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REPRINT FROM EXETER NEW HAMPSHIRE NEWS LETTER
DATED MONDAY EVENING JULY 1 1844
MORSE'S MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH
The perfect success of professor Morse's Electro Magnetic Telegraph has excited the
astonishment and admiration of the community, The most incredulous have been
convinced, and occurring at the time they have done, the experiments have satisfied the
public that the Magnetic Telegraph is not merely a beautiful illustration of a philosophical
principle, but an agent that may be made of practical and every day utility in the business
transaction of the country.
The long list of officers of the Democratic Convention was published in the Capitol at
Washington as soon as it was announced in Baltimore, the only time lost being that
occupied in the passage of the messenger from the room of the Convention to the office of
Telegraph in the Pratt street Depot. The ballotings were communicated with the same
rapidity; and the expectant throng of politicians, who surrounded the Professor`s room in the
Capitol, were made aware of the result of each as soon as it was known at the doors of the
Odd Fellow's Hall in Gay street in this city. Then again, the nomination of Mr Wright was
declined by him within fifteen minutes after it was made, and the reiterated solicitation made
known, and again declined ; and had Mr Wright been in New Orleans instead of Washington,
the intervals between him and the Convention would have been quite as brief.
All this ss calculated to put us upon the enquiry into the future agency of the wonderful
contrivance which thus, without metaphor annilates both time and space.
It has been said that the railroad system has given a perpetuity to our Union, which it would
not otherwise Possess and that with iron bonds is our country bound together. But the day of
iron bars must now yield to that of copper wires. What difficulty does extent of territory
present to permanency of government, but the delay and inconvenience of transmitting
intelligence from one portion of it to another--intelligence between men in business, and
between the Executive and its officers .
Suppose the line of wires to extend to Oregon and that a Squadron lay off the mouth of the
Columbia, which it was desired to order home, or to sent to Honololu. The Secretary of the
Navy could receive the answer that all hands were Piped to weigh anchor before the ink
with which he signed his name to the order, if he wrote a heavy hand, had dried upon the
paper, If a vessel bound for an Atlantic port had backed her top sail in the midst of the
Squadron, the commodore might ask From the Department, and receive, a permission for
an officer to return in her before her yards could be braced round, and her sails sheeted
home, for the rate of clectricity is 180,000 miles in a second, and at this speed would
the correspondence between Washington and Oregon be carried on.
Startling as such statements may appear, no one can gainsay them who see what has been
doing daily for a week past at the Pratt street depot. Instances might be multiplied without
end of the availability of the Magnetic Telegraph of Professor Morse,
Of such an invention as that in question our readers must of course desire to know something,
and we believe that the following account of its origin and mode of action will be found correct.
There are few person who have not seen an electrical machine, and witnessed the spark which
passes from it, when in action, to any blunt object which is presented to it.
The accumulation of electricity in the machine caused by turning the cylinder or plate has
the same tendency to pass to an object which has less electricity that air has to rush into
a vaccum, or water to seek a level,--electricity, like air or water, seeking to establish
always an equilibrium.
Besides the mode of producing electricity by friction, as in the common electrical machine,
it is also produced by the action of an acid upon plates of different metals properly attached
together --a fact discovered by the person whose name is perpetuated in the term Galvanism .
The mode in common use of producing galvanic action is to immerse the Plates in a trough with
separate divisions --at one end of which the supply of electric fluid generated by the action of the
acid is in excess.
This end of the trough or battery is called the positive, and the other end the negative pole of the
battery. Now, if a wire attached to one end is brought near to a wire proceeding from the other
end, the electricity passes from the positive to the negative pole, and a spark is seen like that
proceeding from the common electrical machine which is the electricity seeking to establish an
equilibrium. If the two wires are kept in contact, there is a stream of electrc fluid passing
from one to the other, which is kept up by the action of the acid on the metal plates already
mentioned. The ordinary length of these wires in a common galvanic battery, is but a few feet;
they may be a thousand or an hundred thousand mile in length, and the effect of bringing them
in contact with each other is still the same--that is the flow through their entire length of a
stream electricity at the rate already mentioned.
If, therefor, the machine or battery is in Washington, and a wire from the positive pole is brought
to Baltimore and carried back to Washington, the end of it, brought in contact with the wire at
the negative pole, which is but a few feet long, wtll cause a stream of electricity to flow from
Washington to Baltimore and back again along the wire; and it is the wire, coming here and
going back, which is to be seen on the post in Pratt street, the two wires there visible being in
fact but the opposite sides of loop of wire which would be eighty miles in length were it
extended.
And this is the first thing to be understood.
Now it is known , that a piece of soft iron bent into the shape of a horse shoe, or the letter U,
becomes a magnet so long as a stream of electricity is passed through wire wrapped around it
and ; the wire, from the positive pole of the battery, after coming to Baltimore is wrapped here
around a piece of iron of the proper shape, and then goes back to Washington . To make this
iron a magnet , therefore, in Baltimore it is only necessary to connect the ends of the wires in
Washington , when , so long as they are connected , the stream of electricity which passes along
them produces the desired effect upon the iron.
When the connection is interrupted the iron ceases to be magnetic, and is like any other piece
of soft iron. This magnet, which the professor has the power to create at pleasure, is his prime
mover. Immediately over the magnet, say in Baltimore is a brass lever, with Piece of iron
attached to it which is brought within a quarter of an inch or less of the horse shoe. As soon this
last is made by uniting the ends of the wire at Washington, it attracts the iron on the lever and
draws one end of the lever down, causing at the same time the opposite end to rise.
At this apposite end is the pen or stylus, which is of steel about an inch long, and about the size
of a knitting needle. Immediately over it is a brass cylinder with a groove around it, into which
the stylus strikes when the magnet attracts the other end of the lever.
Not far from this roller are two others, revolving in contact , like the rollers used to draw out
cotton prior to spinning it in a cotton mill, motion being given to them by very simple
clock work moved by a weight. The office of these two rollers is to draw from anther
roller, and under the grooved roller, a strip of Paper which is wound round it like a riband on
its centre block, With these explanations the operation of the machine can be readily and
easily understood . When the Professor In Washington wishes to send a message to Baltimore
he spells it with letters composed of dots and lines for-- instance A mite be a dot and a line, thus
-; b, two dots and a line thus .- ; C, a line and a dot thus - . By connecting the ends of the
wires for an instant only, a dot is made by the pressure of the stylus on the paper which is
passing over the grooved cylinder ; a line is formed by letting the ends of the wires remain in
contact for a longer time, when the stylus is kept pressed on the moving paper .
The writing when completed resembles the raised characters used in the instruction of the blind,
only instead of the common alphabets, dots and lines in different combinations are made use of.
The mode of connecting the wires as required is very simple. One of them is kept always
immersed in a cup of mercury into which the other dipped, when ever it is desired to send a
current of electricity through the entire circuit, fluid metal forming a conductor between the
ends.
The operation of writing consists in pressing a button, to which the end of the wires in use is
attached, in the manner in which a single key of a piano is struck by the finger, with a succession
of rapid or prolonged strokes, as dots or lines are required to be formed.
We have spoken of the stylus as a single piece of iron, but it is in fact composed of three, like a
three pronged fork, so that each letter is made in triplicate. As already stated, the paper is
drawn over the grooved roller, against which the stylus presses by two rollers which are set in
motion by a simple clock work--which, in its turn, is started by the first stroke of the lever--a
detent or catch, being withdrawn like the decent of a stop watch; and so long as the writing is
going on the decent is kept back, and when the writing: is done, the decent falling into its place,
stops the clock work, and the paper ceases to move.
The first stroke of the lever also rings a little bell, which calls the attention of the attendant to
the machine. The whole machinery does not occupy a space of more than one foot by two, We
have described the mode of working the machinery, so to speak, now used, but we understand
that there are others, which would enable those who want the experience of Professor Morse,
and his polite assistant , Mr Vail, who is at the Baltimore end, to write by striking keys arranged
like those of a piano, and marked with the letters of the common alphabet-- the effect
being produced by the passage of arms over projection on a cylinder, after the manner of a hand
organ or musical box . The only remaining matter to be noticed is the mode in which it is
proposed to make the Magnetic Telegraph generally useful for business purposes.
Let us suppose, for instance, that it is extended from New York to New Orleans.
The following is the alphabet used
(a) .- (b) -... (c) ... (d) -.. (e) . (f) .-. (g j) --. (h) .... (i y) .. (k) -.-
(l) - (m) -- (n) -. (o) .. (p) .... (q) ..-. (f) ... (s z) ... (t) - (u) ..-
(v) ...- (w) .-- (x) .-..
john smith, in New York, wants to buy from James Brown in New Orleans 500 bales cotton at
8 cents per lb. He writes accordingly the following :- "James Brown -buy 500 bales cotton at
8 cts, John Smith." he folds it ,directs it , sends it to the Post Office marked " Magnetic
Telegraph."
Here it is at once sent to the room of the clerk of the Telegraph, who opens it and writes the
contents to New Orleans, where a clerk in attendance at the Post Office at the end of the wires.
Puts the letter into common writing seals and directs it to John Smith, and sends it off instantly
by a messenger in waiting, But cotton is ten cents per lb., and so' James Brown writes back--
"John Smith, cotton 10 cent, James Brown," To which Smith answers --" James Brown, buy
at 10 cts., John Smith." And all this is done between New Orleans and New York in the space
of half a hour, allowing time for the passage of the letters from the office to the counting house
of Smith & Brown. Or, if it is desired that the correspondence should not be known, Smith &
Brown may agree upon combination of dots and lines differing from the combination of
Professor Morse, and then upon sending the letter in some such shape as this-- "John Smith - I
... I -.- I .-.. I .- I -- I .- I -.. I James Brown," to the office, the cipher
would be copied and sent to NEW Orleans when the clerk would send the slip of paper unwound
from the machine to the counting house of Smith -- and so the letter would give information to
no one but the person for whom it was intended. For each letter of the alphabet employed, Government
would receive,say one cent, so that the first of the above letters would cost 39 cents, the answer
to it 30 cents,and the reply 28 cents.
We cannot close this notice without expressing our conviction that among the most important
discoveries and inventions of the Present day is the Electro Magnetic Telegraph, and that among
the most distinguished public benefactors, Professor Morse, the inventor of it, will be ranked
hereafter.- Bal. Amer.
( PLEASE NOTE THE SPELLING OF WORDS WAS TAKING FROM THE NEWS PAPER.)