126 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



kind of telegraph due, it seems, originally to 

 Aeneas, a Greek writer on tactics, and improved 

 by Polybius. 1 The essential characteristic of 

 Captain Colomb's method, on which its great 

 success has depended, consists in the adoption of 

 the Morse system of telegraphing by rapid suc- 

 cession of shorts and longs, " dots " and " dashes " 

 as they are called ; and, I believe, its success would 

 have been still greater, certainly its practice would 

 have been by the present time much more familiar 

 to every officer and man in the service than it is 

 now, had not only the general principle of the Morse 

 system but the actual Morse alphabet for letters 

 and numerals been adopted by Captain Colomb. 

 A modification of Captain Colomb's system, which 

 many practical trials has convinced me is a great 

 improvement, consists in the substitution of short 

 and long eclipses for short and long flashes, except 

 when his magnesium lamp is to be used, as it is 

 when, whether from the greatness of the distance 

 to which the signals are to be sent, or from 



1 Polybius, X. 44. Or see Rollin's Ancient History, Book 

 XVIII., Sec. 6. 



