THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



established in Paris holds his office under the Minister of the 

 Interior, and has authority over all the inferior functionaries. The 

 four inspectors-general control and direct under him the entire 

 telegraphic service throughout the empire. These inspectors, aided 

 by scientific men nominated from time to time by the Minister, 

 form a superior council, charged to consider and decide upon all 

 improvements proposed to be made in the processes, or in.,* the 

 telegraphic apparatus. 



The telegraphic lines will be distributed into twelve distinct 

 systems or sections, over which the twelve chief directors will 

 preside, so as to inspect, direct, and by communication with the 

 inspectors-general and director-general, to centralise the service. 



The hundred inspectors will each be charged with the direction 

 of one or more stations, and will have under their authority 

 deputy station-masters, telegraphists, surveyors, artisans, and 

 labourers, charged with the maintenance of the apparatus, the 

 conducting wires, posts, and all the accessories of the line. 



In all chief places, the bureaux will be open night and day. 

 The number of stations open on 1st November, 1853, was 78 ; in 

 June, 1854, the number was 105. At the close of 1854 all tho 

 Prefectures of France will be in electric connection with the capital. 



The posts, a large proportion of which had not sufficient magni- 

 tude and strength to bear the necessary number of wires, have 

 been everywhere replaced by others of suitable dimensions, and 

 the telegraphists are augmented in number, and measures taken 

 to ensure their efficiency. 



It is decided also to give ample trial to the telegraphic instru- 

 ments of Morse and Bain, already adopted to a great extent in 

 Germany and in the United States ; and if the result of experience 

 on a large scale is favourable to them, they will be adopted either 

 in conjunction with the present telegraphs, or to the exclusion of 

 them according to circumstances. In all, there are manifest 

 signs of activity and of exemption from prejudice, national or per- 

 sonal, which argue favourably for the progress of this great social 

 improvement. 



ATJSTEO-GERMANIC TELEGRAPHIC TJXIOX. 



305. The electric telegraph had not been long in operation in 

 the German States before it became apparent that great incon- 

 venience and much obstruction to the progress of correspondence 

 arose from different states adopting different telegraphic instru- 

 ments and signals. The difficulties arising from this cause became 

 at length so great as to demand prompt and effectual remedy. 

 A telegraphic congress was accordingly convened at Vienna in 

 October, 1851, at which deputies from all the German States 

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