836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it which, having been caught in it, the shipmasters had been 

 obliged to cast away. At Verviers the line was connected with 

 an overhead line to Brussels. One Herr Reuter, who had been 

 managing a carrier-pigeon post between Cologne and Brussels, 

 found his business ruined by the telegraph. Frau Reuter com- 

 plaining to Siemens of this, he advised the pair to go to London 

 and establish there a telegraphic news agency, as Herr Wolff had 

 succeeded in doing at Berlin. This was the origin of " Renter's." 

 These enterprises had been carried on under a furlough from 

 army service, which' was about to expire, and Herr Siemens, in 

 order to devote himself to scientific and technical work, resigned 

 his position in the army in June, 1849, left the telegraphic service 

 shortly afterward, and began a career of independent scientific 

 industry. His underground system was generally adopted in 

 Germany. To prevent the depredations of rats on the gutta-per- 

 cha coatings, he drew the wire through lead pipes. He recog- 

 nized the excellences of the Morse telegraphic instrument, and 

 sought to improve it. In April, 1850, he presented a memoir on 

 his experiments in telegraphy Memoire sur la Telegraphie Elec- 

 trique before the French Academy of Sciences, and received, 

 upon the report of the committee to which it was referred, the 

 acknowledgment of the Academy, thus fixing the stamp of that 

 authority upon his claims for originality and priority. 



While Siemens's system was being extended and adopted in 

 foreign countries, particularly in Russia, the Prussian lines, under 

 official management, constructed in a slovenly manner and care- 

 lessly repaired, deteriorated. Siemens published a pamphlet crit- 

 icising these faults and pointing out the remedies, in consequence 

 of which unauthorized comment the Government discontinued 

 all connection with his house for several years. The loss of this 

 business was, however, more than compensated for by that which 

 accrued from railroad telegraphy, still free from official domina- 

 tion, and by contracts coming in from abroad. 



The connection of Siemens with the Russian telegraph lines 

 began in 1849, when his instruments were adopted for the line 

 between St. Petersburg and Moscow. In the winter of 1852 he 

 went to Riga, on business connected with the construction of a 

 line to that point, and particularly with the crossing of the Dwina. 

 Other lines calling for visits to Russia, and in connection with 

 which the St. Petersburg branch of the house of Siemens and 

 Halske was built up, were those to Kronstadt the first success- 

 ful submarine cable line and Warsaw. The success of the last 

 line determined the Russian Government to cover the whole em- 

 pire with a telegraphic network, and lines were built in succes- 

 sion from Moscow to Kiev, Kiev to Odessa, St. Petersburg to Re- 

 vel, from Kovno to the Prussian borders, and from St. Peters- 



