Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-12-23
Proere.s or tbe RiootrIo TeIeEraph


The rapid development and extensive APP
plication of the electric telegraph seem
more like miraculous results than the efforts
of man. This discovery confers upon hu-
man beings powers almost akin to those
possessed by the Omniscient Governor of
the universe. With few plates of platinum
and zinc immersed in dilute acid, coil of
copper wire surrounding an iron bar, and
an iron core stretched upon poles extending
along the highway, man can now hold in
Simultaneous converse with his fellow man
from one end Of a continent TO the other.
With materials so simple in form and ar
rangement, such power seems, indeed, to
be superhuman.
The march of invention has been regular
I in all its cadences; every note is situated
in its appropriate place and all its numbers
flow harmoniously.
The invention of the compass for navigat-
ing seas enabled the daring mariner to
cross unknown oceans and discover new
realms. After this came the progression of
peoples to the Western Hemisphere and the
settling of new continents and isles of the
sea, thus uniting distant lands by the ties
of kindred and commerce. Emigration and
trade soon afterward increased in an
unprecedented ratio, and the wings of
the wind were found all too slow for
waiting the merchants bark across the
pillows. Some great improvement was
then found to be necessary for increasing
commercial facilities and obtaining more
frequent communication with separated
friends As if fdesigned to supply the want,
steam power then joined in the march
of invention, long voyages were shortened
upon the sea, and by the railway distant
| settlements were more nearly linked to-
! gether.
But while these improvements undoubt-
| edly brought separated nations and kindred
closer together, they also, at the same time,
tended to invite the enterprising to the ex-
| pIoration Of new and more distant realms
| AS the result Of this influence, the golden
slopes of the Pacific have been peopled in a
very few years with many thousands of hu-
man beings whose native hearths are on the
shores of the Atlantic. It really appears as
if the wide earth, through the influence of
discoveries in science, had oflate years been
growing more and more like the abode OF
one family, for there is scarcely household
in any civilized community which has not
representative in some far-of land, and
with whom frequent Communication is much
desired. And now the telegraph joins in to
complete the grand roll of social improve
ments. The electric cord now spans the
continent of the New World, and faster than
the earth revolves upon its axis, messages
speed along the slender wire between the
Atlantic and Pacific cities.
The first scientific suggestion for the con
struction of the present electric telegraph
was made by Ampere in 1920, and he ap
piled the subtitle galvanic coil--the princi
pie upon which the electric-magnet telegraph
is based. In 1887 Professor Morse publicly
described his telegraph, which was invented
in 1882, but Cook and Wheatstone, of Eng
land, first applied the electric telegraph Il
public business in 1888. In 1914 the frs
public telegraph line in America wa:
erected between Washington and Baltimore
and since then we may truly assert the
whole world has been electrified by the in.
vention. 1t is but seventeen years since
the first line of forty-four miles was erected
and now there are no less than ffty-siS
thousand miles of line in operation in Amer
lea. What an astounding development Of
the agencies for rapid communication
But with the triumph of the Pacific tele-
graph inventors and telegraph companies
must not fold their hands under the suppo-
sition that we are at the end of the improve
ment We take this opportunity to suggest,
as we did on former occasion, that the tel
egrah is capable of being improved and
adapted to much greater extent than it is
as a substitute for the postofice system. d
course Improvements are necessary for in.
creasing the number of messages sent by
each machine, and the cost of operation
must be greatly reduced. One man can
write as fast as a common sounding instru-
| mani can rpceive mpssoUes. hnt this ia tOo
slow for the present electric age. Compa-
nies for working independent lines should
be formed in every city and in all thickly
peopled districts, for introducing the tele-
graph as a substitute for the "Penny post
The powers of each machine may be greatly
increased by modifying its parts and adapt
ing it for working four, five or more wires
such a number not being Objectionable OF
short lines. This is an important subjec
and it deserves general attention.