THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



Morse's instruments at Strasbourg. As the system is developed 

 and extended, the double needle instruments will be provided in 

 addition to the French telegraphs, at all stations which may be 

 in direct communication with England, and Morse's instruments 

 at all stations which may be in direct communication with the 

 German States. 



299. The French telegraphic lines communicate with those of 

 England at Calais by the submarine cable ; with those of Belgium 

 at Lille and Douai ; with those of Prussia and Northern Ger- 

 many, at Metz ; with the Rhenish States, Wirtemburg, 

 Bavaria, and Austria, at Strasbourg ; with those of Switzerland, 

 at Mulhouse and Macon, the former communicating with Bale, 

 and the latter with Geneva ; and, in fine, with those of Savoy and 

 Piedmont, at Grenoble. 



Other links of electric connection will speedily be formed. 

 Thus the present lines are continued to the Spanish frontier at St. 

 Sebastian, and lines of wire are now being laid between that place 

 and Madrid, so that the capital of Spain will be in electric con- 

 nection with that of France, and therefore also with London, and 

 the other capitals of Europe, most probably, before these pages are 

 in the hands of the reader. 



300. In practice the transmission of despatches is not always so 

 direct or immediate as it would appear to be upon the inspection 

 of a telegraphic map. Thus, by the submarine cable between 

 Dover and Calais, Paris is in permanent direct communication 

 with London. But when it is desired to transmit a despatch 

 from Paris to any of the provincial towns of England, the despatch 

 is at present received and written down at the central station in 

 London, and then repeated and transmitted to the place of its 

 destination in the provinces. This repetition could of course be 

 avoided, by uniting, in the London station, the wire from Paris 

 with the wire leading to the provincial station to which the 

 despatch is addressed, and if the despatch were one of extraordi- 

 nary length this course would be the most expeditious ; but to 

 adopt it with the ordinary class of short messages, would involve 

 much inconvenience and more delay in general than is incurred 

 by its repetition and retransmission. Thus, to send each message 

 direct to its destination in the provinces, it would be necessary 

 that, previously to the transmission from Paris, notice should be 

 transmitted to London to connect the Paris wires with those 

 between London and the place of destination, and as this change 

 would have to be made separately for every provincial message, 

 and as the wires between London and the various provincial 

 stations must necessarily be occupied, more or less, at all times, in 

 the transmission of home correspondence, the business of trans - 



140 



