It was only one year before his death that Schilling succeeded in obtaining the support of the Russian Government for his telegraph, and it was only after Muncke had shown it (March 6, 1836) to Wm. Fothergill Cooke, then a student in medicine at Heidelberg, that the latter produced his needle telegraph, which was followed by Cooke and Wheatstone’s still more perfect instrument in 1837 (Prime’s “Life of Morse,” pp. 265, 276). Some improvements in Schilling’s so-called deflective telegraph had, in the meantime, been made by Gauss and Weber at Göttingen, as well as by Steinheil at Munich.
Prior to his visiting Bonn (Meeting of Naturalists—Isis, Nog., 1836) Schilling had taken the working model of his telegraph to Vienna, where he made many experiments with it in conjunction with Baron Jacquin and with Prof. Andreas von Ettinghausen. Upon his return home from Germany in 1836, he declined invitations made him to bring his instruments to England (Dr. Hamel’s St. Petersburg lecture on “The Telegraph and Baron Paul Schilling”), whilst, by direction of the Russian Commission of Inquiry, he set up an experimental telegraph in two chambers of the Palace of the Admiralty connecting the apparatus by a long line over ground and by a cable laid in the waters of the canal. The results proved so satisfactory that in May 1837 the Emperor Nicholas ordered a submarine line to be laid between St. Petersburg and Cronstadt. Schilling’s death, on the 25th of July following, prevented, however, the execution of the project.
References.—Biography in Sci. Am. Supp., No. 547, p. 8737; Polytechnic Central Journal, Nos. 31, 32 for 1838; Lumière Electrique for March 17, 1883; “Allg. Bauztg.,” 1837, No. 52, p. 440; L. Turnbull, Electro. Magn. Tel. p. 223; (Hibbard’s Ev. 31; Channing, Ev. 41); Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 798; Annales Télégraphiques for November to December 1861, p. 670; Journal Soc. of Arts for July 22, 1859, p. 598; References at Ronalds’ “Catalogue,” p. 457; Du Moncel, “Exposé,” Vol. III. p. 8 and “Traité Théorique et Pratique du Tel. Elect.,” Paris, 1864, p. 217; Comptes Rendus, Vol. VII for 1838, p. 82; Journal Franklin Inst. for 1851, p. 60; H. F. E. Lenz, “Uber die Praktische ... Galvanismus,” 1839; “Report of Smithsonian Inst.,” 1898, pp. 224–225.
A.D. 1812–1813.—Morichini (Domenico Pini), eminent Italian physician, is the first to announce that unmagnetized steel needles can be rendered magnetic by making the focus of violet solar rays collected through a lens pass repeatedly from the middle to one end of the needle, without touching the other half (Zantedeschi, II. p. 214).
The long contention created by this announcement and the ingenious experiments of Mrs. Somerville, together with the results obtained by P. T. Riess and L. Moser, are detailed at p. 48 of Brewster’s (1837) “Treatise on Magnetism.” At p. 12 of his article (Vol. XIV of the eighth “Britannica”), Sir David Brewster states that Morichini’s experiments were successfully repeated by both Dr. Carpi at Rome and the Marquis Ridolfi at Florence; but M. d’Hombre Firmas, at Alais, in France; Prof. Pietro Configliachi, of Pavia, and M. Berard, of Montpelier, failed in obtaining decided effects from the violet rays. In 1814 Morichini exhibited the actual experiment to Sir Humphry Davy, and in 1817 Dr. Carpi showed it to Prof. Playfair. A few months later Sir David Brewster met Davy at Geneva, and learned from him the fact that he had paid the most diligent attention to one of Morichini’s experiments, and that he had actually seen with his own eyes an unmagnetized needle rendered magnetic by violet light. Then follow in the same article the account of Dr. Carpi’s experiment as given to Brewster by Prof. Playfair, also details of the investigations of Mrs. Somerville, Mr. Christie, Sir William Snow Harris, Prof. Zantedeschi, of MM. Baumgartner and Barlocci, as well as those of Riess and Moser above alluded to.
References.—“Elogio storico del Cavaliere D. Morichini” in Mem. della Soc. Ital., Vol. XXVI. p. 3; Riess and Moser in Phil. Mag. or Annals, Vol. VIII. p. 155, 1830 and in Edin. Trans., Vol. X. p. 123; “Library of Useful Knowledge” (El. Mag.), p. 97; Zeitschrift, Vol. I. p. 263; Noad, “Manual,” pp. 532, 533; the article of Col. George Gibbs in Silliman’s Amer. Jour. of Sci., 1818, Vol. I. pp. 89, 90; Annales de Chimie, Vol. XLII. p. 304; Brewster’s “Optics,” p. 92; also articles “Optics,” p. 596, “Light,” p. 452 and “Electricity,” p. 569 of the eighth “Britannica”; Edin. Jour. of Sci., No. 4, p. 225; B. Gandolfi, “Antologia Romana,” 1797; Harris, “Rud. Mag.,” Parts I, II. p. 69; Phil. Trans. for 1826, pp. 132, 219; D. Olmstead, “Int. to Nat. Phil.,” 1835, Vol. II. p. 194. See also Thomas Thomson’s “Outline of the Sci.,” p. 514, and Berzelius’ “Traité de Chimie,” Vol. I. p. 138 for Morichini’s observations on galvanic energy; “Bibl. Brit.,” Vol. LII, 1813, p. 21; Vol. LIII, 1813, p. 195; Vol. LIV, 1813, p. 171 (Experiments of G. Babini in Florence); Vol. IV, N.S., 1817, pp. 1–8; Vol. V, N.S., 1817, p. 167; Vol. VI, N.S., 1817, p. 81; Vol. XI, N.S., 1819, p. 29 for the experiments of L. A. d’Hombre Firmas on Morichini’s violet rays, whilst p. 174 of the same issue gives J. Murray’s investigations as recorded in the “Phil. Mag.” for April 1819.
Peter (Pietro) Configliachi, already named, was the successor of Volta as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Pavia University, and became editor of the “Biblioteca Fisica d’Europa,” the “Biblioteca Germanica,” the “Biblioteca Italiana” and the “Giornale di Fisica, Chimica e Storia Naturale” (Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IV. p. 908; J. J. Prechtl, in Schweigger’s Journal, Vol. IV for 1812; Fr. Mochetti, “Lettera al P. Configliachi,” Como, 1814; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. LVIII, 1815, p. 305 and Vol. IV of the N.S. for 1817, pp. 1–8).
A.D. 1813.—Sharpe (John Robert), of Doe Hill, near Alfreton, transmits to the Repertory of Arts a letter, which appeared in its Vol. XXIX, second series, p. 23, wherein he alludes to p. 188, Vol. XXIV of the same series, containing an account of Sömmering’s apparatus. He says:
“Without the slightest wish to throw a doubt over the originality of Mr. Sömmering’s invention, I beg leave to mention that an experiment, showing the advantages to be obtained from the application of the certain and rapid motion of the electric principle through an extensive voltaic circuit to the purpose of the ordinary telegraph, was exhibited by me before the Right Hon. the Lords of the Admiralty, in the beginning of February 1813.”
It is said that the Lords of the Admiralty spoke approvingly of it, but stated that as the war was over, and money scarce, they could not carry it into effect (Saturday Review for August 21, 1858, p. 190).