The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
"America, your Highness. The steam-engine was invented in England, and an
American adapted it to ships."
_Woondouk._ "Those are the people who went out from you, and you could not
govern them, and they set up for themselves."
_Envoy._ "Precisely. Just as the people of Aracan, of your own race and
religion, settled in that country, and had a king of their own, and you
lost dominion over them." (_Much good-humored laughter at this reply._)
Speaking of the friendly relations between England and France, the Envoy
explained that communication is kept up constantly between the two
countries by means of the electric telegraph. (_To the Woondouk._) "You
have seen the telegraph in Bengal, and will be able to inform his Highness
about it."
_Woondouk._ "They put a wire on posts above the ground, or bury it
underneath, carrying it over mountains and through rivers; and at certain
stations apart there are magnetic needles, which shake to denote the
letters of the words of a message that is sent. Thus they converse
together, though they are hundreds of miles apart."
This Woondouk, Moung Mhon, was a very astute and ingenious man. When he
accompanied the old Dalla-Woon on a mission to the Governor-General, he was
taken on one occasion, by Major Phayre and Colonel Baker, to make a short
excursion on the East India Railway. When his attention was called to the
great speed at which they were travelling, he made no remark, except to
ask the interval between two telegraph posts on the line; and then,
counting the beats of his own pulse, and making a mental estimate of the
rapidity with which he passed those intervals, he quietly said, "Yes, we
_are_ going very fast."
_Woondouk._ "Now where was the electric telegraph first discovered?"
_Envoy._ "I believe the discovery was nearly contemporaneous in England and
America."
_Woondouk._ "But it must have been in one place or the other."
_Envoy._ "In Europe, where men of science are engaged in a great variety of
studies, and publish their views and opinions, similar discoveries are
frequently made about the same time in different countries."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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