HOUSES TELEGRAPH. 



at the same time sent to different telegraphic stations, and their 

 contents transmitted in various directions. 



In this view of the question, the system of Bain is to the com- 

 mon telegraph what the steam-engine is to the horse, the power 

 to the hand-loom, the lace-frame to the cushion, the self-acting 

 mule to the distaff, or the stocking-frame to the knitting-needle. 



217. A modification of the electro-chemical telegraph has been 

 contrived, by which a dispatch may be transmitted to any distant 

 station, and then delivered in the handwriting of the person who 

 transmits it. 



By this method, a person at any station, as for example at 

 London, may write a communication in characters used in common 

 writing or printing on paper placed at another distant station, as 

 for example at Trieste, and this writing shall be traced on the 

 paper with as much precision as if the person writing held the pen 

 in his hand. 



We may imagine that the electro-chemical pen placed on the 

 paper at Trieste is extended to London, and there held and 

 directed by the hand of the writer, for this it is which almost 

 literally takes place. The conducting wire, in connection with 

 that part of the electro-chemical pen which is held in the hand, 

 which extends from Trieste to London, may be considered as only 

 forming part of this pen, and the end of such pen at London, held 

 and directed by the hand of tlie writer, will communicate a motion 

 to its point at Trieste, in exact correspondence with the characters 

 formed by the hand of the writer. 



Thus, if the writer at London move the extremity of the con- 

 ducting wire so as to write a phrase or his usual autograph, the 

 point at Trieste will there inscribe on the prepared paper the 

 same phrase with the same signature annexed, and the writing of 

 the phrase and the signature will be identical with that of the 

 writer. 



In the same manner a profile or portrait, or any other outline 

 drawing may be produced at a distance. The methods of accom- 

 plishing this depend, like the other performances of electricity in 

 this application of it, on the alternate transmission and suspension 

 of the current, and on its Decomposing power ; but as they are at 

 present more matters of curiosity than of practical utility, we 

 shall not detain the reader here with any more detailed notice 

 of them. 



HOTJSE'S TELEGEAPH. 



218. This apparatus, which is in extensive use in the United 

 States, is an example of the class of printing telegraphs, that is, 



55 



