41G MOSES GERRISH FARMER. 



Framingham, Massachusetts. He had already invented an electro- 

 magnetic engine and an electric locomotive, and had given numerous 

 lectures on electrical subjects in the towns and cities about. It was at 

 this time he devised the fire alarm system which was soon adopted by 

 the city of Boston, he superintending its construction. This work has 

 been ranked as the beginning of electrical engineering in the world. 

 The automatic signalling apparatus, the control of powerful mechanical 

 apparatus at a distance, the closed electrical circuits to be worked by 

 interruptions, the adjustment of such circuits to a properly constructed 

 battery, the devising of magneto-electric machines for producing 

 powerful currents and driving such machines by water power, the 

 protection of the conductors by placing them in pipes, the protection 

 of the station itself from lightning by special ingenious apparatus, with 

 many more things essential for the proper working and efficiency of 

 the system, were devised by him, — for there were no such devices in 

 existence and there was no exj)erience. He was at work in an alto- 

 gether new field, and his work was so well done that his system was 

 adopted presently by all the cities in the country. 



Mr. Farmer's 'work at Framingham required much Sabbath atten- 

 tion, and as he had conscientious scruples against such work he aban- 

 doned the position and moved to Salem in 1848. Here he devised 

 several improvements in telegraphic apparatus, and became superin- 

 tendent of the telegraphic line from Boston to Burlington, Vermont. 

 Some of his inventions made within the next ten years have since been 

 indispensable in doing telegraphic work. What is known as the auto- 

 matic repeater is one with which he had succeeded before 1855 in 

 sending four messages simultaneously over one wire, — what has since 

 been called the quadruplex system. He invented too the first auto- 

 matic printing telegraph, now known as the ticker. 



In 1855 he succeeded in electrically depositing aluminum, and 

 constructed for the Dudley Astronomical Observatory at Albany a 

 chronograph and an electrical clock. 



In 1856 he made an electric gyroscope so as to run continuously 

 at uniform speed, and he read in that year a paper on Multiplex 

 Telegraphy before the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



About this time he began investigations in the problem of electric 

 lighting and advanced so far as to have his parlor in Salem lighted by 

 an incandescent electric lamp in 1859. The supply of electricity was 

 furnished by a galvanic battery, and he satisfied himself that with such 

 a source of electricity electric lighting was not feasible. 



