GAUSS AND THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 397 



Inclosed herewith I send yon a translation of parts of two 

 letters written by Ganss in regard to the telegraph ; they will 

 explain themselves. I also send a copy of the original, for pos- 

 sibly the translation is not wholly correct. The last letter writ- 

 ten by Prof. Gauss was to Sir David Brewster, in relation to the 

 early discovery of the electric telegraph. I have tried to obtain 

 either the original or a copy of this letter, but thus far I have not 

 succeeded. I regret this all the more, for the reason that I be- 

 lieve it would be of interest to the public if it were published. 



It may be of interest to you to know that one of Prof. 

 Gauss's children is still living. He is my father, and he resides 

 in the country a short distance from the town of Columbia, Mo, 

 He is now in his seventy-eighth year. His name is Eugene. An- 

 other son, William, came to America about 183G, and died in St. 

 Louis, Mo., in 1879. Gauss's youngest child, a daughter named 

 Theresa, resided with her father in Gottingen at the time of his 

 death. She herself died about twenty years ago in Europe. These 

 were children by his second marriage. Also, by his first mar- 

 riage. Gauss had two sons and one daughter. The oldest, Joseph, 

 became " Oberbaurath " of Hanover. He died in the city of Hano- 

 ver in 1873. The daughter, Minna, became the wife of Prof. 

 Ewald, the author of a " History of the People of Israel " and a 

 number of commentaries on different books of the Old Testament. 

 As a Hebraist he ranked as high as, I believe, if not higher than. 

 Gauss as a mathematician. The youngest of the children by the 

 first marriage, Louis, died in infancy. Ewald's wife died in 1840. 

 None of Gauss's descendants have exhibited remarkable talent 

 in any way. 



I trust I have not wearied you with these family matters. 

 Very truly, etc., R Gauss. 



P. S. — By the way, Prof. Weber is still living, and to-day is 

 his birthday. He is eighty-four years old. 



At a meeting of the Electro-Technic Association held in Ber- 

 lin in 1883, Prof. W. Forster, director of the Berlin Observatory, 

 read the following extracts from letters written by Prof. C. F. 

 Gauss, of Gottingen, in relation to the early invention of the elec- 

 tric telegraph : 



"I don't remember," writes Gauss to Olbers, on the 20th of 

 November of the year 1833, '" my having made any previous men- 

 tion to you of an astonishing piece of mechanism that we have 

 devised. It consists of a galvanic circuit conducted through 

 wires stretched through the air over the houses up to the steeple 

 of St. John and down again, and connecting the observatory with 

 the physical laboratory, which is under the direction of Weber. 

 The entire length of wire may be computed at about eight thou- 



