The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

RONALD'S ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 151
diverged; when it was discharged suddenly at either station,
they both collapsed at the same instant; and when it was discharged at the moment that a given letter, figure, and sign,
on the lower plate of one clock appeared in view through the
aperture, the same figure, letter, and sign appeared also in view
at the other clock; and that, by such discharges of the wire at
one station, and by noting down the letters, figures, or signs in
view, at the other, any required words could be spelled, and
Fig. 4.!......1 /. ^I.. —.i \ I ~ k I/I
ary, a word, or even a whole sentence, could be conveyed by
only 3 discharges, which could be effected in the shortest time
in 9 seconds, and in the longest, in 90 seconds, making a mean
of 54 seconds. This dictionary consisted of 10 leaves cut in
the manner of a common-place book, or ledger; each leaf was
also divided into 10 columns, and each column numbered on
the top of the page. The columns were intersected by 10
horizontal lines, each numbered on the left side. Tthe space
produced by the intersections was occupied by w-ords or sentences.
It was necessary to distinguish the preparatory signs from
those intended to spell or refer to the dictionary, by giving the
wire a rather higher charge than usual, and thus causing the