Daily Iowa State Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1859, 1858-08-07
The Atlantic Telegraph.

he distance SO palnIuily tTdVeTseu ny
Columbus 800 years ago, and which
the skill and industry Of man has been
slowly butsurely diminishing, is at last
annihllated land human genius culmina-
ted in the most magnificent and useful
triumph of all time. Two continents
are thrilled by the news of this great
achievement, and public gratitude is
clamorous in its demonstrations in hon
or of those who accomplished it. But
let us be just and impartial in our
awards. 1t is not alone Professor
Morse who brought to perfection the
magnetic telegraph; it is not alone the
energy and lberality which conceived
and executed the laying of the Allan
tic cable. Without the mariners COM
pass all the skill and capital in the
world would have been unavailing for
this purpose. The old Italian philoso-
pher, who invented it, comes grateful
ly to our memory. Perhaps the
world is more indebted to him than to
any other human being who ever liv-
ed, and, he besides originating the
great incentive to commercial enter
Il .b l. al
lantic cable necessary and possible,
furnished the means by which two
ships, separating in mid ocean, plough
Cd the invisible track which led,
straight as an arrow, from shore to
shore. For centuries the magnetic
needle has guided the mariner on
every sea. 1t has led fleets to battle,
merchants to wealth and discovers
to success. BY it, the arts, the civil
cation, and the Injuries of continents
and islands, far remote from each other,
have become common property-over
trackicss seas, through darkness and
tempest and thousand dangers, its
uncrrlng finger has pointed the way of
the sailor, as if it had been marked out
by the hand of God. But the Italian
who invented it receives his ultimate
glory and the apothcosis of his fame
from the laying of the Atlantic Telc.
graph. Again, without the steam en-
CINE the cable could never have been
laid. Nothing short of ia miracle. could
have enabled sailing vessels to have
done what has been SO surely accom-
plished by steam. This is propose
ton upon which it is unnecessary to
dwell. Little did the. boy Watt, when
he conceived the first dim idea of his
great discovery while watching the
regular rise and fall of the lid of his
mothers tea kettle, that one day while
his son was yet living his invention
would enable two vessels to Law a
track for the lightning under two
thousand mile of ocean, and bind the
eastern ana western continents togeth
er by band throbbing with intligence
and power. To Professor Morse, of
course, belongs the brilliant reputs ton
OF the electric telegraph. His name is
immortal and his fame is as wide as the
world. The daring conception which
originated the Atlantic cable, the
wealth which paid for it, and the me-
chanical skill which oyercamc the diff
ticnlty of laying it are but tributary to
his genius. But this great consumma-
ton is not due to him alone, nor to
America, nor to England. 1t is the
very elimination of the intelligence of
ages. But chiefly Its peculiar merits
as line Of communication under the
sea belongs to three men, an Italian, an
Englishman and an American. And per-
haps the most appropriate memorial
of the occasion, would be a group of
statutes; Flavio Giajo with his COM
pass, Watt with his steam engine, and |
Professor Morse with his galvanic bat
terry. On the pedestal bas relief of
the parting of the Niagara and Aga
memnom and the names of the ener-
getic men and governments who
brought this great wonder to pass.