Great Facts / A Popular History and Description of the Most Remarkable Inventions During the Present Century

by Frederick C. Bakewell

At each intersection, and along the boundary lines of the rhomb, letters were marked, any one of which might be pointed at by the combined action of two of the needles. Thus, if the two extreme needles were deflected inwards, one towards the left and the other towards the right, they would point to the letter A at the top of the rhomb. If the extreme needle on the left and the fourth one were similarly deflected, they would point to the letter B; and thus all the letters marked on the intersections of the lines could be pointed to. A telegraph that could be worked with five circuits came within the range of practicability, and it was put into operation on the Great Western Railway as far as Slough, a distance of 18 miles.

When the work of actually making communication by insulated wires between places far apart came to be done, much difficulty arose as to the best and cheapest mode of doing it. The plan first attempted was to surround the wires with pitch, and to bury them in a trench in the ground. But this was found to be attended with great inconvenience, for the pitch cracked, and electric communication was established between the adjacent wires. The method of suspending the wires on posts was, we understand, suggested by Mr. Brunel, who had seen wires so suspended for other purposes on the Continent, and he recommended it to Mr. Cooke for the Electric Telegraph. The plan was tried with success, and was generally adopted by the Electric Telegraph Company in extending their lines over the country. We shall have occasion to revert to this practical part of the subject, when describing more particularly the means of making communication from one place to another.

In continuing the history of the invention, as regards the different modes by which communications are transmitted along the insulated wires, the next telegraphs that deserve notice are those of Dr. Steinheil, which became known also in 1837. One of his telegraphs made the signals by sounds, produced by magnetic needles striking, when deflected, against bells of different tones. By another telegraph of his invention the symbols where marked upon paper by small tubes holding ink, fixed to the needles. In this manner the letters of the alphabet were indicated by dots upon a strip of paper, kept slowly moving by clock mechanism. This telegraph could be worked by a single circuit; and it appears that Dr. Steinheil was the first who discovered, or at least who practically applied, the conducting power of the earth for the return current. Each circuit, therefore, consisted of only a single wire; the wire that had been previously used to complete the circuit being superseded by burying in the earth, at each terminus, a small copper plate. Dr. Steinheil also introduced the use of galvanized iron wire. An electric telegraph of this construction was put into operation at Munich, through a distance of 12 miles.

In the following year Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone so far simplified the arrangements of their needle telegraph as to make all the requisite signals with two needles. With a single combined battery and two wires six primary signals are thus obtained; and by repeating the deflections and combining the action of the two needles, all the letters can be readily and quickly indicated. A single needle instrument was invented by Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone, but as there are only two primary signals, one to the right and one to the left, the deflections are necessarily repeated more frequently, and the transmission is consequently more slow. The accompanying diagram represents the alphabet of the single needle instrument. The deflections for each letter commence in the direction of the short marks, and end with the long ones. Thus, to indicate the letter R, the needle is first deflected once to the left and then once to the right; and the letter D has the deflections reversed, beginning with one to the right and ending with one to the left. In no instance does it require more than four deflections to indicate a single letter, yet the transmission with the double needle is found so much quicker that the single needle instrument is only rarely used.

At the end of each word, it is customary for the clerk at the receiving station to indicate, by a deflection of the needle to the right, that he understands, or by a deflection to the left, that he does not understand, and in the latter case the word is repeated. In the early days of the Electric Telegraph, the transmission of 40 letters a minute with the double needle instrument was considered quick work; but the practised clerks will now transmit one hundred letters in that time, which is as fast as any person can write with pen and ink.

Since the invention of the double and single needle telegraphs there have been many modifications in the instruments, to make them work more promptly and with less vibration; but in all essential parts the telegraphs of Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone remain unaltered, and continue to be generally used in this country.

Of the numerous other telegraph instruments that have been invented since 1837, that of Mr. Morse is in most general use, especially on the Continent and in America. Mr. Morse, indeed, claims to be the first inventor of a practical Electric Telegraph; for, according to his statement, he, in 1832, invented a telegraph, which was in principle the same as the one now in use. It was not, however, till September, 1838, that he made his instrument known in Europe, by sending a description of it with a model to the Academy of Sciences at Paris. Mr. Jackson, an American, disputed with Mr. Morse for the honour of the invention, and when the latter asserted that he had described his telegraph in 1832, to some passengers on board a packet-boat, Mr. Jackson affirmed that it was he who described it on that occasion, and that Mr. Morse, being present, got the idea from him. It is painful and difficult to decide when we find two claimants thus directly in opposition to each other, and mutually preferring charges of falsehood and fraud. The only safe guide in such cases is to refer to the earliest published and authentic descriptions of the inventions; and, following that guidance, the invention of what is called Morse's telegraph must be attributed to him whose name it bears; but we must, according to the same rule, date it several years later than 1832.

Mr. Morse's telegraph is a recording instrument, that embosses the symbols upon paper, with a point pressed down upon it by an electro-magnet. The symbols that form the alphabet consist of combinations of short and long strokes, which by their repetitions and variations, are made to stand for different letters. Thus a stroke followed by a dot signifies the letter A; a stroke preceded by a dot, the letter B; a single dot, the letter E; and in this manner the whole alphabet is indicated, the number of repetitions in no case exceeding four for each letter. The letters and words are distinguished from one another by a longer space being left between them than between each mark that forms only a part of a letter or of a word. The annexed diagram represents the symbols for the whole alphabet.