JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Here's an interesting twist on electricity and the telegraph, but not quite what you'd expect. The note, written by "Moderator", appeared in Mechanics' Magazine for 15 June 1825 (volume iv, p 148). Since this is 1825, the telegraph being referred to here is an "atmospheric telegraph", or semaphore, the electric telegraph of Morse being another dozen years away and another 5 or 6 before its practical appearance.
The electricity here was being used in part to alert (where "alert" = "shock") whoever it was that was snoozily sitting at their post to instantly pay attention to whatever it was being signaled to that point in the semaphore chain:
"The electric shock may be so disposed as to ignite gunpowder; but if this is not sufficient to rouse up a drowsy officer on the night-watch, let the first shock pass through his elbows, then he will be quite awake
to attend to the second..."
I can't tell if this is being suggested along a A Modest Proposal sympathy, or not.
This shock-bit though is preceded by something interesting that I also don't quite understand, though that is starting to sound like the modern electric telegraph:
“…and by a series of gradations in the strength and number of shocks, and the interval between each, every variety of signal may be made quite intelligible, without exposure to the public eye…”
In any event, it is an interesting footnote in the history of communication and those sleeping through it.
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