SJK WILLIAM SIEMENS, P.R.S. 1 7 



greatest natural philosophers the world ever produced, was re- 

 quired to reduce those elements into available forms for practical 

 porpoMB. 



1C \ve pass over the experiments by Winkler, of Leipzig, in 174G, 

 Wai son of London, and Li .Monier of Paris, in the year following, 

 as preliminary enquiries into the velocity of the electric current in 

 metallic conductors, we find that the honour of having produced 

 the first electric telegraph is due to Le Sage, of Geneva, who 

 actually constructed in 1774, an experimental line of communica- 

 tion, consisting of 24 suspended line wires, representing the 24 

 letters of the alphabet respectively. Each wire terminated in a 

 pith ball electrometer, the balls of which separated, upon the wire 

 in question being charged at the other extremity by means of a 

 Leyden jar, denoting the letter intended to be communicated. 

 Lomond of France, perceiving, the difficulty and expense attending 

 so many line wires, contrived in 1787, (see Young's Travels in 

 France, 1787) an experimental line of telegraph in his house, con- 

 sisting of only one line wire connected with a pith ball electrometer 

 at both ends, and he proposed a telegraphic code by repetitions of 

 his only primitive signals. Reiser, Dr. Salva of Madrid, and 

 many others proposed various modifications of the same apparatus, 

 but it is hardly necessary to add that all of them remained un- 

 rewarded by success. 



In consequence of so many fruitless attempts, electric telegraphs 

 were already being classed among the chimerical projects of the 

 time, when at the dawn of the present century a new field for in- 

 vention was opened by the important discoveries of the Italian 

 philosophers, Galvaui and Volta. 



The voltaic current, unlike the spontaneous discharge of static 

 electricity, could be conducted with comparative facility through 

 long metallic conductors, and was capable of very powerful effects 

 in decomposing water or other substances, which qualities rendered 

 it clearly preferable for telegraphic purposes. 



Struck by these views, Soemmeriug of Munich, constructed in 

 1808, the first voltaic telegraph consisting of 35 line wires, any 

 two of which could be combined to form the electric circuit and 

 produce a signal at the other extremity by decomposition of 

 water, under any two of 35 inverted glass cups, arranged side by 

 side in an oblong bath of acidulated water. The 85 wires ter- 



VOL. II. C 



