|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 21
* * * * *
[KANSAS CITY REVIEW.]
EARLY HISTORY OF THE TELEGRAPH.
Although the electric telegraph is, comparatively speaking, a recent
invention, yet methods of communication at a distance, by means of
signals, have probably existed in all ages and in all nations. There
is reason to believe that among the Greeks a system of telegraphy was
in use, as the burning of Troy was certainly known in Greece very soon
after it happened, and before any person had returned from Troy.
Polybius names the different instruments used by the ancients for
communicating information--"pyrsia," because the signals were always
made by means of fire lights. At first they communicated information
of events in an imperfect manner, but a new method was invented by
Cleoxenus, which was much improved by Polybius, as he himself informs
us, and which may be described as follows:
Take the letters of the alphabet and arrange them on a board in five
columns, each column containing five letters; then the man who signals
would hold up with his left hand a number of torches which would
represent the number of the column from which the letter is to be
taken, and with his right hand a number of torches that will represent
the particular letter in that column that is to be taken. It is thus
easy to understand how the letters of a short sentence are
communicated from station to station as far as required. This is the
pyrsia or telegraph of Polybius.
It seems that the Romans had a method of telegraphing in their walled
cities, either by a hollow formed in the masonry, or by a tube fixed
thereto so as to confine the sound, in order to convey information to
any part they liked. This method of communicating is in the present
age frequently employed in the well known speaking tubes. It does not
appear that the moderns had thought of such a thing as a telegraph
until 1661, when the Marquis of Worcester, in his "Century of
Inventions," affirmed that he had discovered a method by which a man
could hold discourse with his correspondent as far as they could
reach, by night as well as by day; he did not, however, describe this
invention.
Dr. Hooke delivered a discourse before the Royal Society in 1684,
showing how to communicate at great distances. In this discourse he
asserts the possibility of conveying intelligence from one place to
another at a distance of 120 miles as rapidly as a man can write what
he would have sent. He takes to his aid the then recent invention of
the telescope, and explains how characters exposed at one station on
the top of one hill may be made visible to the next station on the top
of the next hill. He invented twenty-four simple characters, each
formed of a combination of three deal boards, each character
representing a letter by the use of cords; these characters were
pushed from behind a screen and exposed, and then withdrawn behind the
screen again. It was not, however, until the French revolution that
the telegraph was applied to practical purposes; but about the end of
1703 telegraphic communication was established between Paris and the
frontiers, and shortly afterward telegraphs were introduced into
England.
The history of the invention and introduction of the electric
telegraph by Prof. Morse is one of inexhaustible interest, and every
incident relating to it is worthy of preservation. The incidents
described below will be found of special interest. The article is from
the pen of the late Judge Neilson Poe, and was the last paper written
by him. He prepared it during his recent illness, the letter embodied
in it from Mr. Latrobe being of course obtained at the time of its
date. It is as follows:
On the 5th of April, 1843, when the monthly meeting of the directors
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company was about to adjourn, the
President, the Hon. Louis McLane, rose with a paper in his hand which
he said he had almost overlooked, and which the Secretary would read.
It proved to be an application from Prof. Morse for the privilege of
laying the wires of his electric telegraph along the line of the
railroad between Baltimore and Washington, and was accompanied by a
communication from B.H. Latrobe, Esq., Chief Engineer, recommending
the project as worthy of encouragement.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|