Electric telegraph

“ Thus by 1832 the electric current had been used for sending signals at a distance and the electric telegraph had been invented.
But the electric telegraph was still only a toy. How could it be made a practical machine? How could it be used for sending messages in a satisfactory manner? Inventors everywhere worked diligently to discover a satisfactory method of signaling and many ingenious systems were invented. As early as 1837 a telegraph line was established between Paddington, England and Drayton—a distance of 13 miles—and messages were sent over the wire. ”

“ No one can ever guess at the future of electrical invention. The recent marvelous development of the wireless telegraph, by which the impalpable ether is harnessed to man's service, is an indication of the wonders which may be expected in the future. It was our own Joseph Henry who, in 1842, discovered the electric wave—the "induction" upon which wireless telegraphy depends. ”

“ The lines of electric telegraph are increasing so rapidly, that the length in actual use cannot be estimated at any moment with accuracy. At the commencement of 1848, it was stated that the length in operation in this country was about 3000 miles. At the end of 1850, the lines in operation, or in progress, in the United States, amounted to 22,000. In 1853, the total number of miles of wire in America amounted to 26,375.
It is but fifteen years since the first line of electric telegraph was constructed in this country ”

“ The Electric Telegraph has also been found a valuable auxiliary in ensuring the safe working of large railway traffics. Though the locomotive may run at 60 miles an hour, electricity, when at its fastest, travels at the rate of 288,000 miles a second, and is therefore always able to herald the coming train. The electric telegraph may, indeed, be regarded as the nervous system of the railway. ”

“ This expedient, though now considered essential to the successful working of a telegraph, was not practically adopted till nearly a century afterwards, when it was found that as soon as the electricity had done its work the best thing to do with it was to convey it into the earth, for just as the flow of rivers is accelerated by their waters falling into the sea, so electric conduction is greatly improved by establishing a good connection between the end of a telegraph wire and the earth. ”

“ Mr. Cooke and Professor Wheatstone well deserve thanks for having given the example in applying the electric telegraph to practical use for society at large. I allow myself here to state my feelings of regret, that Baron Schilling did not live to get informed of this application; he died just before it began to take place.
In America, the first telegraph line, from Washington to Baltimore, was completed in 1844. ”

“ Remarking upon this casualty, the Telegraphic Journal says that, "so far from being a source of danger, the electric telegraph must be regarded rather as a cause of safety, as a network of lines spread over a country tends to prevent an accumulation of electricity at any particular point, by continually and silently discharging it to the earth. This is particularly the case in districts where every pole has an earth-wire fixed to it, running from the top to the bottom. ”

“ The electric telegraph has become an essential and indispensable agent in the transmission of business and social messages. Its operation on land, and within the limit of particular states, is necessarily under the control of the jurisdiction within which it operates. The lines on the high seas, however, are not subject to the particular control of any one government.
In 1869 a concession was granted by the French Government to a company which proposed to lay a cable from the shores of France to the United States. ”

“ The efficiency of the electric telegraph depends upon the power we possess of breaking and renewing the current at pleasure, since by that means distinct and successive signals are made from station to station. ”

“ Electric Telegraph (Vol. ix., p. 270.) .—As every new attempt to improve this invaluable invention, and to extend its use, is of world-wide importance, the following extract from La Presse, a French newspaper of March 23rd, will excite inquiry:
"On écrit de Berne, le 17 Mars, MM. Brunner et Hipp, directeurs des télégraphes électriques de la Suisse, viennent d'inventer un appareil portatif à l'aide duquel, en l'appliquant à un point quelconque des fils télégraphiques, on peut transmettre une dépêche. ”

“ If any person takes an interest in determining who was the inventor of electric telegraphy, he should study the works and mark the improvements of the natural philosophers of the last as well as of the present, century, and he can then arrive at some result without exciting national jealousy, or injuring individual susceptibilities. Humboldt assigns the credit of making the first electric telegraph to Salva, who constructed a line 26 miles long, from Madrid to Aranjuez, in 1798. ”

“ This is a question which does not admit of an answer, for to no one man alone do we owe wireless telegraphy, though Hertz was the first to discover the waves which make it possible. However, it is to the men whose indefatigable labors and genius made the electric telegraph a reality, that we also owe wireless telegraphy as we have it at present, for the latter may be considered in many respects the resultant of the former, though both are different in medium.
Radio or wireless telegraphy in principle is as old as mankind. ”

“ Further experiments followed, and the galvanic battery resulted. Years later, our own Professor Henry discovered that if an insulated wire carrying a current of electricity was wrapped around a piece of soft iron, the latter became a magnet. Out of these simple discoveries, came the electric telegraph, and, still more wonderful, the telephone, by which the human voice may be instantly projected hundreds of miles, not only intelligibly, but with every tone and inflection reproduced. In an age of wonders, this is surely one of the greatest. ”

“ Lieutenant Maury, of the United States Navy, stated in 1849, that as the electric telegraph then extended through all the States of the Union, except perhaps Arkansas, Texas, and one other frontier, “a splendid field is presented for doing the world a service by connecting, for difference of longitude through means of magnetic telegraph and clock, all the principal points of this country with the Observatory at Washington. ”

“ Will it be believed that in 1841, long after the electric telegraph was working in England, scientific men were seriously discussing in the French Chamber the propriety of establishing a night telegraph on the visual principle, and that when at length it was determined to call in the aid of electricity, instruments were ordered to be so constructed that signals could be given after the fashion of the old semaphore, in order that the officials might be spared the trouble of leaving their ancient ruts? ”

“ Difficulty after difficulty was suggested as obstacles to its operation, which your ingenuity still laboured to remove till your invention, passing from its first crude state through different grades of improvement, was in seeming matured to an available instrument.” In a subsequent letter Captain Pell said it was a matter of great astonishment to him that a fellow-passenger on the Sully from Havre in October, 1832, should attempt to contest with Professor Morse the claim of having been the inventor of the electric telegraph ”

“ The aerial wire is precisely the same for either wireless telegraphy or wireless telephony. The transmitter of a wireless telegraph set generally uses a spark gap for setting up the electric oscillations, while usually for wireless telephony a vacuum tube is employed for this purpose. The receptor for wireless telegraphy and telephony is the same and may include either a crystal detector or a vacuum tube detector, as will be explained presently. ”

“ The advent of correctly timed, 60-cycle A.C. electric power, available throughout the nation, was a great boon to the designers of printing telegraph apparatus and some types of facsimile telegraph and picture transmitting systems. In prior years, overline synchronization of send and receive apparatus was always a problem and never perfect. Today, synchronizing apparatus between terminals becomes the simple matter of providing 60-cycle A.C. synchronous motors. ”

“ Accordingly, for ordinary work a telegraph line is provided at each end with a battery for producing an electric current, a key for opening and closing the circuit and a small electromagnet, with pivoted armature, the so-called sounder or receiver. More recently the Wheatstone bridge has been applied to the telegraph line in such a way that two messages may be sent over a line in opposite directions at the same time. This is called the duplex telegraph. Edison has invented a method for sending two messages over the same line in the same direction at the same time. ”

“ By means of magnetic telegraph systems, man has established instant communication with all parts of the world. Not the highest mountain ranges, not deserts, not even ocean's wide expanse, have been sufficient to bar his way. He has made the earth a net-work of his cables and telegraph lines, until nearly every part of the earth is within the radius of instant communication. In 1896, the National Electric Light association celebrated the triumphs of electricity by holding a national electrical exposition in New York City. ”

“ Since the fourth cable was laid, there has been constant communication between Europe and America.
The latest great step forward in telegraphy was made by Marconi, an Italian scientist, who invented a system of telegraphing without the use of wires.
The telephone has one advantage over the telegraph; it enables a person not only to send messages but to carry on a conversation with persons at a distance. The electric telephone was invented in 1875 by Alexander Graham Bell. ”

“ As the length of the wire makes no difference in the effect, a correspondence might be carried on at any distance. Whatever the use may be, the invention is beautiful." This discovery, however, lay unnoticed until about the year 1845; though the apparatus was designed to effect [pg 135] the same end as the electric telegraph, by means very similar.
The possibility of applying electricity to telegraphic communication was conceived by several other persons, long before it was attempted upon a practical scale. The Rev. Mr. ”

“ Whereas at the beginning of the nineteenth century electric telegraphy was an unknown science, and even up to the middle of the century was of limited use and doubtful commercial value, nevertheless the end of the century witnesses in its growth and application one of its most stupendous marvels. ”

“ The London Times alluded pompously to the telephone as the latest American humbug, and gave many profound reasons why speech could not be sent over a wire, because of the intermittent nature of the electric current. Almost all electricians—the men who were supposed to know—pronounced the telephone an impossible thing; and those who did not openly declare it to be a hoax, believed that Bell had stumbled upon some freakish use of electricity, which could never be of any practical value. ”

“ As time passed on and the electric light and electric railroad came into operation these difficulties were immensely increased, till now in large cities the telephone companies are fast being driven to the double-wire system, which will soon become universal for telephonic purposes the world over, except perhaps in a few country places where there is freedom from other systems of electrical transmission. To successfully work the telephone and telautograph through the same cables, these protective devices against induction must be very carefully provided and maintained. ”

“ As the waves shoot out and reach the distant station, the filings in the tube cohere and the current passing through them draws up the armature of the relay magnet. This closes the circuit of the recording instrument. It is broken constantly [156] by the tapper and instantly re-established by receiving waves.
The towers employed in 1920 for the transmission of wireless messages were very high. The manifest advantages of the system were apparent and long before 1930 wireless telegraphy came into general use. The new system proved the death-knell of telegraph poles, as well as ocean cables. ”

“ Telegraphing Without Wires.—Wireless telegraphy is an outgrowth of the ordinary telegraph system. When Maxwell, and, later on, Hertz, discovered that electricity, magnetism, and light were transmitted through the ether, and that they differed only in their wave lengths, they laid the foundations for wireless telegraphy. Ether is a substance which is millions and millions of times lighter than air, and it pervades all space. ”

“ It is by improving the coverings which prevent the current escaping from its wire, by taking advantage of the fact that a wire can almost as well carry a current of high tension as of low, and, above all, by increasing the quantity of the current so as to make the enterprise worth while, that the telegraphy of power has followed upon the telegraphy of mere signals.
In the telegraph at work over long distances a remarkable peculiarity of electricity displays itself. ”

“ CARBON-DUST TRANSMITTER
The strength of current required for the telephone is very small. To transmit a telephone message requires less than a hundred-millionth part of the current required for a telegraphic message. The work done in lifting the telephone receiver a distance of one foot, if changed into an alternating current, would be sufficient to keep up a sound in the receiver for a hundred thousand years. Because of its extreme sensitiveness the telephone requires a complete wire circuit. The earth cannot be used for the return circuit, as in the case of the telegraph. ”