address:. 37 



multiplier, and that Sturgeon had constructed the first electro-magnet. 

 It was in 1831 that Faraday, the prince of pure experimentalists, 

 announced his discoveries of voltaic induction and magneto-electricity, 

 which with the other three discoveries constitute the principles of nearly 

 all the telegraph instruments now in use ; and in 1834 our knowledge of 

 the nature of the electric current had been much advanced by the in- 

 teresting experiment of Sir Charles Wheatstone, proving the velocity of 

 the current in a metallic conductor to approach that of the wave of light. 



Practical applications of these discoveries were not long in coming to 

 the fore, and the first telegraph line on the Great Western Railway from 

 Paddington to West Di'ayton was set up in 1838. In America Morse is 

 said to have commenced to develop his recording instrument between 

 the years 1882 and 1837, while Steinheil, in Germany, during the same 

 period was engaged upon his somewhat super-refined ink-recorder, using 

 for the first time the earth for completing the return circuit ; whereas in 

 this country Cooke and Wheatstone, by adopting the more simple device 

 of the double-needle instrument, were the first to make the electric tele- 

 graph a practical institution. Contemporaneously with, or immediately 

 succeeding these pioneers, we find in this country Alexander Bain, Bre- 

 guet in France, Schilling in Russia, and Werner Siemens in Germany, 

 the last having first, in 1847, among others, made use of gutta-percha 

 as an insulating medium for electric conductors, and thus cleared the 

 way for subterranean and submarine telegraphy. 



Four years later, in 1851, submarine telegraphy became an accom- 

 plished fact through the successful establishment of telegraphic 

 communication between Dover and Calais. Submarine lines followed in 

 rapid succession, crossing the English Channel and the German Ocean, 

 threading their way through the Mediterranean, Black, and Red Seas, 

 until in 1866, after two abortive attempts, telegraphic communication 

 was successfully established between the Old and New Worlds, beneath 

 the Atlantic Ocean. 



In connection with this great enterprise and with many investigations 

 and suggestions of a highly scientific and important character, the name 

 of Sir William Thomson will ever be remembered. The ingenuity 

 displayed in perfecting the means of transmitting intelligence through 

 metallic conductors, with the utmost despatch and certainty as regards 

 the record obtained, between two points hundreds and even thousands of 

 miles apart is truly surprising. The instruments devised by Morse, 

 Siemens, and Hughes have also proved most useful. . 



Duplex and quadruplex telegraphy, one of the most striking achieve- 

 ments of modern telegraphy, the result of the labours of several in- 

 ventors, should not be passed over in silence. It not only serves for the 

 simultaneoixs communication of telegraphic intelligence in both directions, 

 but renders it possible for four instruments to be worked irre.'ipectively 

 of one another, through one and the same wire connecting two distant 

 places. 



