SCIENCE IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD 



extremities of the wires, and about an inch below them. 

 Also let the wires be fixed in a solid piece of glass, at 

 six inches from the end ; and let that part of them which 

 reaches from the glass to the machine have sufficient 

 spring and stiffness to recover its situation after having 

 been brought in contact with the barrel. Close by the 

 supporting glass, let a ball be suspended from every 

 wire; and about a sixth or an eighth of an inch below 

 the balls, place the letters of the alphabet, marked on 

 bits of paper or any other substance that may be light 

 enough to rise to the electrified ball; and at the same 

 time let it be so contrived, that each of them may re- 

 assume its proper place when dropped. 



"All things constructed as above, and the minute 

 previously fixed, I begin the conversation with my dis- 

 tant friend in this manner: Having set the electrical 

 machine a-going as in ordinary experiments, suppose I 

 am to pronounce the word Sir; with a piece of glass, 

 or any other electric per se, I strike the wire S, so as to 

 bring it in contact with the barrel, then 7, then R, all in 

 the same way: and my correspondent, almost in the 

 same instant, observes these several characters rise in 

 order to the electrified balls at his end of the wires. 

 Thus I spell away as long as I think fit; and my cor- 

 respondent, for the sake of memory, writes the charac- 

 ters as they rise, and may join and read them afterwards 

 as often as he inclines. Upon a signal given, or from 

 choice, I stop the machine ; and, taking up my pen in my 

 turn, I write down whatever my friend at the other end 

 strikes out. 



"If anybody should think this way tiresome, let him, 



[6] 



