Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
83
On
his
return
home,
Professor
Thomson
was
among
those
who
received
the
honour
of
knighthood
for
their
services
in
connection
with
the
enterprise.
He
deserved
it.
By
his
theory
and
apparatus
he
probably
did
more
than
any
other
man,
with
the
exception
of
Mr.
Field,
to
further
the
Atlantic
telegraph.
We
owe
it
to
his
admirable
inventions,
the
mirror
instrument
of
1857
and
the
siphon
recorder
of
1869,
that
messages
through
long
cables
are
so
cheap
and
fast,
and,
as
a
consequence,
that
ocean
telegraphy
is
now
so
common.
Hence
some
account
of
these
two
instruments
will
not
be
out
of
place.
Sir
William
Thomson's
siphon
recorder,
in
all
its
present
completeness,
must
take
rank
as
a
masterpiece
of
invention.
As
used
in
the
recording
or
writing
in
permanent
characters
of
the
messages
sent
through
long
submarine
cables,
it
is
the
acknowledged
chief
of
'receiving
instruments,'
as
those
apparatus
are
called
which
interpret
the
electrical
condition
of
the
telegraph
wire
into
intelligible
signals.
Like
other
mechanical
creations,
no
doubt
its
growth
in
idea
and
translation
into
material
fact
was
a
step-by-step
process
of
evolution,
culminating
at
last
in
its
great
fitness
and
beauty.
The
marvellous
development
of
telegraphy
within
the
last
generation
has
called
into
existence
a
great
variety
of
receiving
instruments,
each
admirable
in
its
way.
The
Hughes,
or
the
Stock
Exchange
instruments,
for
instance,
print
the
message
in
Roman
characters;
the
sounders
strike
it
out
on
stops
or
bells
of
different
tone;
the
needle
instruments
indicate
it
by
oscillations
of
their
needles;
the
Morse
daubs
it
in
ink
on
paper,
or
embosses
it
by
a
hard
style;
while
Bain's
electro-chemical
receiver
stains
it
on
chemically
prepared
paper.
The
Meyer-Baudot
and
the
Quadruple
receive
four
messages
at
once
and
record
them
separately;
while
the
harmonic
telegraph
of
Elisha
Gray
can
receive
as
many
as
eight
simultaneously,
by
means
of
notes
excited
by
the
current
in
eight
separate
tuning
forks.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
