STORM IN A TELEGRAPH OFFICE. 



the young man to proceed to Eng- 

 land by steamer, upon, business ; 

 and the lover accordingly arrived, 

 en route, in New York. In the 

 meantime, the young lady had 

 gained some knowledge of her fa- 

 ther's intentions, and sent a message 

 to that effect to her lover in New 

 York, by the following expedient : 

 She took her place in the tele- 

 graphic office in Boston, and he did 

 the same, with a magistrate, in the 

 office in New York ; and the ex- 

 change of consent being given by 

 the electric flash, they were thus 

 married by telegraph ! Shortly 

 after, the lady's father insisted upon 

 her marriage with the gentleman 

 he had selected for her ; and judge 

 of his amazement when she told 

 him she was already the wife of 

 Mr. B., then on his way to England ; 

 adding an explanation of the novel 

 way in which the ceremony was 

 performed. The merchant threat- 

 ened to protest ap-ainst the validity 

 of the marriage, but did not carry 

 his threat into execution. 



VELOCITY OF ELECTRICITY. 



One of our most profound elec- 

 tricians is reported to have ex- 

 claimed, " Give me but an unlimited 

 length of wire, with a small battery, 

 and I will girdle the universe with 

 a sentence in forty minutes." Yet 

 this is no vain boast ; for so rapid 

 is the transition of the electric 

 current along the lines of the tele- 

 graph wire, that, supposing it were 

 possible to carry the wires eight 

 tunes round the earth, it would but 

 occupy one second of time. 



The immense velocity of elec- 

 tricity makes it impossible to cal- 

 culate it by direct observation ; it 

 would require to be many thousands 

 of leagues long before the result 

 could be expressed in the fractions 

 of a second. Yet, Professor Wheat- 

 stone has devised some apparatus 

 for this purpose, among which is 

 a double metallic mirror, to which 



he has given a velocity of eight 

 hundred revolutions in a second of 

 time. 



The Professor concludes, from his 

 experiments with this apparatus, 

 that the velocity of electricity 

 through a copper wire, one-fifteenth 

 of an inch thick, exceeds the velocity 

 of light across the planetary spaces ; 

 that it is at least 288,000 miles per 

 second ! The Professor adds, that 

 the light of electricity, in a state of 

 great intensity, does not last the 

 millionth part of a second ; but that 

 the eye is capable of distinctly per- 

 ceiving objects which present them- 

 selves for this short space of tune. 



A TELEGRAPHIC BLUNDER. 



During the revolutionary excite- 

 ment in 1848, it was reported in 

 the papers that the King of Prussia 

 had abdicated. The mistake ori- 

 ginated with the electric telegraph, 

 which sent the following despatch : 

 " The King of Prussia has 

 gone to Pot " In another 

 minute, the communication was on 

 its way to a newspaper office. Not 

 long after, however, the dial was 

 again agitated, and then " s dam." 

 Making it read thus " The King 

 of Prussia has gone to Potsdam." 



STORM IN A TELEGRAPH OFFICE. 



Eecently, at Buffalo,TJnited States, 

 a driving snow-storm came on from 

 the north-east, accompanied by vivid 

 flashes of lightning and heavy peals 

 of thunder. The atmosphere, and 

 all objects upon which the eye 

 rested, and especially the falling 

 snow, put on a sallow, sickly hue ; 

 aud this was rendered occasionally 

 more singular by the repeated 

 flashes of electricity, which worked 

 wonders in the Telegraph-office. 

 The battery-room was for some time 

 lit up by one constant sheet of elec- 

 tric flame that played around its 

 walls. It was a thrilling scene, and 

 one calculated to fill the mind of 

 the observer with serious appre- 



