98 Nature's flfciractes. 



show him the working free of charge he would 

 see to it that he lost his job. His bluff did not 

 succeed. The operator referred him to the 

 postmaster-general, and thus the stormy inter- 

 view ended. No patrons came in for the next 

 three days, but a great number stood around 

 hoping to see the instrument start up, but no 

 one was willing to invest a cent probably 

 from fear of being laughed at. 



On the fourth day the same gentleman who 

 had threatened the young man with dismissal 

 came back and invested a cent, and this was 

 the first and only revenue fcr four days. The 

 message that was sent only came to one-half 

 cent, but as the operator could not make 

 change the stranger laid down the cent and 

 departed. His name ought to be known to 

 fame as the first man patron of the telegraph. 



The operation of the Morse telegraph is very 

 simple if we grant all that has gone before. All 

 that is needed is the wire, the battery, and the 

 key, as shown in Fig. 2 (page 99), and a relay 

 an extra electromagnet which receives the 

 electric current and by its means puts into or 

 out of action a small local battery on a short 

 circuit in which is placed the receiving or re- 

 cording apparatus. Thus we have a wire 

 starting from the earth in New York and pass- 

 ing through a battery, a key and a relay, and 

 thence to Boston on poles, with insulators on 

 which the wire is strung, and through another 



