The Express.
London, England, 1858-04-22 00:00:00

PROGRESS OP TIU,IGRAIHIC INVENTION.

Last night, at the weekly meeting of the Society
of Arts, Mr. C. W. Siemens read a paper "On the Proper
of the Eta:trio Telegraph." The author rid the object he
had more peuilculerly in view was to true the radial pro-
gress of this invention since the time of its ant appearance,
with • view to establish more clearly its present pukka,
and to point out the direction in which we should proceed, in
order to metre still greater results. Many attempts to con-
struct an electric *graph were made in the last century,
with frktiosal elsolekity, but with little success, until
&ernering, of Monica, constructed, in 1808, the drat voltaic
telegraph, producing signals by the decomposition of water.
The discovery of eiseno-magnetism, however, turned the tide
of invention fete another direction. Ampire was the first to
gr
opes. -a
alsotroragnet needle telegraph, consisting of 24
end 26 line wires, the extra line being intended for the
metallic return circuit common to all. Ritchie executed in
1832 a model of Ampdre's telegraph, with some improve-
ments. The err working electric telegraph was established
by Generend Weber, at Gottingen, in 1831, and consisted of
wires earned a distance of a mile on high poets over the
town. The magneto-electric current was used to work it.
Steinheil, of Munich, produced in 1837 his needle prtntln&
and acoustic instrument, which he first tried at
through about five miles of surssarled line wine sad shortly
afterwards open • railway near Frankfort. At the time
when Stainheil 'WM absorbed in his labour, Proffiesor Wheat-
stone was also engaged upon a series of experiments an the
velocity of electricity, with the view to the constanotion of
electric telegraphs, and in June, 1837, he joined Mr.
Cooke in a patent for • needle telegraph of flve-line
wires (besides one wire for the rerun current),
and us many needles, which, by a system of
permutations, could be so deflected that any letter of the
alphabet was pointed out upon a diamond-shaped hoard by
the convergence of two needles towards it. The line wires
were proposed to be coated with insulating material, stab as
fibrous substances saturated with pitch, and to be drawn
into leaden pipes, in order to exclude the moisture of the
ground. An experimental line of telegraph on this prin-
ciple was established in the NUM year at the Boston Rail-
way Station. In 1838, Morse, an American, deposited en
instrument of his construction at the Paris Academy of
Sciaces. His invention consists chiefly in the substitu-
tion of electromagnets for needles in the conatenotion of a
recording instrument, which in other respects is similar to
Steinheirs. The object, however, an important one, was
to render the instrument powerful and orb& in its
arra. Other countries had taken up the subject, and
in Prussia • royal commission was appointed to consider
and dens upon the system to be adopted, of which
commission the author's brother Mr. Werner Siemens, be- I
came an active member. The Commission was in favour of
an underground system, and this led Mr. Werner Siemens to
apply gotta percha as an insuister. The author described the
instrument proposed by his brother at this time, which re-
quired only a stogie wire, and which was stated to be simple
and effective. He then explained numerous other inatrumente
and appliances which had been used for telegraphic purposes,
and passed on to the subject of submarine conductor. The
first experiments to submerge an insulated conductor (which
consisted of copper wire covered with cotton thread, saturated
with pitch and tar), were made at Calcutta in 1819__, by Dr.
(now Sr William): O'Shauleassay. Pransaar Wlestaleme
proposed in the following _
year to establish a
cable between Ragland sad Franco, sell dell=
he intended to re contained eh segmeldy Yea-
lated copper wires, which two jirebeelsi by thew
sheathing of wire. hitharine alepegh thethbateetrie,have
proved impereethethia but for the timely diesevery of gotta
Fuchs. The fmt eseemsfed altemple
_M ealebbie subsAmons
conductors we. wash by the antheee battler, Mr. Winter
Siemens, In ISM, r the Bey of Kith seed la mai, the
Rhine at Camp♦ awl ether when. The het siesmat to
establish a sabegessme ashlar mem the qua sea (from
I Dover ha Caleb) wad Mil by Wee llselen WWI. It m-
ethod d • reds ores
wire, without animal
sad eller bed leth Mid.
rierNasme par, Crumples laid a amble beams the mine
whose sommehily. This cable woe sheathed with iron
wire. moruidleg le Miners. Newell and Co.'s peosne The
author toaeled wpm the mechanical difficulties of *laying
suborners Mil% and then disowned at some Meg* the
subject at the sisetric condition of the se
b
condrictor. He esasidered it to be establiebedn=
telegraphic cables not exceeding one thousand mike
in length may be worked satisfactorily and that
consequently all 'amenable doubts about the succesaftd
operation of a line keen London to Calcutta may be easel-
dared as removed. For direness exceeding 1,000 miles,
however, he is of opinion that the difficulty of sending =s-
ears at an efficient rate, foe commercial purposes, maim
yet to be solved; for he thinks that theory and experience
ernahre to prove that the highest rate likely to be attained in
working through • distance equal to the intended Atisatie
cable will not exceed four, or ft may be five weds per minute,
unless some new principle of working be discovered. There
would be one way, indeed, In which the capabilities, not only
of long submarine cables but of electric telegraphs generally,
might be greatlyiscreased,whieb oonsistsincombining &num-
ber of insulata line wires into one cable, and working them
In metallic couples. Thus, If a amble of 10 wires wee
laid between two great ocesmarelel cores, say between Lon-
don and Liverpool, as may an 48 rue of instruments
might be need, which might be placed in the counting-honer
of great merchants and of their respective agents for their
private correspondence. The instrum.se=smsears to be
best wilted for such purser is a se siortir
step or dial instrument, which requires no battery. Thews
had been extensively adopted on the Centimes, sad were in
use at the War-office anclet the Horse Guards. Mr. Siseasn's
paper was illustrated by • greet variety of inseruasents, shown
in action.
A discussion earned, in which Mears. Latham Clark, E.
MOWN, W. Smith, Sr Charles Fox, Mr. Peereall, Mr.
Fatly, end the Chairman (W. R. Grove, Beq.) took part.

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