Fig. 4
It would appear, then, that M. Van Rysselberghe has made an advance of very extraordinary merit in devising these combinations. We have seen in recent years how duplex telegraphy superseded single working, only to be in turn superseded by the quadruplex system. Multiplex telegraphy of various kinds has been actively pursued, but chiefly on the other side of the Atlantic rather than in this country, where our fast-speed automatic system has proved quite adequate hitherto. Whether we shall see the adoption in the United Kingdom of Van Rysselberghe's system is, however, by no means certain. The essence of it consists in retarding the telegraphic signals to a degree quite incompatible with the fast-speed automatic transmission of telegraphic messages in which our Post Office system excels. We are not likely to spoil our telegraphic system for the sake of simultaneous telephony, unless there is something to be gained of much greater advantage than as yet appears.—Nature.
THE ELECTRIC MARIGRAPH.
For registering the height of the tide at every instant, hydrographic services generally adopt quite a simple marigraph. The apparatus consists in principle of a counterpoised float whose rising and falling motion, reduced to a tenth, by means of a system of toothed wheels, is transmitted to a pencil which moves in front of a vertical cylinder. This cylinder itself moves around its axis by means of a clockwork mechanism, and accomplishes one entire revolution every twenty-four hours. By this means is obtained a curve of the tide in which the times are taken for abscisses and the heights of the sea for ordinates. However little such marigraphs have had to be used, great defects have been recognized in them. When we come to change the sheet on the cylinder (and such change should be made at least once every fifteen days), there is an interruption in the curve. It is necessary, besides, to perform office work of the most detailed kind in order to refer to the same origin all these curves, which are intercrossed and often superposed in certain parts upon the original sheet. In order to render such a disentanglement possible, it is indispensable to mark by hand, at least once every twenty-four hours, upon each curve, the date of the day corresponding to it. It is equally useful to verify the exactness of the indications given by the apparatus by making readings several times a day on a scale of tides placed alongside of the float. Nine times out of ten the rise of the waves renders such readings very difficult and the control absolutely illusory.
All these conditions united, as well as others that we neglect in this brief discussion, necessitate a surveillance at every instant. The result is that these marigraphs must be installed in a special structure, very near the bank, so as to be reachable at all times, and that the indications that they give are always vitiated by error, since the operation is performed upon a level at which are exerted disturbing influences that are not found at a kilometer at sea. It were to be desired that the float could be isolated by placing it a certain distance from the shore, and transmit its indications, by meant of a play of currents, to a registering apparatus situated upon terra firma.
In the course of one of his lectures published in the December number (1883) of the Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, Mr. Von Hefner-Alteneck tells us that such a desideratum has been supplied by the firm of Siemens & Halske. This marigraph, constructed on an order of the German Admiralty, gives the level of the sea every ten minutes with an approximation of 0.12 per cent., and that too for a difference of 8 meters between the highest and lowest sea. The apparatus consists, as we said above, of a float and registering device, connected with each other by means of a cable. This latter is formed of three ordinary conductors covered with gutta percha and surrounded with a leaden sheath, which latter is itself protected against accident by means of a strong covering of iron wire and hemp. The return is effected through the earth. We shall enter into details concerning each of these two apparatus in-succession, by beginning with the float, of which Fig. 1 gives a general view, and Fig. 2 a diagrammatic sketch. The float moves in a cast iron cylinder, having at its lower part a large number of apertures of small diameter, so that the motion of the waves does not perceptibly influence the level of the water in the interior of the cylinder. It is attached to a copper ribbon, B, whose other extremity is fixed to the drum, T. The ribbon winds around the latter in the rising motion of the float, owing to a spiral spring arranged so as to act upon the drum. The tension of this spring goes on increasing in measure as the float descends.
Fig. 1.—FLOAT OF SIEMENS AND HALSKE'S MARIGRAPH.