INVENTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 181 



" A modification of the Stylographic principle, proposed for the 

 adoption of parliament, in lieu of telegraphs, viz. : 



" The Fulguri-Polygraph, which admits of writing in several 

 distant places at one and the same time, and by the agency of two 

 persons only. 



"This invention is founded on the capacity of electricity to 

 produce motion in the act of acquiring an equilibrium ; which 

 motion, by the aid of machinery, is made to distribute matter at 

 the extremities of any given course. And the matter so distributed 

 being variously modified in correspondence with the letters of the 

 alphabet, and communicable in rapid succession at the will of 

 the operator, it is obvious that writing at immense distances hereby 

 becomes practicable, and further, as lines of communication can be 

 multiplied from any given point, and those lines affected by one 

 and the same application of the electric matter, it is evident from 

 hence also that fac-similes of a dispatch, written as for instance in 

 London, may with facility be written also in Plymouth, Dover, 

 Hull, Leith, Liverpool, and Bristol, or any other place, by the 

 same person, and by one and the same act. Whilst this invention 

 proposes to remove the usual impediments and imperfections of 

 telegraphs, it gives the rapidity of lightning to correspondence, 

 when and wherever we wish, and renders null the principal 

 disadvantages of distance to correspondents. Independent of 

 the advantages which this invention offers to government, it is 

 also susceptible of much utility to the public at large ; inasmuch 

 as the offices which might be constructed for the purposes of this 

 invention might be let to individuals by the hour, for private uses, 

 by which means the machinery might be at all times fully occupied, 

 and the private uses which could thus be made of this invention 

 might be applied towards refunding the expenses of the institution, 

 and also for increasing the revenue. Innumerable are the instances 

 wherein such an invention may be beneficially applied in this 

 country, more especially at a time when her distinguished situation 

 in the political, commercial, and moral world, has made her the 

 central point of nations, and the great bond of their union. To 

 the seat of her government, therefore, it must be highly desirable 

 to effect the most speedy and certain communication from every 

 quarter of the world, whilst it would at any moment there concen- 

 trate instantaneous intelligence of the situation of each and every 

 principal part of the nation, as well as of each and every branch of 

 its various departments." 



