Masters of Space Morse, Thompson, Bell, Marconi, Carty   By: Walter Kellogg Towers

Inventor of the Telegraph]

MASTERS OF SPACE

MORSE and the Telegraph THOMPSON and the Cable BELL and the Telephone MARCONI and the Wireless Telegraph CARTY and the Wireless Telephone

BY WALTER KELLOGG TOWERS

ILLUSTRATED

1917

TO

MY CO LABORER AND COMPANION

BERENICE LAURA TOWERS

WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT AND ASSISTANCE

WERE CONSTANT IN THE GATHERING

AND PREPARATION OF MATERIAL

FOR THIS VOLUME.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

PREFACE

I. COMMUNICATION AMONG THE ANCIENTS

II. SIGNALS PAST AND PRESENT

III. FORERUNNERS OF THE TELEGRAPH

IV. INVENTIONS OF SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE

V. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MORSE

VI. "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?"

VII. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM

VIII. TELEGRAPHING BENEATH THE SEA

IX. THE PIONEER ATLANTIC CABLE

X. A SUCCESSFUL CABLE ATTAINED

XI. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, THE YOUTH

XII. THE BIRTH OF THE TELEPHONE

XIII. THE TELEPHONE AT THE CENTENNIAL

XIV. IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION

XV. TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES

XVI. AN ITALIAN BOY'S WORK

XVII. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ESTABLISHED

XVIII. THE WIRELESS SERVES THE WORLD

XIX. SPEAKING ACROSS THE CONTINENT

XX. TELEPHONING THROUGH SPACE

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE

MORSE'S FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT

CYRUS W. FIELD

WILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN)

THE "GREAT EASTERN" LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE, 1866

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

THOMAS A. WATSON

PROFESSOR BELL'S VIBRATING REED

PROFESSOR BELL'S FIRST TELEPHONE

THE FIRST TELEPHONE SWITCHBOARD USED IN NEW HAVEN, CONN., FOR EIGHT SUBSCRIBERS

EARLY NEW YORK EXCHANGE

PROFESSOR BELL IN SALEM, MASS., AND MR. WATSON IN BOSTON, DEMONSTRATING THE TELEPHONE BEFORE AUDIENCES IN 1877

DOCTOR BELL AT THE TELEPHONE OPENING THE NEW YORK CHICAGO LINE, OCTOBER 18, 1892

GUGLIELMO MARCONI

A REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN OUTSIDE OF THE CLIFDEN STATION WHILE MESSAGES WERE BEING SENT ACROSS TO CAPE RACE

MARCONI STATION AT CLIFDEN, IRELAND

PREFACE

This is the story of talking at a distance, of sending messages through space. It is the story of great men Morse, Thomson, Bell, Marconi, and others and how, with the aid of men like Field, Vail, Catty, Pupin, the scientist, and others in both the technical and commercial fields, they succeeded in flashing both messages and speech around the world, with wires and without wires. It is the story of how the thought of the world has been linked together by those modern wonders of science and of industry the telegraph, the submarine cable, the telephone, the wireless telegraph, and, most recently, the wireless telephone.

The story opens with the primitive methods of message sending by fire or smoke or other signals. The life and experiments of Morse are then pictured and the dramatic story of the invention and development of the telegraph is set forth. The submarine cable followed with the struggles of Field, the business executive, and Thomson, the inventor and scientific expert, which finally culminated in success when the Great Eastern landed a practical cable on the American coast. The early life of Alexander Graham Bell was full of color, and I have told the story of his patient investigations of human speech and hearing, which, finally culminated in a practical telephone. There follows the fascinating story of Marconi and the wireless telegraph. Last comes the story of the wireless telephone, that newest wonder which has come among us so recently that we can scarcely realize that it is here. An inner view of the marvelous development of the telephone is added in an appendix.