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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
8
In
1802,
Jean
Alexandre,
a
reputed
natural
son
of
Jean
Jacques
Rousseau,
brought
out
a
TELEGRAPHE
INTIME,
or
secret
telegraph,
which
appears
to
have
been
a
step-by-step
apparatus.
The
inventor
concealed
its
mode
of
working,
but
it
was
believed
to
be
electrical,
and
there
was
a
needle
which
stopped
at
various
points
on
a
dial.
Alexandre
stated
that
he
had
found
out
a
strange
matter
or
power
which
was,
perhaps
generally
diffused,
and
formed
in
some
sort
the
soul
of
the
universe.
He
endeavoured
to
bring
his
invention
under
the
eye
of
the
First
Consul,
but
Napoleon
referred
the
matter
to
Delambre,
and
would
not
see
it.
Alexandre
was
born
at
Paris,
and
served
as
a
carver
and
gilder
at
Poictiers;
then
sang
in
the
churches
till
the
Revolution
suppressed
this
means
of
livelihood.
He
rose
to
influence
as
a
Commissary-general,
then
retired
from
the
army
and
became
an
inventor.
His
name
is
associated
with
a
method
of
steering
balloons,
and
a
filter
for
supplying
Bordeaux
with
water
from
the
Garonne.
But
neither
of
these
plans
appear
to
have
been
put
in
practice,
and
he
died
at
Angouleme,
leaving
his
widow
in
extreme
poverty.
Sommering,
a
distinguished
Prussian
anatomist,
in
1809
brought
out
a
telegraph
worked
by
a
voltaic
battery,
and
making
signals
by
decomposing
water.
Two
years
later
it
was
greatly
simplified
by
Schweigger,
of
Halle;
and
there
is
reason
to
believe
that
but
for
the
discovery
of
electro-magnetism
by
Oersted,
in
1824
the
chemical
telegraph
would
have
come
into
practical
use.
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