The Story of Electricity

Like the "philosopher's stone," the "elixir of youth," and "perpetual motion," the telegraph was long a dream of the imagination. In the sixteenth century, if not before, it was believed that two magnetic needles could be made sympathetic, so that when one was moved the other would likewise move, however far apart they were, and thus enable two distant friends to communicate their minds to one another.

The idea was prophetic, although the means of giving effect to it were mistaken. It became practicable, however, when Oersted discovered that a magnetic needle could be swung to one side or the other by an electric current pa.s.sing near it.

The ill.u.s.trious Laplace was the first to suggest a telegraph on this principle. A wire connecting the two poles of a battery is traversed, as we know, by an electric current, which makes the round of the circuit, and only flows when that circuit is complete. However long the wire may be, however far it may run between the poles, the current will follow all its windings, and finish its course from pole to pole of the battery. You may lead the wire across the ocean and back, or round the world if you will, and the current will travel through it.

The moment you break the wire or circuit, however, the current will stop. By its electromotive force it can overcome the resistance of the many miles of conductor; but unless it be unusually strong it cannot leap across even a minute gap of air, which is one of the best insulators.

If, then, we have a simple device easily manipulated by which we can interrupt the circuit of the battery, in accordance with a given code, we shall be able to send a series of currents through the wire and make sensible signals wherever we choose. These signs can be produced by the deviation of a magnetic needle, as Laplace pointed out, or by causing an electro-magnet to attract soft iron, or by chemical decomposition, or any other sensible effect of the current.

Ampere developed the idea of Laplace into a definite plan, and in 1830 or thereabout Ritchie, in London, and Baron Schilling, in St.

Petersburg, exhibited experimental models. In 1833 and afterwards Professors Gauss and Weber installed a private telegraph between the observatory and the physical cabinet of the University of Gottingen. Moreover, in 1836 William Fothergill Cooke, a retired surgeon of the Madras army, attending lectures on anatomy at the University of Heidelberg, saw an experimental telegraph of Professor Moncke, which turned all his thoughts to the subject. On returning to London he made the acquaintance of Professor Wheatstone, of King's College, who was also experimenting in this direction, and in 1836 they took out a patent for a needle telegraph. It was tried successfully between the Euston terminus and the Camden Town station of the London and North-Western Railway on the evening of July 25th, 1837, in presence of Mr.

Robert Stephenson, and other eminent engineers. Wheatstone, sitting in a small room near the booking-office at Euston, sent the first message to Cooke at Camden Town, who at once replied.

"Never," said Wheatstone, "did I feel such a tumultuous sensation before, as when, all alone in the still room, I heard the needles click, and as I spelled the words I felt all the magnitude of the invention p.r.o.nounced to be practicable without cavil or dispute."

The importance of the telegraph in working railways was manifest, and yet the directors of the company were so purblind as to order the removal of the apparatus, and it was not until two years later that the Great Western Railway Company adopted it on their line from Paddington to West Drayton, and subsequently to Slough. This was the first telegraph for public use, not merely in England, but the world. The charge for a message was only a shilling, nevertheless few persons availed themselves of the new invention, and it was not until its fame was spread abroad by the clever capture of a murderer named Tawell that it began to prosper.

Tawell had killed a woman at Slough, and on leaving his victim took the train for Paddington. The police, apprised of the murder, telegraphed a description of him to London. The original "five needle instrument," now in the museum of the Post Office, had a dial in the shape of a diamond, on which were marked the letters of the alphabet, and each letter of a word was pointed out by the movements of a pair of needles. The dial had no letter "q," and as the man was described as a quaker the word was sent "kwaker." When the tram arrived at Paddington he was shadowed by detectives, and to his utter astonishment was quietly arrested in a tavern near Cannon Street.

In Cooke and Wheatstone's early telegraph the wire travelled the whole round of the circuit, but it was soon found that a "return"

wire in the circuit was unnecessary, since the earth itself could take the place of it. One wire from the sending station to the receiving station was sufficient, provided the apparatus at each end were properly connected to the ground. This use of the earth not only saved the expense of a return wire, but diminished the resistance of the circuit, because the earth offered practically no resistance.

Figure 45 is a diagram of the connections in a simple telegraph circuit. At each of the stations there is a battery B B', an interruptor or sending key K K'to make and break the continuity of the circuit, a receiving instrument R R'to indicate the signal currents by their sensible effects, and connections with ground or "earth plates" E E' to engage the earth as a return wire. These are usually copper plates buried in the moist subsoil or the water pipes of a city. The line wire is commonly of iron supported on poles, but insulated from them by earthenware "cups" or insulators.

At the station on the left the key is in the act of SENDING a message, and at the post on the right it is conformably in the position for receiving the message. The key is so constructed that when it is at rest it puts the line in connection with the earth through the RECEIVING INSTRUMENT and the earth plate.

The key K consists essentially of a spring-lever, with two platinum contacts, so placed that when the lever is pressed down by the hand of the telegraphist it breaks contact with the receiver R, and puts the line-wire L in connection with the earth E through the battery B, as shown on the left. A current then flows into the line and traverses the receiver R' at the distant station, returning or seeming to return to the sending battery by way of the earth plate E' on the right and the intermediate ground.

The duration of the current is at the will of the operator who works the sending-key, and it is plain that signals can be made by currents of various lengths. In the "Morse code" of signals, which is now universal, only two lengths of current are employed-- namely, a short, momentary pulse, produced by instant contact of the key, and a jet given by a contact about three times longer.

These two signals are called "dot" and "dash," and the code is merely a suitable combination of them to signify the several letters of the alphabet. Thus e, the commonest letter in English, is telegraphed by a single "dot," and the letter t by a single "dash," while the letter a is indicated by a "dot" followed after a brief interval or "s.p.a.ce" by a dash.

Obviously, if two kinds of current are used, that is to say, if the poles of the battery are reversed by the sending-key, and the direction of the current is consequently reversed in the circuit, there is no need to alter the length of the signal currents, because a momentary current sent in one direction will stand for a "dot" and in the other direction for a "dash." As a matter of fact, the code is used in both ways, according to the nature of the line and receiving instrument. On submarine cables and with needle and "mirror" instruments, the signals are made by reversing currents of equal duration, but on land lines worked by "Morse"

instruments and "sounders," they are produced by short and long currents.

The Morse code is also used in the army for signalling by waving flags or flashing lights, and may also be serviceable in private life. Telegraph clerks have been known to "speak" with each other in company by winking the right and left eye, or tapping with their teaspoon on a cup and saucer. Any two distinct signs, however made, can be employed as a telegraph by means of the Morse code, which runs as shown in figure 46.

The receiving instruments R R' may consist of a magnetic needle pivotted on its centre and surrounded by a coil of wire, through which the current pa.s.ses and deflects the needle to one side or the other, according to the direction in which it flows. Such was the pioneer instrument of Cooke and Wheatstone, which is still employed in England in a simplified form as the "single" and "double" needle-instrument on some of the local lines and in railway telegraphs. The signals are made by sending momentary currents in opposite directions by a "double current" key, which (unlike the key K in figure 45) reverses the poles

A .- J -.-.

B -... K -.- C ... L -- D -.. M - - E . N -.

F .-. O . .

G --. Q ..-.

H . .. R . ..

I ..

S ... 1 .--.

T - 2 ..-..

U ..- 3 ...-.

V ...- 4 ....- W .- 5 --- X .-.. 6 ......

Y .. .. 7 --..

Z ... . 8 -.. ..

& . .. 9 -..- Period ..--.. 0 ---- Comma .-.-

The International (Morse) code used elsewhere is the same as the above, with the following exceptions:

C -.-. Q --.- F . -. R .-.

J .--- X -..- L .-.. Y -.-- O --- Z --..

P .--.

FIG. 46.--Morse Signal Alphabet.

of the battery, in putting the line to one or the other, and thus making the "dot" signal with the positive and the "dash" signal with the negative pole. It follows that if the "dot" is indicated by a throw of the needle to the right side, a "dash" will be given by a throw to the left.

Most of the telegraph instruments for land lines are based on the principle of the electro-magnet. We have already seen (page 59) how Ampere found that a spiral of wire with a current flowing in it behaved like a magnet and was able to suck a piece of soft iron into it. If the iron is allowed to remain there as a core, the combination of coil and core becomes an electro-magnet, that is to say, a magnet which is only a magnet so long as the current pa.s.ses. Figure 47 represents a simple "horse-shoe" electro-magnet as invented by Sturgeon. A U-shaped core of soft iron is wound with insulated wire W, and when a current is sent through the wire, the core is found to become magnetic with a "north" pole in one end and a "south" pole in the other. These poles are therefore able to attract a separate piece of soft iron or armature A. When the current is stopped, however, the core ceases to be a magnet and the armature drops away. In practice the electromagnet usually takes the form shown in figure 48, where the poles are two bobbins or solenoids of wire 61 having straight cores of iron which are united by an iron bar B, and A is the armature.

Such an electromagnet is a more powerful device than a swinging needle, and better able to actuate a mechanism. It became the foundation of the recording instrument of Samuel Morse, the father of the telegraph in America. The Morse, or, rather, Morse and Vail instrument, actually marks the signals in "dots" and "dashes" on a ribbon of moving paper. Figure 49 represents the Morse instrument, in which an electromagnet M attracts an iron armature A when a current pa.s.ses through its bobbins, and by means of a lever L connected with the armature raises the edge of a small disc out of an ink-pot I against the surface of a travelling slip of paper P, and marks a dot or dash upon it as the case may be. The rest of the apparatus consists of details and accessories for its action and adjustment, together with the sending-key K, which is used in asking for repet.i.tions of the words, if necessary.

A permanent record of the message is of course convenient, nevertheless the operators prefer to "read" the signals by the ear, rather than the eye, and, to the annoyance of Morse, would listen to the click of the marking disc rather than decipher the marks on the paper. Consequently Alfred Vail, the collaborator of Morse, who really invented the Morse code, produced a modification of the recording instrument working solely for the ear. The "sounder," as it is called, has largely driven the "printer" from the field. This neat little instrument is shown in figure 50, where M is the electromagnet, and A is the armature which chatters up and down between two metal stops, as the current is made and broken by the sending-key, and the operator listening to the sounds interprets the message letter by letter and word by word.

The motion of the armature in both of these instruments takes a sensible time, but Alexander Bain, of Thurso, by trade a watchmaker, and by nature a genius, invented a chemical telegraph which was capable of a prodigious activity. The instrument of Bain resembled the Morse in marking the signals on a tape of moving paper, but this was done by electrolysis or electro-chemical decomposition. The paper was soaked in a solution of iodide of pota.s.sium in starch and water, and the signal currents were pa.s.sed through it by a marking stylus or pencil of iron. The electricity decomposed the solution in its pa.s.sage and left a blue stain on the paper, which corresponded to the dot and dash of the Morse apparatus. The Bain telegraph can record over 1000 words a minute as against 40 to 50 by the Morse or sounder, nevertheless it has fallen into disuse, perhaps because the solution was troublesome.

It is stated that a certain blind operator could read the signals by the smell of the chemical action; and we can well believe it.

In fact, the telegraph appeals to every sense, for a deaf clerk can feel the movements of a sounder, and the signals of the current can be told without any instrument by the mere taste of the wires inserted in the mouth.

A skilful telegraphist can transmit twenty-five words a minute with the single-current key, and nearly twice as many by the double-current key, and if we remember that an average English word requires fifteen separate signals, the number will seem remarkable; but by means of Wheatstone's automatic sender 150 words or more can be sent in a minute.

Among telegraphs designed to print the message in Roman type, that of Professor David Edward Hughes is doubtless the fittest, since it is now in general use on the Continent, and conveys our Continental news. In this apparatus the electromagnet, on attracting its armature, presses the paper against a revolving type wheel and receives the print of a type, so that the message can be read by a novice. To this effect the type wheel at the receiving station has to keep in perfect time as it revolves, so that the right letter shall be above the paper when the current pa.s.ses. Small varieties of the type-printer are employed for the distribution of news and prices in most of the large towns, being located in hotels, restaurants, saloons, and other public places, and reporting prices of stocks and bonds, horse races, and sporting and general news. The "duplex system," whereby two messages, one in either direction, can be sent over one wire simultaneously without interfering, and the quadruplex system, whereby four messages, two in either direction, are also sent at once, have come into use where the traffic over the lines is very great. Both of these systems and their modifications depend on an ingenious arrangement of the apparatus at each end of the line, by which the signal currents sent out from one station do not influence the receivers there, but leave them free to indicate the currents from the distant station. When the Wheatstone Automatic Sender is employed with these systems about 500 words per minute can be sent through the line. Press news is generally sent by night, and it is on record, that during a great debate in Parliament, as many as half a million words poured out of the Central Telegraph Station at St. Martin's-le-Grand in a single night to all parts of the country.

Errors occur now and then through bad penmanship or the similarity of certain signals, and amusing telegrams have been sent out, as when the nomination of Mr. Brand for the Speakership of the Commons took the form of "Proposed to brand Speaker"; and an excursion party a.s.sured their friends at home of their security by the message, "Arrived all tight."

Telegraphs, in the literal sense of the word, which actually write the message as with a pen, and make a copy or facsimile of the original, have been invented from time to time. Such are the "telegraphic pen" of Mr. E. A. Cowper, and the "telautographs" of Mr. J. H. Robertson and Mr. Elisha Gray. The first two are based on a method of varying the strength of the current in accordance with the curves of the handwriting, and making the varied current actuate by means of magnetism a writing pen or stylus at the distant station. The instrument of Gray, which is the most successful, works by intermittent currents or electrical impulses, that excite electro-magnets and move the stylus at the far end of the line. They are too complicated for description here, and are not of much practical importance.

Telegraphs for transmitting sketches and drawings have also been devised by D'Ablincourt and others, but they have not come into general use. Of late another step forward has been taken by Mr.

Amstutz, who has invented an apparatus for transmitting photographic pictures to a distance by means of electricity. The system may be described as a combination of the photograph and telegraph. An ordinary negative picture is taken, and then impressed on a gelatine plate sensitised with bichromate of potash. The parts of the gelatine in light become insoluble, while the parts in shade can be washed away by water. In this way a relief or engraving of the picture is obtained on the gelatine, and a cross section through the plate would, if looked at edgeways, appear serrated, or up and down, like a section of country or the trace of the stylus in the record of a phonograph.

The gelatine plate thus carved by the action of light and water is wrapped round a revolving drum or barrel, and a spring stylus or point is caused to pa.s.s over it as the barrel revolves, after the manner of a phonographic cylinder. In doing so the stylus rises and falls over the projections in the plate and works a lever against a set of telegraph keys, which open electric contacts and break the connections of an electric battery which is joined between the keys and the earth. There are four keys, and when they are untouched the current splits up through four by-paths or bobbins of wire before it enters the line wire and pa.s.ses to the distant station. When any of the keys are touched, however, the corresponding by-path or bobbin is cut out of circuit. The suppression of a by-path or channel for the current has the effect of adding to the "resistance" of the line, and therefore of diminishing the strength of the current. When all the keys are untouched the resistance is least and the current strongest. On the other hand, when all the keys but the last are touched, the resistance is greatest and the current weakest. By this device it is easy to see that as the stylus or tracer sinks into a hollow of the gelatine, or rises over a height, the current in the line becomes stronger or weaker. At the distant station the current pa.s.ses through a solenoid or hollow coil of wire connected to the earth and magnetises it, so as to pull the soft iron plug or "core" with greater or less force into its hollow interior. The up and down movement of the plug actuates a graving stylus or point through a lever, and engraves a copy of the original gelatine trace on the surface of a wax or gelatine plate overlying another barrel or drum, which revolves at a rate corresponding to that of the barrel at the transmitting station. In this way a facsimile of the gelatine picture is produced at the distant station, and an electrotype or cliche of it can be made for printing purposes. The method is, in fact, a species of electric line graving, and Mr.

Amstutz hopes to apply it to engraving on gold, silver, or any soft metal, not necessarily at a distance.

We know that an electric current in one wire can induce a transient current in a neighbouring wire, and the fact has been utilised in the United States by Phelps and others to send messages from moving trains. The signal currents are intermittent, and when they are pa.s.sed through a conductor on the train they excite corresponding currents in a wire run along the track, which can be interpreted by the hum they make in a telephone.

Experiments recently made by Mr. W. H. Preece for the Post Office show that with currents of sufficient strength and proper apparatus messages can be sent through the air for five miles or more by this method of induction.

We come now to the submarine telegraph, which differs in many respects from the overland telegraph. Obviously, since water and moist earth is a conductor, a wire to convey an electric current must be insulated if it is intended to lie at the bottom of the sea or buried underground. The best materials for the purpose yet discovered are gutta-percha and india-rubber, which are both flexible and very good insulators.

The first submarine cable was laid across the Channel from Dover to Calais in 1851, and consisted of a copper strand, coated with gutta-percha, and protected from injury by an outer sheath of hemp and iron wire. It is the general type of all the submarine cables which have been deposited since then in every part of the world.

As a rule, the armour or sheathing is made heavier for sh.o.r.e water than it is for the deep sea, but the electrical portion, or "core," that is to say, the insulated conductor, is the same throughout.

The first Atlantic cable was laid in 1858 by Cyrus W. Field and a company of British capitalists, but it broke down, and it was not until 1866 that a new and successful cable was laid to replace it.

Figure 51 represents various cross-sections of an Atlantic cable deposited in 1894.

The inner star of twelve copper wires is the conductor, and the black circle round it is the gutta-percha or insulator which keeps the electricity from escaping into the water. The core in shallow water is protected from the bites of teredoes by a bra.s.s tape, and the envelope or armour consists of hemp and iron wire preserved from corrosion by a covering of tape and a compound of mineral pitch and sand.