SCIENCE IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD 



when such letters were indicated by a similar pointer on 

 a corresponding dial, the two being connected by wires. 

 Alexandra, realizing the importance and possibilities of 

 his invention, kept the method by which these mysterious 

 indicators were made to transmit messages a closely 

 guarded secret, although he was constantly exhibiting 

 the practical workings of his device. 



Many of the leading philosophers who witnessed these 

 exhibitions were convinced of the practicality of this 

 telegraph, and it is possible that had Alexandra been 

 willing to impart his secret to certain savants who were 

 appointed by Napoleon to examine into the merits of the 

 inventor's claims, his telegraph would have been put to 

 practical use. Alexandra obstinately refused to reveal 

 his secret, however, except to the First Consul in person 

 and alone; but his request for such an interview, in 

 which he promised that in ten minutes he could reveal 

 the entire secret because of its simplicity, was never 

 granted. Napoleon was unmistakably interested, so 

 much so in fact that he requested the great scientist, 

 Delambre, to investigate Alexandra's telegraph and 

 report on the matter to him. Delambre did so, and his 

 report, although made with scientific caution, was on 

 the whole favorable. But inasmuch as he was obliged 

 to judge of the merit of the telegraph by casual obser- 

 vation of its workings, without even being allowed to 

 know whether it was electricity or some other force that 

 actuated the indicators of the dial, he, in his official 

 report to the First Consul, so carefully guarded every 

 statement that Napoleon paid no more attention to the 

 invention. 



