398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sand feet. Both ends of tlie wire are connected with a multipli- 

 cator, the one at my end consisting of one hundred and seventy, 

 that in Weber's laboratory of fifty coils of wire, each wound 

 around a one-pound magnet suspended according to a method 

 which I have devised. By a simple contrivance — which I have 

 named a commutator — I can reverse the current instantaneously. 

 Carefully operating my voltaic pile, I can cause so violent a mo- 

 tion of the needle in the laboratory to take place that it strikes a 

 bell, the sound of which is audible in the adjoining room. This 

 serves merely as an amusement. Our aim is to display the move- 

 ments with the utmost accuracy. We have already made use of 

 this apparatus for telegraphic experiments, which have resulted 

 successfully in the transmission of entire words and small 

 phrases. This method of telegraphing has the advantage of be- 

 ing quite independent of either daytime or weather ; the one who 

 gives the signal and the one who receives it remain in their 

 rooms, with, if they desire it, the shutters drawn. The employ- 

 ment of sufficiently stout wires, I feel convinced, would enable us 

 to telegraph with but a single tap from Gottingen to Hanover, or 

 from Hanover to Bremen." 



The following remarks occur in a letter written by Gauss to 

 H. C. Shumacher, dated August 6, 1835 : " In more propitious cir- 

 cumstances than mine, important applications of this method 

 could, no doubt, be made, enuring to the advantage of society and 

 exciting the wonder of the multitude. With an annual budget of 

 one hundred and fifty thalers for observatory and magnetic labo- 

 ratory together (I make this statement to you in strictest con- 

 fidence) no grand experiments can be made. Could thousands of 

 dollars be expended upon it, I believe electro-magnetic telegraphy 

 could be brought to a state of perfection, and made to assume 

 such proportions as almost to startle the imagination. The Em- 

 peror of Russia could transmit his orders without intermediate 

 stations, in a minute, from Petersburg to Odessa, even perad- 

 venture to Kiakhta, if a copper wire of sufficient strength were 

 conducted safely across and attached at both ends to powerful 

 batteries, and with well-trained managers at both stations. I 

 deem it not impossible to design an apparatus that would render 

 a dispatch almost as mechanically as a chime of bells plays a tune 

 that has been arranged for it. One hundred millions' worth of 

 copper wire would amply suffice for a continuous chain to reach 

 the antipodes ; for half the distance, a quarter as much, and so 

 on, in proportion to the square of the distance." 



At the same meeting the following dispatch was sent to Prof. 

 William Weber, at Gottingen : " The Electro-Technic Association 

 celebrates to-day the year 1883, as the fiftieth anniversary of the 

 first successful operation of the electric telegraph, and salutes you 



