Cbe JElectric Cele0rapb. 89 



the alphabet. The message was to be sent by 

 discharging static electricity through the wire 

 corresponding to the first letter of a word when 

 the paper would be attracted to the pith ball 

 and read by the observer. Then the wire cor- 

 responding to the second letter of the word was 

 to be charged in like manner, and so on till 

 the whole message was spelled out. This was 

 the first practical (i.e., possible) suggestion 

 for a telegraph. The writer also proposed to 

 have the wires strung on insulators, which was 



reat advance over the other attempts. 

 The communication was anonymous, as no 

 doubt, like many others, the author feared the 

 ridicule of his neighbors. It requires a vast 

 amount of moral courage to stand up before 

 the world and openly advocate some new theory 

 that has never come within the experience of 

 any one before. It requires much now, but it 

 required more then; for a man in those days 

 would have been roasted for what in these days 

 he would be toasted. The rank and file of 

 humanity have been opposed to innovations in 

 all ages, but no progress could have been made 

 without innovations. There always has to be 

 a first time. Galileo is said to have been 

 forced to retract, on his knees, some theory 

 he advLnced about the motion of the earth, and 

 its relation to the sun and other heavenly 

 bodies. Notwithstanding this retraction tlio 

 seed-thought sown by Galileo took root in other 



