The first line, so history states, that was successfully laid and operated was across the Hudson River in 1848. This line was constructed for the use of the Magnetic Telegraph Company.
In the following year experiments with gutta-percha insulation were successfully made, and about 1850 a cable was laid across the English Channel between Dover and Calais (twenty-seven miles), consisting of a single strand of wire having a covering of gutta-percha. The insulation was destroyed in a day or two, which demonstrated the fact that all submarine cables must be protected by some kind of armor. In 1851 another cable was laid between these two points, containing four conductors insulated with gutta-percha, and over all was an armor of iron wire. Twenty-one years later this cable was still working, and for all we know is working now. After this successful demonstration other cables were laid for longer distances.
These short-line cables served to demonstrate the relative value of different material for insulating purposes under water, and it has been found that gutta-percha possesses qualities superior to almost every other material as an insulator for submarine cables, although there are many better materials for air-line insulation. Gutta-percha when exposed to air becomes hardened and will crack, but under water it seems to be practically indestructible.
Ocean telegraphy really dates from the laying of the first successful Atlantic cable. There were many problems that had to be solved, which could be done only by the very expensive experiment of laying a cable across the Atlantic Ocean. In the first place a survey had to be made of the bottom of the ocean between the sh.o.r.es of America and Great Britain.
The most available route was discovered by Lieutenant Maury of the United States Navy, who made a series of deep-sea soundings, and discovered that, from Newfoundland to the west coast of Ireland the bottom of the ocean was comparatively even, but gradually deepening toward the coast of Ireland until it reached a depth of 2000 fathoms. It was not so deep but that the cable could be laid on the bottom, nor so shallow as to be in danger of the waves, icebergs or large sea-animals.
The water below a certain depth is always still and not affected by winds or ocean currents. At many other points in crossing the ocean, high mountains and deep valleys are encountered, possessing all the topographical features of dry land--as the ocean bed is only a great submerged continent.
The beginning of the laying of the first Atlantic cable was on Aug. 7, 1857. On the morning of Aug. 7, 1858, a year later, after a series of mishaps and adverse circ.u.mstances that would have discouraged most men, the country was electrified by a dispatch from Cyrus W. Field of New York (to whom the final success of the Atlantic cable is mainly due), that the cable had been successfully laid and worked. But this cable worked only from the 10th of August to the 1st of September, having sent in that time 271 messages. The insulation became impaired at some point, when an attempt to force the current through by means of a large battery only increased the difficulty.
The failure of this first cable served to teach manufacturers and engineers how to construct cables with reference to the conditions under which they are to be used. It was found that in the deep sea a much smaller and less expensive cable could be used than would answer at the sh.o.r.e ends, where the water is shallow. The sh.o.r.e ends of an ocean cable are made very large, as compared to the deep-sea portions, so as to resist the effect of the waves and other interfering obstacles. It was further learned that the most successful mode of transmitting signals through the cable was with a small battery of low voltage, and by the use of very delicate instruments for receiving the messages. It is not possible to employ such instruments on cables as are used on land-lines, while it would not be a difficult feat to transmit even twice the distance over land-lines strung on poles, using the ordinary Morse telegraph.
The water of the ocean is a conductor, as well as the heavy armor that surrounds the insulation of the cable. When a current is transmitted through the conducting wires, in the center of the cable, they set up a countercharge in the armor and the water above it, somewhat as an electrified cloud will induce a charge in the earth under it, of an opposite nature. This countercharge, being so close to the conducting wire, has a r.e.t.a.r.ding effect upon the current transmitted through it.
An ordinary land-line that is strung on poles that are high up from the ground has this effect reduced to a minimum, but the greater the number of wires cl.u.s.tered together on the same poles the more difficult it becomes to send rapid signals through any one of them.
The instrument used for receiving cable messages was devised by Sir William Thompson, now Lord Kelvin. One form consists of a very short and delicate galvanometer-needle carrying a tiny mirror. This mirror is so related to a beam of light thrown upon it that it reflects it upon a graduated screen at some distance away, so that its motions are magnified many hundred times as it appears upon the screen. An operator sits in a dark room with his eye on the screen and his hand upon the key of an ordinary Morse instrument. He reads the signal at sight, and with his key transmits it to a sounder, which may be in another room, where it is read and copied by another operator. Another form of receiving-instrument carries, instead of the mirror, a delicate capillary gla.s.s tube that feeds ink from a reservoir, and by this means the movements of the needle are recorded on a moving strip of paper. The symbols (representing letters) are formed by combinations of zigzag lines. This instrument is the syphon-recorder.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SHORT-LINE TELEGRAPHS.
Early in the history of the telegraph short lines began to be used for private purposes, and as the Morse code was familiar only to those who had studied it and were expert operators on commercial lines, some system had to be devised that any one with an ordinary English education could use; as the expense of employing two Morse operators would be too great for all ordinary business enterprises. These short lines are called private lines, and the instruments used upon them were called private-line telegraph-instruments. Of course they are now nearly all superseded by the telephone, but they are a part of history.
One of the earliest forms of short-line instruments was called the dial-telegraph. One of the first inventors, if not the first, of this form of instrument was Professor Wheatstone of England, who perfected a dial-telegraph-instrument about the year 1839. The receiving-end of this instrument consisted of a lettered dial-face, under which was clockwork mechanism and an escape-wheel controlled by an electromagnet. Each time the circuit was opened or closed the wheel would move forward one step, and each step represented one of the letters of the alphabet, so that the wheel, like the type-wheel of a printing telegraph, had fourteen teeth, each tooth representing two steps. As the reciprocating movement of the escapement had a pallet or check-piece on each side of the wheel, its movement was arrested twenty-eight times in each revolution. These twenty-eight steps correspond to the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, a dot and a s.p.a.ce. On the shaft of the escape-wheel is fastened a hand or pointer, which revolves over a dial-face having the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, also a dot and s.p.a.ce. The pointer was so adjusted that when the escape-wheel was arrested by one of the pallets it would stop over a letter, showing thus, letter by letter, the message which the sender was spelling out.
The transmitter consisted of a crank with a k.n.o.b and a pointer on it, which was mounted over a dial that was lettered in the same way as the face of the receiving-instrument. A revolution of this crank would break and close the circuit twenty-eight times; that is to say, there were fourteen breaks and fourteen closes of the circuit. If now the transmitting-pointer and the receiving-pointer are unified so that they both start from the same point on the dial, and the transmitting-crank is rotated from left to right, the receiving-pointer will follow it up to the limit of its speed. In transmitting a message the sender would turn his crank, or pointer, to the first letter of the word he wished to transmit, making a short pause, and then move on to the next letter, and so on to the end of the message, making a short pause on each letter.
The end of a word was indicated by turning the pointer to the s.p.a.ce-mark on the dial. The receiving-operator would read by the pauses of the needle on the various letters. This was a system of reading by sight.
There have been many forms of this dial-telegraph worked out by different inventors at different times, and quite a number of them were used in the old days. It was a slow process of telegraphing, but it was suited to the age in which it flourished. One of the difficulties of a dial-telegraph consisted in the readiness with which the transmitter and receiver would get out of unison with each other; and when this happened of course a message is unintelligible, and you have to stop and unify again.
About 1869 the writer invented a dial-telegraph to obviate this difficulty. In this system a transmitter and receiver were combined in one instrument, and instead of a crank there were b.u.t.tons arranged around the dial in a circle, one opposite each letter. When not in operation the pointers of both instruments at both stations stood at zero. In the act of transmitting the operator would depress the b.u.t.ton opposite the letter he wished to indicate, when immediately the pointers of both instruments would start up and move automatically, step by step, until the pointer came in contact with the stem of the depressed b.u.t.ton, when it would be arrested, and at the same time cut out the automatic transmitting-mechanism and cause both needles to remain stationary during the time the b.u.t.ton was depressed. Upon releasing the b.u.t.ton the pointers both fall back to zero at one leap.
The first private line equipped by this instrument was for Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler, which was the firm name of the parties who afterward organized the Standard Oil Company. This line was built between their office on the public square in Cleveland and their works over on the Cuyahoga flats.
It seemed, however, to be the fate of the writer to make new inventions that would supersede the old ones before they were fairly brought into use. Very soon after the dial-telegraph began to be used, printing telegraph instruments for private-line purposes superseded them. About 1867 a printing instrument was devised for stock reporting, which in one of its forms is still in use. Soon after the invention of this form of printer a company was organized to operate not only these stock-reporting lines, but short lines for all sorts of private purposes. Following the invention of the stock-reporting instrument there were several adaptations made of the printing telegraph for private-line purposes. Among others the writer invented one known as "Gray"s automatic printer," a cut and a description of which may be found on page 684 in "Electricity and Electric Telegraph," by George B.
Prescott, published in 1877. This instrument was adopted by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company as their standard private-line printer. It was first introduced in the year 1871, and at the time the telephone began to be used there were large numbers of these printers in operation in all of the leading cities and towns in the United States. While this has been superseded to a large extent by the telephone, there are still a few isolated cases where it is used.
Short lines have multiplied for all sorts of purposes, until to-day the money invested in them largely exceeds the amount invested in the regular commercial telegraphic enterprises.
The invention of the telephone created such a demand for short-line service that some scheme had to be devised not only to make room for the necessary wires, but to so cheapen the instruments as to bring them within reach of the ability of the ordinary man of business.
This problem has been solved (but not without many difficulties) by the inauguration of what is known as the "central station." By this system one party simply controls a single wire from his office or residence to the central station; here he can have his line connected with any other wire running into this same station, by calling the central operator and asking for the required number. It is useless to tell the public that very often this number is "busy," and here is the great drawback to the central-station system. This is especially true in large cities, where there are a great number of lines. The switchboards in large cities are necessarily very complicated affairs, and it requires a number of operators to answer the many calls that are constantly coming in. Each central-station operator presides over a certain section of the board, and as this section has to be related in a certain way to every other section, it is easy to see wherein arises the complication.
In large cities the central stations themselves have to be divided and located in different districts, being connected by a system of trunk lines.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TELAUTOGRAPH.
So far we have described several methods of electrical communication at a distance, including the reading of letters and symbols at sight (as by the dial-telegraph and the Morse code embossed on a strip of paper); printed messages and messages received by means of arbitrary sounds, and culminating in the most wonderful of all, the electrical transmission of articulate speech.
None of these systems, however, are able to transmit a message that completely identifies the sender without confirmation in the form of an autograph letter by mail.
In 1893 there was exhibited in the electrical building at the World"s Fair an instrument invented by the writer called the Telautograph. As the word implies, it is a system by which a man"s own handwriting may be transmitted to a distance through a wire and reproduced in facsimile at the receiving-end. This instrument has been so often described in the public prints that we will not attempt to do it here, for the reason that it would be impossible without elaborate drawings and specifications. It is unnecessary to state that it differs in a fundamental way from other facsimile systems of telegraphy. Suffice it to say that as one writes his message in one city another pen in another city follows the transmitting-pen with perfect synchronism; it is as though a man were writing with a pen with two points widely separated, both moving at the same time and both making exactly the same motions.
By this system a man may transact business with the same accuracy as by the United States mail, and with the same celerity as by the electric telegraph.
A broker may buy or sell with his own signature attached to the order, and do it as quickly as he could by any other method of telegraphing, and with absolute accuracy, secrecy and perfect identification.
In 1893, when this apparatus was first publicly exhibited, it operated by means of four wires between stations, and while the work it did was faultless, the use of four wires made it too expensive and too c.u.mbersome for commercial purposes; so during all the years since then the endeavor has been to reduce the number of wires to two, when it would stand on an equality with the telephone in this respect. It is only lately that this improvement has been satisfactorily accomplished, and, for reasons above stated, no serious attempt has been made to introduce it as yet; but it has been used for a long enough time to demonstrate its practicability and commercial value. Companies have been organized both in Europe and America for the purpose of putting the telautograph into commercial use.
By means of a switch located in each subscriber"s office the wires may be switched from a telephone to a telautograph, or vice versa, in a moment of time. By this arrangement a man may do all the preliminary work of a business transaction through the telephone, and when he is ready to put it into black and white switch in the telautograph and write it down. For ordinary exchange work this is undoubtedly the true way to use the telautograph, because one system of wires and one central-station system will answer for both modes of communication, and in this way an enormous saving can be made to the public. There is no question in the mind of any one who is familiar with the operation of both the telephone and telautograph but that some day they will both be used, either in the same or separate systems, as they each have distinctly separate fields of usefulness,--the telephone for desultory conversation, the telautograph for accurate business transactions. The question may arise in the minds of experts how the two systems can be worked in the same set of cables, and this leads us to discuss the phenomena of induction.
Every one who has listened at a telephone has heard a jumble of noises more or less p.r.o.nounced, which is the effect of the working of other wires in proximity to those of the telephone. If, when a Morse telegraph instrument is in operation on one of a number of wires strung on the same poles, we should insert a telephone in any one of the wires that were strung on the same poles or on another set of poles even across the street, we could hear the working of this Morse wire in the telephone, more or less p.r.o.nounced, according to the distance the wire is from the Morse circuit. This phenomenon is the result of induction, caused by magnetic ether-waves that are set up whenever a circuit is broken and closed, as explained in Chapter VI.
The telephone is perhaps the most sensitive of all instruments, and will detect electrical disturbances that are too feeble to be felt on almost any other instrument, hence the telephone is preyed upon by every other system of electrical transmission, and for this reason has to adopt means of self-protection. It has been found that the surest way to prevent interference in the telephone from neighboring wires is to use what is called a metallic circuit--that is to say, instead of running a single wire from point to point and grounding at each end, as in ordinary telegraph systems, the telephone circuit is completed by using a second wire instead of the earth.
As a complete defense against the effects of induced currents the wires should be exactly alike as to cross-section (or size) and resistance.
They should be insulated and laid together with a slight twist. This latter is to cause the two wires so twisted to average always the same distance from any contiguous wire.
One factor in determining the intensity of an induced current is the distance the wire in which it flows is from the source of induction. A telephone put in circuit at the end of the two wires that are thus laid together will be practically free from the effects of induced currents that are set up by the working of contiguous wires--for this reason: Whenever a current is induced in one of the slack-twisted wires it is induced in both alike; the two impulses being of the same polarity meet in the telephone, where they kill each other. In order to have a perfect result we must have perfect conditions, which are never attained absolutely, but nearly enough for all practical purposes.
In the early days of telephony great difficulty was experienced in using a single wire grounded at each end in the ordinary way, if it ran near other wires that were in active use. As time pa.s.sed on and the electric light and electric railroad came into operation these difficulties were immensely increased, till now in large cities the telephone companies are fast being driven to the double-wire system, which will soon become universal for telephonic purposes the world over, except perhaps in a few country places where there is freedom from other systems of electrical transmission. To successfully work the telephone and telautograph through the same cables, these protective devices against induction must be very carefully provided and maintained.
CHAPTER XX.
SOME CURIOSITIES.
Until within recent years it was never supposed that a sunbeam would ever laugh except in poetry. But the modern scientist has taken it out of the realm of poetry and put it into the prosy play of every-day life.
The Radiophone, invented by A. G. Bell, is an instrument by which articulate or other sounds are transmitted through the medium of a ray of light. It has as yet no practical application and has never gone beyond the experimental stage, but as a bit of scientific information it is very interesting.
If we introduce into an electric circuit a piece of selenium, prepared in a certain way, its resistance as an electric conductor undergoes a radical change when a beam of sunlight is thrown upon it. For instance, a selenium cell, so called, that in the dark would measure 300 ohms resistance, would have only about 150 ohms when exposed to sunlight.
This amount of variation in a short circuit of low resistance would produce a considerable change in the strength of a current pa.s.sing through it from a battery of a given voltage.
If now we connect a selenium cell to one pole of a battery, and thence through a telephone and back to the other pole, we have completed an electric circuit, of which the selenium cell is a part, and any variation of resistance in this cell, if made suddenly, will be heard in the telephone. Let the diaphragm of a telephone transmitter have a very light, thin mirror on one side of it, and a beam of sunlight be thrown upon it and reflected from that on to the selenium cell, which may be some distance away. Then, if the diaphragm is thrown into vibration by an articulate word or other sound, the light-ray is also thrown into vibration, which causes a vibratory change of resistance in the selenium cell in sympathy with the light-vibrations; and this in turn throws the electric current into a sympathetic vibratory state which is heard in the telephone. So that if a person laughs or talks or sings to the diaphragm, the sunbeam laughs, talks and sings and tells its story to the electric current, which impresses itself upon the telephone as audible sounds--articulate or otherwise. Instead of the telephone, battery and selenium cell, a block of vulcanite or certain other substances may be used as a receiver; as a light-ray thrown into vibration has the power to produce sound or sympathetic vibration in certain substances.