IDEA OF THE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPH. 



that he was about to receive a com- 

 -munication. Several letters then 

 made their appearance ; but finding 

 they conveyed no meaning, he was 

 about to make the signal "Not 

 understood," when suddenly he 

 heard an explosion, similar to a loud 

 pistol-shot, and at the same time a 

 vivid flash of light was seen to run 

 along the conductors placed against 

 the sides of the shed. The conduc- 

 tors were broken into fragments, 

 which were so hot as to scorch the 

 wooden tables on which they fell, 

 and their edges presented evident 

 traces of fusion. The wires of se- 

 veral electro-magnets, belonging to 

 the apparatus placed in the shed, 

 were also broken ; and at the same 

 instant the attendant experienced 

 a violent concussion, which shook 

 his whole frame. The shed is 

 placed in connection with the Paris 

 station by wires supported on posts; 

 yet at Paris nothing was broken, 

 nothing remarkable occurred,except 

 that several of the bells were heard 

 to ring. But at a short distance 

 from the shed, the top \ of one of 

 the posts which support the wire 

 was split ; and where the wires 

 were bent from a vertical into a 

 horizontal direction at the corners of 

 the angles, three branches (aigrettes) 

 of light were observed several se- 

 conds after the explosion. 



At the time of the explosion, an 

 attendant, who was holding a handle 

 which moves a needle at a short 

 distance from the extremity of the 

 railway, sustained all over the body 

 a violent concussion ; and several 

 workmen, standing about him, also 

 experienced severe shocks. 



In M. Breguet's opinion, the ex- 

 plosion came from the railway ; for, 

 on account of the immense quan- 

 tity of metal employed in its con- 

 struction, and the extent of its sur- 

 face, it is very probable that, dur- 

 ing a thunder-storm, it may be the 

 seat of an intense electric tension ; 

 and that the fluid thus attracted 



may discharge itself on the tele- 

 graphic wires, which are near the 

 iron rails, tubes, needles, &c. 



COMIC ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



Mr. G. S. Richmond has made a 

 plaything of the lightning, by in- 

 venting a " comic electric telegraph 

 and key-board, which consists of a 

 mahogany case, having in front a 

 comic face, and three signs concealed 

 by shutters, the features of the face 

 and the shutters being capable of 

 simultaneous motion by an electric 

 current, which also rings a bell 

 placed inside." This instrument 

 was shown in the Great Exhibition. 



IDEA OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



Akenside, in the Pleasures of 

 Imagination, compares the tendency 

 of ideas to suggest each other, to 

 the mutual influence of two sym- 

 pathetic needles, which Strada, in 

 one of his Prolusions, availing him- 

 self of a supposed fact, which was 

 then believed, makes the subject of 

 verses, supposed to be recited by 

 Cardinal Bembo, in the character 

 of Lucretius. The needles were 

 fabled to have been magnetized 

 together, and suspended over dif- 

 ferent circles, so as to be capable of 

 moving along an alphabet. In these 

 circumstances, by the remaining 

 influence of their original kindred 

 magnetism, they were supposed, at 

 whatever distance, to follow each 

 other's motions, and pause accord- 

 ingly at the same point; so that, 

 by watching them at concerted 

 hours, the friends who possessed 

 this happy telegraph, were supposed 

 to be able to communicate to each 

 other their feelings, with the saints 

 accuracy and confidence as when 

 they were together. 



The above description, which is 

 literally realized in the wonderful 

 discovery of the electric telegraph, 

 introduces, in Dr. Thomas Brown's 

 Philosophy of the Human Mind, the 

 passage referred to in Akenside'3 



