HENRY AND THE TELEGRAPH. 359 



The first column iu the above tabular view, represents the scheme proposed by Bacon, 

 and. designated by him "A Bi-literal Alphabet;" a scheme — as he points out, "prac- 

 ticable in all things that are capable of two ditfereucos." The advantage of represent- 

 ing every letter by live tokens, is that it dispenses with the necessity of spacing the 

 letters from each other. 



The second column represents an alphabet shown and described in Rees' "Cyclopai- 

 dia" as already referred to. In this alphabet the lirst nine letters follow exactly th* 

 notation of Bacon. After the interpolated letter j, (which takes the symbol for k, ) the 

 remainder of the alphabet from K to v inclusive, follows regularly the notation of 

 Bacon — shifted two letters downward. The only symbols differing from Bacon's, are 

 those for x, Y, and z. 



The ihird column gives the alphabet of Swaim .above mentioned. The author has 

 not been successful in arranging for his letters the simplest combinations of taps and 

 scratches which might have been selected; having given to N, R, T, and w, five sig- 

 nals, and to X, six ; while four of his signs are sufficient to represent 30 different char- 

 acters. Moreover by adopting a numeral system of designation, he has been daiven 

 to the awkward and entirely unnecessary expedient of introducing spaces into letters 

 in seventeen cases, or in two-thirds of the alphabet ; that is in all letters following the 

 ninth letter — i. 



The fourth column gives the alphabet of Schilling, as represented in Vail's "Electro- 

 Magnetic Telegraph : " ([)age 15(5. ) The date of this is uncertain ; involving as it does 

 the question when Schilliug first employed a single circuit and a single galvanometer 

 in his telegraphic arrangement. Whether he or Gauss and Weber first devised this 

 very important simplification is equally undetermined ; though the j^resumption is iu 

 favor of Schilling having been the first to introduce the bi-signal alphabet into teleg- 

 i-aphy. With a judicious distribution of the simiilest signs to the most frequent let- 

 ters, the average number of elementary signals need not exceed two and a half for 

 every letter used, (or just one-half the number required by Bacon's alphabet,) in any 

 lengthy communication. Steinheil, who was very imperfectly acquainted with Schil- 

 ling's labors, appears to regard his system as imitated from that o( Gauss and Weber.* 



The fifth column gives the alphabet of Gauss and Weber, as represented in TurnbulPs 

 "Electro-Magnetic Telegraph." t In this ali>habet c and K have the same symbol; 

 as have also f and v. 



The sixth column gives the alphabet of Steinheil as represented in Dub's Anwetidung 

 des Elelctromar/netmnus : Berlin, 1863 : (2d ed. 1873, sec. v, page 343 :) in Vail's Treatise; 

 (page 182:) and in TnrnbnU's Treatise; (1853, page 97.) In this alphabet c and K 

 have the same character; i and j have the same; and u and V have the same ; the 

 letters Q, x, and y, being dispensed with. Steinheil remarks of its arrangement, 

 "The alphabet I have chosen represents the letters that occur the oftenest in German, 

 by the simplest signs " ; a plan also adopted by Schilling and by Gauss. 



The seventh column gives the original alphabet of Morse, as devised by him (or by his 

 assistant — Mr. Vail) in 1838; and for the first time described in his application for a 

 patent dated April 7, 1838. This is accordingly the alphabet presented in Morse's first 

 patent, dated June 20, 1840. In this, he has given the same symbol to G and j ; the same 

 to I and Y ; and the same to s and z. It must be borne in mind that down to the year 

 1838, Professor Morse had conceived only the naval system of signals by means of 

 numbered words, and the method of recording such numbers by the alternating or 

 continuous zig-zag mark, equivalent to the right and left deflections of Steinheil's 

 register ; j: and that not till some time in January of that year (1838), did he make the 

 great advance of substituting the up and down movement of the armature recorder, 

 for its transverse motion. He then for the first time made his telegraphic commuui- 



* Sturgeon's Anuals of Electricity, etc. vol. iii, pp. 448, 450. 



t Second edition, 1853, ]). (iO. 



[New York Journal of Commerce, of September 7, 1637, and of January 29, 1833. 



