[Illustration: Fig. 56.--S. F. B. Morse.] This kind of current was found very effective for telegraphy, especially as the magnet was always ready, whereas the electric batteries, or cells, were liable to get exhausted and useless. It was only when the electric battery was improved greatly and made more trustworthy that it was adopted again for telegraphy, and it is used for that purpose at the present day. A great improvement was introduced into telegraphy by S. E. B. Morse, who invented the alphabet known as the “Morse Code” and also a recording machine which writes down the message in dots and dashes. The alphabet is as follows:-- a • — h • • • • o — — — u • • — b — • • • i • • p — — • v • • • — c — • • • • j • — — — q — — • — w • — — d — • • k — • — r • — • x — • • — e • l • — • • s • • • y — • — — f • • — • m — — t — z — — • • g — — • n — • [Illustration: Fig. 57.--The Needle Telegraph.] The word “alphabet” appears on the paper strip like this:-- • — • — • • — — • • • • • • — — • • • • — a l p h a b e t For work in which no record is required, the needle telegraph is employed usually. But the Morse code is used in this case also, the needle moving to the right when a dot is intended, and to the left when a dash. Telegraph clerks get after a while to understand a message by simply listening to the sound of the needle. Nowadays the needle is a stout magnet, which as a rule rests against a piece of iron belonging to an electromagnet. When the current passes, it knocks against a different piece of iron, and the operators learn to read the message from the sound of the knocks. The instrument is therefore called a _sounder_. CHAPTER XII THE TELEPHONE IN the electric telegraph, the electric current is made to turn a magnetic needle, or move an electric pen at a distance. When the distance becomes very great, as in the telegraph cables which connect us with America, a more delicate instrument is used for receiving the messages. It consists of a kind of small ink bottle, which is turned this way or that by the electric current. It squirts out a fine jet of ink, and the ink falls on paper which is moved past the instrument. In this way the signals are recorded on paper without any friction. The electric telegraph, however, is a very simple and coarse instrument in comparison with the telephone, for the telephone enables us to send speech itself over several hundred miles, over distances which the most powerful light from the highest lighthouse could not cover.