



Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer





HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH

By J. Munro

Author Of 'Electricity And Its Uses,' Pioneers Of Electricity,'
'The Wire And The Wave'; And Joint Author Of 'Munro And Jamieson's
Pocket-Book Of Electrical Rules And Tables.'


(Note: All accents etc. have been omitted. Italics have been converted
to capital letters. The British 'pound' sign has been written as 'L'.
Footnotes have been placed in square brackets at the place in the text
where a suffix originally indicated their existence.)




PREFACE.


The present work is in some respects a sequel to the PIONEERS OF
ELECTRICITY, and it deals with the lives and principal achievements of
those distinguished men to whom we are indebted for the introduction
of the electric telegraph and telephone, as well as other marvels of
electric science.



CONTENTS.

     CHAPTER
        I.  THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH
       II.  CHARLES WHEATSTONE
      III.  SAMUEL MORSE
       IV.  SIR WILLIAM THOMSON
        V.  SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS
       VI.  FLEEMING JENKIN
      VII.  JOHANN PHILIPP REIS
     VIII.  GRAHAM BELL
       IX.  THOMAS ALVA EDISON
        X.  DAVID EDWIN HUGHES

     APPENDIX.
        I.  CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS
       II.  WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER
      III.  SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE
       IV.  ALEXANDER BAIN
        V.  DR. WERNER SIEMENS
       VI.  LATIMER CLARK
      VII.  COUNT DU MONCEL
     VIII.  ELISHA GRAY




CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH.

The history of an invention, whether of science or art, may be compared
to the growth of an organism such as a tree. The wind, or the random
visit of a bee, unites the pollen in the flower, the green fruit forms
and ripens to the perfect seed, which, on being planted in congenial
soil, takes root and flourishes. Even so from the chance combination of
two facts in the human mind, a crude idea springs, and after maturing
into a feasible plan is put in practice under favourable conditions, and
so develops. These processes are both subject to a thousand accidents
which are inimical to their achievement. Especially is this the case
when their object is to produce a novel species, or a new and great
invention like the telegraph. It is then a question of raising, not one
seedling, but many, and modifying these in the lapse of time.

Similarly the telegraph is not to be regarded as the work of any one
mind, but of many, and during a long course of years. Because at length
the final seedling is obtained, are we to overlook the antecedent
varieties from which it was produced, and without which it could not
have existed? Because one inventor at last succeeds in putting the
telegraph in operation, are we to neglect his predecessors, whose
attempts and failures were the steps by which he mounted to success? All
who have extended our knowledge of electricity, or devised a telegraph,
and familiarised the public mind with the advantages of it, are
deserving of our praise and gratitude, as well as he who has entered
into their labours, and by genius and perseverance won the honours of
being the first to introduce it.

Let us, therefore, trace in a rapid manner the history of the electric
telegraph from the earliest times.

The sources of a river are lost in the clouds of the mountain, but it
is usual to derive its waters from the lakes or springs which are
its fountain-head. In the same way the origins of our knowledge of
electricity and magnetism are lost in the mists of antiquity, but there
are two facts which have come to be regarded as the starting-points
of the science. It was known to the ancients at least 600 years before
Christ, that a piece of amber when excited by rubbing would attract
straws, and that a lump of lodestone had the property of drawing iron.
Both facts were probably ascertained by chance. Humboldt informs us that
he saw an Indian child of the Orinoco rubbing the seed of a trailing
plant to make it attract the wild cotton; and, perhaps, a prehistoric
tribesman of the Baltic or the plains of Sicily found in the yellow
stone he had polished the mysterious power of collecting dust. A Greek
legend tells us that the lodestone was discovered by Magn