paper write the word _post_. Now turn the strip over from right to left
and trace the letters on the smooth surface of a block of wood. Remove
the paper and you will have the result shown in Figure 9. With a sharp
knife cut out the wood from around the letters. Ink the raised letters
and press upon them a piece of paper. You have printed the word "post"
in precisely the way the first books were printed. In the 13th century
fancy designs were engraved on wood and by the aid of ink the figures
were stamped on silk and linen. In the 14th century playing cards and
books were printed on engraved blocks in the manner the word "post" was
printed above. (Fig. 10.) The block-book was the first step in the art
of printing.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--A BLOCK PRINT CONTAINING THE ALPHABET USED BY
CHILDREN WHEN LEARNING TO READ.]
The block-book decreased the cost of a book, for when a page was once
engraved as many impressions could be taken as were wanted, yet it did
not meet the necessities of the time. In the middle of the 15th century
the desire for reading began to resemble a frenzy and the books that
could be got hold of "were as insufficient to slake the thirsty craving
for religious and material knowledge as a few rain drops to quench the
burning thirst of the traveler in the desert who seeks for long,
deep-draughts at copious springs of living water." To meet the demand of
the time book-makers everywhere were trying to improve on the
block-making process and by the end of the century the book as we have
it to-day was being made throughout all Europe.
In what did the improvement consist? First let us call to mind what the
book-maker in the early part of the 15th century had to begin with; he
had paper, he had printing-ink, he had skill in engraving whole pages
for block-books, and he had a rude kind of printing-press. The
improvement consisted in this: Instead of engraving a whole page on a
block, single letters were engraved on little blocks called types, and
when a word or a line or a page was to be printed these types were set
in the position desired; in other words, the improvement consisted in
the invention of _moveable types_. The types were first made of wood and
afterward of metal.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS.]
The great advantage of the moveable types over the block-book is easily
seen. A block containing, say, the word "post" is useless except for
printing the word _post_; but divide it into four blocks, each
containing a letter: now you can print _post_, _spot_, _tops_, _stop_,
_top_, _sop_, _sot_, _pot_, _so_, _to_ and so forth.
The exact date of the invention of moveable types cannot be determined.
We can only say that they were first used between 1450 and 1460. Nor can
we tell who invented them. The Dutch claim that Lawrence Koster of
Harlem (Holland) made some moveable types as early as 1430, and that
John Faust, an employee, stole them and carried them to Mayence
(Germany), where John Gutenberg learned the secret of printing with
them. The Germans claim that Gutenberg was the real inventor. Much can
be said in behalf of both claims. What we really know is that the
earliest complete book printed on moveable types was a Bible which came
from the press of John Gutenberg in 1455.
Since 1450 there has been no discovery that has changed the character of
the printed volume. There have been wonderful improvements in the
processes of making and setting type, and printing-presses (Fig. 11)
have become marvels of mechanical skill, but the book of to-day is
essentially like the book of four hundred years ago. The tablet of the
memory, the knotted cord and notched stick, the uncanny picture-writing,
the clumsy picture-sign, the alphabet, the manuscript volume, the
printed block-book and the volume before you bring to an end the story
of the book.
FOOTNOTE:
[20] The illustration is taken from Keary's "Dawn of History."
THE MESSAGE
Men had not been living together long in a state of society before they
found it necessary to communicate with their fellow-men at a distance
and in order to do this the _message_ was invented. We have seen (p.
205) that among certain tribes of savages notched sticks bearing
messages were sent from one tribe to another. Among the ancient
Peruvians the message took the form of the curious looking quipu. After
the alphabet had been invented and papyrus had come into use as a
writing material, the message took the form of a written document and
resembled somewhat the modern _letter_.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A LETTER CARRIER OF ANCIENT EGYPT.]
The ancient Egyptians, as we would expect, were the first to make use of
the letter in the sending of messages (Fig. 1). The ancient Hebrews were
also familiar with the letter as a means of communication. We read in
the book of Chronicles how the post went with the letters of the king
and his princes throughout all Israel. The word _post_, as used here and
elsewhere in the Bible, signifies a runner, that is, one specially
trained to deliver letters or despatches speedily by running. Thus
Jeremiah predicted that after the fall of Babylon "one post shall run to
meet another and one messenger to meet another to show the King that his
city is taken." Although we frequently read of the post in Biblical
times we are nowhere told that the ordinary people enjoyed the
privileges of the post. In olden times it was only kings and princes and
persons of high degree that sent and received letters.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--AN EGYPTIAN MAIL CART.]
In nearly all the countries of antiquity there was an organized postal
system which was under the control of the government and which carried
only government messages. In Egypt there were postal chariots (Fig. 2)
of wonderful lightness designed especially for carrying the letters of
the king at the greatest possible speed. In ancient Judea messengers
must have traveled very fast, for Job, in his old age, says: "Now my
days are swifter than the post, they flee away." In ancient Persia the
postal system awakened the admiration of Herodotus. "Nothing mortal,"
says this old Greek historian, "travels so fast as these Persian
messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention and this is the
method of it. Along the whole line of road there are men stationed with
horses, the number of stations being equal to the number of days which
the journey takes, allowing a man and a horse to each day, and these men
will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the distance
they will have to go either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the
darkness of night. The first rider delivers the message to the second
and the second to the third, and so it is borne from hand to hand along
the whole line."
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--A LETTER CARRIER OF ANCIENT GREECE.]
The postal system which Herodotus found in Persia was better than the
system which existed in his own country for the reason that the Greeks
relied upon human messengers rather than upon horses to carry their
messages. Young Greeks were specially trained (Fig. 3) as runners for
the postal service and Greek history contains accounts of the marvelous
endurance and swiftness of those employed to carry messages. After the
defeat of the Persians by the Greeks at Marathon (490 B. C.) a runner
carried the news southward and did not pause for rest until he reached
Athens when he shouted the word "Victory!" and expired, being overcome
by fatigue. Another Greek, Phillipides by name, was despatched from
Athens to Sparta to ask the Spartans for aid in the war which the
Athenians were carrying on against Persia, and the distance between the
two cities--about 140 miles--was accomplished by the runner in less than
two days.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--A LETTER CARRIER OF ANCIENT ROME.]
But the best postal system of ancient times was the one which was
organized by the Romans. As one country after another was brought under
the dominion of Rome it became more and more necessary for the Roman
government to keep in close touch with all the parts of the vast empire.
Accordingly, by the time of Augustus (14 A.D.), there was established
throughout the Roman world a fully organized and well-equipped system of
posts. Along the magnificent roads which led out from Rome there were
built at regular distances stations, or post-houses, where horses and
riders were stationed for the purpose of receiving the messages of the
government and hurrying them along to the place of their destination.
The stations were only five or six miles apart and each station was
provided with a large number of horses and riders. By the frequent
changes of horses a letter could be hurried along with considerable
speed (Fig. 4). "By the help of the relays," says Gibbon, "it was easy
to travel a hundred miles in a day."
When Rome fell (476 A.D.) before the attacks of barbarous tribes her
excellent postal system fell with her and many centuries passed before
messages could again be regularly and quickly despatched between widely
separated points. Charles the Great, the emperor of the Franks,
established (800 A.D.) a postal system in his empire but the service did
not long survive the great ruler. In the 13th century the merchants of
the Hanse towns of Northern Germany could communicate with each other
somewhat regularly by letter, but the ordinary people of these towns did
not enjoy the privileges of a postal service. In the Middle Ages, as in
the ancient times, the public post was established solely for the
benefit of the government. Private messages had to be sent as best they
could be by private messengers and at private expense. As late as the
reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547) the only regular post route in England
was one which was established for the exclusive use of the king.
But the time was soon to come when ordinary citizens as well as officers
of state were to share in the benefits of a postal system. In 1635
Charles I of England gave orders that a post should run night and day
between Edinburgh and London and that postmen should take with them all
such letters as might be directed to towns on or near the road which
connected the two cities. The rate of postage[21] was fixed at two
pence for a single letter when the distance was under sixty miles; four
pence when the distance was between 60 and 140 miles; six pence for any
longer distance in England; and eight pence from London to any place in
Scotland. It was ordered that only messengers of the king should be
allowed to carry letters for profit unless to places to which the king's
post did not go. Here was the beginning of the modern postal system and
the modern post-office. Henceforth the post was to carry not only the
king's messages, but the messages of all people who would pay the
required postage.
The example set by England in throwing the post open to the public was
followed by other nations, and before a hundred years had passed nearly
all the civilized countries of the world were enjoying the privilege and
blessings of a well-organized postal system. It is true that the post
for a long time moved very slowly--a hundred miles a day was regarded as
a flying rate--and postage for a long time was very high, but the
service grew constantly better and by the close of the nineteenth
century trains were dashing along with the mails at the rate of a
thousand miles a day and postage within a country had been reduced to
two cents,[22] while for a nickel a letter could be sent to the most
distant parts of the globe.
Thus far we have traced the history of only one kind of message, the
kind that has the form of a written document and that is conveyed by a
human carrier over land and water from one place to another. But there
is a kind of message which is not borne along by human hands and which
does not travel on land or water. This is the _telegraph_,[23] the
message which darts through space and is delivered at a distant point
almost at the very instant at which it is sent.
The first telegraph was an aerial message and consisted of a signal made
by a flash of light. From the earliest times men have used fire signals
as a means of sending messages to distant points. When the city of Troy
in Asia Minor was captured by the Greeks (about 1100 B.C.) torches
flashing their light from one mountain top to another quickly carried
the news to the far-off cities of Greece. The ancient Greeks gave a
great deal of attention to the art of signaling by fire and they
invented several very ingenious systems of aerial telegraphy. The most
interesting of these systems is one invented and described by the Greek
historian Polybius, who flourished about 150 B.C. When signaling with
fire Polybius arranged for using two groups of torches with five torches
in each group, and for the purpose of understanding the signals he
divided the letters of the alphabet into five groups of five letters
each.[24] The torches were raised according to a plan that made it
possible to flash a signal that would indicate any letter of the
alphabet that might be desired. Thus if the desired letter was the third
one of the first group--that is, the letter _k_--one torch would show
which group was meant and three torches would show which letter was
meant (Fig. 5). In theory this system was perfect, for it provided for
sending any kind of message whatever. But in practice it had little
value, for it required so many torches and signals that an entire night
was consumed in spelling out a few words.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--TELEGRAPHING BY MEANS OF FIRE, 150 B. C.]
Although the elaborate system of aerial telegraph proposed by Polybius
was not generally adopted, nevertheless for centuries, both in ancient
times and during the middle ages, the fire signal was everywhere used
for the quick despatch of important news. In the seventeenth century
inventors began to devise new systems of aerial telegraphy. In 1663, the
Marquis of Worcester, who was always busy with some great invention (p.
178), announced to the world that he had discovered a plan by which one
could talk with another as far as the eye could distinguish between
black and white, and that this conversation could be carried on by night
as well as by day, even though the night were as dark and as black as
pitch. But the telegraph of the Marquis was like many of his other
inventions--it was chiefly on paper. In 1864, Dr. Robert Hooke of
England invented a method by which aerial messages could be sent a
distance of thirty or forty miles. His plan was to erect on hill tops a
series of high poles connected above by cross-pieces and by means of
pulleys suspend from the cross-pieces the letters of the alphabet which
would spell out the message (Fig. 6). In order to read the letters at
such great distances the eye was assisted by the telescope, an
instrument which had recently been invented.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--HOOKE'S AERIAL TELEGRAPH, 1684.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--CHAPPE'S AERIAL TELEGRAPH, 1793.]
But the greatest improvement in aerial telegraphy was made during the
French Revolution by Claude Chappe, a Frenchman living in Paris. In
1793, Chappe erected on the roof of the palace of the Louvre a post at
the top of which was a cross-beam which moved on a pivot about the
center like a scale beam (Fig. 7). The cross-beam could be moved
horizontally, vertically or at almost any angle by means of cords.
Chappe invented a number of positions for these arms and each position
stood for a certain letter of the alphabet. Machines of this kind were
erected on towers at places from nine to twelve miles apart and soon
Chappe was sending messages from Paris to the city of Lille, 130 miles
away. The messages were sent with great rapidity, for they passed from
one tower to another with the velocity of light--about 185,000 miles a
second--and it was possible for the operator to spell out about 100
words in an hour. And Chappe's messages could be sent at any time, day
or night, for the arms of the machine were furnished with Argand lamps
for night work.
Chappe's invention was the greatest which had thus far been made in the
history of the message. The new system of telegraphy proved to be
entirely successful and practical and it was not long before machines
similar to those invented by Chappe were in use in England and other
countries. In 1828, an English writer had the following words of praise
for aerial telegraphy: "Telegraphs have now been brought to so great a
degree of perfection that they carry information so speedily and
distinctly and are so much simplified that they can be constructed and
maintained at little expense. The advantages, too, which result from
their use are almost inconceivable. Not to speak of the speed with which
information is communicated and orders given in time of war, by means of
these aerial signals the whole kingdom could be prepared in an instant
to oppose an invading enemy."
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--STURGEON ELECTRO-MAGNET, 1825.]
But the aerial telegraph was soon to have a most dangerous rival. This
rival was _the electric telegraph_. Many years before the invention of
Chappe men had been experimenting with electricity with a view of
sending messages by means of an electric current. These experiments
began in 1728 when an Englishman named Gray caused electricity to
produce motion in light bodies located at a distance of more than 600
feet. In 1748, the great Benjamin Franklin, who conducted so many
wonderful experiments in electricity, sent an electric current through a
wire which was stretched across the Schuylkill River and set fire to
some alcohol which was at the opposite end of the wire. We may regard
the flash of alcohol as a telegraph, for it could have been used as a
signal. In 1819, Professor Oersted of Copenhagen brought a magnetic
needle close to a body through which an electric current was passing and
he observed that the needle had a tendency to place itself at right
angles to the electrified body. In 1825, William Sturgeon of England
coiled a copper wire around a bar of soft iron and found that when a
current of electricity was sent through the wire the bar of iron became
a temporary magnet; that is, the bar of iron attracted a needle when the
current was passing through the wire and ceased to attract it when the
current was broken (Fig. 8). These discoveries of Oersted and Sturgeon
led to the invention known as the _electro-magnet_ and the
electro-magnet led rapidly to the invention of the electric telegraph,
for by means of the electro-magnet a signal can be sent to a distance
as far as a current of electricity can be sent along a wire. In 1831,
Professor Joseph Henry, one of America's most distinguished scientists,
discovered a method by which an electric current could be sent along a
wire for a very great distance. The next year Henry constructed and
operated an apparatus which was essentially an electric telegraph (Fig.
9). "I arranged," he said, "around one of the upper rooms of the Albany
Academy a wire of more than a mile in length through which I was enabled
to make signals by sounding a bell. The mechanical arrangement for
effecting this object was simply a steel bar permanently magnetized,
supported on a pivot and placed with its north end between the two arms
of a horse-shoe magnet. When the latter was excited by the current the
end of the bar thus placed was attracted by one arm of the horse-shoe
and repelled by the other and was thus caused to move in a horizontal
plane and its further extremity to strike a bell suitably adjusted."
Thus by 1832 the electric current had been used for sending signals at a
distance and the electric telegraph had been invented.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--PROFESSOR HENRY'S ELECTRO-MAGNET, 1832.]
But the electric telegraph was still only a toy. How could it be made a
practical machine? How could it be used for sending messages in a
satisfactory manner? Inventors everywhere worked diligently to discover
a satisfactory method of signaling and many ingenious systems were
invented. As early as 1837 a telegraph line was established between
Paddington, England and Drayton--a distance of 13 miles--and messages
were sent over the wire. But the line failed to give satisfaction and
its use was discontinued. The honor of inventing the first really
practical and useful system of electrical telegraphy was at last won by
an American, S. F. B. Morse, a painter and professor of literature in
the University of the City of New York. In 1832 Morse began to think
about a plan for recording signals sent by electricity and by 1837 he
was about ready to take out a patent for making signals "by the
mechanical force of electro-magnetic motion." Morse was a poor man and
he lacked the means of conducting his experiments. He was fortunate,
however, in making the acquaintance and gaining the confidence of Alfred
Vail, a student of the University. Vail furnished the money for the
experiments and assisted Morse in perfecting his system. Indeed some of
the most original and valuable features of Morse's system were invented
by young Vail and not by Morse. In the face of much discouragement and
bad luck Morse and Vail worked patiently on together and by 1843 their
invention was completed.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--THE KEY USED BY MORSE.]
The main feature of Morse's system was to use the electric current for
sending an alphabetical code consisting of certain combinations of "dots
and dashes." The "dots" were simply clicking sounds and the "dashes"
were simply intervals between the clicking sounds. The sounds were made
by closing and breaking the current by means of a key or button (Fig.
10). If the sender of the message pressed upon the key and immediately
released it he made at the other end of the line a sharp click which was
called a "dot," and a single dot according to the code was the letter E.
If the sender of the message pressed upon the key and held it down for a
moment he made what was called a "dash," and a single dash according to
the code was the letter T. Thus by means of "dots and dashes" any
letter of the alphabet could be speedily sent.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--MORSE'S TELEGRAPHIC INSTRUMENT.]
Morse applied to Congress to aid him in his plans and in 1843 he secured
an appropriation of $30,000 for establishing a telegraph line between
Baltimore and Washington. Morse and Vail now hurried the great work on
and by May, 1844, the wires had been stretched between the two cities
and the instruments were ready for trial. And such heavy, clumsy affairs
the instruments (Fig. 11) were! "The receiving apparatus weighed 185
pounds and it required the strength of two strong men to handle it. At
the present day an equally effective magnet need not weigh more than
four ounces and might be carried in the vest pocket." But, awkward and
clumsy as it was, the new telegraph did its work well. On May 24, 1844,
Morse sent from Washington the historic message, "What hath God
wrought?" (Fig. 12) and in the twinkling of an eye it was received by
Vail at Baltimore, forty miles away.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--THE FIRST TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGE SENT FROM
WASHINGTON TO BALTIMORE, MAY 24, 1844.]
The Morse system proved to be profitable as well as successful and after
1844 the electric telegraph was soon in general use in all parts of the
world. In the United States cities were rapidly connected by wire and by
1860 all the principal places in the country could communicate with each
other by telegraph. In 1861, a telegraph line extended across the
continent and connected New York and San Francisco. Five years later,
thanks to the perseverance and energy of Cyrus W. Field, of New York,
the Old World and the New were joined together by a telegraphic cable
passing through the waters of the Atlantic from a point on the coast of
Ireland to a point on the coast of Newfoundland. With the laying of this
cable, in 1866, all parts of the world were brought into telegraphic
communication and it seemed that the last step in the development of the
message had been taken.
But the story of the Message did not end with the invention of the
telegraph and the laying of the Atlantic cable. Almost as soon as
inventors had learned how to send a current along a wire and make
signals at a distance they began trying experiments to see if they could
not also send sounds, especially the sound of the human voice, along a
wire; as soon as they had made the _telegraph_ they began to try to make
the _telephone_.[25] In 1855 Professor Wheatstone of England invented an
instrument by means of which musical sounds made in one part of a
building were carried noiselessly along a wire through several
intervening halls and reproduced at the other end of the wire in a
distant part of the building. About the same time a Frenchman named
Bourseul produced a device by which a disk vibrating under the influence
of the human voice would, by means of an electric current, produce
similar vibrations of a disk located at a distance.