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

296 GOLD-LEAF TELEGRAPH APPARATUS.
Ten miles of wire were erected on the London and North
Western Railway for the purpose of testing the practicability
of the plan, and of obtaining certain fundamental laws as to
the transmission of electric currents. The signals were found
to be given with great certainty, and the paper, moistened with
dilute acid, was pierced even when a Leyden jar, filled only
with water, and in size not greater than one's little finger, was
employed.
The plan was submitted to the government, and an offer was
made to connect Liverpool with London by means of this telegraph, and that at the sole risk of the Messrs. Highton, provided that the government would obtain for them, for such purpose, liberty to use the lines of the London and Birmingham,
Grand Junction, and Liverpool and Manchester railways. The
government, however, found that at that time they possessed no
compulsory power to grant such license, even for a telegraph
for their own use; and hence, in a bill passing through Parliament at the time with reference to railways, clauses were
added, giving this power to government for telegraphs for
their own purposes. This, it is believed, was done at the instigation of the late Sir Robert Peel.
The paper, when marked, would appear thus:
| * ~ ~ * e ~ ~ I
Highton's system of marks for high-tension electricity.
The above, on one plan, would correspond with the number
12,413,411, and would, in sending, occupy only some 5 or 6 seconds.
GOLD-LEAF TELEGRAPH APPARATUS.
The next patent was taken out by the Rev. H. Highton, M.
A., in 1846. The telegraph included in this patent is known
as the Gold-leaf telegraph.
A small strip of gold-leaf, inserted in a glass tube, was made
to form part of the electric circuit of the line-wire. A permanent magnet was placed in close proximity thereto. When a
current of electricity was passed along the line-wire, the strip of
gold leaf was instantly moved to the right or left, according to
the direction of the current.
This is a very delicate instrument and is worthy of the reader's attention. In order that it may be properly understood, I
have copied the following from the patent.