Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 401 



THE FIRST IDEA OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



Whenever it happens to be in my power, I feel a desire to render 

 to Caesar what belongs to Caesar ; on which account I wish the 

 learned world to know that my late excellent friend Dr. Odier was 

 the first who had the idea of the Electric Telegraph. Here is what 

 he wrote seventy-seven years ago, namely in the year 1773, to 

 Mdlle B . . . 



" I shall amuse you, perhaps, when I tell you that I have some 

 experiments in my head for obtaining the power of enabling the 

 English, French, or other inhabitants of Europe to enter into con- 

 versation with the Emperor of Mogul or of China, so that without 

 any trouble they shall be able to communicate whatever they may 

 wish, at the distance of four or five thousand leagues in less than 

 half an hour ! Will this satisfy you as to glory ? Nothing, how- 

 ever, is more real. Whatever turn these experiments may take, they 

 must certainly lead to some great discovery ; but I have not the 

 courage to make them this winter. That which gave me the idea, 

 was a word dropt accidentally the other day at the table of Sir John 

 Pringle, where I had the pleasure of dining with Franklin, Priestley, 

 and other men of great genius." 



At that time Odier was much occupied upon the study of elec- 



tricity. Some days before, he had thus written to Mdlle B 



" Is it not astonishing that the movement of a morsel of straw 

 attracted by a piece of amber should have given Franklin the sub- 

 lime idea of the lightning-conductor? Franklin is the first to have 

 found the secret of imprisoning the electric fluid in a bottle." 



Professor Maunoir, Geneva. 

 From the Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve for February 1850. 



ACTION OF NASCENT CHLORINE ON LACTIC ACID. 

 BY M. STAEDELER. 



When a mixture of lactic acid or a lactate, common salt, peroxide 

 of manganese, and sulphuric acid is subjected to distillation, a 

 liquid is obtained, which, when mixed with potash, deposits oleagi- 

 nous drops possessing the odour of chloroform. 



If the quantity of chlorine is insufficient to act upon the lactic 

 acid, aldehyde is chiefly obtained. This happens on distilling a 

 mixture of one part of lactate of iron, four parts of peroxide of man- 

 ganese and common salt, and four parts of sulphuric acid diluted 

 with an equal weight of water. 



When, however, the proportions employed are one part of lactate 

 of iron, ten parts of peroxide of manganese and common salt, and 

 ten of sulphuric acid, aldehyde is obtained only at the commence- 

 ment of the reaction. If the products subsequently obtained by 

 distillation be rectified over chloride of calcium, a colourless liquid 

 separates on standing, which resembles chloral. In fact chloral may 

 be separated from it by simple distillation ; the liquid which comes 

 over forms, with a small quantity of water, crystals of hydrated 

 chloral ; its solution in water furnishes chloroform by the action of 

 potash. — Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim., Novembre 1849. 



