TELEGRAPH 



5736 



TELEPATHY 



it possible to send one thousand or more words 

 per minute. The message is prepared on a 

 tape somewhat after the manner of the music 

 roll of a piano player. This tape is run through 



the sending instrument by clockwork and oper- 

 ates the contacts. An automatic receiver re- 

 cords the message, which may be preserved and 

 read at leisure. E.E.B. 



Historical Sketch 



A telegraph consisting of a system of sema- 

 phore signals was used in the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century. France had the most ex- 

 tensive system of this kind, connecting Paris 

 with all the principal cities of the country, a 

 semaphore every three miles. The device in 

 those days was considered wonderful. 



Benjamin Franklin was the first to conceive 

 the idea of telegraphing by means of elec- 

 tricity and to leave a record of his experiments. 

 He tried the experiment with four miles of wire, 

 but the electric battery was then unknown, and 

 the discharge from an electrical machine or a 

 Ley den jar could not be used for a practical 

 telegraph. The invention of the electric battery 

 in the last year of the eighteenth century re- 

 vived the idea of an electric telegraph. Every 

 known means of producing an electric current 

 or a static electric charge, and every known ef- 

 fect of an electric current up to the time of 

 Morse's invention, had been used in attempts 

 to invent a telegraph. No success was possi- 

 ble, however, until the electromagnet had been 

 discovered and perfected. 



The discovery of Oersted that an electric cur- 

 rent flowing along a wire will cause a compass 

 needle to turn when the wire is held in a cer- 

 tain position over the needle led to the inven- 

 tion of the needle telegraph. In the needle 

 telegraph the receiver was simply a magnetic 

 compass placed in a coil of wire. When the cir- 

 cuit was closed at the sending end the needle 

 moved; the movements of the needle indi- 

 cated the letters of the alphabet. A number 

 of needle telegraphs were invented, and some of 

 them were used commercially. The Cooke and 

 Wheatstone needle telegraph was employed in 

 England as late as the year 1870, but it was 

 not successful over long distances. 



The device that made long-distance teleg- 

 raphy possible is due to Joseph Henry, whose 

 discovery consisted of a means of increasing 

 the strength of an electromagnet by winding 

 many turns of insulated wire upon the coil so 

 that even a feeble current would produce con- 

 siderable magnetic strength. Samuel F. B. Morse 

 made use of the discovery of Henry and de- 

 vised a practical system which was the begin- 

 ning of the modern telegraph. 



Morse had difficulty in convincing men of 

 the value of his invention. Private investors 

 would not give him a hearing, and he despaired 

 until finally the United States government ap- 

 propriated $30,000 for a test. A line was built 

 from Washington to Baltimore, but even the 

 Congressmen who voted tthe money for the ex- 

 periment ridiculed the inventor and his device. 

 The first words sent over this line, quoted above, 

 were suggested by a young lady who was pres- 

 ent at the experiment. 



The Democratic national convention was 

 then in session at Baltimore. A Senator named 

 Wright was nominated for Vice-President the 

 following day; the news was telegraphed to 

 Washington and Morse advised the nominee 

 of the honor. He said, "Tell them that I re- 

 fuse the nomination." Not realizing that a 

 new force had been demonstrated to the world 

 and failing to see how the declination could 

 have come so quickly from Washington, the 

 friends of the nominee believed the story to be 

 an invention of the opposition. They accord- 

 ingly sent a delegation to visit him, and there 

 learned the means by which his refusal had 

 reached Baltimore. On the following day James 

 K. Polk was named for President of the United 

 States, and the fact was published briefly in a 

 Washington paper under the heading "Tele- 

 graphic News." This was the first incident of 

 the kind in the world's history. E.E.B. 



Consult Edison's Telegraphy Self-Taught; 

 Jones' Telegraphy for Beginners; Sewell's Les- 

 sons in Telegraphy; Houston and Kennedy's 

 Electric Telegraph. 



Related Subjects. The reader will find inter- 

 esting supplementary matter about telegraphy in 

 the following articles in these volumes: 

 Cable, Submarine Morse, Samuel F. B. 



Dynamo Telephone 



Electricity Wireless Telegraph 



TELEGRAPH, WIRELESS. See WIRELESS 

 TELEGRAPH. 



TELEPATHY, telep'athi, the influencing 

 of one mind by another at a distance without 

 the use of ordinary means of communication. 

 Telepathy rests upon clairvoyance (which see) 

 for its foundation. The mind is aroused to ac- 

 tion in two ways, by impressions received 

 through the senses and by intuition. The mind 



