[ ^32 ] 



In my firft experiments the impatience of friends, who were 

 pi'efent, was fometimes fo great as to make it very difficult to 

 adhere to previous arrangements ; but a very little pradlice 

 ([mean the practice of five or fix days) reduced the routine of 

 communication to as much facility as could be defired, fo that 

 a word (or a fentence if contained in the vocabulary) could be 

 fent in twenty feconds. 



Any perfon who has the flightef^ tafte for fcience or litera- 

 ture muft be ftruck when he fees inflantaneous interpretation of 

 fignals, which are made at the diftance of fifteen or twenty 

 miles, and when he perceives the power which is obtained of 

 tranfmitting thought with fuch aftonifhing rapidity. 



I SHALL not enter into a detail of the fignals which are ne- 

 ceflary for intermediate ftations ; it would take up fome time 

 to explain them, and they will readily occur from what has 

 been faid already. 



What I have hitherto dcfcribed relates to a large and per- 

 manent eftablifhment f, for the management of which one man 

 is required at each pointer, one at the telefcope and another 

 at the vocabulary ; but for ordinary purpofes a fingle pointer 



with 



f The Houfe belonging to this eftablifliment might be made tenable againft a mob 

 or muflcetry at a fmall expenfe by port-flankers of elm or afti, adapted occaConally 

 to the windows. See Plate I. Fig. 4. 



