The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1889-10-25
history OF TELEeRApHY. i.


Progress Of Discovery-The Telephone.
Six hundred years b. c., Thales, of
Milete, noted tho electrical phenom-
ena and developed by friction upon
amber; 200 years later Plato thcorized
upon electricity, and A. d. 1929 Mar
tinigo, Venetian, the engineer in de-
fcnse Of Rhodes, applied ono. end of
drum head mt tho end Of his counter
mine to discover tho vicinity and
direction of tho cncmy's underground
galleries, and thus, by utilizing the
molecular disturbance of tho Garth in
sound waves, conceived the basis of
telephony. 1t was not, however,
until A. D. 1000, that Won Gucrick
made the first machine for generating
frictional electricity, nor until A. y.
l726, that Wood recorded tho fact that
frictional electricity would pass
through q considerable length of wire,
and could therefore be utilized for the
transmission of signals. To Wood, Of
England, is therefore duo tho honor
Of first suggesting the feasibility Of
electric tclegraphy.
A. D. 1735, Murschenbrok, Ger
many, invented the Leyden jar, By
which means friotional electricity
could DO stored for experimental pnr~
poses. A. d. 1747, DR.. Watson, Eng
land, erected tho first telegraph line
between Shooters Hill and London,
and A. D. 1853, G. NJ (believed to be
tho initials of Charles Matthews) pub
ishcd tho manner in which he had in
dicated tho letters of tho alphabet
through system of twcnty-six wires,
by frictional electricity. During the
latter half.of tho Eighteenth century
inventors of all nations cndeavored,
by means of two or moro wires and
frictional electricity, to transmit in.
tc!ligcnce between distant places; but
it was not until A. D. 1900, when
Volta proclaimed his own and Gal
vani's prior experiments in the produc-
ton of chemical electricity, that cleo
trio telegraphy, as now developed, be-
camc practicable.
A. o. 1919, Oersted Dcnmarlz) dis
covered that q freely suspended mag
notized needle would movo to tho
right or left, in accordance with the
polarity of current of electricity
through an adjacent wire. a. D.
1920, Arago Francc) discovered that
when bar of soft iron was wound
with a copper orinsulatcd iron wire, it
became amagnet whenevera q current of
electricity travcrscd the wire, and was
Immediately dcmagnetizcd (or nearly
so) when tho wires were disconnected
from the source of current
A. d: 1882, Faraday (EnglanD dis
covered that when coil of insulated
wire was placed adjacent to, but not
connected with, another coil of wire,
through which ON intermittent current
of electricity was passed. induced cur
rents of Increased intensity md oiter-
mating polarity were deyeloned in the
unattached coil. Also that tho move.
ment of q permanent bar MAGNET With.
in q coil of wirc, or the movement Of
ON electro-marnet near the poIos of a
permanent magnet. would deyelop cur
rents of electricity. To the foreeoino
rudimental discoveries of Galvans and
Volta, Oersted, Aragc md Faradav is
|. aFbrld rinaebted for tho nnmeroa,s
EEubScducnt invent ions which have de
I yeloncd selectricss sstelepraphy. platino,s
|, ,traassf,ai<s 81
md other valuable results attained
huring the Nineteenth century. -. s.
From Woods first conception Of nm
acknowledgement, A. D. 1726, more than
b. century elapsed before Cooke and.
Whcatstono tngland), A. D. 1887.
hdapted Oorsted's discovery of A. b.
1910, to the first practical and COM
mercially successful system Of what
may be termed visual electric tclegra-
ply; and some months later Morse and
Nail, United States, adapted Arago's
discovery of a. D. 1920, to tho first
fystem of recording electric telegra-
ply, Vail being tho inventor of tho
DOT and dash alphabet.
A. d. 1888, Stcinhill, Germany,
adapted Oersted's discovery to the first
recorded system of sound or aural tclc-