The poles of the magnet display the same phenomena as regards attraction and repulsion, as do the opposite kinds of electricity. If we suspend a magnet and bring the north pole of another to the north pole of the suspended magnet, the latter will turn away; but if we apply the north pole of one to the south pole of the other they will be attracted just as opposite electricities attract each other. MAGNETIZATION is the term applied to the making of artificial magnets, which act is accomplished by bringing the needle in contact with other magnets, or sometimes by means of the electric current. If we carefully stroke the needle with the magnet, always in the same direction, lifting the magnet and beginning afresh every time, we shall magnetize the needle, but with a different polarity from the pole it was rubbed with. A magnet rubbing its _north_ pole against a needle will make the latter’s point _south_, and _vice versâ_. Now that we have seen how the “magnetic needle” is arrived at, we can proceed to explain the electric telegraph. The term telegraph is derived from the Greek words _tele_, “far,” and _graphein_, “to write,” and now includes all modes of signalling. Signalling, or telegraphing, is of very ancient origin; the Roman generals spelt words by fire. The beacons fired on the hills, the “Fiery Cross,” and other ancient modes are well known. The semaphore and flags have long been and are still used as modes of signalling, while the flashing of the heliograph “telegraphs” to a distant camp. The Semaphore was invented by Chappé, and was really the first practical system of telegraphy. It was adopted in 1794, but before this, in 1753, a letter appeared in the _Scots Magazine_, by Charles Marshall, suggesting that signals should be given by means of electric wires, equal in number to the letters of the alphabet. Soon afterwards Lesage, of Geneva, made an electric telegraph to be worked by frictional electricity, and many ingenious attempts were subsequently made to utilize electricity for signalling purposes, but without any permanent success; indeed, the British government were quite content with their semaphores, for they wrote that “telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary, and no other than the one now in use will be adopted”!