ABSTRACT

More than two centuries ago a learned Italian Jesuit, named Strada, gave a fanciful account of a method by which he supposed two persons might communicate with each other, however far they might be separated. It was about this time that an incident occurred which strongly drew the attention of the general public to the electric telegraph, which had, up to that time, been considered as the more immediate concern of the railway companies. It must not, however, be supposed that they are entitled to be considered the exclusive inventors of the electric telegraph, for the people have already named other distinguished investigators who contributed their share to this remarkable invention. It has now, within a few years afterwards, become so familiar as an appliance of ordinary life and business, that people in general are less impressed by the wonder of it than were their fathers half a century ago by the electric telegraphs of Wheatstone and of Morse.