ART. III.-COMPARATIVE CONDUCTIBILITY OF WIRE. EXPERIMENTS ON THE CONDUCTIBILITY OF WIRE-IMPORTANT DISCOVERY IN TELEGRAPHY-GUTTA PERCHA WORKS IN THE WORLD STATHAM'S FACTORY. WE give below some experiments made by Mr. Statham, proprietor of the London Gutta Percha Works. There are four gutta percha manufactories now in existence :-one in London, one in Berlin, one in St. Petersburgh, and one in New-York; and of the four, the London works are far superior in every respect. Mr. Statham, who has labored so faithfully for many years in the production of the best means or mode of using gutta percha for electric telegraph purposes, has won for himself the admiration of the entire telegraphic community. He has labored faithfully to devise the useful implements and auxiliaries required in the telegraphic art, and his success has been perfect. No one has done more for the art than Mr. S., and as a member of the profession, we feel grateful to him for the production of so much in the advancement of the telegraph enterprise. The London Gutta Percha Works manufacture gutta percha wares of all kinds, and his mode of insulating telegraphic wire is complete. Any company requiring wire for submarine, subterranean, or for office purposes, can safely depend upon Mr. Statham in forwarding the best article desired at an honest He understands the subject much better than we who are more actively engaged in telegraphing; he has had facilities and experience superior to those which we have enjoyed, and his energies have impelled him to the consummation of the most useful andpractical developments. We then, in view of these facts, recommend to all telegraph people, throughout the world, to procure gutta percha insulated wire from Mr. Statham. Inform him of the purposes of your wire, and he can best judge of the quality you need. What we here say, is wholly unsolicited by any one, and is the free and voluntary utterance of an opin ion, produced by evidences enforcing conviction. We refer to the following schedule, viz., EXPERIMENTS-Showing relative resistance of No. 18 and No. 16 copper wire, insulated by double covering of gutta percha, and submerged in the Regent's Canal. Gutta Percha Works, 27th May, 1854. No. 18.--Guage copper wire, covered with gutta percha to guage No. 7. No. 16.-Guage copper wire, covered with gutta percha to guage No. 4, An ordinary single needle instrument was employed-connected to earth, as usual in practice. With 3 pair plates.........299...... .39° deflection of needle 6 do. ......50°.......59° do. The same instrument employed, but the needle slightly weighted. ART. IV. FRENCH NOTICES OF MORSE'S TELEGRAPH IN 1838. PROOF OF THE EARLY INVENTION OF MORSE'S TELEGRAPH-NOTICES OP MORSE'S INVENTION BY THE PARIS PRESS-THE TELEGRAPH CONSIDERED BY THE ACADEMY. IN looking over the files of French papers, at the date of the presentation of Morse's Telegraph to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, September, 1838, we collected a few of the numerous notices of it, from which our readers can judge for themselves whether the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph was then considered an invention well known, or something entirely new. From the Constitutionnel, Sept. 13, 1838. "A foreign philosopher, M. Morse, of New-York, (who unhappily does not speak the French language, for we requested of him some explanations of his beautiful invention,) exhibited an Electric Telegraph. This instrument attracted the notice, and excited the curiosity of the whole Academy. M. Arago explained its mechanism, but in a manner too brief to enable us sufficiently to comprehend it. tion. Before speaking of it, we would see this telegraph in operaWe await elsewhere the future explanations which M. Arago has promised." From the Courrier Francais, Sept. 13, 1838. "Even before the opening of the session, an intricate apparatus, placed upon the table of the Academy, attracted all eyes. There was there seen a large magnet surrounded with electric conductors, some cylinders of brass, upon which paper was rolled up, and above all a cord, much intertwined, of galvanometer wire. It is the electric telegraph, established for sometime in the United States by Professor Morse, and which its author comes to submit for the approval of the Academy, and of France. Notwithstanding the exterior complication of this instrument, the general plan of it is very simple. A magnet, furnished with wires wound in a helix, which greatly increases its power; a wire conductor of indefinite length, which receives and transmits the current; some points of a pencil furnished with ink, which inscribes the dispatch in conventional black marks, and in which change of place forms an alphabet; such are the principles which lie at the basis of the electric telegraph. It appears that the system of Professor Morse unites the qualities of economy and certainty. It further offers this advantage, that it is not absolutely necessary to have the persons employed permanently present at the place where the news is received, since the despatch inscribes itself. The strongest argument which presents itselt in favour of this invention of Professor Morse, is that it has already operated with complete success in the United States, through ten miles of conductors, or about four leagues. Although we have seen the apparatus of Professor Morse, as well as many plans of German electric telegraphs, we by no means undertake to give here a description which would be superfluous to those who have examined these machines, and necessarily unintelligible to those who have not had this opportunity. We learn elsewhere that soon will be seen in action, in Paris, one of these telegraphs, upon a line of some extent. But while waiting for the realization of these promises, and even before the possibility of establishing long lines has been well established, the question of priority is contested with some warmth between the two worlds. It is by no means easy to take positive ground in this contest. |