The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: With the Reports of Congress, and a Description of All Telegraphs Known, Employing Electricity or GalvanismVail, Alfred
History
The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: With the Reports of Congress, and a Description of All Telegraphs Known, Employing Electricity or Galvanism
Vail, Alfred
Telegraph -- History
“_Third Rule._ To indicate the conclusion of a word, the unit 1 must
be used. Therefore, it is used with the last single letter of a word,
being made to follow the ending letter. It must also be prefixed to
the letter commencing a word, when that letter follows a word of _two
letters_ only. For example: _Sie lebt_ must be represented _Si_, _e1_,
_le_, _bt_, that is the unit 1 must be placed after the first _e_. _Er
lebt_, on the contrary, must be represented. _Er_, _1l_, _eb_, _t1_;
that is, the unit 1 is placed before the _l_. Instead of using the
unit, another signal may be introduced, the cross † to indicate the
separation of syllables.
“Suppose now the decomposing table is situated in one city, and the
pin arrangement in another, connected with each other by 35 continuous
wires, extended from city to city. Then the operator, with his Voltaic
column and pin arrangement at one station, may communicate intelligence
to the observer of the gas at the decomposing table of the other
station.
“The metallic plates with which the extended wires are connected
have conical shaped holes in their ends; and the pins attached to
the two wires of the Voltaic column are likewise of a conical shape,
so that when they are put in the holes, there may be a close fit,
prevent oxidation and produce a certain connection. It is well known
that slight oxidation of the parts in contact will interrupt the
communication. The pin arrangement might be so contrived as to use
permanent keys, which for the 35 plates or rods would require 70 pins.
The first key might be for hydrogen A; the third key for hydrogen B;
the fourth key for oxygen B, and so on.
“The preparation and management of the Voltaic column is so well known,
that little need be said except that it should be of that durability
as to last more than a month. It should not be of very broad surfaces,
as I have proved, that six of my usual plates (each one consisting
of a Brabant dollar, felt, and a disc of zinc, weighing 52 grains)
would evolve more gas, than five plates of the great battery of our
Academy.[19] As to the cost of construction, this model which I have
had the honour to exhibit to the Royal Academy, cost 30 florins. One
line consisting of 35 wires, laid in glass or earthen pipes, each wire
insulated with silk, making each wire 22,827 Parisian feet, or a German
mile, or a single wire of 788,885 feet in length, might be made for
less than 2000 florins, as appears from the cost of my short one.”
[19] Academy of Sciences at Munich.
_Extract from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 20, page 325._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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