In the twenty-seventh volume of the Transactions of the London Society of Arts will be found the telegraphic devices of Knight Spencer and of Lieutenant James Spratt (pp. 20, 163–169), while the thirty-third volume contains (at pp. 23, 118–121) a description of the contrivance of Alexander Law, intended for service on both sea and land. These, it may be said, are the only additional telegraphic methods worthy of note introduced up to the time when the English Admiralty adopted the system proposed by Sir Home Popham in 1816. The “anthropo-telegraph” of Knight Spencer, though laid before the Society of Arts in 1808, had been used as early as 1805. It consisted merely of two circular discs of wicker work, painted white with a black circle in the centre, to be held in different positions with respect to each other. The device of Lieutenant Spratt was more simple still, for it consisted only in holding a kerchief in various positions; yet, simple as it was, it served as a means of communication between vessels before the battle of Trafalgar, and it was also successfully used to converse between Spithead and the ramparts at Portsmouth, etc.
References.—For Mr. Knight Spencer’s other papers, see the Philosophical Magazine, Vols. XXXVI. p. 321, and XL. p. 206, and, for different methods of telegraphing, see Mr. Macdonald’s “Treatise,” published in 1817, as well as, more particularly, Vols. XXVI, XXXIV, XXXV, XXXVI of the Transactions of the Society of Arts; likewise Rohde’s “Système complet de Signaux ...” published 1835.
A.D. 1808.—Callender—Calendar (Elisha), of Boston, Mass., obtains, on Oct. 3, 1808, for his lightning rod, an American patent, which latter is the first one in the line of electricity issued by the United States.
References.—H. L. Ellsworth’s “Digest of Patents,” Washington, 1840, p. 234; Edmund Burke, “A List of Patents,” Washington, 1847, p. 185; “List of United States Patents,” Washington, 1872, p. 67.
A.D. 1808.—Bucholz (Christoph—Christian—Friedrich), distinguished German chemist, receives his diploma as a physician at Rinteln, prior to graduating at the Erfurt University, and publishes “Ueber die Chimischen ... metallen,” giving a description of the chain bearing his name. The latter was the result of experiments made by him to prove that the electricity in the pile results from the oxidation of one of the metals and also to establish a comparison between the quantity of electricity obtained and the amount of oxygen absorbed by the one metal.
References.—“Biographie Universelle,” Bruxelles, 1843–1847, Vol. III. p. 227; A. F. Gehlen, Jour. für Chem. und Phys., Vol. V; L. Figuier, “Exp. et Hist.,” Paris, 1857, Vol. IV. p. 426; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. VIII. p. 315, and also the letter of J. B. Van Mons to Bucholz, Brussels, 1810.
A.D. 1808.—Amoretti (Carlo), Italian naturalist, who was allowed (1772) to withdraw from the order of St. Augustine that he might devote himself exclusively to scientific researches, gives, in his “Della rabdomanzia ossia elettrometria,” a complete history of the divining rod, and treats also therein of animal magnetism, etc. His investigations of the electric polarity of precious stones show, among other results, that the diamond, the garnet and the amethyst are - E, while the sapphire is + E.
References.—For a further account of the Virgula Divina, or divining rod (baguette divinatoire), see the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for 1751, Vol. XXI; also the notes at foot of pp. 91–106 of Baron Karl Von Reichenbach’s “Physico-Physiologicæ Researches,” translated by Dr. John Ashburner, London, 1851. In the latter, reference is made to Pierre Le Lorrain de Vallemont’s “La Physique Occulte,” etc. (1693), to a work written by Count J. de Tristan, to the “Mémoire,” etc., of Tardy de Montravel (1781) and to Pierre Thouvenel’s “Mémoires,” etc., the last named bearing the Paris-London imprint of 1781–1784, and attempting to show relations existing between the rod and electricity and magnetism. Allusion is likewise made in the afore-named work to the translation by Dr. Hutton (1803) of Jean Etienne Montucla’s (1778) improvement of Jacques Ozanam’s “Récréations Mathématiques et Physiques,” originally built upon Leurechon’s “Récréations Mathématiques,” and first published in Paris during the year 1724. For Reichenbach, see “Le Cosmos,” Nos. 703–705 for July 16, 23 and 30, 1898; “Cat. Sc. Pap. Roy. Soc.,” Vol. I. pp. 139–140; Vol. VIII. pp. 720, 721. Besides the above, reference should be had to the lecture of Prof. Rossiter W. Raymond before the Philadelphia Electrical Exhibition of 1884, and to the article in Paris Cosmos of Jan. 3, 1891, which alludes to the works of P. Lebrun (1702), Albert Fortis (1802), Dr. Charpignon (1848), Abbé Chevalier (1853), and M. E. Chevreul “De la baguette ...” (1854). Consult also, Eusebe Salverte, “The Philosophy of Magic.,” Vol. II. chap. xi. speaking of Pryce’s “Mineralogia Cornubiensis” (1778); Theod. Kirchmaier, “De Virgula divinatrice,” 1678; F. Soave, (Opus. Scelti, III. p. 253), 1780; F. M. Stella (Opus. Scelti, XIII. p. 427), 1790; G. B. San Martino (Opus. Scelti, XVII. p. 243), 1794; L. Sementini, “Pensieri e Sperimenti ...” 1811; A. M. Vassalli-Eandi (Opus. Scelti, XIX. pp. 215, etc.); Kiesser, Archiv., Vol. IV. p. 62; at Vol. I. p. 265, of Blavatsky’s “Isis Unveiled”; “Biographie Générale,” Vol. II. pp. 290, 291; “Roy. Soc. Catal. of Sc. Papers,” Vol. I. p. 58.
A.D. 1808.—Lebouvier-Desmortiers (Urbain René Thomas), French writer, who had called attention to the danger attending the bodily application of the galvanic fluid, through the Journal de Physique of 1801 (p. 467), transmits another Mémoire to the same publication upon an improved electrical (briquet) tinder box.
The cylinder, which had previously been made of copper, he constructed of glass as illustrated by Delaunay at Plate IX. fig. 105, of his “Manuel,” etc., Paris, 1809. With the new contrivance he was enabled to exert considerable force upon the piston, and it was generally necessary to push the latter suddenly in order to so compress the air as to light the (amadou) spunk attached to the lower portion of the cylinder.