was introduced to Mr. Robert +Stephenson, and by his address and energy got leave to try the invention +from Euston to Camden Town along the line of the London and Birmingham +Railway. Cooke suspended some thirteen miles of copper, in a shed at +the Euston terminus, and exhibited his needle and his chronometric +telegraph in action to the directors one morning. But the official +trial took place as we have already described in the life of Wheatstone. + +The telegraph was soon adopted on the Great Western Railway, and also on +the Blackwall Railway in 1841. Three years later it was tried on a +Government line from London to Portsmouth. In 1845, the Electric +Telegraph Company, the pioneer association of its kind, was started, and +Mr. Cooke became a director. Wheatstone and he obtained a considerable +sum for the use of their apparatus. In 1866, Her Majesty conferred the +honour of knighthood on the co-inventors; and in 1871, Cooke was granted +a Civil List pension of L100 a year. His latter years were spent in +seclusion, and he died at Farnham on June 25th, 1879. Outside of +telegraphic circles his name had become well-nigh forgotten. + + + +IV. ALEXANDER BAIN. + +Alexander Bain was born of humble parents in the little town of Thurso, +at the extreme north of Scotland, in the year 1811. At the age of +twelve he went to hear a penny lecture on science which, according to +his own account, set him thinking and influenced his whole future. +Learning the art of clockmaking, he went to Edinburgh, and subsequently +removed to London, where he obtained work in Clerkenwell, then famed for +its clocks and watches. His first patent is dated January 11th, 1841, +and is in the name of John Barwise, chronometer maker, and Alexander +Bain, mechanist, Wigmore Street. It describes his electric clock in +which there is an electro-magnetic pendulum, and the electric current is +employed to keep it going instead of springs or weights. He improved on +this idea in following patents, and also proposed to derive the motive +electricity from an 'earth battery,' by burying plates of zinc and +copper in the ground. Gauss and Steinheil had priority in this device +which, owing to 'polarisation' of the plates and to drought, is not +reliable. Long afterwards Mr. Jones of Chester succeeded in regulating +timepieces from a standard astronomical clock by an improvement on the +method of Bain. On December 21, 1841, Bain, in conjunction with Lieut. +Thomas Wright, R.N., of Percival Street, Clerkenwell, patented means of +applying electricity to control railway engines by turning off the +steam, marking time, giving signals, and printing intelligence at +different places. He also proposed to utilise 'natural bodies of water' +for a return wire, but the earlier experimenters had done so, +particularly Steinheil in 1838. The most important idea in the patent +is, perhaps, his plan for inverting the needle telegraph of Ampere, +Wheatstone and others, and instead of making the signals by the +movements of a pivoted magnetic needle under the influence of an +electrified coil, obtaining them by suspending a movable coil traversed +by the current, between the poles of a fixed magnet, as in the later +siphon recorder of Sir William Thomson. Bain also proposed to make the +coil record the message by printing it in type; and he developed the +idea in a subsequent patent. + +Next year, on December 31st, 1844, he projected a mode of measuring the +speed of ships by vanes revolving in the water and indicating their +speed on deck by means of the current. In the same specification he +described a way of sounding the sea by an electric circuit of wires, and +of giving an alarm when the temperature of a ship's hold reached a +certain degree. The last device is the well-known fire-alarm in which +the mercury of a thermometer completes an electric circuit, when it +rises to a particular point of the tube, and thus actuates an electric +bell or other alarm. + +On December 12, 1846, Bain, who was staying in Edinburgh at that time, +patented his greatest invention, the chemical telegraph, which bears his +name. He recognised that the Morse and other telegraph instruments in +use were comparatively slow in speed, owing to the mechanical inertia of +the parts; and he saw that if the signal currents were made to pass +through a band of travelling paper soaked in a solution which would +decompose under their action, and leave a legible mark, a very high +speed could be obtained. The chemical he employed to saturate the paper +was a solution of nitrate of ammonia and prussiate of potash, which left +a blue stain on being decomposed by the current from an iron contact or +stylus. The signals were the short and long, or 'dots' and 'dashes' of +the Morse code. The speed of marking was so great that hand signalling +could not keep up with it, and Bain devised a plan of automatic +signalling by means of a running band of paper on which the signals of +the message were represented by holes punched through it. Obviously if +this tape were passed between the contact of a signalling key the +current would merely flow when the perforations allowed the contacts of +the key to touch. This principle was afterwards applied by Wheatstone +in the construction of his automatic sender. + +The chemical telegraph was tried between Paris and Lille before a +committee of the Institute and the Legislative Assembly. The speed of +signalling attained was 282 words in fifty-two seconds, a marvellous +advance on the Morse electro-magnetic instrument, which only gave about +forty words a minute. In the hands of Edison the neglected method of +Bain was seen by Sir William Thomson in the Centennial Exhibition, +Philadelphia, recording at the rate of 1057 words in fifty-seven +seconds. In England the telegraph of Bain was used on the lines of the +old Electric Telegraph Company to a limited extent, and in America about +the year 1850 it was taken up by the energetic Mr. Henry O'Reilly, and +widely introduced. But it incurred the hostility of Morse, who obtained +an injunction against it on the slender ground that the running paper +and alphabet used were covered by his patent. By 1859, as Mr. Shaffner +tells us, there was only one line in America on which the Bain system +was in use, namely, that from Boston to Montreal. Since those days of +rivalry the apparatus has never become general, and it is not easy to +understand why, considering its very high speed, the chemical telegraph +has not become a greater favourite. + +In 1847 Bain devised an automatic method of playing on wind instruments +by moving a band of perforated paper which controlled the supply of air +to the pipes; and likewise proposed to play a number of keyed +instruments at a distance by means of the electric current. Both of +these plans are still in operation. + +These and other inventions in the space of six years are a striking +testimony to the fertility of Bain's imagination at this period. But +after this extraordinary outburst he seems to have relapsed into sloth +and the dissipation of his powers. We have been told, and indeed it is +plain that he received a considerable sum for one or other of his +inventions, probably the chemical telegraph. But while he could rise +from the ranks, and brave adversity by dint of ingenuity and labour, it +would seem that his sanguine temperament was ill-fitted for prosperity. +He went to America, and what with litigation, unfortunate investment, +and perhaps extravagance, the fortune he had made was rapidly +diminished. + +Whether his inventive genius was exhausted, or he became disheartened, +it would be difficult to say, but he never flourished again. The rise +in his condition may be inferred from the preamble to his patent for +electric telegraphs and clocks, dated May 29, 1852, wherein he describes +himself as 'Gentleman,' and living at Beevor Lodge, Hammersmith. After +an ephemeral appearance in this character he sank once more into +poverty, if not even wretchedness. Moved by his unhappy circumstances, +Sir William Thomson, the late Sir William Siemens, Mr. Latimer Clark and +others, obtained from Mr. Gladstone, in the early part of 1873, a +pension for him under the Civil List of L80 a year; but the beneficiary +lived in such obscurity that it was a considerable time before his +lodging could be discovered, and his better fortune take effect. The +Royal Society had previously made him a gift of L150. + +In his latter years, while he resided in Glasgow, his health failed, and +he was struck with paralysis in the legs. The massive forehead once +pregnant with the fire of genius, grew dull and slow of thought, while +the sturdy frame of iron hardihood became a tottering wreck. He was +removed to the Home for Incurables at Broomhill, Kirkintilloch, where he +died on January 2, 1877, and was interred in the Old Aisle Cemetery. He +was a widower, and had two children, but they were said to be abroad at +the time, the son in America and the daughter on the Continent. + +Several of Bain's earlier patents are taken out in two names, but this +was perhaps owing to his poverty compelling him to take a partner. If +these and other inventions were substantially his own, and we have no +reason to suppose that he received more help from others than is usual +with inventors, we must allow that Bain was a mechanical genius of the +first order --a born inventor. Considering the early date of his +achievements, and his lack of education or pecuniary resource, we +cannot but wonder at the strength, fecundity, and prescience of his +creative faculty. It has been said that he came before his time; but +had he been more fortunate in other respects, there is little,doubt that +he would have worked out and introduced all or nearly all his +inventions, and probably some others. His misfortunes and sorrows are +so typical of the 'disappointed inventor' that we would fain learn more +about his life; but beyond a few facts in a little pamphlet (published +by himself, we believe), there is little to be gathered; a veil of +silence has fallen alike upon his triumphs, his errors and his miseries. + + + +V. DR. WERNER SIEMENS. + +THE leading electrician of Germany is Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens, eldest +brother of the same distinguished family of which our own Sir William +Siemens was a member. Ernst, like his brother William, was born at +Lenthe, near Hanover, on December 13, 1816. He was educated at the +College of Lubeck in Maine, and entered the Prussian Artillery service +as a volunteer. He pursued his scientific studies at the Artillery and +Engineers' School in Berlin, and in 1838 obtained an officer's +commission. + +Physics and chemistry were his favourite studies; and his original +researches in electro-gilding resulted in a Prussian patent in 1841. +The following year he, in conjunction with his brother William, took out +another patent for a differential regulator. In 1844 he was appointed +to a post in the artillery workshops in Berlin, where he learned +telegraphy, and in 1845 patented a dial and printing telegraph, which is +still in use in Germany. + +In 1846, he was made a member of a commission organised in Berlin to +introduce electric telegraphs in place of the optical ones hitherto +employed in Prussia, and he succeeded in getting the commission to adopt +underground telegraph lines. For the insulation of the wires he +recommended gutta-percha, which was then becoming known as an insulator. +In the following year he constructed a machine for covering copper wire +with the melted gum by means of pressure; and this machine is +substantially the same as that now used for the purpose in cable +factories. + +In 1848, when the war broke out with Denmark, he was sent to Kiel where, +together with his brother-in-law, Professor C. Himly, he laid the first +submarine mines, fired by electricity and thus protected the town of +Kiel from the advance of the enemies' fleet. + +Of late years the German Government has laid a great network of +underground lines between the various towns and fortresses of the +empire; preferring them to overhead lines as being less liable to +interruption from mischief, accident, hostile soldiers, or stress of +weather. The first of such lines was, however, laid as long ago as +1848, by Werner Siemens, who, in the autumn of that year, deposited a +subterranean cable between Berlin and Frankfort-on-the-Main. Next year +a second cable was laid from the Capital to Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, +and Verviers. + +In 1847 the, subject of our memoir had, along with Mr. Halske, founded a +telegraph factory, and he now left the army to give himself up to +scientific work and the development of his business. This factory +prospered well, and is still the chief continental works of the kind. +The new departure made by Werner Siemens was fortunate for electrical +science; and from then till now a number of remarkable inventions have +proceeded from his laboratory. + +The following are the more notable advances made:--In October 1845, a +machine for the measurement of small intervals of time, and the speed of +electricity by means of electric sparks, and its application in 1875 for +measuring the speed of the electric current in overland lines. + +In January 1850, a paper on telegraph lines and apparatus, in which the +theory of the electro-static charge in insulated wires, as well as +methods and formula: for the localising of faults in underground wires +were first established. In 1851, the firm erected the first automatic +fire telegraphs in Berlin, and in the same year, Werner Siemens wrote a +treatise on the experience gained with the underground lines of the +Prussian telegraph system. The difficulty of communicating through long +underground lines led him to the invention of automatic translation, +which was afterwards improved upon by Steinheil, and, in 1852, he +furnished the Warsaw-Petersburg line with automatic fast-speed writers. +The messages were punched in a paper band by means of the well-known +Siemens' lever punching apparatus, and then automatically transmitted in +a clockwork instrument. + +In 1854 the discovery (contemporaneous with that of Frischen) of +simultaneous transmission of messages in opposite directions, and +multiplex transmission of messages by means of electro-magnetic +apparatus. The 'duplex' system which is now employed both on land lines +and submarine cables had been suggested however, before this by Dr. +Zetsche, Gintl, and others. + +In 1856 he invented the Siemens' magneto-electric dial instrument +giving alternate currents. From this apparatus originated the well- +known Siemens' armature, and from the receiver was developed the +Siemens' polarised relay, with which the working of submarine and other +lines could be effected with alternate currents; and in the same year, +during the laying of the Cagliari to Bona cable, he constructed and +first applied the dynamometer, which has become of such importance in +the operations of cable laying. + +In 1857, he investigated the electro-static induction and retardation of +currents in insulated wires, a phenomenon which he had observed in 1850, +and communicated an account of it to the French Academy of Sciences. + +'In these researches he developed mathematically Faraday's theory of +molecular induction, and thereby paved the way in great measure for its +general acceptance.' His ozone apparatus, his telegraph instrument +working with alternate currents, and his instrument for translating on +and automatically discharging submarine cables also belong to the year +1857. The latter instruments were applied to the Sardinia, Malta, and +Corfu cable. + +In 1859, he constructed an electric log; he discovered that a dielectric +is heated by induction; he introduced the well known Siemens' mercury +unit, and many improvements in the manufacture of resistance coils. He +also investigated the law of change of resistance in wires by heating; +and published several formulae and methods for testing resistances and +determining 'faults' by measuring resistances. These methods were +adopted by the electricians of the Government service in Prussia, and by +Messrs. Siemens Brothers in London, during the manufacture of the Malta +to Alexandria cable, which, was, we believe, the first long cable +subjected to a system of continuous tests. + +'In 1861, he showed that the electrical resistance of molten alloys is +equal to the sum of the resistances of the separate metals, and that +latent heat increases the specific resistance of metals in a greater +degree than free heat.' In 1864 he made researches on the heating of the +sides of a Leyden jar by the electrical discharge. In 1866 he published +the general theory of dynamo-electric machines, and the principle of +accumulating the magnetic effect, a principle which, however, had been +contemporaneously discovered by Mr. S. A. Varley, and described in a +patent some years before by Mr. Soren Hjorth, a Danish inventor. +Hjorth's patent is to be found in the British Patent Office Library, and +until lately it was thought that he was the first and true inventor of +the 'dynamo' proper, but we understand there is a prior inventor still, +though we have not seen the evidence in support of the statement. + +The reversibility of the dynamo was enunciated by Werner Siemens in +1867; but it was not experimentally demonstrated on any practical scale +until 1870, when M. Hippolite Fontaine succeeded in pumping water at the +Vienna international exhibition by the aid of two dynamos connected in +circuit; one, the generator, deriving motion from a hydraulic engine, +and in turn setting in motion the receiving dynamo which worked the +pump. Professor Clerk Maxwell thought this discovery the greatest of +the century; and the remark has been repeated more than once. But it is +a remark which derives its chief importance from the man who made it, +and its credentials from the paradoxical surprise it causes. The +discovery in question is certainly fraught with very great consequences +to the mechanical world; but in itself it is no discovery of importance, +and naturally follows from Faraday's far greater and more original +discovery of magneto-electric generation. + +In 1874, Dr. Siemens published a treatise on the laying and testing of +submarine cables. In 1875, 1876 and 1877, he investigated the action of +light on crystalline selenium, and in 1878 he studied the action of the +telephone. + +The recent work of Dr. Siemens has been to improve the pneumatic +railway, railway signalling, electric lamps, dynamos, electro-plating +and electric railways. The electric railway at Berlin in 1880, and +Paris in 1881, was the beginning of electric locomotion, a subject of +great importance and destined in all probability, to very wide extension +in the immediate future. Dr. Siemens has received many honours from +learned societies at home and abroad; and a title equivalent to +knighthood from the German Government. + + + +VI. LATlMER CLARK. + +MR. Clark was born at Great Marlow in 1822, and probably acquired his +scientific bent while engaged at a manufacturing chemist's business in +Dublin. On the outbreak of the railway mania in 1845 he took to +surveying, and through his brother, Mr. Edwin Clark, became assistant +engineer to the late Robert Stephenson on the Britannia Bridge. While +thus employed, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Ricardo, founder of the +Electric Telegraph Company, and joined that Company as an engineer in +1850. He rose to be chief engineer in 1854, and held the post till +1861, when he entered into a partnership with Mr. Charles T. Bright. +Prior to this, he had made several original researches; in 1853, he +found that the retardation of current on insulated wires was independent +of the strength of current, and his experiments formed the subject of a +Friday evening lecture by Faraday at the Royal Institution--a sufficient +mark of their importance. + +In 1854 he introduced the pneumatic dispatch into London, and, in 1856, +he patented his well-known double-cup insulator. In 1858, he and Mr. +Bright produced the material known as 'Clark's Compound,' which is so +valuable for protecting submarine cables from rusting in the sea-water. +In 1859, Mr. Clark was appointed engineer to the Atlantic Telegraph +Company which tried to lay an Anglo-American cable in 1865. in +partnership with Sir C. T. Bright, who had taken part in the first +Atlantic cable expedition, Mr. Clark laid a cable for the Indian +Government in the Red Sea, in order to establish a telegraph to India. +In 1886, the partnership ceased; but, in 1869, Mr Clark went out to the +Persian Gulf to lay a second cable there. Here he was nearly lost in +the shipwreck of the Carnatic on the Island of Shadwan in the Red Sea. + +Subsequently Mr. Clark became the head of a firm of consulting +electricians, well known under the title of Clark, Forde and Company, +and latterly including the late Mr. C. Hockin and Mr. Herbert Taylor. + +The Mediterranean cable to India, the East Indian Archipelago cable to +Australia, the Brazilian Atlantic cables were all laid under the +supervision of this firm. Mr. Clark is now in partnership with Mr. +Stanfield, and is the joint-inventor of Clark and Stanfield's circular +floating dock. He is also head of the well-known firm of electrical +manufacturers, Messrs. Latimer Clark, Muirhead and Co., of Regency +Street, Westminster. + +The foregoing sketch is but an imperfect outline of a very successful +life. `But enough has been given to show that we have here an engineer +of various and even brilliant gifts. Mr. Clark has applied himself in +divers directions, and never applied himself in vain. There is always +some practical result to show which will be useful to others. In +technical literature he published a description of the Conway and +Britannia Tubular Bridges as long ago as 1849. There is a valuable +communication of his in the Board of Trade Blue Rook on Submarine +Cables. In 1868, he issued a useful work on ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENTS, +and in 1871 joined with Mr. Robert Sabine in producing the well-known +ELECTRICAL TABLES AND FORMULAE, a work which was for a long time the +electrician's VADE-MECUM. In 1873, he communicated a lengthy paper on +the NEW STANDARD OF ELECTROMOTIVE POWER now known as CLARK'S STANDARD +CELL; and quite recently he published a treatise on the USE OF THE +TRANSIT INSTRUMENT. + +Mr. Clark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, as well as a +member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Royal Astronomical +Society. the Physical Society, etc., and was elected fourth President +of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians, now the +Institution of Electrical Engineers. + +He is a great lover of books and gardening--two antithetical hobbies- +-which are charming in themselves, and healthily counteractive. The +rich and splendid library of electrical works which he is forming, has +been munificently presented to the Institution of Electrical Engineers. + + + +VII. COUNT DU MONCEL. + +Theodose-Achille-Louis, Comte du Moncel, was born at Paris on March 6, +1821. His father was a peer of France, one of the old nobility, and a +General of Engineers. He possessed a model farm near Cherbourg, and had +set his heart on training his son to carry on this pet project; but +young Du Moncel, under the combined influence of a desire for travel, a +love of archaeology, and a rare talent for drawing, went off to Greece, +and filled his portfolio with views of the Parthenon and many other +pictures of that classic region. His father avenged himself by +declining to send him any money; but the artist sold his sketches and +relied solely on his pencil. On returning to Paris he supported +himself by his art, but at the same time gratified his taste for science +in a discursive manner. A beautiful and accomplished lady of the Court, +Mademoiselle Camille Clementine Adelaide Bachasson de Montalivet, +belonging to a noble and distinguished family, had plighted her troth +with him, and, as we have been told, descended one day from her +carriage, and wedded the man of her heart, in the humble room of a flat +not far from the Grand Opera House. They were a devoted pair, and +Madame du Moncel played the double part of a faithful help-meet, and +inspiring genius. Heart and soul she encouraged her husband to +distinguish himself by his talents and energy, and even assisted him in +his labours. + +About 1852 he began to occupy himself almost exclusively with electrical +science. His most conspicuous discovery is that pressure diminishes the +resistance of contact between two conductors, a fact which Clerac in +1866 utilised in the construction of a variable resistance from carbon, +such as plumbage, by compressing it with an adjustable screw. It is +also the foundation of the carbon transmitter of Edison, and the more +delicate microphone of Professor Hughes. But Du Moncel is best known as +an author and journalist. His 'Expose des applications de +l'electricite' published in 1856 ET SEQ., and his 'Traite pratique de +Telegraphie,' not to mention his later books on recent marvels, such as +the telephone, microphone, phonograph, and electric light, are standard +works of reference. In the compilation of these his admirable wife +assisted him as a literary amanuensis, for she had acquired a +considerable knowledge of electricity. + +In 1866 he was created an officer of the Legion of Honour, and he became +a member of numerous learned societies. For some time he was an adviser +of the French telegraph administration, but resigned the post in 1873. +The following year he was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences, +Paris. In 1879, he became editor of a new electrical journal +established at Paris under the title of 'La Lumiere Electrique,' and +held the position until his death, which happened at Paris after a few +days' illness on February 16, 1884. His devoted wife was recovering +from a long illness which had caused her affectionate husband much +anxiety, and probably affected his health. She did not long survive +him, but died on February 4, 1887, at Mentone in her fifty-fifth year. +Count du Moncel was an indefatigable worker, who, instead of abandoning +himself to idleness and pleasure like many of his order, believed it his +duty to be active and useful in his own day, as his ancestors had been +in the past. + + + +VIII. ELISHA GRAY. + +THIS distinguished American electrician was born at Barnesville in +Belmont county, Ohio, on August 2, 1835. His family were Quakers, and +in early life he was apprenticed to a carpenter, but showed a taste for +chemistry, and at the age of twenty-one he went to Oberlin College, +where he studied for five years. At the age of thirty he turned his +attention to electricity, and invented a relay which adapted itself to +the varying insulation of the telegraph line. He was then led to devise +several forms of automatic repeaters, but they are not much employed. +In 1870-2, he brought out a needle annunciator for hotels, and another +for elevators, which had a large sale. His 'Private Telegraph Line +Printer' was also a success. From 1873-5 he was engaged in perfecting +his 'Electro-harmonic telegraph.' His speaking telegraph was likewise +the outcome of these researches. The 'Telautograph,' or telegraph which +writes the messages as a fac-simile of the sender's penmanship by an +ingenious application of intermittent currents, is the latest of his +more important works. Mr. Gray is a member of the firm of Messrs. Gray +and Barton, and electrician to the Western Electric Manufacturing +Company of Chicago. His home is at Highland Park near that city. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Heroes of the Telegraph by J. Munro + diff --git a/old/htgrf10.zip b/old/htgrf10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..431cede --- /dev/null +++ b/old/htgrf10.zip |