xvi
Thus Soemmering took up the idea of an electric
telegraph, and experimented with the decomposition of
water by the galvanic current. Schilling, after
contemplating these contrivances for fifteen or twenty years,
adopts Romagnosi’s discovery, at Ampère’s suggestion
of the practicability of the magnetic needle telegraph;
fortifies himself with Scweigger’s multiplier of force; and
invents a simple and striking instrument, which appears
under various modifications in lecture-rooms and scientific
journals, for six or seven years, at the end of which it
dies out. The very sight of this instrument in operation
instantaneously excites another mind to devote itself to
the realization of the long barren idea.
To continue the foregoing quotation:—“The merit of the invention must, therefore, consist, in a very great degree at least, in the practical realization of that which had before been an idea or an experiment:”—and this practical realization belongs to England.[1]
W. F. C., Oaklands, Nov., 1859.
- ↑ Vide opinions of Sir Isambard Brunel and Professor Daniell, given in their Award (after P. 73).
