THE TECHNOLOGIST. [July 1, 1865. 



542 ON DYEING. 



and west that the needle makes, as the voltaic current sweeps round the 

 coil, flashes from the mirror a spot of light on a screen, and marks a step 

 in progress ; and all watch the face of the electrician, William Thomson, 

 the Columbus of this voyage, to whom alone these spots of light are 

 intelligible and eloquent of success. And so the mirrored, flashing gal- 

 vanometer sways about, till the voyage ends, and then Gloria in excelsis 

 is literally quivered in light, as it was by its first singers, the angels, and 

 in unconscious repetition ot its chaunt by the kneeling crews of Colum- 

 bus, four centuries ago. 



It would be foolish to speak of the second voyage as equalling the 

 first ; and the name William Thomson has a homely sound beside that of 

 Christopher Columbus ; but four centuries hence the former will sound 

 less harsh, and the scene over which he presided will appear no un- 

 worthy counterpart to that in which Columbus stands as the central 

 figure. 



Let us wish all success to the telegraph everywhere. The best interests 

 of the world are bound up in its progress, and its mission is emphatically 

 one of peace. It does not merely speak swiftly but softly, and it offers 

 men a common speech in which all mankind can converse together. 



If you stand at any time beside a telegraph-post, you will hear the 

 wind playing on the Eolian harp of the stretched wires, and evoking 

 from them the sweetest music. They sing at their work. Whatever 

 the message may be, Death of Czar Nicholas, Wedding of Princess Royal, 

 Relief of Lucknow — they speed it along the line : but all the while they 

 sing, and these are the words I last heard them singing :— 



Men have spoken, men have dreamed 

 Of a universal tongue ; 

 Universal speech can he 

 Only when the words are sung : 

 When our harp has all its strings, 

 And its music fills the air, 

 In a universal tongue 

 AH the world shall share. 



ON DYEING. 



BY W. EDMUNDS. 



So numerous and of such importance are the applications of chemistry 

 to the art, that scarcely any of them can be successfully or profitably 

 carried on without the assistance of this science, as it indicates the 

 nature and inherent properties of all material substances, and points 

 out as the result of experiment the laws regulating their composition 

 and decomposition. Though the science of chemistry is daily becoming 



