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SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



find them originate mainly in that country in which 

 those larger spheres of practical work had grown un- 

 checked and flourished in Great Britain and its exten- 

 sive dependencies. To Germany, on the other side, with 

 its fully developed system of learning, we are indebted 

 mainly for the complete recording, registering, and analys- 

 ing of the scientific labours of the whole world. To France 



Weber at Gottingen in the year 

 1833. The documents referring to 

 this interesting application have 

 recently been published in H. 

 Weber's biographical notice of Wil- 

 helm Weber, Breslau, 1893, p. 25, &c. 

 We read there that soon after 1830 

 Gauss had been occupied with re- 

 ducing his magnetical measurements 

 to an absolute scale, having laid his 

 celebrated paper, "Intensitas vis 

 magneticse ad mensuram absolutam 

 revocata," before the Gottingen So- 

 ciety in December of 1832. He had 

 induced Weber to take up similar 

 investigations at the Physical In- 

 stitute, which was situated about a 

 mile distant from Gauss's Observa- 

 tory. This distance was found to 

 be an inconvenience, and in order 

 to overcome it, the first longer tele- 

 graphic line in which galvanic cur- 

 rents were used, and which had 

 two wires, was carried overhead 

 between the two buildings, and the 

 instruments and signalling arrange- 

 ments perfected in the years 1833 

 to 1836. Both Gauss and Weber 

 were well aware of the importance 

 of their invention for practical pur- 

 poses. The former wrote to Olbers 

 on the 20th November 1833: "I 

 do not know whether I have already 

 written to you regarding a magnifi- 

 cent arrangement which we have 

 made here. It is a galvanic chain 

 between the Observatory and the 

 Physical Institute, earned by wires 

 in the air over the houses, up the 

 Johannis tower and down again. 

 The whole length will be about 



8000 feet. ... I have devised a 

 simple arrangement by which I can 

 instantly reverse the direction of 

 the current, which I call a com- 

 mutator. . . . We have already 

 used this contrivance for telegraphic 

 experiments, which succeed very 

 well with whole words and short 

 sentences. ... I am convinced 

 that by using sufficiently strong 

 wires one might telegraph instan- 

 taneously in this manner from 

 Gottingen to Hanover or from 

 Hanover to Bremen " (see Scher- 

 ing's address on the occasion of 

 Gauss's centenary, Gottingen, 1877, 

 p. 15, &c.) To Schumacher, 6th 

 August 1835, Gauss wrote as fol- 

 lows : "With a budget of 150 

 thalers [22, 10s.] annually for 

 Observatory and Magnetic Insti- 

 tute together, really extensive trials 

 cannot of course be made. But 

 could thousands of thalers be be- 

 stowed thereon, I think that, for 

 instance, electromagnetic telegraphy 

 might be carried to a perfection and 

 to dimensions at which imagination 

 almost starts back." Gauss esti- 

 mates that fifteen millions sterling 

 of copper wire would suffice to reach 

 the antipodes, and he says signifi- 

 cantly, "I do not think it impos- 

 sible to invent a mechanism by 

 which a despatch could be played 

 off almost as mechanically as a 

 musical-box plays off a tune when 

 it is once fixed on a roller" (see 

 ' Briefwechsel zwischen Gauss und 

 Schumacher,' ed. Peters, vol. ii. p. 

 411, &c.) 



