Masters of Space Morse, Thompson, Bell, Marconi, Carty

yden Jar-The Mysteri

hs-The Electro-magn

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a new servant-electricity. The story of the growth of modern means of communication is the story of the application of electricity to this particul

s crook was attracted by a strange rock. Thus was the lodestone, the natural magnetic iron ore, discovered, and the legend would lead us to believe tha

e early peoples. How early this property was found, or how, we do not know

h it follow the lodestone held in the hand. It is related that the early magicians used it as a means of transmitting intelligence. If a needle were placed upon a bit of cork and the whole floated in a circular vessel with the alphabet inscribed about the circle, one outside the room could cause the needle to point toward any desired letters in turn by stepping to the proper p

destone were sympathetic, and that if both were free to move one would imitate the movements of another, though they were at a distance. Thus, if one needle were attracted toward one letter after the other, and the second similarly

ed, possessed magnetic properties. Machines by which electricity could be produced in

demonstrated that frictional and atmospheric electricity are the same. Franklin and others sent the el

abet. The wires could be charged from an electrical machine in any desired order, and at the receiving end would attract disks of paper marked with the letter which that wire represented, and so any message could be spelled out. The identity of "C.M." has never been established, but he was probably Charles Morrison, a Scotch surgeo

er submitted a similar system to the same authorities in 1816, and was told that "telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary." An American inventor fared no better, for one Harrison Gray Dyar, of New York, was compelled to abandon his experiments on Long Island and flee because he was accused of conspiracy to carry on secret communication, which sounded very like witchcraf

development of the telegraph was the discovery of electro-magnetism. This was the work of Hans Christian Oersted, a native of Denmark. He first noticed that a current flowing through a wire would deflect a compass,

ving for a telegraph. Experiments with spark and chemical telegraphs were superseded by efforts with this new discovery. Ampère, acting upon the suggestion of La Place, an eminent mathem

gnet, thus laying the basis for the modern dynamo. Professors Gauss and Weber, who were operating the telegraph line at G?ttingen, adapted this new discovery to their needs. They sent the message by moving a magnetic key. A current was thus generated in the line, and, passing over the wir

e receiving station marked down its message in dots and dashes on a ribbon of paper. He was the first to utilize the earth for the re

the current passing through a coil of wire served to magnetize temporarily a piece of soft iron within it. It was this principle upon which Morse was working at this time. Davy did not carry his suggestions into effect, however. He emigrated to Australia, and the interruption in his experiments