INTRODUCTORY 



RECEIVING a first education in telegraphy in the Post 

 Office under my uncle, F. E. Baines, C.B., First Surveyor- 

 General of Telegraphs, and Mr. (afterwards Sir) Wni. 

 Preece, I joined the service of the Eastern Telegraph 

 Company in the early seventies, and as the story of how I 

 became interested in electro-physiological research may 

 not be without interest, some personal details are perhaps 

 admissible. 



Much about the time of which I am writing I was chief 

 assistant electrician under my old friend Professor 

 Andrew Jamieson of the cable-ship The John Fender, be- 

 longing to the Eastern Telegraph Company and then 

 engaged in repair work in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. 



An unfortunate accident to my chief left me for a time 

 in charge, and I had as one of my juniors for a brief period 

 A. E. Kennelly, now Professor of Electrical Engineering 

 at Harvard University. 



Submarine cables, however, are not always breaking 

 down, and during an idle interval in the year, so far as my 

 recollection serves me, 1880, my employers lent me to 

 Mr. Finlay, of the Cape Observatory, to assist him in 

 correcting longitudinal data by means of time signals 

 transmitted over the company's cables between Aden and 

 Durban. 



It was necessary to receive signals upon a reflecting 



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