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`
`Comcast - Exhbiit 1014, page 1
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 1
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`

`

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`A history of electric
`telegraphy, to the year 1837
`John Joseph Fahie
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`
`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 2
`
`

`

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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 5
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`

`

`ENGINEURINS
`LIIIIRARY
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`
`A HISTORY
`
`OF
`
`E LE CTRIC TELEGRAPHY,
`
`TO THE YEAR z837.
`
`Comcast - Exhbiit 1014, page 6
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 6
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`

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`- Exhbiit 1014, page 7
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`

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`
`•
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`• • •
`•
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 9
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`

`

`A HISTORY
`
`OF
`
`ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHY,
`
`TO THE YEAR .1837.
`
`CHIEFLY COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES AND
`HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS.
`
`BY
`
`• a.
`
`sums VI OF THE soarry OF TELEGRAPH-ENGINEERS AND ILECTRICIANS, LONDON:
`AND OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ELECTRICIAN. PAWS.
`
`" Their line is gone out through all the earth.
`And their words to the end of the world."
`Praises zit. 4.
`
`LONDON :
`E. & F. N. SPON, 16, CHARING CROSS.
`NEW YORK: 35, MURRAY STREET.
`
`1884.
`
`All rights reserved.
`
`ae—
`Digitiz
`by GOORIc
`COMCaSt ‘rj Exhblit 1014, page 10
`
`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 10
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`

`

`..
`Digitizad by GOOgle
`Comcast - Exhblit 1014, page 11
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 11
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`

`

`Debicateb
`
`TO
`
`LATIMER CLARK, ESQUIRE,
`NI.I.C.11.• Y.1114.45., LILL, PAST PIS. &TA. AND Ls
`
`IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MANY KINDNESSES,
`
`BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND,
`
`THE AUTHOR.
`
`LONDON, Foirwary :884,
`
`.P.
`
`Comcast - Exhbiit 1014, page 12
`
`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 12
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`

`

`..
`Digititd by Good
`omcast 1-txhblit 1014, page 13
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 13
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`

`

`PREFACE.
`
`PLUTARCH, in the opening sentences of his Life of
`Demosthenes, says : — " Whosoever shall design to
`write a history, consisting of materials which must be
`gathered from observation, and the reading of authors
`not easy to be had nor writ in his own native language,
`but many of them foreign and dispersed in other hands :
`for him it is in the first place and above all things
`most necessary to reside in some city of good note and
`fame, addicted to the liberal arts, and populous, where
`he may have plenty of all sorts of books, and, upon
`inquiry, may hear and inform himself of such parti-
`culars as, having escaped the pens of writers, are yet
`faithfully preserved in the memories of men ; lest
`otherwise he publish a work deficient in many things,
`and those such as are necessary to its perfection."
`Had we seen this passage a few years ago, the
`following pages had, probably, never been written, and
`there would be no need for this preface. The work
`was begun and brought to a very forward state, not in
`some city of good note and fame, where plenty of
`books were to be had, but in what has been rightly
`
`G o
`- lComcast
`
`
`txhblit 1014, page 14
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 14
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`

`

`viii
`
`Preface.
`
`called " the confines of the earth—the hot regions of
`Persia," and under circumstances which, we think, will
`bear relating.
`In our youthful days we contracted two habits,
`which have been ever since the bane or the solace (we
`hardly know which to call them) of our existence,
`viz., a taste for writing, and a taste for scraps. The
`Cacoithes Scribendi first attacked us, and we can recall
`letters in the local papers on various topics of local
`interest, all of which were written early in our teens.
`When about sixteen years of age we commenced a
`history of the old castles and churches which abound
`(in ruins) in and about our native place, the said history
`being intended to serve also as a guide for tourists who
`were constantly visiting the neighbourhood. With great
`industry we got together, in time, some two hundred
`pages (foolscap) of writing ; but the work was never
`completed. For years we hawked the MS. about,
`latterly never looking at it, having come to regard it
`as a standing reproach for time and money misspent ;
`and at last, in a fit of remorse, we gave the papers to
`the flames in 1875.
`Soon after joining the telegraph service, in 1865, ow
`archaeological bent took another turn, and we now
`began to collect books and scraps on electricity,
`magnetism, and their applications—particularly to
`telegraphy, and with the same industrious ardour as
`In December 1867, we entered the Persian'
`before.
`Gulf Telegraph Department under the Government of
`
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`

`

`Preface.
`
`ix
`
`India, where, having a good deal of spare time on our
`hands, we indulged our habits to the full. In 1871,
`having amassed a large number of notes, scraps, &c.,
`on submarine telegraphy, we began a work on the
`history and working of the Persian Gulf cables, of
`which we had then had over three years' practical
`experience.
`Gradually this developed itself into an ambitious
`treatise, which we styled " Submarine Telegraphs,
`their Construction, Submersion, and Maintenance,
`including their Testing and Practical Working." Of
`this some three hundred pages (foolscap) are now
`lying " submerged " in the depths of our trunk, to be,
`perhaps, " recovered " at some future day—if, haply,
`they do not share the fate of our History of Ruins I
`Unfortunately for us, at least from a book-selling
`point of view, our old taste for archaeology, after lying
`dormant for years, reasserted itself, and, about six
`years ago, we found ourselves in the design of writing
`a history of telegraphy from the time of Adam down
`to our own ! For this we had a pile of notes and
`paper cuttings—the accumulation of a dozen years,
`but few books (books are heavy and awkward baggage
`for one of our necessarily semi-nomadic life). How-
`ever, with our materials we built up a tolerably fleshy
`skeleton (if we may so speak), which, on our arrival
`in England at the close of 1882, after nearly fifteen
`years' absence, we showed to some friends.
`They advised us to fill up the gaps and bring out
`
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`

`

`x
`
`Preface.
`
`our book immediately. The first was easy of accom-
`plishment, with the use of the splendid technical
`libraries of Mr. Latimer Clark and of the Society of
`Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians, and with an
`occasional reference to the British Museum ; but to
`find a publisher, that was not so easy. Publishers,
`now as always, fight shy of Dryasdust, and the two
`or three whom we tried asked us to bring them
`something new, for, owing to the machinations of us,
`Electrical Engineers, the world was going at lightning
`speed, and had no time to look back.
`Ultimately we paid a visit to the Editor of The
`Electrician, told him of our discomfiture, showed him
`our MSS., and repeated an offer that we had made him
`years before, from Persia, but which he then declined,
`viz., to publish our articles from week to week in his
`paper. The Editor did not take long to decide ; he
`would only, however, accept the electrical portion, the
`non-electric part which deals with fire-, flag-, and
`semaphore- signalling, acoustic, pneumatic, and hy-
`draulic telegraphs, &c., &c., being, he said, unsuited
`for his journal. - On the principle that half a loaf is
`better than no bread, we concluded arrangements
`there and then, and parted with our new-found friend
`with feelings which time has but intensified.
`The present volume is a collection, with very few
`alterations, of the articles which have regularly ap-
`peared in The Electrician for the last twelve months.
`Of these alterations the only ones worth mentioning
`
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`

`Preface.
`
`xi
`
`will be found in our chapters on Mr. Edward Davy ;
`we have made our account of his electro-chemical re-
`cording telegraph a little fuller, and have added some
`new matter lately acquired (i) from recent letters of
`Mr. Davy himself, (2) from an examination of the
`private papers of the late Sir William Fothergill
`Cooke—a privilege for which we are indebted to our
`kind friend, Mr. Latimer Clark, and (3) from Mr.
`W. H. Thornthwaite, of London, an old pupil of
`Edward Davy, whose very interesting reminiscences,
`we feel sure, will be scanned with pleasure by all our
`readers.
`Now as to the plan of the work. We have divided
`the history of electricity into three parts, (I) static, or
`frictional, electricity, (2) dynamic, or galvanic, electri-
`city, and (3) electro- magnetism and magneto-electricity.
`We have brought our account of each part down to
`the year 1837, confining ourselves to a notice of such
`facts and principles only as are employed in the
`various telegraphic proposals that follow. These, in
`their turn, are divided into three classes, electrical,
`galvanic (chemical), and electro-magnetic ; and each
`class, treated chronologically, follows naturally the
`corresponding part of the .history of electricity. The
`whole is preceded by a full account of what we have
`called a foreshadowing of the electric telegraph, and is
`followed by an appendix, containing (A) a clear and
`correct statement of Professor Joseph Henry's little-
`known connection with electric telegraphy, which is
`
`by Go
`Cdomcast - Exhbiit 1014, page 18
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 18
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`

`

`xii
`
`Preface,
`
`too important to be omitted, but for which we
`could not conveniently find room in the body of the
`work, and (B) a few pages supplementary of our
`chapters on Edward Davy.
`In limiting ourselves to the year 1837, we have done
`so advisedly, for, to attempt even the barest outline
`of what has been accomplished since then would
`occupy volumes. Our object has been, as it were, to
`make a species/ survey of a river from its rise away in
`some tiny spring to its mouth in the mighty ocean,
`marking down, as we came along, those of the tributary
`streams and such other circumstances as specially
`interested us. Arrived at the mouth, the traveller who
`wishes for further exploration has only to chose his
`pilot ; for, fortunately, there is no lack of these. We
`have Highton, Lardner, Sabine, and Culley in England ;
`Shaffner, Prescott, and Reid in America ; Moigno,
`Blavier, and du Moncel in France ; Schellen, and
`Zetzsche in Germany ; Saavedra in Spain, and many
`others in various parts of the world whose names need
`not be specially mentioned.
`As we have in the body of the work given full refer-
`ences for every important statement, it will not be
`necessary to acknowledge here the sources of our in-
`formation ; indeed it would be simply impossible to
`do so within the limits of a preface which we feel is
`already too long. Like Moliere, we have taken our
`materials wherever we could find them, and it is no
`exaggeration to say that in pursuit of our subject we
`
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`

`Preface.
`
`xiii
`
`have laid many hundreds of volumes under tribute ;
`some have given us clues, some have been mines of
`wealth, others have yielded nothing at all, while,
`what was worse, a goodly number were of the ignir
`fatuus kind—false accounts, false dates, false refer-
`ences, false everything—which worried us consider-
`ably, and over which we lost much precious time.
`We gladly, however, take this opportunity of thank-
`ing Messrs. Ispolatoff (Russia), D'Amico (Italy),
`Aylmer (France), SOmmerring (Germany), and Collette
`(Holland), for their assistance, of which, as they will
`see, we have made good use in the text. To our
`friend, Mr. Latimer Clark, our debt is too heavy for
`liquidation and must remain. He has not only given
`us the free use of his magnificent library, but has aided
`and encouraged. us with his advice and sympathy,
`and, in the most generous manner, has placed at our
`disposal all his private notes. These, we need hardly
`say, have been of great use to us, and would have
`been of greater still had we seen them at an earlier
`stage of our researches.
`As we have to return almost immediately to "the
`confines of the earth," the preparation of the index
`has been kindly undertaken by otir friend, Mr. A. J.
`Frost, Librarian of the Society of Telegraph-Engineers
`and Electricians, whose name will be a sufficient
`guarantee for the accuracy, and completeness of the
`work. In tendering him our cordial thanks for this
`assistance, we have much pleasure in recording our
`
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`

`

`Div
`
`Preface.
`
`appreciation of the zeal, ability, and unvarying courtesy
`with which he performs the duties of his office. His
`bibliographical knowledge is great and special, and
`has at all times been freely placed at our disposal.
`Our book, we hope, will give the coup de grdce to
`many popular errors. Thus, we show that Watson,
`Franklin, Cavendish, and Volta did not suggest elec-
`tric telegraphs (pp. 60, 66, and 82) ; that Galvani was
`not the first to observe the fundamental phenomenon
`of what we now call galvanism (pp. 175-9) ; that his
`experiments in this field were not suggested by a
`preparation of frog-broth (pp. 18o-3); that not Daniell
`but Dobereiner and Becquerel first employed two-fluid
`cells with membranous or porous partitions (p. 215) ;
`that not Sommerring but Salvi first proposed a gal-
`vanic (chemical) telegraph (p. 220) ; that not Schilling
`but Salva, first suggested a submarine cable (p. 105) ;
`that Romagnosi did not discover electro-magnetism
`(p. 257) ; that not Ritter but Gautherot first described
`the secondary battery (p. 267) ; that not Cumming nor
`Nobili but Ampere first invented the astatic needle
`(p. 280) ; that not Seebeck but Dessaignes first dis-
`covered thermo-electricity (p. 297) ; that not Thomson
`but Gauss and Weber first constructed the mirror
`galvanometer (p. 319) ; that the use of the earth
`circuit in telegraphy was clearly and intelligently
`suggested by an Englishman long before Steinheil
`made his accidental discovery of it (p. 345) ; and
`that not Cooke and Wheatstone, nor Morse, but
`
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`

`

`Preface.
`
`•
`
`xv
`
`Henry in America and Edward Davy in England
`first applied the principle of the relay—a principle
`of the utmost importance in telegraphy (pp. 359, 511,
`and 515).
`There may be some amongst our readers who will
`not thank us for upsetting their belief on these and
`many other points of lesser importance, and who may
`even call us bad names, as did Professor Leslie on a
`former occasion, and d propos of somebody's quoting
`Swammerdam's and Sulzer's experiments (pp. 175
`and 178) as suggestive of galvanism. Leslie says :—
`" Such facts are curious and deserve attention, but
`every honourable mind must pity or scorn that invi-
`dious spirit with which some unhappy jackals hunt
`after imperfect and neglected anticipations with a view
`of detracting from the merit of full discovery "
`(Envy. Brit., 8th edition, vol. i. p. 739). For our part
`we can honestly say that in drawing up our history
`we have not been influenced by any such views ;
`our sole object has been to tell the truth, the whole
`truth, to
`
`" nothing extenuate,
`Nor set down aught in malice."
`
`possible, however, that with the best intentions
`It
`we may, either by omission or commission, be guilty
`of some unfairness ; and if our readers will only show
`us wherein we have transgressed, we will be ready to
`make the amende if they will kindly afford us an
`opportunity—in a second edition.
`
`Digitizer' k COOSIC
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`

`

`xvi
`
`Preface.
`
`We began our preface with an apology, we will
`end it with an appeal. We borrowed the one from
`Plutarch, Newton shall supply the other. At the
`close of the preface to his immortal Principia he
`says :—" I earnestly entreat that all may be read
`with candour, and that my labours may be examined
`not so much with a view to censure as to supply their
`defects."
`
`THE AUTHOR.
`
`LONDON, February 1884.
`
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`

`

`CONTENTS.
`
`FORESHADOWING OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
`
`PAGZ
`I
`
`• •
`
`CHAPTER I.
`
`CHAPTER II.
`STATIC, OR FRICTIONAL, ELECTRICITY HISTORY IN
`••
`••
`RELATION TO TELEGRAPHY •.
`
`•6
`
`CHAPTER III.
`TELEGRAPHS BASED ON STATIC, OR FRICTIONAL,
`••
`••
`••
`ELECTRICITY
`••
`
`..
`
`•I
`
`..
`
`26
`
`68
`
`CHAPTER IV.
`TELEGRAPHS BASED ON STATIC, OR FRICTIONAL,
`..
`ELECTRICITY (continued)
`••
`..
`..
`..
`
`I09
`
`CHAPTER V.
`TELEGRAPHS BASED ON STATIC, OR FRICTIONAL,
`.. 146
`..
`ELECTRICITY (continued)
`
`CHAPTER VI.
`DYNAMIC ELECTRICITY—HISTORY IN RELATION TO
`TELEGRAPHY
`
`..
`
`..
`
`..
`
`••
`
`••
`
`46
`
`le
`
`..
`
`..
`
`169
`
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`

`1
`
`xviii
`
`Contents.
`
`CHAPTER VII.
`
`DYNAMIC ELECTRICITY—HISTORY IN RELATION TO
`..
`..
`..
`..
`..
`..
`TELEGRAPHY (continued)
`
`PAGE
`
`i86
`
`CHAPTER VIII.
`TELEGRAPHS (CHEMICAL) BASED ON DYNAMIC ELEC-
`TRICITY
`..
`..
`• . 220
`• •
`
`•
`
`•
`
`•
`
`•
`
`•
`
`•
`
`•
`
`•
`
`CHAPTER IX.
`
`ELECTRO-MAGNETISM AND MAGNETO-ELECTRICITY—
`..
`H !STORY IN RELATION TO TELEGRAPHY ..
`.. 250
`
`CHAPTER X.
`
`ELECTRO-MAGNETISM AND M AGNETO-ELECTRICITY—
`H !STORY IN RELATION TO TELEGRAPHY (continued) 275
`
`CHAPTER XI.
`TELEGRAPHS BASED ON ELECTRO-MAGNETISM AND
`..
`.. 302
`..
`..
`..
`..
`M AGNETO-ELECTRICITY ..
`
`CHAPTER XII.
`TELEGRAPHS BASED ON ELECTRO-M AGNETISM AND
`M A GNETO- E LECTRICITY (continued)
`..
`..
`..
`.. 326
`
`CHAPTER XIII.
`EDWARD DAVY AND THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,
`• •
`.
`• •
`. •
`• •
`.. 349
`1836-1839 ..
`• -
`
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`

`

`Contents.
`
`CHAPTER XIV.
`
`xix
`
`PAGE
`
`EDWARD DAVY AND THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,
`1836-1839 (continued)
`•• 379
`
`CHAPTER XV.
`
`EDWARD DAVY AND THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,
`..
`1836-1839 (continued)
`• •
`••
`• •
`• • 414
`• •
`
`CHAPTER XVI.
`TELEGRAPHS BASED ON ELECTRO-MAGNETISM AND
`MAGNETO-ELECTRICITY (continued)
`..
`.. 448
`
`CHAPTER XVII.
`TELEGRAPHS BASED ON ELECTRO-MAGNETISM AND
`M AGN ETO•E LECT R CITY (continued)
`• •
`• •
`
`477
`
`APPENDIX A.—Re PROFESSOR JOSEPH HENRY
`
`APPENDIX B.—Re MR. EDWARD DAVY ..
`
`• •
`
`495
`
`.. 516
`
`BIBLIOGRAPHY
`
`• •
`
`•
`
`• •
`
`• •
`
`.. 531
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`INDEX
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`• •
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`• •
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`•
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`537
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`Digitized by GOO*
`Corncast - Exhbiit 1014, page 26
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 26
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`Dicpiz&IDy Goo
`nacast
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`page-27--i
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 27
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`

`A
`
`HISTORY
`
`OF
`
`ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHY
`
`TO THE YEAR 1837.
`
`milmmeimmomm•
`
`CHAPTER I.
`
`FORESHADOWING OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
`" Whatever draws me on,
`Or sympathy, or some connatural force,
`Powerful at greatest distance to unite,
`With secret amity, things of like kind,
`By secretest conveyance."
`Milton, Paradise Larl, x. 246. 1667.
`
`AMONGST the many flights of imagination, by which
`genius has often anticipated the achievements of her
`more deliberate and cautious sister, earth-walking
`reason, none, perhaps, is more striking than the story
`of the sympathetic needles, which was so prevalent in
`the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries,
`and which so beautifully foreshadowed the invention
`of the electric telegraph, This romantic tale had
`* " In the dream of the Elector Frederick of Saxony, in 1517, the
`curious reader may like to discern another dim glimmering, a more
`shadowy foreshadowing, of the electric telegraph, whose hosts of iron
`B
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`Comcast Exhbiit 1014, page 28
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 28
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`2
`
`A History of Electric Telegraphy
`
`reference to a sort of magnetic telegraph, based on
`the sympathy which was supposed to exist between
`needles that had been touched by the same magnet,
`or loadstone, whereby an intercourse could be main-
`tained between distant friends, since every movement
`imparted to one needle would immediately induce, by
`sympathy, similar movements in the other. As a
`history of telegraphy would be manifestly incom-
`plete without a reference to this fabulous contrivance,
`we propose to deal with it at some length in the
`present chapter.
`For the first suggestions of the sympathetic needle
`telegraph we must go back a very long way, probably
`to the date of the discovery of the magnet's attraction
`for iron. At any rate, we believe that we have found
`traces of it in the working of the oracles of pagan
`Greece and Rome. Thus, we read in Maimbourg's
`Hi stoire de P Arianisme (Paris, 1686)* :—
`
`and copper pens' reach to-day the farthest ends of the earth. In
`this strange dream Martin Luther appeared writing upon the door of
`the Palace Chapel at Wittemburg. The pen with which he wrote
`seemed so long that its feather end reached to Rome, and ran full tilt
`against the Pope's tiara, which his holiness was at the moment wearing.
`On seeing the danger, the cardinals and princes of the State ran up to
`support the tottering crown, and, one after another, tried to break the
`pen, but tried in vain. It crackled, as if made of iron, and could not
`be broken. While all were wondering at its strength a loud cry arose,
`and from the monk's long pen issued a host of others."—Electricity
`and the Electric Telegraph, by Dr. George Wilson, London, 1852,
`p. 59 ; or D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, chap. iv. book iii.
`• English translation of 1728, by the Rev. W. Webster, chap. vi.
`
`JigitizedLy Goma
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`Exhbiit 1014, page 29
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 29
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`to the Year 1837.
`
`3
`
`" Whilst Valens [the Roman Emperor] was at
`Antioch in his third. consulship, in the year 370,
`several pagans of distinction, with the philosophers
`who were in so great reputation under Julian, not
`being able to bear that the empire should continue
`in the hands of the Christians, consulted privately the
`demons, by the means of conjurations, in order to
`know the destiny of the emperor, and who should be
`his successor, persuading themselves that the oracle
`would name a person who should restore the worship
`of the gods. For this purpose they made a three-
`footed stool of laurel in imitation of the tripos at
`Delphos, upon which having laid a basin of divers
`metals they placed the twenty-four letters of the
`alphabet round it; then one of these philosophers, who
`was a magician, being wrapped up in a large mantle,
`and his head covered, holding in one hand vervain,
`and in the other a ring, which hung at the end of a
`small thread, pronounced some execrable conjurations
`in order to invoke the devils ; at which the three-
`footed stool turning round, and the ring moving of
`itself, and turning from one side to the other over the
`letters, it caused them to fall upon the table, and place
`themselves near each other, whilst the persons who
`were present set down the like letters in their table-
`books, till their answer was delivered in heroic verse,
`which foretold them that their criminal inquiry would
`cost them their lives, and that the Furies were waiting
`for the emperor at Mimas, where he was to die of a
`B 2
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`Digitizgid by G 0 Ic
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`xhblit 1014, page 30
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`AP"
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 30
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`4
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`A History of Electric Telegraphy
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`horrid kind of death [he was subsequently burnt alive
`by the Goths]; after which the enchanted ring turning
`about again over the letters, in order to express the
`name of him who should succeed the emperor, formed
`first of all these three characters, TH E 0 ; then
`having added a D to form THEOD the ring stopped,
`and was not seen to move any more ; at which one of
`the assistants cried out in a transport of joy, We must
`not doubt any longer of it ; Theodorus is the person
`whom the gods appoint for our emperor."
`If, as it must be admitted, the modus operandi is not
`here very clear, we can still carry back our subject to
`the same early date, in citing an experiment on mag-
`netic attractions which was certainly popular in the
`days of St. Augustine, 354-430.
`In his De Civitate Dei, which was written about
`413, he tells us that, being one day on a visit to a
`bishop named Seven's, he saw him take a magnetic
`stone and hold it under a silver plate, on which he had
`thrown a piece of iron, which followed exactly all the
`movements of the hand in which the loadstone was
`held. He adds that, at the time of his writing, he had
`under his eyes a vessel filled with water, placed on a
`table six inches thick, and containing a needle floating
`on cork, which he could move from side to side accord-
`ing to the movements of a magnetic stone held under
`the table.°
`Leonardus (Camillus), in his Speculum Lapidum,
`• Basilese, 1522, pp. 718-19.
`
`Digitizgd by Go'
`Comcast - Exhbiit 1014, page 31
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 31
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`to the Year 1837.
`
`5
`
`&c., 1502, verbo MAGNES, refers to this experiment as
`one familiar to mariners, and Blasius de Vigenere, in
`his annotations of Livy, says that a letter might be
`read through a stone wall three feet thick, by guiding,
`by means of a loadstone or magnet, the needle of a
`compass over the letters of the alphabet written in the
`circumference.*
`From such experiments as these the sympathetic
`telegraph was but a step, involving only the supposi-
`tion that the same effects might be possible at a
`greater distance, but when, or by whom, this step was
`first taken it is now difficult to say. It has been
`traced back to Baptista Porta, the celebrated Neapo-
`litan philosopher, and in all probability originated
`with him ; for in the same book in which he announces
`the conceit he describes the above experiment of
`St. Augustine, and other " wonders of the magnet " ;
`adding that the impostors of his time abused by these
`means the credulity of the people, by arranging around
`a basin of water, on which a magnet floated, certain
`words to serve as answers to the questions which
`superstitious persons might put to them on the future.t
`
`* Ler am/ Premier: Livrer de Tile Live, Paris, 1576, vol. i. col.
`1316.
`f While it is generally admitted that magnetism has conferred incal-
`culable benefits on mankind (witness only the mariner's compass), we
`have never yet seen it stated that it has at the same time contributed
`more to our bamboozlement than any other, we might almost say all, of
`the physical sciences. With the charlatans in all ages and nations, its
`mysterious powers have ever been fruitful sources of imposture, some-
`times harmless, sometimes not. Thus, from the iron crook of the
`
`Comcast - Exhbiit 1014, page 32
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 32
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`6
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`A History of Electric Telegraphy
`
`He then concludes the 21st chapter with the following
`words, which, so far as yet discovered, contain the first
`clear enunciation of the sympathetic needle telegraph :
`—" Lastly, owing to the convenience afforded by the
`magnet, persons can converse together through long
`In the edition of 1589 he is even more
`distances." •
`explicit, and says in the preface to the seventh book :
`" I do not fear that with a long absent friend, even
`though he be confined by prison walls, we can com-
`municate what we wish by means of two compass
`needles circumscribed with an alphabet."
`The next person who mentions this curious notion
`was Daniel Schwenter, who wrote under the assumed
`name of Johannes Hercules de Sunde.
`In his Steg-a-
`nologia et Steganographia, published at Nurnberg in
`1600, he says, p. 127 : " Inasmuch as this is a
`wonderful secret I have hitherto hesitated about
`divulging it, and for this reason disguised my remarks
`in the first edition of my book so as only to be under-
`
`Greek shepherd Magnes, and the magnetic mountains of the geo-
`grapher Ptolemy, to the magnetic trains of early railway enthusiasts ;
`from the magnetically protected coffin of Confucius to the magnetically
`suspended one of Mahomed ; from the magnetic powders and potions
`of the ancients, and the metal discs, rods, and unguents of the old
`magnetisers, to the magnetic belts of the new—the modern panacea
`for all the ills that flesh is heir to ; from the magnetic telegraphs of the
`sixteenth century to the Gary and Hosmer perpetual motors of the
`nineteenth, el hoe genus wane; all these impostures are, or were, based
`entirely on the (supposed) force of magnetic attraction, to which must
`be added an unconscionable amount of ignorance or credulity,
`* MagUr Naturalis, p. 88,' Naples, 1558.
`
`G009,1
`omcast &-txhiplit 1014, page 33
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`Comcast - Exhibit 1014, page 33
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`

`to the Year 1837.
`
`7
`
`stood by learned chemists and physicians.
`I will
`now, however, communicate it for the benefit of the
`lovers of science generally." He then goes on to
`describe, in true cabalistic fashion, the preparation of
`
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