George Wilson, ‘The Electric Telegraph’ [Extract]
Tatiana Kontou, Victoria Mills, Richard Menke · 2022
The ultimate and only important fact in reference to the telegraph is, that by the marvellously simple device of dissolving a few pieces of metal connected with a long wire, the people can develop instantaneously, a thousand miles off, a force which will speak for the reader, write for them, print for the reader, and so far as the conveyance of thoughts is concerned, annihilate space and time. The electric telegraph, indeed, remained an unrealised idea in the minds of ingenious men, till the famous Danish philosopher Oersted discovered, that a current of electricity, even though of very small intensity, if passing near a compass-needle poised on a pivot, will cause the needle to change its position, and point in a new direction. In actual practice, however, the wires are not shifted from the zinc to the copper, but are cut across between battery on the one hand, and the telegraph-wires and coil round the magnetic needles on the other.