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

PROGRESS OF TELEGRAPIC INTENTION.

Last night, at the weekly meeting of the Society
of Arts, Mr. C. W. Siemens read a paper " On the
Progress of the Electric Telegraph." The author
said the object he had more particularly in view
was to trace the gradual progress of this invention
since the time of its first appearance, with a view
to establish more clearly its present position, and
to point out the direction in which we should pro-
cee 1, in order to realise still greater results. Many
attempts to construct an electric telegraph were
made in the last century, with frictional electricity,
but with little success, until Semmering, of Munich,
constructed, in 1808, the fist vol'aic telegraph;
producing signals by the decomposition of water.
The discovery of electro-magnetism, however,
turned the tide of invention into another direction.
Ampere was the first to propose an electro-magnet
needle telegraph, consisting of 24 needles and 25
line wires, the extra line being intended for the
metallic return circuit common to all. Ritchie
exeeuted in 1832 a model of Ampeee's telegraph,
with some improvements. The first working elec-
tric telegraph was established by Gause and ‘Veber;
at Gottiugen, in 1833, and consisted of wires care
ried a distance of a mile on high posts over the
town. The magneto-electric current was used tO
wotk it. S'eitiheil, of Munich, produce], in 1837,
his needle printing and acoustic instrument, which
he first tried at Munich through about five mile
of suspended line wire, and shortly afterwardii
upon a railway near Frankfort. At the time whet)
Steinheil was absorbed in his labour, Pro,
fessor Wheats• one was also engaged upon a
series of experiments on the velocity of elec-
tricity, with the view to the construction of
electric telegraphs, and in June, 1857, he joined
Mr. Cooke in a patent for a needle telegraph of
five-line wires (besides one wire for the return cur•
rent), and as many needles, which, by a system of
permutations, could be so deflected that any /ette*
of the alphabet was poin•ed out; upon a diamond
shaped board by the convergence of two needles
towards it. The line wires were proposed to be
coated with insulating material, such as fibroua
substances saturated with pitch, and to be drawti
into leaden pipes, in order to exclude the moisture
of the ground. An experimental line of telegram
ou this principle was established the same year at
the Easton Railway Station. In 1838, Morse, au
American, deposited an instrument of his construc-
tion at the Paris Academy of Sciences. His inven-
tion consists chiefly in the substitution of electro-
magnets for nedles in the construction of a
recording instrument, which in other respects is
similar to Steinhsil's. The object, however, an
important one, was to render the instrument power-
ful and csrtiin in its action. Other countries had
taken up the subject, and in Prussia a royal com-
mission was appointed to consider and advise upon
the system to be adopted, of which commission the
author's brother, Mr. Werner Siemens, became an
active member. The commission was in favour of
an underground system, aui this led Mr. Werner
Siemens to apply gutta percha as an insulator. The
author described the instrument proposed by his
brother at this time which required only a single
'wire, and which was stated to be simple and effec-
tive. Ile then explained n umerous other instruments
and appliances which had been used for teleeraphic
purposes, and passed on to the subject of submarine
conductors. The first experiments to submerge an
insulateds conductor (which consisted of copper wire
covered with cotton thread, saturated with pitch
and tar), were made at Calcutta in 1839 by Dr.
(now Sir William) O'Shaughtiessy. Professor
Wheatstone proposed in the following year to
establish a telegraph cable between England and
France, and the cable he intended to use contained
six separately insulated copper wires, which were
protected by a strong sheathing of wire. Submarine
telegraphs must, however, have proved impracti-
cable, but for the timely discovery of gutta percha.
Thefirst successful attempts to establish subaqueous
conductors were made by the author's b' other, Mr.
Werner Siemens, in 1848, in the Bay of Kiel, and
in crossing the Rhine at Cologne, and other rivers.
The first attempt to establish a subequeoui con-
ductor across the open sea (from Dover to Calais)
was made by Woollaston in 1851. It consisted of
a gutta percha coated copper wire, without external
protection, and failed immediately after it had been
laid. In the same year, Crampton laid a cable
between the same places successfully. This cable
was sheathed with iron wire, according to Messrs.
Newell and Co.'s process. The author touched upon
the mechanical difficulties of laying submarine
cables, and then discussed at some length the sub-
ject of the electric condition of the submerged con-
ductor. He considered it to be established that
telegraphic cables not exceeding one thousand miles
in long h may be worked satisface:irily, and that
consequently all reasonable doubts about the suc-
cessful operation of a line from London to Calcutta
may be considered as removed. For distances ex-
ceeding 1,000 miles, however, he is of opinion that
the difficulty of sending messages at an efficient
rate, for commercial purposes, remains yet to be
solved ; for he thinks that theory and experience
combine to prove that the highest rate likely to be
attained 1,1 working through a distance equal to
the intended Atlantic cable will not exceed four, cr
it may be five words per minute, unless some
new principle of working be discovered. There
would be one way, indeed, in which the capabili-
ties, net only of long submarine cables but of
electric telegraphs generally, might be greatly in-
creased, which consists in combining a number of
insulated line wires iato one cable, and working
them in metallic couples. Thus, if a cable of 10
wires was laid between two great commercial
centres, say between London and Liverpool, as
many as 48 pairs of instruments might be used,
which might be placed is the counting-houses of
greet merchants and of their respective agents for
their private correspondence. The instrument that
appears to he best suited for such purposes is a
magneto-electric step-by-step or dial instrument,
which requires no battery. These had been exten-
sively adopted on the Continent, and were in use
at the War-office and at the Horse Guards. 0
31-1.1.
Sietnen's paper was illustrated by a great variety I
instruments, shown in action.
A discussion ensued, in which
Messrs;
Clark, E. Highton, W. Smith, Sir ChiarucauF(olvx:
Mr. Pearsall, Mr. RVarly, and the Cha
It. Grove, Esq.) took part. _eLsatimer

. ...-----.--°"------------------ '-'*----------------
INDIAN TBADN.— The total value of the merchandise
end treasure imported into the several presidencies of
India in 1856.57 amounted to and 0.84.277.09.236 in
,855 rupees,
against 25.24.89.453 in 1855 66,
1
1854-55. Bombay figured for 11.89.50.606, Madras for
2.54.07.306, and Bengal for 14 17.24,853. The Exports
from India in 1356-57 amounted to 26 59.18.811,
against 23.64.04.451 in 1855-56. The area of the terri-
tory of Oude, lately acquired, is estimated at 25,000
square mile,, the population at 5,000,000, and the re,
~
ve„,, at 201,935/. Pepe and Martaban are 32,250
i a 570 , 16,8,5r00a,
r,
ba
on
isod ,
square miles in area.
010 i. Thepopulation
the revenue 317 ; while ls
76,432 square miles in extent, its poapguPlaetrieo'n iisn4ll,
and its revenue 529.1271.
in
inn
thelBsu7n
etternea
nwt
Europeans and Indo-Britoeedre3,
serviceoB2
of India, and 2,846 natives, of whom 2,560 were em-
ployed in the judicidailvaidnidvdersvenue service. The English
are almost equally between this service and the
"general," there being onlye 151 in the political service.