Inventions in the Century

In view of all the facts now historically established, there can be no doubt that previous to Henry's experiments the means for developing magnetism in soft iron were imperfectly understood, and that, as found by Prof. Barlow, the electro-magnet which then existed was inapplicable and impracticable for the transmission of power to a distance. Prof. Henry was the first to prove that a galvanic battery of "intensity" must be employed to project the current through a long conductor, and that a magnet of one long wire must be used to receive this current; the first to magnetise a piece of soft iron at a distance and call attention to its applicability to the telegraph; the first to actually sound a bell at a distance by means of the electro-magnet; and the first to show that the principles he developed were applicable and necessary to the practical operation of an effective telegraph system.

Sturgeon, the parent of the electro-magnet, on learning of Henry's discoveries and inventions, wrote: "Professor Henry has been enabled to produce a magnetic force which totally eclipses every other in the whole annals of magnetism; and no parallel is to be found since the miraculous suspension of the celebrated oriental impostor in his iron coffin." (Philosophical Magazine and Annals, 1832.)

The third decade was now prepared for the development of the telegraph. As to the telegraph in its broadest sense, as a means for conveying intelligence to a distance quickly and without a messenger, successful experiments of that kind have existed from the earliest times: – from the signal fires of the ancients; from the flag signals between ships at sea, introduced in the seventeenth century by the Duke of York, then Admiral of the English fleet, and afterwards James II of England; from the semaphore telegraph of M. Chappe, adopted by the French government in 1794, consisting of bars pivoted to an upright stationary post, and made to swing vertically or horizontally to indicate certain signals; and from many other forms of earlier and later days.

As to electricity as an agent for the transmission of signals, the idea dates, as already stated, from the discovery of Stephen Gray in 1729, that the electrical influence could be conveyed to a distance by the means of an insulated wire. This was followed by the practical suggestions of Franklin and others. But when, as we have seen, voltaic electricity entered the field, electricity became a more powerful and tractable servant, and distant intelligent signals became one of its first labors.

The second decade was also made notable by the discovery and establishment by George Simon Ohm, a German professor of Physics, of the fundamental mathematical law of electricity: It has been expressed in the following terms: (a) the current strength is equal to the electro-motive force divided by the resistance; (b) the force is equal to the current strength multiplied by the resistance; (c) the resistance is equal to the force divided by the current strength.

The historical development and evolution of the telegraph may be now summarized: —

1. The discovery of galvanic electricity by Galvani – 1786-1790.

2. The galvanic or voltaic battery by Volta in 1800.

3. The galvanic influence on a magnetic needle by Romagnosi (1802) Oersted (1820).

4. The galvanometer of Schweigger, 1820 – the parent of the needle system.

5. The electro-magnet by Arago and Sturgeon – 1820-1825 – the parent of the magnet system.

Then followed in the third decade the important series of steps in the evolution, consisting of: —

First, and most vital, Henry's discovery in 1829 and 1830 of the "intensity" or spool-wound magnet, and its intimate relation to the "intensity" battery, and the subordinate use of an armature as the signalling device.

Second, Gauss's improvement in 1833 (or probably Schilling's considerably earlier) of reducing the electric conductors to a single circuit by the ingenious use of a dual sign so combined as to produce a true alphabet.

Third, Weber's discovery in 1833 that the conducting wires of an electric telegraph could be efficiently carried through the air without any insulation except at their points of support.

Fourth, Daniell's invention of a "constant" galvanic battery in 1836.

Fifth, Steinheil's remarkable discovery in 1837 that the earth may form the returning half of a closed galvanic circuit, so that a single conducting wire is sufficient for all telegraphic purposes.

Sixth, Morse's adaptation of the armature and electro-magnet of Henry as a recording instrument in 1837 in connection with his improvement in 1838 on the Schilling, Gauss and Steinheil alphabets by employing the simple "dot and dash" alphabet in a single line. He was also assisted by the suggestions of Profs. Dana and Gale. To which must be added his adoption of Alfred Vail's improved alphabet, and Vail's practical suggestions in respect to the recording and other instrumentalities.

To these should be added the efforts in England, made almost simultaneously with those of Morse, of Wheatstone and Cook and Davy, who were reaching the same goal by somewhat different routes.

Morse in 1837 commenced to put the results of his experiments and investigations in the form of caveats, applications and letters patent in the United States and in Europe. He struggled hard against indifference and poverty to introduce his invention to the world. It was not until 1844 that he reduced it to a commercial practical success. He then laid a telegraph from Washington to Baltimore under the auspices of the United States Government, which after long hesitation appropriated $30,000 for the purpose. It was on the 24th day of May, 1844, that the first formal message was transmitted on this line between the two cities and recorded by the electro-magnet in the dot and dash alphabet, and this was immediately followed by other messages on the same line.

Morse gathered freely from all sources of which he could avail himself knowledge of what had gone before. He was not a scientific discoverer, but an inventor, who, adding a few ideas of his own to what had before been discovered, was the first to combine them in a practical useful device. What he did as an inventor, and what anyone may do to constitute himself an inventor, by giving to the world a device which is useful in the daily work of mankind, as distinguished from the scientific discoverer who stops short of successful industrial work, is thus stated by the United States Supreme Court in an opinion sustaining the validity of his patents, after all the previous art had been produced before it: —

"Neither can the inquiries he made nor the information or advice he received from men of science in the course of his researches impair his right to the character of an inventor. No invention can possibly be made, consisting of a combination of different elements of power, without a thorough knowledge of the properties of each of them, and the mode in which they operate on each other. And it can make no difference in this respect, whether he derives his information from books, or from conversation with men skilled in the science. If it were otherwise, no patent in which a combination of different elements is used would ever be obtained, for no man ever made such an invention without having first obtained this information, unless it was discovered by some fortunate accident. And it is evident that such an invention as the electro-magnetic telegraph could never have been brought into action without it; for a very high degree of scientific knowledge and the nicest skill in the mechanic arts are combined in it, and were both necessary to bring it into successful operation. The fact that Morse sought and obtained the necessary information and counsel from the best sources, and acted upon it, neither impairs his rights as an inventor nor detracts from his merits." —O'Reilly vs. Morse, 5 Howard.

The combination constituting Morse's invention comprised a main wire circuit to transmit the current through its whole length whenever closed; a main galvanic battery to supply the current; operating keys to break and close the main circuit; office circuits; a circuit of conductors and batteries at each office to record the message there; receiving spring lever magnets to close an office circuit when a current passes through the main circuit; adjusting screws to vary the force of the main current; marking apparatus, consisting of pointed pieces of wire, to indent dots and lines upon paper; clockwork to move the paper indented; and magnet sounders to develop the power of the pointer and of the armatures to produce audible distinguishable sounds.

It was soon learned by operators how to distinguish the signs or letters sent by the length of the "click" of the armature, and by thus reading by sound the reading of the signs on paper was dispensed with, and the device became an electric-magnetic acoustic telegraph.

What is known as the Morse system has been improved, but its fundamental principles remain, and their world-wide use constitute still the daily evidence of the immense value of the invention to mankind.

Before the 1844 reduction to practice, Morse had originated and laid the first submarine telegraph. This was in New York harbour in 1842. In a letter to the Secretary of the United States Treasury, August 10, 1843, he also suggested the project of an Atlantic telegraph.

While Henry was busy with his great magnets and Morse struggling to introduce his telegraph, Michael Faraday was making those investigations and discoveries which were to result in the application of electricity to the service of man in still wider and grander fields.

Faraday was a chemist, and Davy's most brilliant pupil and efficient assistant. His earliest experiments were in the line of electrolysis. This was about 1822, but it was not until 1831 that he began to devote his brilliant talents as an experimentalist and lecturer wholly to electrical researches, and for a quarter of a century his patient, wonderful labours and discoveries continued. It has been said that "although Oersted was the discoverer of electro-magnetism and Ampère its expounder, Faraday made the science of magnets electrically what it is at the present day."

Great magnetic power having been developed by passing a galvanic current around a bar of soft iron, Faraday concluded that it was reasonable to suppose that as mechanical action is accompanied by an equal amount of reaction, electricity ought to be evolved from magnetism.

"It was in 1831 that Faraday demonstrated before the Royal Society that if a magnetized bar of steel be introduced into the centre of a helix of insulated wire, there is at the moment of introduction of the magnet a current of electricity set up in a certain direction in the insulated wire forming the helix, while on the withdrawal of the magnet from the helix a current in an opposite direction takes place.

"He also discovered that the same phenomenon was to be observed if for the magnet was substituted a coil of insulated wire, through which the current from a voltaic element was passing; and further that when an insulated coil of wire was made to revolve before the poles of a permanent magnet, electric currents were induced in the wires of the coil." —Journal of the Society of Arts.

On these discoveries were based the action of all magneto-dynamo electric machines – machines that have enabled the world to convert the energy of a steam engine in its stall, or a distant waterfall, into electric energy for the performance of the herculean labours of lighting a great city, or an ocean-bound lighthouse, or transporting quickly heavy loads of people or freight up and down and to and fro upon the earth.

As before stated, Faraday was also the first to proclaim the laws of electrolysis, or electro-chemical decomposition. He expressed conviction that the forces termed chemical affinity and electricity are one and the same. Subsequently the great Helmholtz, having proved by experiment that in the phenomena of electrolysis no other force acts but the mutual attractions of the atomic electric charges, came to the conclusion, "that the very mightiest among the chemical forces are of electric origin."

Faraday having demonstrated by his experiments that chemical decomposition, electricity, magnetism, heat and light, are all inter-convertible and correlated forces, the inventors of the age were now ready to step forward and put these theories at work in machines in the service of man. Faraday was a leader in the field of discovery. He left to inventors the practical application of his discoveries.

Prof. Henry in America was, contemporaneously with Faraday, developing electricity by means of magnetic induction.

In 1832, Pixii, a philosophical instrument-maker of Paris, and Joseph Saxton, an American then residing in London, invented and constructed magneto-machines on Faraday's principle of rendering magnetic a core of soft iron surrounded with insulated wire from a permanent magnet, and rapidly reversing its polarity, which machines were used to produce sparks, decompose liquids and metals, and fire combustible bodies. Saxton's machine was the well-known electric shock machine operated by turning a crank. A similar device is now used for ringing telephone call bells.

Prof. C. G. Page of Washington and Ruhmkorff of Paris each made a machine, well known as the Ruhmkorff coil, by which intense electro-magnetic currents by induction were produced. The production of electrical illumination was now talked of more than ever. Scientists and inventors now had two forms of electrical machines to produce light: the voltaic battery and the magneto-electric apparatus. But a period of comparative rest took place in this line until 1850, when Prof. Nollet of Brussels made an effort to produce a powerful magneto-electric machine for decomposing water into its elements of hydrogen and oxygen, which gases were then to be used in producing the lime light; and a company known as "The Alliance" was organized at Paris to make large machines for the production of light.

We have seen that Davy produced a brilliant electric light with two pieces of charcoal in the electric circuit of a voltaic battery. Greener and Staite revived this idea in a patent in 1845. Shortly after Nollet's machine, F. H. Holmes of England improved it and applied the current directly to the production of electric light between carbon points. And Holmes and Faraday in 1857 prepared this machine for use.

On the evening of December 8, 1858, the first practical electric light, the work of Faraday and Holmes, flashed over the troubled sea from the South Foreland Lighthouse. On June 6, 1862, this light was also introduced into the lighthouse at Dungeness, England. The same light was introduced in French lighthouses in December, 1863, and also in the work on the docks of Cherbourg. At this time Germany was also awake to the importance of this invention, and Dr. Werner Siemens of Berlin was at work developing a machine for the purpose into one of less cost and of greater use. Inventors were not yet satisfied with the power developed from either the voltaic battery or the magneto-electric machine, and continued to improve the latter.

In 1867, the same year that Faraday died, and too late for him to witness its glory, came out the most powerful magneto-electric machine that had yet been produced. It was invented by Wilde of London, and consisted of very large electro-magnets, or field magnets, receiving their electric power from the "lines of force" discovered by Faraday, radiating from the poles of a soft iron magnet, combined with a small magneto-electric machine having permanent magnets, and by which the current developed in the smaller machine was sent through the coils of the larger magnets. By this method the magnetic force was vastly multiplied, and electricity was produced in such abundance as to fuse thick iron wire fifteen inches long and one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and to develop a magnificent arc light. Quickly succeeding the Wilde machine came independent inventions in the same direction from Messrs. G. Farmer of Salem, Mass., Alfred Yarley and Prof. Charles Wheatstone of England, and Dr. Siemens of Berlin, and Ladd of America. These inventors conceived and put in practice the great idea of employing the current from an electro-magnetic machine to excite its own electric magnet. They were thus termed "self-exciting." The idea was that the commutator (an instrument to change the direction, strength or circuit of the current) should be so connected with the coils of the field magnets that all or a part of the current developed in the armature would flow through these coils, so that all permanent magnets might be dispensed with, and the machine used to excite itself or charge its own field magnets without the aid of any outside charging or feeding mechanism.

Mr. Z. Gramme, of France, a little later than Wilde made a great improvement. Previously, machines furnished only momentary currents of varying strength and polarity; and these intermittent currents were hard to control without loss in the strength of current and the frequent production of sparks. Gramme produced a machine in which, although as in other machines the magnetic field of force was created by a powerful magnet, yet the armature was a ring made of soft iron rods, and surrounded by an endless coil of wire, and made to revolve between the poles of the magnet with great rapidity, producing a constant current in one direction. By Faraday's discovery, when the coil of the closed circuit was moved before the poles of the magnet, the current was carried half the time in one direction and half in the other, constituting what is called an alternating current. Gramme employed the commutator to make the current direct instead of alternating.

Dynamo-electric machines for practical work of many kinds had now been born and grown to strength.

In addition to these and many other electrical machines this century has discovered several ways by which the electricity developed by such machines may be converted into light. I. By means of two carbon conductors between which passes a series of intensely brilliant sparks which form a species of flame known as the voltaic arc, and the heat of which is more intense than that from any other known artificial source. II. By means of a rod of carbon or kaolin, strip of platinum or iridium, a carbon filament, or other substance placed between two conductors, the resistance opposed by such rod, strip, or filament to the passage of the current being so great as to develop heat to the point of incandescence, and produce a steady white and pure light. Attempts also have been made to produce illumination by what is called stratified light produced by the electric discharge passing through tubes containing various gases. These tubes are known as Geissler tubes, from their inventor. Still another method is the production of a continuous light from a vibratory movement of carbon electrodes to and from each other, producing a bright flash at each separation, and maintaining the separations at such a rate that the effect of the light produced is continuous. But these additional methods do not appear as yet to be commercially successful.

It must not be overlooked that before dynamo-magneto-electric machines were used practically in the production of the electric light for the purposes of illumination, the voltaic battery was used for the same purpose, but not economically.

The first private dwelling house ever lighted in America, or doubtless anywhere else, by electricity, was that of Moses G. Farmer, in Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1859. A voltaic battery furnished the current to conducting wires which led to two electric lamps on the mantel-piece of the drawing-room, and in which strips of platinum constituted the resisting and lighting medium. A soft, mild, agreeable light was produced, which was more delightful to read or sew by than any artificial light ever before known. Either or both lamps could be lighted by turning a button, and they were maintained for several weeks, but were discontinued for the reason that the cost of maintaining them was much greater than of gas light.

It was in connection with the effective dynamo-electric apparatus of M. Gramme above referred to that the electric candle invented by M. Paul Jablochoff became soon thereafter extensively employed for electric lighting in Paris, and elsewhere in Europe. This invention, like the great majority of useful inventions, is noted for its simplicity. It consists of two carbon pencils placed side by side and insulated from each other by means of a thin plate of some refractory material which is a non-conductor at ordinary temperatures, but which becomes a conductor, and consequently a light, when fused by the action of a powerful current. Plaster of Paris was found to be the most suitable material for this purpose, and the light produced was soft, mellow, slightly rose-coloured, and quite agreeable to the eye.

It having been found that carbon was better adapted for lighting purposes than platinum or other metals, by reason of its greater radiating power for equal temperatures, and still greater infusibility at high temperatures, inventors turned their attention to the production of the best carbon lamp.

The two pointed pieces of hard conducting carbon used for the separated terminals constitute the voltaic arc light – a light only excelled in intense brilliancy by the sun itself. It is necessary in order to make such a light successful that it should be continuous. But as it is found that both carbons waste away under the consuming action of the intense heat engendered by their resistance to the electric current, and that one electrode, the positive, wastes away twice as fast as the opposite negative electrode, the distance between the points soon becomes too great for the current longer to leap over it, and the light is then extinguished. Many ingenious contrivances have been devised for correcting this trouble, and maintaining a continuously uniform distance between the carbons by giving to them a self-adjusting automatic action. Such an apparatus is called a regulator, and the variety of regulators is very great. The French were among the first to contrive such regulators, – Duboscq, Foucault, Serrin, Houdin, and Lontin invented most useful forms of such apparatus. Other early inventors were Hart of Scotland, Siemens of Germany, Thompson and Houston of England, and Farmer, Brush, Wallace, Maxim, and Weston and Westinghouse of America. Gramme made his armature of iron rods to prevent its destruction by heat. Weston in 1882 improved this method by making the armature of separate and insulated sheets of iron around which the coil is wound. The arc light is adapted for streets and great buildings, etc.; but for indoor illumination, when a milder, softer light is desirable, the incandescent light was invented, and this consists of a curved filament of carbon about the size of a coarse horsehair, seated in a bulb of glass from which the air has been exhausted. In exhausted air carbon rods or filaments are not consumed, and so great ingenuity was exercised on that line. Among the early noted inventors of incandescent carbon filament lamps were Edison and Maxim of New York, Swan, and Lane-Fox of England.

Another problem to be solved arose in the proposed use of arc lamps upon an extended scale, or in series, as in street lighting, wherein the current to all lamps was supplied by a single wire, and where it was found that owing to the unequal consumption of the carbons some were burning well, some poorly, and some going out. It was essential, therefore, to make each lamp independent of the resistance of the main circuit and of the action of the other lamps, and to have its regulating mechanism governed entirely by the resistance of its own arc. The solution of this difficult problem was the invention by Heffner von Alteneck of Germany, and his device came into use wherever throughout the world arc lamps were operated. Westinghouse also improved the direct alternating system of lighting by one wire by the introduction of two conducting wires parallel to each other, and passing an interrupted or alternating current through one, thereby inducing a similar and always an alternating current through the other. Brush adopted a three-wire system; and both obtained a uniform consumption of the carbons.

In a volume like this, room exists for mention only of those inventions which burn as beacon lights on the tallest hills – and so we must now pass on to others.