[5] The pulley and cord have been dispensed with and two small cog wheels substituted.
[6] At this time the key is opened at the station from which the communication is to be sent.
[7] The first working model of the Telegraph was furnished with a lead pencil, for writing its characters upon paper. This was found to require too much attention, as it needed frequent sharpening, and in other respects was found inferior to a pen of peculiar construction, which was afterwards substituted. This pen was supplied with ink from a reservoir attached to it. It answered well, so long as care was taken to keep up a proper supply of ink, which, from the character of the letters, and sometimes the rapid, and at others the slow rate of writing, was found to be difficult and troublesome. And then again, if the pen ceased writing for a little time, the ink evaporated and left a sediment in the pen, requiring it to be cleaned, before it was again in writing order. These difficulties turned the attention of the inventor to other modes of writing, differing from the two previous modes. A variety of experiments were made, and among them, one upon the principle of the manifold letter writers; and which answered the purpose very well, for a short time. This plan was also found objectionable, and after much time and expense expended upon it, it was thrown aside for the present mode of marking the telegraphic letter. This mode has been found to answer in every respect all that could be desired. It produces an impression upon the paper, not to be mistaken. It is clean, and the points making the impression being of the very hardest steel, do not wear, and renders the writing apparatus always ready for use.
[8] See Silliman’s Journal, vol. 35, 1839, pages 258-267.
[9] Franklin appears to have been the first, or among the first, who used the ground as part of a conducting circuit in the performance of electrical experiments. Steinheil it appears was the first to use the ground as a conductor for magneto electricity. Bain, in 1840, was the first to use the ground as a source of electricity in conjunction with its conducting power, as a circuit. Prof. Morse, has since the establishment of the telegraphic line, used the ground as half the line, with perfect success, employing the battery; and Mr. Vail, in an experiment in 1844, succeeded in operating the electro magnet, with its armature attached to a lever, without any battery.
[10] In Prof. Daniel’s, Introduction to the Study of Chemical Philosophy, 2d edition, 1843, there are these facts to be noticed. In the preface, there are these words: “It only remains for me now, to acknowledge my obligations to my friends and colleagues, Professor Wheatstone and Dr. Todd, for their great kindness in undergoing the disagreeable labour of revising and correcting the proof sheets. They have thereby prevented many errors which would have otherwise deformed the work.”
No statement then of Prof. Daniel’s, particularly in that part of his work which related especially to Wheatstone’s Telegraph, would be allowed to pass unnoticed by Mr. Wheatstone and we are authorizsed in considering any such statement as having his sanction.
We then find, page 576, the following statement: “Ingenious as Prof. Wheatstone’s, contrivances are, they would have been of no avail for telegraphic purposes, without the investigation which he was the first to make of the laws of electro magnets, when acted on through great lengths of wire. Electro magnets of the greatest power, even when the most energetic batteries are employed, utterly cease to act when they are connected by considerable lengths of wire with the battery.”
If any thing were needed to show that Prof. Wheatstone was not the inventor of the Electro Magnetic Telegraph, it is this assertion (under the supervision of Prof. Wheatstone) made by Prof. Daniel. In 1843, Prof. Wheatstone had not made the discovery upon which Prof. Morse bases his invention, viz. that Electro Magnets can be made to act, with an inconsiderable battery too, when the latter is connected with the former by considerable lengths of wire: 80 miles may certainly be considered as of considerable length.
[11] It now occupies a space 10 inches long, 8 inches high, and 5 wide.