[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.