Of the many means by which this object was attempted to be accomplished, it will be only possible, in this general survey, to notice those that mark the first steps of the invention, and the most important of those that have accompanied its progress to the present time. The first method that suggested itself was to transmit signals by means of pith-ball electrometers. When, for instance, two pith-balls are suspended from a wire that is made to form part of an electric circuit, the electricity communicated to the balls causes them to diverge, and when the electricity in the wire is discharged, they immediately collapse. This action of pith-balls, when electrified, was the simplest mode known of making telegraphic signals, and it was accordingly adopted by several of the early inventors of Electric Telegraphs. The first person who proposed to apply it for that purpose was M. Lesage, of Geneva, in 1774. His plan was to form 24 electric circuits by as many separate wires, insulated from each other in glass tubes; and to place in the circuit, at each communicating station, an equal number of pith-ball electrometers. Each electrometer was to represent a letter of the alphabet, and they were to be brought into action by an excited glass rod. When a communication was to be made, the wires connected with the separate galvanometers were to be charged alternately with electricity by the excited rod of glass; and the person at the receiving station, by noticing which of the electrometers were successively put into action, could spell the words intended to be communicated. By the means thus proposed, correspondence could have taken place at only short distances, for the charge of an excited glass rod would have been too feeble to produce any sensible effect on the electrometers had the length of the circuit been considerable. This difficulty might have been overcome by substituting the charge of a Leyden jar for the excited glass; but the more serious obstacle to the use of such a telegraph would have been the cost, and the difficulty of insulating the 24 wires required to work it. Most of the early telegraphic inventors encumbered their inventions with the same obstacle, as they seemed to consider it necessary to have a separate circuit for each letter of the alphabet. It was not so however, with all; for M. Lomond, a Frenchman, who ranks second in the list of telegraphic inventors, modified the principle of M. Lesage, so as to enable him to work with only two wires and one electrometer at each station. With the experience since gained in the application of the needle telegraph, such an arrangement seems very simple, and we are inclined to wonder that it was not generally adopted, especially after M. Lomond had shown the way.