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TELEGRAPH, ELECTRIC. 



TELEGRAPH, ELECTRIC. 



ami Magnetism, their Generation and Applications' (1859). This 

 volume contains an introduction of xciii. pages, and an abstract of patents 

 extending to 728 pages, exclusive of a copious index. A single speci- 

 men of this index will show the extent of patent influence that has 

 been exerted down to the year 1857. For example : under ' Tele- 

 graphs ' (Electric), we have for acoustic telegraphs, 14 patents ; copying 

 telegraphs, 8 ; dial telegraphs, 68 ; embossing, 1 ; gold leaf, 2 ; mag- 

 neto-electric, 23 ; marking, 33 ; needle, 39 ; pointer, 32 ; portable, 7 ; 

 printing, 44 ; and recording telegraphs, 5 patents ; while the compo- 

 nent parts of electric telegraphs are the subjects of separate patents 

 under distinct heads, such as alarums, telegraphic, 76 patents ; insula- 

 tors, 42 patents ; galvanic batteries, nearly three columns of names. 



It is not, however, too much to say, that amidst this formidable 

 list of patentees in our own country, without referring to claimants in 

 Europe and America, there are but a very few names perhaps only 

 one name that posterity will care to remember in connection with 

 the practical working of the electric telegraph. Although the principal 

 facts necessary to the construction of an electric telegraph had been 

 known, as we have seen, ever since 1821, yet it was not until the gene- 

 ral establishment of railways that telegraphic wires could be safely 

 carried to any great distance. Moreover, the importance of the inven- 

 tion was by no means understood. The government was satisfied with 

 the working of the semaphore ; railway directors looked upon the elec- 

 tric telegraph as a new-fangled invention, and the public was not yet 

 alive to its innumerable advantages. One fact, however, must be 

 insisted on, namely, that to this country belongs the honour of this 

 great invention ; that in the year 1837 a needle telegraph had been 

 invented, so complete, and at the same time so simple in its operation, 

 that it could be worked by any one who knew how to read ; that in 

 June of that year the patent for this telegraph had been sealed, and, a 

 month later, the wires were laid down between the Euston Square and 

 Camden Town Stations of the North- Western Railway, a distance of a 

 mile and a quarter, and that on the 25th of July messages were actu- 

 ally sent between these two stations, Professor Wheatstone being in 

 the Euston Square Station, and Mr. Cooke in that at Camden Town, 

 the witnesses being the engineers, Messrs. Fox and Stephenson. Now, 

 it is quite true that M. Arago claimed, before the French Academy of 

 Sciences, for M. Steinheil the precedence in this matter, inasmuch as 

 he had his telegraph in operation on the 19th of July, 1837 ; but it 

 must be remembered that Wheatstone's patent was taken out in the 

 June of that year, and was based on numerous previous successful 

 experiment* ; whereas Steinheil published no description of his instru- 

 ment until August, 1838, and it is admitted that in the interval he 

 had altered and amended his instalment, and soon afterwards aban- 

 doned it for a modification of one by Morse. The claim of the last- 

 named gentleman we have already disposed of. In September, 1837, 

 he exhibited an imperfect instrument, although he afterwards suc- 

 ceeded in producing one of first-rate excellence, which is still largely 

 used in the United States of North America. 



But to return to Cooke and Wheatstone's telegraph : it received 

 notice to quit the London and Birmingham line, but Mr. Brunei gave 

 the patentees permission in 1839 to lay it down on the Great Western 

 Railway. This was first done as far as West Drayton (13 miles), and 

 it was afterwards extended to Slough (18 miles), the wires in both 

 these preliminary trials being inclosed in iron tubes hud on the ground. 

 On proposing to extend this line to Bristol, much opposition was 

 offered by the directors, and the telegraph again had notice to quit. 

 But on the proposal of Mr. Cooke to retain the line of wires at his own 

 expense, he was permitted to do so, on condition of transmitting the 

 railway signals free of charge, and of extending the line to Slough. In 

 return for this favour, he was allowed to transmit messages for the 

 public, which was accordingly done, one shilling being charged for a 

 message ; but the public did not avail themselves much of the new 

 instrument, and its value was scarcely appreciated until the 3rd of 

 January, 1845, when it was used to convey a message to the London 

 police, directing them to arrest Tawell on a charge of murder, the 

 message flashing past the criminal while he was travelling express to 

 escape the consequences of his crime. By the end of 1845 upwards of 

 600 miles of telegraph were in operation in this country. In 1846 the 

 Electric Telegraph Company commenced their operations with a con- 

 siderable capital, a large portion of which was expended in the purchase 

 of Wheatstone and Cooke's patents, and the system which they had 

 introduced became rapidly extended. In due time other telegraph 

 companies were competing with the original company, the system 

 spread over Europe, and soon no railway was deemed complete without 

 its telegraphic wires. In the United States of America the telegraphic 

 system is far more complete and extensive than in the Old World ; 

 but the telegraph wires are for the most part independent of the rail- 

 ways, and hence, it is said, arises the larger number of railway acci- 

 dents in that country. But the telegraphic system could not be 

 regarded as complete while nations separated from each other by seas 

 and oceans remained unconnected by the electric wire. So long back 

 as 1840, Mr. Wheatstone stated to a parliamentary committee his 

 conviction of the practicability of uniting Dover to Calais by means of 

 a telegraphic wire, and two years later he had made arrangements for a 

 line across Portsmouth Harlxmr, although circumstances over which 

 he had no control prevented its being carried out. About this time 

 the introduction of gutta. percha offered itself as an excellent insu- 



ABTS AXD SCL DIV. VOL. VIII. 



lating material for the wire, and its first application was made in 1847, 

 by Lieut. Siemens, of the Prussian artillery, for a line across the Rhine 

 at Cologne. The first submarine wire was laid down in August, 1850, 

 by the " Submarine Telegraph Company," between Dover and Cape 

 Grisnez, near Calais. It was a copper wire inclosed in gutta percha. 

 About 27 miles of it were conveyed on board the Goliath steam-tug, 

 and wound round a large iron drum to facilitate the paying out. The 

 end of the wire attached to the land was conveyed to the South-Eastern 

 Railway Terminus, and the vessel started from Dover, paying out thfi 

 wire, and attaching pieces of lead to it at intervals to assist it in 

 sinking. Electric communication was kept up hourly. At length the 

 vessel came to an anchor oft' Cape Grisnez, and the end of the wire was 

 sent ashore in a boat. Several messages were passed between the two 

 shores during the day ; but on attempting to resume the correspond- 

 ence next morning, no answer could be obtained. It was ascertained 

 that the wire had snapped asunder ; but the experiment proved the 

 possibility of connecting England with the Continent by means of a 

 submarine electric cable. In the following year a stronger cable was 

 laid successfully, and has continued to work down to the present time, 

 notwithstanding occasional injuries from the anchors of ships and boats. 

 In 1851 and 1853 lines were laid between England and Ireland and 

 England and Belgium. In 1853 a line was laid from Orfordness to 

 Schevening in Holland ; in fact four separate cables were laid, each 

 containing one conducting wire, so that the injury to one line might 

 not interfere with the working of the others. In the same year a line 

 was laid across the Solent, from Hurst Castle to Yarmouth, in the Isle 

 of Wight. The first line of considerable length, however, was that laid 

 in 1855 between Balaklava and Varna, during the Crimean war. This 

 line was 310 miles in length, and consisted of a copper wire covered with 

 gutta percha, except at the shore ends, which were protected by iron wire. 

 This line was laid by Messrs. Newall, and it remained in good order for 

 some months, until the end of the war, when it was broken. This tem- 

 porary success of the Black Sea Telegraph led to the formation of the 

 Atlantic Telegraph Company. The attempt made by this company to lay 

 a line to America in 1 857 failed from the breaking of the cable after about 

 335 miles had been payed out. Another attempt in 1858 was apparently 

 successful, and messages were exchanged during three weeks between 

 Valencia, in Ireland , and Newfoundland ; but the signals became variable 

 and feeble, and at length ceased altogether. And thus was lost 3000 

 miles of cable, and 375.000/. sterling, for the value of the cable can 

 scarcely exceed the expense of lifting it, and therefore its recovery will 

 not probably be attempted. It is now proposed to alter the route for 

 this line, and to carry a cable by way of Greenland to America. In 

 1854 the Mediterranean Telegraph Company laid down wires between 

 Spezzia and Corsica, and between Bonifacio and Sardinia, and from 

 thence in 1855 to Algeria. This last cable seems to have failed. In 

 1857 the British government agreed to assist the company in the con- 

 struction of a line from Cagliari to Malta, and thence to Corfu. This 

 line has been unfortunate. Another line from Portland to the Channel 

 Islands has met with several accidents, and the experience with it, as 

 well as with the Red Sea and India telegraph cable, show the wisdom 

 of the Report made by the Board of Trade, that our knowledge in 1859 

 was not such as to justify the submerging of another deep sea cable, 

 without further experiments being made ; and they recommended the 

 appointment of a committee to investigate the subject. A committee 

 was accordingly appointed, and from the connection with it of such 

 men as Professor Wheatstone, Mr. E. L. Clarke, and Mr. Varley, we 

 should hope for a great increase of our knowledge on the subject. 

 While we are writing, a case is under investigation which shows the 

 necessity for this inquiry. A cable manufactured for the government 

 for the purpose of connecting Falmouth with Gibraltar, had its desti- 

 nation changed in the spring of 1860 to a projected line from Rangoon 

 to Singapore. In order to preserve the cable, it was placed in water- 

 tanks, but when transferred on board the ship which was to convey it 

 to India, it was coiled dry, and the moisture imbibed by the hemp, 

 being gradually squeezed out, caused the iron covering to rust ; and as 

 this process of rusting generates heat enough to soften the gutta percha, 

 the safety of the cable became endangered, so that it had to be again 

 taken out of the ship and deposited in tanks. 



The practical working of a telegraph involves such a multiplicity of 

 details, that we cannot attempt in an article of this kind to convey 

 much minute information. Still, however, there are certain prominent 

 features which a reader moderately acquainted with electrical science 

 will readily understand. An electric telegraph, whether for land or 

 sea, consists of three essential parts : 1st, the transmitting apparatus, 

 for generating electric action at one end, known as the tender ; 2ndly, 

 an electrode or insulated path along which the electricity may travel, 

 and familiarly known as the line or the mre, or, in the submarine tele- 

 graph, the calile ; Srdly, the apparatus used at the other eiul of the 

 line to render evident the signals forwarded by the transmitting appa- 

 ratus : tliis is called the receiving apparatus or instrument, or simply the 

 instrument. 



And first as to the transmitting apparatus. This is usually a voltaic 

 battery, consisting of alternate pairs of copper and amalgamated zinc 

 plates, arranged in troughs of some compact wood made tight with 

 marine glue, subdivided into compartments by means of slate, or 

 the troughs are of glazed gutta percha. Each compartment contains 

 the copper of one pair and the zinc of the next. [GALVANIC BATTKRY.] 



