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HEROES OF THE TELEGRAPH
By J. MUNRO
Author of 'ELECTRICITY AND ITS USES,' PIONEERS OF
ELECTRICITY,' 'THE WIRE AND THE WAVE'; AND JOINT
AUTHOR OF 'MUNRO AND JAMIESON'S POCKET-BOOK OF
ELECTRICAL RULES AND TABLES.'

(Note: All accents etc. have been omitted. Italics have been converted
to capital letters. The British 'pound' sign has been written as 'L'.
Footnotes have been placed in square brackets at the place in the text
where a suffix originally indicated their existence.)

PREFACE.
The present work is in some respects a sequel to the PIONEERS OF
ELECTRICITY, and it deals with the lives and principal achievements
of those distinguished men to whom we are indebted for the
introduction of the electric telegraph and telephone, as well as other
marvels of electric science.

CONTENTS.

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 GRAY

CHAPTER I
.
THE ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH.
The history of an invention, whether of science or art, may be
compared to the growth of an organism such as a tree. The wind, or the
random visit of a bee, unites the pollen in the flower, the green fruit
forms and ripens to the perfect seed, which, on being planted in
congenial soil, takes root and flourishes. Even so from the chance
combination of two facts in the human mind, a crude idea springs, and
after maturing into a feasible plan is put in practice under favourable
conditions, and so develops. These processes are both subject to a
thousand accidents which are inimical to their achievement. Especially
is this the case when their object is to produce a novel species, or a new
and great invention like the telegraph. It is then a question of raising,
not one seedling, but many, and modifying these in the lapse of time.
Similarly the telegraph is not to be regarded as the work of any one
mind, but of many, and during a long course of years. Because at length
the final seedling is obtained, are we to overlook the antecedent
varieties from which it was produced, and without which it could not
have existed? Because one inventor at last succeeds in putting the
telegraph in operation, are we to neglect his predecessors, whose
attempts and failures were the steps by which he mounted to success?
All who have extended our knowledge of electricity, or devised a
telegraph, and familiarised the public mind with the advantages of it,
are deserving of our praise and gratitude, as well as he who has entered
into their labours, and by genius and perseverance won the honours of
being the first to introduce it.
Let us, therefore, trace in a rapid manner the history of the electric
telegraph from the earliest times.
The sources of a river are lost in the clouds of the mountain, but it is
usual to derive its waters from the lakes or springs which are its

fountain-head. In the same way the origins of our knowledge of
electricity and magnetism are lost in the mists of antiquity, but there are
two facts which have come to be regarded as the starting-points of the
science. It was known to the ancients at least 600 years before Christ,
that a piece of amber when excited by rubbing would attract straws, and
that a lump of lodestone had the property of drawing iron. Both facts
were probably ascertained by chance. Humboldt informs us that he saw
an Indian child of the Orinoco rubbing the seed of a trailing plant to
make it attract the wild cotton; and, perhaps, a prehistoric tribesman of
the Baltic or the plains of Sicily found in the yellow stone he had
polished the mysterious power of collecting dust. A Greek legend tells
us that the lodestone was discovered by Magnes, a shepherd who found
his crook attracted by the