The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-10-20

the 22d Of September, | will try to give
| you short notice Of the invention Of the
| telegraph, and Professor Morse position
in regard to it. That the inventor is an
| American every native Of the country is
as surely convinced as Of his own superb
ority over all other children of men. OF
late The most popular saying among the
people has been the following with its va
! rioiions; Franklin has caught the cleo
tricity, Morse has tanned it and Field has
| lead it over the sea Franklin has invcn-
ted the conductor Of HabtHiRg but this
electricity is of different nature from
that which is tanned" IN order to send
messages It is neither natural, nor at
mospheric, nor friction electricity which is
used for the telegraph, but galvanic, the
invention or perfection of which belongs
neither to Ncssrs Morse nor Field.
Golvonism is product of human skill,
the result Of chemical process. But
this does not solve the problem Of our
modern telegraph. In order to obtain
satisfactory results a connection OF galvan-
ism with magnetism is requisite. | do
not intend to present in the following lines
a history of the invention Of the Telegraph,
only to give the position Of Prof Morse
in relation to it, confirmed by the acts Of
the Potcm O@cc in Washington.
On the 9th Of October, 1897, Prot
Morse presented his first caycat aud in
this he described his invention:
"Whnt | claim as my invention and
desire TO secure by Letters Patent aud 20
protect for one year by caveat is
method Of recording permanently electri-
cal signs, which by means of metallic
wires, or other good conductors Of electri-
city, convey intelligence between Two or
more places"
Here Prof Morse did not claim the
invention of the Telegraph, bnt only
method Of flecorling electrical signs.
In producing visible signs by means of
electricity, Weber, Gauss Steinheil had
perfectly succeeded several years before
In ihi year 1896, Stoinheil had Tole-
/ graph in full activity, method Of record
ing electrical signs and Of creating points
on the paper which by their combinations
gave lettcs' Prof. Morse had similar
one for recording aud of these various
methods some are doubtless better and
more ingenius that that chosen by Prof,
Morse. But the "mehed Of recording
whether good o. bad, is secondary thint.
The main point in the invention of the
Telegraph was, and still remains, the pro-
ducliou Of signs by means of electricity,
The Telegraph problem was solved when
the discovery was made, that the magnetic
needle could be moved to the right or to
the left by an electric stream. TO
mske those signs produced by the motion
Of the needle more permanent is not ab-
souteIy necessary TO the telegraph An
illustration will explain this; While the
Niagara and the Agamcmron were
laying the telegraphic cable there ex-
isted a continual communication be-
tween the two ships. They communica-
ted how much of the cable they daily
paid out, with what rapidity they unrolled
it and at what time they arrived at the
place of their destination. But neither
of the two ships had an "apparaius for
recording" on board. BY the electric
stream they produced movements of the
magnetic needle sufficient for all commu-
ncations, There are very many telegraph
stations where the communications are
only by the movements of the needle. Ii
is plain that Prof Morse's invention of a
method Of recording is not essential to the
telegraph itself, for the method presup-
poses the existence of the means for re-
cording, He acknowledges that his in
vention is only AN Improvement, or Il
change in the known system Of signs, and
that the telegraph itself was known long
before. b.
Cohclpdcd neat ircsk.
=
THE MISCHIEF MAKER-When the alb.
sent are spoken Of" says Heury Ward
Beecher" some will speak gold of them
some silver, some iron, some lead, and
L q : L