The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century Part 4

The alternate cohering by the waves and decohering by the tapper continue uninterruptedly as long as the transmitting key at the distant station is depressed. The armature of the recording instrument, however, because of its inertia, cannot rise and fall in unison with the rapid coherence and decoherence of the receiver, and hence it remains down and makes a stroke upon the tape as long as the sending key is depressed.

The princ.i.p.al applications of wireless telegraphy so far have been at sea, where the absence of intervening obstacles gives a free path to the electrical oscillations. The system is also applicable on land, however, and no one can doubt that if the Ministers of the Legations shut up in Pekin had been supplied with a wireless telegraphy outfit, neither the walls of Pekin nor the strongest cordon of its Chinese hordes could have prevented the long sought communication. The full story of mystery and ma.s.sacre would have been promptly made known, and the civilized world have been spared its anxiety, and earlier and effective measures of relief supplied.

As the art of telegraphy grows apace toward the end of the Nineteenth Century, individuality of invention becomes lost in the great maze of modifications, ramifications, and combinations. Inventions become merged into systems, and systems become swallowed up by companies. In the promises of living inventors the wish is too often father to the thought, and the conservative man sees the child of promise rise in great expectation, flourish for a few years, and then subside to quiet rest in the dusty archives of the Patent Office. They all contribute their quota of value, but it is so difficult to single out as pre-eminent any one of those which as yet are on probation, that we must leave to the coming generation the task of making meritorious selection.

To-day the telegraph is the great nerve system of the nation's body, and it ramifies and vitalizes every part with sensitive force. In 1899 the Western Union Telegraph Company alone had 22,285 offices, 904,633 miles of wire, sent 61,398,157 messages, received in money $23,954,312, and enjoyed a profit of $5,868,733. Add to this the business of the Postal Telegraph Company and other companies, and it becomes well nigh impossible to grasp the magnitude of this tremendous factor of Nineteenth Century progress. Figures fail to become impressive after they reach the higher denominations, and it may not add much to either the reader's conception or his knowledge to say that the statistics for the _whole world_ for the year 1898 show: 103,832 telegraph offices, 2,989,803 miles of wire, and 365,453,526 messages sent during that year.

This wire would extend around the earth about 120 times, and the messages amounted to one million a day for every day in that year. This is for land telegraphs only, and does not include cable messages.

What saving has accrued to the world in the matter of time, and what development in values in the various departments of life, and what contributions to human comfort and happiness the telegraph has brought about, is beyond human estimate, and is too impressive a thought for speculation.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ATLANTIC CABLE.

DIFFICULTIES OF LAYING--CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES BETWEEN QUEEN VICTORIA AND PRESIDENT BUCHANAN--THE SIPHON RECORDER--STATISTICS.

Among the applications of the telegraph which deserve special mention for magnitude and importance is the Atlantic Cable. For boldness of conception, tireless persistence in execution, and value of results, this engineering feat, though nearly a half century old, still challenges the admiration of the world, and marks the beginning of one of the great epochs of the Nineteenth Century. It was not so brilliant in substantive invention, as it added but little to the telegraph as already known, beyond the means for insulating the wires within a gutta percha cable, but it was one of the greatest of all engineering works.

It was chiefly the result of the energy and public spirit of Mr. Cyrus W. Field, an eminent American citizen. Three times was its laying attempted before success crowned the work. The first expedition sailed August 7, 1857, and consisted of a fleet of eight vessels, four American and four English, starting from Valentia on the Irish coast. On August 11 the cable parted, and 344 miles of the cable were lost in water two miles deep. In 1858 a renewal of the effort to lay the cable was made.

Improvements were added in the paying out machinery, and a different manner of coiling the enormous load of cable on the vessels was resorted to, and provisions also were made to protect the propeller from contact with the cable. On June 10 the telegraphic fleet steamed out of Plymouth harbor. It consisted of the U. S. frigate "Niagara," with the paddle-wheel steamer "Valorous" as a tender, and the British frigate "Agamemnon," with the paddle-wheel steamer "Gorgon" as a tender. After three days at sea, terrible gales were encountered and much damage resulted. The vessels were to proceed to midocean, and the portions of the cable carried by the "Niagara" and "Agamemnon" were to be spliced, and the two vessels were then to sail in opposite directions to their respective coasts. The first splice was made on the 26th of June. After paying out two and a half miles each, the cable parted. Again meeting and splicing, forty miles each were paid out, and the cable again parted. On the 28th another splicing was effected, and 150 miles each were paid out, and again the cable parted, and the expedition had to be abandoned. After much financial embarra.s.sment and adverse criticism, the courageous and public-spirited directors who had control of the enterprise dispatched another expedition, which sailed July 17, 1858.

The two vessels, "Niagara" and "Agamemnon," with their tenders, proceeded to midocean, and following the same method of connecting the ends of their respective cable sections, they sailed in opposite directions. On August 5, 1858, Mr. Cyrus Field announced by telegram from Trinity Bay, on the coast of Newfoundland, that Trinity Bay in America, and Valentia in Ireland, 2,134 miles apart, had been connected, and the great Atlantic cable was an established fact.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14.--ORIGINAL ATLANTIC CABLE, FULL SIZE.

Consists of seven copper wires (4) to form the conductor, a wrapping (3) of thread, soaked in tallow and pitch, several layers (2) of gutta percha, all surrounded by a protecting coat of mail (1) of twisted wires.]

On August 16, 1858, the first message came over from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan of the United States, as follows:

"_To the President of the United States, Was.h.i.+ngton:_

"The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the successful completion of this great international work, in which the Queen has taken the deepest interest.

"The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her in fervently hoping that the Electric Cable which now connects Great Britain with the United States will prove an additional link between the nations whose friends.h.i.+p is founded upon their common interest and reciprocal esteem.

"The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of the United States."

to which the President replied as follows:

"WAs.h.i.+NGTON CITY, Aug. 16, 1858.

"_To Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain:_

"The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Her Majesty, the Queen, on the success of the great international enterprise accomplished by the science, skill, and indomitable energy of the two countries. It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.

"May the Atlantic Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friends.h.i.+p between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty and law throughout the world. In this view will not all nations of Christendom spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be forever neutral, and that its communications shall be held sacred in pa.s.sing to their places of destination, even in the midst of hostilities?

(Signed)

"JAMES BUCHANAN."

Great rejoicing on both sides of the ocean followed, and the public print was filled with accounts of the enterprise. The following selection from the _Atlantic Monthly_ of October, 1858, is an apostrophe in lofty sentiments of verse, which to-day stirs the Twentieth Century heart as a joyous prophecy fulfilled:

Thou lonely Bay of Trinity, Ye bosky sh.o.r.es untrod, Lean, breathless, to the white-lipped sea And hear the voice of G.o.d!

From world to world His couriers fly, Thought-winged and shod with fire; The angel of His stormy sky Rides down the sunken wire.

What saith the herald of the Lord?

"The world's long strife is done!

Close wedded by that mystic cord, Her continents are one.

"And one in heart, as one in blood, Shall all her peoples be; The hands of human brotherhood Shall clasp beneath the sea.

"Through Orient seas, o'er Afric's plain, And Asian mountains borne, The vigor of the Northern brain Shall nerve the world outworn.

"From clime to clime, from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, Shall thrill the magic thread; The new Prometheus steals once more The fire that wakes the dead.

"Earth, gray with age, shall hear the strain Which o'er her childhood rolled; For her the morning stars again Shall sing their song of old.

"For, lo! the fall of Ocean's wall, s.p.a.ce mocked and Time outrun!

And round the world the thought of all Is as the thought of one!"

O, reverently and thankfully The mighty wonder own!

The deaf can hear, the blind may see, The work is G.o.d's alone.

Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat From answering beach to beach!

Fuse nations in thy kindly heat, And melt the chains of each!

Wild terror of the sky above, Glide tamed and dumb below!

Bear gently, Ocean's carrier dove, Thy errands to and fro!

Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord, Beneath the deep so far, The bridal robe of Earth's accord, The funeral shroud of war!

The poles unite, the zones agree, The tongues of striving cease; As on the Sea of Galilee, The Christ is whispering, "Peace!"

After a few months of working, the cable became inoperative, but its success was a demonstrated fact, and in 1866 a new cable was laid by the aid of that monster steamer "The Great Eastern," since which time the cable has become one of the great factors of modern civilization.

Probably the most important of the inventions relating to submarine telegraphs is the siphon recorder, invented by Sir William Thompson, now Lord Kelvin (U. S. Pat. No. 156,897, Nov. 17, 1874). It is called a siphon recorder because the record is made by a little gla.s.s siphon down which a flow of ink is maintained like a fountain pen. This siphon is vibrated by the electric impulses to produce on the paper strip a zigzag line, whose varying contour is made to represent letters. In the ill.u.s.tration, Fig. 15, _m_ is an ink well, _o_ a strip of paper, and _n_ the ink siphon, one end of which is bent and dips down into the ink well, and the other end of which traces the record on the moving paper strip _o_. The siphon is sustained on a vertical axis _l_, and its lateral vibration is effected as follows: A light rectangular coil _b b_, of exceedingly fine insulated wire, is suspended between the poles N S of a powerful electro-magnet energized by a local battery. In the coil _b b_ is a stationary soft iron core _a_, magnetized by the poles N S. The coil _b b_ is suspended upon a vertical axis consisting of a fine wire _f f_, and the delicate electrical impulses over the submarine cable enter the coil _b b_ through the axial wire _f f_ as a conductor, and cause a greater or less oscillation of the coil _b b_ between the poles N S of the electro-magnet. The coil _b b_ is connected by a thread _k_ to the siphon, and pulls the siphon in one direction, while the siphon is pulled in the opposite direction by a helical spring attached to an arm on the siphon axis _l_. The jagged lines seen in Fig. 16 spell the words "siphon recorder."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15.--SIPHON RECORDER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16.--SIPHON RECORDER MESSAGE.]

To-day there lie in submerged silence, but pulsating with the life of the world, no less than 1,500 submarine telegraphs. Their aggregate length is 170,000 miles; their total estimated cost is $250,000,000, and the number of messages annually transmitted over them is 6,000,000.

Thirteen cables work daily across the Atlantic, and an additional one is being laid from Germany. Messages now go across the Atlantic and are received on the siphon recorder at the rate of fifty words a minute, and at a cost of twenty-five cents a word. Our guns may thunder in the Philippines, and the news by cable, traveling faster than the earth on its axis, may reach the Western Hemisphere under the paradoxical condition of several hours earlier than it occurred. Cablegrams to Manila cost $2.38 a word, and the cable tolls for our War Department alone are costing at the rate of $325,000 a year. The logical outcome is a Pacific cable, a bill for which, connecting San Francisco and Honolulu, has already pa.s.sed the United States Senate.