92 
THE TELEGRAPH, 
Spain tardily followed the general movement. An 
experimental line, begun in 1854, on the road from Madrid to 
Irun, was not completed until 1856, when the public began to 
participate in the advantages of telegraphic communications. 
It was about the year 1842 that the French telegraph 
authorities resolved to give the country the electric telegraph. 
The first electric telegraphs working in France were, one erected 
by Wheatstone between Paris, St. Cloud, and Versailles on the 
railway constructed by an English company, and another 
between the two first stations of the Paris and Orleans railway. 
Wheatstone was, nevertheless, unable to convince the French 
government that he could convey the electric current from 
Paris to Havre without any intermediate station. 
Wheatstone being offended by these doubts, and vexed by 
being told that his French patents were of no value on account 
of the State monopoly, left the country with expressions of 
dissatisfaction. 
It was not until 1844 that the French government thought 
seriously on the subject of the electric telegraph. By a decree of 
the 8th November, 1844, the minister of the interior appointed 
a special commission to report upon the value of the system of 
electric telegraphy, the advantages of that system, and the 
possibility of applying it. Arago, Becquerel, and Pouillet were 
members of this commission. On the 23rd November, 1844, 
the king, on the favourable report of Count Duchatel, 
authorised the minister of the interior to expend 240,000 francs 
(£9,600) on a trial of the electric telegraph, provided the 
chambers would grant this amount. On the 30th of Januarv, 
1845, the stretching of wires along the railway line between 
Paris and Kouen was commenced. When, on the 1st of 
March following, the operation had been completed as far as 
Maisons, Breguet and Gounelle, inspectors of the line, began a 
series of experiments, which were progressively extended as the 
length of the wires were increased. Signals were exchanged 
between Paris and Eouen on Sunday the 4th May, 1845, by 
means of an apparatus formed of a horse-shoe temporary mag¬ 
net, between the branches of which was placed a magnetized 
needle, one pole of which was attracted by one or the other 
branch, according as the current was made to flow in one 
direction or the other, 
