42 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



patent of September 21, 1850. He corroborated the statement of 

 the author as to the immense risks that must be incurred in laying 

 submarine cables in great depths of the ocean. He thought that 

 the attention of those connected with the working long lengths 

 of telegraphs should now be directed to a system of codes. He 

 instanced one of his own which contained 800,000,000 times 

 2,000,000 preconcerted messages, all of which did not occupy one 

 side of half a sheet of foolscap, and each would not occupy more 

 than twelve seconds in transmission. Although Mr. Siemens had 

 stated that by his instrument he could communicate between 

 London and Odessa, there was no proof that this had been done. 

 With respect to insulation, Mr. Highton remarked that this 

 depended very much upon the climate of the country to be passed 

 through. He considered that for England and the west of 

 Ireland, a different kind of insulation was required from that 

 suitable to Italy or India, and such like countries. The tele- 

 graphic instruments, batteries, and other apparatus to be employed, 

 ought to be suited to the work to be done, and he believed there 

 was no one telegraphic instrument suitable to all cases throughout 

 the world, but that each particular case required its own special 

 apparatus. With regard to the purification of gutta-percha, which 

 had been alluded to by the chairman, he was happy to say that 

 the Society had appointed a committee to investigate the whole 

 subject, and he hoped that great results would accrue from their 

 investigations. With regard to the breaking of the internal 

 copper wire in submarine cables, he remarked, that in the specifi- 

 cation which he made for the British Telegraph Company's cable 

 between Scotland and Ireland, he put in a clause which compelled 

 the contractor for the making of the cable to give double the lay 

 or twist in the copper wires to that of the outside iron wires, and 

 thus prevent all strain from coming upon the copper wires until 

 the iron wires had broken. The submarine cable of the British 

 Telegraph Company had been most successful. Although weighing 

 180 tons, and containing six wires, of 25 miles in length, it had 

 now been at work for nearly four years, and every wire up to the 

 present moment was perfect, and since its submergence it had not 

 cost the company anything for repairs. With regard to the 

 double-needle system of the original Electric Telegraph Company, 

 he stated his belief that, sooner or later, if they were to compete 



