TEL 



145 



TEL 



I. A complete list of Teissier's numerous publications is 

 given in the ' Biographic Universelle.' The most cele- 

 brated amons^ them is his 'Eloges des Hommes Savans, 

 tirees de 1'Histoire de M. de Thou,' first published at Lyon 

 and at Geneva, in a 12mo. volume, in 1683 ; then at 

 Utrecht, in 2 vols., in 1696 ; and again at Leyden, in 4 

 vols., in 1715. In the two latter editions the text of De 

 Thou is accompanied by numerous annotations, which 

 display much curious research. Teissier was an accurate 

 inquirer ; but there is no artistic quality or vital power in 

 arty of his books, and all of them, even including his 

 ' Eloges,' may' be said to be now superseded and nearly 

 forgotten. One of the most creditable is a Catalogue, in 

 Latin, of the authors who have written catalogues, in- 

 dexes, &c., in two parts, 4to., Geneva, 1685 and 1705 ; 

 some others relate to parts of the history of Prussia ; and 

 a great many are translations, which have the character 

 of being generally faithful enough, but of little elegance 

 or spirit, 1'rom St. Clement, St. Chrysostom, Calvin, Slei- 

 dan, and other Greek and Latin writers, the latter mostly, 

 if not exclusively, moderns. 



TEIXEIRA. "[TEXEIRA.] 



TEJEN. [PERSIA.] 



TEJUCO. ~ [BRAZIL, p. 368.] 



TEJUS. [SAUVEGARDE.] 



TE'LECLES. [SCULITURE.] 



TELEGRAPH (from rij\i, ' distant,' and fpa^,H, 'write'), 

 a machine or contrivance for communicating intel- 

 ligonci.. to a distance, usually by means of preconcerted 

 signals, to which some conventional meaning is attached. 

 On this account telegraphic communications may be as 

 remarkable for their impenetrable secrecy as for their 

 rapidity. The name semaphore (from o-i/pa, ' a sign,' 

 and ipip,u, ' bear ';, is commonly applied to some of the 

 machines used for effecting telegraphic communication ; 

 which, in an extended sense, may be considered to em- 

 brace every means of conveying intelligence by gestures 

 and visible signals, as flags, lanterns, rockets, blue-lights, 

 beacon-fires, &c., or by audible signals, as the firing of 

 guns, the blowing of trumpets, the beating of drums or 

 gongs, &c., as well as by the machines called telegraphs 

 or semaphores. 



Although telegraphic communication, as a means of con- 

 veying any required intelligence, is an invention of recent 

 date, the use of signals for the speedy transmission of such 

 brief messages as might be previously arranged between 

 persons, is a practice derived from the most remote an- 

 tiquity. The use of beacon-fires, for example, as a means 

 of giving speedy warning of the approach of an enemy, is 

 alluded to by the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote about six 

 centuries before the Christian aera, and who warns the 

 Benjamites to ' set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem ; 

 for evil,' he adds, ' appeareth out of the north, and great 

 destruction.' (Jeremiah, vi. 1.) The fine description given 

 by /EschyliH, in his ' Agamemnon,' of the application 

 of a line of fire-signals to communicate the intelligence of 

 the fall of Troy, is often referred to as an early instance of 

 this kind of telegraphic despatch ; but if the sera of the 

 writer, and not that of the event, is referred to, the passage 

 above quoted atfords an earlier illustration. This simple 

 means of spreading an alarm, or communicating intel- 

 ligence in time of war, is practised by many nations ; and, 

 to come nearer home, we may refer to the graphic stanzas 

 of the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel' (canto iii., st. xxv.-xxix.), 

 descriptive of the rapid communication of the approach of 

 the English forces from the border stations, along ' height, 

 and hill, and cliffy 



Till high Dunodin the Mates raw. 

 From Soltra and Ifcimpondfr LAW; 

 And Lothian lu-anl the Regent's order, 

 That all Hhonltl botine them for the border.' 



In a note illustrative of this description, Scott refers to 

 an Act of the Scottish parliament in 1455, c. 48, which 

 t.s that one bale or faggot shall be warning of the 

 approach of the English in any manner; t<> l.ales, that 

 lln-y Mir . '/fed; and four bales blazing beside 



each other, that tin; enemy are in great force. Such sig- 

 nals, though best, adapted to give information by night, 

 ulilf in the daytime, when they appeared as 

 columns of dense smoke. Torches held in the hand and 



1 in any particular manner, or alternately di^| 

 and Iml'li ii behind a screen, were also used in antient 

 times as - un from several early writers on 



P. C., Mo. 1506. 



military subjects ; but as they were merely arbitrary sig- 

 nals, which admitted of very little variation, such devices 

 could only be rendered available by previous concert. 



That some attempts were made by the antients to im- 

 prove upon such simple signals is evident from the 

 tenth book of Polybius, in which allusion is made to a 

 device of tineas (Tacticus), who proposed to write 

 several sentences, such as it might be desirable to com- 

 municate, upon two oblong boards, one of which should be 

 kept by each cf the parties. These boards were to be 

 affixed to cork floats capable of rising and falling in 

 cylindrical vessels of similar form and size, one of which 

 was placed at each station. Matters being thus prepared, 

 and the vessels filled with water, the person desiring to 

 send intelligence allowed the water to escape from his 

 vessel by a small opening until the suitable sentence on 

 the inscribed board had sunk to a certain mark ; making 

 torch signals to indicate the moment of allowing the 

 water to run out, and that at which the board sank to its 

 proper level. The person at the distant station regulated 

 the egress of water from his vessel by the torch signals, 

 and was thus enabled to ascertain which of the sentences 

 written on the board conveyed the required intelligence. 

 Complicated as was this arrangement, it afforded very 

 little more scope than the use of simple torches or fires. 

 Polybius however describes a much more perfect method 

 of telegraphic communication, which, he says, was in- 

 vented either by Cleoxenus or Democlitus, but improved 

 or perfected by himself. This method is capable of com- 

 municating any required intelligence with the greatest 

 precision, the signals being made to represent the letters 

 of the alphabet, and the message being displayed letter by 

 letter. Instead of quoting the description of Polybius 

 himself, which refers to the use of the Greek aphabet, we 

 shall adopt that of Bishop Wilkins, who describes the 

 plan as applied to the English alphabet. The alphabet 

 must be divided for this purpose into five portions of five 

 letters each (excepting the last, which has but four,,/ and 

 v being omitted as unnecessary), and inscribed upon ta- 

 blets, as in the following diagram : 



I. 



II. 



III. 



IV. 



V. 



f 



g 



This being done, each of the corresponding parties is to 

 be provided with a copy of the tablets, and also with ten 

 torches, five of them on the right hand and five on the 

 left. Any letter may then be expressed by first lifting up 

 on the right hand so many torches as may indicate the 

 number of the tablet in which it is contained, as I., II., 

 III., See., and then so many on the left as may show the 

 number of the particular letter in the tablet, as 1, 2, 3, 

 &c. Thus the word hntsten would be expressed by dis- 

 playing the torches six times, in the following order, in 

 which the Roman letters indicate the number of torches 

 raised on the right hand, and the Arabic numerals those 

 on the left : 



Right hand. 



L 



IV. 



IV. 



I. 



III. 



h 

 a 



t 

 t 

 e 



n 



Left hand. 



3. 

 1. 



3. 



4. 

 5. 

 3. 



Polybius observes that dioptrical instruments, framed 

 with two holes or tubes, should be used to enable the 

 observer to distinguish accurately the right and left hand 

 lights ; and that solid fences should be erected upon each 

 side, behind which the torches might be concealed when 

 if use. Bishop Wilkins, in his curious work entitled 

 ' Mercury ; or the Secret and Swift Messenger,' after de- 

 senbing this telegraph of Polybius, mentions another 

 which requires only three lights or torches. The twenty- 



VOL. XXIV. U 



