Produced by An Anonymous VolunteerHEROES OF THE TELEGRAPHBy J MunroAuthor Of Electricity And Its Uses Pioneers Of ElectricityThe Wire And The Wave And Joint Author Of Munro And JamiesonsPocketBook Of Electrical Rules And TablesNote All accents etc have been omitted Italics have been convertedto capital letters The British pound sign has been written as LFootnotes have been placed in square brackets at the place in the textwhere a suffix originally indicated their existencePREFACEThe present work is in some respects a sequel to the PIONEERS OFELECTRICITY and it deals with the lives and principal achievements ofthose distinguished men to whom we are indebted for the introductionof the electric telegraph and telephone as well as other marvels ofelectric scienceCONTENTS     CHAPTER        I  THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH       II  CHARLES WHEATSTONE      III  SAMUEL MORSE       IV  SIR WILLIAM THOMSON        V  SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS       VI  FLEEMING JENKIN      VII  JOHANN PHILIPP REIS     VIII  GRAHAM BELL       IX  THOMAS ALVA EDISON        X  DAVID EDWIN HUGHES     APPENDIX        I  CHARLES FERDINAND GAUSS       II  WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER      III  SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE       IV  ALEXANDER BAIN        V  DR WERNER SIEMENS       VI  LATIMER CLARK      VII  COUNT DU MONCEL     VIII  ELISHA GRAYCHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPHThe history of an invention whether of science or art may be comparedto the growth of an organism such as a tree The wind or the randomvisit of a bee unites the pollen in the flower the green fruit formsand ripens to the perfect seed which on being planted in congenialsoil takes root and flourishes Even so from the chance combination oftwo facts in the human mind a crude idea springs and after maturinginto a feasible plan is put in practice under favourable conditions andso develops These processes are both subject to a thousand accidentswhich are inimical to their achievement Especially is this the casewhen their object is to produce a novel species or a new and greatinvention like the telegraph It is then a question of raising not oneseedling but many and modifying these in the lapse of timeSimilarly the telegraph is not to be regarded as the work of any onemind but of many and during a long course of years Because at lengththe final seedling is obtained are we to overlook the antecedentvarieties from which it was produced and without which it could nothave existed Because one inventor at last succeeds in putting thetelegraph in operation are we to neglect his predecessors whoseattempts and failures were the steps by which he mounted to success Allwho have extended our knowledge of electricity or devised a telegraphand familiarised the public mind with the advantages of it aredeserving of our praise and gratitude as well as he who has enteredinto their labours and by genius and perseverance won the honours ofbeing the first to introduce itLet us therefore trace in a rapid manner the history of the electrictelegraph from the earliest timesThe sources of a river are lost in the clouds of the mountain but itis usual to derive its waters from the lakes or springs which areits fountainhead In the same way the origins of our knowledge ofelectricity and magnetism are lost in the mists of antiquity but thereare two facts which have come to be regarded as the startingpointsof the science It was known to the ancients at least 600 years beforeChrist that a piece of amber when excited by rubbing would attractstraws and that a lump of lodestone had the property of drawing ironBoth facts were probably ascertained by chance Humboldt informs us thathe saw an Indian child of the Orinoco rubbing the seed of a trailingplant to make it attract the wild cotton and perhaps a prehistorictribesman of the Baltic or the plains of Sicily found in the yellowstone he had polished the mysterious power of collecting dust A Greeklegend tells us that the lodestone was discovered by Magnes a shepherdwho found his crook attracted by the rockHowever this may be we are told that Thales of Miletus attributed theattractive properties of the amber and the lodestone to a soul withinthem The name Electricity is derived from ELEKTRON the Greek foramber and Magnetism from Magnes the name of the shepherd or morelikely from the city of Magnesia in Lydia where the stone occurredThese properties of amber and lodestone appear to have been widelyknown The Persian name for amber is KAHRUBA attractor of straws andthat for lodestone AHANGRUBA attractor of iron In the old Persianromance THE LOVES OF MAJNOON AND LEILA the lover sings     She was as amber and I but as straw      She touched me and I shall ever cling to herThe Chinese philosopher Kuopho who flourished in the fourth centurywrites that the attraction of a magnet for iron is like that of amberfor the smallest grain of mustard seed It is like a breath of windwhich mysteriously penetrates through both and communicates itself withthe speed of an arrow Lodestone was probably known in China beforethe Christian era Other electrical effects were also observed by theancients Classical writers as Homer Caesar and Plutarch speak offlames on the points of javelins and the tips of masts They regardedthem as manifestations of the Deity as did the soldiers of the Mahdilately in the Soudan It is