RSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN 
 
 3 1822019460658 
 
 rnia 
 tl
 
 SAN 
 
 MAR 2 1 1396 
 
 Central University Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 Please Note: This item is subject to recall. 
 
 Date Due 
 
 0139(7/93) 
 
 UCSD Lib.
 
 TELEGRAPHIC TALES 
 
 AND 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC HISTOEY. 
 
 A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ITS 
 USES, EXTENT AND OUTGROWTHS. 
 
 By W. J. JOHNSTON, 
 
 EDITOR OF "THE OPERATOR." 
 
 W. J. JOHNSTON, PUBLISHES, 
 No. 9 MUBBAY STREET.
 
 Copyright, 
 
 W. J . JOHNSTON, 
 1880.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Some time ago the subscriber published a number of 
 anecdotes relating to telegraphy, which were received 
 with an unexpected degree of favor. They were so 
 extensively copied in the newspapers as to set him 
 thinking that the preparation of such a book as this 
 would please the reading public, as well as members of 
 the telegraphic profession. Hence the undertaking 
 herewith put on the book market as a candidate for 
 popular favor. No more is claimed for it than that it 
 presents, in a methodized and compact form, a compre- 
 hensive summary of such telegraphic information as is 
 likely to be valued by the general public, and of use to 
 the operator because of the convenient method of its 
 presentation varied, as is desirable, with lighter matter. 
 Very considerable labor has been expended upon it, 
 in the hope and belief that it will occupy an unique 
 place among those books which instruct without being 
 tedious and entertain wholesomely. Should this expec- 
 tation be verified, the subscriber will be justified in his 
 confidence that the reading public and the profession 
 will in a new instance show their appreciation of that
 
 sort of literary work which constructs miscellaneous 
 materials into an edifice not wanting, as he trusts, in 
 symmetry and beauty. The well-read operator may find 
 individual passages herein which he has met with before; 
 but it is believed that he will be the readiest to appre- 
 ciate the judgment and industry which have put them 
 exactly in their proper places as portions of a book. 
 
 The subscriber's modesty would lead him to claim 
 even less than he does for this his latest publication, had 
 he been solely engaged in its production. He will add 
 no more than his hearty acknowledgments of the valu- 
 able assistance rendered him by Mr. Henry G. Taylor, 
 a New York journalist whose experience and graceful 
 ease of expression give him distinction under the 
 severe test of metropolitan competition. 
 
 W. J. JOHNSTON.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 Signaling among the ancients Telephonic system of the 
 Afric 
 
 an negroes Signaling by sound in Montenegro Fire commu 
 nication in war and otherwise Dr. Hooke's telegraph The sema- 
 phore Semaphoric blunder and its result The word "telegraph" 
 Prediction quoted by Addison. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 First lightning-rod man Fractional electricity discovered The 
 Leyden jar Experiments to Franklin's time His famous kite ex- 
 
 periment Robert Stephenson's boyish imitation Lomond's elec- 
 tric signals Lesage's invention of electric telegrai " 
 twenty -four wires Reiser's thirty-six wire telegraph Si 
 experiments to Morse and subsequently to present time. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN THE U. S 29 
 
 First American line Apathy of scientists, press and public Why 
 the Herald refused to encourage the telegraph Cornell and Morse 
 First apparatus Interesting relic First week of telegraph Slen- 
 der returns Humors of early -day telegraphy Countryman, tur- 
 keys and telegraph Mr. Stearns and obstreperous church bell 
 Honor to whom honor is due Ronalds Morse Henry Vail 
 Claim for laborers" Be jabers, who dug the post holes ? " 
 
 A. CHAPTER ABOUT OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS 50 
 
 The operators' view of human nature Their faithfulness Their 
 literature Their difficulties and trials Epileptic telegrapher 
 Armless operator Deaf operator receiving by sound The ". light- 
 ning striker's " blunder and a case of jealousy Recognizing by 
 touch Love over the wire Love disappointment in humorous 
 verse First marriage by telegraph Absconding operator caught 
 by novice Wonderful speed in telegraphing Messenger service 
 -' ' ' ' ' ' arious duties they perform- 
 
 lessenger mistaken for police- 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 Earliest military sigi 
 Field telegraphy descr 
 electricity-felegraph in civil war-Its great value-Wh 
 
 Earliest military signaling Introduction of field telegraphy- 
 Field telegraphy described Dangers to apparatus Firing guns by 
 -' ' ~ "^ .-...._..* ~. . .,._. ""iat General 
 
 Sherman said of it Origin of U. S. Military Telegraph Cost of ser- 
 vice during war Duties of cipher operators Official acknowl- 
 edgment of their services Anecdotes of military operators' ready 
 wit, heroic courage and nervous 
 Military operators' poor quar 
 Richmond taken Receipt of the 
 
 wit, heroic courage and nervousness Funny war story Another 
 " poor quarters A provident telegrapher 
 ipt of the great news Lincoln's assassina- 
 tionGrand feat of Prussian soldier, and heroism of French fe- 
 male operator. 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS.. 
 
 General The Atlantic cable First suggestion of it Its origin Or- 
 
 able The 
 
 gestor 
 Field Cost of first Atlantic cable Recent improvements In cable 
 
 ganization of company Laying cable The Great Eastern Dis- 
 couragements First message Suggestor wittily silenced by Mr. 
 
 laying Mr. Field's services Cable operators Cable codes A spec- 
 imenIts interpretation. 
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH 107 
 
 Economical Irishman Timid old lady Apprehensive Texan- 
 Witty, incongruous and rhyming telegrams A " killing " blunder 
 The " additional wurred "A furious message Satchel by tele- 
 graphSnubbing a king A proper old lady Little "Johnny Rus- 
 sell "-Peter to Margaret Flagarty-He couldn't be fooled-" She 
 writes like a man "Model (?) Maine man Hollow and " hello " 
 
 Fooling savages "Onnateral fixing "Chicago and Witty 
 
 illustration Electrifying loaf ers Shocking the negroes Blind- 
 folding the " masheen "A crammer.
 
 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS" 
 
 nces of oper- 
 
 A fatal " bull "Matrimony killed by a " bull " Instsn 
 ators' " bulls "A lord's mistake John Brown and Seaton Bros. 
 Ale or oil Too much coffee Blessings in disguise A profitable mis- 
 takeA military "bull" that was not all a " bull " Senders' 
 
 ' bulls "Habit and halibut " Bulls " from bad spelling A fishy 
 story Tragic " bull" Injustice to operators. 
 
 LIGHTNING FREAKS AND TRAGEDIES 138 
 
 Deaths from lightning Effects in different countries A triple tra- 
 "y Curious freaks of lightning Some wonderful instances- 
 ing in telegraph offices Operators killed. 
 
 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH 148 
 
 Abuse of General McClellan's name A modern " St. John "Big 
 swindle in Toledo" Spiritualistic " swindling Rappers' tricks 
 Their magnets How to make them Sir Charles Wneatstone's ex- 
 perimentsTwo good stories of sharp practice by operators Tam- 
 pering with cipher message The biters bit Great bank swindle- 
 Barb's telegraphic trap for burglars. 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION 160 
 
 A well-traveled message Spanish peasants and telegraph Tele- 
 graph in Morocco China India The East in general Japan In 
 
 THE WEATHERJREPORTS.. 
 
 r er His j 
 
 ;ure 
 i of sii 
 
 Death of General Meyer His account of storm signal system its 
 value to commerce and agriculture The New York station Cipher 
 
 rigin of weather reports 
 Institution Prof essor Henry. 
 
 THE RAILROAD TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM 
 
 Originated in England First instance of train dispatching in this 
 country System at Grand Central depot Moving trains by tele- 
 graphic orders Official instructions Train dispatchers and oper- 
 ators Their responsibility Thrilling incident Operator who 
 "forgot "Noble operator Latest inventions in railroad signaling 
 The train telegraph No more screaming engines Simplying 
 locomotives with water by electricity Fun on the railroad- 
 Waking the Pullman porter Operators' anti-suporific. 
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE 
 
 General remarks Electric girl of La Perriere^-Elec 
 
 marks Electric girl of La Perriere Electrical lady of 
 ty Electricity on dinner table^Feeling pulse by tele- 
 _._,._ _ _ velopment of growth by electricity Uses in surgery and 
 dentistry Electricity as a healer An " anti-fat " story. 
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH 218 
 
 The electric light Edison's description The light at Niagara- 
 Experiments in San Francisco Proposed illumination of Holyoke 
 Use in stores, stear 'lips, and in war The telephone How con- 
 structedThe Gemini name for it Its invention Telephone ser- 
 vice meter Transmitting sermons by telephone First Instance 
 Mr. Beecher's The telephone in Jersey City law courts Communi- 
 cating between ships Use in wooing In military operations- 
 Music Humors of the telephone The singing telephone Yarn 
 from Pine Bluff Joke on reporters One for Dawdles Marriage 
 by telephone Telegraphing by light The photophone Electrical 
 egg hatching and seed germination Tlieatrical th under Tooth- 
 ache cured by electricity Gas lighting and bell ringing by same 
 means Electricity as an umbrella In taming horses In connec- 
 tion witli .M iy ami Simkf.Vs meetings- 'I'dcui-ajiiiiiigby electrical 
 
 Maps by telegraph Magnetic magic writii 
 
 air currents 
 trie dri 
 
 taps by telegraph Magnetic magic writing Elec- 
 >wer Electricity in managing refractory horses 
 iving by electricity Diagrams of targets over the wire- 
 Electric combs and brushes New uses for the sun's rays The 
 ocean a source of electricity Suggested use of electricity in ex- 
 ecuting criminals Slaughtering cattle and killing whales ' 
 electricity Electric clocks that require no wir " 
 
 by steam at sea Electricity in steam The Edison electric 
 imotlve Description of it Electricity 
 
 aiding weary cash
 
 TELEGRAPHIC TALES 
 
 AND 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC H ISTORY. 
 
 PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 When signaling as a mode of communication was 
 first adopted, no amount of research can ascertain. We 
 find it difficult to conceive of a time when it was not 
 convenient, if not necessary, and when human ingenuity 
 was incapable of providing it. 
 
 One of the earliest recorded systems of telegraphy for 
 signaling over long distances originated among the Afri- 
 can negroes, and has been practiced from tune imme- 
 morial. The means used are telephonic, the signals 
 being read by sound, and not by the eye. 
 
 The "elliembic," as the instrument used is termed, 
 is still in existence, and used in the Cameroons Coun- 
 try, on the west coast of Africa. By the sounds pro- 
 duced on striking it, the natives carry on conversation 
 with great rapidity, and at several miles distance. The 
 noises are made to produce a perfect and distinct lan- 
 guage, as intelligible to the operator as that uttered by 
 the human voice. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add that the existence of 
 this contrivance, capable of such useful effects, implies 
 evolution, probably carried on through a series of ages,
 
 8 PRE-ELECTBIC TELEGKAPHS. 
 
 from devices which, we may presume, originated in the 
 very infancy of human society. 
 
 One of these still prevails in Montenegro, where, 
 when a shepherd in the mountains finds himself in want 
 of society, he sends out at random a peculiar kind of 
 yell, with a view of attracting the attention of any 
 one similarly situated, who may chance to be within 
 hearing upon some other mountain side, and may also 
 feel a desire for conversation. It is well known at what 
 a great distance shrill sounds may be distinctly heard 
 in the mountainous regions. The unseen friend, whose 
 ears have caught the sound, responds in the same way, 
 and then begins a dialogue about their flocks and herds, 
 or any other country gossip ; and should there chance 
 to be news of public interest, such as of any important 
 person or foreigner passing that way, the receiver of 
 the intelligence shouts it out in the open air for the 
 benefit of the mountain nearest to him, and so it passes 
 from one to another through a considerable part of the 
 country. 
 
 In saying that signaling by sound probably antici- 
 pated all other methods of telegraphing, we are simply 
 saying that the most natural and obvious mode of com- 
 munication, namely, that by means of the voice, was the 
 first made of service in the rapid transmission of intelli- 
 gence over long distances. 
 
 The employment of objects to be seen was a later 
 expression of human ingenuity, intended to better an- 
 swer the demand for easy and far-reaching communica- 
 tion. And what better for this purpose than fire a 
 ready servant and the most available for its conspicu-
 
 PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 9 
 
 ousness ; real even in the glare of day, and made in- 
 tense by surrounding darkness during the night ? 
 
 Accordingly, we find records of the use of fire-signal- 
 ing during the Greek and Roman wars ; and in the 
 writings of Polybius, about two hundred and sixty years 
 before Christ, there is an account of a signal corps at- 
 tached to the military. Down through the ages " fire- 
 swingers " were employed as signal men. 
 
 It is related that at the siege of Vienna, John Smith, 
 the explorer of Virginia, used the plan of Polybius with 
 effect, to arrange with the besieged forces for a sortie, 
 he having learned it from the Turks. 
 
 The quaint old English works of 1650, or thereabouts, 
 tell of " a marvelous device by which those who know 
 may converse so far as light may be known from dark- 
 ness." As a matter of course, every reader is acquaint- 
 ed with the modern use of the fiery cross, and certainly 
 with the telegraphic use of fireworks. 
 
 In 1684 Dr. Hooke proposed a kind of mechanical 
 telegraph, which, however, was not carried into opera- 
 tion. He prepared as many different shaped figures in 
 wood, as, for example, squares, triangles, circles, etc., 
 as there are letters in the alphabet. He exhibited them 
 successively in the required order, from behind a screen, 
 and proposed that torches or other lights, combined in 
 different arrangements, should supply their place at 
 night. Twenty years later Amontous, of Paris, ex- 
 hibited some experiments before the royal family of 
 France and the members of the Academy of Science, 
 showing the practicability of the system. 
 
 Semaphoric signaling contrivances were in use in
 
 10 PRE-EI.ECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 various countries down to within a half century of the 
 present year (1880). That employed by the English Ad- 
 miralty was not abolished until the end of the year 1847. 
 
 In contrast with the convenience of the electric tele- 
 graph it was cumbrous and costly. The expense of 
 working and mounting the line from London to Ports- 
 mouth was three thousand three hundred pounds ($16,- 
 500) per annum. 
 
 Though of great service to the government, it was, 
 of course, only available in clear weather. Vexatious 
 interruptions continually took place, and droll accidents 
 occasionally resulted from the sudden cessation of com- 
 munication, from a fog, or similar cause, during the 
 transmission of a message. 
 
 When, for example, the British army was fighting 
 under "Wellington in Spain, news was anxiously expected 
 from that great commander through the Admiralty sig- 
 nals. The public was in a feverish excitement, when 
 one day the disastrous message was received : " Well- 
 ington defeated." 
 
 The funds were violently agitated, the people and the 
 government were bewildered, and terrible rumors of 
 enormous slaughter and great loss of guns, colors, and 
 ammunition were heard on all sides. It turned out, 
 however, that, just as the word " defeated " had been 
 deciphered at some part of the line, a sudden mist had 
 come on and cut off the remainder of the message. 
 When this inopportune visitor had passed away, the 
 public mind was instantly relieved with the news that 
 the message was not "Wellington defeated," but 
 " Wellington defeated the French."
 
 PRE-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 11 
 
 Lest readers should take exception to the use of the 
 word "telegraph," with reference to signaling before 
 the introduction of the electric telegraph, it is interest- 
 ing to know that in an article published in " Nicholson's 
 Journal of Philosophy " for October, 1798, and entitled, 
 " An Essay on the Art of Conveying Secret and Swift 
 Intelligence," by Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the word 
 " telegraph " is frequently used, and in such a way as 
 to show that it was then a common current term. The 
 following extract from the paper shows what could even 
 then be done in the way of instantaneous transmission 
 of intelligence : " In September, 1796, the lord lieuten- 
 ant ordered me to prepare telegraphs for an experiment 
 before his excellency. In consequence I constructed 
 four new telegraphs. I had found that the large ma- 
 chines, thirty feet high, with which my sons talked, in 
 September, 1794, across the Channel, between Ireland 
 and Scotland, were liable to accidents in stormy weather, 
 etc." 
 
 In the grand march of human progress all previous 
 methods of distant communication were surpassed in 
 general availability by the electric telegraph, which, 
 associated with locomotion by the agency of steam, in- 
 troduced a new era into the history of civilization. 
 
 Very curiously, Addison, in No. 241 of the Spectator, 
 December 6th, 1711, quoting from a mediaeval writer of 
 monkish Latin, realizes the instrument used for tele- 
 graphic purposes in this nineteenth century. 
 
 He says : 
 
 " Strada, in one of his Prolusions, gives an account 
 of a chimerical correspondence between two friends, by
 
 12 IRE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 the help of a certain loadstone, which had such virtue 
 in it, that if it touched two several needles, when one of 
 the needles so touched began to move, the other, though 
 at never so great a distance, moved at the same time 
 and in the same manner. He tells us that the two 
 friends, being each of them possessed of one of these 
 needles, made a kind of dial plate, inscribing it with the 
 four-and-twenty letters, in the same manner as the 
 hours of the day are marked upon the ordinary dial- 
 plate. They then fixed one of the needles on each of 
 these plates in such a manner that it could be moved 
 round without impediment so as to touch any of the 
 four-and-twenty letters. Upon their separating from 
 one another into distant countries, they agreed to 
 withdraw themselves punctually into their closets at a 
 certain hour of the day, and to converse with one an- 
 other by means of this invention. Accordingly, when 
 they were some hundred miles asunder, each of them 
 shut himself up in his closet at the time appointed, and 
 immediately cast his eye upon his dial-plate. If he had 
 a mind to write anything to his friend, he directed his 
 needle to every letter that formed the words which he 
 had occasion for, making a little pause at the end of 
 every word or sentence, to avoid confusion. The friend, 
 in the meanwhile, saw his own sympathetic needle mov- 
 ing of itself to every letter which that of his corres- 
 pondent pointed at. By this means they talked to- 
 gether across a whole continent, and conveyed their 
 thoughts to one another in an instant over cities or 
 mountains, seas or deserts. ***** if ev er 
 this invention should be revived or put into practice, I 
 would propose that upon the lovers' dial-plate there 
 should be written not only the four-and-twenty letters, 
 but several entire words which have always a place in 
 passionate epistles, as ' Flames, Darts, Die, Languish, 
 Absence, Cupid, Heart, Eyes, Hang, Drown, and the 
 like.' This would very much abridge the lover's pains
 
 PBE ELECTRIC TKLEGKAI'HS. 13 
 
 in this way of writing a letter, as it would enable him 
 to express the most useful and significant words with a 
 single touch of the needle." 
 
 "We must now take our readers from the elegant 
 periods of Addison into an account of the successive 
 experiments and discoveries which led up to the in- 
 vention of the electric telegraph, and afterward to its 
 remarkable perfection as we now know it.
 
 14 THE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPH: 
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ITS BEGINNING 
 AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 " Coining events," says a time-honored maxim, " cast 
 their shadows before." Long ere the electric telegraph 
 became an "institution," its feasibility had been antici- 
 pated by scientific minds, with greater or less clearness. 
 There is nothing more interesting in the history of ex- 
 periment than the successive results of the attempt to 
 dominate the electric fluid. The imagination is awed 
 by the sublimity of human endeavor, which, in their 
 turn, overcomes one natural force after another. Water, 
 air, fire, steam, Lightning, have had to succumb to the 
 potent spirit of man, "for whom all things were made;" 
 and the future will, doubtless, see still stronger in- 
 stances than the past, of the triumph which intellect 
 and courage gain in the struggle with nature. Proba- 
 bly never is this glorious victory due to one man. The 
 electric telegraph is no exception to the general rule. 
 As Robert Sabine says: "It grew up little by little, each 
 inventor adding his little to advance it toward perfec- 
 tion." 
 
 BEFORE 1794. 
 
 Our familiar friend the lightning rod was an appli- 
 ance of the earliest civilization, namely, that of the an- 
 cient Egyptians. These people, alas! had experiences 
 of the persistency of the brazen-cheeked lightning-rod 
 man, who fitly represented the first and simplest pro- 
 cess in the subjugation of the electric fluid.
 
 ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 15 
 
 We are in the dark as to the history of man's rela- 
 tions with this subtle agent from the last days of an- 
 cient Egypt until about six hundred years before Christ, 
 when Thales, of Miletz, discovered that the rubbing of 
 amber (electron, in Greek) produced what is, perhaps 
 somewhat clumsily, called frictional electricity. Two hun- 
 dred years later, Plato attempted the first theory of elec- 
 tricity. Ten years before the Christian era, Plutarchus is 
 recorded as having described the electric phenomena 
 observed in his time. Through a very long hiatus we 
 arrive at the date 1690, A. D., when Otto Van Guericke, 
 of Germany, made a friction electric machine. Thirty- 
 eight years afterward, Etienne Grey, of England, dis- 
 covered the difference between conductors and insula- 
 tors; and, in the following year, he and another En- 
 glishman, named Wheeler, succeeded in transmitting an 
 electric shock through several hundred feet of wire. 
 The Leyden jar was invented in 1745, by Musschen- 
 brook, of Leyden, Holland. It may be described as a 
 glass jar or bottle used to accumulate electricity. The 
 jar is coated with tin foil within and without nearly to 
 its top, and is surmounted by a brass knob for the pur- 
 pose of charging it with electricity. 
 
 We next turn to our own shores and the experiment 
 of the illustrious Franklin, who gives the following ac- 
 count of it, in a letter written by himself to Peter Col- 
 linson, Esq., P. R. S., London, which probably contains 
 about all that is definitely know in relation to the 
 American philosopher's discovery of the analogy be- 
 tween the electric spark and lightning. This had been 
 previously conjectured. So early as 1708 Dr. Wall had
 
 16 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH: 
 
 pointed out a resemblance between them. In 1735 
 Grey, whom we mentioned just now, had stated that 
 they differ only in degree ; and four years before Frank- 
 lin's great experiment, the Abbe Nollet gave more sub- 
 stantial reasons than had been adduced by Grey, for 
 agreement with him. But to Franklin's letter, which is 
 taken from a quarto volume published in London in 
 1774, and entitled, "Experiments and Observations on 
 Electricity, made at Philadelphia, in America, by Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, LL. D. and F. R. S." 
 
 FRANKLIN'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS EXPERIMENT WITH THE KITE. 
 
 "As frequent mention is made in public papers : 
 Europe of the success of the Philadelphia experii 
 
 from 
 
 experiment 
 
 for drawing the electric fire from clouds by means of 
 pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings, etc., it 
 may be agreeable to the curious to be informed that the 
 same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, though 
 made in a different and more easy manner, which is as 
 follows : 
 
 "Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the 
 arms so long as to reach to ftie corners of a large thin 
 silk handkerchief when extended , tie the corners of the 
 handkerchief to the extremities of the cross, so you 
 have the body of a kite, which being properly accomo- 
 dated with a tail, loop and string, will rise in the air 
 like those made of paper; but this being of silk is bet- 
 ter fitted to bear the wet and wind of a thundergust 
 without tearing. To the top of the upright stick of the 
 cross is to be fixed a very sharp pointed wire, rising a 
 foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine, 
 next the hand, is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the 
 silk and twine join a key may be fastened. This kite is 
 to be raised when a thundergust appears to be coming
 
 ITS BEGESTfING AND DEVELOPMENT. 17 
 
 on, and the person who holds the string must standwith- 
 in a door or window, or under some cover, so that the 
 silk ribbon may not be wet, and care must be taken 
 that the twine does not touch the frame of the door or 
 window. As soon as any of the thunder clouds come 
 over the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric 
 fire from them, and the kite, with all the twine will be 
 electrified, and the loose filaments of the twine will stand 
 out every way, and be attracted by an approaching fin- 
 ger And when the rain has wet the kite and twine, so 
 that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find 
 it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach 
 of your knuckle. At this key the phial (Leyden jar) 
 may be charged; and from the electric fire thus ob- 
 tained spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric 
 experiments be formed which are usually done by the 
 help of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the 
 sameness of the electric matter with that of lightning 
 completely demonstrated. B. FRANKLIN 
 
 "Oct. 19, 1752." 
 
 Eight here is the proper place to record an amusing 
 anecdote of Robert Stephenson, who worthily bore the 
 name which his father had made immortal, and exem- 
 plified in his fondness as a boy for scientific experiments 
 that "The child is father of the man." This young 
 gentleman, we are told, was very fond of reducing his 
 scientific reading to practice ; and after studying Frank- 
 lin's description of the lightning experiment, he pro- 
 ceeded to spend his store of Saturday pennies in pur- 
 chasing about half a mile of copper wire. Having pre- 
 pared his kite, he sent it up in the field opposite his 
 father's door, and bringing the wire, insulated by means 
 of a few feet of silk cord, over the backs of some of 
 Farmer Wigham's cows, he soon had them skipping 
 2
 
 18 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH : 
 
 about the field in all directions, with their tails up. 
 One day he had his kite flying at the cottage door as 
 his father's galloway was hanging by the bridle to the 
 paling, waiting for the master to mount. Bringing the 
 end of the wire just over the pony's crupper, so smart 
 an electric shock was given it that the brute was almost 
 knocked down. At this juncture the father issued from 
 the door, riding-whip in hand, and was witness to the 
 scientific trick just played off upon his galloway "Ah! 
 you mischievous scoundrel!" cried he to the boy, who 
 ran off He inwardly chuckled with pride, nevertheless, 
 at Robert's successful experiment. 
 
 After Franklin's audacious and most notable experi- 
 ment, the history of the electric telegraph hastens 
 apace. We have but to record one more experiment, 
 before arriving at the date usually given as the first in 
 the long series which indicates the development of tele- 
 graphs by electricity. This is 1787, when a French- 
 man named Lomond succeeded in communicating sig- 
 nals from one house to another by electroscopic action. 
 
 It was in the year 1774 that George Louis Lesage, 
 of Geneva, constructed a telegraph composed of twenty- 
 four line wires, corresponding to the twenty- four letters 
 of the alphabet, and by the use of frictional electricity 
 and pith balls, succeeded in transmitting intelligible 
 signals over the wires to a distance. The date men- 
 tioned is accordingly the time when the electric tele- 
 graph was invented, and Lesage was its inventor. 
 
 M. Lomond's name occurs once more among the emi- 
 nent men to whom we are indebted for improvements 
 previous to the introduction of the present system of
 
 ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 19 
 
 rapid communication between widely different places, 
 to which all precedent systems were but toys in com- 
 parison, although they were of great use in preparing 
 the way for it. 
 
 The following passage occurs in "Arthur Young's 
 Travels in France," published in Dublin in 1793. The 
 date of the letter from which the extract is taken is Oct. 
 16th, 1787: "In the evening to Monsieur Lomond, a 
 very ingenins and inventive mechanic, who has made an 
 improvement in the jenny for spinning cotton. In 
 electricity he has made a remarkable discovery. You 
 write two or three words on paper ; he takes it with 
 him into a room, and turns a machine inclosed in a cy 
 lindrical case, at the top of which is an electrometer, 
 and a small fine pitch ball; a wire connects with a 
 cylinder and electrometer in a distant apartment, and 
 his wife, by remarking the corresponding motions of 
 the ball, writes down the words they indicate, from 
 which it appears that he has formed an alphabet of mo- 
 tions. As the form of the wire makes no difference in 
 the effect, the correspondence may be carried on to any 
 distance within or without a fortified town, for instance, 
 or for purposes much more worthy. Whatever the use 
 may be, the invention is beautiful." 
 
 In the year 1794, M. Reiser, of Geneva, used thirty- 
 six insulated wires for letters and numerals, in connec- 
 tion with a like number of narrow strips of tin foil 
 pasted on glass ; the letters and figures were cut in the 
 foil and made visible by the passage of the electric 
 spark. A year later, Tiberius Cavallo, in England, sent 
 explosive and other electric signals through fine insu-
 
 20 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 5 
 
 lated copper wire, using Ley den jars, and sending 
 "sparks at different intervals according to a settled 
 plan." Three additional experiments, according to 
 Steinheil, put it beyond a doubt that frictional electric- 
 ity might be made a successful means of telegraphic in- 
 tercourse. These were (1) That of D. F. Salva, Spain, 
 who in the year 1798, worked an electric telegraph 
 through twenty-six miles, using a single wire, and the 
 sparks of a Leyden jar for signals. (2) That of Francis 
 Ronalds, who, in 1816, constructed in England an ex- 
 perimental telegraph line, of a single insulated wire 
 eight miles long, operated by an electrical machine, or 
 small Leyden jar. His elementary signal was the di- 
 vergence of the pith balls of a Canton's electrometer, 
 produced by the communication of a statical charge to 
 the wire. Lettered dials, rotated synchronously at 
 each end of the line, served, in connection with the pith 
 balls, to indicate the letter designated by the sender. 
 This dial system was the precursor of Wheatstone's dial 
 telegraph in 1839 ; House s letter printing telegraph in 
 1846; and Hughes printing telegraph in 1855; and (3) 
 that of Hai-rison Gray Dyar, America, who, in 1823, 
 constructed a telegraph line on Long Island, support- 
 ing his wires by glass insulators fixed on trees and 
 poles; the electric signals printed themselves upon lit- 
 mus paper, the spacing of the marks indicating the let; 
 ters and other signs. Just as Dyar and his partner 
 Brown were seeking capital to set up a line between 
 New York and Philadelphia, a blackmailing agent, fail- 
 ing to extort the concession of a large share in the en- 
 terprise, obtained a writ against the two partners on a
 
 ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 21 
 
 charge of conspiracy to carry on secret communication 
 between the cities! The case was never brought to 
 trial, but the enterprise was blocked. 
 
 For the above information, beginning with the date 
 1794, we are largely indebted to an article which recent- 
 ly appeared in the Scientific American, reviewing a work 
 on the origin and development of the electro-magnetic 
 telegraph, with special reference to Professor Joseph 
 Henry's contributions thereto. The work referred to is 
 from the pen of William B. Taylor, an authority on the 
 subject. We quote the remainder of the article as be- 
 ing the best summary of the subject with which we are 
 acquainted, of particular use to the student of electric- 
 ity, and of great value, for reference, to the general 
 reader. 
 
 TELEGRAPHS BY GALVANISM. 
 
 "1808. The first to apply to telegraphy the galvanic 
 battery introduced by Volta, in 1800, was Dr. Samuel 
 Thomas Von Soemmering, of Munich. He employed 
 the energy of a powerful voltaic pile to bring about the 
 decomposition of water by means of thirty-five gold 
 pins immersed in an oblong glass trough. Each of 
 these electrodes was in connection with one of the 
 thirty -five wires forming the line. The bubbles evolved 
 as these electrodes were received in figured and lettered 
 tubes, and the messages were thus spelled out. In 
 1810 Soemmering telegraphed through two miles of 
 wire. 
 
 "1816. Dr. John Redman Coxe, of Philadelphia, 
 suggested a system substantially the same as Soemmer-
 
 22 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH : 
 
 ing's (of which he appeared to be ignorant). He also 
 proposed to accomplish the same result by decomposing 
 metallic salts, as was afterward done. 
 
 "1843. Mr. Eobert Smith, Scotland, devised a gal- 
 vano-chemical telegraph, carrying out practically the 
 suggestion of Dr. Coxe. At first he used a separate 
 wire for each letter, the message being printed on a 
 strip of paper wet with a solution of ferrocyanide of 
 potassium. Subsequently Mr. Smith reduced his line 
 to a single circuit of two wires, and worked his system 
 through 1,800 yards of fence wire (1846). 
 
 "1846. Mr. Alexander Bain, Scotland, patented in 
 England a galvano-chemical telegraph, different in me- 
 chanical details, but similar in its chemical record to the 
 system of Smith. 
 
 "1849. Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, New York, pa- 
 tented in this country a telegraph similar to Smith. 
 
 TELEGRAPHS BY GALVANO-MAGNETISM. 
 
 "1820. Hans Christian Oersted, Copenhagen, redis- 
 covered the directive influence of a galvanic conductor 
 on a magnetic needle (Komagnosi's of the same in 1802 
 having attracted no attention). The same year (1820) 
 Professor Schweiger, of Halle, made the first real gal- 
 vanometer; and shortly afterward Ampere, in Paris, 
 proved experimentally the feasibility of an electro-mag- 
 netic telegraph, in which the galvanometer should take 
 the place of the electrometer employed by Lesage. 
 
 "1823. Baron Paul L. Schilling, of Cronstadt, Rus- 
 sia, practically applied Ampere's suggestion. In his
 
 ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 23 
 
 apparatus signals were produced by five galvanometer 
 needles, provided with independent circuits. 
 
 "1824. Peter Barlow, England, experimenting with 
 considerable lengths of wire, to test the practicability 
 of Ampere s suggestion, was convinced that it was im- 
 practicable, owing to the rapid dimunition of effect (due 
 to increased resistance), by lengthening the conducting 
 wire. Other inclusive experiments in the same direc- 
 tion were made by Fechter in 1829, and Ritchie in 
 1830. 
 
 "1833. Prof. Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm 
 Edward Weber constructed at Gottingen a galvanom- 
 eter telegraph of a single circuit of uninsulated wire a 
 mile and a half long. The alphabet of signs was made 
 up of right and left deflections of the needle, observed 
 by reflections from a small mirror. Gauss was the first 
 to employ magneto electricity in telegraphs. Weber 
 added to the signaling device a delicate apparatus for 
 setting off a clock alarm. 
 
 "1836. Prof. C. A. Steinheil, of Munich, undertook, 
 at the request of Gauss, the development of the ar- 
 rangement above described, and constructed a similar 
 galvanometer telegraph line two miles in length, intro- 
 ducing considerable improvements. The next year 
 Steinheil discovered that the ground might be made a 
 part of the circuit, thus dispensing with a second wire 
 for the return circuit. 
 
 1837. Mr. William Fothergill Cooke and Prof. 
 Charles Wheatstone patented in England a galvanom- 
 eter or needle telegraph very similar to the earlier one 
 of Schilling, employing six wires and five indicating
 
 24 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH t 
 
 needles. An experimental line a mile and a quarter 
 long was worked with partial success, July 25 ; and one 
 thirteen miles long was established in 1838." 
 
 While these experiments with the needle were go- 
 ing on, the electro-magnet was being developed and ap- 
 plied. 
 
 1820. The germ of the electro-magnet was discov- 
 ered by Arago, who observed that the electric current 
 would develop magnetic power in strips of iron and 
 steel. 
 
 1824. William Sturgeon, England, produced the 
 true electro-magnet, with its intermittent control of an 
 armature. 
 
 The electro-magnet of Sturgeon was improved by 
 Professor Henry in 1828; and in 1829 he exhibited a 
 larger magnet of the same character, tightly wound 
 with 35 feet of silk covered wire. A pair of small 
 galvanic plates, which could be dipped into a tumbler 
 of diluted acid, was soldered to the ends of the wire, 
 and the whole mounted on a stand. This was the first 
 magnetic spool or bobbin. This invention was further 
 improved the same year, and in 1830 Professor Henry, 
 assisted by Dr. Philip Ten Eyck, constructed an electro- 
 magnet which lifted 750 pounds. In 1831 he made one 
 weighing 82 1 pounds, which sustained over a ton. In 
 the meantime Professor Henry practically worked out 
 the differing functions of quantity and intensity mag- 
 nets, and experimentally established the conditions re- 
 quired for magnetizing iron at great distances through 
 long conducting wires. This first made the electro- 
 magnet available for telegraphic purposes.
 
 ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 25 
 
 1831. The transmission of signals through a mile of 
 copper bell wire interposed in a circuit between a small 
 Cruickshank's battery and an intensity magnet a 
 practical telegraph was practiced by Professor Henry. 
 
 This memorable experimental telegraphic arrange- 
 ment involved three significant and important novelties. 
 In the first place, it was the first electro-magnetic tele- 
 graph employing an "intensity" magnet capable of 
 being excited at very great distances from a suitable 
 "intensity" battery. 
 
 In the second place, it was the first electro-magnetic 
 telegraph employing the armature as a signaling device, 
 or employing the attractive power of the intermittent 
 magnet, as distinguished from the directive action of 
 the galvanic circuit. That is to say, it was, strictly 
 speaking, the first magnetic telegraph. 
 
 In the third place, it was the first acoustic electro- 
 magnetic telegraph, 
 
 1837. Professor Samuel F. B. Morse devised a 
 magneto-electric telegraph capable of transmitting sig- 
 nals through a circuit of forty feet, but failed for longer 
 distances from the circumstance that he used a quantity 
 current. His friend, Dr. Gale, made for him an inten- 
 sity battery, and added a hundred or more turns to the 
 coil of wire around the poles of the magnet. With 
 these necessary (and radical) improvements the appa- 
 ratus was made to work through ten miles of wire. 
 In applying for a caveat for his invention, October 6, 
 1837, Professor Morse specified six distract parts, not 
 one of which enters into the established " Morse " tele- 
 graph of to-day. Mr. Taylor shows that Professor
 
 ZO THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ' 
 
 Morse's real contribution to telegraphy consists first in 
 the adaptation of the armature of a Henry electro-mag- 
 net to the purpose of a recording instrument ; and 
 second, in connection therewith, the improvement on 
 the Gauss and Steinheil dual-sign alphabets, made 
 by employing the single line dot and dash alphabet. 
 
 In his general summary of the history of the origin 
 and developement of the electro-magnetic telegraph, 
 Mr. Taylor sets down the leading preparatory investiga- 
 tions and discoveries as these five : 
 
 1. The discovery of galvanic electricity by Galvani, 
 1786-1790. 
 
 2. The galvanic or voltaic battery by Volta, 1800. 
 
 3. The directive influence of the galvanic current 
 on a magnetic needle by Komagnosi, 1802, and by 
 Hoersted, 1820. 
 
 4. The galvanometer by Schweigger,1820 (the parent 
 of the needle system). 
 
 5. The electro-magnet by Arago and Sturgeon, 
 1820-1825 (the parent of the magnet system). 
 
 The second half dozen capital steps in the evolu- 
 tion of telegraphy were : 
 
 1. Henry's most vital discovery, in 1829 and 1830, 
 of the intensity magnet and its intimate relation 
 to the intensity battery. 
 
 2. Gauss' improvement, in 1833 (or probably 
 Schilling's, considerably earlier), of reducing the 
 electric conductors to a single circuit by the ingenious 
 application of a dual sign, so combined as to produce
 
 ITS BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 27 
 
 a true alphabet. (The anticipations of this idea by 
 Lomond in 1787, Cavallo in 1795, and Dyar in 1825, 
 are not regarded as practically influential in the 
 progress of telegraphy). 
 
 3. Weber's discovery, in 1833, that the conducting 
 wires of an electric telegraph could be carried through 
 the air, without insulation, except at the points of 
 support. 
 
 4. As a valuable adjunct to telegraphy, Daniell's 
 invention of a constant galvanic battery in 1836. 
 
 5. Steinheil's discovery, in 1837, that a single 
 conducting wire is sufficient for telegraphic purposes. 
 
 6. Morse's adaptation of the armature of a Henry 
 electro-magnet as a recording instrument, 1837, and 
 the single line dot and dash alphabet in 1838. 
 
 The earlier needle type of electro-magnetic telegraph 
 has found its special application in ocean lines, no 
 element of the Morse system entering into the opera- 
 tion of submarine cables. 
 
 The more recent telegraphic developments do not 
 fall within the scope of Mr. Taylor's review. A few 
 other dates, as given by Prescott, may appropriately 
 serve to complete this chronology. 
 
 1861. Reiss discovered that a vibrating diaphragm 
 could be actuated by the voice so as to cause the 
 pitch and rhythm of vocal sounds to be transmitted 
 to a distance and reproduced by electro-magnetism. 
 
 1872. Stearns perfected a duplex system, where- 
 by two communications could be simultaneously trans- 
 mitted over one wire.
 
 28 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 
 
 1874. Edison's quadruples was invented. 
 
 1874. Gray invented a method of electrical trans- 
 mission, by means of which the intensity of tones 
 as well as their pitch and rhythm could be re- 
 produced at a distance ; and subsequently conceived 
 the idea of controlling the formation of electric waves 
 by means of the vibrations of a diaphragm capable 
 of responding to all the tones of the human voice. 
 
 1876. Telephone invented. Bell invented an im- 
 provement in the apparatus for the transmission and 
 reproduction of articulate speech, in which magneto- 
 electric currents were superposed upon a voltaic 
 circuit, and actuated an iron diaphragm attached 
 to a soft iron magnet. During the same year Dolbear 
 conceived the idea of using permanent magnets in 
 place of the electro-magnets and battery previously 
 employed, and of using the same instrument for 
 both sending and receiving. 
 
 1877. Edison's carbon telephone was brought out. 
 
 To these may be added Edison's electro-motograph, 
 or electro-chemical telephone, 1877. 
 
 1878. Duplexing of ocean telegraph. 1 
 
 1879. Cowper's writing telegraph. 
 
 1880. Field's successful substitution of dynamo- 
 electricity for galvanic batteries in telegraphing. 
 
 In the next chapter we shall introduce very interest- 
 ing matter in regard to the early days of the electric 
 telegraph, which, by the way, began in this coun- 
 try in 1844, with one wire between Baltimore and 
 Washington.
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELE- 
 GRAPH IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Under this head we shall introduce matter personal, 
 biographical and historical; funny and scientific very 
 miscellaneous, indeed, but all having a direct connec- 
 tion with that great event in our national history the 
 introduction of the electric telegraph into this country. 
 
 THE FIRST AMERICAN LINE. 
 
 Anent this event, it is a matter of historic record 
 that on the 3d of March, 1843, Congress passed a 
 bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars for the con- 
 struction of Professor Morse's experimental line be- 
 tween Baltimore and Washington, in order to test 
 the practicability of the invention. The original model 
 of a telegraphic apparatus filed by the honored in- 
 ventor when he got his patent has been unearthed 
 from a lot of rubbish in the cellar of the Patent 
 Office at Washington, where it has been lying for 
 years. The clumsiness of the signal key, as compared 
 with the one of the present day, is ridiculous. It 
 is nearly two feet long, and has a large lump of lead 
 at the furthest end from the hand, to throw the key and 
 break the circuit. It was at first proposed to lay 
 the wires under ground, inclosed in a leaden tube, 
 and the contract for laying this tube was taken 
 by Mr. F. O. J. Smith, of Maine, who was at that 
 time editor of the Portland Farmer, and who had 
 previously been as a member of Congress, and
 
 30 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 chairman of the Committee on Commerce largely 
 instrumental in the passage of the appropriation. 
 About this time Mr. Ezra Cornell, who was on a 
 visit to Maine on business, called upon Mr. Smith, 
 who, in speaking of the contract which he had taken 
 for laying the wires, and for which he was to receive 
 one hundred dollars per mile, incidentally remarked 
 that, after a careful examination, he had found he would 
 lose money by the job. Mr. Smith at the same time 
 showed Mr. Cornell a piece of the pipe, and explained 
 the manner of its construction, the depth to which 
 it was to be laid, and the difficulties which he expected 
 to encounter in carrying out the design. Mr. Cornell at 
 this same interview, after the brief explanation which 
 Mr. Smith had given, told him that in his opinion 
 the pipe could be laid by machinery at a much less ex- 
 pense than one hundred dollars per mile, and would 
 be in the main a profitable operation. At the same 
 time he sketched on paper the plan of a machine which 
 he thought practicable. This led to the engagement 
 of Mr Cornell by Mr. Smith to make such a machine, 
 and he immediately went to work and made patterns 
 for its construction. While the machine was being 
 made, Mr. Cornell went to Augusta, Maine, and settled 
 up his business, and then returned to Portland and 
 completed the pipe' machine. Professor Morse was 
 notified by Smith in regard to the machine, and went 
 to Portland to see it tried. The trial proved a success. 
 Mr. Cornell was employed to take charge of laying the 
 pipe. Under his hands the work advanced rapidly, 
 and he had laid ten miles or more of the pipe when
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 31 
 
 Professor Morse discovered that the insulation was so 
 imperfect that the telegraph would not operate. He 
 did not, however, stop the work until he had received 
 orders ; which order came in the following singular 
 manner: When the evening train came out from 
 Baltimore, Professor Morse was observed to step from 
 the car ; he walked up to Mr. Cornell, took him 
 aside, and said: "Mr. Cornell, cannot you contrive to 
 stop the work for a few days without its being known 
 that it is done on purpose? If it is known that I 
 ordered its stoppage, the plaguy papers will find it out 
 and have all kinds of stories about it." Mr. Cornell, 
 with his usual quickness of discernment, saw the con- 
 dition of affairs and told the professor that he would 
 make it all right. So he ordered the drivers to start 
 the team of eight mules which set the machine in 
 motion, and, while driving along at a lively pace, 
 in order to reach the Relay House, a distance of about 
 twenty rods, before it was time to "turn out," managed 
 to tilt the machine so as to catch it under the point of 
 a projecting rock. This apparent accident so damaged 
 the machine as to render it useless. The professor 
 retired in a state of perfect contentment, and the 
 Baltimore papers on the following morning had an 
 interesting subject for a paragraph. The work thus 
 being of necessity suspended, Professor Morse con- 
 vened a grand council at the Relay House, composed 
 of himself, Professor Gale, Dr. Fisher, Mr. Vail, and 
 F. O. J. Smith, the persons especially concerned in the 
 undertaking. After discussing the matter, they de- 
 termined upon further efforts for perfecting the insula-
 
 32 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 tion. These failed, and orders were given to remove 
 everything to Washington. Up to this time Professor 
 Morse and his assistants had expended twenty-two 
 thousand dollars, and all in vain. Measures were 
 taken to reduce the expenses, and Mr. Cornell was 
 appointed assistant superintendent, and took entire 
 charge of the undertakir- <r. He no altered the de- 
 sign, substituting poles for the pipe. This may be re- 
 garded as the commencement of " air lines " of tele- 
 graph. He commenced the erection of the line be- 
 tween Baltimore and Washington on poles, and had it 
 in successful operation in time to report the proceed- 
 ings of the conventions which nominated Henry Clay 
 and James K. Polk for the presidency. 
 
 APATHY OF SCIENTISTS, PRESS AND PUBLIC. 
 
 Although the practicability of the telegraph had 
 been so thoroughly tested, it did not at once become 
 popular. A short line was erected in New York city in 
 the spring of 1845, having its lower office at 112 Broad- 
 way and its upper office near Niblo's. The resources of 
 the company had been entirely exhausted, so that 
 they were unable to pay Mr. Cornell for his ser- 
 vices, and he was directed to charge visitors twenty 
 five cents for admission, so as to raise the funds requisite 
 to defray expenses. Yet sufficient interest was not 
 shown by the community even to support Mr. Cornell 
 and his assistant. Even the New York press was 3p 
 posed to the telegraphic project. The proprietor of 
 the New York Herald think of the astute elder Ben- 
 nett making such a big blunder when called upon by 
 Mr. Cornell and requested to say a good word in
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 33 
 
 his favor, emphatically refused, stating distinctly that 
 it would be greatly to his disadvantage should the 
 telegraph succeed. Stranger still it is that many of 
 those veiy men who would be expected to be entirely 
 in favor of the undertaking, namely, men of scientific 
 pursuits, stood aloof and declined to endorse it. In 
 order to put up the- line in the most economical man- 
 ner, Mr. Cornell desired to attach the wires to the city 
 buildings which lined its course. Many house-owners 
 objected, alleging that it would invalidate their insur- 
 ance policies by increasing the risk of their, buildings 
 being sti ck by lightning. Mr. Cornell cited the 
 theory of the lightning rod as demonstrated by Frank- 
 lin, and sho red that the telegraphic wire would add 
 safety to their buildings. Some persons still refused, 
 but informed him that could he procure a certificate 
 from Professor Benwick, then connected with Columbia 
 College, to the effect that the wires would not increase 
 the risk of their buildings, they would allow him to 
 attach his wires. Mr. Cornell thought the obtaining 
 of such a certificate a very easy matter, and certainly 
 all scientific men were agreed upon the Franklin theory. 
 He therefore posted off to Columbia College, saw the 
 distinguisned savan, stated his errand, and requested 
 the certificate, saying it would be doing Professor 
 Morse a great favor. To his utter consternation the 
 learned professor replied : " No, I cannot do that," 
 alleging that "the wires would increase the risk of the 
 buildings being struck by lightning." Mr. Cornell wa.s 
 obliged to go into an elaborate discussion of the Frank- 
 lin theory of the lightning-rod, until the professor con- 
 3
 
 34 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 fessed himself in error, and prepared the desired certi- 
 ficate, for which opinion he charged him twenty-five 
 dollars. This certificate enabled Mr. Cornell to carry 
 out his plans. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE INSTRUMENTS FIRST USED. 
 
 The apparatus used on the original line between 
 Baltimore and Washington in 1844 would be some- 
 thing of a curiosity at the present time. The relay 
 magnets weighed one hundred and eighty-five pounds, 
 and it required two men to handle one of them if it 
 became necessary to move it. The coils were about 
 eighteen inches in diameter, and were composed of No. 
 16 copper wire insulated with cotton thread. It was 
 supposed at that time to be indispensably necessary 
 that the wire surrounding the magnets should be 
 the same size as the wire of the line. Professor Charles 
 Grafton Page, a short time afterward, devised a mag- 
 net of considerably less size, which was used in the 
 lines built during the years 1845 and 1846. Professor 
 Morse, while in France in the year 1845, obtained 
 some electro-magnets of about the same size of those 
 now in use, which he brought to this country and 
 made use of in working the' telegraph. The first 
 small relay magnet made in this country was con- 
 structed, we believe, by Clark of Philadelphia in 1845 
 or 1846, and in its general form was very similar to 
 those now in use. 
 
 An interesting relic of the early days of telegraphy 
 has been discovered at Morristown, N. J. It is the 
 first instrument by which messages were received and 
 sent by aid of the electric current, and was one of two
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 35 
 
 takeu from Morristown by Morse and Vail Morse 
 using one at "Washington, and Vail the other at Balti- 
 more. The first message sent was the now well-known 
 "What has God wrought ?" which Morse transmitted 
 to Vail ; but the first public message was the news of 
 the nomination of Polk to the presidency by the 
 Baltimore convention of 1844, sent by Vail to 
 Morse. 
 
 These instruments were in constant use for six years, 
 when Mr. Vail, returning to Morristown, brought his 
 with him, and where it has still remained in the pos- 
 session of his family. Mr. Vail dying soon after, his 
 instrument was specially left by a clause in his 
 will to his eldest son as an heirloom, while parts 
 of instruments made during the experimental trials 
 were left to Professor Morse, with a request that 
 he would give them at some future day to the New 
 Jersey Historical Society. The old instrument works 
 as well as when first made. Its dimensions are sixteen 
 inches in length, seven inches in height, six inches 
 wide, with two magnets of three inches diameter. The 
 paper used was two and a half inches in width, three 
 pens being proposed to be used. The weight of the 
 instrument is twenty pounds. 
 
 "GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW." 
 
 In the year 1850, Mr. Alfred Vail, of whom we shall 
 have occasion to say more by and by, wrote a manu- 
 script giving an account of the receipts of the tele- 
 graph at the Washington office during the first four
 
 36 ISTHOLiUOTlON OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 days of its operation after it had been taken under the 
 patronage of the government. The details form a 
 forcible illustration of the truth of the motto at the 
 head of this paragraph. Mr. Vail's manuscript reads 
 as follows: 
 
 MR. VAIL'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST WEEK OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 " The telegraph was first put in operation between 
 Washington and Baltimore in the spring of 1844, and 
 was shown without charge until April 1, 1845. Con- 
 gress, during the session of 184445, made an appro- 
 priation of $8,000 to keep it in operation during the 
 year, placing it, at the same time, under the supervision 
 of the postmaster-general. He, at the close of the ses- 
 sion, ordered a tariff of charges of one cent for every 
 four characters made by or through the telegraph, 
 appointing also the operators of the line Mr Vail for 
 the Washington station, and Mr. H. J. Roberts for Bal- 
 timore. 
 
 "This new order of things commenced on April 1, 
 1845, and the object was to test the profitableness of 
 the enterprise. The receipts for April 1-4, inclusive, 
 were as follows: 
 
 "It should be borne in mind that Mr. Polk had just 
 been inaugurated, and, as is always the case on the ad- 
 vent of a new administration, the city was filled with 
 persons seeking for office. A gentleman of Virginia, who 
 stated that to be his errand to the city, came to the 
 office of the telegraph on the 1st day of April, and de- 
 sired to see its operation. The oath of office being
 
 IN THE UlttTED STATES. 37 
 
 fresh in the mind of the operator, and he being deter- 
 mined to fulfil it to the letter, the gentleman was told 
 of the rates of charges, and that he could see its oper- 
 ation by sending his name to Baltimore and having it 
 sent back, at the rate of four letters or figures for a 
 cent, or he might ask Baltimore regarding the weather, 
 etc. This he refused to do, and coaxed, argued and 
 threatened. He said there could be no harm in show- 
 ing him its operation, as that was all he wanted. He 
 was told of the oath just taken by the incumbent, and 
 of his intention to keep it faithfully ; and that, if it was 
 shown to him by the passage of a communication gratui- 
 tously, it would be in violation of his oath of office. 
 He stated he had no change. In reply, he was told that 
 if he would call upon the postmaster-general and ob- 
 tain his consent that the operation should be shown 
 him gratis, the operator would cheerfully comply to al- 
 most any extent. He stated in reply that he knew the 
 postmaster-general, and had considerable influence with 
 some of the officers of the government, and that he 
 (the operator) had better show it to him at once, inti- 
 mating that he might be subjected to some peril by re- 
 fusing. He was told that no regard would be paid to 
 the extent of his influence, be it great or little; that he 
 did not think he was at liberty to use the property of 
 the government for individual benefit when under oath 
 to exact pay, and cited the rules of the post-office in 
 relation to the carriage of letters, but that he was wil- 
 ling to do as directed by the postmaster -general (Hon. 
 Cave Johnson). The discussion lasted almost an hour, 
 when the gentleman left the office in no pleasant mood.
 
 88 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELEOTKIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 "This was the patronage received by the Washington 
 office on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of April. On the 4th 
 the same gentleman turned up again, and repeated some 
 of his former arguments He was asked if he had 
 seen the postmaster-general, and obtained his consent 
 to his request, to which he replied he had not After 
 considerable discussion, which was rather amusing than 
 vexatious, he said that he had nothing less than a twen 
 ty-dollar bill and one cent, all of which he pulled out of 
 his breeches pocket. He was told that he could have a 
 cent's worth of telegraphing, if that would answer, to 
 which he agreed. After his many mawjeuvres and long 
 agony the gentleman was finally gratified in the follow 
 ing manner: Washington asked Baltimore 4. which 
 meant, in the list of signals, ' What time is it ? Balti 
 more replied 1, which meant '1 o clock The amount 
 of the operation was one character each way. making 
 two in all, which, at the rate of four for a coot, would 
 amount to half a cent exactly. He laid down his cent, 
 but was told that half a cent would suffice, if he 
 could produce the change. This he declined to do, and 
 gave the whole cent, after which, being satisfied, he left 
 the office. 
 
 "Such was the income of the Washington office for 
 the first four days of April, 1845. On the 5th twelve 
 and a half cents were received. The 6th was the Sab- 
 bath. On the 7th the receipts ran up to sixty cents; 
 on the 8th to $1.32; on the 9th to $1.04. It is worthy 
 of remark," concludes Mr. Vail, "that more business 
 was done by the merchants after the tariff was laid than 
 when the service was gratuitous."
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 89 
 
 The humors of the telegraph form a fruitful subject. 
 Numerous good stories are constantly cropping out to 
 vary and relieve the routine of telegraphic operations. 
 Many of these get into the public prints, and increase 
 that capital of mirthful yarns which is an important 
 means of health to this over-worked generation. Upon 
 comparing the best of these with those that are told of 
 the funny blunders and incidents accompanying the be- 
 ginning of telegraphic operations, the writer is of the 
 opinion that the latter are certainly the more side split- 
 ting Take for instance that of the old lady who wrote 
 a letter to headquarters asking them to remove the 
 wires which had been attached to her chimney, and 
 said: "I must request you to remove your wires from 
 my chimney immediately. The noise the message 
 makes going along the wires is sometimes awful, and 
 sometimes I suppose when the operator has a hard 
 word to spell I declare it quite shakes the house." 
 
 Another good old soul, with due respect for the pro- 
 prieties, on seeing some telegraph wire while taking 
 her first ride by rail, was heard to remark: "Well, I 
 have often said they would never git me into the rail- 
 road cars, but I know they will never git me on to them 
 telegraft wires." 
 
 When the telegraph was being introduced into a 
 populous district of Massachusetts, hardly five minutes 
 had elapsed after the erection of one of the poles, be- 
 fore some enterprising genius posted a bill thereon, and 
 soon two street Arabs were attracted to the spot, when 
 the following dialogue ensued: 
 
 "I say, Mickey, what an invintion the telegraph
 
 40 INTRODUCTION OP THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 " Yes, an' here's a dispatch broke out on the post 
 a'ready." 
 
 When the telegraph was first put in operation be- 
 tween Portland and Boston, a countryman drove a flock 
 of turkeys to the former place for a market, but not 
 finding so good a sale as he anticipated, he inquired of 
 some by-standers their price in Boston. Some wag of 
 a fellow advised him to step into the telegraph office. 
 Jonathan entered and put the all-important question to 
 the operator, who immediately telegraphed to Boston, 
 and in a few minutes received an answer to his inquiry, 
 and informed his customer. Jonathan looked at the 
 operator with a sly wink and exclaimed: "You can't 
 gum it over me." He was about leaving the office when 
 the operator told him that there were nine shillings to 
 pay. Jonathan bristled up and burst forth in a rage : 
 "You can't gum it over ma That old tick-box 
 of yourn hain't < been out of this room since I've been 
 here." 
 
 Notwithstanding the severest kind of temptation, the 
 humor reserved for this place must be cut down to one 
 more story, told at the expense of Mr. J. B. Stearns, 
 who afterward invented the Stearns system of duplex 
 telegraphing, referred to in last chapter. Mr. Stearns 
 at that time officiated as one of the operators in the 
 now long ago when the Boston fire alarm was a new 
 institution. One summer night when he was on duty, 
 he was startled by hearing a church bell in South Bos 
 ton, which was connected with one of the " alarm cir- 
 cuits," break forth at a most unseemly hour with a con- 
 tinuous " ding doiig, ding-dong," which bade fail- to
 
 IK THE UNITED STATES. 41 
 
 awaken every slumbering inhabitant within the radius 
 of a mile. As the striker of the bell was driven by 
 water power, which was merely controUed by the elec- 
 tric current, Stearns was fully aware of the fact that the 
 armature of the magnet had " stuck," or otherwise got 
 out of gear, and that the racket would probably con- 
 tinue until some one went over there and adjusted it, or 
 else until the supply of Cochituate water failed a 
 slightly improbable contingency. Of course he couldn't 
 leave his post, and therefore was obliged to sit and 
 listen to the concert, which, under the circumstances, he 
 probably enjoyed nearly as well as the citizens in the 
 immediate neighborhood of the performance. Stearns, 
 however, being a gentleman of resources, was not to be 
 foiled so easily. A happy thought finally struck him. 
 He would reverse the battery on that circuit, which 
 would doubtless release the "stuck" armature, and re- 
 store quiet to the distracted inhabitants, who by this 
 time were doubtless beginning to get mad, and revile 
 the fire alarm and the individuals connected therewith 
 in a highly improper manner. The wires were changed, 
 and the clamor instantaneously ceased. On the follow- 
 ing morning, in the serene consciousness of a good 
 deed well performed, Stearns duly reported the inci 
 dent to his chief, Mr. Moses G. Farmer, who did Dot 
 hesitate to bestow the praise so justly due to the inge 
 nuity of his subordinate, but suggested that it might 
 also be well to examine the defective striker, and, if 
 need be, adjust it, so as to prevent the possibility of 
 another similar accident. Singular to state, when Stearns 
 arrived at the scene of the previous night's disturbance
 
 42 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 he found that the door of the church, and also the bel- 
 fry, had been stove in with an axe, and the hammer of 
 the bell effectually tied up by a strong rope. Whether 
 this result was, as a whole, brought about merely by 
 the reversal of that battery still remains an open ques- 
 tion. It is understood, however, that even Stearns him- 
 self has always entertained some doubt of it. 
 
 "HONOR TO WHOM HONOR is DUE." 
 
 Clamors are still made by the respective friends of 
 those who aided in bringing the telegraph to perfection, 
 for the preference to be given to a certain one out of 
 several names conspicuous among the leaders in, possi- 
 bly, this highest achievement of human ingenuity. 
 
 England has lately witnessed the conferring of the 
 honor of knighthood upon Mr. Francis Ronalds, for 
 whom no meaner an authority than the Pall Mall Gazette 
 claims that he " is neither more nor less than the origi- 
 nator of our telegraph system. He was the very first," 
 it adds, " either in England or abroad, to invent an elec- 
 tric telegraph so constructed as to be capable of exten- 
 sive practical application, and so far back as 1823 he 
 fully developed its principle and mode of action. Still 
 earlier, namely, in 1816, he had constructed a working 
 electric telegraph, and on offering it to the then gov- 
 ernment, received an answer which can never be too 
 often cited as an illustration of official complacency :
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 48 
 
 * Telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary, 
 and no other than the one now in use will be adopted.' 
 Nothing daunted by this apathy, Mr. Ronalds matured 
 his invention, and in 1823 published a ' Description of 
 an Electric Telegraph, and of some other Electrical Ap 
 paratus.' Mr. Ronalds was too far ahead of his time, 
 and too purely a man of science, to secure a hearing foi 
 his discovery in those early days, and it was left to 
 others to mature his idea, and to establish the system 
 which his prophetic eye had foreseen would one day 
 transform the world. It was not till 1837, fourteen 
 years after Mr. Ronalds' pamphlet, that Messrs. Cooke 
 and Wheatstone took out their first patent. The science 
 and practical skill of these and other eminent electri 
 cians have brought electric communication to its pres- 
 ent state; but the great fact remains that Mr. Ronalds 
 was the first to demonstrate practically the principle 
 which they have developed." 
 
 In our own country, Morse has been, as is usual in 
 such disputes, both unduly praised and undervalued on 
 account of his services to the public. 
 
 Readers of the foregoing matter, particularly the 
 concluding portion of an earlier chapter and the begin 
 ning of this, are able, it is believed, to form a clear con 
 ception of what he did, stated as matters of fact, with- 
 out exaggeration or depreciation. In the opinion of 
 the writer, the public honors paid Morse, notably in the 
 erection of his statue in Central Park, have in no wise
 
 44 INTEODUOTION OF THE ELECTEIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 exceeded his merits ; but there may be room, he thinks, 
 for the more emphatic recognition of services rendered 
 by gentlemen associated with him in the introduction 
 of the same wonderful improvement. 
 
 For the purpose of doing justice to a name which 
 cannot be held in too great honor, it is but right to ap- 
 pend to these observations a summarized statement of 
 what Professor Henry did toward the development of 
 the telegraph. His improvement upon Sturgeon's elec- 
 tro-magnet "consisted in insulating the conducting wire 
 itself, instead of the rod to be magnetized, and cover- 
 ing the whole surface of the iron with a series of coils, 
 in close contact. Henry's magnet was described in Sil 
 liman's Journal in 1831 ; and, in 1832, a mechanical ar- 
 rangement was put up in the Albany Academy for making 
 signals and sounding a bell through a wire more than a 
 mile in length. Previous to Professor Henry s invest! 
 gations the means of developing magnetism in soft, iron 
 were imperfectly understood, and no electro- magnet, 
 applicable to the telegraph, was known The particu- 
 lar form of battery adapted to project the current 
 through a long conductor was first pointed out by 
 Henry, and he was the first to magnetize a piece of iron 
 at a distance, and to call attention to the fact of the ap 
 plicability of the experiment to the telegraph The 
 principles developed by him were applied to render the 
 various machines invented by Gauss, Weber, Steinheil, 
 "Wheatstone <uid Morse effective at a distance. The
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 45 
 
 galvanometer now employed for transmitting messages 
 by the Atlantic cable, is about as close an imitation of 
 tlie apparatus devised by Henry for ringing a bell, in 
 the Albany Academy in 1832, as the different circum- 
 stances of the cases require: and the electro-magnet, 
 now used for the telegraph all over the world, is the 
 one invented and described by Henry in 1831. Whether 
 the instrument used be a semaphore that is, carrying 
 evanescent signals, or a telegraph making a permanent 
 record the engine for driving the works by aid of the 
 battery is the electro-magnet invented by Professor 
 Henry The philosopher who discovered the scientific 
 principles upon which the electro-magnet is founded, 
 and who invented the form of apparatus best adapted 
 to demonstrate these principles, must be regarded by 
 the whole world as having made the chief contribution 
 toward the application of electro-magnetism to the va- 
 rious wants of man This philosopher was Joseph 
 Henry, and to him was accorded the homage of the 
 whole scientific world for his magnificent researches." 
 So speaks the Scientific American in an article whose 
 principal points we hereby gladly assist to preserve. 
 
 VAIL. 
 
 Not long ago Cincinnati brought to light a volume of 
 nearly eierht hundred pages, entitled- "Up the Heights 
 of Fame and Fortune, and the Routes Taken by the 
 Climbers to become Men of Mark," containing, among 
 much interesting matter, notices of Professor Morse and
 
 46 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPH. 
 
 his associate, Alfred Vail. To the latter is ascribe" the 
 invention of the first available telegraph instrument. 
 Mr Vail was born in New Jersey in 1807, and early 
 displayed great mechanical ingenuity. While a student 
 'under Prof. Morse at the New York University, in 1835, 
 he saw the latter's first rude machine, and, by virtue 
 of engaging to devote his personal services and skill to- 
 ward perfecting the invention, became an owner of one- 
 eighth of the patent. He also offered Prof. Morse 
 much needed pecuniary aid. In 1853 the professor 
 said that to the joint liberality of Vail's father and 
 brother, " but especially to Alfred's attention and skill 
 ard faith," was due the success of his early endeavors 
 to bring the telegraph before the public. On the pas- 
 sage of the telegraph bill in 1843 Alfred was appointed 
 one of Mr. Morse's assistants. 
 
 Having stated these biographical facts, the writer of 
 the book we have referred to, says: 
 
 "The Morse machine of 1836 passed into Vail's hands 
 in 1837, for an entire mechanical reconstruction through- 
 out to speak a language not entirely unknown to the 
 first machine, but tc perform entirely new functions, 
 and to produce an entirely new system of signs and 
 letters which the first by its structure was physically 
 unable of being made to speak. Alfred Vail invented 
 the first combination of the horizontal lever motion to 
 actuate a pen, pencil or style, and the entirely new tele- 
 graphic alphabet of dots, spaces and marks, and he did 
 so prior to September, 1837, the month when the old
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 47 
 
 instrument passed into his hands for reconstruction. 
 His more perfect invention of a steel style upon a lever, 
 which could strike into the paper as it was drawn on- 
 ward over a ground roller, and emboss upon it the 
 same alphabetic characters, was not invented until 
 1844, about the time the first line of telegraph began to 
 operate between Baltimore and Washington. This in- 
 strument, somewhat transformed, still holds its place 
 as practically the best ever invented." 
 
 He then quotes extensively from the correspondence 
 between Professors Morse and Henry, and reproduces a 
 plain-spoken letter from Vail, to sho^ why he did not 
 urge his claims to the credit of the invention. This 
 letter is deemed of so much importance by the publish- 
 ers that they have, given it in jTthographic fac-simile. 
 It is as follows: 
 
 " The lever and roller were invented by me, in the 
 sixth story of the New York Observer office, in 1844 
 before we put up the telegraph line between Washing 
 ton and Baltimore, and this combination has beer al- 
 ways used in Morse's instrument. I am the sole and 
 only inventor of this mode of telegraph embossed writ- 
 ing. Professor Morse gave me no clue to it, nor did 
 any one else, and I have not asserted publicly my right 
 as first and sole inventor because I wished to preserve 
 the peaceful unity of the invention, and because I could 
 not, according to my contract with Professor Morse, 
 have got a patent for it. 
 
 " ALFRED VAIL."
 
 48 INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 
 
 As early as 1847 Prof. Morse urged Mr. Vail to sell 
 to him his interest in the telegraph for $15,000, but he 
 refused. He died in January, 1859. Amos Kendall, a 
 friend of both parties, said: "If justice be done, the 
 name of Alfred Vail will forever stand associated with 
 that of Samuel F. B. Morse, in the history of the in- 
 vention and introduction into public use of the electro- 
 magnetic telegraph." 
 
 A CLASS WHOSE SERVICES SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED. 
 
 In giving " honor to whom honor is due," we must 
 not overlook the claim of the laborer for the recognition 
 of his indispensable services in making the telegraph 
 a public convenience. A young Irishman, a member 
 of a debating society in Geneva, New York, may be 
 quoted as having done good service to his class by his 
 emphatic and characteristically "bulling" method of 
 making his claim. At a recent meeting of his society the 
 subject of discussion was: " Which is of the most bene- 
 fit to the country the mechanic or the laborer?" One 
 young man took the side of the mechanic, and expatiat- 
 ed at great length. Among a multitude of other things, 
 he claimed that mechanics made and laid the Atlantic 
 cable, and sat down amid loud applause. For a few 
 minutes it looked as if there was no one bold enough 
 to challenge his conclusion. At length a laborer came 
 forward and said that he had a few words to say on the 
 subject. He was willing to admit that the mechanic 
 had made and laid the Atlantic cable; but, exclaimed
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 49 
 
 he, smiting the table with a fist about the size of a 
 twenty-three pound ham, and looking around with an 
 air of triumph upon the audience, who were terrified 
 at seeing the table sink to the floor under the force of 
 his ponderous blow: "Be jabers, who dug the post 
 holes?"
 
 60 OPEKATOBS AND MESSENGERS. 
 
 A CHAPTEE ABOUT OPERATORS AND MES- 
 SENGEES. 
 
 The electric telegraph has created a new industry, in 
 its nature pleasantly intermingling manual and mental 
 operations, not severe, but requiring close attention; 
 educational of the observation and judgment, and 
 affording scope to the ambitious for remunerative pro- 
 motion. Moreover, it gives employment to women as 
 well as men, and thus assists in the practical solution 
 of the difficult question : What must society do with the 
 capable and intelligent female population who cannot 
 marry, for the very sufficient reason, among others, that 
 there are not enough men to mate every one of them? 
 The army of bright boys employed as messengers must 
 not be lost sight of here. These earn their living in a 
 manner which gives them enough physical and not too 
 great mental exercise ; as desirable as any, in short, for 
 quick and growing boys, many of whom themselves 
 subsequently become professional operators, or, if not, 
 are at least prepared, by their apprenticeship in the 
 telegraph office, for other useful employment. 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH OFFICE A SCHOOL FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN 
 NATURE. 
 
 While, in common with all other occupations, that of 
 the telegraph operator is one of detail and routine, it 
 probably affords more than any other, in the variety of 
 people requiring his assistance, and the diverse char-
 
 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 61 
 
 acter of messages received and sent, matter of amuse- 
 ment, information, thought and reflection. The tele- 
 graph office is a school for the study of human nature, 
 of the multifarious occasions of business, the domestic 
 and social relations, and politics, and the mental and 
 emotional operations called out thereby. In the words 
 of a writer whose name we regret to be unable to give: 
 " The telegrapher's window is an eye through which the 
 operator looks upon the world. Before it passes in a 
 single day more of the very wine of human experience 
 than one could observe in a whole decade of European 
 travel. The business man, brisk, keen and active, leers at 
 him through that window; the burglar, bold and skill- 
 ful, sends his telegram in cipher to a confederate; and 
 the widow, in weeds, sends to her friends the mournful 
 sentences: 'Charley is dead. Come to me!' The tele- 
 grapher receives the communication respectfully, duly 
 marks it with some hieroglyphic signs, and speedily the 
 electric soul of the batteiy utters, a thousand miles 
 away: 'Charley is dead. Come to me !' It may be to a 
 mother, to a father, or to a brother; but it carries a 
 pressing request, and to-morrow, or the day after, the 
 individual to whom the message is addressed is in New 
 York. Or it may be that the father, or mother, or sis- 
 ter, or brother, cannot leave home; and then comes 
 back the sorrowful answer: ' Business is pressing; will 
 come as soon as I can.' And the widow weeps alone 
 with her dead.. 
 
 " Curious messages in curious handwriting are handed 
 to him through the window telegrams with bad spell- 
 ing, and telegrams with bad grammar; telegrams that
 
 O2 OPERATORS AND MES8ENGEBS. 
 
 a hieroglyphicist, who may have delved for years amid 
 the mummy-cases of Egypt, could never unriddle; and 
 these last are handed back with a suave request to read 
 and interpret. 
 
 "There are telegrams in cramped, unnatural hand, 
 and telegrams in the round, fanciful hand of the writ- 
 ing-master; telegrams with capitals where they should 
 not be, and telegrams with no caps ' at all but very 
 few with 'caps' where they should be; telegrams of 
 laborious pomposity from venerable professors, and 
 telegrams curt and brief and epigrammatic, from those 
 who know how to save a penny at the expense of per- 
 spicuity; in short, there are telegrams of all sorts not 
 excepting dead-head telegrams, of which some are sent 
 and some are not sent, according to the claims of the 
 individual to be considered a dead-head." 
 
 CONSCIENTIOUS CARE GIVEN TO HAVING MESSAGES DELIVERED. 
 
 Operators, as a class of public servants, are among 
 the worthiest. Outsiders know little or nothing of the 
 pains sometimes taken, without request or remuneration, 
 to insure the delivery of dispatches incorrectly address- 
 ed. This is mentioned only as an example of the con- 
 scientious care given to work which comes before them, 
 in many casss whero ii strict justice, it migl.t be 7 a'd 
 aside without prejudice to the operator's interests with 
 relation to his employer, as being in accordance with 
 the prescribed routine of the office. 
 
 THE LITERATURE OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 The operators of the United States are justly proud of
 
 their professional skill,and generously assist the means of 
 literary communication afforded them in the books and 
 papers prepared for their use and recreation. These evi- 
 dence a very considerable degree of literary merit, and 
 there is an intelligent demand for mo e which reflects 
 credit upon the craft. The literature of the telegraph 
 is a most interesting and pleasing feature of the times. 
 Curious examples have been given of operators com- 
 municating by Morse characters under circumstances 
 of peculiar difficulty. The most notable of these 
 which the writer ever encountered is the following, from 
 the pen of Mr. D. B. Grandy, until recently a welk 
 known operator in the Boston office. It is proper to 
 say that, with a view of verifying the statement before 
 giving it here, the publisher wrote Mr. Grandy on the 
 subject, and received the reply that the matter was pre- 
 cisely as given in the subjoined account: 
 
 A CASE OF EPILEPTIC TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 "In the winter of 1870-71," says Mr. Grandy, "I 
 was employed in the Western Union office at Boston. 
 Among my associates was George , with whom 
 I had formed an intimate acquaintance and friendship. 
 One evening I was at the theatre, when considerable 
 commotion occurred in the balcony above me. After 
 the play I learned that a man had fainted and been 
 carried out insensible. On arriving at my lodgings I 
 found that the man was no other than my friend George, 
 who also occupied a room in the same house. I went 
 to his room and found his room-mate and a physician 
 there, while George lay on the bed, his face pale, his
 
 64 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 
 
 eyes open, but fixed and glassy, and his limbs cold and 
 rigid as death. The physician pronounced it an epilep- 
 tic fit. We spoke to him, chafed him, and made every 
 effort to rouse him, but in vain. Finally we sat down 
 and awaited his return to consciousness. I drew my 
 chair up to his side, and took his hand in mine. As I 
 did so I noticed a feeble pressure by his fingers, and 
 then that pressure resolved itself into dots and dashes, 
 and I read from them: 
 
 "'W-h-a-t d-o-c-t-o-r s-a-y a-b-t m-eT 
 
 "'I asked him if he could hear what I said to him.' 
 
 "'Y-e-s.' 
 
 '"Are you in pain?' 
 
 "'Y-e-s.' 
 
 "'Can't you speak?' 
 
 "'N-o.' 
 
 "In short, I got, from the slight pressure of his fin- 
 gers, enough dots and dashes to describe his feelings 
 to the physician, who was enabled by the description 
 thus obtained to judge of his condition and apply the 
 necessary remedies, so that, after watching by his bed- 
 side until the small hours of the morning, we were re- 
 lieved from our anxiety by signs of returning anima- 
 tion. By four o'clock he was completely himself again, 
 but greatly exhausted, and it was several days before 
 he was able to appear at the office. He afterward in- 
 formed me that from the time he fainted in the theatre 
 until he came out of the trance, he knew all that was 
 passing around him, and heard all that was said, but 
 could neither see, speak nor move a muscle, except those 
 of his fingers, which he was able to use sufficiently to
 
 OPERATOKS AND MESSENGERS. 65 
 
 communicate with us by feeble dots and dashes. The 
 physician pronounced it the most singular case of the 
 kind that ever came under his treatment. Certainly no 
 other method of communicating was possible in his 
 condition, and it would seem from this incident that a 
 person in a dying condition would be able, if he pos- 
 sessed a knowledge of telegraphic characters, to let his 
 thoughts and feelings be known long after any other 
 means of communication became impossible." 
 
 AN ARMLESS OPERATOR 
 
 Mr. Patrick Shea, of Binghamton, N. T., operates with- 
 out arms, an accomplishment mastered after six months 
 of close and unwearied application. Having lost both 
 arms in an accident while fireman on the Albany and 
 Susquehanna Railroad, he was provided with a pair of 
 cork substitutes, and with- these performs all his duties 
 as operator. 
 
 A DEAF OPERATOR RECEIVING BY SOUND. 
 
 When the magnetic telegraph was first introduced, 
 there was an arrangement by which the letters and 
 words communicated were reeled off by means of punc- 
 tures in long narrow strips of white paper, after this 
 fashion, namely : , , etc. These were trans- 
 lated by the receiving operator, and thus rendered into 
 readable English. In the course of time this attach- 
 ment to the Morse instrument was dispensed with, and 
 the operators, instead, read the messages by sound, or 
 the clicking of the instrument, with the proper inter- 
 vals for a clear understanding of that language, so that
 
 66 OPEEATOES AND MESSENGERS. 
 
 there could be just as much certainty as there is in 
 speaking, compared to written or printed communica- 
 tions. The operator's ear was rendered more and more 
 acute, and he, therefore, could hear the faintest vibra- 
 tions, or the whisperings of the instrument. But one 
 would scarcely think that the arrangement would suit 
 a deaf man. It does not, but the deaf man can suit 
 himself to even these circumstances. The fact is de- 
 monstrated. There was a gentleman in the American 
 Telegraph Company's office, in Washington, who, 
 though he could not hear, was classed as a first-class 
 operator, dealing with sounds! He could send and re- 
 ceive dispatches intelligently. But how was this done ? 
 By the sense of feding. He placed his leg against that 
 of the instrument table, and in other ways read by the 
 slight jarring, while watching the operation of the in- 
 strument itself, and he thus understood all that the little 
 "sounder" was talking about 
 
 A " FRISCO " YARN. 
 
 "Two young men," says the Chronicle of San Fran- 
 cisco, "telegraph operators, board at one of our lead- 
 ing third-class hotels, and being of a somewhat hilarious 
 disposition, find great amusement in carrying on con- 
 versation with each other at the table by ticking on 
 their plates with a knife, fork or spoon. For the infor- 
 mation of those not familiar with telegraphy it may be 
 well to state that a combination of sounds or ticks con- 
 stitutes the telegraphic alphabet, and persons familiar 
 with these sounds can converse thereby as intelligibly 
 as with spoken words. The young lightning strikers,
 
 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 57 
 
 as already stated, were in the habit of indulging in table 
 talk by this means whenever they desired to say any- 
 thing private to each other. For instance, No. 1 would 
 pick up his knife and tick off some such remark as this 
 to No. 2 : 'Why is this butter like the offence of Ham- 
 let's uncle?' 
 
 "No. 2 'I give it up.' 
 
 "No. 1 'Because it's rank, and smells to heaven.' 
 
 " Of course the joke is not appreciated by the landlord 
 (who sits close by), because he doesn't understand tele- 
 graphic ticks, and probably he wouldn't appreciate it 
 much if he did; but the jokers enjoy it immensely, 
 and laugh immoderately, while the other guests wonder 
 what can be the occasion for this merriment, and natu- 
 rally conclude that the operators must be idiots. 
 
 " A few days ago, while these fun-loving youths were 
 'seated at breakfast, a stout-built young man entered 
 the dining room with a handsome girl on his arm, whose 
 timid, blushing countenance showed her to be a bride. 
 The couple had, in fact, been married but a day or two 
 previous, and had come to San Francisco from their 
 home in Oakland, or Mud Springs, or some other rural 
 village, for the purpose of spending the honeymoon. 
 The telegraphic tickers commenced as soon as the hus- 
 band and wife had seated themselves. 
 
 "No. 1 opened the discourse as follows: 'What a 
 lovely little pigeon this is alongside of me ain't she?' 
 
 "No. 2 'Perfectly charming looks as if butter 
 wouldn't melt in her mouth. Just married, I guess. 
 QDon't you think so?' 
 
 "No. 1 'Yes, I should judge she was. What luscious
 
 58 OPEKATORS AND MESSENGEK8. 
 
 lips she's got! If that country bumpkin beside her 
 was out of the road, I'd give her a hug and a kiss, just 
 for luck.' 
 
 "No. 2 ' Suppose you try it anyhow. Give her a little 
 nudge under the table with your knee ' 
 
 " There is no telling to what extent the impudent ras- 
 cals might have gone but for an amazing and entirely 
 unforseen event. The bridegroom's face had flushed, 
 and a dark scowl was on his brow during the progress 
 of the ticking conversation, but the operators were too 
 much occupied with each other to pay any attention to 
 him. The reader may form some idea of the young 
 men's consternation when the partner of the lady 
 picked up his knife and ticked off the following terse 
 but vigorous message: 
 
 " 'This lady is my wife, and as soon as she gets through 
 with her breakfast I propose to wring your necks, you 
 insolent whelps.' 
 
 " The countenances of the operators fell very suddenly 
 when this message commenced. By the time it ended 
 they had lost all appetite and appreciation of jokes, 
 and slipped out of the dining room in a very rapid and 
 unceremonious manner. The bridegroom, it seems, 
 was a telegraph operator himself." 
 
 KECOGNIZING EACH OTHER'S TOUCH. 
 
 Operators who are 'in the habit of receiving from and 
 sending to one another, become so accustomed to the 
 peculiarities of each other's touch as to readily recog- 
 nize it. For example, it is told of Mr. Hempstead, one 
 of the operators in the Western Union Telegraph Com- 
 pany's office at Hartford, Conn., that by this means he
 
 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 69 
 
 succeeded in making a discovery of great importance 
 to an unfortunate man and his friends. The circum- 
 stances were these : Mike W. Sherman, formerly a tele- 
 graph operator in Hartford, escaped from the Middle- 
 town insane asylum, where he had been confined, and, 
 th mgh thorough search was made for him, he for about 
 two weel.s successfully eluded those who were on hig 
 trad. While Hempstead was at work in the Hart 
 ford office one night he suddenly recognized, among 
 the clatter of a score of messages passing over the wire, 
 a sound which he at once declared was the touch of the 
 missing Mike. It proved to be a message from Wall- 
 ingford, and an investigation showed that the Hartford 
 operator was quite right in ascribing it to the insane man, 
 who was afterward found there, he having dropped into 
 the office in the former place, and taken a hand at his 
 old business. 
 
 This same ability of distinguishing touch is a means 
 of friendly intercourse between operators separated by 
 long distances, and who probably have never seen each 
 other. Attracted by an influence more subtle than 
 the electric fluid itself, lovers have formed their first 
 intimacy by this means, and not always with the ill- 
 fortune which it appears followed the " Misplaced (Tele- 
 graphic) Affection" shall we say "immortalized," by 
 Beta, in a rhyming effusion which first saw the light 
 as a contribution to The Telegrapher. 
 
 MISPLACED (TELEGRAPHIC) AFFECTION. 
 
 Thomas To t, telegraphist, ten hours every day 
 Labored conscientiously for promises to pay ; 
 On the self same circuit, not a thousand miles from T, 
 Nancy Anna Wilkins gently jerked the mystic key.
 
 60 OPEEATOBS AND MESSENGERS. 
 
 What could be expected when we note their common labors? 
 What, when we consider that the two had long been neighbors? 
 (Not so near that they had met, but near enough, 'tis true 
 Little distances may lend enchantment to a view.) 
 
 What could be expected under all the circumstances, 
 But that each should halo each with tender loving fancies? 
 But that each in painting each should color each in glory? 
 What could be anticipated save the old, old story? 
 
 She, in his imaginings, lived something light and airy, 
 Like " Sweet Home," or cotton wool, a zephyr or a fairy; 
 He, in hers, existed something big, bold, loud, defiant, 
 Brave as Jack the Killer and as burly as the giant. 
 
 Nancy fell in love with Thomas Tot's manipulation; 
 He could take and shake a key to whip the 'tarnal nation; 
 He could send you all must know what merit there was in it 
 Eighty, more or less, and ' ' take " some ninety words per minute. 
 
 Thomas fell in love with Nancy Anna's disposition, 
 You yourselves had done the same if placed in his position; 
 O, she was by'telegraph as sweet as Jersey peaches, 
 With a knack for simple jokes and sentimental speeches. 
 
 Every week day morning, when the wires were in trim, 
 
 Thomas said g m* to her, and she g m to him; 
 
 Every idle afternoon when business was over, 
 
 Down they sat to have a chat, and thought themselves in clover. 
 
 Many years of this rolled on in regular rotation, 
 'Till came round Tom's decaded two weeks' (or less) vacation ; 
 So he telegraphed his friend to don her silks and satins, 
 For that he would be with her before the morrow's matins. 
 
 Nancy Anna decked herself in everything that glitters, 
 Fortified her female frame with Drake's Plantation Bitters; 
 And, too nervous for severer exercise than waiting, 
 Let her student run the books and do the operating. 
 
 On the way Tom spent the day a planning out the meeting, 
 Setting to the letler e the items of their greeting; 
 How to clasp her tiny hand, around the neck to hold her, 
 While her dainty, downy cheek reposed upon his shoulder. 
 
 "The telegraphic contraction for "good morning."
 
 OPEKATOBS AND MESSENGERS. 61 
 
 What was his astonishment, when first he stood before her? 
 What was her's when first she faced her long, long time adorer? 
 His, to find her slim, and grim, and gaunt, and five eleven; 
 Hers, to see him old and fat, and barely four feet seven! 
 
 Cupid's dart might bring its smart e'en to this aged duffer; 
 Nancy Anna's spinster heart, though old and tough, could suffer. 
 Thus to meet and thus to part, was rough enough for certain; 
 Let us drop a briny and by all means draw the curtain. 
 
 "Who of you who read these lines, while plying the bandanna, 
 Recollects her Thomas Tot, or who his Nancy Anna? 
 Shall I pass a warning word to point my modest moral? 
 Pshaw! what dictum teaches babes there is no milk in coral? 
 
 BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 On the contrary, maids have been both wooed and 
 won by telegraph, and in the year 1874, a minister 
 married in the Keokuk, Iowa, office of the Western 
 Union Telegraph Company, a couple at Bonaparte, in 
 the same State, he performing the ceremony and they 
 pronouncing the marriage vow over the wire. Five 
 o'clock, April 16th, were the hour and the day fixed for 
 the ceremony, and precisely at that time a dispatch was 
 sent to Keokuk to the effect that the candidates were at 
 the telegraph office in Bonaparte, and ready to proceed. 
 The following was then sent: 
 
 "KEOKUK, Iowa, April 16th, 1874. 
 " JOHN SULLIVAN and FRANCES GODOWN, 
 
 Bonaparte, la.: 
 " Please join hands and take the pledge. 
 
 "WM. G. PRATT."
 
 62 OPERATORS AND 
 
 The following is a copy of the pledge which had been 
 left with them. 
 
 "You mutually and solemnly promise before God and 
 the witnesses present, that you will each take the one 
 you hold by the hand to be your lawful and wedded 
 companion. That, forsaking all others, you will cleave 
 to each other in sickness aud in health, and perform all 
 the duties of a faithful companion until you are separ- 
 ated by death. If to this you agree, send rne a mes- 
 sage to this effect." 
 
 Then came the response: 
 
 " BONAPARTE, April 16th, 1874. 
 "WM. C. PRATT, Keokuk: 
 
 "We take the pledge. 
 
 "JoHN SULLIVAN. 
 "FRANCES GODOWN." 
 
 The concluding dispatch was then sent as follows: 
 "KEOKUK, la., April 16th, 1874. 
 " JOHN SULLIVAN and FRANCES GODOWN, 
 
 Bonaparte, la.: 
 
 "By authority I pronounce you husband and wife, 
 and may God bless you. 
 
 "Wn. C. PRATT." 
 
 The. operators all along the line then tendered their 
 congratulations to the happy couple upon their mar- 
 riage by the lightning process. Managers Dolbear, of 
 Keokuk, and Detwiler, of Bonaparte, were the officiating 
 telegraphists. This was the first marriage by telegraph, 
 so far as there is any record. Several have been so 
 celebrated since, and many more, doubtless, will be;
 
 OPERATOES AND MESSENGERS. 63 
 
 but we deprecate the insinuation which has been made, 
 that divorces will be obtained by the same means. 
 
 HOW AN ABSCONDER WAS CAUGHT. 
 
 Now and then an operator proves himself unworthy 
 of the profession, as did a young fellow named D. B. 
 Leber,who, at the close of his telegraphic career, got into 
 disgrace by stealing a package containing two hundred 
 and fifty dollars, from the express agent at Watseka,HL, 
 where he was employed as operator. He also at the 
 same time forwarded to the secretary of the telegraph 
 company a package purporting to contain sixty-two dol- 
 lars, but which was filled with blank paper. He then 
 left by train for Chicago, calculating that as there was 
 no other operator at "Watseka, he would have time to 
 effect his escape. But he was caught by means of an- 
 other man there, whose knowledge of telegraphy was 
 confined to making the alphabet, but who, upon the 
 discovery of the theft, opened the key and sent a mes- 
 sage three or four times, to nobody in particular, in- 
 forming whoever it might concern that Leber had ske- 
 daddled with the cash, as above related. He could read 
 nothing that was said to him, and continued to repeat 
 his announcement at short intervals, even when other 
 offices were engaged in sending messages on the wire, 
 until a man was sent there by train to shut him off. His 
 timely information, however, resulted in the capture of 
 the thief, who was arrested in Chicago, and the money 
 recovered. 
 
 The feat of this novice in the art is remindful of what
 
 64 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 
 
 has been accomplished by defter fingers, if not apter in- 
 telligence, than his, in the way of 
 
 WONDERFUL SPEED IN TELEGRAPHING. 
 
 It is stated that no operator of modern times has 
 been found to exceed the sending speed of Jo. Fisher, 
 of Nashville, to Jimmy Leonard, of Louisville, in 1860 
 or 1861. The rate was an average of either fifty-three 
 or fifty-four words a minute for ten consecutive min- 
 utes. The matter was press report. No better receiver 
 than Mr. Leonard, who copied it, has yet been reported. 
 A telegram was sent from London to Washington in 
 nine minutes and thirty seconds. Two thousand five 
 hundred and eighteen words were sent from New York 
 to Cleveland in an hour. On the day of Mr. Lincoln's 
 funeral, the American Telegraph office in Washington 
 transmitted seventy-five thousand words of reports for 
 newspapers in New York and elsewhere. All but about 
 five thousand of the whole number of words transmit- 
 ted were sent after 7 P. M., and it was all through at 
 twenty minutes after 1 A. M., being at the rate of twelve 
 thousand words per hour. Eight wires were in con- 
 stant use, and nine part of the time. All this was ac- 
 complished in addition to the large amount of private 
 business of the line. About ten thousand words of 
 press news in addition were sent by the United States 
 line, making a total of eighty-five thousand words sent 
 to and paid for by the press of the country in one day 
 from Washington alone, at an expense of about three 
 thousand dollars. Thirteen thousand six hundred 
 words were transmitted by the House printing instru- 
 ments on a single wire after half -past 7 o'clock.
 
 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 65 
 
 When, on one occasion, the lines were connected through 
 from San Francisco, California, to Heart's Content, 
 Newfoundland, the tenninus of the Atlantic cable, af- 
 ter exchange of the usual complimentary messages, at 
 twenty -one minutes past 7 A. M., Valentia time, 
 a message was started from Valentia for San Francisco, 
 passing through New York at thirty -five minutes past 
 2 p. M., New York time, and was received in San 
 Francisco at twenty-one minutes past 11 P. M., San 
 Francisco time, and its receipt at once acknowledged. 
 The actual time occupied was only two minutes, and the 
 distance traversed fourteen thousand miles, though the 
 largest distance worked in one circuit was but five 
 thousand miles, namely, from San Francisco to Heart's 
 Content. Subsequently the operator at San Francisco 
 transmitted an eighty- word message to Heart's Con- 
 tent direct, occupying three minutes in transmission, 
 which was repeated back by the operator at Heart's 
 Content in two minutes fifty seconds. 
 
 These wonderful accomplishments remind us of 
 Shakspeare's gentle Puck, who, responding to an order 
 from the fairy king, says : 
 
 "I'll put a gird'e round about the earth 
 In forty minutes." 
 
 THE MESSENGER SERVICE 
 
 has been perfected in New York by the American Dis- 
 trict Telegraph Company, which employs nearly a thou- 
 sand uniformed boys, none under fourteen years of age. 
 They ans\ver summonses at all hours, from over five 
 thousand boxes, in dwelling-houses, stores, etc.,- in all
 
 66 OPEEATOES AND MESSENGERS. 
 
 parts of the city. The various uses to which the mes- 
 sengers are put are remarkable. Of late there has arisen 
 a demand for escorts to places of amusement, and from 
 one house to another. The former lias become a regular 
 practice. One evening recently there were eight ladies 
 at six different theatres whose escorts were furnished 
 "to order." Men as well as women employ escorts for 
 various purposes. Most people who require the services 
 of the messengers are strangers, who wish for guides to 
 show them the "sights." Another use that is made of 
 the District Telegraph messengers is to attend children, 
 particularly girls, to and from school. Cases are not 
 unknown where a messenger has been summoned and 
 sent in search of a missing husband, who was supposed 
 to be at one of his favorite haunts. It is not an un- 
 common thing for a messenger to be sent home with an 
 intoxicated person. Messenger boys and men are also 
 extensively employed as detectives for various purposes. 
 Special messengers, or men or boys in plain clothes, are 
 assigned to special duty as "spotters" of suspected 
 clerks in stores, and they are said to have done excel- 
 lent work. In fact, detective duty appears peculiarly 
 adapted to those in the messenger service. Another 
 use which has been found for messenger boys is the 
 paying by proxy of New Year's calls. They are also 
 employed as ushers at fashionable weddings, and as 
 " managers " of the arrangements for carriages on such 
 occasions. The books of the company show the services 
 for which the boys have been required, find many laugh- 
 able records are to be seen. One boy was detailed to 
 take care of a lady's poodle, for which he was paid thirty
 
 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 67 
 
 cents an hour. An escort was required to attend to the 
 theatre a lady whose husband was to " come later." A 
 young man was once telegraphed for in order to bring 
 a bumptious servant to terms. During political cam- 
 paigns the boys are employed extensively to distribute 
 documents. Car-drivers, and, indeed, all classes of 
 people who have to get up very early in the morning, 
 are peculiarly dependent upon the messenger-boy sys- 
 tem. The books also show that the messenger boys 
 have been used to order dinners, to buy all kinds of 
 liquors, to do shopping for women, to pay bills of all 
 amounts, and even to borrow umbrellas. Not un- 
 frequently boys are sent to pawn-brokers' shops with 
 articles. 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH MESSENGER. 
 
 There is perhaps no person who sees more of the 
 different phases of human nature than the messenger 
 connected with the regular telegraph companies. He 
 is hailed at one door with anxious, enthusiastic joy; at 
 another with superstitious dread, and at another with 
 an impatient nervousness, which has the effect of mak- 
 ing the person to whom the telegram is addressed, 
 snatch a leaf from the receipt book instead of tearing 
 open the envelope of the doubtful message. 
 
 The messenger rings the door-bell of Mr. Jones' resi- 
 dence. Mr. Jones attends the call. On seeing the 
 messenger present the telegram, he hurriedly tears off 
 the wrapper and proceeds to read it over and over, and 
 finally asks: 
 
 " Is this for me ?" 
 
 " It seems to be your address.'*
 
 DO OPERATORS AND MEaSENGERS. 
 
 "Where will the' marriage ceremony be performed?' 
 " I don't know, sir, anything about it; please sign and 
 let me go." 
 
 " Oh ! it 's a telegram ! I must tell my wife." And 
 the door abruptly closes in the face of the messenger. 
 On his route the messenger stops to deliver a dis- 
 patch to Mrs. Spilkins. The family are at dinner. 
 "Bridget, who rang?" 
 
 " Missis, it 's for you.'' And Bridget hands her the 
 telegram. A shriek, and she falls backward, her lips 
 faintly murmuring "telegram!" After sufficiently re 
 covering, she remarks: "I told you, Mr. Spilkins, about 
 the dreadful dream Mrs. Smith had last week " 
 
 " Oh ! poor Jane when will the funeral take place ?'' 
 "And her poor children oh! how can I bear it 1 ?" 
 "Mr. Spilkins, you wicked man, how can you smile 
 while you read it ?" 
 
 Mr. Spilkins commences reading aloud : 
 " Petersburg, December 1st." 
 " Oh ! Mr. Spilkins, don't read it to me " 
 He continues : " Dear Mother ' 
 "And did she write it before she died?" 
 " Dear mother, all well. I and the children will be 
 over on the early train to-morrow." 
 
 " Ah ! I knew it was no bad news ; but I am always 
 BO nervous about a telegram." 
 
 A MESSENGER MISTAKEN FOR A POLICEMAN. 
 
 A story is told which suggests that the blue coats 
 and decorations have led to the supposition that the 
 wearers are policemen in miniature. A short time ago
 
 OPERATORS AND MESSENGERS. 69 
 
 a boy was sent with a telegram for a son of the Emerald 
 jlsle, whose name was Mulligan. The woman of the 
 house came to the door, in answer to his summons, and, 
 seeing his uniform, surmised at once that her Pat had 
 been cutting up some of his shines again, and resolved 
 to save him from the lock-up at all hazards. " Does 
 Patrick Mulligan live here ?" " Indade, sir ! me Pat 
 was drafted into the army, an' sure an' he's gone way off, 
 an 1 1 don't know where he is, at all." "Well! here's a 
 jtelegram for him." "A telegram ! fhat 's that ?" "Why, 
 it's a dispatch a message." "Do yees mane a tele 
 'graf dispatch, something like a letther f ' " That 's it, 
 exactly." "Is that all? Faith, an' if you'll be afther 
 goin' over forninst the grocery ye '11 find him there 
 smoking his pipe on the stoop. I took yees for a cop." 
 Thus much of operators and their useful allies.
 
 70 THE TELEGKAPH IN WAS. 
 
 THE TELEGEAPH IN WAE. 
 
 In the introductory chapter we showed how, cen- 
 turies before the Christian era, as dated in records 
 which are considered authentic, signaling by fire was 
 employed as a means of advantage in military oper- 
 ations, and that the comparatively clumsy signaling ar- 
 rangements in use just previously to the introduction 
 of the electric telegraph, had one of their principal oc- 
 cupations in communicating military doings and events. 
 
 In general, it may be stated that sun-signaling, which 
 is, of course, only practicable in day-time, has advan- 
 tages over all other methods of visual telegraphy. 
 Messages can be transmitted to great distances, 
 and the clearness with which the signals can be made 
 renders background of but little importance, while in 
 flag-signaling the distinctness of the signal depends 
 materially on this question. 
 
 At the present time all the armies of the civilized 
 world are provided, while engaged in actual campaign- 
 ing, with a field telegraphic system, more or less 
 efficient, besides availing themselves of local and exist- 
 ent means of lightning communication wherever prac- 
 ticable. Telegraphy in war was never employed to 
 equal advantage and with greater perfection than by 
 the Prussians in the campaign of 1870-1; but in our 
 own country, the world witnessed its most gigantic 
 operation. 
 
 Before giving an account, and a necessarily brief one.
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAB. 71 
 
 of the extent and value of the telegraph in the Ameri- 
 can civil war, a general sketch of its employment in 
 military operations may not be out of place. 
 
 FIELD TELEGRAPHY. 
 
 The English army, it is said, was the first to use it. In 
 the Crimean war their trenches and batteries before Se- 
 bastopol were traversed and connected by lines of tele- 
 graph. The French soon followed their example, and 
 constructed a similar system in their own lines, while, 
 later on, a cable laid across the Black Sea put the 
 armies in the field in direct communication with Paris 
 and London. Since that time a regular telegraph 
 corps has been organized in every European army. 
 The field telegraph was used by the French in Italy in 
 1859, and in their campaigns against the Kabyles in 
 Algeria ; and in America both the Federals and Confed- 
 erates made free use of permanent and temporary lines 
 during the War of Secession, the Southern cavalry, in 
 particular, displaying great daring and enterprise in 
 riding round the flanks of the Federal armies, seizing 
 their telegraph lines, sending false messages to the 
 Northern generals, and then cutting the line and retiring 
 as rapidly and secretly as they came. It was, however, 
 as before stated, in the Prussian army, and in the great 
 campaigns of 1864, 1866 and 1870-71 that military tele- 
 graphy attained its greatest development ; and after the 
 experience of these three wars, the Prussian telegraph 
 corps is probably the most efficient in Europe. 
 
 The object of the field telegraph is to keep the head-
 
 72 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 
 quarters of an army in communication with its several 
 corps, and at the same time with the general telegraph 
 system of the country. The line may be either an 
 aerial or a ground wire, or a combination of both, the 
 former being stretched on poles, while the latter is 
 insulated by being enclosed in a light cable, about half 
 an inch thick, and laid along by the roadsides or across 
 the fields. 
 
 "Where there is an extensive telegraph system in 
 operation, all that is necessary is to connect the head- 
 quarters of the army with the nearest point on a per 
 manent telegraph line, and in most European countries 
 any army in the field would seldom, if ever, be more 
 than ten miles from such a line. Ten miles of the field 
 telegraph can easily be erected in half a day ; indeed, 
 the Austrian engineers assert that on favorable ground 
 they could do the work in two hours. In most cases, 
 of course, the advancing army would have to repair the 
 permanent hues which would be partially destroyed by 
 the retreating forces, and in this way twenty-five miles 
 of wire were often erected by the Prussians in a single 
 day. As soon as an army moves forward, the field tele- 
 graph line previously erected is taken down, while a 
 fresh line is laid from the new head-quarters to the 
 nearest permanent telegraph. This is done with a view 
 to economizing the material, an enormous amount of 
 which would have to be carried with the army, if the 
 lines it left behind it in its advance were not removed, 
 and the poles, wire and insulators employed in their 
 construction again utilized. 
 
 The conducting wires of the military telegraphs
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAS. 73 
 
 which are used by the French army, are so made as to 
 be capable of resisting the trampling of horles and the 
 crushing of wheels of the heaviest vehicles on com- 
 mon roads, though not that of artillery or of a railway 
 train. 
 
 INTERRUPTIONS AND WIRE " TAPPING " BY THE ENEMY. 
 
 While the field telegraph affords a commander a rapid 
 and certain, medium of communication with his base of 
 operations and the various corps of his army, it must 
 be remembered that it is one which is continually liable 
 to interruption by an enterprising enemy. Wherever 
 a general has to contend with an army well provided 
 with good cavalry, he will find it extremely difficult to 
 protect his telegraph lines from being destroyed by 
 daring raids of his opponents. There are several easy 
 ways- of making a telegraph line temporarily useless. 
 The simplest and most obvious method is to pull down 
 the poles and cut the wires into pieces ; but when this 
 is done the damage is easily detected, and the repairs 
 at once commenced. The interruption will, therefore, 
 foe far more serious if it can be effected in a way which 
 .twill not permit of its exact locality being so readily dis- 
 covered. This can be done by cutting the wire, intro- 
 Jducing a piece of gutta percha or any other non-con- 
 ducting substance into the course of the circuit, and 
 connecting the ends of the wire with it, so as to give it 
 jthe appearance of one of the ordinary joints or splices 
 of the line. At the same time a few poles can be pulled 
 klown in another place, and the wires cut, and the prob-
 
 74 THE TELEGKAPH IN WAB. 
 
 ability is that the engineers who repair the line will not 
 discover the hidden interruption of the circuit un- 
 til after they have restored the gap, and found that the 
 wire is still cut somewhere else; and even then the place 
 where the non-conducting substance is introduced will 
 not be discovered until some time has been employed 
 in carefully testing the line with the galvanometer. 
 
 But there are other dangers to telegraphic communi- 
 cation in the field besides the mere damage to the line. 
 If the enemy's cavalry get possession of a station, they 
 can easily send messages containing false information 
 or delusive orders to well-known officers of the oppos- 
 ing force, while the place from which they are sent and 
 the assumed name in which they are dispatched, will 
 give the messages an appearance of authenticity which, 
 if it does not completely deceive the recipient, will at 
 least be the cause of considerable doubt and perplexity 
 to him, and, perhaps, make him hesitate to accept the 
 accurate information or authentic orders received from 
 other sources. Again even without occupying a station 
 it is possible to read the messages which are passing 
 along a telegraph line, and thus perhaps discover im- 
 portant secrets. All that is required for this purpose 
 is a small portable receiving instrument and a few yards 
 of copper Avire to connect it with the line. A single in- 
 dividual thus equipped can "tap" a telegraph line and 
 read whatever messages may be passing over it. 
 
 These dangers, however, are only of a partial or tem- 
 porary character. By carefully patrolling and testing 
 the line, it cannot be inteiTupted for any length of time 
 without the damage being observed and repaired. By
 
 THE TELEOEAPH IN WAB. 75 
 
 adopting a secret arrangement that there shall be a cer- 
 tain number of letters in the two or three words at the 
 beginning or end of every message, a dispatch sent by 
 an enemy can in most cases be detected. And, again, 
 by employing a cipher alphabet, it will be difficult for 
 any one who taps the line to obtain information from 
 the messages which fall into his hands. 
 
 FIRING GUNS BY ELECTRICITY. 
 
 Electricity is now applied in the firing of artillery, an 
 improvement introduced by Mr. M'Kinlay, at "Woolwich, 
 England, in the year 1856, when the "galvanic tube" 
 was invented. In this tube a steel or platinum wire 
 is embedded in a charge of powder, and this wire forms 
 a link in the circuit of a galvanic battery. The retard 
 ation of the current, due to the inferior conducting 
 power of the steel or platinum wire, causes it to be 
 raised to a red heat, and by this means the powder is 
 exploded. This system was in use until 1862, when 
 the Abel "electric tube" was invented. In this the 
 steel wire is replaced by a priming charge, consisting 
 of subphosphide and subsulphide of copper, with a 
 little chlorate of potash, and in this composition the 
 terminals of the two insulated copper wires that con- 
 duct the etectric current are embedded. The points of 
 the wires are about one sixteenth of an inch apart. 
 
 A later innovation in military matters is the introduc- 
 tion of the electric light for the purpose of illuminating 
 camps, which has been successfully adopted by Eng- 
 lish volunteers.
 
 76 THE TELEGKAPH IN WAR. 
 
 Experiments recently made go to show that the tele- 
 phone will probably also prove a valuable adjunct in 
 military operations. 
 
 But to our civil war, which affords much interesting 
 material whose insertion is forbidden by lack of space. 
 
 THE CIVIL WAE. 
 
 General Sherman has written: "For the rapid trans- 
 mission of orders in an army covering a large space of 
 ground, the magnetic telegraph is far the best, though 
 usually the paper and pencil, with good mounted or- 
 derlies, answer every purpose. I have little faith in 
 the signal service by flags and torches (though we al- 
 ways used them), because almost invariably when they 
 were most needed the view was cut off by intervening 
 trees or by mists and fogs. There was one notable in- 
 stance in my experience, however, when the signal flags 
 carried a message of vital importance over the heads of 
 Hood's army, which had interposed between me and 
 Altoona and broken the telegraph wires as recorded 
 in my 'Eecollections;' but the value of the magnetic 
 telegraph in war cannot be exaggerated, as was illus- 
 trated by the perfect concert of action between the 
 armies in Virginia and in Georgia in all 1864. Hardly a 
 day intervened when General Grant did not know the 
 exact state of facts with me, more than 1,500 miles off as 
 the wires ran. On the field a thin insulated wire 
 may be run on improvised stakes, or from tree to tree, 
 for six or more miles in a couple of hours, and I have 
 seen operators so skillful that by cutting the wire they
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 77 
 
 would receive a message from a distant station with 
 their tongues. As a matter of course the ordinary com- 
 mercial wires along the railways form the usual tele- 
 graph lines for an army, and these are easily repaired 
 and extended as the army advances, but each army and 
 wing should have a small corps of skilled men to put 
 up the field wire and take it down when done. This is 
 far better than the signal flags and torches. Our com- 
 mercial telegraph lines will always supply for war 
 enough skillful operators." 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 On the occasion of the riots in Baltimore, April 19th, 
 1861. the rebels, by destroying railroads, burning 
 bridges, and tearing down lines of telegraph, succeeded 
 in cutting off all communication between Washington 
 and the loyal States. 
 
 The object was to prevent reinforcements from reach- 
 ing Washington, so that the rebel leaders might con- 
 centrate their forces on the banks of the Potomac and 
 demand the surrender of the Capital before the Gov- 
 ernment could summon sufficient aid to its defense. 
 
 The work of rebuilding the destroyed property was 
 intrusted to Colonel Thomas A. Scott, the well-known 
 late president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Under 
 his direction the rails were soon relaid, bridges rebuilt, 
 and new telegraph wire erected. 
 
 A party of four telegraph operators was organized in 
 Pennsylvania, April 25th, 1861, and at once started for 
 Washington, which city they reached by a circuitous
 
 78 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 
 route on the 27th. This quartet formed the nucleus of 
 the United States Military Telegraph, many operators 
 from different parts of the country being afterward 
 added. 
 
 COST OF THE SERVICE DURING THE WAK. 
 
 During the Eebellion there were constructed and 
 operated about 15,000 miles of military telegraph. The 
 cost of the service from May 1st, 1861, to Dec. 1, 1862. 
 was about $22,000 per month. During the year 1863 
 it averaged $38,500 per month. In 1864, the telegraph 
 was greatly extended, and the cost reached $93,500 per 
 month. The total expenditure during the year ending 
 June 30th, 1865, was $1,360,000; and the total expend- 
 iture from May 1st, 1861, to June 30th, 1865, footed 
 up $2,655,500. 
 
 THE DUTIES OF CTPHEK OPERATORS. 
 
 Throughout the war the cipher operators connected 
 with the United States Military Telegraph, under Gen- 
 erals Eckert and Stager, were at all army headquarters. 
 Their duties were confidential and very important, inas- 
 much as ah' military movements ordered by General 
 Grant were transmitted through them. They were in 
 possession of intended army and navy expeditions 
 sometimes weeks before commenced, and, had they not 
 been patriotic and truly loyal, could have defeated the 
 Union armies and delayed their final triiimph. These 
 quiet, unassuming gentlemen were very poorly paid, 
 and frequently not well provided for. However, they 
 did not complain of their hardships, but worked on
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAS. 79 
 
 faithfully until the Rebellion was crushed. The oper- 
 ators, it may be added, were not commissioned, nor 
 even borne on the army rolls, and having no discharges 
 from the service, will not be remembered by the coun- 
 try and their valuable services acknowledged like offi- 
 cers and soldiers. They, however, did their duty 
 nobly, as did also the operators employed in less re- 
 sponsible positions. The telegraphic service employed 
 in the war received some official recognition of their 
 patriotic services in the honor done a few of their re- 
 presentative men, in accordance with the following 
 communication, which speaks for itself: 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MEEITOEIOUS SERVICES RENDERED THE 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 PON, >- 
 
 5- ) 
 
 OFFICE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH, 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, 
 July 31, 1866. 
 
 D. H. BATES, assistant manager department of the 
 Potomac. 
 
 Charles A. Tinker, chief operator, war department. 
 
 Albert B. Chandler, cipher and disbursing clerk, war 
 department. 
 
 A. H. Caldwell, chief operator, army of the Potomac. 
 
 Dennis Doren, superintendent of construction, depart- 
 ment of the Potomac. 
 
 Frank Stewart, cipher clerk, war department. 
 
 George W. Baldwin, cipher clerk, war department. 
 
 Richard O'Brien, chief operator, department of North 
 Carolina. 
 
 George D. Sheldon, chief operator, Fortress Monroe, Va.
 
 80 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 
 M. V. B. Buell, chief operator, Delaware and Eastern 
 
 shore Line. 
 John H. Emerick, chief operator, army of the James. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I have been instructed by the secretary 
 of war to present to each of you one of the silver watches 
 which were purchased and used to establish uniform 
 time in the army of the Potomac, marked "U. S. Mili- 
 tary Telegraph," as an acknowledgment of the meritor- 
 ious and valuable services you have rendered to the 
 government during the war, while under my direction, 
 as an employe of the United States Military Telegraph. 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to comply with these 
 instructions, and I take this occasion to thank you, for 
 myself, for your faithful performance of the important 
 trusts which have been confided to you in the various 
 capacities in which you have served, and especially as 
 "cipher operators." 
 
 Tours, very truly, 
 
 THOMAS T. ECKERT, 
 Ass't Sec'y of War, and Sup't U. S. Mil. Tel. 
 
 AN OPERATOR'S READY WIT. 
 
 Instances well nigh innumerable could be given of 
 the ingenuity manifested by operators under circum- 
 stances of danger, and which, as in the one here cited, 
 proved of great value to the patriotic cause. When the 
 rebel General Morgan made his great raid through In- 
 diana and Ohio he captured a Union operator, and com- 
 pelled him to telegraph, in General Lew Wallace's
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 
 81 
 
 name, to Cincinnati, asking how many regular troops 
 were in that city. Morgan read by "sound," and there- 
 fore the operator did not dare to intimate that he was 
 under duress, and could only venture to add an extra 
 initial to his own signature. The receiving operator at 
 Cincinnati knew that Morgan was in that neighbor- 
 hood, and suspecting, from the extra initial letter, that 
 all was not right, replied, greatly exaggerating the 
 force of regulars ; and the consequence was that Mor- 
 gan changed his route to a circuit of twenty miles be- 
 yond the city, and thus saved it from a sack, and the 
 probable loss of millions of dollars. 
 
 HEROIC COURAGE OF AN OPERATOR. 
 
 Great Falls was a Union picket post, where Federal 
 troops watched rebel movements on the Virginia side 
 of the Potomac. The well-known telegrapher, shice 
 deceased, Ed. Conway, a Canadian, was government 
 operator. One afternoon the United States pickets 
 were withdrawn. The rebels thought it was a good 
 opportunity to try the range of their guns; so, coming 
 in, a considerable number of them began to fire away 
 at the telegraph building, wherein Conway was bewail- 
 ing the condition of his finances. Shells flew thick and 
 fast around the building steps and porch were soon 
 blown away, but the plucky telegrapher heeded it not. 
 They mixed a volley of musketry with the firing of 
 shell, but this only caused him to gather up his three 
 cents and a button, place them in his pocket, and 
 whistle "Johnny went for a soger." A quantity of 
 6
 
 32 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAE. 
 
 bullets came unceremoniously into his room, and as 
 unceremoniously as they had come in he went to work 
 digging them out of the partition, to be saved as tro- 
 phies. Only when the rebels began crossing the river 
 did he consider it worth while to seek other quarters. 
 Such courage has rarely been equalled, even by men 
 accustomed to the vicissitudes of war. 
 
 NERVOUS OPERATORS. 
 
 On the night of May 23d, 1861, the night before the 
 occupation of Alexandria by the Federal troops, the 
 Union operators at the Chain Bridge, Woodhouse and 
 Jacques, seeing a great stir among the soldiery, 
 imagined at once that preparations were being made 
 for a retreat instead of a victorious advance, and 
 at once telegraphed to Mr. Strouse, the superin- 
 tendent, that something was up, and, fearing a retreat, 
 they had no means of escape unless he immediately 
 sent them two horses. Danger was at hand, and he ' 
 alone could protect them from an infuriated enemy; 
 their lives should be at his disposal if the necessary 
 protection was forthcoming. The horses were not 
 sent, however, nor were their lives sacrificed; on the 
 contrary, they are living to-day. 
 
 A FUNNY WAR STORY. 
 
 "Agitator" told a good story in The Telegrapher, 
 how that during the early part of the month of Novem- 
 ber, 1863, General Sherman, then commanding the 15th
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAS. CO 
 
 Army Corps, was making a forced march across the 
 country from Memphis to Chattanooga, Tenn., to sup- 
 port Gen. Rosecrans, who had been partially defeated 
 at Stone River. Upon reaching Elk River the telegraph 
 and cipher operator attached to General Sherman's 
 staff received orders to proceed to Decherd, Tenn., the 
 nearest telegraph office, seventy-five miles distant; send 
 important military dispatches to General Grant at Chat- 
 tanooga, receive replies, and hasten back to meet the 
 corps' advance. One hundred of the 3d regular cavalry 
 were detached as an escort, and on the third of Novem- 
 ber set forth. As this mission was important, no time 
 was lost on the march, although the roads were in a 
 terribly muddy condition, and great caution had to be 
 observed against surprise by Confederate bushwhackers. 
 Fast riding and muddy roads do not add much to the 
 outward appearance of man or beast, and by the time 
 Decherd was reached the staff operator presented about 
 as sorry an appearance as could well be imagined. 
 
 The operator pulls up in front of the telegraph office 
 about four o'clock one very rainy afternoon. Entering, 
 he is greeted with the familiar click. There, in a little 
 eight by ten pen, laboriously at work trying to "break" 
 some obstinate "plug," less experienced in telegraphy 
 than himself, sits that nervous, mischievous little sprite, 
 Jimmy Lowe, the operator. Jimmy is not in the best 
 of humor at this particular time, and dislikes to be in- 
 terrupted "when in for a fight." 
 
 Thinking he is a student, our friend inquires if the 
 operator is in, accompanying the inquiry by an awkward 
 movement. "Yes, I am the operator. What do you 
 want!"
 
 84 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 
 Now, the chance for a good practical joke could not 
 be resisted by our horseman, therefore he quickly 
 decides to have a little fun at Jimmy's expense. 
 
 "What sort of a clicking affair is that 'ar?" 
 he enquired, pointing to the register, with its pon- 
 derous weight and paper tape. 
 
 "That is the telegraph," says Jimmy, "and I am 
 the operator. Do you want to send a message ? If 
 not, don't bother me, but go and get some of that 
 mud off from you." Jimmy turns away with a look of 
 disgust, and proceeds to renew his battle over the 
 wire. It will here be proper to state that Jimmy kept 
 a sutler's stand on a small scale in one corner of the 
 office, and, as he afterward acknowledged, was suspi- 
 cious that our friend had an eye on a quantity of plug 
 tobacco behind the counter. 
 
 After a great many questions relative to the modus 
 opcrandi, all of which worked Jimmy's nerves up to a 
 perceptible tremble, our staff man concluded to bring 
 the matter to a focus. 
 
 " See here, stranger, p'rhaps I kin help yer. Just 
 let me in thar, will yer? That tarnel clatter has 
 been agoing on long enough. You won't, eh ?" With 
 one stride he clears the board railing and brings up 
 by Jimmy's side, with open mouth gaping at the 
 instrument. 
 
 Jimmy is stormed in his stronghold; confounded, 
 and not knowing what to say, prudently says nothing. 
 He, however, involuntarily drops, his hold of the key, 
 and has half a mind to close in with his muddy tor- 
 mentor, but does not. Mr. Cavalry-man sidles around
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAS. 85 
 
 and gets hold of the key. Jimmy is now nearly fran- 
 tic; visions of Confederates in disguise flit through 
 his mind, and he looks around for chances of escape. 
 He can read just enough by sound to know that our 
 friend has given a signal for precedence over the wire. 
 He hears him "call" Chattanooga; he hears Ch. 
 answer. Oh, if he could only get hold of the key now 
 and warn Ch. of danger. He knows our muddy friend 
 is a Confederate operator in disguise. It is now his 
 turn to stare with gaping mouth. 
 
 Our friend coolly transmits the dispatches, politely 
 calls for pen, ink and blanks, and receives the long 
 replies without a break, and without using the paper 
 tape. Jimmy cannot make out the purport of what is 
 going on over the wire, and our friend, by hiding the 
 blanks with his hand while receiving, keeps him in the 
 dark. All is soon finished. The dispatches are folded, 
 placed in an inner pocket ; and with many thanks for 
 the courtesy extended, our friend retires from the 
 office, mounts his stalwart steed, and is soon cantering 
 off to meet his general. It afterward came to light 
 that Decherd asked Chattanooga some queer questions 
 over the wire soon after the " raid." 
 
 ANOTHEB, 
 
 which came from Jefferson City, Missouri, tells that 
 during the reign of terror in the county distinguished 
 by including that city within its limits, caused by 
 Price's raid, the depot at Jefferson City caught fire 
 and was burned. Consequently, the operator was 
 obliged to find other rooms for the telegraph office,
 
 86 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAE. 
 
 and, for want of better, located temporarily in Dad 
 Chevron's carpenter shop. One day, during the 
 absence of the operator, all the instruments com- 
 menced and for fifteen minutes kept up a terrible 
 ticking, which frightened the old man, who had not 
 made the science of electricity the great study of his 
 life. He thought it must be a call for his office, and 
 probably conveyed news of Price and his forces. 
 Making a dive for one of the instruments, he caught 
 the " ground- wire " firmly between his teeth, and 
 shrieked out : " Operator's gone to dinner ; be back in 
 half an hour!" and at the same instant received a shock 
 from the wire coming into contact with his moist 
 tongue that he will remember to his dying day. 
 
 POOR QUARTERS FOR TELEGRAPHERS. 
 
 When Operators Lathrop and Maize went to open the 
 office at Langleys, Va., for the use of General Smith's 
 division, they found that no provision had been made 
 for them, and accordingly went to General Smith to 
 have him point out their location. The general eyed 
 them for a few minutes with a scrutiny worthy of a 
 Bow street detective, and then made a reconnoissance 
 for a proper location. After a faithful survey of half 
 an hour, he espied an old shed, raised some feet from 
 the ground, in the basement of which were some 
 horses, cows and pigs, and above these a room in 
 which the cook kept his poultry. This latter apart- 
 ment he ordered to be divided by a partition, one side 
 to be occupied- by the operators, the other for poultry. 
 
 A PROVIDENT OPERATOR. 
 
 During the war operators suffered their share of
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR 87 
 
 the discomforts and hardships incident to campaign- 
 ing. The young gentleman immortalized in the 
 following story had an eye to future necessities in 
 his preparations ; and who will blame him ? 
 
 Two days after the battle of Ball's Bluff (October 
 21, 1861), whereiu the Union troops were repulsed 
 and Colonel E. D. Baker, the patriotic senator, was 
 killed, a telegraph office was opened at Edward's 
 Ferry, on the upper Potomac. Mr. Tinker and a 
 white-haired youth named Burnker were sent to the 
 office to " do " the telegraphic honors. The office was 
 located in a hut, vacated but a short time prior to 
 their arrival by a lame contraband. Two days only 
 did the office remain at the Ferry, for no sooner did 
 General Banks, with his column, leave there and return 
 to his former headquarters, near Darnestown, Mary- 
 land, than the boys thought that " discretion was the 
 better part of valor," and, turning their backs to the 
 enemy, pulled up traps and made the best time on 
 record in rejoining General Banks. 
 
 Burnker, when preparing to leave home to join the 
 U. S. Military Telegraph, wisely foresaw that circum 
 stances might occasion his being sent to some distant 
 camp where forage for telegraphers would not be sup- 
 plied by the quartermasters, and filled a trunk with 
 eatables. Arriving in Washington, he found it neces- 
 sary to make his way to Edward's Ferry, and, having 
 no means for their transport, to leave his commissary 
 stores behind him. Being absent ten days, and no 
 prospect of being able to have his provision sent him, 
 he requested one of the operators in Washington to
 
 OO THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 
 open the trunk and take care of the contents. The 
 trunk being opened, disclosed to the gaze of the hun- 
 gry opener seven pounds of pound-cake, six pounds of 
 fruit-cake, one peck of apples, half a bushel of chest- 
 nuts, a bologna sausage, a head of cabbage, and six 
 turnips. On the fact becoming known that he was 
 such an excellent provider, the position of quartermaster 
 and commissary of the corps was tendered him ; but, 
 possessing the modesty for which all telegraphers are 
 proverbial, he respectfully declined the position. 
 
 THE END RICHMOND TAKEN. 
 
 No message ever sent by telegraph was of so much 
 national interest as the one which William E. Kettles, 
 an operator in the service of the government at the 
 war department in Washington (at the present writing 
 on the staff of the Boston, Mass., Western Union main 
 office), received from Richmond on the morning of the 
 3d of April, 1865. Mr. Kettles, then a mere boy of fif- 
 teen, was working the Fortress Monroe and City 
 Point wire at Washington. Shortly after 9.30, the 
 Washington and Cherrystone operators were engaged 
 on a long message, when suddenly both men were 
 taken aback by what seemed to be a most foolish de- 
 mand from Fortress Monroe : " Turn down for Rich- 
 mond, quick ! " Had a flash of lightning struck 
 through the walls at that moment, the shock could not 
 have been greater than it was on the part of every 
 man in the room. 
 
 There was great alacrity in turning down the adjust-
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 89 
 
 ment. There were trembling fingers while it was being 
 done, and there was a gathering around of many oper- 
 ators, with curiosity, suspense, and impatience com- 
 bined, to see what it meant. Sure enough ! the signals 
 from the operator in Richmond to the operator in 
 Washington were bounding along the line. No signal 
 was ever answered more promptly. Then came the 
 question : 
 
 " Do you get me well ? " 
 
 " I do ; go ahead ! " 
 
 " All right. Here's the first message for four years : " 
 
 " RICHMOND, VA., April 3d, 1865. 
 " Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 
 
 " We entered Richmond at 8 o'clock this morning. 
 
 " G. WEITZEL, 
 " Brigadier-General Commanding.." 
 
 Mr. Kettles concedes that he copied the message, 
 but he could never tell how. He remembered starting 
 up from his chair and upsetting inkstand and instru- 
 ment ; of kicking over a tin that sat at the fire-place, in 
 order to make a noise ; of rushing for General Eckert's 
 room, where sat President Lincoln and Mr. Tinker, the 
 cipher clerk, talking in a low tone. As Kettles was 
 about to hand the message to Mr. Tinker, the President 
 caught sight of the body words, and, with one motion 
 and two strides, message and President were out of 
 sight on the way to Secretary Stanton's room. Mr. 
 Tinker and everybody else were dumbfounded. Ket-
 
 90 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 
 
 ties quietly returned to his instrument, walking like 
 one in a dream ; proceeded mechanically to turn the 
 inkstand right side up, and to straighten up his over- 
 turned machine. Then he sat down in his chair, and 
 stared before him in blank amazement. Around him 
 were the other operators, every man alike flustered, and 
 unable to get their minds back to their work, or to utter 
 connected words. 
 
 In less than one-quarter of the tune it takes to write 
 this, the operating room was filled with officers and 
 sub-officers. President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton 
 came in and shook hands with every one in the room 
 and then every one in the room shook hands with one 
 another, and then with the President and Secretary 
 again. Then they all crowded around the Fortress Mon- 
 roe instrument, hungry for more news. Kettles sat at 
 his instrument while questions were showered in on 
 him from every mouth. He was asked more questions 
 in those ten minutes than he will be likely to be ever 
 asked again in that space of time. At last the inform- 
 ation came that Eichmond had disconnected itself for 
 the present. All retired to General Eckert's room ex- 
 cept Mr. Tinker and Kettles, who stood by the window 
 endeavoring to hear themselves think. Neither of them 
 had drawn a perceptible breath for ten minutes. Out- 
 side were the broad grounds of the department build- 
 ings. Looking from the operating-room window the 
 prospect was clear ; not a single person was to be seen. 
 Suddenly a Georgetown horse-car appeared in the dis- 
 tance. On it came at the usual rate. Near the build- 
 ing it stopped. A man got off, and started with slow,
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 91 
 
 leisurely steps up the center walk to tlie door. Inside 
 the operating room the thrilled operators looked out 
 on his slow, steady pace, and could scarcely contain 
 themselves at his unconcern. He was meditating ac- 
 tually meditating -as though there was nothing to 
 throw off his hat for and cheer till he was hoarse. 
 Keeping on, he presently lifted his head and looked at 
 the window. Tinker was there and knew him. 
 
 "Any news ? " he casually inquired. 
 
 Tinker leaned far out of the window : " Richmond's 
 fallen ! " he said. 
 
 No tongue can describe the features of that man 
 while he was coming' to himself. He turned red and 
 white by turns, till, suddenly realizing the meaning of 
 the words, he waved his arms, then turned and ran. 
 . Down the street he ran, spreading the news to every- 
 one he met. Soon there was a great crowd. The ex- 
 citement rose ; the people seemed almost wild. The 
 War Department was soon besieged. Outside was a 
 multitude. Inside were excited officers, clerks, opera- 
 tors, and an excited President. The outsiders looked 
 in at the insiders, and the insiders looked out at the 
 outsiders. Questions came hot and fast from the mul- 
 titude, and answers were shouted back from every man 
 who could get lu's head to one of the two windows. 
 The crowd got the news fairly in its mind and then 
 seemed to want three cheers. The three became four. 
 Then they wanted speeches. They got them. Half a 
 dozen speeches were under way in less than that many 
 minutes. Some were good ones. Andrew Johnson 
 was tLere. He was saying : "God bless the old flag ! 
 If I was President of the United States "
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN "WAR. 
 
 At this point something exciting occurred. Secre- 
 tary Stanton entered the operating-room leaning on 
 General Eckert's arm. General Eckert pointed out to 
 him the boy who had received the message. They 
 were formally introduced. The next moment Kettles 
 found himself seized by the secretary and held at arm's 
 length out of the window above the crowd. The secre- 
 tary called to the crowd that this was the young man 
 who had received the dispatch of the fall of Richmond. 
 The crowd wanted a speech from him. Kettles gave 
 them a speech in a few words, appropriate and pointed, 
 for he was in the humor. 
 
 Then followed other scenes. Fire-engines were 
 brought out anything to make a noise. In the even- 
 ing the city was ablaze with illuminations. Kettles, 
 who is now an operator in Boston, says he can never 
 forget how Father Abraham started for Secretary Stan- 
 ton's door after receiving the dispatch hop, skip, and 
 jump shouting : " Clear the track ! " 
 
 THE ASSASSINATION. 
 
 Joy, however, was speedily turned into mourning. A 
 writer in the Albany Evening Journal eloquently tells 
 the story of the great crime of April 14th, 1865, which 
 plunged the nation into grief unutterable : 
 
 " One calm night in the springtime, when the silver 
 stars were gleaming out pensively, and scarcely a foot- 
 fall on the pavement of Broadway or State street broke 
 the stillness that reigned, the cupola-man on the City 
 Hall had intoned the midnight hour, and added : 'All's 
 well,' when a sudden, nervous call of ' rep, rep,' aroused 
 all on the line from "Washington to the red man's home
 
 THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR. 93 
 
 in the far west, and to the soutlnvest, where the green 
 grass waved in luxuriance, and the little birds twittered 
 their matin songs from among the boughs of blossom- 
 ing trees, as well as to the icy fastnesses of Halifax and 
 the Canadas to all alike came the harrowing words: 
 ' Tis rumored that the President was shot at the thea- 
 ter to-night ! ' How our hearts seemed rent asunder, 
 and the great tears swelled up to the eyes that for 
 years previous were strangers to such outward expres- 
 sions of sorrow. Soon after another message came, 
 saying : ' Suppress that rumor sent you ; it's all false." 
 "What muttered threats and words followed one an- 
 other over the wire to headquarters after the reception 
 of this latter will never be known but to those in at- 
 tendance that sad and fatal night. Again all was quiet, 
 and the clock ticked away the moments, and the hands 
 sped around to the morning hours, when 'rep, 'rep' 
 was again sounded, and the brass instruments clicked 
 out an 'official,' giving the whole dark and bloody 
 tragedy of the assassination of the lamented President. 
 Sad and wan was the face of our little report-boy, 
 ' Patsey,' as he handed into the offices of the morning 
 papers the heart-rending account; and nervously the 
 hands of the weary compositors picked up the letters 
 that, set into form, recorded the assassination of Pres- 
 ident Lincoln on the evening of April 14th, 1865." 
 
 THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAB. 
 
 We shall conclude this chapter with two reminis- 
 cences of the struggle of 1870-1, the first reflecting
 
 94 THE TELEGBAJPH IN WAK. 
 
 glory upon the Prussian arms and, we fear, some dis- 
 credit upon our Gallic friends, but the latter redeeming 
 this disgrace by the heroism of a French female operator. 
 
 At Manheim there was lately on exhibition a 
 telegraphic apparatus taken from the French, which 
 was obtained in the following manner: A certain dra- 
 goon of the Baden Guards, by name Muench, with two 
 of his comrades, was sent to reconnoitre as far as the 
 Vosges. On their entering the village of Kaon 
 .1'Etampe the inhabitants fled in every direction, with 
 cries of "The Prussians! the Prussians!" and shut 
 themselves up in their houses; Thus left masters of 
 the town, the dragoons rode to the town hall and sum- 
 moned the mayor. They asked him where the tele- 
 graphic bureau was located. He pointed it out, and 
 they went to it, and Muench, singly, and in the 
 presence of the assembled city council, cut the wires, 
 unscrewed the apparatus, and buckled it to his 
 saddle. 
 
 The French government has recently conferred pie 
 military medal upon a young woman named Mdlle 
 Dodu, employed in the telegraph office at Pithiviers 
 during the war of 1870. Upon the arrival of the Ger 
 man forces in that town they at once, as was their 
 wont, took possession of the telegraph office, and rele- 
 gated Mdlle Dodu, who was in charge, to a room on 
 the first floor. The wires passed through this room, 
 and Mdlle Dodu managed to tap them and convey the 
 information transmitted over them to the sub-prefect. 
 In this way she kept the French military authorities cog- 
 nizant of the designs and movements of the enemy.
 
 95 
 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 We have now come to the greatest triumph, so far, 
 in ocean telegraphy the connecting of the old and 
 new worlds by cable, an account of which it may be 
 well to precede with a few general remarks on ocean 
 telegraphy. 
 
 Previously to the accomplishment of this under- 
 taking, which, it will be remembered, was not success- 
 ful in the earlier attempts, submarine telegraph cables 
 had been laid and worked, but they were of compara- 
 ively little length. 
 
 THE ATLANTIC CABLE 
 
 is the one which most interests us Americans, and 
 ,vhose importance in business and the affairs of nations 
 cannot be over-estimated, especially since duplex work- 
 ing has become an accomplished fact. 
 
 THE FIRST SUGGESTION OF AN ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. 
 
 An old periodical contains the following paragraph, 
 which is given here as embodying the first idea of tele- 
 graphic communication between Europe and this 
 continent. 
 
 "Mr. J. B. Lindsay, of Dundee, who is at present 
 in Glasgow, propounds a startling theory, that of 
 forming an electric telegraph betwixt Great Britain 
 and America, without employing submerged wires, or
 
 96 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 wires of any kind At a meeting in the Athenaeum 
 Mr. Lindsay illustrated his method. A large trough 
 of salt water was employed, across which he trans 
 mitted the electric current, without any metallic con- 
 ductor, the water itself being the only medium of 
 communication. Mr. Lindsay explained that he had 
 obtained similar results over a breadth of sixty feet of 
 water. Some calculations have been made in regard 
 to the expense, and Mr. Lindsay computes, according 
 to his present information, that the cost of the neces- 
 sary battery and land wires to establish a communica- 
 tion between England and America would not exceed 
 sixty thousand pounds ($300,000)." 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE ATLANTIC* CABLE. 
 
 The Atlantic cable is said to have originated with 
 Cyrus W. Field, and was suggested to him in this 
 way: A Roman Catholic bishop of St. Johns. New- 
 foundland, Bishop Muloch, advanced the idea that a 
 line be built connecting St. John with the mainland, 
 and then running a line of fast steamers to the west 
 coast of Ireland, thus bringing America within a week 
 of Europe. 
 
 In 1852, a Mr. F. N. Gisborne, acting upon this 
 suggestion, commenced the erection of a line from 
 St. Johns, through four hundred miles of dense 
 forests to Cape Ray. there to connect with the inland 
 lines. The following year, however, a short cable 
 which he had laid gave out, and those who had invest- 
 ed money in the concern withheld further support.
 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 97 
 
 Work had therefore to be suspended. In 1854, 
 Mr. Gi shorn e came to New York, and made the 
 acquaintance of Cyrus W. Field, who was much inter- 
 ested in the enterprise. 
 
 While studying this subject, and turning over the 
 globe in his library, the idea flashed across Mr. Field's 
 mind: "Wiry not carry the line across the ocean?" He 
 went to St. Johns, Newfoundland, in March, 1854, and 
 obtained from the legislature of that colony a charter 
 granting an exclusive right for fifty years to establish 
 a telegraph from the continent of America to New- 
 foundland, and thence to Europe. 
 
 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST ATLANTIC CABLE 
 COMPANY. 
 
 On March 10, 1854, articles of association were sign- 
 ed. A company of five gentlemen sat in Mr. Field's 
 parlor in Gramercy Park, and entered into the project. 
 They were Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall O. 
 Roberts, Chandler White, and Cyrus W. Field. Peter 
 Cooper became president of the association. Mr. 
 White subsequently died, and Wilson G. Hunt took 
 his place. Mr. Roberts died on September llth, 1880. 
 The association was called "The New York, Newfound- 
 land and London Telegraph Company." The com- 
 pany's capital was $1,500,000, of which Mr. Field 
 subscribed one fourth. A grant of 50,000 to aid 
 the work was secured, as well as fifty square miles of 
 public land, with a further grant of fifty more when 
 the cable was laid.
 
 98 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 It took more than two years to build the land line 
 across Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. While 
 this was being done Mr. Field went to Europe and 
 ordered a submarine cable, to connect Cape Eay and 
 Cape Breton. .This was sent out in 1855, and was lost 
 in a gale in an attempt to lay it across the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence. The attempt was successfully renewed 
 in 1856. This cable cost $1,000,000. 
 
 LAYING. THE CABLE. 
 
 In that year Mr. Field again went to London and 
 organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company, to carry 
 the line across the ocean. He secured from the 
 British and American governments aid in ships, and 
 accompanied the expeditions which sailed from Eng- 
 land in 1857 and 1858 for the purpose of laying the 
 cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Twice the attempt 
 failed, in 1857 and again in 1858. The third attempt 
 proved successful, and in 1858 telegraphic communica- 
 tion was established between England and America. 
 
 In forming the cable, the great object was to com- 
 bine lightness with strength. A single strand is 
 capable of sustaining a weight of fifteen hundred and 
 fifty pounds. The centrifugal force of the cable when 
 paying out had to be carefully guarded against. The 
 cable issued out of the tanks at the rate of six miles 
 per hour, and was paid out by means of a brake drum. 
 At the end of the blocks weights were suspended, on 
 the regulating of which the perfection of the paying 
 out depended. By watching the distance the opposite
 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 weights were suspended the strain upon the cable 
 was ascertained. Water offered a great resistance to 
 the cable. If the cable was light it would descend in 
 an inclined manner ; if bulky, then it would lie hori- 
 zontally. The cable was three hours before it reached 
 the bottom, and not before seventeen miles had been 
 paid out. If the cable, when in the process of picking 
 up, were drawn in straight line, it would snap; hence 
 the utility of laying it slackly. 
 
 THE FIRST MESSAGE TRANSMITTED. 
 
 The first message sent over the Atlantic cable was 
 the announcement of the death of James Eddy, "the 
 first and best telegrapher in the United States," as the 
 the dispatch published in the Times said. So in- 
 credulous were the public, that doubts were expressed 
 of the genuineness of the news transmitted, and only 
 when a dispatch conveying the action of Parliament 
 on an important public matter was verified by mail 
 two weeks afterward, were these dispatches accepted 
 is real. 
 
 In a few weeks the cable ceased to work, and this on 
 the very day that had been set apart in the United 
 States as a day of thanksgiving for its completion. 
 Although it was again pronounced a failure, Mr. Field 
 never lost faith, and made frequent trips to Europe to 
 resuscitate the company. The civil war broke out in 
 the meantime, and not until 1865 was another expedi- 
 tion prepared. Submarine telegraphy had been greatly 
 improved, a better cable was prepared, and the steam-
 
 100 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 ship Great Eastern took it on board, and sailed for the 
 American coast. Over twelve hundred miles of cable 
 had been laid, when, by a sudden lurch of the vessel, 
 the cable snapped and was lost. The bottom of the sea 
 was dragged for days in search of the broken end, and 
 the expedition returned to England. In 1866, the 
 Great Eastern again sailed with a fresh cable, and two 
 thousand miles were safely stretched across the ocean, 
 and the communication perfected July 27, 1866. After 
 landing this the Great Eastern returned to the middle 
 of the ocean, and after two months' search succeeded 
 in grappling the sundered cable of the year previous. 
 It was brought up from a distance of two miles, joined 
 to the cable on the steamship, and carried safely to 
 the Western shore. A weekly newspaper, called the 
 Atlantic Telegraph, was published on the Great Eastern 
 during these operations. 
 
 An amusing story is told of a gentleman who beset 
 Mr. Field at the time when the cable was sundered 
 with a proposal as to the manner in which it could be 
 best raised from the ocean. This was to sink a hollow 
 tube in which to go down and seek after the cable. 
 Mr. Field was so annoyed by the continued calls at his 
 hotel that one morning he told his visitor that it 
 should be done, and that the author of the idea should 
 make the first attempt. He never afterward saw the 
 gentleman. 
 
 After twelve years of incessant labor, in which he 
 crossed the ocean nearly fifty times, Mr. Field saw the 
 crowning effort of his life accomplished. Congress
 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 101 
 
 voted him a gold medal with the thanks of the nation, 
 and the prime minister of England said that it was 
 only the fact that he was a citizen of another country 
 that prevented him receiving high honors from the 
 British government. 
 
 COST OF THE FIRST CABLE. 
 
 The first cable cost $1,256,250, and the company's 
 expenditures up to December 1, 1858, amounted to 
 $1,834,500. Among the dispatches sent over the cable 
 was the speech of the king of Prussia just before the 
 Austrian war. It cost $3,600 to transmit it. This 
 cable has been in running order almost continually 
 since its successful completion. In 1874 work was 
 begun by the "Direct Cable Company" to lay a cable 
 between Ballinskeligs Bay, Ireland, and Rye, New 
 Hampshire, by way of Nova Scotia. It was completed 
 in 1875. " The Compagnie Francaise du Telegraph de 
 Paris a New York" completed, December 15th, 1879, 
 the laying of a cable from Brest, France, to St. Pierre, 
 Miquelon, and thence to North Eastham, Massachus- 
 etts, and an additional cable was laid by the Anglo- 
 American Company in July, 1880. 
 
 RECENT REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN CABLE LAYING. 
 
 The rapidity with which the later cables, particularly 
 the last two, were laid, is in striking contrast with 
 the laying of the earlier trans-Atlantic cables. When 
 the first attempts were made, the practicability of the 
 scheme appeared doubtful. Two failures occurred.
 
 102 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 The first cable, 1857-8, was defective, and, although 
 between August 13th and September 1st, 1858, four 
 hundred messages were sent between Valentia and 
 the Newfoundland coast, yet the rate of reception was 
 very variable, the signals often unintelligible and requir- 
 ing repetitions. After much trouble and cost, the 
 location of the defect was ascertained, but all attempts 
 to recover the cable failed. In 1865 was commenced 
 the laying of the second cable, and about half of it 
 had been paid out when it broke. Operations were 
 suspended until the following year (1866), when a 
 stronger but lighter and more flexible cable was suc- 
 cessfully laid, the distance between Trinity Bay and 
 Valentia being 2,134 miles. In 1869 the French 
 Atlantic line between Brest and St. Pierre, and thence 
 to Duxbury, Mass., went into operation, and in the 
 summer of 1875 the final splice of the Direct Cable 
 Company's line was made. Since the days when the 
 difficulties in the way of trans-Atlantic telegraphy 
 appeared almost insuperable, wonderful strides have 
 been made in the electric art, and great facilities have 
 been introduced in the method of paying out the 
 cable from the ship, so that what was formerly re- 
 garded as a vast experiment has now become a very 
 practicable work. 
 
 MR. FIELD AND THE CABLE. 
 
 Mr. Field's energetic labor was pursued with a zeal 
 which entailed heavy financial expenditure. Though 
 a man of independent fortune when he began, he em-
 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 103 
 
 barked in it so large a portion of his capital as nearly 
 to make shipwreck of the whole. "While in England, 
 engaged in the expedition of 1857, a financial storm 
 swept over this country, and his house suspended; 
 but on his return he asked only for time, and paid all 
 in full with interest. The stoppage, however, was a 
 heavy blow, and, being followed by a fire in 1859 which 
 burned his store to the ground, and by the panic of 
 December, 1860, just before the breaking out of the 
 war, he was finally obliged to compromise with his 
 creditors. Thus released he devoted himself to the 
 work of his life. The success of the Atlantic cable 
 brought back a portion of his lost wealth, when his 
 first care was to make good all losses to others. He 
 addressed a letter to every creditor who suffered by 
 the failure of his house in 1860, requesting him to 
 send a statement of the amount compromised, added 
 the interest for nearly six years, and as fast as pre- 
 sented returned a check in full. The whole amount is 
 stated to have been $200,000. 
 
 CABLE OPERATORS. 
 
 These persons form a class by themselves, requiring 
 a special education and special adaptability to the 
 service. Their life is anythingjbut a cheerful or social 
 one, for they are usually located in out of the way 
 places on the sea coast, where neighbors are few and 
 far between, and scarcely of a character calculated to 
 constitute an interesting and pleasant social circle. 
 
 When on duty they are closely occupied in watching
 
 104 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 and translating the slender point of light whose vibra- 
 tions convey to the eye with them, as sound does to the 
 ear of the ordinary telegraph operator, the intelligence 
 which it is necessary to communicate. When off duty 
 their pleasures and recreations are few indeed, and 
 taken altogether the occupation and it surroundings 
 are not enticing to individuals of social and compan- 
 ionable proclivities. 
 
 It may be said on the other hand, however, that the 
 labor required is not excessive, and is well paid. If 
 there is a lack of opportunity for social enjoyment, 
 there is also not much temptation to spend money, so 
 that the position of cable operator is one in which 
 there is an opportunity for financial accumulation. 
 Most if not all of the cable operators on this side of 
 the Atlantic came from England, and after a certain 
 term of service are entitled to a three months' leave of 
 absence to visit their native land, if they so desire. 
 They receive from the company a liberal allowance to 
 defray their expenses upon the trip. 
 
 ECONOMY IN SENDING MESSAGES. 
 
 The price per word being a consideration in trans- 
 mitting messages over the Atlantic cable, the aim 
 of merchants, news agencies, and others is to send as 
 few words and convey as much information as possi- 
 ble. A great number of cipher codes are in use, 
 composed generally of columns of words or figures 
 answering to every possible emergency. The codes 
 are kept profoundly secret, and to prevent the clerks
 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 105 
 
 and employes in the offices interpreting and divulg- 
 ing the message, a secret understanding often exists 
 between the principals to read the cipher backward 
 or forward half a dozen words. The following sample 
 of a message presents the most unintelligible aspect 
 to an outsider: 
 
 John Bolton & Co., Liverpool, to Preston, Banks 
 & Co., New Orleans. Kildare Description Sacred 
 Ecuador Pot Screamer Shrimp Betsy Name- 
 less Bobby Bellona Obscure Numantia Battle- 
 trap Kichard Sackbut Sally Salmon Penholder. 
 
 Such a queer combination of words might lead one 
 to the conclusion that the cotton merchants were given 
 to indulge in an eccentric species of wit peculiar to 
 themselves; but the words have a stern significance 
 that means "business." They form a cipher telegram 
 of the most unrelenting "business aspect," even the 
 diminutive " shrimp " bearing a grim message of special 
 intelligence, and the very unsentimental Christian 
 names answering to the names of various firms, who 
 are wont to be addressed by much more respectful 
 titles. It is necessary to take notice that the cotton 
 bought by cable is still in this country or on the sea ; 
 in fact, it is often bought, re-sold, and re-bought again 
 perhaps half a dozen times before it ever touches the 
 shores of England. The translation of the telegram 
 above given is as follows : 
 
 1 We have sold to Kingston & Co., Preston, 500 
 
 Kildare bales (of cotton) at 7| (per pound), good qual- 
 
 Description V ity, color and staple. Terms laid down by 
 
 Sacred. steamer. Bills of lading to be sent through 
 
 j Messrs. Baring Brothers.
 
 106 
 
 CABLE TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 Ecuador 
 Pot. 
 
 Screamer. 
 
 Shrimp 
 Betsy. 
 
 Nameless 
 Bobby. 
 
 Obscure 
 Numantia 
 
 Rattletrap 
 Richard 
 
 Sackbut 
 Sally 
 
 Salmon 
 Penholder 
 
 Buy for John Smith & Co., 200 bales at 8|, with 
 fine, long, even staple ; inferior bales will be 
 rejected. Ship by steamer. 
 
 Execute this order if possible ; it may lead to a 
 large business. 
 
 Do not insure for Brown & Co. ; they will attend 
 to their own. 
 
 Bush & Wilson are not satisfied with their lot; 
 it is not up to the mark. Use more care. 
 Take special pains to ship no bales showing 
 sticks or sand. 
 
 Your letter is not to hand ; if important, cable 
 particulars. 
 
 The Numantia is making a long voyage : fears 
 are entertained for her safety. 
 
 Is James Rochdale good? and to what amount? 
 Sharp is speculating. Be careful with him. 
 
 The Manchester market is excited and rising 
 rapidly. 
 
 This cable telegram is a fair specimen of the kinds 
 that are daily passing by hundreds over the Atlantic 
 cable. The art of preparing these codes is one requir- 
 ing considerable ingenuity.
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 107 
 
 HUMOKS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 In the progress of this little book up to the point 
 reached, occasion has been met with for the intro- 
 duction of incidents and anecdotes which have served 
 to lighten its pages and add to their interest. Not- 
 withstanding this, however, our plan would not be 
 complete in the absence of an entire chapter devoted 
 to the humors of the telegraph, and giving a suc- 
 cession of well-authenticated accounts most mirthful 
 and entertaining. 
 
 We can scarcely do better than to introduce, in the 
 beginning, the ingenious Irishman who inquired of 
 an operator; "Do you ever charge anybody for the 
 address of a message ? " " No." " And do ye charge 
 for signing his name, sir ?" continued the customer. 
 "No." Well, then, will ye please send this? I just want 
 me brother to know I am here," handing the follow- 
 ing: "Cincinnati, Sept. 3d. To John M'Flynn at 
 New York (signed) Patrick M'Flynn." 
 
 An old lady in a town of Massachusetts, refused the 
 gift of a load of wood from a tree struck by light- 
 ning, through fear that some of the "fluid" might 
 remain in the wood, and cause disaster to her kitchen 
 stove. And during the summer of 1878, a Texas man 
 declined to receive a dispatch from a yellow fever local- 
 ity, lest he might catch the disease. 
 
 That was a witty man who, being detained by a
 
 108 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 snow- blockade, penned a dispatch which ran thus : 
 " My dear sir, I have every motive for visiting you, 
 except a locomotive." So was the other who, under 
 similar circumstances, telegraphed to his firm in New 
 York: "I shall not be in the office to-day, as I have 
 not got home yesterday yet." 
 
 Incongruous telegrams as to their subjects, are 
 numberless, their reason, economy. For instance: "To 
 . Nellie has fine girl. Sell my horse at price named." 
 
 Another, sent from a Western town to a gentleman 
 of this city, read : " To -. Matilda died this morn- 
 ing. Send fifty dollars worth of cheap jewelry." 
 
 A message sent from Cincinnati to Milwaukee read: 
 "Send Pauline here immediately; have a chance to 
 get her married." And a Pennsylvania politician once 
 telegraphed his father: "I have 2,000 majority brother 
 Sam died this morning." 
 
 From Albany, Oregon, we learn of a farmer down 
 the country who had occassion to telegraph to that 
 city to friends, notifying them of the death of his 
 father. Being anxious to get the message through 
 promptly, he rode on horseback past one telegraph 
 office to another, twenty miles nearer Albany, to send 
 the message, giving as his reason for the extra travel 
 that the office was twenty miles nearer, and, of course, 
 the message would go quicker than from the other 
 twenty miles further away. 
 
 The following dispatch created 110 little amusement 
 in the offices through which it passed. " Charlie and 
 Julia met at S -'s yesterday, quarreled and parted
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGKAPH. 109 
 
 for ever ; met again this morning and parted to meet 
 no more ; met again this evening and were married." 
 
 There are evidences of a poetical turn of mind in 
 this telegram, sent by a newly-married man while on 
 his wedding tour, to a friend in Montreal : "Expect to- 
 night a happy pair, bed and supper please prepare ;" 
 and of domestic bliss in the following, sent by a Wall 
 street broker to his wife : ' Send John. Also demi- 
 john. Kiss Matty. Spank Arthur. Don't fret." 
 
 The husband of Harriet Prescott Spofford was in 
 Boston when he learned that he had become a father 
 by this dispatch, dated Newburyport : " Dear father, 
 I came to town this morning at eleven o'clock, and 
 when you are disengaged I shall be very happy to be 
 introduced to you. Truly your affectionate son, 
 Richard Spofford." 
 
 "Mamma,' said a little girl, pointing to the tele- 
 graph wires, "how do they send messages by those 
 bits of wires without tearing them to pieces "?" " They 
 send them in a fluid state, my dear," was the reply. 
 
 A good story is told of a country woman who re- 
 ceived a dispatch later than she expected : "It must 
 have been delayed on the road," said she. "I know 
 the wires are busy to-day, for I heard them working as 
 I came along." 
 
 " KILLING FAURE." 
 
 Much ado about a little arose from the meddling of 
 an astute operator of Paris, who, upon receiving a dis- 
 patch of an unusual character for transmission, stared
 
 110 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 and inquired of the messenger by whom it was sent. 
 The answer was: "By a gentleman living in the Eue la 
 Fontaine." The operator requested the man to step 
 into his office and take a seat. Meanwhile a gendarme 
 was summoned and the message shown to him. It ran 
 thus: "I have thought of a better and more expeditious 
 mode of killing Faure," and was signed Mery. The 
 agent started for M. Mery's residence ; he was in bed, 
 but was in the act of announcing to his co-laborer, M. 
 Dulvile, with whom he was writing Don Carlos, for 
 which Verdi composed the music, that he had thought 
 of another mode of dispatching the Marquis of Rosa 
 (which part was to be acted by Faure) than by a pis- 
 tol-shot, as in Schiller's tragedy, and had telegraphed 
 to him to that effect. 
 
 "ADDITIONAL WURRED." 
 
 " The top of the mornin' to yez, sur," remarked an 
 
 Irishman, entering the Cincinnati office one morning. 
 "Good morning," replied the operator. 
 "Fhot do yez charge to sind a missige to Pitts 
 
 burg ? " 
 
 " Forty and three, sir." 
 
 " And fhot is the three fur, I dunno ?" 
 
 " That is for the additional words, sir." 
 
 " Additional wurred ! And who is he ? " 
 
 " Why, for ten words you pay forty cents and for 
 
 each additional word three cents." 
 
 "Oh, ho! ye spalpane! and that's your little game, 
 
 is it ? Yez wants me to pay yez forty cints, which yez
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. Ill 
 
 will pocket, and thin sind the missige wid that three 
 cints by mail, eh ? Oh, no ! I'll sind it by mail meself, 
 and get tight on that same forty cints ! Good day to 
 yez." 
 
 And out he went, leaving the telegraphers to enjoy 
 a hearty laugh. 
 
 A SKETCH FROM RUSSIA. 
 
 The last story is matched by one which reaches us 
 from Kussia, and is a faithful account of what took 
 place in one of the Russian telegraph offices. 
 
 The door is opened by a stout merchant. 
 
 Merchant Hollo, there ! Is it here that you send 
 telegrams ? 
 
 Operator We can dispatch a telegram for you, sir, 
 if you wish it. "Will you be so good as to write down 
 the message that you want to send ? 
 
 The merchant took a sheet of paper, sat down with 
 an air of stern satisfaction, and wrote : 
 
 " To my son, Vasili Petrovitch Bogatoff, at Moscow: 
 Vasia, you infernal dog ! You fool, you pig, you villain, 
 you brigand, you pickpocket, you unbaptized son of a 
 gun ! What the devil do you mean by rousing me up 
 in the middle of the night with that cursed letter of 
 yours, begging for money, as usual ? Not a kopeck 
 shall you have from me, and you may go and hang 
 yourself ! " 
 
 Operator (mildly but firmly) Excuse me, sir, it is 
 quite impossible for us to send such a message as 
 that.
 
 112 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 Merchant How ? Not send it ? What do you 
 mean ? If I were to put that in a letter and mail it, 
 it would go, and why shouldn't it go in a telegram ? 
 Besides (with an air of unanswerable logic) he is a 
 pig! Come, you must send it you know it's your 
 duty. 
 
 Operator (with exasperating politeness) Quite out 
 of the question, sir, I assure you. Our rules are very 
 strict, and we never depart from them. 
 
 Merchant (furiously) So much the worse for you, 
 then. I'll write a letter twice as bad as that message, 
 and send it off by the first mail and then we'll see. 
 That for you and your telegram ! They're not worth a 
 kopeck. 
 
 Exit triumphantly. 
 
 A SATCHEL BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 The subject of our story was a German somewhat 
 intoxicated, who boarded the Hudson Eiver train at 
 Kinderhook. He threw his satchel down in a corner 
 of the car, took a seat, and was soon in the arms of 
 Morpheus. On awaking he alleged that he had left his 
 baggage at Kinderhook, and asked the boy employed 
 on the train what he should do to recover it. The 
 latter, who had seen the German place his satchel in 
 the corner, replied: " You give me thirty cents and I'l] 
 telegraph to Kinderhook to have the depot master 
 forward it by telegraph to Greenbush. It will reach 
 there before we do." The German paid the money, 
 gave a minute description of the missing property, and
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 113 
 
 the boy departed, taking the satchel into another car. 
 On reaching Greenbush the boy returned with the 
 bag, and, placing it in the German's hands, said: 
 " There's the first satchel I ever see come by tele- 
 graph." " Ah," replied the German, " dot delegraff is 
 run great dings ; here, dake another quarter, mein 
 boy." And the boy did. 
 
 A MEDDLING KING SNUBBED. 
 
 King John of Saxony was prone to dropping in upon 
 officials when they least expected him. One day he 
 appeared at the telegraph office of a small station. 
 The operator apprised his colleague at the next station 
 of the unwelcome visit, and before an acknowledgement 
 of the warning came, was called upon to enlighten the 
 inquiring monarch respecting the business of his office. 
 Presently a message came along the wires, and his 
 majesty desired to be acquainted with its purport. 
 He was told it was unimportant, but was not to be put 
 off, and insisted upon the message being repeated to 
 him ; so the stammering operator had no choice but to 
 regale the royal ears with the German equivalent for 
 " The king pokes his nose into everything." 
 
 A VERY PROPER OLD LADY. 
 
 A droll mistake was made by an imaginative old 
 dame who, having permitted a telegraph pole to be 
 placed in front of her house, waited on the chief of 
 the telegraph company concerned to complain that 
 she could get no sleep at night, being kept awake by
 
 114 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 the noise made by the messages passing over her 
 head. 
 
 " I don't think, sir," said she, "you can be aware of 
 all that's said along them wires. There's a deal that 
 hadn't ought to be. I can assure you, sir, that very 
 much that's said there, that I have to lie and listen to, 
 is such as no decent woman ought to hear ; and I 
 hope you will put a stop to it." 
 
 The amused gentleman was hardly able to meet the 
 accusation with due gravity ; but he did contrive to 
 keep his countenance while he informed the old lady 
 that the young men who had hitherto worked the 
 wires were under notice of dismissal ; and that in 
 future only young women of great respectability 
 would be employed, so there would be no danger of 
 her propriety being shocked any longer. 
 
 LITTLE " JOHNNY RUSSELL." 
 
 One evening at a time when Lord John Russell, 
 known in English public-house political disputations 
 by the disrespectful name " Johnny Kussell," was in 
 attendance at Queen Victoria's castle of Balmoral, in 
 the north of Scotland, a little old man, buried in a 
 great coat, handed a telegram, addressed to one of the 
 ministers in London, to the telegraph operator at one 
 of the stations on the Deeside railway. The operator, 
 after glancing at the message, threw it contemptuously 
 back with : 
 
 " Put your name to it. It's a pity your master does 
 not know how to send a telegram." 
 
 The name was added.
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 115 
 
 " "Why, you can't write ! " exclaimed the operator, 
 after vainly trying to make something of the signa- 
 ture. " What's your name ? " 
 
 " My name," said the messenger " my name is 
 John Russell." 
 
 That operator was transferred to another office 
 before many days passed. 
 
 PETER'S TELEGRAM. 
 
 A message had been received for Peter from a former 
 sweetheart, Margaret Flagarty, inviting him to spend 
 the day with her. Of course the telegram was duly 
 sent to his address. That evening a forlorn-looking 
 object entered the office, and going to the operator, 
 said : " Please, sur, I want to send a message." "Well, 
 here is the paper, write it down." "Indeed, sur, I can't 
 write." The operator, who was a brisk little man, 
 said : " Come to the desk, then, and tell me what you 
 want to send." He came slowly, and gave the address 
 of Margaret Flagarty, etc., then, in a deep, sepulchral 
 tone, hitching nearer the instrument, he added: " I am 
 married, and to my sorrow!" If the wires didn't laugh 
 the operators did, as the message sped swiftly from 
 station to station. No two-volumed novel, with con- 
 nubial miseries long drawn out, could have portrayed 
 more heart-rending grief than Peter's telegram. 
 
 HE COULDN'T BE FOOLED. 
 
 "Would you mind readin' this for me, sir ? I can't 
 read myself." It was a snow-shoveler on Walnut
 
 116 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 street, Louisville, that spoke, as lie handed over an 
 envelope, inclosing a telegram, which read : "Nashville, 
 January 9, 1879. I shall arrive at Louisville by the 
 three o'clock train this evening. Jerry A. Taft." "Will 
 you read it again, sir T asked the snow-shoveler. It 
 was read again. "You say it's signed Jerry A. Taft?" 
 "That is^the name." "Please read it once more." 
 His request was complied with. " It goes right 
 straight along just them 'ere words, without any 
 hitchin' or stumblin"?" "Just that way." "It can't 
 be Jerry, then; it can't be Jerry," he mused; "Jerry 
 couldn't say that many words without stutterin' all to 
 pieces, to save his life. Some fellow's tryin' to fool me, 
 but I'm too smart for him, I am." 
 
 WRITES LIKE A MAN. 
 
 A family in the country were electrified by the 
 receipt of a telegraphic dispatch from a daughter, 
 who was teaching in a distant city. The telegram 
 was passed around and duly admired. The dashing 
 boldness of the chirography came in for its share of 
 the praise. The old lady shook her head with an air 
 of gratified pride, as she ejaculated, slowly : 
 
 "Anna Maria allers did write like a man; she's 
 been takin' writin' lessons ; this here beats her last 
 letter all holler !" 
 
 A LITTLE STORY FROM MAINE. 
 
 A man went into one of the offices in Bangor with 
 a dispatch, which he insisted upon having sent off
 
 HUMOBS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 117 
 
 immediately. The operator accommodated him, and 
 then hung the dispatch on a hook. The man hung 
 around some time, evidently unsatisfied; at last his 
 patience was exhausted, and he belched out: "Ain't 
 you going to send that dispatch?" The operator 
 politely informed him that he had sent it. " No yer 
 ain't," replied the indignant man; "there it is now on 
 the hook." 
 
 HOLLOW AND HELLO. 
 
 A genuine "pahdee," quite aged, living some miles 
 out of town, went into the office at Augusta one day 
 to sell some "praties," and seeing the instruments, 
 battery, etc., wondered if that was the "tiligraft." 
 After gazing steadily for several minutes, he said he 
 had always wanted to ask one question ; and this was 
 it: "Is the wire hollow on the outside or on the 
 inside?" Some one recently inquired of the manager 
 of a telephone exchange whether telephone wire wasn't 
 hollow. "No," gruffly replied the manager, "it's 
 'hello.'" 
 
 FOOLING THE SAVAGES. 
 
 The ingenious French have contrived a novel way 
 to impress che barbaric mind. M. de Brazza, who has 
 charge of the expedition to Senegal, carries an electric 
 battery in his pocket, communicating with two rings 
 on his hand and with other apparatus scattered about 
 his person. When he shakes hands with a savage 
 chief, that chief will be very much astonished, for an
 
 118 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 electric shock will run up his arm and he will see 
 lightning playing about the head of his visitor. Natu- 
 rally he will think he is being interviewed by his 
 satanic majesty, and will be ready to consent to any- 
 thing in order to get away. 
 
 "ONNATERAL FIXINS." 
 
 An old lady living on one of the telegraph lines 
 leading from Louisville, in the early days of telegraphy, 
 observed some workmen digging a hole near her door, 
 she inquired what it was for. " To put a post in for 
 the telegraph," was the answer. Wild with fury and 
 affright, she seized her bonnet and ran off to her next 
 neighbor with the news. "What do you think?" she 
 exclaimed in breathless haste; "they're setting up 
 that paragraph right agin my door ; and now I reckon 
 a body can't spank a child, or scold a hand, or chat 
 with a neighbor, but that plaguy thing'll be blabbing 
 it all over creation. I won't stand it. I'll move 
 right away where there ain't none of them onnateral 
 fixins! " 
 
 CHICAGO AND . 
 
 During the time when the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Telegraph Company had established a uniform rate of 
 twenty-five cents between any two offices east of the 
 Mississippi River, a Chicago man, residing in the 
 suburbs, having to telegraph home from a distant 
 Wisconsin town, asked the diminutive and apparently 
 unsophisticated operator in charge of the only tele-
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 119 
 
 graph office in the place a Western Union one what 
 the tariff would be, and upon being told that one 
 insatiate dollar would suffice, burst out: "Dollar be 
 blowed! We can telegraph to h 1 in Chicago for a 
 quarter!" "Oh, yes," calmly answered the cunning 
 knight of copperas and brass, "but that ain't outside 
 the city limits!" 
 
 A WITTY ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 Writing of the difficulty English engineers experi- 
 enced in making educated Persians understand the 
 working of the electric telegraph, Mr. Mounsey says : 
 " Much of the time of one of our officers was occupied 
 during several weeks in attempting to enlighten the 
 mind of a provincial governor, who had got it into his 
 head that the wires were hollow tubes, and that mes- 
 sages were transmitted through them, as in the pneu- 
 matic post. In vain was the whole apparatus shown 
 to his highness ; in vain even all its parts explained 
 and re-explained he stuck to his idea; and it was 
 only by the suggestion of the following simile that he 
 was at last induced to relinquish it, and declare him- 
 self satisfied : 
 
 " ' Imagine,' said the officer, ' a dog whose tail is 
 here at Teheran, and his muzzle in London ; tread on 
 his tail here, and he will bark there.'" 
 
 OFFICE LOAFERS ELECTRIFIED. 
 
 Newspaper editors especially will be thankful for a 
 description of the manner in which certain telegraph
 
 120 HUMORS OF THE TELEGEAPH. 
 
 operators of Sacramento, Cal., rid themselves of loafers. 
 A box running the full length of the front of the office 
 on the outside had furnished a tempting seat for the 
 habitues. This was covered with zinc, which had 
 been connected with the batteries that were contained 
 in the box. A person sitting upon the box without 
 touching his hands thereto did not feel the electricity, 
 but if his hands dropped on the box, or he put them 
 thereon to assist him in rising, he received such a 
 sudden and astonishing shock as sent him an unbeliev- 
 able number of feet toward the lofty roof and the 
 adjacent river. Any good day a person might see 
 some of these unfortunates, unexpectedly struck with 
 this domesticated lightning, describing a fifty feet 
 parabola in the air. 
 
 SHOCKING THE NEGROES. 
 
 At one of the stations on the Kentucky Central 
 Bailroad, a couple of negroes cut down a tree across 
 the telegraph wire and broke it. The operator came 
 out at once, determined on revenge. He quietly took 
 his seat and ordered the negroes to bring the two ends 
 of the wire together and mend it. Each seized end 
 and end, but the moment they came in contact there 
 was a sharp electric shock, and they let go. It was 
 raining, and the battery was strong. However, the 
 negroes didn't know where the shock came from, and 
 tried it again. By this time they were so wet that 
 the current would pass if the clothes of one but 
 touched the other. Frightened and bewildered they
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 121 
 
 brought the wires together again and again ; each 
 time, to their great astonishment, an electric shock 
 convulsed them. And when the train started there 
 sat that operator under the shelter of the depot still 
 egging the negroes to fresh efforts. 
 
 BLINDFOLDING THE "MASHEEN." 
 
 Mrs. Moore, desiring at times to indulge in a little 
 domestic telegraphy, had a wire run from the base- 
 ment of her domicile to the second story sitting room 
 thereof, and equipped with a pair of learners' instru- 
 ments. By the help of a telegraphic friend she and 
 her husband soon learned to communicate deftly with 
 each other, sending down instructions to the servants 
 and superintending household matters generally with- 
 out the inconvenience of traveling too frequently up 
 and down two flights of stairs. Bridget and Mary, of 
 the lower regions, had watched this mysterious opera- 
 tion with considerable interest, and, as the event 
 proved, had settled upon a theory of their own as to 
 the modus operandi of the concern at all events they 
 evidently considered that it was not altogether a safe 
 thing to have in the room under certain contingencies. 
 
 One evening Patrick and Michael had paid a visit to 
 the aforesaid handmaidens, and the quartet had 
 remained in close conference with closed doors until 
 a late hour. The next morning Mrs. Moore discovered 
 the telegraph instrument carefully covered over with a 
 cloth, and nicely tucked in around the edges ! At first 
 she was naturally astonished at such unprecedented
 
 122 HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 care-taking, but when the truth flashed upon her that 
 the unoffending instrument had merely been blind- 
 folded, so that it couldn't see what was going on and 
 report it to the " missus " up stairs, she laughed till she 
 well nigh went into convulsions. So do her friends 
 when she tells them the story. 
 
 A CRAMMER. 
 
 The buffaloes found in the telegraph poles of the 
 overland line a new source of delight on the treeless 
 prairie the novelty of having something to scratch 
 against. But it was expensive scratching for the tele- 
 graph company; and there, indeed, was the rub, for 
 the bisons shook down miles of wire daily. A bright 
 idea struck somebody, to send to St. Louis and Chicago 
 for all the brad-awls that could be purchased, and 
 these were driven into the poles, with a view to wound 
 the animals and check their rubbing propensity. 
 Never was a greater mistake. The buffaloes were 
 delighted. For the first time they came to the 
 scratch sure of a sensation in their thick hides that 
 thrilled them from horn to tail. They would go 
 fifteen miles to find a brad-awl. They fought huge 
 battles around the poles containing them, and the 
 victor would proudly climb the mountainous heap of 
 rump and hump of the fallen, and scratch himself into 
 bliss until the brad-awl broke or the pole came down. 
 There has been no demand for brad-awls from the 
 Kansas region since the first invoice. 
 
 Eight here we must shut down on funny stories. 
 'Tis time to retire.
 
 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 123 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 
 
 This is a fruitful section, probably to many readers 
 the most interesting of all, if not the most useful. 
 We must, however, keep it within reasonable bounds, 
 culling from the best " bulls " which have come within 
 the writer's knowledge, and telling these as concisely 
 as possible, so as to include a goodly number. 
 
 In so doing we find it the most convenient way to 
 divide this section into two parts telegraphic " bulls " 
 by operators and by the public. 
 
 " BULLS " BY OPERATORS. 
 
 " Bulls " are not all of a funny character. How big 
 with fate to the last French empire was the tele- 
 graphic blunder which caused the defeat of Marshal 
 McMahon, in the summer of 1870 ! Failly had been 
 telegraphed to move on Limbach; but the dispatch, 
 as received by him, read " Kausbach," and he acted 
 accordingly, by which move the plan of the campaign 
 was fatally disarranged. 
 
 Perhaps Fritz, in the following story, taken from the 
 history of the Titanic struggle in the first year of the 
 present decade, deserved, for his mercenary view of 
 marriage, all the inconveniences and the disappoint- 
 ment which a telegraphic " bull " caused him. 
 
 A young German lieutenant, wounded in the Franco- 
 German war, went for his health's sake to a quiet vil- 
 lage in Vaud, where he found a sweetheart. By the
 
 124 TELEGKAPHIO " BULL8." 
 
 time he had regained his health the pair were engaged ; 
 then came a sudden order to report himself at Berlin, 
 an order he, of course, obeyed. At first his disconso- 
 late Marie was comforted by frequent letters full of 
 protestations of love and constancy ; but as time wore 
 on the lieutenant plied his pen less often and moder- 
 ated its outpourings. At last he suffered six weeks 
 to go without a word. He was expecting a reproachful 
 reminder, when a telegram arrived from the faithful 
 girl, which maybe thus translated: "Dear Fritz, I 
 have just received a letter informing me that my uncle, 
 a millionaire in the East Indies, is dead, and that I am 
 his sole heiress." Fritz felt his love revive as he read. 
 He applied for leave of absence, and was soon exchang- 
 ing greetings with the Swiss maiden. Though the 
 coming of her lover filled her heart with joy, she 
 could not refrain from gently upbraiding him for his 
 silence. "Don't let us speak of it, dearest," replied 
 he. "There is no longer any obstacle to our union. 
 The unexpected good fortune which Providence has 
 sent us has removed the objections of my parents; a 
 
 fortune so colossal " "Fritz," interrupted Marie, 
 
 "do not make fun of me." For answer the lieutenant 
 drew her telegram out of his pocket, and showed her 
 the words: "My uncle, a millionaire in the East Indies, 
 is dead." The poor girl, dropping his hand, said, 
 " Dear Fritz, I wrote: 'My uncle, a missionnaire.' He 
 has left me all he had, which is just a hundred and 
 ninety-six francs." Fritz went back to Berlin freed 
 from his engagement.
 
 TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS." 125 
 
 A writer on the other side of the Atlantic charges 
 operators with having amazed a husband on his travels 
 by informing him that he was the father of a dolphin ; 
 with having extinguished (distinguished) a man in 
 Paris with an enormous red cockade ; made Italy preg- 
 nant with a lamb (alarm) ; sent a man a train filled 
 with penny shovels (perishable goods) ; told one man 
 that his onions (opinions) were not wanted ; made 
 travelers inform their employers that they could not 
 leave London without their cabbage (luggage) ; as- 
 serted that sugar cans (canes) grew in Jamaica ; that 
 seraphs (serfs) were emancipated in Russia ; that the 
 Emperor of Austria gave the ambassadors a spree 
 (soiree) ; made Captain Smith, of Her Majesty's 33d, 
 indignant by addressing him as Captain Smith, of Her 
 Majesty's dirty 3d; amazed a distinguished poet by 
 consigning to him a cargo of codfish and salt pork, 
 and amused a distinguished clergyman by asking him 
 his lowest offer for steam coals ; and nearly got a mer- 
 chant into the " black list" by saying that he was no- 
 where (now here.) 
 
 Considering the many millions of messages sent and 
 received every year some operators in the larger 
 offices handling as many as from three to five hundred 
 a day and the fearful and wonderful penmanship in 
 which many of them are disguised by the senders, the 
 wonder is not so much that mistakes occasionally hap- 
 pen, as that they do not occur far oftener, especially 
 as the telegraphic symbols for many different letters 
 and words are so nearly alike.
 
 126 TELEGEAPHIO "BULLS." 
 
 The most frequent cause of error on the part of 
 operators is the running of two or more words to- 
 gether, on the one hand, or the unnecessary dividing 
 of a word, on the other. For instance, the words 
 " colored man" have been transformed into " Col. Ord- 
 man;" "Addie Pratt" into "Addie P. Rat," and the 
 signature " Theodore Rose" into "the odor of roses." 
 
 "Subpoena witnesses and compel attendance" was 
 made to read " Subpoena witnesses and compel Allan 
 to dance." 
 
 "Tour son is dead. Be at depot. "Will arrive to- 
 night," was changed in transmission to " Your son is 
 dead beat. The depot will arrive to-night." 
 
 A gentleman was once considerably surprised to re- 
 ceive the following : " Do not hang about the hotel. 
 Will write." The original message read : " Do nothing 
 about the hotel. Will write." 
 
 A newspaper dispatch published some years ago gave 
 an account of the doings of a number of troops under 
 the leadership of A. N. Cushman. As printed in the 
 papers, however, it stated that the troops were led by 
 " an Irishman." 
 
 A story is told of a Kalamazoo, Michigan, judge who 
 went to a neighboring town on business, and tele- 
 graphed back to his wife: " Have found Garland. 
 Won't be home for a week." When received, the 
 message read : " Have found girl, and won't be home 
 for a week," which doubtless made an explanation 
 necessary when he did get back. 
 
 The following dispatch was recently sent by a lady
 
 TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS." 127 
 
 to her reverend husband, who was off on a visit: 
 " Come home and marry M. E. Stuart Thursday morn- 
 ing." The worthy divine received the message in this 
 shape, which considerably startled him : " Come home 
 and marry me. Start Thursday morning." 
 
 To properly appreciate many good "bulls" it is 
 necessary that one be acquainted with the Morse tele- 
 graphic alphabet. It is believed, however, that the 
 following will be found interesting even to those who 
 do not know anything of the business : 
 
 There are two hotels in London much frequented 
 by gentlemen of the bar. One is Thavies' Inn, and 
 Lhe other Sergeant's Inn. In a telegram addressed to 
 a disciple of Blackstone at the former house the name 
 of the hotel was rendered Thieves' Inn, and, curiously 
 enough, about the same time another telegram called 
 the other house Serpent's Tnn. 
 
 A merchant in Boston recently received the follow- 
 ing dispatch : 
 
 " CHICAGO, July 24. 
 
 " Jennie is good now six dogs regularly." 
 
 His surprise was great. What Jennie was good for 
 he could not imagine, and six dogs regularly was 
 incomprehensible, unless it referred to diet, and then 
 it was monstrous and astounding. After some con- 
 jecture he telegraphed for an explanation, and was 
 relieved by the following correction : 
 
 " CHICAGO, July 24 
 
 " Time is good now six days regularly." 
 
 The subject in question was the time occupied in
 
 128 TELEGBAPHIC " BULT8." 
 
 shipment of goods to the West. Jennie was an irrele- 
 vant female introduced by the operator; and as for 
 the dogs, they were a pure invention. 
 
 An English lord, as proud and fond as a man should 
 be of his beautiful young wife, was just about rising 
 to speak in a debate in the House of Commons, in 
 London, when a telegram was put into his hands. 
 He read it, left the House, jumped into a ci*b, 
 drove to Charing Cross, and took the train to Dover. 
 Next day he returned home, rushed into his wife's 
 room, and, finding her there, upbraided the astonished 
 lady in no measured terms. She protested her ignor- 
 ance of having done anything to offend him. " Then 
 what did you mean by your telegram?" he asked. 
 " Mean ? "What I said, of course. What are you talk- 
 ing about f ' " Eead it for yourself," said he. She 
 
 read : " I flee with Mr. to Dover straight. Pray 
 
 for me." For the moment words would not come ; 
 then, after a merry fit of laughter, the suspected wife 
 quietly remarked : " <3h, those dreadful telegraph peo- 
 ple ! No wonder you are out of your mind, dear. I 
 
 telegraphed simply : " I tea with Mrs. in Dover 
 
 Street. Stay for me.' " 
 
 Sometimes operators are called upon to pay for 
 losses that may be occasioned by mistakes made in 
 messages received by them, as in the following: 
 
 They called him " Towser," and he was making 
 frantic efforts to get up a reputation for never breaking. 
 One day as he was passing a certain desk he heard 
 a call, and gracefully vaulted upon a high office stool 
 to answer it. This is how he copied the message:
 
 TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS." 129 
 
 " To John Brown, wholesale druggist. Please send 
 per express one barrel bottled ale immediately. 
 
 Seaton Bros." 
 
 Boiled ale was not in Mr. Brown's line of business, 
 but Seaton Brothers were old customers of his, and so, 
 willing to oblige them, he procured the ale and for- 
 warded it without delay. Next day, in return for his 
 kindness, they sent him the following message: 
 
 "To John Brown. What do you mean by sending 
 us ale? "We refuse it. Hurry up our oil. 
 
 Seaton Bros." 
 
 Surprised and indignant at their apparent ingrati- 
 tude he hastened to the office and wrathfully exclaimed : 
 " What in the thunder is the meaning of this ? There's 
 been a lovely blunder made somewhere ! Get that 
 message repeated quick!" 
 
 So they got it repeated, and it turned out that it was 
 a barrel of boiled oil Seaton Brothers wantod, instead 
 of bottled ale. When this was explained to Mr. 
 Brown they broke it to him as gently as possible he 
 did not fly into a rage with the long-suffering manager, 
 as they expected him to do. He merely remarked: 
 "That operator must be pretty fond of ale when he 
 takes to dragging it into messages so promiscuous 
 like. However," he added, grimly, "he shall have 
 plenty of it for once, for he's got to take that barrel 
 and pay for it, too. Yes, sir-, pay for it ! " he repeated, 
 with savage emphasis. 
 
 Another instance of a little different nature: One 
 evening the proprietor of the railroad eating-house at
 
 130 TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS." 
 
 Summit, California, received the following dispatch: 
 " Have 100 gallons coffee for my men on arrival of 
 No. 1. (Signed) Lieutenant Morgan, Commanding 
 detachment Co. B." 
 
 The operator promptly delivered the message. A 
 happy smile overspread the landlord's countenance, 
 for he had had government contracts before. He 
 grasped the dinner gong, and never before did that 
 gong give forth sounds so loud and long. It quickly 
 summoned to his side half a score of cooks, waiters 
 and maids ; the order of the night was read, and each 
 assigned to a post of duty. All was bustle and con- 
 fusion. Being only an eating place for train men and 
 passengers, the stock of tinware and cooking utensils 
 was not very extensive. The landlord skirmished 
 around the premises for tinware, and in lieu of coffee 
 pots, etc., clothes boilers, dish pans, milk pans, dip- 
 pers, and even oyster cans were filled with water and 
 ground coffee, and placed upon any available spot 
 where heat could be transmitted to their contents. 
 Quantity not quality being desired, even the operator 
 utilized the wash basins, and made three gallons over 
 his office fire. "What hurrying, shouting and swear- 
 ing ! Everybody got soaked with coffee ; everything 
 that would hold fluid contained coffee ; even the china 
 pitchers and wash basins in the rooms fitted up for the 
 accommodation of guests had to be used. 
 
 Fifteen minutes before the train was due the land- 
 lord found that he had the required quantity all made, 
 and was proud of his success. The train arrived.
 
 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 131 
 
 Lieutenant Morgan, accompanied by two men, each car- 
 rying a five gallon can, entered the hotel. The cans 
 were quickly filled, and the men departed. "Bring on 
 your other cans," shouted the landlord. " What other 
 cans ?" asked the lieutenant. " To hold this coffee you 
 ordered," replied the landlord. "I ordered V and the 
 ofiicer gazed about him in astonishment at the array 
 of cans, crockery and waiters. " Yes," shouted the 
 landlord, drawing forth his message and exhibiting it. 
 "You ordered one hundred gallons of coffee." "I or- 
 dered but ten gallons, and here's your money for it," 
 replied the officer, throwing down a five dollar green- 
 back. " All aboard," shouted the conductor, and the 
 lieutenant rushed from the room. The landlord was 
 now frantic ; he quickly followed the officer out, but 
 the train had started, and in a few moments was thun- 
 dering down the mountain side a mile away. 
 
 Then the landlord swore, and made for the tele- 
 graph office. A very emphatic, if not elegant, saluta- 
 tion fell on the operator's ears. He was astounded. 
 He immediately called up the office from which he had 
 received the message, and had it repeated. Sure 
 enough it read ten. The upshot was that the operator 
 had to pay eighteen dollars for the ninety gallons of 
 coffee. 
 
 Occasionally, however, mistakes of this kind turn 
 out to the advantage of the customer, and no com- 
 plaints are made. A merchant once telegraphed to a 
 wholesale produce firm in New York to buy him a 
 quantity of cheese. The original message said a hun-
 
 132 TELEGBAPHIO " BULLS." 
 
 dred, but as delivered it read a thousand. Knowing 
 the man to be perfectly responsible, the firm pur- 
 chased for and sent him all the cheese it could get. 
 The merchant thought that so much cheese would ruin 
 him ; but it so happened that the unusual demand had 
 the effect of increasing the price to such an extent 
 that he was able to sell it again at an almost fabulous 
 profit. 
 
 In the summer of 1864 a telegraphic order was sent 
 from Washington by General McCallum, superintend- 
 ent military railroads, to Major Weiitz at Binghamton, 
 N.Y., to forward one hundred and fifty railroad men to 
 Washington at once. The dispatch, when it readied 
 its destination, read " fifteen hundred men." Such a 
 demand was considered extraordinary, but in those 
 days of " military necessity" strange things were al- 
 ways expected, and the men were soon collected and 
 on their way South, wondering into what part of Dixie 
 they were to clear a way for Uncle Sam's iron horses. 
 But the surprise of the superintendent was still 
 greater when they arrived, and a search was imme- 
 diately instituted for the operator who made the mis- 
 take. As it cost about thirteen thousand dollars to 
 transport the men to Washington, and the expense of 
 keeping them there was not less than tw r o thousand 
 dollars a day, it seemed likely to prove a serious affair 
 for somebody. It was ascertained that the error 
 occurred in transmission between New York and Bing- 
 hamton ; but before the investigation was concluded, 
 an order came from General Sherman, then at Dalton,
 
 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 133 
 
 Georgia, to send him one thousand railroad men 
 immediately, and so the blunder resulted in good to 
 the government, and the telegraph was saved from 
 censure. 
 
 "BULLS" BY THE PUBLIC. 
 
 All telegraphic "bulls" should not be fathered upon 
 companies and their operators. The public are respon- 
 sible for a large share of them. One principal cause 
 of this is the miserable manuscripts furnished opera- 
 tors by customers. The following is a case in point : 
 
 An eminent divine was to deliver a lecture in a 
 neighboring city, and wishing to telegraph his subject 
 ahead for advertisement, hastily penned a dispatch, 
 handing it to a boy to deliver at the telegraph office, 
 he himself leaving town. The operator, after sinking 
 a shaft of close scrutiny into the Chinese-like hiero- 
 glyphics of the message, seemed suddenly to strike a 
 vein of intelligence, and the message went quickly on 
 its wa^, the subject of the lecture being duly an- 
 nounced in the next morning's paper as " Our Con- 
 stitutions, and Fresh Halibut." The sender of the 
 message, who had come to lecture upon " Some 
 Considerations on the Force of Habit," says if any- 
 body will start a petition to suppress all telegraph 
 companies, he will be the first to sign it. 
 
 Correspondents of the press, when they use the 
 telegraph, are in the habit, for economical reasons, of 
 dispensing with articles, prepositions and conjunc- 
 tions, while punctuation is perforce out of the 
 question ; and the " bulls" arising from this cause 
 cannot fairly be blamed on operators.
 
 134 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 
 
 Of such was that occasioned by a message sent from 
 England to the editor of the Java Bode, which read : 
 "Proposed to Brand Speaker," meaning that Mr. 
 Brand had been nominated Speaker of the House of 
 Commons. Printed as above, the meaning conveyed 
 to the readers of the journal was that it was proposed 
 to brand the Speaker of the august body indicated. 
 
 * Bulls " in original messages might be given that 
 are fully as amusing as any made by operators. For 
 example : " My barn burned up last night, October 22. 
 I want you to come and see it." Or the following, sent 
 from Kingston, N." T. : " To J. W. B., Honesdale, Pa. 
 Your horse died this morning after writing you a 
 letter." 
 
 To show how difficult it is to make out some of the 
 words in messages, and how easily mistakes may arise, 
 we give the manner of spelling a number of common 
 words, as found in the dispatches of many patrons of 
 the telegraph. 
 
 "Cornerchel "Worf," "Comerciol Warf," " Centrel 
 Deapot," " Junktion," " Jursy Citty," " Nigra Falls," 
 " Porkepsee," " Moris Weight Peches," "Pees," "Red- 
 ash," " Turnups, " " Cllamns," " Eells," "Ells," "Hadic," 
 "Macril," "Ancer," "Ansewer," "Amediately," "Ame- 
 aditley," " Imegitlay," "Busnes," "Cittifacat," " Car- 
 ridge," "Delade," "Dolors," "Evrey," " Garrentee," 
 -' Pararie," "Possable," " Pituculars," " Eesons," " Spe- 
 shaU," '"Spetial," "Seckend," "Two-day," "Two. 
 knight," "John ded will bey berred tomorrough," "I 
 will gow met me at depow." An erudite Assemblyman 
 says his "Comity is tring to do so."
 
 TELEGRAPHIC "BULLS." 135 
 
 Sometimes most entertaining "bulls" have arisen 
 from sheer carelessness on the part of senders, as in 
 the following instances : 
 
 A merchant away from home received a telegram 
 announcing that his wife had been safely delivered of 
 a little girl. Simultaneously a message came from his 
 partner stating that a draft had been presented to the 
 firm with a doubtful signature, and inquiring if he 
 knew anything about it. He at once replied to both 
 messages, but somehow misdirected them. The 
 amazement of the wife might be conceived when she 
 was informed: "I know nothing about it : it's a swin- 
 dle;" and of the partner when he received hearty 
 congratulations upon his safe delivery. 
 
 An enterprising fish, dealer in an eastern city indited 
 a fish order to " Paine Brothers, Eastport, Maine," but 
 his clerk inadvertently made the message read " Paine 
 Bros., New York," a firm priding itself upon filling 
 every order. Consequently the fish was sent from New 
 i r ork, arriving fresh and nice, but with a " C. O. D." 
 attached, involving a bill of expense which the 
 enterprising fish dealer declared the telegraph com- 
 pany should pay, or he would bankrupt the whole 
 concern, if it took every dollar he was worth in the 
 world. 
 
 Operators could tell of meannesses on the part of 
 the public, occasioning errors, wrongful blame, and 
 sometimes more serious consequences, almost incred- 
 ible in their degree of contemptibleness. 
 
 " What means it," says a faithful manager of an
 
 13U 
 
 oflS.ce, " that Mr. should come to us and demand 
 
 that we refund the money he paid on that message you 
 sent Tiim ? He says you paid for the message when 
 you sent it." "I'll tell you how it was," says the 
 patron, confidentially ; " I ought to have paid for it 
 didn't want to look mean, you know, so I gave him to 
 understand, in a roundabout way, that I did pay. 
 Better be on the telegraph company than on me, you 
 know ; so you keep mum, it's all right." 
 
 Another example is that of a careless fellow who 
 neglected till the last moment to answer an important 
 telegram, and then, to cover his delinquency, replied 
 by telegraph : " Did not receive your message till too 
 late ; train had left." "You see," he explained to a 
 person accompanying him to the office, "I don't want 
 to go, and there's no other way for me to get out of 
 it." His friend, who had waited all day for the reply, 
 vows eternal vengeance on the telegraph generally, and 
 especially to that "contemptible apology for a man- 
 ager who would let an important message lie around 
 all day before delivering it!" 
 
 A correspondent of The Operator, Mr. D. C. Shaw, 
 relates effectively the sad results of an error on the 
 part of the sender of a message, with which account 
 we must conclude this chapter. 
 
 "I was once at a small railway station," writes he, 
 "and saw, on his way to the village hotel, a distin- 
 guished passenger whose leg had just been crushed 
 by a moving train. All that skill and friendly sei'vices 
 could do were instantly in operation. Sympathising
 
 TELEGRAPHIC " BULLS." 137 
 
 and zealous young persons, at the sufferer's request, 
 flew to the telegraph office to summon the wife. Full 
 of excitement they write a message. A letter is omit 
 ted from the address, a single letter. The message is 
 rushed to its destination, but and you know the 
 sequel. An hour passes; then comes an office mes- 
 sage, 'Give better address.' The same name is given, 
 with the same fatal omission, but they add the wordSj 
 
 ' Care of Messrs. , No. .' Another pause. Then 
 
 another office message: 'Messrs. -have closed office 
 
 and gone home to (a suburban town) ; shall we 
 
 deliver by special messenger f Meantime a train 
 arrives the train upon which the wife should have 
 come. The sufferer rouses himself expectantly. How 
 hard it is to tell him she hasn't come ! Then he fails 
 rapidly, and they fear the result. Meantime the mes- 
 sage is delivered ; the wife is coming, but he is uncon- 
 scious. And oh, the anathemas that pour in upon the 
 telegraph and all connected with it ! As the facts are 
 known to but few outside of the circle especially con- 
 cerned, the circumstances are misconstrued and exag- 
 gerated, and the poor operator, who would willingly 
 have run with the message through all the hours of 
 the day and night to insure its safe delivery, is 
 branded as ' cruel,' ' barbarous,' and remains there 
 after under a certain weight of ignominy through 
 many unjust accusations."
 
 138 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 
 
 LIGHTNING FREAKS AND TRAGEDIES. 
 
 As has often been said of fire and water, the electric 
 fluid is an excellent servant, but a very bad master. 
 
 DEATHS FROM LIGHTNING. 
 
 Many persons are killed by it every year, probably 
 more than is popularly supposed. According to some 
 recently published statistics, more than ten thousand 
 people have been smitten by the electric fluid within 
 the past thirty years, of whom twenty-two hundred 
 and fifty-two were killed outright. Of the eight hun- 
 dred and eighty killed within the last ten years, only 
 two hundred and forty-three were females. 
 
 The would-be wit of newspaper scribblers has been 
 exercised upon this difference, the reason of which is 
 clear when it is considered that men are exposed to 
 accident far more than women are, because they spend 
 less time at home, being abroad in the pursuit of busi- 
 ness or in labor. 
 
 It would be well to bear in mind that persons 
 struck by lightning should not be given up as dead 
 for at least three hours. During the first two hours 
 they should be drenched freely with cold water. If 
 this treatment fails to restore animation, salt should 
 be added to the water, and the drenching continued 
 another hour. 
 
 EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 A difference in the effects of lightning in various 
 countries has been remarked. It is said to be more
 
 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 139 
 
 dangerous in England than here. Why, so far as our 
 knowledge extends, nobody appears to offer a reason. 
 In France the mortality from lightning is twenty-seven 
 a year on the average, of about two hundred and fifty 
 struck. The low lying departments have fewer cases 
 than hilly districts. Eighty were wounded and nine 
 killed in one thunderstorm at Chateauneufles-Moutiers 
 in 1861 ; and within one week, when the air was highly 
 charged with electricity, thirty-three fearful flashes of 
 lightning were observed, each bringing death to some 
 victims. Nine deaths a -year from lightning are re- 
 ported from Switzerland, and but three from Belgium, 
 a more populous country, which confirms the alleged 
 greater frequency of casualties from lightning in hilly 
 or mountainous districts a distinction, however, which 
 cannot be applied to England. 
 
 AN OLD NOTION EXPLODED. 
 
 The popular belief that when one gets into a feather 
 bed he is safe from the ravages of lightning was 
 rudely shocked by what occurred not long ago in a 
 country store in Virginia which was struck by light- 
 ning. The fluid made a large hole in the roof, and 
 passed through a feather bed, the recognized non- 
 conductor. Happily no one was lying upon it. 
 
 A TRIPLE TRAGEDY. 
 
 During a severe lightning and thunder storm at 
 Newberne, N. C., in the summer of 1878, three young 
 persons, Isaac Richardson, aged twenty, Eliza Collins,
 
 140 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 
 
 twenty, and Laura Williams, nineteen, were struck by 
 a heavy discharge of electricity and instantly killed. 
 Richardson was escorting the two girls, one on each 
 arm, from church to their homes, and as they neared 
 Queen Street, a gentleman, who was but a few feet 
 behind, saw them fall as a lightning flash struck them. 
 The coroner found the lifeless bodies lying side by 
 side, with arms still locked. At the time of the acci- 
 dent they were walking under a steel-handled um- 
 brella, which was found lying upon the ground near 
 the bodies, the cover partially burned, and which, un- 
 doubtedly, was what attracted the electric discharge. 
 
 SINGULAR FREAKS OF THE LIGHTNING. 
 
 A gentleman, while walking the streets at Des 
 Moines, Iowa, during a thunder storm recently, had 
 one of his eyes completely destroyed by lightning, 
 without receiving other injury. 
 
 A queer freak of the lightning is reported from 
 Eockville, Conn. It entered at the door of one of the 
 stores in a livid flash, which actually lit an oil lamp, 
 and left it burning, without leaving any other visible 
 marks of its passage. 
 
 While a body of two hundred men were drilling at 
 West Point, on one occasion, a black cloud, very low 
 down, suddenly discharged itself of its electricity, 
 seemingly through the attraction of the two hundred 
 bright gun barrels, and the shock distributed itself 
 throughout the corps. Several of the men were 
 stunned, and a large proportion of the guns were 
 knocked out of their owners' hands.
 
 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 141 
 
 Lightning at Madison, Wisconsin, during the win- 
 ter struck into the lake, and hurled masses of ice two 
 feet thick hundreds of feet through the air. 
 
 Lightning recently struck a wine cellar in France, 
 and converted a large quantity of bad wine into excel- 
 lent brandy, a change appreciated by the owner. 
 
 During a heavy thunder shower at Mechanic Falls, 
 Maine, in the summer of 1880, a boy was sitting at the 
 foot of a Balm of Gilead tree which was struck by 
 lightning. The tree was splintered, but the boy was 
 apparently uninjured. Soon after the accident he was 
 seized with nausea, and on a physician removing the 
 little fellow's clothing there was found upon his stom- 
 ach and chest an imprint resembling the trunk of the 
 tree, its branches and buds as perfect as could be 
 drawn by the hands of a skilled artist. 
 
 A thunderbolt which came down at Milton, Conn., 
 and paid particular attention to the house of a Mr. 
 Brown, deserves record for its singular and vigorous 
 behavior. It began by demolishing the lightning rod 
 in the most sarcastic and scornful manner. It then 
 entered a second story room of the house, cut a hole 
 six feet square in the floor, demolished the stove, and 
 broke every pane of glass in the window, after which 
 it mildly entered the dining room and ripped up the 
 floor there. It made minced meat, so to speak, of the 
 wash room, and left the house without any underpin- 
 ning to speak of. Then it paid its respects to the 
 barn, went back to the house, and violated the sanctity 
 of a servant maid's room. The poor girl was just
 
 142 LIGHTNING FREAKS. 
 
 innocently adjusting her hair in the looking-glass 
 when she was thrown violently backward on the bed 
 by the furious thunderbolt, and she says she will 
 never be vain again. In a neighboring house the 
 frisky element " scattered a quantity of soft soap, and 
 tore one rivet from a frying-pan." 
 
 LIGHTNING IN TELEGRAPH OFFICES. 
 
 Although a telegraph office is one of the best places 
 to take refuge in during a thunderstorm, lightning 
 sometimes follows the wires into the offices. During 
 severe storms telegraph offices are generally " cut 
 out." The switch-board, through which the wires 
 pass before reaching the instruments, is provided 
 with what are called "lightning arresters," so that 
 but little damage can be done. Two cases of death 
 by lightning in telegraph offices are on record, both 
 of which occurred in the summer of 1876. One 
 was that of a young woman in Nevada, and the other 
 a Miss Clapp, manager of an office in Massachusetts. 
 The latter had the instruments " cut out," but the 
 lightning came in through the open window, there 
 being a strong draught through the office, which, of 
 course, should not be permitted during a thunder 
 storm.
 
 SHABP PBACTIOE BY TELEGBAPH. 143 
 
 SHAEP PRACTICE BY TELEGEAPH. 
 
 In common, we suppose, with every appliance of 
 modern civilization, the telegraph is abused by the 
 Ishmaelites in the community, who prefer rather to 
 plunder than to work honestly. Numerous examples 
 of this, some of them indicating remarkable ingenuity 
 on the part of the swindler, are published from time 
 to time as they occur. 
 
 One of these devices, unearthed at St. Louis, con- 
 sists in bringing two telegraphic dispatches and a 
 messenger's book to a wealthy man for his signature, 
 the page of the book being so cut and underlaid with 
 a blank check that the signing of the name twice 
 would give the clever operator a check both signed 
 and indorsed. One business man narrowly escaped 
 the trap, which failed for lack of a little forethought, 
 as the paper beneath, not being securely fastened, 
 slipped enough to attract attention as the name was 
 being signed the second time. This small circum- 
 stance defeated the plan, and saved the discoverer a 
 big deficit in his bank account. 
 
 OBLIGE THE GENERAL. 
 
 On one occasion, when General McClellan was in 
 Europe, many prominent New Yorkers received, as 
 they supposed from him, cablegrams to the effect that, 
 having purchased a horse, for instance, from say John 
 Smith, for $420, it would be considered a particular
 
 U4 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 favor if the person addressed would pay Mr. Smith 
 the amount, which would be made right on the gen- 
 eral's return. This dispatch was usually delivered in 
 the forenoon, while Mr. Smith made his appearance in 
 the afternoon with the bill and presented a telegram 
 purporting to be signed* by General McClellan, re- 
 questing him to call at that address for the amount. 
 The money in nearly every case was paid, and in this 
 way about a dozen persons were victimized. The mes- 
 sages were not all alike. Sometimes it was a house 
 the general had rented or bought, with the amount 
 correspondingly higher. Sometimes it was jewelry, 
 and at other times something else. The swindlers 
 ^ere eventually caught, however, and severely sen- 
 tenced. 
 
 A MODERN " ST. JOHN." 
 
 Some Cincinnati and Indianapolis merchants were 
 similarly swindled by a gang of whom a former oper- 
 ator of the Western Union named James P. St. John, 
 who afterward assumed the name of White, was a 
 prominent member. Early one morning St. John 
 called at the Western Union branch office, Third 
 Street, Cincinnati. Being early, no one was present 
 but the janitor. St. John represented himself as an 
 employe of the main office, said he wanted to trace a 
 message, and asked to see the messenger's delivery 
 book. The book was afterward missing, and the 
 matter reported to Manager Armstrong. It was not 
 found until a week later, when the cashier of the La- 
 fayette Bank called at the main office to ascertain
 
 8HAKP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 145 
 
 whether a dispatch received from Saratoga, N. ., 
 signed " Springer," and ordering payment to Dublin 
 & Co. of $450 for jewelry, was genuine. The dispatch 
 was written on a regular No. 1 blank. Mr. Armstrong 
 pronounced it a forgery. A short time afterward 
 when a young man presented the bill to the paying 
 teller of the bank, he was arrested and imprisoned, 
 and proved to be the same person who stole the mes- 
 senger's book. Another forged dispatch, similar to 
 the above, purporting to be sent by H. Hirsch, who 
 was East, was delivered at the store of H. Hirsch & 
 Co. same day, requesting them to pay Duhun & Co. 
 $300 for goods previously purchased by him. In this 
 case the swindlers were more successful. A confede- 
 rate of St. John's shortly afterward presented a bill 
 for $300 on one of Duhun & Co.'s billheads, and a 
 check for the amount on one of the Cincinnati banks 
 was given him. Instead of presenting the check at 
 the bank he went direct to the establishment of Du- 
 hun & Co., where he represented himself as an em- 
 ploye of Hirsch & Co., gave a plausible excuse for 
 the check being drawn in favor of Duhun & Co., 
 selected seventy-five dollars worth of jewelry, and 
 received $225 change, the check being pronounced 
 genuine at the bank. Upon learning of the arrest of 
 his confederate he left the city. 
 
 At Indianapolis a jeweler was similarly victimized 
 out of $285 by St. John. The Cincinnati parties con- 
 senting, a requisition was procured for him, and he 
 was conveyed to Indianapolis and tried, convicted, and
 
 146 8HABP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. His confed- 
 erate, who victimized Duhun & Co., and whose name 
 has not transpired, was finally traced to Chicago, 
 where he was arrested and returned to Cincinnati for 
 trial. He had in his possession when arrested a num 
 ber of telegraph blanks stolen at New York, Baltimore, 
 and other points. 
 
 BIG SWINDLE IN TOLEDO. 
 
 Another example of swindling reaches us from 
 Toledo, where a business firm, who are largely engaged 
 in the grain trade, received what purported to be a 
 dispatch from a correspondent named Wilson, at Jack- 
 son, Michigan, stating that there was a good opening 
 at Dexter for purchasing wheat, and requesting the 
 Toledo firm to send him $1,000 by American Express, 
 and to notify him by telegraph when the money was 
 sent. 
 
 A package containing the amount required was ac- 
 cordingly placed in the express office at Toledo, 
 addressed to Mr. Wilson, Dexter, and a telegram also 
 sent to Wilson, notifying him of the fact. About the 
 same time the express agent at Dexter received a tele 
 gram from Jackson, signed Wilson, directing him to 
 deliver the package to a man who would call for it. 
 describing in the telegram minutely a man who after- 
 ward called, asked for, and received the $1,000 pack-' 
 age. For a week or two the Toledo firm quietly 
 awaited advices from Wilson in reference to his wheat 
 purchases, and in the meantime the parties who had
 
 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 147 
 
 sent forged telegrams and obtained the money, felt so 
 jubilant at their success that they told a confidential 
 chum at Jackson how they had operated. 
 
 " SPIRITUALISTIC " SWINDLING. 
 
 A class of persons who live on the amiable credulity 
 of the public, find the electric fluid a useful auxiliary. 
 We mean the " spiritualists," so called, whose success 
 in making money from the rich and ostensibly the cul- 
 tured is no less remarkable than that of the advertis- 
 ing " clairvoyants," and the rest of the swindling 
 sisterhood, who show a poor girl the portrait of her 
 "future husband," for a "consideration" propor- 
 tioned to the slender means of the ignorant victim. 
 The fraud of " spiritualism " has not as yet been fully 
 exposed, but enough has been discovered to make it 
 plain that " mediums " are largely indebted for the 
 manifestations they develop to the electric fluid. 
 
 MR. FAULKNER'S REVELATIONS. 
 
 Mr. Faulkner is a philosophical instrument maker, 
 doing business in London. He writes that for many 
 years he has had a large sale for spirit-rapping mag- 
 nets and batteries, expressly made for concealment 
 under the floor, in cupboards, under tables, and even 
 for the interior of the centre support of large round 
 tables and boxes ; that he has supplied to the same 
 parties quantities of prepared wire, to be placed un- 
 der the carpets and oil-cloth, or under the wainscot
 
 148 SHARP PBACTICE BY TELEQEAPH. 
 
 and gilt beading around ceilings and rooms in fact, 
 for every conceivable place ; that all these were ob- 
 viously used for spirit rapping, and the connection to 
 each rapper and battery was to be made by means of 
 a small button, like those used for telegraphic bell 
 ringing purposes, or by means of a brass-headed or 
 other nail under the carpet, of particular patterns 
 known to the spiritualists. He describes these rap- 
 pers as calculated to mislead the most wary, and adds 
 that there are spirit-rapping magnets and batteries 
 constructed expressly for the pocket, which will rap 
 at any part of the room. He has also made drums 
 and bells which will beat and ring at command ; but 
 these two latter are not so frequently used as the 
 magnets are, because they are too easily detected. 
 
 MAGNETS FOB " SPIRIT RAPPING." 
 
 A correspondent of the English Mechanic's Magazine 
 has written an account of his methods of preparing 
 apparatus for " spirit-rapping " meeting. We reprint 
 it in his own words : 
 
 "In making my magnets for electric or 'spirit-rap- 
 ping ' drums I proceeded as follows : I took five bars 
 of J inch iron (one of them being very soft), 10 inches 
 long, and filed them up. Around four of them I 
 wound five layers of 32 silk-covered wire. Eemember, 
 the layers were complete, and all leading the current 
 in the same direction. Around the fifth I put one 
 layer. Of course the bars were bent into horseshoe 
 shape. The magnets were bound together so as to
 
 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 149 
 
 bring the fifth or last as near as possible in the center, 
 and its ends to project l-64th inch beyond the others. 
 A piece of zinc as thin as writing paper was next 
 soldered on one pole of the centre magnet. Now for 
 the keeper. It was made of a piece of soft iron l-16th 
 inch thick and about 3 inches square ; one side of it 
 had a half of a split lead bullet soldered to the cen- 
 tre. This gave the keeper weight, and prevented it 
 from recoiling when it fell. I had three, and some- 
 times four, guide bars on my keepers ; but I believe 
 that, for all ordinary purposes, two are sufficient. 
 These bars are made very smooth, and fitted into holes 
 made in the brass framework supporting the magnets. 
 The whole was now placed inside the drum. A word 
 about this drum. In the first place, it should be a 
 very common looking one ; secondly, it should be in 
 fact must be pretty large, say at least 2 feet in diam- 
 eter the larger the better. In fastening the ' electric 
 drummer ' inside, do so in such a way that it will not 
 affect the sound. If your magnets are of good iron 
 that is, soft and without flaws and well made, you 
 will be able to work the keeper from a depth of half 
 an inch, which, when it falls on the bottom of a large 
 drum, will make a pretty loud thud. Now get two of 
 those brass rings with the brass screws attached, 
 used for boxes, &c., and fasten them through the 
 woodwork in the top of the drum, and solder the 
 collected ends of the magnet wire to them. Next 
 close the drum up, and it is ready. Now, suppose you 
 wish to amuse a number of people in your own rooms,
 
 150 SHARP PBACTICE BY TELEGRAPH, 
 
 you must find a way from the battery to the center of 
 the room ceiling for the wires, so that they will be 
 screened from observation. Let the wires terminate 
 in two hooks to catch the drum-rings. By the bye, it 
 looks less suspicious to hang the drum on three hooks, 
 which you can easily do. You can use a battery of 
 six pint Daniell's cells, and have a contact breaker in 
 another room, to be attended to by a friend ; or, if you 
 can manage it, run the wires under the carpet, and 
 work the contact with the heel of your boot, having a 
 spring for raising the top wire when the pressure is 
 off. Use one beat for ' no,' two for ' doubtful,' and 
 three for ' yes.' 
 
 SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE ? S EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 This eminent gentleman exhibited some curious 
 electrical experiments for the amusement of his 
 friends, in which the developments were remarkably 
 like those greedily devoured by the believers in spir- 
 itualism who patronize the magazines which support 
 that delusion. We read that in a dark room, by a 
 stamp of his foot, Sir Charles produced a brilliant 
 crown of electric light in mid-air, while musical instru- 
 ments seemed to be played by invisible hands ; 
 whereas the sounds really came from an adjoining 
 room, in which the player sat, and, by an ingenious 
 contrivance, were made to appear to be produced by 
 the instruments before' the spectators. A contest 
 between science and the " spirits " in their own 
 chosen feats would be almost as memorable as the
 
 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH, 151 
 
 celebrated competition between Moses and the ma- 
 gicians. 
 
 SHARP WORK BY OPERATORS. 
 
 The accounts we shall give under this head may not 
 be thought, perhaps, to cast the same discredit or 
 guilt upon the parties involved as in the foregoing ; 
 but the reader with the least moral sensibility cannot 
 object to our use of the phrase " sharp work," al- 
 though he might prefer the substitution of the adjec- 
 tive " smart " for the one employed. The first two 
 tell the manner in which two poor operators became 
 capitalists by the exercise of their abundant wit, to 
 speak as gently as may be. 
 
 A youth of nineteen, who was a telegraph operator 
 in Virginia City, on a salary of a hundred dollars a 
 month, and who, when he could not make out German 
 names in the list of San Francisco steamer arrivals, 
 used to ingeniously select and supply substitutes for 
 them out of an old Berlin city directory, made himself 
 rich by watching the mining telegrams that passed 
 through his hands, and buying and selling^ stocks ac- 
 cordingly, through a friend in San Francisco. Once, 
 when a private dispatch was sent from Virginia, an- 
 nouncing a rich strike in a prominent mine, and advis- 
 ing that the matter be kept secret till a large amount 
 of the stock could be secured, he bought forty " feet " 
 of the stock at twenty dollars a foot, and afterward 
 sold half of it at eight hundred dollars a foot, and the 
 rest at double that figure. Within three months he
 
 152 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 was worth $150,000 and had resigned his telegraphic 
 position. 
 
 Another operator, who had been discharged by his 
 company for divulging the secrets of the office, agreed 
 with a moneyed man in San Francisco to furnish him 
 the result of a great Virginia mining lawsuit within an 
 hour after its private reception by the parties to it in 
 San Francisco. For this he was to have a large per- 
 centage of the profits on purchases and sales made on 
 it by his fellow conspirator. So he went, disguised as 
 a teamster, to a little wayside telegraph office in the 
 mountains, got acquainted with the operator, and sat 
 in the office day after day, smoking his pipe, complain- 
 ing that his team was fagged out and unable to travel 
 and meantime listening to the dispatches as they 
 passed over the wire from Virginia. Finally, the pri- 
 vate dispatch announcing the result of the lawsuit 
 sped along the wires, and as soon as he heard it he 
 telegraphed his friend in San Francisco: 
 
 "Am tired waiting. Shall sell the team and go 
 home." 
 
 This was the signal agreed upon. The word " wait- 
 ing " left out would have signified that the suit had 
 gone the other way. The mock teamster's friend 
 picked up a large amount of the mining stock at low 
 figures before the news became public, and a fortune 
 was the result. 
 
 TAMPERING WITH CIPHER MESSAGES AND THE RESULT. 
 
 A San Francisco, California, newspaper gives the 
 following interesting account of what came of tamper-
 
 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 153 
 
 ing with cipher dispatches, in which it is shown that 
 the operator and his friends did not in this instance 
 fare quite so well as did the others above alluded to. 
 
 " The business office of the Chollar Mining Company 
 is in San Francisco, and its works in Virginia City, 
 Nevada. Correspondence between the superintendent 
 at the latter place and the business office is kept up by 
 both letter and telegraph, and, to prevent any inquisi- 
 tive person from obtaining the contents of the tele- 
 gTams in advance of their receipt by the officers of the 
 company, a cipher was used. It had become apparent 
 that certain brokers of San Francisco were regularly 
 in receipt of reliable information concerning the con- 
 dition of the mine, even before such information was 
 obtained at the company's office. Just as soon as the 
 superintendent in Virginia would send a cipher tele- 
 gram stating that ore had been struck in any level or 
 drift, these brokers would be on the street buying 
 stock. Whenever he telegraphed bad news, they 
 would appear as sellers at cash, or to deliver. 
 
 "That the trick was somewhere in the telegraph 
 offices was evident, and to confirm this a plan was ar 
 ranged, to which the superintendent, the office in San 
 Francisco and the telegraph company were parties. 
 The superintendent presented a cipher telegram, 
 which, when interpreted, read after this style : ' Have 
 struck the ledge; very ri"h; buy 3,000 shares if you 
 can.' 
 
 "Although no one knew that this telegram was to be 
 sent, and so far from the ledge having been struck the
 
 154 SHABP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 workmen had not been at work in the drift, yet, before 
 this cipher was received at the San Francisco office, an- 
 other telegram, addressed to the suspected brokers 
 had been sent and received, which contained precisely 
 the same information and advice. On the strength of 
 this these brokers rushed frantically out of their offices 
 and commenced buying up Chollar stock at any price. 
 In the Board they pursued the same plan, and finally 
 loaded themselves with the stock, which rose in value 
 as they bought, and sank when they ceased buying, 
 their loss being estimated at between $15,000 and 
 $20,000. 
 
 "A telegraph operator in the Virginia City office was 
 immediately charged with having translated the cipher 
 telegram, and upon the presentation of the evidence 
 acknowledged his offence, and confessed the names of 
 the brokers by whom he had been subsidized." 
 
 THE BITERS BIT. 
 
 The following shows how the best laid plans do not 
 always bring the results that we desire: 
 
 During General McClellan's campaign in the Penin- 
 sula the gold and grain speculators of a certain city 
 in a Northwestern State, organized an independent 
 board or club, and had a wire run in from the Western 
 Union Telegraph office. 
 
 The manager of the Western Union office soon be- 
 came satisfied that there was a leak somewhere; for 
 certain persons who did not belong to the club re- 
 ceived the daily news sent to this branch office as soon
 
 SHARP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 155 
 
 as the parties to whom the dispatches were addressed, 
 and speculated thereon. Investigation disclosed the 
 fact that a meek looking young man, an operator in a 
 country office, had been imported for the occasion ; 
 and, sauntering about the room with other outsiders, 
 absorbed the contents of the dispatches, and instantly 
 hied forth and communicated them to his employers. 
 
 Accordingly, having arranged a bogus dispatch, de- 
 feating McClellan with terrible slaughter, and sending 
 gold up three or four per cent., the manager notified 
 the bonafide subscribers not to act upon it, and sent 
 it from the main office early in the morning. 
 
 The gentleman from the country swallowed it, and 
 his friends bought gold ad libitum of the bona fide 
 members, who chuckled at the trap they had caught 
 the chaps in. 
 
 Great was the glee of the members of the board. 
 They had caught the miscreants at last and wouldn't 
 they squeeze them ! 
 
 "When the regular dispatches were received, however, 
 it was found that McClellan had been whipped ! and 
 gold had gone up, even higher than the bogus dispatch 
 stated. Tableau ! 
 
 The country operator retired, with his friends, on 
 his share of the earnings, and the bonafide board was 
 many thousands of dollars poorer. 
 
 A BANK SWINDLED BY BOGUS MESSAGES. 
 
 A gentleman who recently returned from a business 
 trip to Texas, relates how a bank was swindled out of
 
 156 SHAKP PBACTICE BY TELEGBAPH. 
 
 $10,000 by three telegraph operators. It is highly 
 improbable that there is much truth in the story, yet 
 there is a bare possibility that such a scheme might 
 be successfully carried out, and its publication may 
 have the effect of putting banks and telegraph man- 
 agers on their guard. 
 
 This gentleman says that one day a well-dressed man 
 of business appearance presented at one of the banks 
 in Dallas, Texas, a check for $10,000 on a well-known 
 New York banking house, and desired it cashed. 
 
 He brought with him numerous letters of recom- 
 mendation from persons with whom the bank had 
 business transactions, and, so far as surf ace 'indication 
 went, everything was right. But $10,000 was a con 
 siderable sum to pay out, even on the very best docu- 
 ments of recommendation, and the bank officers hesi- 
 tated, wavered, and finally declined to cash the check. 
 But the stranger was importunate. "Gentlemen," 
 said he, "I came to Texas to invest this money in cot- 
 ton. It is very necessary that this check should be 
 cashed or I will be greatly inconvenienced. Suppose 
 you telegraph to New York to this banking house ? 
 Ask them about me ; I will pay all expenses." 
 
 Nothing could be more plausible than this ; nothing 
 sound more honest. So a dispatch was sent asking 
 about the stranger and the check, and in a short time 
 came the answer to the effect that it was all right, and 
 the Dallas Bank would confer a favor on the New York 
 firm by accommodating their cotton specvilative friend 
 and cashing the check. Still the bank officers were
 
 8HAKP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 157 
 
 not satisfied, and another dispatch was sent. Again 
 the answer was of a similar tenor, only probably a 
 little more emphasis was added to it. This was satis- 
 factory, and the check was duly cashed. 
 
 When at night the Dallas office, as usual, came 
 to compare the number of messages sent during the 
 day with the number received from it by the several 
 offices with which it was in communication, it was 
 found that neither of the dispatches sent by the 
 bank had been received at the office to which they 
 should have gone, and consequently no answers 
 could have been sent. It was evident that the bank 
 had been swindled, but how ? There was the mys- 
 tery. The dispatches had been regularly received; 
 they had come from somewhere, but where from could 
 not be known. The cotton speculator had disappeared 
 with the funds, and the bank officials were at their 
 wits' ends. 
 
 In a day or two the mystery was solved. Two ope- 
 rators, who had been employed in the Dallas office, and 
 had resigned on the day before the well-dressed 
 stranger made his appearance, had gone a few miles 
 out of Dallas, taken possession of an old shanty by 
 the roadside, attached an instrument to the wires, and 
 taken off the dispatches intended for New York. They 
 had then sent pre-arranged answers. The three were 
 confederates, and the operators knew about the tune 
 the bogus speculator would enter the bank, and when 
 to attach the instruments. It was an adroit scheme 
 and successfully carried out. The bank got no clew
 
 158 SHAKP PRACTICE BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 to the swindlers, but learned a valuable lesson, paying 
 a high price for tuition. 
 
 TELEGRAPHIC TRAP FOR BURGLARS. 
 
 This chapter will be fitly concluded with an account 
 of a device to catch safe-burglars, the invention of a 
 Mr. Barb, of London, who has patented it. The dep- 
 redator no sooner begins to force open the door, drill 
 the lock, or move the safe, than by so doing he sends 
 a telegraphic message to the nearest police office, ex- 
 hibiting the number of the safe he is attacking ; and 
 this number, registered in the police-books, has oppo- 
 site to it the address of the house in which the robbery 
 is being effected. The invention is a very simple 
 thing. An instrument termed the "communicator" 
 is fitted inside the safe ; it consists of a small bolt, 
 which is forced back upon a coil-spring when the 
 door is closed, and which, in opening or moving the 
 door, is instantly set in motion. In connection with 
 this bolt wires are led through the bottom or the back 
 of the safe and concealed in the wall, or inclosed 
 within gas or water pipes, and, communicating with 
 the street telegraph wires, are connected with the 
 " alarm " and indicator at the police-station. The 
 effect of tampering with the door or other part of the 
 safe is to sound the alarm-bell at the police-station, 
 and to exhibit on the face of the instrument the num- 
 ber of the safe. Arrangements are, of course, made 
 to obviate sending of alarms on ordinary and legiti- 
 mate occasions of using the safe, by simply putting
 
 8HAKP PBACTIOB B TBLEORAPH. 169 
 
 the apparatus out of gear at the pleasure of the owner. 
 The simple operation of turning a small key is all that 
 is required to render the wires available, after which 
 the owner may leave his premises, perfectly confident 
 that electricity will keep a tireless watch over the 
 property left in its custody.
 
 160 THE TELEGRAPH 
 
 THE TELEGRAPH AN UNIVERSAL INSTI- 
 TUTION. 
 
 We need scarcely say to the intelligent reader of 
 these pages that the use of the telegraph may now be 
 said to be universal throughout the world. 
 
 As an illustration of this universality, we may cite 
 the transmission of a telegraphic message sent by 
 Courtney, the Auburn, New York State, oarsman, to 
 Trickett, a brother in his profession, then resident in 
 Australia. This message was sent from Auburn to New 
 York City, thence to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, 
 the cable end, thence to Valentia, on the coast of 
 Ireland, thence to London, then through Germany, 
 Ruasia, Siberia, thence to "Wladiwodstock, a point on 
 the coast of Manchuria : thence through Japan Sea to 
 Nagasaki, on one of the Japan Islands, through the 
 Yellow Sea, to Shanghai, China, thence down tie coast 
 of China through China Sea to Taigon, Siam, to Sin- 
 gapore, Malay, thence to Batavia, on the coast of Java, 
 thence to St. Darwin, on the northern coast to Aus- 
 tralia, and lastly to Sydney. 
 
 Many interesting things are told of the introduction 
 of lightning as a servant in countries which do not 
 rank high in the possession of that civilization which 
 may be characterized as of the nineteenth century. 
 
 SUPERSTITION IN SPAIN. 
 
 Not long ago a London newspaper published an 
 account from a town called Lorca, in Spain, described
 
 AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION. 161 
 
 as containing twenty thousand people, and a thriving 
 commercial centre. The people in the neighborhood 
 of this place firmly believe in the existence of certain 
 wizards mysterious beings, with pale faces and long 
 white beards, who, hid during the day, hunt at night 
 for children, whom they devour. The fat of these 
 children they are said to keep sacredly for two pur- 
 poses first, as a sovereign cure for small pox ; and, 
 secondly, to grease the wires of the electric telegraph, 
 which is in itself a satanic invention, and would not 
 work at all were it not for the lubricating oil obtained 
 from the bodies of innocent little children. 
 
 After this who will be surprised to learn that upon 
 the introduction of the electric telegraph into Mo- 
 rocco it was vehemently opposed by many who looked 
 at the progress of the work with religious horror ? 
 The emperor threatened with death any person who 
 should injure the apparatus, but the inhabitants of 
 the little village of Mahovany, nevertheless, cut down 
 the wires. The irate emperor straightway had the 
 place surrounded by his troops, and the heads of ten 
 prominent citizens were forthwith cut off and fixed on 
 the telegfaph poles, as an awful warning. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 The first telegraph (telephone) line in China was six 
 miles in length, and erected about two years ago by 
 Li Hung Chang, viceroy of China, from his official
 
 162 THE TELEGKAPH 
 
 residence to the Tietsen arsenal. There was no at- 
 tempt at interference by the native populace, as in 
 the case of telegraphs projected by foreigners ; but it is 
 stated that the people were afraid of the apparatus, 
 thinking that little devils run along the wire and carry 
 the messages. In consequence of this superstition 
 they had previously torn down a few lines put up by 
 foreigners. We may add that such outrages do not 
 now attend the erection of telegraphs in the Celestial 
 Empire. 
 
 When the electric telegraph was established by the 
 English in India, its introduction was accompanied 
 with curious and difficult problems. In the first 
 place, it was discovered that the air of India is in a 
 state of constant electrical perturbation of the strong- 
 est kind, so that the instruments there mounted went 
 into a high fever, and refused to work. Along the north 
 and south lines a current of electricity was constantly 
 passing, which threw the needles out of gear, and 
 baffled the signalers. Moreover, the tremendous 
 thunder-storms ran up and down the wires, and melted 
 the conductors ; the monsoon winds tore the teak- 
 posts out of the sodden ground ; the elephants and 
 buffaloes trampled the fallen lines into kinks and tan- 
 gles ; the Delta aborigines carried off the timber sup- 
 ports for fuel, and the wire or iron rods upon them to 
 make bracelets and supply the Hindoo smitheries ; and 
 the cotton and ice boats, kedging up and down the
 
 AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION. 163 
 
 river, dragged the subaqueous wires to the surface. 
 In addition to these graver difficulties were many of 
 an amusing character. Wild pigs and tigers scratched 
 their skins against the posts in the jungle, and porcu- 
 pines and bandicoots burro wed them out of the ground. 
 Kites, fishing eagles and hooded crows came in hun- 
 dreds and perched upon the line to see what on earth 
 it could mean, and sometimes were found dead by 
 dozens, the victims of their curiosity. Monkeys 
 climbed the posts and ran along the lines, chattering 
 and dropping an interfering tail from one wire to 
 another, which tended to confound conversations with 
 Calcutta. 
 
 EAELIEST TELEGRAPHS IN THE EAST. 
 
 One of the earliest telegraph lines in Eastern coun- 
 tries was a private line erected in 1859, from Teheran 
 to Sultanieh, where the shah of Persia temporarily 
 resided. This line, one hundred and sixty-nine miles 
 long, after being used one summer, was abolished. 
 Of the construction of the line from Shahrud to 
 Meshed, the Persian inspector-general of telegraphs 
 reported : " The workmen suffered very much from 
 want of water and from heat. During the two months 
 of June and July, 1876, the heat in the plains, with 
 quite a cool wind blowing, rose to 140 Fahrenheit, 
 while the heat in the shade once rose to 112 Fahren- 
 heit. Great anxiety was felt on account of the Turco- 
 mans, who were expected to attack us every day, but 
 not a single Turcoman was seen." The first through
 
 164 THE TELEGRAPH 
 
 telegraph to the far East was erected by the Turkish 
 government in 1863, and extended from Constantinople 
 through Asia Minor, by way of Mosul, to Bagdad. In 
 1864 the government of British India built a line on 
 iron standards, from Bagdad to Fao, at the head of 
 the Persian Gulf. This line was subsequently handed 
 over to the Turks, and was deemed so unsafe, passing 
 as it did through a region where the Porte had really 
 little or no authority, that after the submarine cable 
 from Fao to Kurachee had been laid, a telegraph line 
 was put up by British officers, but at the cost of the 
 Persian government, from Bushire via Theran to 
 Bagdad. 
 
 The proclamation by which the king of Burmah an- 
 nounced his intention to construct a system of tele- 
 graphy for the use of his subjects, is a curious example 
 of Oriental official literature It intimated that the 
 " present Founder of the City of Mandalay or Rutapon, 
 Builder of the Eoyal Palace, Ruler of Sea and Land, 
 Lord of the Celestial Elephant and Master of many 
 White Elephants, Owner of the Sekyah or Indra's 
 Weapon, Lord of the Power of Life and Death and 
 Great Chief of Righteousness, being exceedingly anx- 
 ious for the welfare of his people, in the year 1213 will 
 introduce the telegraph a science the elements of 
 which may be compared to thundar and lightning for 
 rapidity and brilliancy, and such as his royal ancestors, 
 in successive generations, had never attempted to 
 subdue."
 
 AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION. 165 
 
 The Japanese take kindly to occidental innovations, 
 the leading men in the empire interesting themselves 
 in a most commendable manner to advance its civiliza- 
 tion. Our own country has taken a very creditable 
 share in the introduction of improvements among that 
 singular nation of the far East, which, resembling its 
 neighbors the Chinese in many respects, is directly the 
 opposite in gladly welcoming every innovation which 
 is, or promises to be, an improvement. The American 
 government was the first to initiate the " Japs " in the 
 operations of the field telegraph, by presenting one to 
 the mikado, in the imperial presence. By the mikado's 
 desire the apparatus was erected in the grounds of the 
 palace, one terminus being his majesty's private study, 
 and the other the pleasure pavilion which stands in the 
 center of the Maple Gardens, where were assembled 
 three princes of the blood, the prime minister, and a 
 host of members of the privy council, to receive and 
 answer the imperial messages. The working of the 
 wires was entrusted to two Japanese, and when all was 
 ready a message arrived at the pavilion announcing 
 the presence of the mikado at the terminus in the 
 study. To this announcement a most respectful mes- 
 sage was returned, thanking his majesty for his gra- 
 cious presence. 
 
 Shortly afterward the message came : " The emperor 
 is highly pleased with the wonderful Western inven- 
 tion," and then iinmediateiy followed : " Who are in the 
 pavilion, and what are you doing 1" To this an answer
 
 166 THE TELEGRAPH 
 
 was returned, giving the names of those present, and 
 saying that they were waiting with profound venera- 
 tion his majesty's gracious orders. To their intense 
 embarrassment the next thing heard was : " Telegraph 
 to us something amusing." As may be imagined, this 
 message caused the greatest consternation among the 
 courtiers. How were they in a moment to conjure up 
 anything that should be amusing, and, at the same 
 time, respectful ? At length one privy councillor sug- 
 gested : " This day will be memorable in the annals of 
 the empire as that on which his majesty for the first 
 time witnessed the working of a telegraph." But this 
 was instantly rejected as being not in the least amus- 
 ing. At last a youthful courtier proposed : " We all 
 mean to get merry on the wine which we expect your 
 majesty to give us." This was at once received with 
 delight, and transmitted to the palace ; and to it a reply 
 was immediately returned that they should not expect 
 in vain, and the proceedings terminated with a message 
 from the emperor expressing himself satisfied with the 
 experiments, and thanking the officers who had worked 
 the telegraph. At the emperor's desire the apparatus 
 was left standing In the grounds, in order that he 
 might learn to work it himself. 
 
 Nothing has been more remarkable in the history of 
 the last few years than the progress of discovery in 
 the continent of Africa, which promises to shortly open 
 it up fully to the operations of trade, aided by the
 
 AN UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION. 167 
 
 steamboat, the locomotive, and the electric telegraph. 
 A correspondent of the London Times, writing recently 
 from Berba, in tropical Africa, says : 
 
 " It was singular to meet with the telegraph in the 
 heart of the desert between Aryab and Berba ; not the 
 telegraph put up and in working order, as we see it 
 in Europe, but all the appurtenances of that instru- 
 ment of civilization carried on the backs of hundreds 
 of camels, which, laden with coils of wire and hollow 
 iron posts, trod their toilsome path through the burn- 
 ing sand. Every now and then we met one of these 
 poor beasts which, overweighted and broken down by 
 the weight of his load, had fallen on the ground and 
 been abandoned a victim to the vultures. All this 
 telegraphic gear was marked " Siemens Brothers, 
 London," and was en route to Khartoum, from which 
 town it will be forwarded on to span the desert between 
 Kordofan and Darfour. A good many lives will prob- 
 ably be sacrificed before the line can be considered 
 open, as the Arabs, who eagerly steal every piece of 
 iron they can meet with for their spear points, have to 
 be very severely punished before they leave off cutting 
 down the poles. However, this difficulty once got 
 over, the telegraph will be as easily worked as the one 
 between Khartoum and Cairo, which, when it was first 
 laid down, was continually being interrupted." 
 
 Thus the march of improvement steadily progresses, 
 and the dark places of the earth are being provided 
 with the agencies which enlarge and refine life.
 
 168 THE WEATHEB REPORTS. 
 
 THE WEATHER EEPOETS. 
 
 The recent death of Brigadier-General Albert J. 
 Meyer, chief signal officer of the army, gives painful 
 interest to a subject with which his name was long 
 identified, one, moreover, of the greatest importance 
 to the interests especially of our commercial marine 
 and of agriculture. 
 
 STORM SIGNAL SYSTEM. 
 
 We are indebted to the pen of the deceased gentle- 
 man for the best account of this system, written with 
 singular clearness, exactness and completeness. The 
 following passage occurs in one of General Meyer's 
 annual reports, addressed to the secretary of war. He 
 says: 
 
 " Synchronous observations are taken and forwarded 
 three times daily, at about 8 A.M., 6 P.M. and 12 mid- 
 night, by careful observers, under military control, 
 and supplied with the best instruments, namely, barom- 
 eter, thermometer, hygrometer, anemometer and rain 
 gauge. The observations are forwarded by telegraph, 
 in the shape of a numeral cipher, the intelligence con- 
 veyed in sixty words being sent in a twenty-word 
 report. 
 
 " The telegraphic transmission of the regular re- 
 ports has presented a problem difficult of solution. 
 The list of stations of observation and report exhibits 
 a large number of stations, so located that if reports
 
 THE WEATHEK REPuRTS. 169 
 
 are to be both received from and sent to them two or 
 three times a day without an organization of working 
 especially designed for the purpose, the delays would 
 be great, and the repetitions, each of which involves a 
 chance of error, numerous. 
 
 " The extensive lines of the Western Union Tele- 
 graph Company and the co-operating companies, Lhe 
 International Ocean Cable Company and the North- 
 western Telegraph Company, have been divided into 
 circuits. These circuits reach in their course every 
 station of observation and report. Each circuit thus 
 provides for a certain group of stations. This being 
 arranged, the working forms of circuits set forth mi- 
 nutely the telegraphic labor needed for the movement 
 of the messages of each group ; for the exchange of 
 message reports between different groups between 
 different places in different groups ; and, finally, for 
 the assembling of all the dispatches in Washington." 
 
 WHAT THE SIGNAL SERVICE DOES FOR COMMERCE AND 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 What specific purposes^ it may be asked, are an- 
 swered by the department over which General Meyer 
 so ably presided ? " The Signal Service, United States 
 Army, Division of Telegrams and Reports for the 
 Benefit of Commerce and Agriculture," is expected to 
 perform the following duties, detailed by the same 
 accurate pen as the foregoing quotation : " To give 
 protection to commerce by warnings on all of the 
 Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, and on
 
 170 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 
 
 those of the lakes ; to watch the river changes along 
 their courses in the great river valleys ; to note at 
 seasons the temperatures affecting canal commerce; 
 to carry telegraphic lines, by which meteorological 
 reports may be had, over regions considered imprac- 
 ticable for such constructions ; to maintain a system 
 of connected stations on the seacoast ; to take charge 
 of the recognized system of voluntary meteorological 
 observations on this continent, in addition to the reg- 
 ular system of the service ; to secure the co-operation 
 of foreign observers in foreign countries ; to endeavor 
 to aid directly all the farming population in the har- 
 vesting of their crops; and, finally, to put it in the 
 power of every citizen to know each day, with reason- 
 able accuracy, the approaching weather changes." 
 
 We need not add that this gigantic intention has 
 been and is carried out with a degree of efficiency 
 which is surprising, and which is continually increas- 
 ing- 
 
 In order to insure its accomplishment, there is a 
 thorough course of instruction given to those who 
 are to be observers, both in military signaling and 
 telegraphy, meteorology and the Signal Service duties 
 at stations of observation and report. This is done at 
 the school of instruction and practice at Fort Whipple, 
 Virginia. Upon their being found efficient, the ob- 
 servers are placed at stations where, in such of these 
 as forward telegraphic reports, " they are required to 
 take, put in cipher, and furnish, to be telegraphed 
 tri-daily on each day, at different fixed times, the
 
 THE WEATHER KEPORTS. 171 
 
 results of observations made at those times, and em- 
 bracing in each case the readings of the barometer, 
 the thermometer, the wind velocity and direction, the 
 rain-gauge, the relative humidity, the character, quan- 
 tity and movement of upper and lower clouds, and the 
 condition of the weather." In addition to the re- 
 ports supplied to the daily papers, what are called 
 Farmers' Bulletins are furnished daily to such post 
 offices as can be reached from convenient centers. 
 
 THE NEW YORK STATION. 
 
 The New York station of the Signal Service is situ- 
 ited on the top story of the building occupied by the 
 Squitable Life Assurance Company. It commands a 
 ;uperb view of the city and bay, and affords a place 
 "or the display of the cautionary signals where they 
 are visible from all parts of the harbor. The lantern, 
 displaying a red light, is one hundred and ninety-five 
 feet above sea-level ; while the flag red, with a black 
 centre floats from a staff at an elevation of two hun- 
 dred and thirty-five feet. 
 
 Here is the wind vane, which needs no description, 
 and also the anemometer, used to determine the velo- 
 city of the wind. By electric connections with inge- 
 nious but not complex machinery, this is a self -regis- 
 tering instrument. The train of wheelwork makes and 
 breaks an electric circuit, which registers itself on 
 the paper revolving by clockwork on the recording 
 cylinder. 
 
 There is in the New York office a self-registering
 
 172 THE WEATHEB BEPOBTS. 
 
 barometer. It is a rare and splendid instrument. 
 One of the cylinders, which are revolved by clockwork, 
 gives the register of the barometric changes for a day, 
 and the other for a period of fifteen days. As in the 
 anemometer, the connections between the instrument 
 itself and the recording cylinders are made by elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 Both to save time and expense, as well as to insure 
 accuracy, the telegraphic reports of the service are 
 made in cipher. These ciphers are easily and quickly 
 read by means of a book arranged for the purpose. 
 Here, for example, is the cipher report of the observa- 
 tion taken at New York on a certain day: "York, Mon- 
 day, Dead, Fire, Grind, Himself, 111, Ovation, View ;" 
 which, translated, reads: 
 
 York : New York (Station). 
 Monday : 30.07 (Barometer corrected). 
 
 Dead : 29.90 (corrected barometer for temperature and instru- 
 mental error). 
 Fire : 70 (thermometer). 
 Grind : 75 per cent, (humidity). 
 Himself : west, fair (wind and weather). 
 HI : 6 miles (velocity of wind). 
 Ovation: cirrus clouds, calm (upper clouds). 
 View: 67 (minimum temperature during night). 
 
 The Signal Service is an exacting one. From the 
 chief officer down to the privates, to the men in com- 
 fortable quarters in the cities and to the men who 
 winter on Mount Washington or Pike's Peak, the thanks 
 of the whole community are due for their tireless 
 service.
 
 OJHE WEATHEK BEPORTS. 173 
 
 EARLY OPPOSITION. 
 
 The system we have described, and which has proved 
 so successful that the proportion of failures is now 
 less than ten per cent., was not adopted without oppo- 
 sition. No less a man than Mr. A. Watson, of Wash- 
 ington, described as the originator of the idea of 
 storm signals, wrote to a New York journal that the 
 plan of telegrams and reports, then just adopted, had 
 been abandoned by the Smithsonian Institution. 
 Speaking of the 'storm signal system, he wrote: 
 
 " In furtherance of this plan of telegrams and re- 
 ports the department has enlisted fifty sergeants as 
 meteorologists, at $900 per annum, making $45,000, 
 which, added to the $15,000 appropriated by Congress, 
 makes $60,000 at least, to be expended this year, 
 which same reports were obtained through the tele 
 graph company by the Smithsonian Institution at no 
 cost whatever. But fifty sergeants are as yet employed 
 as meteorologists, and stationed at different parts of 
 the country to telegraph the weather, which number 
 may, perhaps, be increased to hundreds if not thou 
 sands, costing a million of dollars or more per annum. 
 The Western Union Telegraph Company has three 
 thousand five hundred operators throughout the 
 country, which, at $900 per annum, would amount to 
 $3,150,000. And every one of these, by my plan or 
 by any other, will have to be employed to telegraph 
 storms and floods, or else employ sergeants in equal 
 number. But why employ a sergeant to inform a 
 telegraph operator of the state of the weather, or that 
 a storm is passing in a certain direction, when that
 
 174 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 
 
 agent can know it as well as the other, and has control 
 of the wires to telegraph on all sides and to any dis- 
 tance to assure himself of the certain extent, direction 
 and intensity of the storm or flood ? These gentlemen 
 are as intelligent as any that can be found, and for a 
 trifle additional compensation would do the work. It 
 is plain that the station agents located at the principal 
 towns are all the meteorologists that are needed, and 
 are the only persons that can do the work complete 
 and at a trifling cost. 
 
 " What is needed is a sound signal, by cannon, to 
 give instant and general warning, for many miles in 
 all directions, of coming storms and floods. I predict 
 that these weather reports will prove a total failure 
 and a costly one at that. As the great War Depart- 
 ment and the portentous Signal Office have been seven 
 months in devising and putting into operation these 
 weather reports, it reminds me of the old but apt say- 
 ing, ' The mountain was in labor and brought forth a 
 mouse,' and in this instance the mouse is very little 
 and old at that." 
 
 The well-informed reader remembers that equally 
 severe remarks were made at the expense of the loco- 
 motive upon its first introduction, not to speak of 
 other gigantic improvements which were made at the 
 cost of influential opposition, 'but, like our storm 
 signal system, soon justified their existence by their 
 beneficent results. 
 
 ORIGIN OF WEATHER REPORTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Mr. Watson's letter naturally leads to an inquiry as 
 to what had been done in the way of furnishing
 
 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 175 
 
 weather reports to the people of this country pre- 
 viously to the formation of an army department pro- 
 vided for that purpose. This subject was treated 
 with success by Professor Cleveland Abbe, in the 
 August number (1871) of The American Journal of 
 Science, according to which the first published sugges- 
 tion of the feasibility of weather reports appears to be 
 that of Professor William C. Redfield, in The American 
 Journal of Science for September, 1846, where he 
 states that " in the Atlantic ports the approach of a 
 gale may be made known by means of the Atlantic 
 telegraph, which probably will soon extend from 
 Maine to the Mississippi." The next mention of the 
 subject is found in the Smithsonian report for 1847, 
 in an article by Professor Elias Loomis, who wrote : 
 " When the magnetic telegraph is extended from New 
 York to New Orleans and St. Louis, it may be made 
 subservient to the protection of our commerce, even 
 in the present imperfect state of our knowledge of 
 storms." But however frequently the idea may have 
 been suggested of utilizing our knowledge by the 
 employment of the electric telegraph, according to 
 Professor Abbe, it is to the late Professor Henry, of 
 the Smithsonian Institution, that the credit is due 
 of having first actually realized this suggestion, as 
 acknowledged by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. 
 
 The practical utilization of the results of scientific 
 study is well known to have been greatly furthered by 
 the labors of this institution, and from the very begin- 
 ning Professor Henry successfully advocated the
 
 176 THE WEATHER REPORTS. 
 
 feasibility of telegraphic storm warnings. It will be 
 interesting to trace the gradual realization of the 
 earlier suggestions of Redfield and Loomis in the 
 following extracts from the annual Smithsonian reports 
 of the years indicated : 
 
 1847. " The extended lines of telegraph will furnish 
 a ready means of warning the more northern and east- 
 ern observers to be on the watch for the first appear 
 ance of an advancing storm. 
 
 1848. "As a part of the system of meteorology, it 
 is proposed to employ, as far as our funds will permit, 
 the magnetic telegraph in the investigation of atmos- 
 pherical phenomena. * * * The advantage to 
 agriculture and commerce, to be derived from a knowl- 
 edge of the approach of a storm by means of the 
 telegraph, has been frequently referred to of late in the 
 public journals and this we think is a subject deserv- 
 ing the attention of the government. 
 
 1849. " Successful applications have been made to 
 the presidents of a number of telegraph lines to allow 
 us, at a certain period of the day, the use of the wires 
 for the transmission of meteorological intelligence. 
 * * * As soon as they (certain instruments, etc.) 
 are completed, the transmission of observations will 
 commence." (It was contemplated to constitute the 
 telegraph operators the observers.) 
 
 1850. " This map (an outline wall map) is intended 
 to be used for presenting the successive phases of the 
 sky over the whole country at different points of time, 
 as far as reported."
 
 THE WEATHEB REPORTS. 177 
 
 1851. " Since the date of the last report the system, 
 particularly intended to Investigate the nature of 
 American storms immediately under the care of the 
 Institution, has been continued and improved." The 
 system of weather reports thus inaugurated continued 
 in regular operation until 1861, when the disturbed 
 condition of the country rendered impossible its fur- 
 ther continuance. Meanwhile, however, the study of 
 these daily morning reports had led to such a knowl 
 edge of the progress of our storms, that in the report 
 for 1857 Professor Henry writes : 
 
 1857. " We are indebted to the National Telegraph 
 line for a series of observations from New Orleans to 
 New York, and as far westward as Cincinnati, which 
 have been published in The Evening Star of this city. 
 We hope in the course of another year to make such 
 an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able 
 to give warnings on the eastern coast of the approach 
 of storms, since the investigations which have been 
 made at the institution fully indicate the fact that, as 
 a general rule, the storms of our latitude pursue a 
 definite course." 
 
 Before peace had been proclaimed, after the civil 
 war, Professor Henry sought to revive the systematic 
 daily weather reports, and in August, 1864, at the 
 meeting of the North American Telegraph Association, 
 a paper was presented by Professor Baird, on behalf 
 of the Smithsonian Institution, requesting the privi- 
 lege of the use of the telegraph lines, and more 
 especially in order to enable Professor Henry "to
 
 178 THE WEATHER EEPOETS. 
 
 resume and extend the Weather Bulletin, and to give 
 warning of important atmospheric changes on our sea- 
 board." In response to this communication it was 
 resolved "That this association recommend * * 
 to pass free of charge * * * brief meteorological 
 reports * * * for the use and benefit of the insti- 
 tution." Upon the communication of this generous 
 response, preparations were at once made for the 
 undertaking, and its inauguration was fixed for the 
 year 1865. In January of that year, however, occurred 
 the disastrous fire which seriously embarrassed the 
 labors of the Smithsonian Institution for several years. 
 It became necessary, therefore, to indefinitely postpone 
 the work, which indeed had through its whole history 
 been carried on with most limited financial means, and 
 was quite dependent upon the liberal co-operation of 
 the different telegraph companies. 
 
 It will thus be seen that without material aid from 
 the government, but through the enlightened policy 
 of the telegraph companies, and with the assistance of 
 the munificent bequest of James Smithson, " for the 
 increase and diffusion of knowledge," the Smithsonian 
 Institution organized a comprehensive system of 
 weather reports, which, although since, as we have 
 shown, superseded by one more complete and efficient, 
 ought still to be held in grateful remembrance and be 
 accorded a prop 31- acknowledgment.
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGBAPHIO SYSTEM. 179 
 
 THE KAELWAY TELEGPA^HIC SYSTEM. 
 
 One of the great daily papers of New York city 
 published, some time ago, an article assuming that 
 moving trains by telegraph was an American institu- 
 tion, and gave a detailed account of its first application 
 in support of this assumption. 
 
 AN UNFOUNDED ASSUMPTION. 
 
 The article stated that " the first practical applica- 
 tion of telegraphic signals in moving trains was made 
 on the Erie line in 1850." It added that "previous to 
 that time locomotive engineers and conductors were 
 distrustful, and there are several instances on record 
 of their positive refusal to obey telegraphic orders, 
 especially when their trains were directed to proceed 
 beyond stations, to meet and pass trains going in 
 opposite directions, except in cases where such orders 
 were plainly expressed in printed orders upon their 
 regular time tables. In 1850, however, when the Erie 
 road had but a single track between Piermont and 
 Elmira, it was plainly demonstrated to the superin- 
 tendent (the late Charles Minot) that the telegraph 
 would be a very important assistance to the road, and 
 it became plainly evident that the telegraphic service 
 must eventually be adopted upon all main trunk lines. 
 
 " When the first telegraphic message was sent over 
 the Erie wires a train filled with western bound pas- 
 sengers was lying at Turner's Station, awaiting the
 
 180 THE RAILWAY TELEGKAPHIO SYSTEM. 
 
 arrival of an eastern bound train, which, by the time 
 table, should meet and pass it at that point ; but, owing 
 to an accident two hundred miles west, it could not 
 possibly arrive until five or six hours later. Mr. Minot 
 was a passenger upon the train lying at Turner's. He 
 immediately decided to test the accuracy of the tele- 
 graph, and make a beginning of the plan of ordering 
 trains to proceed to points further in advance, and not 
 further delay the stationary train, when the track was 
 known to be clear as far as Port Jervis, a distance of 
 one hundred and fifty miles further west Orders 
 were accordingly sent over the wire to the station 
 agent at Port Jervis to hold all easterly bound trains 
 until the arrival of the western train. This order was 
 given in order to make all safe, and prevent a collision 
 in case the former should arrive at Port Jervis before 
 the latter. An answer was immediately given by the 
 station agent, announcing that he fully understood the 
 order, and would do as directed. All appeared safe, 
 and the engineer was ordered to start west ; but, to 
 the astonishment of Mr. Miiiot, he positively refused 
 to move the train from Turner's upon any such 
 arrangement. Mr. Minot immediately mounted the 
 locomotive, pulled out the throttle valve, and ran the 
 train himself, assisted by the fireman, and reached 
 Port Jervis according to programme. 
 
 " The ice was broken, and since that time the tele- 
 graph has been acknowledged as a positive necessity 
 on all long railroad lines in this country. As many as 
 twenty trains have since moved in opposite directions
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 5,81 
 
 at one time upon a single division of the Erie road 
 with perfect safety. The form of giving the necessary 
 directions, however, has been somewhat changed ; and 
 now the conductors and engineers of each train who 
 receive telegraphic directions are telegraphed the 
 name of the particular point at which they are to 
 meet, and answers are required from them, to ascer- 
 tain whether they understand orders, before any 
 movement is made." 
 
 TRAIN DISPATCHING AN ENGLISH INVENTION. 
 
 However gratifying this account may be to our 
 national pride, and useful as embodying in its last 
 sentences information of current value, so far as it 
 pretends to give an account of the introduction of 
 train dispatching, it is not to be trusted. Charles H. 
 Haskins, now general superintendent of the North- 
 western Telegraph Company at Milwaukee, and prom- 
 inently connected with telephone matters in that 
 section, when he was conductor upon the Michigan 
 Southern Railroad, in the winter of 1849-50, tele- 
 graphed to hold a boat at Monroe for his train, which 
 had been detained by an accident. This is probably 
 the first instance of a train order on our side of the 
 Atlantic. There is no doubt that the Engli sh were the 
 first to adopt telegraphic signaling on railways. An 
 English pamphlet entitled "Telegraphic Railways ; or, 
 the Single Way Recommended by Safety, Economy 
 and Efficiency, under the Safeguard and Control of 
 the Electric Telegraph, &c. By Wm. Fothergill
 
 182 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 Cooke, Esq." ; published in London in 1842, has a 
 large chart, illustrating fully the manner in which 
 trains were to be moved on a single track by means of 
 telegraphic signals or orders, given by the station 
 masters from station to station. The instruments 
 then in use on the Blackwall Railway are illustrated 
 by diagrams, and the use of these instruments fully 
 explained. 
 
 GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT SIGNAL SYSTEM. 
 
 At the Grand Central Depot, Forty-second Street, 
 New York City, are the termini of three great rail- 
 roads, and here the telegraphic signal system is carried 
 to such a height of perfection as to merit particular 
 description. With the exception of the interval 
 between 1:10 and 3:40 in the morning, and of fifty 
 minutes at noon, no period of fifteen minutes elapses 
 in which some train does not depart or arrive via the 
 Harlem, the Hudson River, or the New York, New 
 Haven and Hartford road. One hundred and eighteen 
 regular, and from ten to fifteen extra trains daily pass 
 in one direction or the other over the tracks on the 
 underground road between Fifty-Third Street and 
 Harlem Bridge, a distance of nearly four and a half 
 miles. Barely two minutes sometimes intervene be- 
 tween the departure of one train and the incoming of 
 another, and three trains often start at intervals of 
 five minutes apart. 
 
 It is obvious that, in order to prevent confusion and 
 accident, the movements of each and every one of these
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 183 
 
 trains, while traveling between the points named, must 
 be governed with absolute certainty. Add to this that 
 crowd after crowd of passengers must be admitted 
 from the reception room to the outgoing cars at 
 exactly the proper time, and the checking of their 
 baggage must be stopped in time to insure its dispatch 
 by the proper trains ; and the reader will have formed 
 some faint idea of the perfect system which must exist 
 for the management of the machinery of the great 
 depot and its approaches. 
 
 Located far up on the north wall of the depot, the 
 view from its broad window extending over the intri- 
 cate network of rails into which the various tracks 
 diverge, is a small cabin. On the wall hang signal 
 indicators and bells, time-tables, and a huge clock. 
 On the table before the single occupant are a telegraph 
 instrument, a record book, and three rows of ivory 
 buttons, twenty in all. This is the dispatcher's office, 
 and here, by pressing the buttons or manipulating the 
 telegraph key, he controls the movement of every 
 train going or coming, the buttons, though simple 
 electric bells, governing everything near and about 
 the depot, the key transmitting instructions to far-off 
 points. By way of illustration, we suppose that one 
 train is to start at 4:30, and that another will arrive at 
 4:31 o'clock. It is now just 4:10, the passengers are 
 congregated in the waiting-room, the cars are in place, 
 and the engine, with steam up, is standing outside not 
 yet attached. The dispatcher touches a button, the 
 sound of a bell is heard, the heavy doors of the wait-
 
 184 THE KAILWAY TELEGBAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 ing room fly open, and the passengers crowd upon the 
 cars. Fifteen minutes elapse; the operator presses 
 another button, a gong strikes in the baggage room, 
 and the checking is stopped. Belated individuals who 
 wish to depart by that train must go minus their bag- 
 gage. Now the operator watches the clock closely ; 
 three minutes pass, and then a sharp peal rings out 
 from a bell close beside him. The minute hand points 
 to 4:28, and the incoming train has reached Sixty-fourth 
 Street and is signaling its own approach. The sound 
 continues for half a minute, then stops ; the train is 
 at Fifty-fifth Street, and the finger of the dispatcher 
 at once presses another button. If we were on the 
 arriving locomotive we would see a green disk before 
 us, or at night the flash of a green light, meaning that 
 everything is ready for the flying switch just outside 
 the depot, by which the engine is to clear itself from 
 the train, the cars entering the depot by their own 
 momentum. Now it is 4:29 ; down goes another but- 
 ton; a bell on a post beside the locomotive waiting 
 outside rings for the engineer to back in and couple 
 on. Hardly ten seconds elapse before a sharp " ting " 
 calls the operator's attention to the fact that the 
 pointer arm of the indicator on the wall has swung 
 over from "clear" to "block." The arriving train is on 
 the Fifty-third Street crossing. The clock says 4:30 : 
 again a button is pressed ; the doors of the waiting- 
 room are slammed shut, there is a few seconds' delay 
 for the tardy ones on the platforms to board the cars, 
 and then the train moves slowly out of the depot.
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 185 
 
 The indicator pointer still shows " block," and if the 
 outgoing train continues its course a disastrous meet- 
 ing on the crossing may result. The dispatcher 
 remains passive, however, for he knows that the signal 
 between that train and the crossing is normally at 
 "danger," and that the engineer will certainly come to 
 a stop and wait until the red disk is turned. The 
 delay is but for a second, for the indicator bell almost 
 instantly sounds again, the arm swings over to " clear," 
 and the proper button is immediately touched. A dis- 
 tant cloud of steam can be seen for a moment, and the 
 outgoing train is off again. Pressing another button 
 the operator restores the danger signal. The arriving 
 train now rushes in, its passengers disembark, and at 
 the sound of the bell from the dispatcher, a locomotive 
 kept for the purpose couples on and drags the empty 
 cars out of the depot. 
 
 We have accounted for twenty-one minutes, during 
 which one train has left and one arrived ; the reader 
 may imagine the celerity and certainty of the work 
 when we add that, within fifteen minutes spent in the 
 dispatcher's cabin, three trains on three different roads 
 were started and three received, all at different times 
 arid without the slightest confusion. 
 
 MOVING TRAINS BY TELEGRAPHIC ORDERS. 
 
 As the above account does not, of course, cover all 
 the information properly coming under the head of 
 this chapter, a statement of the general system, given 
 in detail, cannot fail to be exceedingly interesting. The
 
 186 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 following are the instructions issued to the employes 
 of a prominent railroad: 
 
 " Superintendents and train dispatchers are the only 
 persons who are authorized to move trains by special 
 orders. Before an order is given by telegraph for two 
 or more trains to meet at a given station, the red 
 signal to stop the trains must first be displayed at 
 such meeting point ; and until this is done no order 
 must be sent to either train. When a meeting or 
 passing point is to be made by two or more trains, 
 the order must be definite and conclusive, and sent 
 first to the conductor having the right to the road. 
 If it is desired to give a train the right to run against 
 a passenger train, the order is first sent to the con- 
 ductor of the latter, and no order must be given the 
 opposing train until the receipt of a satisfactory reply 
 from the conductor of the passenger train. And in 
 the same way, before giving a passenger train the 
 right to the road, over a train possessing this right, 
 the order should first be sent to the train holding the 
 right to the road, and when a satisfactory reply has 
 been received from the conductor of the train, then 
 the order may be transmitted to the other train. All 
 special orders for the movements of trains, whether 
 sent by telegraph or otherwise, must be communicated 
 in writing. When a train is abandoned, the order of 
 the superintendent directing its abandonment must be 
 sent by telegraph to all agents, conductors and engi- 
 neers on the division. 
 
 " No train must leave a station to run upon the time
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 187 
 
 of an abandoned train, which by the regulations would 
 have the right of the road, unless the conductor and 
 engineer of such trains have in their possession a copy 
 of the order of abandonment properly signed and 
 certified to by the operator. If a train should be held 
 at night at any telegraph station where there is no 
 night operator, the conductor must call the day 
 operator into his office for the purpose of receiving 
 the orders necessary before going ahead. At stations 
 where telegraphic orders are awaiting an expected 
 train, operators will display a red flag by day, or a red 
 light by night. When orders are duplicated to follow- 
 ing trains, the understanding of each conductor and 
 engineer must be separately written, and must be 
 responded to by the party giving the order." 
 
 THE TRAIN DISPATCHER AND OPERATOR. 
 
 A moment's reflection makes it manifest that the 
 position of train dispatcher is second in importance to 
 no position on the road. He is frequently found to be 
 also an expert operator, but it is not absolutely neces- 
 sary that he should be a telegrapher. It is his duty 
 to keep the localities of every train running on the 
 division constantly in his mind, and issue orders to 
 them at every station where they stop. Where the 
 roads have only single tracks, the labors and responsi- 
 bility of a train dispatcher are very great, sometimes 
 as many as twenty trains, traveling in opposite direc- 
 tions, being on the division at one time. All these 
 have to meet and pass each other somewhere along
 
 188 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 the division. The dispatcher must know just where 
 to hold the train, where to send that one from and 
 how far to run it, and know within , second just when 
 to expect a train at a station. With his time card 
 before him, containing the names of all stations and 
 numbers of all trains, the dispatcher sits close to the 
 operator, surrounded by clicking instruments, checks 
 off train and station as arrivals are rapidly telegraphed, 
 and quickly issues his orders to the operator, to be 
 sent to expectant trainmen all along the division. The 
 dispatcher of trains on a single track is the player of 
 a gigantic game of chess, the men in which are to be 
 so moved that they may never be brought in check. 
 For any accident by collision on a road, the dispatcher 
 is held responsible, unless it is shown that his orders 
 were disobeyed. 
 
 His companion in incessant vigilance should not be 
 overlooked. One of them writes with a sprightliness 
 which is surprising: "Imagine yourself stranded at an 
 out-of-the-way station, right in the woods as likely as 
 not, and nothing more exciting than the monotonous 
 train report, with its <Os, Os,No. 3 X O. T. at 9:15 
 As,' and the everlasting string of figures and ciphers 
 in the car-report day in and day out, with now and 
 then a variation in the shape of a wreck, which keeps 
 all hands up all night sending crossings and repeating 
 orders back to dispatchers with the mystic ' I under- 
 stand,' etc., and see how you relish the prospect. 
 Then, by way of thanks from an appreciative public, 
 comes the newspaper report in the case of every other
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 189 
 
 accident or so, censuring the telegraph and saddling 
 the whole blame on some defenceless operator, who 
 has been so badgered and worried and overworked 
 that he couldn't swear to the difference between an x 
 and a g if he were to be hung for it." 
 
 A THRILLING INCIDENT. 
 
 The following instance illustrates the responsibility 
 attached to- the position of train dispatcher : 
 
 The chief dispatcher upon a prominent western road 
 had ordered Miss D., operator at M. station, to "hold 
 the through freight bound east for further orders." 
 The sharp spiked staff, bearing its warning signal flag, 
 was set in its usual conspicuous place, but just as the 
 expected train rounded the curve a treacherous puff 
 of wind blew the flag to the ground, unnoticed by the 
 operator, whose horror can be more easily imagined 
 than described as, a moment after, the " through 
 freight," with a shriek and a roar, swept past the 
 station and its unseen and therefore unheeded signal, 
 while a few miles ahead, on the same single track, an 
 extra was speeding along in the opposite direction, 
 under orders that had been given by the dispatcher 
 after the signal had been set at M. Miss D. hurriedly 
 notified the dispatcher of the accident. There was one 
 more telegraph station for the through freight to pass 
 before meeting the extra, and upon the chance of the 
 faithfulness of this one operator was hung the fate of 
 the rapidly approaching trains. While the dispatcher's 
 operator " called " the station rapidly and incessantly,
 
 190 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 the dispatcher himself walked the floor in an agony of 
 suspense, and Miss D. could see nothing, hear nothing 
 but the rapid clicking of the instrument burning itself 
 into her very brain and nerves. The moments passed 
 like hours. For some minutes there was no response, 
 but at last came the welcome " aye, aye." One moment 
 more of breathless suspense while the question is put: 
 " Has engine No. passed ?" "Not yet." "Thank 
 God !" exclaims the dispatcher, and gives the necessary 
 orders to avert the impending calamity. 
 
 THE ANGUISH AND SUSPENSE OF AN OPERATOR WHO "FORGOT." 
 
 Fortunately it is seldom that an operator, however 
 harassed he may be with other cares and responsibili- 
 ties, neglects to deliver the orders he has received for 
 a train. That he should occasionally slip in this par- 
 ticular would be no more than could be expected from 
 mortal beings who have more to look after than any 
 one man should. At many stations the operator, in 
 addition to his regular telegraphic duties, is called 
 upon to sell tickets, check baggage, attend to express 
 and freight matters, and the like, which the public in 
 their intercourse with him too often seem to entirely 
 overlook. Whenever a case of neglect in connection 
 with a train order does occur, an example is made of 
 the man by instantly dismissing him. An operator 
 who was 'thus discharged writes as follows of his feel- 
 ings after he had found that the train had gone by 
 which he should have signaled to stop : 
 
 " I forgot, and in doing so have forfeited the respect"
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 191 
 
 of my employers as well as my position. I am not one 
 who is in the habit of forgetting, and to forget when 
 scores of lives depend on my memory and carefulness 
 slakes me shudder when I think what might have 
 : - ome of my forgetting this time. 
 
 " It was the first time in my life that I had made a 
 serious mistake. I received orders for the east-bound 
 passenger train yesterday to look out for a freight 
 train ahead of them to the next station east of me, and 
 I forgot to put my signal flag out to stop the passen- 
 ger train. Operators know what my mistake means. 
 It means, sometimes, death to the unfortunate passen- 
 gers, but, thank God, in this case no harm came of it, 
 for the freight train had a good start and got safely in 
 on the side-track before the passenger train came 
 along. Minutes were years to me while waiting for 
 the signal from the other station that would decide 
 whether all were safe or not. My heart was in my 
 mouth every time the line would open, and with fear 
 I listened to every stroke of the sounder. At last the 
 welcome " rep." G. came, and I knew everything was 
 safe. I could no longer bear up under the enormous 
 strain that my nerves had been subjected to for fifty 
 ^minutes. I raised myself from the instrument table, 
 staggered to the door, and but for the fresh air wo^ld 
 have fainted. My wife saw me and was frightened to 
 see my pallid face. The cold perspiration stood out 
 on my forehead, my hands trembled as with palsy, and 
 my breath came in gasps as I tried to regain posses- 
 sion of myself.
 
 192 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 " Those who have passed through this ordeal can 
 imagine my feelings ; the awful dread which comes 
 over one when the discovery is first made that a train 
 has passed which should have been stopped. Hideous, 
 laughing demons dance before one's imagination, in 
 seeming mockery of the anguish that is dragging one 
 almost to madness. In imagination you see the 
 mangled and lifeless forms that but a moment ago 
 passed you, full of happiness and radiant in anticipa- 
 tion of meeting dear ones at their destination. 
 
 " The remorse, the utter helplessness that overtakes 
 one in such a moment is indescribable. It is a time 
 the memory of which will haunt me through life. 
 Amid the joys and pleasures that may await me in the 
 future, there will ever be a spot as black as midnight 
 darkness. My hand trembles when I take hold of the 
 key that may deal death and destruction to the many 
 lives entrusted to my care." 
 
 A NOBLE RAILROAD OPERATOR. 
 
 An account has reached us from Parker City, Penn- 
 sylvania, of an operator whose presence of mind and 
 firm persistency saved probably many lives. She was 
 employed at Sligo Junction, and one evening wa 
 awaiting the arrival of an eastern-bound train, when a 
 long freight, numbering fifty-five heavily laden cars 
 bound westward, slacked up at the station, which the 
 conductor entered. After registering he shouted " all 
 right " to his engineer, and was about to get on his 
 train when the operator, remembering something
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 193 
 
 caught from the subtle click of her instrument, rushed 
 out and bade him stop his train, which was slowly 
 moving away. He replied that they had the right of 
 way. "No," said the operator, "I heard an order 
 passing over the wire, telling you to remain here until 
 the arrival of the Sligo passenger train, which you will 
 certainly meet, because it is somewhere between this 
 and the next station westward. This order should 
 have been given you at Troy " (a station just passed by 
 the freight). The conductor was persuaded to enter 
 the office by the operator, who, going to the key, 
 asked the superintendent at Brookville if such an 
 order had been sent to Troy. " Yes," was the reply. 
 The careless operator at Troy had failed to deliver 
 this important order, but the carefully trained ear of 
 the female in charge at Sligo Junction had caught it, 
 and the result was the hasty switching of that long 
 freight from the main track to the side. Just as this 
 was done a shrill whistle announced the coming of the 
 Sligo train, the headlight of which threw a glare along 
 the track. 
 
 Thankful were the passengers, conductor, engineer, 
 and brakemen that their lives were in the hands of one 
 who fully realized the fact. " For," said the engineer 
 of the freight, " I could not have stopped my heavy 
 train in less than a mile. Our escape would have been 
 impossible." The conductor and engineer of the pas- 
 senger train feelingly caught the operator's hand and 
 thanked her for preventing an accident which would 
 have certainly cost them their lives. The superintend-
 
 194 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 ent at Brookville telegraphed his thanks, and in a few 
 days sent a letter of commendation, inclosing a bank 
 check, with the thanks of the officers of the road, as a 
 mark of their appreciation of her care and attention to 
 business. 
 
 NEW INVENTIONS IN RAILROAD SIGNALING. 
 
 An invention has been secured by patent in this 
 country, by a Swede, whose apparatus is an automatic 
 railway signal which enables the station officers to 
 know the precise position of any train at any time ; it 
 gives sound signals to the engineer and at the station 
 before the train enters, thus enabling switches to be 
 cleared and arranged in time to prevent accidents. 
 If two trains approach each other, whether running in 
 the same or opposite directions, the engineers of both 
 trains receive signals in time to prevent collisions, and 
 the station people are at the same time automatically 
 informed of the position of both trains. Any train 
 may be stopped at certain points on the road where 
 " contacts " are arranged upon telegraphic communi- 
 cation with the stations at both ends of the route, and 
 two trains may in the same manner telegraph to each 
 other. A complete record is automatically kept at 
 each station of the speed of each train, and of the 
 exact time it enters or leaves the station. Stop-signals 
 may. be sent at any time from the stations to any train 
 while moving. The apparatus may be arranged to send 
 stop or clanger signals to trains approaching swinging 
 bridges which are not properly locked and fastened.
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 195 
 
 The Union Electric Signal Company of Boston, 
 Massachusetts, lately exhibited the practical working 
 of a new method of automatic railway signals, known 
 as Robinson's Contact Circuit Rail system. The ex- 
 periments were made at a street-crossing of the 
 Boston and Providence Railroad, near Boston, in the 
 presence of a number of gentlemen interested in Amer- 
 ican railway matters. The system tested on this 
 occasion differs essentially from other systems of 
 signaling in use, in that the rails instead of wires are 
 employed for conducting an electric current. They 
 are divided into sections, according to curves and 
 other contingencies. At one end of each section is 
 placed a small battery, one pole of which is connected 
 to either rail, and at the other end of the section is an 
 electro-magnet, the coils of which are connected to the 
 two rails, thereby establishing a constant metallic 
 circuit through the rails and magnet. At either end 
 of the section is the standard bearing the signal, which 
 is connected with the circuit. When a train enters 
 upon the section, the leading wheels and axle of the 
 engine instantly short-circuit the current, the magnet 
 is demagnetized, and on the latter leaving its armature 
 the signal is mechanically thrown to danger, where it 
 remains as long as the wheels are on the section, and 
 when they pass off the signal goes back to safety, and 
 the section of the line is open to receive another train. 
 By this means the rear of a train on a road equipped 
 with these signals will always be safely guarded. 
 Actual experience has demonstrated that the rails are
 
 196 THE BAILWAY TELEGBAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 vastly superior as conductors to any surrounding 
 media, and that the electricity will adhere to them in 
 preference to passing off to earth, despite rain or snow. 
 After the operation of the system had been witnessed 
 for upward of an hour, as the various up and down 
 trains passed the crossing, it was pronounced unani- 
 mously to be an unqualified success, and calculated to 
 be of great service in perfecting the safety appliances 
 which all the American railways will ere long be com- 
 pelled to use. 
 
 Eight here is the place to say that a Swiss inventor 
 envelopes the driving axle of locomotives in coils of 
 insulated copper wire, and by the passage of an electric 
 current converts the wheels into powerful magnets 
 with increased adhesion to the rails. 
 
 A new system of telegraphic signals has been intro- 
 duced by way of experiment at the Boston end of the 
 Lowell Kailroad. A box in the train house of the 
 passenger depot on Causeway street is connected by 
 wires with the office of the ticket master, who, when a 
 train starts, by the pressure of a finger upon a little 
 instrument, displays at an aperture in front of the box 
 a red flag if in the day, or if at night time the red sides 
 of a lantern to view. When the engine reaches the 
 rail directly in front of the station at East Cambridge 
 the electric current is opened, and the red nag disap- 
 pears or the lantern shows a white light. A bell is 
 also rung at the same moment in the ticket office. If 
 this system works well, and is adopted along the line 
 generally, it may easily be so perfected that knowledge
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 197 
 
 of the position of a train may be known at any station 
 which it has just left, and thereby insure comparative 
 safety to passengers. 
 
 Many accidents have occurred from trains breaking 
 apart, the engineer not being notified of the fact. 
 There has long been needed some connection through- 
 out the train more effective than the old-fashioned 
 bell-rope, which, though perhaps sufficient for passen- 
 ger trains, is not applicable to freight. Major V. B. 
 Bell has brought out an invention, especially adapted 
 to freight trains, which promises to secure the desired 
 end. It is simply a train telegraph. In one corner of 
 the caboose is a battery, differing from common tele- 
 graph batteries in being constructed of leather and 
 copper, and being closely boxed connecting with an 
 alarm in a small box on the side of the caboose and 
 with another on the engine ; wires run beneath all the 
 cars, and the connection is established between the 
 cars by flexible copper wires, covered, which can be 
 detached, being held in their places by any single 
 spring catch the common spring clothes-pin being 
 used at present. When the train breaks, these cords 
 are unfastened, the connection is broken, the alarm is 
 sounded in the caboose, and the engine and the train 
 is stopped. This is the principal object of the inven- 
 tion ; but by means of it the conductor can, by simply 
 moving the key of the alarm box, signal the engineer 
 to back, go ahead, etc. A thorough test of it was 
 recently made by practical railway operatives and 
 managers, and the results are pronounced satisfactory.
 
 198 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 Though the machinery was necessarily imperfect 
 being all new and untried the inventor was able to 
 answer all objections and explain how all proposed 
 difficulties may be easily surmounted. The apparatus 
 would cost about seventy-five dollars. 
 
 Nervous people will appreciate the announcement 
 that locomotive whistling promises to be an abomina- 
 tion of the past. At Poughkeepsie, in this State, it is 
 to be superseded by a bell worked by electricity, 
 which will be set up in the depot. When the train 
 arrives within a mile of the station, the bell will ring 
 until it gets to the depot. The danger signal is thus 
 given, and the waste of steam is avoided, to say 
 nothing of the racket. 
 
 It may not be entirely out of place to close this 
 sub- section with the statement that a-i interest! '<> .^;- 
 plication of electricity, in connection with a taint for 
 supplying locomotives with water, is now in operation 
 at Buda Station, on the Chicago, Burlington and 
 Quincy Eailroad. The steam pump which supplies 
 the tank is on the bank of a small stream half a mile 
 distant, and entirely out of sight. A float is arranged 
 so that if the water is drawn off to a level more than 
 two or three inches below the top of the tank a circuit 
 is closed, connecting by wires with the pump house. 
 This sets an alarm bell ringing within hearing of the 
 engineer, who then starts his pump, and runs it till 
 the tank is full, of which due notice is given by the 
 cessation of the alarm. This arrangement was devised 
 by Fred. H. Tubbs, then superintendent of telegraphs
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 199 
 
 on the C. B. and Q. K. B., but now superintendent of 
 the American Union Telegraph Company at Chicago, 
 and has worked for a long time in the most satisfactory 
 
 FUN ABOUT SIGNALING. 
 
 With the American propensity to relieve overtaxed 
 energies with harmless nonsense, everybody is familiar, 
 as all commend it. The subject of this chapter has 
 proved most fertile in nonsensical suggestions and 
 funny yarns, but we resist the temptation to enlarge 
 it excepting by a little of such material. 
 
 ROUSING THE SLEEPING CAR PORTER. 
 
 From the "West we hear of a gentleman lately 
 returned to Milwaukee from a trip, who tells of a 
 new use that has been found for electricity that even 
 beats the telephone or the phonograph. It is a device 
 by which the colored sleeping car porter can be 
 awakened at every station. It is well known that the 
 normal condition of the colored person is to be asleep. 
 The colored person goes to sleep on the slightest 
 provocation. In the ordinary affairs of life this ec- 
 centricity can be overlooked and provided for, but the 
 business of sleeping car porters has baffled scientists 
 to devise a method of keeping them awake. A porter 
 can be kept awake by constantly whistling, but this 
 practice has a tendency to awaken passengers who do 
 not desire to be awakened. The inventor has adapted 
 electricity to this branch of railroading in such a man-
 
 200 THE EAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 
 
 ner that the colored person's usefulness is increased, 
 at very little expense. It is desirable that the porter 
 should be awake at each station where the sleeper 
 stops, in order to snatch the small baggage of those 
 who get aboard, and throw it under the seats. 
 
 A wire runs from the engine under the cars, and is 
 connected with an electric disk in the cushion of the 
 hind seat of the sleeper, where the colored man is apt 
 to congregate, and at the same moment that the engi- 
 neer rings the bell on approaching a station, he 
 touches the thingumbob attached to the wire. Sup- 
 pose the porter to be seated in his accustomed place, 
 peacefully dreaming the happy hours away. His head 
 is thrown back, his eyelids are in repose, his mouth is 
 open like an approach to a tunnel. He is sitting on 
 the electric disk. The hand of the engineer playfully 
 touches the cornucopia, the lightning flashes back to 
 the sleeper, a charge of electricity goes meandering 
 up the spinal column of the African, he is raised 
 toward the roof of the car, and when he comes down 
 he is wide awake and ready for business. 
 
 ANOTHER ANTI-SLEEPING INVENTION. 
 
 It is said that at a certain station on the Philadel- 
 phia and Erie Railroad, the company has a new night 
 telegraph operator who, if inclined to slumber, is too 
 ingeniously wide awake to be caught napping at his 
 post. Recently he was seized with drowsiness, which 
 he could not shake off. As it was his duty to report 
 all passing trains, he dared not yield, and yet could
 
 THE RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 201 
 
 not resist. That mother of invention, necessity, at 
 length suggested an alarm signal, which he proceeded 
 to put in operation by suspending a scuttle full of 
 coal by means of a cord which was passed through the 
 keyhole of his office door,' and fastened across the 
 track at the requisite elevation. Mr. Operator then 
 resigned himself to rosy dreams, which were finally 
 interrupted by a passing train, the engine of which 
 snapped the cord, causing the coal-scuttle to come 
 down with a rattle-te-bang that would have aroused 
 even a sleeping New York policeman. Another young 
 operator, some thirty miles up the road, let a train 
 slip by him the same night, and applied to the in- 
 ventor of the coal-scuttle alarm to know when the 
 train passed his station. No answer was vouchsafed, 
 the inventor remarking : " Why don't the blockhead 
 get the right to use my patent!"
 
 202 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 
 
 ELECTEICITT AND LIFE. 
 
 Very little is known of electricity, perhaps it may 
 truly be said nothing beyond what has been observed 
 of its effects. What it is in itself, its relations or 
 possible oneness with heat and light, are unknown. 
 Professor Faraday, on one occasion, in speaking on 
 the nature of electricity before the British Association 
 for the Advancement of Science, thus expressed his 
 views: "There was a time when I thought I knew 
 something about the matter; but the longer I live 
 and the more carefully I study the subject, the more 
 convinced I am of my total ignorance of the nature 
 of electricity." Enough of its operations have been 
 seen and noted, however, to suggest that its possible 
 usefulness is beyond present calculation and even 
 conception. Among these is the influence it possesses 
 in the stimulation and support of both animal and 
 vegetable life, including the highest development of 
 the first named, so far as we know, in the human 
 being. Every reader is, of course, acquainted with 
 the fact that the electric battery is extensively em- 
 ployed as a remedial agent, and that experiments 
 are constantly in progress with the view to determine, 
 if possible, the exact value of electricity in therapeu- 
 tics, and in the case of children, animals and plants. 
 A brief statement of selected information on the
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LITE 203 
 
 general subject will be both interesting and valu- 
 able. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC GIRL OF LA PERRIERE. 
 
 The extraordinary phenomena we are about to relate 
 occurred in the commune of La Perriere, situated in 
 the department of Orne, France, in January, 1846. 
 They seem to be properly authenticated, and are not 
 incredible in themselves. The astonishing electrical 
 force exerted by the electric eel, found in some rivers 
 of South America, is familiar to everybody, and shows 
 the force which can be employed by the animal or- 
 ganism when charged, so to speak, with the electric 
 fluid. 
 
 Angelique Cottin, a peasant girl fourteen years of 
 age, robust and in good health, but very imperfectly 
 educated and of limited intelligence, lived with her 
 aunt, the widow Loisnard, in a cottage with an 
 earthen floor, close to the chateau of Monti-Mer, 
 inhabited by its proprietor, M. de Faremont. 
 
 The weather for eight days previous to the fifteenth 
 of January, 1846, had been heavy and tempestuous, 
 with constantly recurring storms of thunder and 
 lightning, and the atmosphere was charged with elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 On the evening of that fifteenth of January, at eight 
 o'clock, while Angelique, in company with three other 
 young girls, was at work as usual in her aunt's cot- 
 tage, weaving ladies' silk-net gloves, the frame, made 
 of rough oak and weighing about twenty-five pounds, 
 to which was attached the end of the warp, was upset
 
 204 ELECTBICIT7 AND LIFE 
 
 and the candlestick on it thrown to the ground. The 
 girls, blaming each other as having caused the acci- 
 dent, replaced the frame, relighted the candle and 
 went to work again. A second time the frame was 
 thrown down Thereupon the children ran away, 
 afraid of a thing so strange, and, with (he super- 
 stition common to their class, dreaming of witchcraft. 
 The neighbors, attracted by their cries, refused to 
 credit their story So returning, but with fear and 
 trembling, two of them at first, afterward a third, 
 resumed their occupation, without the recurrence of 
 the alarming phenomenon. But as soon as the girl 
 Cottin, imitating her companions, had touched her 
 warp, the frame agitated again, moved about, was 
 upset, and then thrown violently back. The girl was 
 drawn irresistibly after it, but as soon as she touched 
 it, it moved still further away. 
 
 Upon this the aunt, thinking, like the children, that 
 there must be sorcery in the case, took her niece to the 
 parsonage of La Perriere, demanding exorcism. The 
 curate, an enlightened man, at first laughed at her 
 story ; but the girl had brought her glove with 
 her, and fixing it to a kitchen chair, the chair, like 
 the frame, was repulsed and upset, without being 
 touched by Angelique. The curate then sat down 
 on the chair ; but both chair and he were thrown 
 to the ground in like manner. Thus practically con- 
 vinced of the reality of a phenomenon which he could 
 not explain, the good man reassured the terrified aunt 
 by telling her it was some bodily disease and, very 
 sensibly, referred the matter to the physicians.
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 205 
 
 The next day the aunt related the above particulars 
 to M. de Faremont ; but for the time the effects had 
 ceased. Three days later, at nine o'clock, that gentle- 
 man was summoned to the cottage, where he verified 
 the fact that the frame was at intervals thrown back 
 from Angelique with such force that, when exerting 
 his utmost strength and holding it with both hands, 
 he was unable to prevent its motion. He observed 
 that the motion was partly rotary, from left to right. 
 He particularly noticed that her feet did not touch 
 the frame, and that when repulsed she seemed drawn 
 irresistibly after it, stretching out her hands as if 
 instinctively toward it. It was afterward remarked 
 that when a piece of furniture or other object thus 
 acted upon by Angelique was too heavy to be moved, 
 she herself was thrown back, as if by the reaction of 
 the force upon her person. 
 
 On the twenty-first of January the phenomena in- 
 creased in violence and in variety. A chair on which 
 the girl had attempted to sit down, though held by 
 three strong men, was thrown off, in spite of their 
 efforts, to several yards distance. Shovels, tongs, 
 lighted firewood, brushes, books, were all set in mo- 
 tion when the girl approached them. A pair of scissors 
 fastened to her girdle was detached and thrown into 
 the air. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of January, M. de Faremont 
 took the child and her aunt in his carriage to the small 
 neighboring town of Mamers. There, before two 
 physicians and several ladies and gentlemen, articles
 
 206 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 
 
 of furniture moved about on her approach. And there, 
 also, the following conclusive experiment was tried by 
 M. de Faremont : 
 
 Into one end of a ponderous wooden block, weighing 
 upward of a hundred and fifty pounds, he caused a 
 small hook to be driven. To this he made Angelique 
 fix her silk. As soon as she sat down and her frock 
 touched the block, the latter was instantly raised three 
 or four inches from the ground ; and this was repeated 
 as many as forty times in a minute. Then, after suf- 
 fering the girl to rest, M. de Faremont seated himself 
 on the block, and was elevated in the same way. Then 
 three men placed themselves upon it, and were raised 
 also, only not quite so high. "It is certain," says M. 
 de Faremont, "that I and one of the most athletic 
 porters of the Halle could not have lifted that block 
 with the three persons seated on it." 
 
 Dr. Verger came to Mamers to see Angelique, whom, 
 as well as her family, he had previously known. On 
 the twenty-eighth of January, in the presence of the 
 curate of Saint Martin and of the chaplain of the Bel- 
 lesme hospital the following incidents occurred. As 
 the child could not sew without pricking herself with 
 the needle, nor use scissors without wounding her 
 hands, they set her to shelling peas, placing a large 
 basket before her. As soon as her dress touched the 
 basket, and she reached her hand to begin work, the 
 basket was violently repulsed, and the peas projected 
 upward and scattered over the room. This was twice 
 repeated, under the same circumstances. Dr. Lemon-
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 207 
 
 nier, of St. Maurice, testifies to the same phenomenon, 
 as occurring in his presence and in that of the procu 
 rtitor royal of Mortagne ; he noticed that the left hand 
 produced the greater effect. He adds that he and 
 another gentleman having endeavored, with all their 
 strength, to hold a chair on which Angelique sat down, 
 it was violently forced from them, and one of its legs 
 broken. 
 
 On the thirtieth of January, M. de Faremont tried 
 the effect of insulation. When, by means of dry glass, 
 he insulated the child's feet and the chair on which she 
 sat, the chair ceased to move, and she remained per- 
 fectly quiet. M. Olivier, government engineer, tried 
 a similar experiment, with the same results. A week 
 later, M. Hebert, repeating this experiment, discovered 
 that insulation of the chair was unnecessary; it sufficed 
 to insulate the girl. Dr. Beaumont, vicar of Pin-la 
 Grarenne, noticed a fact, insignificant in appearance 
 yet quite as conclusive as were the more violent mani- 
 festations, as to the reality of the phenomena. Having 
 moistened with saliva the scattered hairs on his own 
 arm, so that they lay flattened, attached to the 
 epidermis, when he approached his arm to the left 
 arm of the giii, the hairs instantly erected themselves. 
 M: Hebert repeated the same experiment several times, 
 always with a similar result. 
 
 M. Olivier also tried the following : With a stick of 
 sealing-wax which he had subjected to friction, he 
 touched the girl's arm, and it gave her a considerable 
 shock ; but on touching her with another similar stick
 
 208 ELECTRICITY AND LITE. 
 
 that had not been rubbed, she experienced no effect 
 whatever. Yet when M. de Faremont, on the nine- 
 teenth of January, tried the same experiment with a 
 stick of sealing-wax and a glass tube, well prepared 
 by rubbing, he obtained no effect whatever. So also 
 a pendulum of light pith, brought into close prox- 
 imity to her person at various points, was neither 
 attracted nor repulsed in the slightest degree. 
 
 Toward the beginning of February, Angelique was 
 obliged for several days to eat standing ; she could 
 not sit down on a chair. This fact Dr. Verger repeat- 
 edly verified. Holding her by the arm to prevent 
 accident, the moment she touched the chair it was 
 projected from under her, and she would have fallen 
 but for his support. At such times, to take rest, she 
 had to sit herself on the floor, or on a stone provided 
 for the purpose. 
 
 On one occasion, " she approached," says M. de 
 Faremont, " one of those rough, heavy bedsteads used 
 by the peasantry, weighing, with the coarse bed- 
 clothes, some three hundred pounds, and sought to 
 lie down on it. The bed shook and oscillated in an 
 incredible manner ; no force that I know of is capable 
 of communicating to it such a movement. Then she 
 went to another bed, which was raised from the ground 
 on wooden rollers, six inches in diameter; and it was 
 immediately thrown off the rollers." All this M. de 
 Faremont personally witnessed. 
 
 On the evening of the second of February, Dr. 
 Verger received Angelique into his house. On that
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 209 
 
 day and the next upward of one thousand persons 
 called to see her. The constant experiments, which 
 on that occasion were continued into the night, so 
 fatigued the poor girl that the effects were sensibly 
 diminished. Yet even then a small table brought near 
 to her was thrown down so violently that it broke to 
 pieces. It was of cherry-wood and varnished. 
 
 "In a general way," says Dr. Beaumont-Chardon, "I 
 think the effects were more marked with me than with 
 others, because I never evinced suspicion, and spared 
 her all suffering ; and I thought I could observe that, 
 although her powers were not under the control of her 
 will, yet they were greatest when her mind was at 
 ease and she was in good spirits." It appeared, also, 
 that on waxed or even tiled floors, but more especially 
 on carpets, the effects were much less than on an 
 earthen floor like that of the cottage where they orig- 
 inally showed themselves. 
 
 At first wooden furniture seemed exclusively af- 
 fected ; but at a later period metal also, as tongs and 
 shovels, though in a less degree, appeared to be sub- 
 jected to this extraordinary influence. When the 
 child's powers were the most active, achual contact 
 was not necessary. Articles of furniture and other 
 small objects moved, if she accidentally approached 
 them. 
 
 Up to the sixth of February she had been visited by 
 more than two thousand persons, including distin- 
 guished physicians from the towns of Bellesine and 
 Mortagne and from all the neighborhood, magistrates,
 
 210 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 
 
 lawyers, ecclesiastics and others. Some gave her 
 money. Then, in an evil hour, listening to the mer- 
 cenary suggestion, the parents conceived the idea that 
 the poor girl might be made a source of pecuniary 
 gain ; and notwithstanding the advice and remonstrance 
 of her true friends M. de Faremont, Dr. Verger, M. 
 Hebert and others her father resolved to exhibit her 
 in Paris, where the phenomena continued for a time 
 and then ceased. 
 
 Dr. Tanchon says that a chair which he held firmly 
 with both hands was forced back as soon as she 
 attempted to sit down ; a middle-sized dining-table 
 was displaced and repulsed by the touch of her dress ; 
 a large sofa, on which Dr. Tanchon was sitting, was 
 pushed violently to the wall as soon as the child sat 
 down beside him. The doctor remarked that when a 
 chair was thrown back from under her, her clothes 
 seemed attracted by it, and adhered to it until it was 
 repulsed beyond their reach ; that the power was 
 greater from the left hand than from the right, and 
 that the former was warmer than the latter, and often 
 trembled, agitated by unusual contractions ; that the 
 influence emanating from the girl was intermittent, 
 not permanent, being usually most powerful from 
 seven till nine o'clock in the evening, possibly influ- 
 enced by the principal meal of the day, dinner, taken 
 at six o'clock ; that when the girl was cut off from 
 contact with the earth, either by placing her feet on 
 a non-conductor or merely by keeping them raised 
 from the ground, the power ceased, and she could
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LITE. 211 
 
 remain seated quietly ; that, during the paroxysm, if 
 her left hand touched any object, she threw it from 
 her as if it burned her, complaining that it pricked 
 her, especially on the wrist ; that, happening one day 
 to accidentally touch the nape of her neck, the girl 
 ran from him crying out with pain ; and that repeated 
 observation assured him of the fact that there was, in 
 the region of the cerebellum, and at the point where 
 the superior muscles of the neck are inserted in the. 
 cranium, a point so acutely sensitive that the child 
 would not suffer there the lightest touch ; and, finally, 
 that the girl's pulse, often irregular, usually varied 
 from one hundred and five to one hundred and 
 twenty beats a minute. 
 
 These curious phenomena, which were given in the 
 Atlantic Monthly in the year 1866, created great interest. 
 A case very similar to that of Angelique Cottiu 
 occurred in the month of December previous, in the 
 person of a young girl, not quite fourteen years old, 
 apprenticed to a colorist in the Rue Descartes, Paris. 
 The occurrences were quite as marked as those in 
 the Cottin case. The professor, seated one day near 
 the girl, was raised from the floor, along with the 
 chair on which he sat. There were also occasional 
 knockings. The phenomena commenced December 
 2d, 1845, and lasted twelve days. 
 
 A WESTERN ELECTRICAL LADY. 
 
 The case of an American lady, resident at Nevada 
 City, is interesting to scientific men, and not less so
 
 212 
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 
 
 to those of us who remember our boyish freak of 
 producing electric phenomena by rubbing poor pussy's 
 coat headwards. For many years, we are told, the 
 subject of this paragraph was afflicted with acute neu- 
 ralgic pains in various parts of the body, and, hoping 
 to find relief, resorted to the use of an electrical bat- 
 tery. She used the apparatus for six months, but 
 found no relief. At that time nothing was noted of 
 unusual character as the result, and although several 
 months elapsed, it was only when cold weather com- 
 menced that any extraordinary symptoms followed. 
 One night after this the lady had occasion to enter a 
 dark room and pick up a woolen coat that was lying 
 there. As she did she was both surprised and fright- 
 ened to observe a bright light surrounding the hand 
 that held the garment. At the same time the electric 
 currents passed along the arm, shocking her quite 
 severely. When her husband was informed of the 
 fact he discredited its reality, thinking there was more 
 imagination than anything else in it. So the next 
 evening, to convince the incredulous better half, she 
 turned the gas out in the room where they were sit- 
 ting, and letting her hair down began combing it. A 
 remarkable display of light was the result. The 
 sparks flew around in every direction, and there was a 
 sharp, cracking sound as the teeth of the comb passed 
 between the Lairs. In laying her hands upon iron the 
 lady did not observe the peculiarities referred to ; but 
 the instant she touched a woolen cloth the fire began
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 213 
 
 to fly, and the shocks followed one another in rapid 
 succession. 
 
 ELECTRICITY ON THE DINNER TABLE. 
 
 An experimentist, Dr. Gladstone, says that in daily 
 life weak electrical currents are at work where their 
 presence is often little suspected : for instance, sup- 
 posing a person at dinner to have a silver fork in one 
 hand and a finger upon the steel part of a knife held 
 in the other, it follows that, when he plunges the 
 knife and fork into a beefsteak, two dissimilar metals 
 are thereby placed in a moist conducting substance, 
 consequently a voltaic circuit is formed, and an electric 
 current flows through the body of the individual 
 between the knife and fork. To prove that this was 
 really the case, he connected a reflecting galvanometer 
 with the knife and fork by means of wires ; he then 
 proceeded to cut a beefsteak, and the current thus 
 generated deflected the needle of the galvanometer, so 
 that the spot of light which it reflected was seen 
 traveling along the screen by all the observers. 
 
 FEELING PULSE BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 "While lecturing, some time ago, Dr. Upham, of 
 Salem, Massachusetts, in order to explain to his audi- 
 ence the variations of the pulse in certain diseases, 
 caused the lecture room to be placed in telegraphic 
 communication with the city hospital of Boston, dis- 
 tant fifteen miles, and by means of special apparatus 
 the various pulse beats were exhibited by a vibrating
 
 214 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 
 
 ray of magnesium light upon the wall. These experi- 
 ments have since been repeated at Paris with success. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH BY ELECTRICITY. 
 
 Dr. Poggioli recently read a paper at a meeting of 
 the British Academy of Medicine, on the "Physical and 
 Intellectual Development of Youth by Electricity." 
 He remarked that De Candolle had quoted experi- 
 ments to show that vegetation is much richer and 
 quicker in its growth when electrified than otherwise. 
 Seeds subjected to the action of this fluid would yield 
 better produce than others, and in a shorter time. 
 Starting from these data, Dr. Poggioli conceived the 
 idea that a similar action might be proved to exist in 
 the animal kingdom, and especially in the case of 
 young subjects. He adduced five instances of chil- 
 dren, varying between the ages of four and sixteen, 
 and having all attained a remarkable development, 
 both in a physical and an intellectual sense. Among 
 these the :-e was a child which might be considered a 
 pLenoinei.on of deformity and stupidity, and that 
 under the influence of electricity grew three centi- 
 m'etres in a single mouth, and has since been always 
 first, instead of last, in his class. From this Dr. Pog- 
 gioli concludes that the electric fluid exercises a direct 
 influence over the physical and intellectual develop- 
 ment of young subjects. 
 
 ELECTRICITY IN SURGERY AND DENTISTRY. 
 
 It is stated that when General Kilpatrick returned 
 from Chili, a few years ago, he had a remarkable
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LITE. 215 
 
 operation performed by a physician in New York, who 
 removed a large fleshy formation from the general's 
 neck by filling it full of needles and then attaching a 
 galvanic battery to it. Ten minutes after the current 
 of electricity was let on, the bunch had entirely disap- 
 peared. 
 
 Again, we learn that a Philadelphia dentist has 
 invented a little machine for driving the filling into 
 teeth, which works by electro-magnetism. The ham- 
 mer, or " plunger," working within a small cylinder, 
 may be made to deliver its blows at the rate of several 
 hundred strokes a minute so rapidly, indeed, as 
 almost to produce the impression of a continuous 
 pressure. A battery large enough to work the appa- 
 ratus costs for running it about twenty cents a day. 
 
 ELECTRICITY IN MEDICINE. 
 
 At a recent sitting of the French Academy of Sci- 
 ences, M. Scoutettensentin a paper on certain further 
 researches of his for the purpose of proving that the 
 electrical state of mineral waters is the chief cause of 
 their activity. He contends that these waters, on 
 issuing from the earth, are in a state of peculiar 
 activity owing to certain chemical reactions which 
 produce dynamic electrical phenomena ; a fact which 
 by no means impairs the activity of their chemical 
 elements on the human body. 
 
 A French physician says that a shock of electricity 
 given to a patient dying from the effects of chloroform 
 immediately counteracts its influence and restores the 
 patient to life.
 
 216 ELECTKICITY AND LIFE. 
 
 Already employed to restore vigor and nimbleness 
 to the gouty limbs of decrepit bons vivants, the recent 
 discoveries of Dr. Bernier, a French physician, show 
 electricity to be an efficient remedy for the evil effects 
 of excessive drinking on the human nose. The doctor 
 maintains that, by the application of an electric current 
 to noses even of the most Bacchanalian hue, the flesh 
 may be made " to come again as the flesh of a little 
 child;" and he supports his assertion by a case per- 
 formed on a female patient of his own a woman of 
 high rank. 
 
 In connection with these instances of the value of 
 electricity as a healer, we may fitly introduce the 
 anecdote told of an elderly woman who entered a rail 
 road carriage at one of the Ohio stations, and dis- 
 turbed the passengers a good deal with complaints 
 about a " most dreadful rheumatiz " that she was 
 troubled with. A gentleman present, who had himself 
 been a severe sufferer with the same complaint, said 
 to her : ' Did you ever try electricity, madam ? I tried 
 it, and in the course of a short time it cured me.'' 
 "Electricity !" exclaimed the old lady, "yes, I've tried 
 it to my satisfaction. I was struck by lightning about 
 a year ago, but it didn't do me a single mossel o' good." 
 
 ELECTRICITY AN " ANTI-FAT " KEMEDY. 
 
 We do not vouch for the accuracy of what we are 
 about to relate, which records a remarkable operation 
 performed by a Whitehall, New York State, physician. 
 A gentleman who had been suffering from a super-
 
 ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 217 
 
 abundance of adipose tissue consulted a medical 
 practitioner, asking for relief from his burden. The 
 latter took him to the telegraph office at that place. 
 The fat man was requested to remove his coat and 
 vest, after which the physician surrounded him with 
 wires, attaching the ends to a powerful galvanic bat- 
 tery. At a signal from the doctor, the manager let on 
 the current. The patient writhed and twisted when 
 he felt the current passing around him, but he stood 
 it like a martyr. Presently he began to shrink ; he 
 grew smaller and smaller and smaHer ; his clothing 
 hung in bags about his fast diminishing form. The 
 doctor felt much pleased at the result of his experi- 
 ment, while the formerly fat man's joy was very great, 
 although he seemed to be suffering the worst pain. 
 All of a sudden there was heard a loud clicking at the 
 instrument, as if Pandemonium's great hall had been 
 let loose. The operator sprang quickly to answer the 
 call. He ascertained it was from the New York office, 
 and quickly asked: "What's up?" An answer came 
 back as if some demon was at the other end of the 
 wire : " Cut off your wires quick you are filling the 
 New York office with soap grease 1"
 
 218 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 OUTGEOWTHS OF THE TELEGEAPH. 
 
 This is a subject remarkably fertile, because never 
 in the history of the world have there been the same 
 incentives to, and, we may add, the same success in 
 many-sided invention as now. How multifarious, for 
 example, are the applications of steam power! But 
 those of the electric telegraph are, perhaps, even 
 more numerous and certainly more interesting by 
 reason of their diversity and marvellousness. We 
 shall cite some of these, taking care to give due 
 prominence to the most important, but not pretending, 
 within the limits yet remaining to us, to include the 
 mention of every realized or projected employment of 
 electricity in the industrial arts. The subject of this 
 chapter has, moreover, been more or less anticipated 
 under appropriate headings in the foregoing pages. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 
 
 One of the best, if not the best, descriptions of the 
 electric light is that given by Mr. Edison in the 
 October number (1880) of the North American Review. 
 
 EDISON'S DESCRIPTION OF IT. 
 
 Mr. Edison begins the article with a few words to 
 those who have expressed their impatience at the 
 delays in the perfecting of the electric light. The 
 delays which have occurred to defer its general intro- 
 duction are chargeable, he says, not to any defects
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 219 
 
 since discovered in the original theory of the system 
 in its practical workings, but to the enormous mass of 
 details which have to be mastered before the system 
 can go into operation on a large scale, and on a com- 
 mercial basis as a rival of the existing system of 
 lighting by gas. Important improvements have been 
 brought about by these delays, in the direction of 
 economy and simplification at almost every point in 
 the system, as well as in the details of manufacturing 
 the apparatus. 
 
 The lamp, the inventor tells us, has been completely 
 transformed. To quote his own words : 
 
 "The perfected lamp consists of an oval bulb of 
 glass about five inches in height ; pointed at one end, 
 and with a short stem three quarters of an inch in 
 diameter at the other. Two wires of platinum enter 
 the bulb through this stem, supporting the loop or 
 U-shaped thread of carbon, which is about two inches 
 in height. The stem is hermetically sealed after the 
 introduction of the carbon loop. At its pointed end 
 the bulb terminates in an open tube through which 
 the air in the bulb is exhausted by means of a mercury 
 pump till not over one-millionth part remains. The 
 tube is then closed. The outer extremities of the two 
 platinum wires are connected with the wires of an 
 electric circuit, and at the base of a lamp is a screw 
 by which the circuit is made or broken at pleasure. 
 When the circuit is made the resistance offered to the 
 passage of the electric current by the carbon causes 
 the loop to acquire a high temperature and to become 
 incandescent ; but as this takes place in a vacuum, the 
 carbon is not consumed. The ' life ' of a carbon loop 
 through which a current is passed continuously varies 
 from seven hundred and fifty to nine hundred hours.
 
 220 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 With an intermitted current the loop has an equal 
 duration of life, and as the average time an artificial 
 light is used is five hours per day, it follows that one 
 lamp will last about six months. Each lamp costs 
 about fifty cents, and when one fails, another may be 
 easily substituted for it." 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Edison promises the speedy 
 introduction of his perfected lamp. Meanwhile it is 
 satisfactory to reflect that in many places the public 
 are already in the enjoyment of a light which is a 
 source of comfort, safety and beauty. The world does 
 not wait even for Mr. Edison. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AT NIAGARA FALLS. 
 
 Recent experiments at the Falls of Niagara, which 
 at this writing take place once or twice a week, give 
 emphasis to the possibilities of beauty afforded by the 
 electric light. Esthetic people will be delighted to 
 learn that in these experiments the fantastic displays 
 of color surpass the richest pigments of the painter. 
 From the terrace at Prospect Park on a dull night the 
 Falls appear, under the rays of a red electric light, 
 like an immense and swift-sliding avalanche of purple 
 lava. In a moment, by changing the stained glass in 
 front of the electric lamp, the Falls are made to gleam 
 like silver, and when alternate colors are employed, 
 the appearance of a splendid moving rainbow is 
 presented. The foam in the abyss at the foot of the 
 Falls when lit by the electric glow shines out like the 
 phosphoresence of the ocean during a tempestuous 
 night. One of the most rare and striking scenes it is
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 221 
 
 possible to witness is the sudden illumination of 
 Niagara by a flash of night lightning, and with the 
 electric light it will be possible to produce the effect 
 artificially. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS IN SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 As everybody knows, considerable portions of prob- 
 ably every great city in the leading countries of the 
 world are now lighted by electricity, either as the 
 result of private enterprise or municipal provision. 
 In this connection it is announced that San Francisco 
 claims to be ahead of European cities in the quality 
 of the lamp used in lighting some of her streets. The 
 light produced is said to be so brilliant that it cannot 
 be looked upon with the naked eye without dazzling 
 and injuring that delicate and most sensitive organ, 
 it being even less painful to gaze upon the sun. One 
 wonderful feature of this light is that any and every 
 color is easily seen; the colored threads in various 
 fabrics, the bright green of the grass, and the colors 
 of flowers were brought out as distinctly as in day- 
 light. By an ingenious device a light can be made 
 self supplying for the longest night. It is self feeding, 
 and can be burned as long as desired. Twelve jars 
 and a coil are required for each light, save where two 
 are in the immediate neighborhood of each other, as 
 on either side of a hill, when one set of jars and one 
 coil will answer for both. The plan and ingredients 
 are kept a profound secret, but the inventors claim 
 that they can light the city for one hundred thousand
 
 222 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGBAPH. 
 
 dollars a year, which is only one-third the present cost 
 of gaslight. 
 
 ELEOTKIO LIGHTING ON AN EXTENSIVE SCALE. 
 
 It is reported that a Boston electrical engineer is 
 about to try the experiment of lighting the large 
 manufacturing center of Holyoke, Massachusetts, with 
 the electric light in a manner that will strike the 
 present generation as novel, but which has been 
 essayed before. It is proposed to erect a tower 
 seventy five feet high overlooking the town. This is 
 to be surmounted by an immense lantern of such 
 illuminating capacity as to put all previous lamps in 
 the category of trifles. At present only one tower 
 will be erected, but if the principle should prove a 
 success, seven or eight will ultimately be built, with a 
 view to render the city as light as day, and completely 
 to supersede gas and kerosene. The idea of the 
 inventor of this daring scheme is to charge the upper 
 strata of the atmosphere with luminous vibrations in 
 the same manner as is done by the sun, and thus to 
 produce the same effect that is obtained during the 
 day from the reflected, refracted and diffused light of 
 that orb. In this manner it is believed that electric 
 light can be made to permeate spaces which are inac- 
 cessible to direct rays by the same law by which 
 daylight diffuses itself that is by virtue of an expan- 
 sive property which is constantly illustrated on the 
 large scale of solar illumination, but has no place in 
 our text-books on optics. The light given by the solar
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 223 
 
 orb a few minutes after sunset, when only the upper 
 strata of the atmosphere are directly affected by the 
 iolar beam, furnishes, perhaps, the best example of 
 .he diffusion and expansion that the engineer pro- 
 poses to imitate artificially. His plans provide for an 
 illuminating power from each lantern equal to three 
 hundred thousand candles, which is nearly twenty 
 times that of any electric lamp yet manufactured, but 
 is not at all impracticable, as it involves only an 
 increase in electrical volume and pressure and a corre- 
 sponding increase in the diameter of the carbons. 
 The cost of the tower, lamp and generator for a single 
 light is estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, irrespec- 
 tive of the engine power required to run the latter. 
 Magnificent and original as this conception seems, it 
 has been attempted before, in the infancy of electrical 
 engineering, by a Western experimentalist, who con- 
 cieved the idea of lighting the city of Cincinnati in a 
 similar manner, by placing enormous lights upon the 
 high ground overlooking the town. This idea was 
 not successful, but possibly the failure was due to the 
 crude electrical engineering of that day, and not to 
 any inherent difficulty. 
 
 VARIOUS USES FOR THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 
 
 In the usual rush of business during the fall of the 
 year, the electric light is found to be of great value in 
 evening and night work, particularly in dry-goods 
 establishments, where clear and intense light one 
 better, in short, than that produced from gas is 
 desirable in the matching and selection of colors.
 
 224 
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGBAPH 
 
 Some of the great ocean steamships are provided 
 with the electric light, both for lighting the cabins and 
 steerage and also as a means of preventing collisions. 
 The light makes them visible, it is stated, at the 
 distance of fourteen miles. This provision reminds 
 us that Professor Fleming Jenkin some years ago 
 discovered and patented a new method of lighting the 
 beacons and buoys on the sea coast by electricity, 
 giving a bright, permanent and unmistakable light to 
 guide the mariner, and preserve him from treacherous 
 rocks and shoals. The light is produced by a rapid 
 succession of sparks, due to successive charges and 
 discharges of a condenser situated upon the beacon or 
 buoy. This is charged directly with a voltaic battery, 
 without the intervention of an induction coil. The 
 communication is made by means of submarine wires 
 running from the shore to the beacon or buoy, and 
 can be operated thoroughly by persons on shore. 
 The invention is considered in all respects practicable, 
 and its adoption on the dangerous parts of our coasts 
 would undoubtedly be the means of rendering fewer 
 the dangers of the seas. 
 
 About a year ago a number of experiments were 
 made at Metz by a committee of officers in the German 
 army, appointed to investigate the practicability of 
 employing electric light during siege operations, and 
 to suggest any modifications which it might seem 
 expedient to introduce in the apparatus at present in 
 use. Forts Frederic Charles and Alvensleben were 
 illuminated by throwing the electric light upon them,
 
 OUTOKOWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 225 
 
 when it was found that at a distance of from two to 
 three kilometers not only buildings but also individual 
 men could be plainly made out. One night the 
 electric apparatus was arranged on the exercising 
 ground outside the Chambiere gate, and the light 
 directed upon a row of targets. Fire was then opened 
 against these latter by a squad of riflemen, and the 
 practice made was nearly as good as that recorded on 
 ordinary occasions when firing by day a result which 
 was considered exceedingly satisfactory, as a thick 
 mist prevailed at the time, and materially interfered 
 with the action of the light. Altogether, the com- 
 mittee concluded that the electric light may in future 
 be employed with advantage not only in siege opera- 
 tions but also during outpost duty and engagements 
 at night. 
 
 Here we must leave the electric light, and devote 
 some space to 
 
 THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 This instrument is constructed on the principle of 
 the human ear. It consists of an elastic diaphragm, 
 to receive vibrations of air from the human voice or 
 from other sources, so connected with the wires of a 
 battery (or even with wires without a battery) as to 
 communicate the same vibrations in every respect to 
 another membrane or diaphragm situated at a dis- 
 tance. The two diaphragms of a telephone in distant 
 places correspond, in every practical sense, to the 
 two membranes of the human ear, and the connecting
 
 226 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 wire to the chain of bones between the two membranes. 
 Probably no invention has come more rapidly into 
 popular favor. "It is employed as a means of com- 
 munication between counting room and factory, 
 merchant's residence and the office, publishing house 
 and printing office, and, in short, wherever oral com- 
 munication is desired between persons separated by 
 any distance beyond the ordinary reach of the human 
 voice." 
 
 THE GERMAN NAME FOR THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 In Germany they call the telephone " Farnsprecher," 
 signifying far speaker. The adoption of so short a 
 name, says the Scientific American, is a matter of con- 
 gratulation, because the Germans might easily have 
 found a way of smothering the telephone under some 
 frightfully polysyllabic title. To show how closely 
 the fortunate instrument has escaped this fate, a 
 correspondent in Heidelberg writes that no less than 
 fifty-four names were proposed in German, all of 
 varying degrees of atrocity. Some (we will not inflict 
 the reader with the original titles) signified " mile 
 tongue," " kilometer tongue," " speaking post," " word 
 lightning," " world trumpet," and finally one inventor, 
 collecting all his energies for a grand effort, trium- 
 phantly produced " doppelstahlblechzungensprecher." 
 The jaw can be replaced by pressing on the lower 
 molars with the fingers, and guiding the muscles with 
 the thumbs. 
 
 THE INVENTOR OF THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 Various accounts, as is usual, have been given of the 
 invention of the telephone. An article in a Decent
 
 OUTGKOWTHS OF THE TELEGBAPH. 227 
 
 number of the Pekin Gazette, written by one Chin Hoo, 
 says that Rung Foo Whing, a distinguished phi- 
 losopher who flourished about the year 976, invented 
 the telephone which is known in China as "Thumth- 
 sein" in the year 968. It is said that two hundred 
 and ten years ago a book was published in England, 
 in which the author affirmed that " it was not impos- 
 sible to hear a whisper at a furlong's distance, it having 
 been already done," and that he assured the reader that 
 he had, " by the help of a distended wire, propagated 
 sound to a veiy considerable distance." The Buffalo 
 Sentinel, dated September 10, 1853, contained the 
 following item : " An English paper, the Plymouth 
 Journal, announces the discovery of a means of trans- 
 mitting sounds to a great distance through the 
 medium of water. The instrument by which this is 
 done is called by its inventor a ' telephon ' or sound- 
 carrier." These various announcements manifestly 
 do not discredit the statement made by Mi'. W. F. 
 Barrett, that the inventor of the electric telephone was 
 Mr. John Cammack. This gentleman says that as 
 early as 1860 Mr. Cammack, while a student in the 
 Royal School of Medicine, Manchester, made and 
 jxhibited a telephone containing not only the inter- 
 mittent current introducd by Philip Reiss, of Hamburg, 
 in 1861, but the principle of continuous current of 
 varying strength used still more recently by Mr. 
 Edison and Professor Graham Bell. There is no 
 3vidence, however, that Mr. Cammack had carried out 
 'iis idea practically like Bell. But what becomes of 
 che claim for Mr. Cammack if it be true that old
 
 228 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 journals have been found containing an account of a 
 new musical instrument invented by M. Petrina, of 
 Prague, who is stated to have constructed " an 
 instrument with keys which by a galvanic current 
 sets a small iron plate into vibration as soon as the 
 hand leaves the key ? Each key produces a different 
 tone, and the tuning and vise are simila** to that of a 
 pianoforte. A second instrument put at a considerable 
 distance is connected with the other in such a way 
 that the music played on the one resounds from the 
 other." This appears to have been a musical tele- 
 phone put in practical form long before any now 
 known. 
 
 A TELEPHONE SERVICE METER. 
 
 At the telephone convention recently held at 
 Niagara Falls, a telephone service meter was exhibited, 
 the invention of Mr. H. L. Bailey, of New York, 
 whereby the time that each subscriber uses the tele- 
 phone, as well as the number of times it is in use, can 
 be registered by clockwork. If this device realizes 
 the expectations of its inventor, it is probable that 
 instead of the one at present in use, a toll system will 
 be generally adopted, each subscriber paying a 
 nominal amount as rent for the telephone, and so 
 much for every time he uses the instrument, which 
 would doubtless prove more satisfactory both to the 
 company and to the public. 
 
 SERMONS BY TELEPHONE. 
 
 When the telephone was first introduced it was 
 laughingly said that people need not go to church*
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 229 
 
 but could sit in their own houses and have the sermon 
 and the services waited to them telephonically. This 
 was done for the first time, we believe, at Lowell, 
 Massachusetts. Twelve persons visited the central 
 telephone office one Sunday morning, on the invitation 
 of Manager Glidden. Tne office was counected by 
 telephone with the Freewill Baptist Church, an 
 instrument being arranged out of sight behind the 
 pulpit. The organ voluntary rang out clear and 
 sweet upon the ears of the telephone listeners, and the 
 reading and praying even when spoken in a whisper 
 were distinguished word for word. Then came the 
 voice of the minister "We will sing the 428th hymn, 
 omitting the third verse," and after a brief interlude 
 by the organist, the voices of the congregation were 
 heard in pleasing melody. After reading a number of 
 notices the text was announced as a portion of Mat- 
 thew 16: 3 : "But can ye not discern the signs of the 
 times?" It was a discourse written evidently for the 
 occasion, and went to establish the truth of the 
 assertion that " science ever has been and must be the 
 safeguard of religion." What science had already 
 Accomplished for the world and what religion owed to 
 it *yere dwelt upon with much force. Before con- 
 cluding, the minister spoke of some of the wonderful 
 inventions of the day, and made special reference to 
 the phonograph and telephone. During the discourse 
 there was the least possible difficulty in distinguishing 
 the remarks of the preacher when his earnestness in 
 his subject impelled him to emphatic sentences. The
 
 230 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 moderate tones were all plainly heard, as were also the 
 concluding organ selection as the congregation passed 
 out, and the muffled monotonous tones of the retiring 
 worshippers. 
 
 The second experiment of transmitting a sermon by 
 our most noted preacher, created a greater stir. 
 Listeners were not slow to appreciate the novel 
 advantage of listening to a sermon preached by 
 Henry Ward Beecher, without the necessity of crowd- 
 ing into his church. 
 
 Owing, says a reporter on the New York Press, to 
 the necessity for concealing the transmitters from 
 the congregation, as well as to the drawback of hav- 
 ing but one wire, the sound was not at all times 
 distinct, but was interrupted by inquiries from vari- 
 ous points on the circuit. Whenever the preacher 
 thumped his Bible there was a whiz and whirr that 
 was anything but solemn. The music of the choir 
 of the congregation and the soloist were heard 
 plainly all over the circuit. The sermons were 
 rather disconnected, from the fact that the listeners 
 at the instruments were constantly changing, and 
 occasionally the wires would get crossed or the plugs 
 pulled out, so that the discourse would get mixed 
 with messages. The morning sermon ran something 
 like this: 
 
 "What can be more pitiful (Hallo! hallo!) than 
 the spectacle recently presented at West Point? 
 (Hallo! Chin referring to Mr. Chinnock, the elec- 
 trician don't cut me off.) How is the young man
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 231 
 
 treated? (There, you've cut me off again.) He was 
 ostracised by his comrades. (Hallo! Beach! Hallo!) 
 Insults were showered upon him. (Put that plug in 
 a little tighter.) He works his way onward. But 
 the detestable prejudice of those who should have 
 been his comrades and associates (Stop calling and 
 listen, will you 1 ?) single him out (Brown, be quiet) 
 for persecution, and the brutal (whrr-r-r-r-r! caused 
 by the preacher pounding the table), cowardly out- 
 rage (here a sound like the clashing of cymbals), with 
 accounts of which the newspapers have been teeming 
 for a week, is committed upon him." 
 
 As soon as all the listeners got quiet, however, the 
 sermon was heard with distinctness, and when the 
 number of listeners on the circuit was decreased, the 
 sound became much more distinct than when the 
 circuit was open for all. Mr. Chinnock said that with , 
 a separate transmitter and a separate wire there 
 would be no trouble whatever in hearing the whole 
 of any service without interruption. The peculiar 
 tone and accent of the preacher were easily recog- 
 nizable, and the sermon might have been heard by 
 any one of the thirty-five hundred people in com- 
 munication with the telephone exchange. Mr. Chin- 
 nock says that it would be possible for a preacher 
 to stay at home and preach his sermon to a congre- 
 gation of ten thousand at their homes. 
 
 USES OF THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 The telephone promises to be of extensive use in
 
 232 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 very diverse ways. By means of it, music played in 
 France has been distinctly heard in England. 
 
 The telephone is being rapidly introduced into the 
 various military establishments, not only in the capi- 
 tal and its neighborhood, but also everywhere in 
 Germany. 
 
 The young Spanish king, now a happy father, being 
 separated from his bride by the I'igid court etiquette 
 and public affairs for several day;" each week, had his 
 private apartments connected with her palace by a 
 telephone, through which the royal lovers communi- 
 cated without interference or annoyance. 
 
 The telephone has lately been successfully used in 
 France to communicate between a vessel being towed 
 and one towing. The wire was carried along one of 
 the hawsers, and the circuit completed through the 
 copper on the bottoms of the ships and the water. 
 Conversation was carried on very distinctly. 
 
 Its aid has been secured in Jersey City in connec- 
 tion with the courts. A telegraph wire has been con- 
 structed from the Hudson County Court House to 
 the telegraph office in Montgomery Street, and a 
 telephone attached to each end, whereby lawyers can 
 communicate with each other rapidly or between their 
 offices and the court house. 
 
 HUMORS OF THE TELEPHONE. 
 
 A correspondent thinks that the telephone will 
 soon be utilized on freight trains, so that the con- 
 ductor can sit by the stove in the caboose and swear
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 233 
 
 at the brakeinan, instead of having to go out on the 
 top of the cars in the cold to do it. 
 
 Mr. Basingbal (city merchant) "Most convenient! 
 I can converse w*th Mrs. B. just as if I was in my 
 own drawing-room. I'll tell her you are here." 
 (Speaks through the telephone.) " Dawdles is here 
 just come from Paris looking so well desires to 
 be," etc., etc. " Now you take it, and you'll hear her 
 voice distinctly." Dawdles "Weally!" (Dawdles 
 takes it.) The voice " For goodness' sake, dear, 
 don't bring that insufferable noodle home to dinner!" 
 
 The following advertisement appeared in the New 
 York Herald " Personal " column at the time that the 
 telephone was first introduced in New York: 
 
 "A chance to be married by the Bell speaking telephone 
 will be given to a limited number of couples during the latter 
 part of this month. No charges will be made; satisfactory 
 references required. Applicants should address box 229, Herald 
 
 The ceremony did not, however, for some reason 
 or other, take place, although a marriage by tele 
 phone would seem to be fully as appropriate and 
 practicable, so to speak, as one by telegraph. 
 
 Magnet writes : " I had often read of the singing- 
 telephone; but I shall never forget the first time I 
 heard one. I was night operator at a small railroad 
 station. Along about four o'clock in the morning, 
 while I was lying on a table, I heard that which 
 seemed to me as some one humming the tune of
 
 234 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGBAPH. 
 
 " Hold the Fort." As no one was around the depot 
 at that unusual hour of the morning, I came to the 
 conclusion that it was not coming from human lips. 
 So I got up and went outside of the office and list- 
 ened. As I could hear nothing, I went back in the 
 office, and could still hear the singing, though it soon 
 ceased. After waiting a few moments it commenced 
 again. This time it was " Sweet Bye and Bye." 
 After searching inside and out of the office, I could 
 not tell where the sound came from, and, as I am not 
 the bravest man in the world, I will confess that I 
 began to think of sprites singing in the air. At that 
 instant the armature of the relay on a local wire 
 rattled tremendously, and made a very strange, loud 
 noise. I rushed over to it, and, to my horror, the 
 instrument was singing! Kind reader, imagine my 
 feeling at a lonesome station, at four o'clock in the 
 morning, and, to my knowledge, there had been four 
 men killed within a stone's throw of the office, and 
 the instrument singing hymns! It was more than I 
 could stand. I rushed out of the office, intending to 
 make a home run, when it flashed across my mind that 
 it was the singing telephone." 
 
 In Pine Bluff there is a prominent man. There are 
 many prominent men in Pine Bluff, but this one is so 
 very prominent in a certain direction that his name is 
 known along the crowded street and out in the fur- 
 rowed globe. It is almost unnecessary to call him 
 Colonel C. A man of striking intelligence and profound 
 reading, he has taken up a financial hobby. He knows
 
 OUTGROWTHS OP THE TELEGRAPH. 235 
 
 so well that the United States government should 
 adopt his theory that he would be willing to bet his 
 eternal existence on it He'll stop a man on the 
 street and hammer him with argument, belabor him 
 with deep-set expressions, and kick him with "im- 
 portant information " for hours. One day the Colonel 
 went into M. L. Jones' office, and had just begun to 
 draw himself up for a three-hours' speech, when Mr. 
 Jones remarked: 
 
 "By the way, colonel, have you ever seen the tele- 
 phone work?" 
 
 " No ; and I don't believe you can hear any better 
 through that thing than you can through a cow's 
 horn." 
 
 " I've got one here connected with Colonel Grace's 
 office, and if you'll just put your ear here I'll show 
 you. I'll do the talking you listen." 
 
 The parties took position, Colonel C. incredulously, 
 and Mr. Jones called: 
 
 " Colonel Grace, are you there ? " 
 
 " Yes ; is that you, Jones ? " 
 
 " Yes ; how do you feel ? " 
 
 " I'm about worn out. That man C. has been 
 around here this morning boring me to death with 
 his financial business. I guess I'll get rested though 
 after a while." 
 
 Colonel C. took his ear away and remarked: 
 
 " If he'd only listened to me he would have been 
 smarter in ten minutes more than he ever was before 
 in his life."
 
 236 OUTGROWTHS OP THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong, superintendent of the Suburban Tele- 
 graph Company of Cincinnati, was on a visit to Chicago 
 at the time that the musical telephone first began to 
 attract attention. On his return he reported that he 
 had made arrangements to test the telephone between 
 the two cities. The music of a brass band at Chicago 
 was to be transmitted over the wires and distinctly 
 heard in Cincinnati. Out of courtesy to the newspaper 
 fraternity, it was announced that none but members 
 of that profession would be admitted to the first trial. 
 When the time came thirty newspaper men were present, 
 pencils and all. It took Mr. Armstrong some time to 
 adjust things properly, but finally sweet sounds were 
 heard. Musical critics, reporters and editors placed 
 their ears close and could not conceal their joy. "I 
 hear the telephone whir, " said one ; another threw his 
 hat in the air with delight, while the remainder fell upon 
 each other's necks to weep. Presently one of the party 
 said he could distinguish the French horn from the 
 bass drum, another thought the man playing the trom- 
 bone was blowing too hard to make artistic music, an- 
 other could count just sixteen pieces in the band while 
 still another counted seventeen. Everybody listened 
 and drank in the delicious strains. Finally the music 
 abruptly stopped. As they all wanted to examine the 
 telephone to its bitter end, Mr. Armstrong lifted the 
 top of the relay box and disclosed a little Swiss music 
 box, which on being wound up struck up : "A Life on 
 the Ocean Wave, A Home on the Rolling Deep." The 
 faces of the astute newspaper men very visibly length-
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 237 
 
 ened as they contemplated what a complete sell had 
 been perpetrated upon them. It is presumed that Mr. 
 Armstrong properly appreciated the fun. He had just 
 graduated in the same school at the hands of Mr. 
 Summers at Chicago a few days before. Some of the 
 reporters felt quite blue over the sell, as a number of 
 them had been studying scientific works on the trans- 
 mission of sound for weeks, and had several columns 
 of introduction in advance, which was already in type. 
 
 THE PHOTOPHONE. 
 
 One of the latest marvels in applied science is the 
 discovery by Professor A. Graham Bell and Sumner 
 Taintor of Watertown that " sounds can be produced by 
 the action of a variable light from substances of all kinds, 
 when in the form of thin diaphragms." In other words, 
 a ray of light is substituted for the connecting wire, 
 and sounds at one station are reproduced at another. 
 As is well known the action of the telephone is due to 
 variations in an electric current, caused by a diaphragm 
 set in vibration by the voice, the current thus modified 
 reproducing its variations on a sensitive diaphragm at 
 the other end of the circuit. In the "photophone," 
 as the new invention is called, the changes in the elec- 
 tric current are made during its passage through selen- 
 ium, a substance heretofore known only as a chemical 
 curiosity, but with the strange property of conducting 
 electricity more easily when exposed to light than when 
 in the dark. A steady light allows a current to pass 
 through an even resistance ; a varied light varies the
 
 238 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGKAPH. 
 
 resistance, so that the current is stronger or weaker 
 after passing through the selenium, and its variation are 
 easily turned, in a telephone, into vibrations of sound. 
 Professor Bell and Mr. Taintor have already spoken 
 between points about 600 feet apart, and they believe 
 that the result can be obtained as far as a beam of 
 light can be flashed. The simplest apparatus of many 
 devised consists of a plane mirror of flexible material, 
 as silver microscope glass or mica, which will quiver 
 with vibrations of sound. On this is gathered through 
 a lens a beam of light from any source, success having 
 been found with a kerosene or candle flame. The par- 
 allee beam reflected from the plane mirror is thrown 
 to a distant concave mirror and focussed on a 
 piece of selenium, electrically connected with a tele- 
 phone. The voice throws the plane mirror into vibra- 
 tions which modify in intensity the ray of light, which 
 rapidly changes the resistance of the distant selenium, 
 this varying the electric current in the telephone as 
 the voice now does directly. Another means of affec- 
 ting the beam of light is by a disk, preforated with 
 slits, which is rapidly turned, producing in the selenium 
 a continuous musical tone, whose pitch varies with the 
 rapidity of the disk's rotation, a silent motion thus 
 producing- a sound. A strange thing is that some sub- 
 stances placed in the beam of light do not cut off the 
 sound. A sheet of hard rubber, for instance, made the 
 beam invisible, but the musical note was still heard. 
 Other experiments suggest the possibility of doing 
 entirely without the electric current in the telephone
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 269 
 
 at the receiving station. Many other substances 
 were substituted for selenium, the affected ray of 
 light focussed upon them, and the musical note was 
 heard without the aid of a telephone or battery. Only 
 carbon and thin glass failed to give a sound. 
 
 HATCHING BY ELECTRICITY. 
 
 Silk-worms hatched by electricity are now being 
 reared in Italy. The same method is also applied to 
 hens' eggs, and to hastening the germination of seeds. 
 
 THEATRICAL THUNDER. 
 
 Ail enterprising citizen of Chicago has invented a 
 process by which real genuine thunder and lightning 
 can be produced by means of an electric battery. 
 The new theory in theatrical thunder is soon to be 
 tried, and the effect produced is said to be startling. 
 
 TOOTHACHE CURED BY ELECTRICITY. 
 
 Dr. Bouchard, of Paris, says that the toothache 
 may be almost instantly arrested by a constant bat- 
 tery current from ten cells. The positive pole is 
 placed against the jaw, on a level with the painful 
 tooth, and the negative pole to the antero-lateral 
 region, on the same side of the neck. 
 
 A SUGGESTION. 
 
 There are contrivances for turning gas on and off 
 by electricity, lighting any number of burners at the 
 same instant of time. By connecting this with the
 
 240 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGBAPH. 
 
 burglar-alarm telegraph, the opening of a door or 
 window would set the bells ringing and light all the 
 burners in the house at the same instant. 
 
 ELECTRICITY AS A WATEB-SHED. 
 
 A Frenchman has discovered that electricity applied 
 to a certain small apparatus repels rain. He places the 
 electrical apparatus in his cane, which he holds above 
 his head, when the rain pours off in all directions. 
 The people of the town in which he lives gaze upon 
 him, it is said, with a sort of awe, as he walks in the 
 midst of rain without being wet. 
 
 TAMING HORSES BY ELECTRICITY 
 
 An English journal says: "Mr. George Laycock, 
 farmer, of Whittington, near Sheffield, was convicted 
 in the penalty of forty shillings and costs, by the 
 Sheffield stipendary magistrate, for cruelty to a mare, 
 which he was taming by electricity at a public sport- 
 ing ground. Horse-taming by electricity in Yorkshire 
 has, it is said, been freely practiced of late, and the 
 prosecution therefore excited considerable interest." 
 
 ELECTRICITY AND RELIGION. 
 
 At ths Moody and Sankey meetings in New York, 
 the several halls of the Hippodrome were connected 
 by telegraph, and when the director, sitting on the 
 platform immediately behind Mr. Moody, wished the 
 gas turned on, the doors or ventilators opened or 
 closed, or the like, he did it by that agency. Small
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 241 
 
 electric bells were also arranged around the building, 
 on which orders to the door-keepers, ushers, etc., 
 were given. Everything worked like clock-work. 
 
 ELECTRICAL AIR AS A TRANSMITTER. 
 
 It has long been known that telegraphic messages 
 could be transmitted without the use of wires, and 
 many years since signals were sent across the Bristol 
 Channel by the use of the water as the conducting 
 medium; but in that case the water through which 
 the signals passed was inclosed in a tube, so that it 
 was, in truth, only the substitution of a wire of water, 
 if the term can be used, for the metallic wire usually 
 employed. Professor Loomis now proposes to go 
 further; he claims to have discovered a mode of 
 transmitting messages by electrical air currents, and 
 is seeking an opportunity for making experiments on 
 the summit of Mont Blanc. 
 
 MAPS BY TELEGRAPH. 
 
 A member of the Parisian Academy of Science has 
 devised a method whereby exact maps and diagrams 
 may be transmitted by telegraph. A numerally- 
 graduated semi-circular plate of glass is laid by the 
 telegrapher over the map to-be transmitted, and a 
 pencil of mica, attached to a pivoted strip of metal, 
 also divided into numbers, allowed to move over the 
 plate. Looking through a fixed eye-piece, the opera- 
 tor traces out his map on the glass with the adjustable 
 mica pencil, and, noticing the numbers succes-
 
 242 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 sively touched on the plate and on the moving metal 
 arm, telegraphs them to his correspondent, who, by 
 means of an exactly similar apparatus, is thereby 
 enabled to trace out an exactly similar map. 
 
 MAGNETIC MAGIC WRITING. 
 
 In Bristol, Professor Thompson recently made an 
 interesting experiment, which can be used as a secret 
 or magic writer, and reminds us of the magic inks 
 which appear by heat and disappear again by cooling. 
 He took a very thin sheet of hardened steel, and 
 made invisible letters on it by means of the point of 
 an iron bar strongly magnetized by means of a sur- 
 rounding coil and battery; he found that all the 
 places touched had become permanently magnetic to 
 such a degree that when fine iron-filings were placed 
 upon it, and then the plate turned over to make them 
 fall off again, the iron-filings remained on the spot 
 touched with the magnet, and thus made the writing 
 visible. The writing may be rubbed out by brushing 
 the filings away, but reappears any time afterward 
 when the filings are again applied. 
 
 ELECTRIC DRIVING POWER. 
 
 The New York correspondent of the Boston Journal 
 describes a new invention for displacing steam by 
 electricity, and says that lathes, planing machines, 
 and other mechanical arrangements are driven by this 
 power. To run an engine of twenty-horse power by 
 this invention would require only a space of three
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 243 
 
 feet long two feet wide and two feet high. The cost 
 per day would be thirty-five cents. On a steamship 
 no coal would be required, and the space now used 
 for coal and machinery could be used for cargo. The 
 stubborn resistance of electricity to mechanical use 
 heretofore has, it is believed, been overcome. A con- 
 tinuous battery has been secured, and other difficul- 
 ties removed, principally through the coil of the 
 magnet. If the invention works as well on a large 
 scale as it does on the machinery to which it is now 
 applied, steamships will soon ply the ocean under 
 the new propelling power. The whole thing, mighty 
 enough to carry a Cunarder to Liverpool, can, he 
 adds, be secured in a small trunk. 
 
 ELECTRICITY IN MANAGING REFRACTORY HORSES. 
 
 The French papers tell of a wonderful invention 
 which will enable the feeblest among us to " witch 
 the world with noble coachmanship." The horse of 
 the future is not to be driven by ordinary reins, but 
 by electricity combined with them. The coachman is 
 to have under his seat an electro-magnetic apparatus, 
 which he works by means of a little handle. One 
 wire is carried through the rein to the bit, and 
 another to the crupper, so that a current once set up 
 goes the entire length of the animal along the spine. 
 A sudden shock will, we are gravely assured, stop the 
 most violent runaway or the most obstinate jibber. 
 The creature, however strong and however vicious, is 
 " at once transformed into a sort of inoffensive horse
 
 244 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 of wood, with the feet firmly nailed to the ground." 
 Curiously enough, the very opposite result may be 
 produced by a succession of small shocks. Under 
 the influence of these the veriest screw can be sud- 
 denly endowed with a vigor and fire indescribable, 
 and even the Eosinante of Don Quixote would gal- 
 lop like a racer. What is the effect upon the condi- 
 tion of the horse is not stated, but the Siecle finds 
 itself able to congratulate M. Fancher upon "an 
 invention equally original and salutary," and one 
 which places in the hands even of an infant a power 
 over the horse which is as sovereign as it is invisible- 
 
 ENGRAVING BY ELECTRICITY. 
 
 A novel apparatus for engraving by electricity was 
 exhibited in the machinery department of the French 
 exhibition. A metal plate, with some object drawn 
 upon it with a special ink, is slowly rotated with its 
 face vertical; and several other similar plates, but of 
 decreasing smallness and with correspondingly dimin- 
 ished speed, are also slowly rotated by appropriate 
 mechanism. On these plates it is intended the object 
 delineated on the first plate shall be engraved on 
 different scales of magnitude; and this is accom- 
 plished by applying a diamond cutting-point to the 
 face of each plate, which is pressed against it through 
 the agency of an electrical current whenever a blunt 
 point presented to the first plate encounters the ink, 
 but is withdrawn at other times. The point presented 
 to the first plate is a " feeler," which determines by
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 245 
 
 electrical agency whether there is ink beneath it or 
 not. If there is, the diamond points opposite to 
 all the other plates are pressed in, and if there is not, 
 they are withdrawn and prevented from cutting. 
 The " feeler " and the diamond burins must all follow 
 a spiral track. 
 
 DIAGRAMS OF TARGETS OVER THE WIRE. 
 
 This feat, which at first sight seems an almost 
 incredible one, looks more simple when it is sug- 
 gested that there be prepared in the editorial sanc- 
 tum, beforehand, two similar sheets, each the size of 
 the targets to be used and ruled very closely in two 
 directions, so that the lines intersect. Then number 
 every line on the margin. The reporter uses one 
 sheet, and by saturating it with oil it will, if thin, 
 become sufficiently transparent to enable him to trace 
 with lead pencil the marks on the targets. What 
 easier then than to send by telegraph the intersec 
 tions, which may be made frequent enough to locate 
 so closely as to answer all practical purposes ? 
 
 ELECTRIC COMBS AND BRUSHES. 
 
 In an old number of the Scientific American we find 
 the following, which is interesting inasmuch as the 
 suggestion it makes has been acted upon in the pro- 
 duction of a hair-brush now freely advertised. 
 
 "The manufacture and sale of hair restoratives has 
 always been a favorite with a certain class of public 
 benefactors, whose disinterested labors have resulted
 
 246 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 in the foundation of many a fortune. "We lately came 
 across the specifications of an old English patent 
 which will, perhaps, be interesting at a time like the 
 present, when alcohol and bear's grease command such 
 fabulous prices. 
 
 " This patent was for ' an apparatus for improving 
 and restoring the human hair,' introducing a new 
 feature in this line. By the plan of this inventor 
 combs and brushes are to be constructed of different 
 metals, so that when in use electric currents are given 
 off; ' thereby the skin is caused to be stimulated, and 
 a healthy action ensues, restoring the hair to its ori- 
 ginal color, and generally improving its appearance.' 
 The same effect may be produced by having the 
 articles formed partly of metal having batteries con- 
 nected therewith when in use. As the patent claim 
 long since expired, the above method is open to any 
 enterprising individual wishing to experiment." 
 
 NEW USES FOR THE SUN'S RAYS. 
 
 The thermo-electric battery is exciting the imagina- 
 tions of men of science, causing them to call up 
 wonderful visions of a future when much of the work 
 of the world shall be done by sunshine. Like wind- 
 mills, thermo-electric batteries might be erected all 
 over the country, finally converting into mechanical 
 force, and thus into money, gleams of sunshine, 
 which would be to them as wind to the sails of a 
 mill. What stores of fabulous wealth are, as far as 
 our earth is concerned, constantly wasted by the non
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 247 
 
 retention of the solar rays poured out upon the 
 Desert of Sahara! Nature here refuses to use her 
 wonderful radiation net, for we cannot cover the 
 desert sands with trees, and man is left alone to try 
 his skill in retaining solar energy. Hitherto helpless, 
 we need not be so much longer, and the force of a 
 Sahara sun may be carried through wires to Cairo> 
 and thence irrigate the desert; or possibly, if need 
 be, it could pulsate under our streets and be made to 
 burn in Greenland. 
 
 THE OCEAN A SOURCE OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 An important experiment was made by M. Duche- 
 min, of Paris, during a holiday at the seaside. He 
 made a small cork buoy, and fixed to it a disc of char- 
 coal containing a small plate of zinc. He then threw 
 the buoy into the sea, and connected it with copper 
 wires to an electric alarum on the shore. The alarum 
 instantly began to ring, and went on ringing, and it 
 is added that sparks may be drawn between the two 
 ends of the wires. Thus the ocean seems to be a 
 powerful and inexhaustible source of electricity, and 
 the small experiment of M. Duchemin may lead to 
 most important results. 
 
 ELECTRICITY AS AN EXECUTIONER. 
 
 It has been proposed to substitute a method less 
 clumsy than those now obtaining for the execution of 
 criminals, and the adoption of electricity for this 
 purpose has enthusiastic advocates in Germany, as
 
 248 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 well as in France, as witness the following imposing 
 description of a method proposed by a German 
 writer: "In a dark room, draped with black, and 
 which is lighted only by a single torch the chamber 
 of execution there shall stand an iron image of Jus- 
 tice with her scales and sword. Stern Justice is 
 popularly supposed to have no bowels, but the Ger- 
 man goddess will carry a powerful battery in her 
 inside; and this battery will be connected with an 
 arm-chair the seat of death. In front of the chair 
 will stand the judge's tribunal, and only the judge, 
 jury, and other officers will be present with the cri- 
 minal during the ceremony of the execution. This 
 will consist in the judge reading the story of the 
 crime committed by the prisoner, who will be rigidly 
 manacled to the aforesaid arm-chair, and when this is 
 done, the judge will break his rod of office, and toss 
 it into one of the scale-pans of justice, at the same 
 time extinguishing the solitary torch. The descent of 
 the pan will complete the electric circuit, and shock 
 the wretch into the next world." 
 
 It is also suggested to utilize the electric fluid in 
 killing animals. A battery and coil would be far 
 more effective and far less cruel tools than the pole- 
 axe or the sticking-knife We suppose the angler 
 would consider his occupation gone if he had to 
 fish with an electric line and a torpor-producing bait > 
 yet the whaler has a notion that he can catch his 
 monsters upon an analogous plan. A London firm 
 have obtained a patent for a method, startling to
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 249 
 
 " old salts " in its originality, for catching whales by 
 means of electricity. By their plan every whaleboat 
 is provided with a galvanic battery. Wires from 
 opposite poles run down to the points of each set of 
 harpoons. When the whale is near, two harpoons are 
 thrown as nearly simultaneously as possible, which when 
 embedded in the flesh of the monster, complete the 
 circuit. The charge is expected to be sufficiently 
 powerful to paralyze the animal, so that the small boat 
 may advance and dispatch him at leisure. 
 
 ELECTEIC CLOCKS. 
 
 A citizen of Burlington, Vermont, has invented a 
 clock that runs by electricity, and never requires 
 winding. It has only three wheels, no weights or 
 springs, and it is claimed that it has little friction, is 
 not affected by heat, cold, dampness or jarring. A 
 single clock and battery can be connected with any 
 number of dials and indicators in the same building, 
 or even along the whole line of a railway. 
 
 A magnetic clock, invented by Daniel Drawbaugh, 
 of Milltown, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, is 
 sufficiently remarkable to be wo: : description. The 
 magnetism of the earth, an inexhaustible source of 
 power, is made to oscillate the pendulum, and the 
 simplicity of all the works gives an assurance of the 
 least possible friction. At a certain point the move- 
 ments of the pendulum itself shut off magnetic con- 
 nection with the earth, and at another point restore 
 the connection, thus securing conditions necessary to
 
 250 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 produce its oscillations. The works are so ingenious 
 and simple that it is no wild assertion to make that, 
 were it not for the unavoidable wearing out caused by 
 even the small amount of friction, the clock would 
 run as long as the solid earth endures. This clock 
 was hung against the board partition, with all its 
 works exposed, subject to the jarrings of machinery 
 and obstructions from dust settling on it, for years, 
 yet it ran continuously and uniformly, with only slight 
 reported variations, as tested by transit observations 
 at noon. 
 
 STEAM AND ELECTRICITY 
 
 Mr. W. H. Bailey, an English inventor, has pro 
 posed a new system of sea telegraphy, by means of 
 which vessels can communicate in foggy weather, or 
 when a considerable distance apart. It consists 
 simply in the adaptation of the Morse code of signals 
 to a steam whistle. The message is read by ear, the 
 whistle, worked by a hand lever, giving forth long 
 and short sounds corresponding to the long and short 
 lines of the Morse system. According to experiments 
 made by the inventor, it is believed that a twelve inch 
 whistle can be heard at a distance of six miles, and 
 that two vessels passing within hearing could converse 
 at the rate of twelve hundred words an hour. The 
 advantages of such a system in foggy weather are 
 evident. 
 
 It would startle many people, who happened to see 
 a locomotive blowing off steam at a railway station, if
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGRAPH. 251 
 
 they were told that there i electricity enough gener- 
 ated in the discharge of steam to blow the whole 
 train to atoms, if, instead of being dissipated, it were 
 collected. The fact was first accidentally noticed by 
 an English engineer, who perceived sparks, which 
 proved to be electrical, among the escaping steam. 
 The discovery was confirmed by the construction of a 
 hydro-electrical machine in the shape of a boiler set 
 on glass legs. The steam, as it rushes out of the 
 escape valve, is received on a series of metallic points 
 by which it is gathered and accumulated in the con- 
 ductor, as in an ordinary electrical machine, in which 
 the electricity is generated by the friction of a glass- 
 plate or cylinder. Will engineers ever come to appre- 
 ciate the fact that every locomotive, or tug, or steamer 
 carries the means of lighting itself far better and more 
 cheaply than by any lamp f 
 
 THE EDISON ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE. 
 
 The Edison electric locomotive is about the size of 
 an ordinary hand-car which railroad laborers propel 
 along the track, and consists simply of one of Edi- 
 son's generators on wheels. When this apparatus is 
 intended to generate electricity, the armature is 
 turned with great rapidity by two powerful .mag- 
 nets, and takes from them a quantity of magnetism 
 or electricity, which is used for any purpose for which 
 it may be needed. A steam engine of at least five- 
 horse power is needed -to turn the armature of one of 
 these efenerators. In the locomotive the generator
 
 252 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGEAPH. 
 
 receives instead of generating electricity, and the 
 armature turns with great rapidity as the current 
 passes through it. It is like winding up silk on one 
 bobbin and unwinding it on another. In running 
 the locomotive, therefore, two generators are used, 
 one stationary in the engine-house, worked by steam 
 and generating the current, and the other on the 
 locomotive receiving motion from the current. The 
 armature on the locomotive is geared to the driving- 
 wheels, so that it makes four revolutions to one of 
 the diiving-wheels. It is as if the stationary engine 
 wound up a spring in one generator to be let loose 
 and impart motion to another. Electric motors are 
 plenty as blackberries, and toy locomotives going by 
 electricity have been made to run around a table. 
 Dr. Siemen, of Berlin, and Edison are the first to con- 
 struct locomotives of any size. The problem has 
 always been to get the electricity to the engine with- 
 out having to carry along the whole generating appa- 
 ratus on the train. The new plan is to make the 
 track carry the current. It makes no difference 
 whether the locomotive is standing still or going at 
 the rate of fifty miles an hour, so far as receiving the 
 current through the rails is concerned. The current 
 reaches the locomotive wherever it may be found on 
 the track, and entering by the wheels reaches the arma- 
 ture and sets it revolving. 
 
 ELECTRICITY AIDING WEARY CASH GIRLS. 
 
 An enterprising dry goods firm in this city have 
 recently tried the experiment of running their cash
 
 OUTGROWTHS OF THE TELEGKAPH. 253 
 
 system by electricity, and with excellent results. Pre- 
 vious to the introduction of electricity, on Saturdays, 
 particularly in the afternoon, the din and confusion, 
 and the incessant call of " cash ! " " cash ! " " cash ! " 
 by the saleswomen and salesmen were absolutely deaf- 
 ening. So the two Ehrich brothers put their heads 
 together to invent something that would call the cash 
 girls without so much noise. "I suggested bells," 
 says Mr. Ehrich, in telling the story, but Louis said : 
 "'No, that would be as bad as the cash calls.' One 
 day he came to me and said, excitedly: '"William, I've 
 found it. Electricity is the thing.' I declare I thought 
 Louis had gone crazy. ' Found what T said I. ' What 
 is electricity the thing for ? ' 'Our cash girls,' he re- 
 plied. 'In the name of conscience, Louis,' said I, 
 'what are you going to put electricity on our cash 
 girls for? I don't see that anything is the matter 
 with them.' Then Louis began to laugh. He explained 
 that he meant to apply electricity to call them, instead 
 of the cash call used in all the stores in the city from 
 A. T. Stewart's to ours. Come and see his invention." 
 And he led the way to the register in the center of 
 the store under the main staircase, where there are 
 thirty or more little circular silver-plated drops, label 
 led "hosiery," "buttons," "millinery," and so on, with 
 numbers also to correspond with the sections. Every 
 now and then, as if by magic, down dropped one of 
 the little silver plates. A young man standing by the 
 side of the register instantly spoke,* "hosiery," or 
 " trimmings," 1, 2 or 3, as the case might be, and as
 
 254 OUTGROWTHS OP THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 soon as he thus announced the department and num- 
 ber, off started the head girl in the line of cash girls 
 seated on the other side of the register. In the mean 
 time others came up as fast as the first departed and 
 took their seats in the line. There was no confusion, 
 no hurry, not a call throughout the large and busy 
 establishment although dollars and parcels by the hund- 
 red were passing over the counters. Near each of 
 the counters are little cord-like straps running back 
 of the saleswomen, that they pull whenever a purchase 
 is made and a sale completed, and which are connected 
 with electrical wires running under the floors and 
 joined to the drops at the register. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We must now bid our reader farewell, trusting 
 that he will have enjoyed the variety of entertain- 
 ment and appreciated the instructive matter pre- 
 sented in the foregoing pages. We also trust that 
 he will find them useful for future reference and 
 companionable in solitary hours to come. Of his 
 charity, we ask him to take them as they are and as 
 they profess to be. Then, we modestly assure our- 
 selves, he cannot be disappointed, and humbly believe 
 that he will be abundantly satisfied.
 
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