[Illustration: SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE
Inventor of the Telegraph]
MASTERS OF SPACE
MORSE
_and the Telegraph_
THOMPSON
_and the Cable_
BELL
_and the Telephone_
MARCONI
_and the Wireless Telegraph_
CARTY
_and the Wireless Telephone_
BY WALTER KELLOGG TOWERS
ILLUSTRATED
1917
TO
MY CO-LABORER AND COMPANION
BERENICE LAURA TOWERS
WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT AND ASSISTANCE
WERE CONSTANT IN THE GATHERING
AND PREPARATION OF MATERIAL
FOR THIS VOLUME.
CONTENTS
CHAP.
PREFACE
I. COMMUNICATION AMONG THE ANCIENTS
II. SIGNALS PAST AND PRESENT
III. FORERUNNERS OF THE TELEGRAPH
IV. INVENTIONS OF SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE
V. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MORSE
VI. "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?"
VII. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM
VIII. TELEGRAPHING BENEATH THE SEA
IX. THE PIONEER ATLANTIC CABLE
X. A SUCCESSFUL CABLE ATTAINED
XI. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, THE YOUTH
XII. THE BIRTH OF THE TELEPHONE
XIII. THE TELEPHONE AT THE CENTENNIAL
XIV. IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION
XV. TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES
XVI. AN ITALIAN BOY'S WORK
XVII. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ESTABLISHED
XVIII. THE WIRELESS SERVES THE WORLD
XIX. SPEAKING ACROSS THE CONTINENT
XX. TELEPHONING THROUGH SPACE
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE
MORSE'S FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT
CYRUS W. FIELD
WILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN)
THE "GREAT EASTERN" LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE, 1866
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
THOMAS A. WATSON
PROFESSOR BELL'S VIBRATING REED
PROFESSOR BELL'S FIRST TELEPHONE
THE FIRST TELEPHONE SWITCHBOARD USED IN NEW HAVEN, CONN., FOR EIGHT
SUBSCRIBERS
EARLY NEW YORK EXCHANGE
PROFESSOR BELL IN SALEM, MASS., AND MR. WATSON IN BOSTON,
DEMONSTRATING THE TELEPHONE BEFORE AUDIENCES IN 1877
DOCTOR BELL AT THE TELEPHONE OPENING THE NEW YORK-CHICAGO LINE,
OCTOBER 18, 1892
GUGLIELMO MARCONI
A REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN OUTSIDE OF THE CLIFDEN STATION WHILE
MESSAGES WERE BEING SENT ACROSS TO CAPE RACE
MARCONI STATION AT CLIFDEN, IRELAND
PREFACE
This is the story of talking at a distance, of sending messages
through space. It is the story of great men--Morse, Thomson, Bell,
Marconi, and others--and how, with the aid of men like Field, Vail,
Catty, Pupin, the scientist, and others in both the technical and
commercial fields, they succeeded in flashing both messages and speech
around the world, with wires and without wires. It is the story of
how the thought of the world has been linked together by those modern
wonders of science and of industry--the telegraph, the submarine
cable, the telephone, the wireless telegraph, and, most recently, the
wireless telephone.
The story opens with the primitive methods of message-sending by fire
or smoke or other signals. The life and experiments of Morse are then
pictured and the dramatic story of the invention and development of
the telegraph is set forth. The submarine cable followed with the
struggles of Field, the business executive, and Thomson, the inventor
and scientific expert, which finally culminated in success when the
_Great Eastern_ landed a practical cable on the American coast. The
early life of Alexander Graham Bell was full of color, and I have told
the story of his patient investigations of human speech and hearing,
which, finally culminated in a practical telephone. There follows the
fascinating story of Marconi and the wireless telegraph. Last comes
the story of the wireless telephone, that newest wonder which has come
among us so recently that we can scarcely realize that it is here. An
inner view of the marvelous development of the telephone is added in
an appendix.
The part played by the great business leaders who have developed and
extended the new inventions, placing them at the service of all,
has not been forgotten. Not only have means of communication been
discovered, but they have been improved and put to the widest
practical use with remarkable efficiency and celerity. The stories of
these developments, in both the personal and executive sides, embody
the true romance of the modern business world.
The great scientists and engineers who have wrought these wonders
which have had so profound an influence upon the life of the
world lived, and are living, lives filled with patient effort,
discouragement, accomplishment, and real romance. They are interesting
men who have done interesting things. Better still, they have done
important, useful things. This book relates their life stories in a
connected form, for they have all worked for a similar end. The story
of these men, who, starting in early youth in the pursuit of a great
idea, have achieved fame and success and have benefited civilization,
cannot but be inspiring. They did not stumble upon their discoveries
by any lucky accident. They knew what they sought, and they labored
toward the goal with unflagging zeal. Had they been easily discouraged
we might still be dependent upon the semaphore and the pony express
for the transmission of news. But they persevered until success was
attained, and in the account of their struggle to success every one
may find encouragement in facing his own tasks.
One can scarce overestimate the value of modern methods of
communication to the world. So much of our development has been more
or less directly dependent upon it that it is difficult to fancy our
situation without the telegraph and telephone. The diligence with
which the ancients sought speedy methods for the sending of messages
demonstrates the human need for them. The solution of this great
problem, though long delayed, came swiftly, once it was begun.
Even the simple facts regarding "Masters of Space" and their lives of
struggle and accomplishment in sending messages between distant points
form an inspiring story of great achievement.
W.K.T.
#MASTERS OF SPACE#
I
COMMUNICATION AMONG THE ANCIENTS
Signaling the Fall of Troy--Marine Signaling among the
Argonauts--Couriers of the Greeks, Romans, and
Aztecs--Sound-signaling--Stentorophonic Tube--The Shouting
Sentinels--The Clepsydra--Signal Columns--Indian Fire and Smoke
Signals.
It was very early in the history of the world that man began to feel
the urgent need of communicating with man at a distance. When village
came into friendly contact with village, when nations began to
form and expand, the necessity of sending intelligence rapidly and
effectively was clearly realized. And yet many centuries passed
without the discovery of an effective system. Those discoveries were
to be reserved for the thinkers of our age.
We can understand the difficulties that beset King Agamemnon as he
stood at the head of his armies before the walls of Troy. Many were
the messages he would want to send to his native kingdom in Greece
during the progress of the siege. Those at home would be eager for
news of the great enterprise. Many contingencies might arise which
would make the need for aid urgent. Certainly Queen Clytemnestra
eagerly awaited word of the fall of the city. Yet the slow progress of
couriers must be depended upon.
One device the king hit upon which was such as any boy might devise
to meet the simplest need. "If I can go skating tonight," says Johnny
Jones to his chum, "I'll put a light in my window." Such is the simple
device which has been used to bear the simplest message for ages. So
King Agamemnon ordered beacon fires laid on the tops of Mount Ida,
Mount Athos, Mount Cithæron, and on intervening eminences. Beside them
he placed watchers who were always to have their faces toward Troy.
When Troy fell a near-by fire was kindled, and beacon after beacon
sprang into flame on the route toward Greece. Thus was the message
of the fall of Troy quickly borne to the waiting queen by this
preconceived arrangement. Yet neither King Agamemnon nor his sagest
counselors could devise an effective system for expediting their
messages.
Prearranged signals were used to convey news in even earlier times.
Fire, smoke, and flags were used by the Egyptians and the Assyrians
previous to the Trojan War. The towers along the Chinese Wall were
more than watch-towers; they were signal-towers. A flag or a light
exhibited from tower to tower would quickly convey a certain message
agreed upon in advance. Human thought required a system which could
convey more than one idea, and yet skill in conveying news grew
slowly.
Perhaps the earliest example of marine signaling of which we know
is recorded of the Argonautic Expedition. Theseus devised the use of
colored sails to convey messages from ship to ship of the fleet, and
caused the death of his father by his failure to handle the signals
properly. Theseus sailed into conflict with the enemy with black sails
set, a signal of battle and of death. With the battle over and himself
the victor, he forgot to lower the black flag and set the red flag of
victory. His father, the aged Ægeus, seeing the black flag, believed
it reported his son's death, and, flinging himself into the sea, was
drowned.
In time it occurred to the great monarchs as their domains extended
to establish relays of couriers to bear the messages which must be
carried. Such systems were established by the Greeks, the Romans, and
the Aztecs. Each courier would run the length of his own route and
would then shout or pass the message to the next runner, who would
speed it away in turn. Such was the method employed by our own
pony-express riders.
An ancient Persian king thought of having the messages shouted from
sentinel to sentinel, instead of being carried more slowly by relays
of couriers. So he established sentinels at regular intervals within
hearing of one another, and messages were shouted from one to the
other. Just fancy the number of sentinels required to establish a line
between distant cities, and the opportunities for misunderstanding and
mistake! The ancient Gauls also employed this method of communication.
Cæsar records that the news of the massacre of the Romans at Orleans
was sent to Auvergne, a distance of nearly one hundred and fifty
miles, by the same evening.
Though signaling by flashes of light occurred to the ancients, we have
no knowledge that they devised a way of using the light-flashes for
any but the simplest prearranged messages. The mirrors of the Pharaohs
were probably used to flash light for signal purposes. We know that
the Persians applied them to signaling in time of war. It is reported
that flashes from the shields were used to convey news at the battle
of Marathon. These seem to be the forerunners of the heliograph. But
the heliograph using the dot-and-dash system of the Morse code can
be used to transmit any message whatever. The ancients had evolved
systems by which any word could be spelled, but they did not seem to
be able to apply them practically to their primitive heliographs.
An application of sound-signaling was worked out for Alexander
the Great, which was considered one of the scientific wonders of
antiquity. This was called a stentorophonic tube, and seems to have
been a sort of gigantic megaphone or speaking-trumpet. It is recorded
that it sent the voice for a dozen miles. A drawing of this strange
instrument is preserved in the Vatican.
Another queer signaling device, built and operated upon a novel
principle, was an even greater wonder among the early peoples. This
was known as a clepsydra. Fancy a tall glass tube with an opening at
the bottom in which a sort of faucet was fixed. At varying heights
sentences were inscribed about the tube. The tube, being filled with
water, with, a float at the top, all was ready for signaling any
of the messages inscribed on the tube to a station within sight and
similarly equipped. The other station could be located as far away
as a light could be seen. The station desiring to send a message to
another exhibited its light. When the receiving station showed its
light in answer, the tap was opened at the bottom of the tube in each
station. When the float dropped until it was opposite the sentence
which it was desired to transmit, the sending station withdrew its
light and closed the tap. This was a signal for the receiving station
to stop the flow of water from its tube. As the tubes were just alike,
and the water had flowed out during the same period at equal speed,
the float at the receiving station then rested opposite the message to
be conveyed.
Many crude systems of using lights for signaling were employed. Lines
of watch-towers were arranged which served as signal-stations. The
ruins of the old Roman and Gallic towers may still be found In France.
Hannibal erected them in Africa and Spain. Colored tunics and spears
were also used for military signals in the daytime. For instance,
a red tunic displayed meant prepare for battle; while a red spear
conveyed the order to sack and devastate.
An ancient system of camp signals from columns is especially
interesting as showing a development away from the prearranged signals
of limited application. For these camp signals the alphabet was
divided into five or six parts, and a like number of columns erected
at each signal-station. Each column represented one group of letters.
Suppose that we should agree to get along without the Q and the Z
and reduce our own alphabet to twenty-four letters for use in such
a system. With six columns we would then have four letters for each
column. The first column would be used to signal A, B, C, and D. One
light or flag shown from column one would represent A, two flags
or lights B, and so on. Thus any word could be spelled out and any
message sent. Without doubt the system was slow and cumbersome, but it
was a step in the right direction.
The American Indians developed methods of transmitting news which
compare very favorably with the means employed by the ancients.
Smoke-rings and puffs for the daytime, and fire-arrows at night, were
used by them for the sending of messages. Smoke signals are obtained
by building a fire of moist materials. The Indian obtains his
smoke-puffs by placing a blanket or robe over the fire, withdrawing
it for an instant, and then replacing it quickly. In this way puffs of
smoke may be sent aloft as frequently as desired.
A column of smoke-puffs was used as a warning signal, its meaning
being: Look out, the enemy is near. One smoke-puff was a signal for
attention; two puffs indicated that the sender would camp at that
place. Three puffs showed that the sender was in danger, as the enemy
was near.
Fire-arrows shot across the sky at night had a similar meaning. The
head of the arrow was dipped in some highly inflammable substance and
then set on fire at the instant before it was discharged from the bow.
One fire-arrow shot into the sky meant that the enemy were near; two
signaled danger, and three great danger. When the Indian shot many
fire-arrows up in rapid succession he was signaling to his friends
that his enemies were too many for him. Two arrows discharged into the
air at the same time indicated that the party sending them was
about to attack. Three indicated an immediate attack. A fire-arrow
discharged diagonally across the sky indicated the direction in which
the sender would travel. Such were the methods which the Indians used,
working out different meanings for the signals in the various tribes.
Very slight progress was made in message-sending in medieval times,
and it was the middle of the seventeenth century before even signal
systems were attained which were in any sense an improvement. For many
centuries the people of the world existed, devising nothing better
than the primitive methods outlined above.
II
SIGNALS PAST AND PRESENT
Marine and Military Signals--Code Flags--Wig-wag--Semaphore
Telegraphs--Heliographs--Ardois Signals--Submarine Signals.
In naval affairs some kind of an effective signal system is
imperative. Even in the ordinary evolutions of a fleet the commander
needs some better way of communicating with the ship captains than
despatching a messenger in a small boat. The necessity of quick and
sure signals in time of battle is obvious. Yet for many centuries
naval signals were of the crudest.
The first distinct advance over the primitive methods by which the
commander of one Roman galley communicated with another came with the
introduction of cannon as a naval arm. The use of signal-guns was soon
thought of, and war-ships used their guns for signal purposes as early
as the sixteenth century. Not long after came the square-rigged
ship, and it soon occurred to some one that signals could be made by
dropping a sail from the yard-arm a certain number of times.
Up to the middle of the seventeenth century the possibilities of
the naval signal systems were limited indeed. Only a few prearranged
orders and messages could be conveyed. Unlimited communication at a
distance was still impossible, and there were no means of sending a
message to meet an unforeseen emergency. So cumbersome were the signal
systems in use that even though they would convey the intelligence
desired, the speaking-trumpet or a courier was employed wherever
possible.
To the officers of the British navy of the seventeenth century
belongs the credit for the first serious attempt to create a system of
communication which would convey any and all messages. It is not clear
whether Admiral Sir William Penn or James II. established the code.
It was while he was Duke of York and the commander of Britain's
navy, that the James who was later to be king took this part in the
advancement of means of communication. Messages were sent by varying
the position of a single signal flag.
In 1780 Admiral Kempenfeldt thought of adding other signal flags
instead of depending upon the varied positions of a single signal.
From his plan the flag signals now in use by the navies of the world
were developed. The basis of his system was the combining of distinct
flags in pairs.
The work of Admiral Philip Colomb marked another long step forward
in signaling between ships. While a young officer he developed a
night-signal system of flashing lights, still in use to some extent,
and which bears his name. Colomb's most important contribution to the
art of signaling was his realization of the utility of the code which
Morse had developed in connection with the telegraph.
Code flags, which are largely used between ships, have not been
entirely displaced by the wireless. The usual naval code set consists
of a set of alphabet flags and pennants, ten numeral flags, and
additional special flags. This of course provides for spelling out any
conceivable message by simply hoisting letter after letter. So slow
a method is seldom used, however. Various combinations of letters and
figures are used to indicate set terms or sentences set forth in the
code-book. Thus the flags representing A and E, hoisted together, may
be found on reference to the code-book to mean, "Weigh anchor." Each
navy has its own secret code, which is carefully guarded lest it be
discovered by a possible enemy. Naval code-books are bound with metal
covers so that they may be thrown overboard in case a ship is forced
to surrender.
The international code is used by ships of all nations. It is the
universal language of the sea, and by it sailors of different tongues
may communicate through this common medium. Any message may be
conveyed by a very few of the flags in combination.
The wig-wag system, a favorite and familiar method of communication
with every Boy Scout troop, is in use by both army and navy. The
various letters of the alphabet are indicated by the positions in
which the signaler holds his arms. Keeping the arms always forty-five
degrees apart, it is possible to read the signals at a considerable
distance. Navy signalers have become very efficient with this form of
communication, attaining a speed of over fifteen words a minute.
A semaphore is frequently substituted for the wig-wag flags both on
land and on sea. Navy semaphores on big war-ships consist of arms ten
or twelve feet long mounted at the masthead. The semaphore as a means
of communication was extensively used on land commercially as well as
by the army. A regular semaphore telegraph system, working in relays
over considerable distances was in operation in France a century ago.
Other semaphore telegraphs were developed in England.
The introduction of the Morse code and its adaptation to signaling by
sight and sound did much to simplify these means of communication. The
development of signaling after the adoption of the Morse code, though
it occurred subsequent to the introduction of the telegraph, may
properly be spoken of here, since the systems dependent upon sight and
sound grow from origins more primitive than those which depend upon
electricity. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century armies had
made slight progress in perfecting means of communication. The British
army had no regular signal service until after the recommendations
of Colomb proved their worth in naval affairs. The German army, whose
systems of communication have now reached such perfection, did not
establish an army signal service until 1902.
The simplicity of the dot and dash of the Morse code makes it
readily available for almost any form of signaling under all possible
conditions. Two persons within sight of each other, who understand
the code, may establish communication by waving the most conspicuous
object at hand, using a short swing for a dot and a long swing for a
dash. Two different shapes may also be exhibited, one representing a
dot and the other a dash. The dot-and-dash system is also admirably
adapted for night signaling. A search-light beam may be swung across
the sky through short and long arcs, a light may be exhibited and
hidden for short and long periods, and so on. Where the search-light
may be played upon a cloud it may be seen for very considerable
distances, messages having been sent forty miles by this means.
Fog-horns, whistles, etc., may be similarly employed during fogs or
amid thick smoke. A short blast represents a dot, and a long one a
dash.
The heliograph, which established communication by means of short and
long light-flashes, is another important means of signaling to which
the Morse code has been applied. This instrument catches the rays of
the sun upon a mirror, and thence casts them to a distant receiving
station. A small key which throws the mirror out of alignment serves
to obscure the flashes for a space at the will of the sender, and so
produces short or long flashes.
The British army has made wide use of the heliograph in India and
Africa. During the British-Boer War It formed the sole means of
communication between besieged garrisons and the relief forces.
Where no mountain ranges intervene and a bright sun is available,
heliographic messages may be read at a distance of one hundred and
fifty miles.
While the British navy used flashing lights for night signals, the
United States and most other navies adopted a system of fixed colored
lights. The system in use in the United States Navy is known as the
Ardois system. In this system the messages are sent by four lights,
usually electric, which are suspended from a mast or yard-arm. The
lights are manipulated by a keyboard situated at a convenient point on
the deck. A red lamp is flashed to indicate a dot in the Morse code,
while a white lamp indicates a dash. The Ardois system is also used by
the Army. The perfection of wireless telegraphy has caused the Ardois
and other signal systems depending upon sight or sound to be discarded
in all but exceptional cases. The wig-wag and similar systems will
probably never be entirely displaced by even such superior systems
as wireless telegraphy. The advantage of the wig-wag lies in the
fact that no apparatus is necessary and communication may thus be
established for short distances almost instantly. Its disadvantages
are lack of speed, impenetrability to dust, smoke, and fog, and the
short ranges over which it may be operated.
There is another form of sound-signaling which, though it has been
developed in recent years, may properly be mentioned in connection
with earlier signal systems of similar nature. This is the submarine
signal. We have noted that much attention was paid to communication by
sound-waves through the medium of the air from the earliest times. It
was not until the closing years of the past century, however, that
the superior possibilities of water as a conveyer of sound were
recognized.
Arthur J. Mundy, of Boston, happened to be on an American steamer on
the Mississippi River in the vicinity of New Orleans. It was rumored
that a Spanish torpedo-boat had evaded the United States war vessels
and made its way up the great river. The general alarm and the
impossibility of detecting the approach of another vessel set
Mundy thinking. It seemed to him that there should be some way
of communicating through the water and of listening for sounds
underwater. He recalled his boyhood experiments in the old
swimming-hole. He remembered how distinctly the sound of stones
cracked together carried to one whose ears were beneath the surface.
Thus the idea of underwater signaling was born.
Mundy communicated this idea to Elisha Gray, and the two, working
together, evolved a successful submarine signal system. It was on the
last day of the nineteenth century that they were able to put their
experiments into practical working form. Through a well in the center
of the ship they suspended an eight-hundred-pound bell twenty feet
beneath the surface of the sea. A receiving apparatus was located
three miles distant, which consisted simply of an ear-trumpet
connected to a gas-pipe lowered into the sea. The lower end of the
pipe was sealed with a diaphragm of tin. When submerged six feet
beneath the surface the strokes of the bell could be heard. Then
a special electrical receiver of extreme sensitiveness, known as a
microphone, was substituted and connected at the receiving station
with an ordinary telephone receiver. With this receiving apparatus the
strokes of the bell could be heard at a distance of over ten miles.
This system has had a wide practical application for communication
both between ship and ship and between ship and shore. Most
transatlantic ships are now equipped with such a system. The
transmitter consists of a large bell which is actuated either by
compressed air or by an electro-magnetic system. This is so arranged
that it may be suspended over the side of the ship and lowered
well beneath the surface of the water. The receivers consist of
microphones, one on each side of the ship. The telephone receivers
connected to the two microphones are mounted close together on an
instrument board on the bridge of the ship. The two instruments are
used when it is desired to determine the direction from which the
signals come. If the sound is stronger in the 'phone on the right-hand
side of the ship the commander knows that the signals are coming from
that direction. If the signals are from a ship in distress he may
proceed toward it by turning his vessel until the sound of the
signal-bell is equal in the two receivers. The ability to determine
the direction from which the signal comes is especially valuable
in navigating difficult channels in foggy weather. Signal-bells are
located near lighthouses and dangerous reefs. Each calls its own
number, and the vessel's commander may thus avoid obstructions and
guide the ship safely into the harbor. The submarine signal is equally
useful in enabling vessels to avoid collision in fogs. Because water
conducts sound much better than air, submarine signals are far better
than the fog-horn or whistles.
The submarine signal system has also been applied to submarine
war-ships. By this means alone may a submarine communicate with
another, with a vessel on the surface, or with a shore station.
An important and interesting adaptation of the marine signal was made
to meet the submarine warfare of the great European conflict. At first
it seemed that battle-ship and merchantman could find no way to locate
the approach of an enemy submarine. But it was found that by means
of the receiving apparatus of the submarine telephone an approaching
submarine could be heard and located. While the sounds of the
submarine's machinery are not audible above the water, the delicate
microphone located beneath the water can detect them. Hearing a
submarine approaching beneath the surface, the merchantman may avoid
her and the destroyers and patrol-boats may take means to effect her
capture.
III
FORERUNNERS OF THE TELEGRAPH
From Lodestone to Leyden Jar--The Mysterious "C.M."--Spark and
Frictional Telegraphs--The Electro-magnet--Davy and the Relay
System.
The thought and effort directed toward improving the means of
communication brought but small results until man discovered and
harnessed for himself a new servant--electricity. The story of
the growth of modern means of communication is the story of the
application of electricity to this particular one of man's needs.
The stories of the Masters of Space are the stories of the men who so
applied electricity that man might communicate with man.
Some manifestations of electricity had been known since long before
the Christian era. A Greek legend relates how a shepherd named Magnes
found that his crook was attracted by a strange rock. Thus was the
lodestone, the natural magnetic iron ore, discovered, and the legend
would lead us to believe that the words magnet and magnetism were
derived from the name of the shepherd who chanced upon this natural
magnet and the strange property of magnetism.
The ability of amber, when rubbed, to attract straws, was also known
to the early peoples. How early this property was found, or how, we do
not know. The name electricity is derived from _elektron_, the Greek
name for amber.
The early Chinese and Persians knew of the lodestone, and of the
magnetic properties of amber after it has been rubbed briskly. The
Romans were familiar with these and other electrical effects. The
Romans had discovered that the lodestone would attract iron, though a
stone wall intervened. They were fond of mounting a bit of iron on a
cork floating in a basin of water and watch it follow the lodestone
held in the hand. It is related that the early magicians used it as a
means of transmitting intelligence. If a needle were placed upon a bit
of cork and the whole floated in a circular vessel with the alphabet
inscribed about the circle, one outside the room could cause the
needle to point toward any desired letters in turn by stepping to the
proper position with the lodestone. Thus a message could be sent to
the magician inside and various feats of magic performed. Our own
modern magicians are reported as availing themselves of the more
modern applications of electricity in somewhat similar fashion and
using small, easily concealed wireless telegraph or telephone sets for
communication with their confederates off the stage.
The idea of encircling a floating needle with the alphabet was
developed into the sympathetic telegraph of the sixteenth century,
which was based on a curious error. It was supposed that needles which
had been touched by the same lodestone were sympathetic, and that if
both were free to move one would imitate the movements of another,
though they were at a distance. Thus, if one needle were attracted
toward one letter after the other, and the second similarly mounted
should follow its movements, a message might readily be spelled out.
Of course the second needle would not follow the movements of the
first, and so the sympathetic telegraph never worked, but much effort
was expended upon it.
In the mean time others had learned that many substances besides
amber, on being rubbed, possessed magnetic properties. Machines by
which electricity could be produced in greater quantities by friction
were produced and something was learned of conductors.
Benjamin Franklin sent aloft his historic kite and found that
electricity came down the silken cord. He demonstrated that frictional
and atmospheric electricity are the same. Franklin and others sent the
electric charge along a wire, but it did not occur to them to endeavor
to apply this to sending messages.
Credit for the first suggestion of an electric telegraph must be given
to an unknown writer of the middle eighteenth century. In the _Scots
Magazine_ for February 17, 1755, there appeared an article signed
simply, "C.M.," which suggested an electric telegraph. The writer's
idea was to lay an insulated wire for each letter of the alphabet.
The wires could be charged from an electrical machine in any desired
order, and at the receiving end would attract disks of paper marked
with the letter which that wire represented, and so any message could
be spelled out. The identity of "C.M." has never been established, but
he was probably Charles Morrison, a Scotch surgeon with a reputation
for electrical experimentation, who later emigrated to Virginia. Of
course "C.M.'s" telegraph was not practical, because of the many wires
required, but it proved to be a fertile suggestion which was followed
by many other thinkers. One experimenter after another added an
improvement or devised a new application.
A French scientist devised a telegraph which it is suspected might
have been practical, but he kept his device secret, and, as Napoleon
refused to consider it, it never was put to a test. An Englishman
devised a frictional telegraph early in the last century and
endeavored to interest the Admiralty. He was told that the semaphore
was all that was required for communication. Another submitted a
similar system to the same authorities in 1816, and was told that
"telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary." An American
inventor fared no better, for one Harrison Gray Dyar, of New York, was
compelled to abandon his experiments on Long Island and flee because
he was accused of conspiracy to carry on secret communication, which
sounded very like witchcraft to our forefathers. His telegraph sent
signals by having the electric spark transmitted by the wire decompose
nitric acid and so record the signals on moist litmus paper. It seems
altogether probable that had not the discovery of electro-magnetism
offered improved facilities to those seeking a practical telegraph,
this very chemical telegraph might have been put to practical use.
In the early days of the nineteenth century the battery had come into
being, and thus a new source of electric current was available for
the experimenters. Coupled with this important discovery in its
effect upon the development of the telegraph was the discovery of
electro-magnetism. This was the work of Hans Christian Oersted, a
native of Denmark. He first noticed that a current flowing through
a wire would deflect a compass, and thus discovered the magnetic
properties of the electric current. A Frenchman named Ampère,
experimenting further, discovered that when the electric current is
sent through coils of wire the magnetism is increased.
The possibility of using the deflection of a magnetic needle by
an electric current passing through a wire as a means of conveying
intelligence was quickly grasped by those who were striving for
a telegraph. Experiments with spark and chemical telegraphs were
superseded by efforts with this new discovery. Ampère, acting upon the
suggestion of La Place, an eminent mathematician, published a plan for
a feasible telegraph. This was later improved upon by others, and it
was still early in the nineteenth century that a model telegraph was
exhibited in London.
About this time two professors at the University of Göttingen were
experimenting with telegraphy. They established an experimental line
between their laboratories, using at first a battery. Then Faraday
discovered that an electric current could be generated in a wire by
the motion of a magnet, thus laying the basis for the modern dynamo.
Professors Gauss and Weber, who were operating the telegraph line at
Göttingen, adapted this new discovery to their needs. They sent the
message by moving a magnetic key. A current was thus generated in the
line, and, passing over the wire and through a coil at the farther
end, moved a magnet suspended there. The magnet moved to the right or
left, depending on the direction of the current sent through the
wire. A tiny mirror was mounted on the receiving magnet to magnify its
movement and so render it more readily visible.
One Steinheil, of Munich, simplified it and added a call-bell. He
also devised a recording telegraph in which the moving needle at the
receiving station marked down its message in dots and dashes on a
ribbon of paper. He was the first to utilize the earth for the return
circuit, using a single wire for despatching the electric current used
in signaling and allowing it to return through the ground.
In 1837, the same year in which Wheatstone and Morse were busy
perfecting their telegraphs, as we shall see, Edward Davy exhibited a
needle telegraph in London. Davy also realized that the discoveries
of Arago could be used in improving the telegraph and making it
practical. Arago discovered that the current passing through a coil of
wire served to magnetize temporarily a piece of soft iron within it.
It was this principle upon which Morse was working at this time. Davy
did not carry his suggestions into effect, however. He emigrated to
Australia, and the interruption in his experiments left the field open
for those who were finally to bring the telegraph into usable form.
Davy's greatest contribution to telegraphy was the relay system by
which very weak currents could call into play strong currents from
a local battery, and so make the signals apparent at the receiving
station.
IV
INVENTIONS OF SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE
Wheatstone and His Enchanted Lyre--Wheatstone and Cooke--First
Electric Telegraph Line Installed--The Capture of the "Kwaker"--The
Automatic Transmitter.
Before we come to the story of Samuel F.B. Morse and the telegraph
which actually proved a commercial success as the first practical
carrier of intelligence which had been created for the service of man,
we should pause to consider the achievements of Charles Wheatstone.
Together with William Fothergill Cooke, another Englishman, he
developed a telegraph line that, while it did not attain commercial
success, was the first working telegraph placed at the service of the
public.
Charles Wheatstone was born near Gloucester in 1802. Having completed
his primary schooling, Charles was apprenticed to his uncle, who was
a maker and seller of musical instruments. He showed little aptitude
either in the workshop or in the store, and much preferred to continue
the study of books. His father eventually took him from his uncle's
charge and allowed him to follow his bent. He translated poetry from
the French at the age of fifteen, and wrote some verse of his own. He
spent all the money he could secure on books. Becoming interested in a
book on Volta's experiments with electricity, he saved up his coppers
until he could purchase it. It was in French, and he found the
technical descriptions rather too difficult for his comprehension, so
that he was forced to save again to buy a French-English dictionary.
With the aid of this he mastered the volume.
Immediately his attention was turned toward the wonders of the infant
science of electricity, and he eagerly endeavored to perform the
experiments described. Aided by his older brother, he set to work on
a battery as a source of current. Running short of funds with which to
purchase copper plates, he again began to save his pennies. Then the
idea occurred to him to use the pennies themselves, and his first
battery was soon complete.
He continued his experiments in various fields until, at the age of
nineteen, he first brought himself to public notice with his enchanted
lyre. This he placed on exhibition in music-shops in London. It
consisted of a small lyre suspended from the ceiling which gave forth,
in turn, the sounds of various musical instruments. Really the lyre
was merely a sounding-box, and the vibrations of the music were
conveyed from instruments, played in the next room, to the lyre
through a steel rod. The young man spent much time experimenting with
the transmission of sound. Having conveyed music through the steel rod
to his enchanted lyre, much to the mystification of the Londoners,
he proposed to transmit sounds over a considerable distance by this
method. He estimated that sound could be sent through steel rods at
the rate of two hundred miles a second and suggested the use of such
a rod as a telegraph between London and Edinburgh. He called his
arrangement a telephone.
A scientific writer of the day, commenting in a scientific journal
on the enchanted lyre which Wheatstone had devised, suggested that it
might be used to render musical concerts audible at a distance. Thus
an opera performed in a theater might be conveyed through rods to
other buildings in the vicinity and there reproduced. This was never
accomplished, and it remained for our own times to accomplish this and
even greater wonders.
Wheatstone also devised an instrument for increasing feeble sound,
which he called a microphone. This consisted of a pair of rods to
convey the sound vibrations to the ears, and does not at all resemble
the modern electrical microphone. Other inventions in the transmission
and reproduction of sound followed, and he devoted no little attention
to the construction of improved musical instruments. He even made some
efforts to produce a practical talking-machine, and was convinced
that one would be attained. At thirty-two he was widely famed as a
scientist and had been made a professor of experimental physics
in King's College, London. His most notable work at this time was
measuring the speed of the electric current, which up to that time had
been supposed to be instantaneous.
By 1835 Wheatstone had abandoned his plans for transmitting sounds
through long rods of metal and was studying the telegraph. He
experimented with instruments of his own and proposed a line across
the Thames. It was in 1836 that Mr. Cooke, an army officer home on
leave, became interested in the telegraph and devoted himself to
putting it on a working basis. He had already exhibited a crude set
when he came to Wheatstone, realizing his own lack of scientific
knowledge. The two men finally entered into partnership, Wheatstone
contributing the scientific and Cooke the business ability to the new
enterprise. The partnership was arranged late in 1837, and a patent
taken out on Wheatstone's five-needle telegraph.
In this telegraph a magnetic needle was located within a loop formed
by the telegraph circuit at the receiving end. When the circuit was
closed the needle was deflected to one side or the other, according to
the direction of the current. Five separate circuits and needles were
used, and a variety of signals could thus be sent. Five wires, with a
sixth return wire, were used in the first experimental line erected in
London in 1837. So in the year when Morse was constructing his models
Wheatstone and Cooke were operating an experimental line, crude
and impracticable though it was, and enjoying the sensations of
communicating with each other at a distance.
In 1841 the telegraph was placed on public exhibition at so much a
head, but it was viewed as an entertaining novelty without utility by
the public at large. After many disappointments the inventors secured
the cooperation of the Great Western Railroad, and a line was erected
for a distance of thirteen miles. But the public would not patronise
the line until its utility was strikingly demonstrated by the capture
of the "Kwaker."
Early one morning a woman was found dead in her home in the suburbs of
London. A man had been observed leaving the house, and his appearance
had been noted. Inquiries revealed that a man answering his
description had left on the slow train for London. Without the
telegraph he could not have been apprehended. But the telegraph was
available at this point, and his description was telegraphed ahead and
the police in London were instructed to arrest him upon his arrival.
"He is dressed as a Quaker," ran the message. There was no Q in the
alphabet of-the five-needle instrument, and so the sender spelled
Quaker, Kwaker. The clerk at the receiving end could not-understand
the strange word, and asked to have it repeated again and again.
Finally some one suggested that the message be completed and the whole
was then deciphered. When the man dressed as a Quaker stepped from the
slow train on his arrival at London the police were awaiting him; he
was arrested and eventually confessed the murder. The news of this
capture and the part the telegraph played gave striking proof of the
utility of the new invention, and public skepticism and indifference
were overcome.
By 1845 Wheatstone had so improved his apparatus that but one wire was
required. The single-needle instrument pointed out the letters on the
dial around it by successive deflections in which it was arranged
to move, step by step, at the will of the sending station. The
single-needle instrument, though generally displaced by Morse's
telegraph, remained in use for a long time on some English lines.
Wheatstone had also invented a type-printing telegraph, which he
patented in 1841. This required two circuits.
With a working telegraph attained, the partners became involved in an
altercation as to which deserved the honor of inventing the same.
The quarrel was finally submitted to two famous scientists for
arbitration. They reported that the telegraph was the result of
their joint labors. To Wheatstone belongs the credit for devising
the apparatus; to Cooke for introducing it and placing it before the
public in working form. Here we see the combination of the man of
science and the man of business, each contributing needed talents for
the establishment of a great invention on a working basis.
Wheatstone's researches in the field of electricity were constant.
In 1840 he devised a magnetic clock and proposed a plan by which many
clocks, located at different points, could be set at regular intervals
with the aid of electricity. Such a system was the forerunner of
the electrically wound and regulated clocks with which we are now so
familiar. He also devised a method for measuring the resistance which
wires offer to the passage of an electric current. This is known
as Wheatstone's bridge and is still in use in every electrical and
physical laboratory. He also invented a sound telegraph by which
signals were transmitted by the strokes of a bell operated by the
current at the receiving end of the circuit.
The invention of Wheatstone's which proved to be of greatest lasting
importance in connection with the telegraph was the automatic
transmitter. By this system the message is first punched in a strip of
paper which, when passed through the sending instrument, transmits the
message. By this means he was able to send messages at the rate of one
hundred words a minute. This automatic transmitter is much used for
press telegrams where duplicate messages are to be sent to various
points.
The automatic transmitter brought knighthood to its inventor,
Wheatstone receiving this honor in 1868. Wheatstone took an active
part in the development of the telegraph and the submarine cable up to
the time of his death in 1875.
Wheatstone's telegraph would have served the purposes of humanity
and probably have been universally adopted, had not a better one been
invented almost before it was established. And it is because Morse,
taking up the work where others had left off, was able to invent an
instrument which so fully satisfied the requirements of man for so
long a period that he is known to all of us as the inventor of the
telegraph. And yet, without belittling the part played by Morse,
we must recognize the important work accomplished by Sir Charles
Wheatstone.
V
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MORSE