The first electric telegraph in which Volta's memorable discovery was
utilized was that of Soemmering, of Munich, dating from 1809, and not
from 1811 as the statement has too oft been made in print. Soemmering
was led to take up electric telegraphy in a very curious way. It
was during the wars of the Empire. "It cannot be forgotten," says
Julius Zoellner, in the _Buch der Erfindungen_, "that the so rapid
and consequently so fortunate enterprises of Napoleon were especially
favored by the admirable means of communication which so rapidly
transmitted the will of one man to all parts of his army, and that it
was very often such rapidity alone that rendered its execution possible.
"The unfortunate blockade of General Mack in Ulm was an example that
Bavaria had seen from too close a distance not to take it into account.
And, when the entirely unexpected invasion of the Austrians, on April
9, 1809, and the flight of the King of Bavaria (who was obliged to
leave Munich on the 11th) were announced so quickly to Napoleon, by the
optic telegraph, that on the 22d of April Munich, that had six days
before been taken by the Austrians, was occupied by the French, and
when King Maximilian was enabled to re-enter his residence sixteen days
after leaving it, then the Bavarian minister, Montgelas, directed his
attention seriously to the high importance of telegraphy.
"On the 5th of July, 1809, while dining with Soemmering, a member of
the Academy of Sciences of Munich, he expressed to him a desire to
have this scientific body propose some systems of telegraphy. The
savant accepted this idea with the greatest eagerness, and, three days
afterward, under date of July 8, he wrote in his journal: ... 'Shall
be able to take rest only when I shall have realized telegraphy by the
disengagement of gas.'"
At this epoch, in fact, the decomposition of water was the sole
phenomenon known that would permit the electric current to be used for
telegraphy, and Soemmering had rendered himself perfectly conversant
with it. He at once bought silver and copper wires, insulated them by
means of sealing wax, and, on the 8th of July, constructed his first
apparatus (Fig. 5). Five insulated rods, represented by the letters,
_a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, dipped into a vessel, E, containing acidulated
water. From these rods there started wires which, combined into a
cable, _x_, _x_, and insulated from each other by sealing-wax, could
be put in contact with the poles of a Volta pile, S, of 15 elements,
formed of zinc disks, Brabant thalers, and felt soaked in dilute
hydrochloric acid. On causing a variation in the wires that he put in
connection with the poles of the pile, he was enabled to produce a
disengagement of gas upon any two definite rods, and thus to transmit
the letters that he had taken care to mark the different wires with.
The possibility of the system was recognized, and Soemmering at once
had an apparatus constructed according to it. On the 22d of July he
received it from the hands of the workman nearly such as it is shown in
Fig. 6. The decomposing reservoir was of an elongated rectangular shape
containing 35 gold rods that corresponded to 25 letters and 10 figures.
From these rods started 35 wires covered with silk and combined into
a bundle that was afterward covered with melted shellac. At the other
extremity of this cable the wires ran to 35 pieces of copper fixed
horizontally upon a wooden support, and each provided with an aperture
into which could be inserted one of the pins in which the pile wires
terminated.
When these latter were put in connection with the pieces corresponding
to any two letters whatever, gas was observed to disengage itself in
the reservoir upon the two corresponding rods, but in greater quantity
on the one connected with the negative pole. This fact was not lost
upon Soemmering, and he utilized it to render the dispatches more
rapid; for it allowed him to transmit two letters always at the same
time, with the proviso that the one upon the rod from which most gas
was disengaged had been written first.
No demand arose for this first apparatus, so Soemmering soon devised
one that operated by the aid of a paddle-wheel set in motion by the
bubbles of gas. But, a little later on, in August, 1810, he replaced
this by another and very ingenious apparatus which is shown in Fig. 6.
An inverted spoon, arranged horizontally in the liquid, collected in
its bowl the gases that were disengaged from certain rods, and then,
rising, caused the inclination at the same time of a rod bent at right
angles. This latter thereupon allowed a small copper ball to drop into
a glass funnel, from whence it fell upon a cup attached to the end of
a lever, and, through its weight, threw into gear a bell operated by a
clockwork movement.
[Illustration: Fig. 5--SOEMMERING'S FIRST TELEGRAPH.]
In 1811, Soemmering simplified his apparatus as regards the number of
signs. Instead of having 25 letters (a complete alphabet minus _x_)
and 10 figures, he did away with these latter and the letter J, and
introduced the _x_, the period, and a sign of repetition. The apparatus
was thus reduced to 27 wires.
The first experiments in telegraphy made with this system, on the
9th of July, 1809, were over a distance of 38 feet; on the 19th,
transmission was effected to 170 feet; and, on the 8th of August, to
1,000 feet; but it was not until he had perfected the insulation of his
wires by means of India rubber dissolved in ether, and had devised his
paddle-wheel call, that Soemmering decided to present his telegraph to
the Academy of Sciences of Bavaria during its session of August 28,
1809.
Some time afterward, Baron Larrey, Inspector General of the medical
service of the French armies, carried Soemmering's telegraph to Paris
and presented it to the Academy of Sciences at its session of December
5, 1809. This presentation gave rise to a series of letters addressed
by Soemmering to the Baron. His son, now a member of the Academy, has
had the goodness to communicate these to Count du Moncel, through whose
kindness we are enabled to cite the most interesting passages from them.
Soemmering writes on the 10th of November:
"I have the honor to remit to you herewith a memoir which, conjointly
with the trifles that you have had the goodness to charge yourself
with, will explain my meaning clearly and briefly. I am desirous of
learning the reception that His Imperial Majesty deigned to accord
to these ideas. The memoir, as you will see, sir, makes mention,
aphoristically, of a few quite varied experiments that I have been in
a position to perform. I dare to flatter myself that they will please
several members of the Institute. Independent of the major interest of
which they seem susceptible, that of novelty belongs to them. In my
opinion, there is no one who can dispute it...."
On the 5th of December, 1809, as we have said, the telegraph was
presented to the Institute, but the inventor does not seem to have been
at once informed of it; for he writes, under date of July 30, 1810:
"I have, sir, read your dissertation upon my telegraph with great
pleasure.... Has my succinct memoir on the telegraph, sent from here on
the 12th of November, reached you, sir, and have you had the goodness
to communicate it to the Institute?
"As the old wires that were pretty badly treated by many manipulations
had really suffered therefrom, and as it was only to save time that I
did not have them renewed before sending the apparatus, I wish that
they could be replaced by ordinary clavichord wires wound with silk,
inasmuch as the material in these is more durable than the copper of
the old ones. Had I been able to flatter myself, sir, that you would
have taken enough interest in this invention to be at the trouble of
carrying it to Paris, I should certainly not have failed to effect in
advance this small and necessary improvement, which, leaving time out
of consideration, will require but a care as to details. For, in fact,
I strongly apprehend that not only the brittleness of the copper wire,
but also the violence that trials anterior and even foreign to present
use have submitted these wires to, have possibly got the silk out of
order, or used it up here and there, thus producing immediate contacts
of metal and bringing about a premature closing of the galvanic chain,
whence would result a total disarrangement of the questions. I truly
regret, then, having (through being too jealous of time, which you
yourself know so well the value of) sent you the instrument in such a
state of imperfection, and I cannot do better than ask to have it sent
back here in good order. Permit me, then, to ask you at once to please
not let Prince de Neufchatel nor even His Majesty the Emperor see it
until the said repair has been effected, either by myself or (if the
sending back would seem to you to take too long) by some one of our
skillful artists at Paris. According to my convictions, there is but
this means of preventing its effect from failing us, even for ever. It
is a true pleasure to see it so infallible and complete as it is in
the new instrument of absolutely the same structure that I have had
constructed for the Academy of Munich."
The telegraph, which doubtless was repaired at Paris, was returned
to Munich only in May, 1811. The same year it was carried to Vienna
by the Russian Count Potocki, whom Baron Schilling had made known to
Soemmering, and who presented the apparatus to Emperor Francis the
First, on the 1st of July of the same year. Another model was sent
by Soemmering to his son William, then at Geneva, who showed it to
Augustus Pictet, to De la Rive, and to some other savants.
Despite all such presentations no high personage showed himself
disposed to aid Soemmering in making an extended application of his
invention. The committee named by the Academy of Sciences, and in which
figured Monge, Biot, and Carnot, does not seem to have made any report.
The apparatus was considered of small importance alongside of that of
Claude Chappe, and Napoleon himself, says Mr. Zoellner, treated the
invention as a German vision. On another hand, Bavaria and Austria
showed just as little enthusiasm; but Soemmering, reduced to his own
resources, continued his experiments none the less on that account.
On the 4th of February, 1812, he found it possible to telegraph to a
distance of 4,000 feet, and on the 15th of March of the same year he
operated his apparatus with complete success over a line 10,000 feet in
length.
This was certainly making great progress; but it is certain that,
even if Soemmering had not encountered universal indifference, his
telegraph would not have been able to become practical, because of the
large number of wires employed. A modification, however, would have
enabled it to play a role during the twenty-five years which preceded
the invention of more easily realizable systems. This modification is
the one Salomon Christopher Schweigger proposed in an appendix to the
memoir of Soemmering inserted by him in 1811[5] in his journal, the
_Polytechnisches Central--Blatt._
His proposition was that two unequal piles should be employed instead
of one, so that first one and then the other, or even the two combined,
should act; and, besides, that the number of wires should be reduced
to two, in taking into consideration the time during which the gases
were disengaged, as well as the interruptions of varying length, and to
which would succeed the action, first of the larger, and then of the
smaller pile. With these different modifications, it certainly would
have been possible to employ but two wires, and to render the laying of
the wires less costly.
After Soemmering, we may cite in the same category John Redman
Coxe, who, according to a note inserted in 1810 in the _Annals of
Philosophy_, proposed to utilize for telegraphy the decomposition of
water or metallic salts. Coxe, however, does not seem to have ever made
any experiments.
In 1814 John Robert Sharpe claimed likewise to have made experiments
in telegraphy in 1813; and these in all probability were based upon
electro-chemical action.
Upon the whole, the only important one of these electro-chemical
apparatus is that of Soemmering. This marks an epoch in the history of
electric telegraphy, but it was not capable of the extension that can
be given the apparatus based upon Oersted's discovery.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--SOEMMERING'S PERFECTED TELEGRAPH.]
_To be continued_.
* * * * *