184 [Assembly 



easily be corrected. The process is a slow and tedious one, although 

 not very expensive. 



The plan of Professor Morse consists of a single wire, reaching 

 from the starting point to the distant station only. The mature 

 knowledge of that gentleman in this science, suggested eventually, 

 that a good conductor of electricity, (one of the metals,) was only 

 necessary to send out the current to a given point; that the return 

 conductor might be a more imperfect one, as water; or what is 

 equivalent, the moisture of the earth; and that to communicate a 

 sign, it could be done by a single change or transposition of dots 

 and dashes to represent the different characters of the alphabet, &c., 

 and these durably marked upon narrow strips of paper, (before allu- 

 ded to,) would secure correctness with great expedition. The ma- 

 chine in question is furnished with two rollers, a racket-wheel and 

 weights to operate it, and having a small scribing lever, with a fine 

 rounded point to impress a dot or dash upon the paper while moving 

 from one roller to the other beneath it. 



The accompanying magnet is so placed in the machine as that 

 when the circuit is formed with the battery, that it attracts the lever 

 of the scribing point in a manner to bring it down upon the paper; 

 a small spring throws it up, upon suspending the magnet, by break- 

 ing the circuit. The forming the circuit is done by dipping a fmger- 

 key into a mercury cup by the pressure of the finger, breaking it in- 

 stantly on lifting the finger. 



A sudden, nervous application of the finger makes a dot; holding 

 on upon it an instant, a dash, produced by the movement of the pa- 

 per under the point. These marks, without ink, are perfectly legible 

 and plain, and the scriber being furnished with three or four points, 

 making a tripple or quadruple set of marks, by which as many co- 

 pies are given at once. Every possibility of a mistake is thoroughly 

 avoided. 



The machine at rest, is held by a small ketch, or dog working 

 into the racket-wheel. When the distant operator commences a com- 

 munication, he dips the circuit into the mercury cup, charging the 

 magnet at the machine, which attracts one arm of the dog in the 

 catch-wheel, liberating the weights, and putting the paper in motion, 

 when the communication is recorded. If an attendant at the station 

 is present, it is well; if not, just as well. The story is told without 

 an assistant, to be translated into good English, French or Lf.tin 



