Science in the industrial world

Front matter

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An endless cable carries the blocks of wood along a chute from the sawmill. Through openings in the side of the chute the blocks are dropped at any desired point, subsequently to be transferred to the grinding-room.

Chapter I The Development Of The Telegraph

Fundamental discoveries, p. 4 — Plan suggested early in the eighteenth century, p. 5 — Some early experiments, p. 8 — The telegraph of Alexandre, p. 9 — Galvanism gives a new stimulus to inventors, p. 11 — Sommering's telegraph, p. 12 — Electro-magnetism gives newclues, p. 14 — Experiments on magnets, p. 16 — The first practical telegraph system, p. 16 — Antecedents and early experiments of Morse, p. 18 — Morse's first public exhibition of his telegraph, p. 20 — A regrettable controversy, p. 2 1 — Principle of the Morse telegraph, p. 23 — Multiple messages, p. 25 — Gray's "Harmonic Telegraph," p. 26 — Telegraph recorders, p. 28.

Chapter II

England linked with the Continent, p. 31 — Cyrus Field projects the Atlantic Cable, p. ^^ — Doubts of the scientists, p. 34 — High hopes — and failure, p. 35 — A second fiasco, p. 37 — Success at last, p. 39 — Improved methods and new cables, p. 40 — The cable of '65, p. 41 — The Great Eastern pressed into service, p. 43 — Instrumental aids, p. 45-

Chapter III

Water and earth as conductors, p. 48 — Discoveries of Professor Trowbridge of Harvard, p. 49 — The wireless telegraph of Smith and Granville, p. 51 — Experiments with "Hertzian waves," p. 52 — Dr. Branly's coherer, p. 53 — The work of Marconi, p. 54 — Methods and results, p. 56 — Marconi's early attempts, p. 58 — Practical demonstration of the usefulness of wireless on ships, p. 59 — Trans- Atlantic messages, p. 60 — Tuning the messages, p. 61 — The practical status of wireless telegraphy, p. 63 — Wireless in the Russo- Japanese war, p. 65.

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CONTENTS

Chapter IV The Development Of The Telephone

Early experiments of Hauksbee, p. 67 — An early conception of the telephone, p. 68 — Wheatstone's ".magic lyre telephone," p. 69 — Bourseul suggests an electrical telephone, p. 71 — An interesting coincidence, p. 73 — Dr. Graham Bell describes his invention, p. 74 — His studies of Helmholtz's experiments, p. 75 — Different kinds of currents, p. 77 — A human ear used in the experiments, p. 79 — Bell versus Gray, p. 81 — Practical improvements, p. 83 — Telephone equipment, p. 85 — Telephone exchanges, p. 86 — Automatic telephone systems, p. 87 — The wireless telephone, p. 88 — Instruments of Dr. DeForest, p. 90 — Working of the wireless telephone explained, p. 91.

Chapter V

Edison's early patents, p. 93 — The phonograph of 1877, p. 94 — Clockwork and electricity for rotating the cylinder, p. 95 — How the sounds are recorded on the wax cylinder, p. 96.

Chapter VI

Assyrian and Egyptian books, p. 99 — Terra-cotta books of the Babylonians and Assyrians, p. 102 — The palm-leaf books of the Hindus, p. 106 — Folded books, p. 107 — The text of ancient books, p. 112.

Chapter VII The Printing And Making Of Modern Books

The invention of printing in the West, p. 120 — Gutenberg's press, p. 121 — The cylinder press invented, p. 123 — Napier's press, p. 124 — The Hoe cylinder press invented, p. 125 — The advent of the "type-revolving machine," p. 126 — The press invented by Richard M. Hoe, p. 127 — Method of casting stereotype plates invented, p. 128 — The introduction of "web" presses, p. 129 — A modern newspaper press, p. 131 — Speed of the perfecting press, p. 133 — A perfected magazine press, p. 135 — Color-printing on rotary presses, p. 138 — Other aids to the printer, p. 139 — Type-setting machines, p. 141 — The Mergenthaler linotype, p. 142 — The Lanston mono-

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CONTENTS

type machine, p. 145 — The graphotype, p. 148 — Other type-setting machines, p. 150 — Mechanical type-setting and distributing, p. 151 — Bookbinding, p. 153 — Materials used in the early days of bookbinding, p. 154 — Hand binding, p. 156 — Mechanical bookbinding, P- i57.

Chapter VIII

The Moors as paper-makers, p. 160 — Early paper-making in Europe, p. 161 — Making paper by hand, p. 162 — The "watermark," p. 163 — Modern rag-paper, p. 164 — Manipulation of the rags in the factory, p. 165 — Accidental discovery of the use of bluing in paper-making, p. 167 — The pulp, p. 168 — How the pulp is transformed into paper, p. 169 — Paper from wood pulp, p. 171 — Pulp grinding discovered in Germany, p. 172 — How the paper for "greenbacks" is made, p. 175 — Watermarks and special papers, p. 176 — Calendered papers and "coated" papers, p. 178 — Special uses of paper, p. 179 — Paper car wheels, p. 180.

Chapter IX The Reproduction Of Illustrations

Early wood-engraving, p. 184 — The oldest wood cuts, p. 186 — How light and dark effects are produced, p. 187 — The pictures of Albrecht Diirer, p. 188 — Technic of wood -engraving, p. 189 — Time consumed in making a wood-engraving, p. 190 — Copper- and steel-plate engravings, p. 192 — The invention of the Florentine goldsmith, p. 193 — Etching, p. 195 — Mezzotint, p. 196 — The invention of lithography, p. 197 — Materials used in lithography, p. 199 — The introduction of process work, p. 202 — The half-tone, p. 205 — How the "screens" are prepared, p. 208 — Three-color process of reproduction, p. 211 — Color niters, p. 213 — Intaglio processes, p. 217.

Chapter X Photography In Its Scientific Aspects

The fact that light causes chemicals quickly to change color discovered by Scheele in 1780, p. 220 — Tentative efforts, p. 222 — The Daguerreotype, p. 224 — First portraits ever taken, p. 226 — Talbot's "calotype" process, p. 227 — Glass negatives, p. 229 — Collodion-emulsion process, p. 231 — The flexible film invented, p. 233 — Photographing in natural colors, p. 235 — The explanation of

CONTENTS

the "standing" wave, p. 236 — Lippmann's direct method of color photography, p. 237 — Improvements in lenses, shutters, and cameras, p. 238 — Method suggested by Ducos du Hauron, p. 241 — The Joly plate, p. 242 — The Lumiere process, p. 243 — The method of Jan Szczepanik, p. 245 — Improved method of M. Andre Cheron, p. 246 — The future of color photography, p. 247 — Chrono-photography — moving pictures, p. 248 — Edison's kinetoscope, p. 251— -How moving pictures are made, p. 252 — The uses of photography, p. 255.

Chapter XI

The pigments of antiquity, p. 265 — Black pigments, p. 267 — White pigments, p. 274 — Some "chrome" pigments, p. 281 — Other yellow mineral pigments, p. 285 — Some brilliant but poisonous pigments, p. 288 — Green mineral pigments, p. 302 — Pigments from vegetable and mineral sources, p. 303 — The coal-tar colors, p. 311 — Dyes, p. 314 — Varnishes, p. 316.

Appendix p. 2> 2 2>

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ILLUSTRATIONS

MATERIAL FOR MAKING PAPER Frontispiece ^

MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY . . " 60 l^

DR. GRAHAM BELL IN NEW YORK COMMUNICATING FOR

THE FIRST TIME WITH CHICAGO BY TELEPHONE . " 74^

MESSAGES BY WIRELESS TELEGRAPH AND WIRELESS

TELEPHONE " 88 v '

AN EARLY TYPE OF PRINTING-PRESS " 122 ^

A VIEW IN THE PRESS-ROOM OF HARPER & BROS., NEW

YORK CITY " I38 V '

MANUFACTURE OF PAPER " 170 ''

PULP-GRINDING MACHINERY 1 74

THE FLYING MACHINE OF MR. GLEN H. CURTIS A RE- MARKABLE EXAMPLE OF INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOG- RAPHY " 232

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IN the present volume we are concerned with the application of relatively few and comparatively simple principles of science to a great variety of industries. So far as these industries can be grouped it may be said that they have to do very largely with the transmission of ideas.

We shall hear the story of the development of the telegraph, cable, and telephone, those weird, even if familiar, mechanisms through which human ideas are flashed instantaneously from one part of the globe to another.

We shall examine that even weirder mechanism, the phonograph, which embalms, as it were, and reproduces the very intonations of the human voice.

We shall outline the story of bookmaking, from the papyrus scroll of the Egyptian and the clay tablets of the Babylonians to the astoundingly multiplied output of the printing-press.

We shall learn also the story of paper-making, of the reproduction of illustrations, and of the making of those strangely realistic sun pictures called photographs, which even now seem mysterious and wonderful to the thoughtful mind despite their familiarity. The presentation of these and sundry other aspects of modern civilization, as influenced so enormously by

VOL. VIII. — I [ I ]

the application of scientific ideas, makes up a volume whose content should appeal to the most practical of readers.

For the most part the industries here represented are essentially and characteristically modern. Bookmaking is indeed an ancient art, and paints and dyes of a crude type are manufactured even by barbarians. But telegraph, cable, telephone, and phonograph are affairs of the nineteenth century; photography is of contemporary origin; and even the older industries have undergone metamorphoses within the past generation that are all but revolutionary.

Attention has been called more than once to the extraordinary changes in the aspects of every-day civilization that industrial developments in other fields have wrought within the past half century; but nowhere else, perhaps, have there been changes so farreaching in their influence upon international relations on the one hand and upon the details of the most modest domestic economy on the other, as those which have been effected through the application of electricity to the transmission of verbal and oral messages. Telegraph and telephone have wrought a virtual elimination of time and space, and the economic importance of this revolution is past all calculation. In telling the story of the development of these mechanisms and methods, therefore, we are obviously concerned with some of the most important of industrial problems; yet it is equally obvious that we are still in close touch with sundry departments of theoretical science but for which these practical appliances would never have been invented.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TELEGRAPH

CURIOUSLY enough wireless telegraphy is the oldest form of communication by telegraph, as it is the most recently developed form by electrical means. As electricity was not discovered until about the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, it is obvious that the wireless telegraph used by such generals as Cyrus the Great, several centuries before the Christian era, could not have been by means of electrical apparatus.

Nevertheless Cyrus used a form of communication whereby messages were sent and received through the air, and communications made with such rapidity that in a single day a message could be sent to a distance of thirty days' journey by horsemen — more than the distance across the Persian Empire.

But Cyrus was only one of many commanders who used a system of signal telegraphy. Many generals and most nations since the beginning of history have had some such means, more or less definitely developed, for making such communication. When Napoleon was engaged upon his Russian campaign, Paris was kept constantly in touch with the movements of the French army by means of signals, except on those rather frequent occasions when fog or storm would interfere with these telegraphs.

Such telegraphing by signals, however, was only possible during clear weather, and as it frequently happened that most important messages were delayed many days by unfavorable atmospheric conditions, attempts were probably made from the earliest times to discover some means of telegraphy whereby messages could be sent with certainty in daylight or in darkness regardless of the weather.

FUNDAMENTAL DISCOVERIES

The discovery of electricity, or rather a discovery by Stephen Gray that electricity could be conducted practically unlimited distances by means of wires or threads, made possible the modern telegraph. But several discoveries as to the properties and possibilities of electricity were necessary, after Gray's initial discovery, before telegraphy in practical form was possible. The principles involved in these discoveries, such as the discovery of the principle of galvanic electricity, by Galvani, the close association between electricity and magnetism by Oersted, and the principle of electromagnetic induction by Michael Faraday, have been fully described in a preceding volume of this series dealing with the history of scientific principles, and need only be referred to here in direct connection with certain discoveries; and for full descriptions of them the reader is referred to earlier volumes of the series.

Although Stephen Gray made the discovery that communication could be made by electricity over several hundred feet of wire or cord, the thought of utilizing this discovery as a means of communication seems not to have occurred to him. His discoveries were made in 1729, but it was something like a quarter of a century later before any definite attempts were made to utilize these discoveries in telegraphy. It is probable that the idea of doing such a thing had occurred to many experimenters before that time, but if so their ideas had not been recorded; and the first proposal for employing electricity in this manner seems to have been made by a person who signed himself "CM." in a short article which appeared in Scots' Magazine, Edinburgh, for Feb. 17, 1753. In this, as will be seen in the following quotation, the author had developed the idea covering the underlying principles of electric telegraphy. This communication was the following:

"Sir: — It is well known to all who are conversant in electrical experiments, that the electric power may be propagated along a small wire, from one place to another, without being sensibly abated by the length of its progress. Let, then, a set of wires, equal in number to the letters of the alphabet, be extended horizontally between two given places, parallel to one another, and each of them about an inch distant from that next to it. At every twenty yards' end, let them be fixed in glass, or jeweller's cement, to some firm body, both to prevent them from touching the earth, or any other nonelectric, and from breaking by their own gravity. Let the electric gun-barrel be placed at right angles with the extremities of the wires, and about an inch below them. Also let the wires be fixed in a solid piece of glass, at six inches from the end ; and let that part of them which reaches from the glass to the machine have sufficient spring and stiffness to recover its situation after having been brought in contact with the barrel. Close by the supporting glass, let a ball be suspended from every wire; and about a sixth or an eighth of an inch below the balls, place the letters of the alphabet, marked on bits of paper or any other substance that may be light enough to rise to the electrified ball; and at the same time let it be so contrived, that each of them may reassume its proper place when dropped.

"All things constructed as above, and the minute previously fixed, I begin the conversation with my distant friend in this manner: Having set the electrical machine a-going as in ordinary experiments, suppose I am to pronounce the word Sir; with a piece of glass, or any other electric per se, I strike the wire S y so as to bring it in contact with the barrel, then /, then R, all in the same way: and my correspondent, almost in the same instant, observes these several characters rise in order to the electrified balls at his end of the wires. Thus I spell away as long as I think fit; and my correspondent, for the sake of memory, writes the characters as they rise, and may join and read them afterwards as often as he inclines. Upon a signal given, or from choice, I stop the machine ; and, taking up my pen in my turn, I write down whatever my friend at the other end strikes out.

"If anybody should think this way tiresome, let him, instead of the balls, suspend a range of bells from the roof, equal in number to the letters of the alphabet; gradually decreasing in size from the bell A to Z; and from the horizontal wires let there be another set reaching to the several bells; one, viz., from the horizontal wire A-to the bell A, another from the horizontal wire B to the bell B, etc. Then let him who begins the discourse bring the wires in contact with the barrel, as before; and the electrical spark, breaking on bells of different size, will inform his correspondent by the sound what wires have been touched. And thus, by some practice, they may come to understand the language of the chimes in whole words, without being put to the trouble of noting down every letter.

"The same thing may be otherwise effected. Let the balls be suspended over the characters as before, but instead of bringing the ends of the horizontal wires in contact with the barrel, let a second set reach from the electrified cake, so as to be in contact with the horizontal ones; and let it be so contrived, at the same time, that any of them may be removed from its corresponding horizontal by the slightest touch, and may bring itself again into contact when left at liberty. This may be done by the help of a small spring and slider, or twenty other methods, which the least ingenuity will discover. In this way the characters will always adhere to the balls, excepting when any one of these secondaries is removed from contact with its horizontal, and then the letter at the other end of the horizontal will immediately drop from its ball. But I mention this only by way of variety.

"Some may, perhaps, think that although the electric fire has not been observed to diminish sensibly in its progress through any length of wire that has been tried hitherto, yet as that has never exceeded some thirty or forty yards, it may be reasonably supposed that in a far greater length it would be remarkably diminished, and probably would be entirely drained off in a few miles by the surrounding air.

"To prevent this objection, and save longer argument, lay over the wires from one end to the other with a thin coat of jeweller's cement. This may be done for a trifle of additional expense, and, as it is an electric per se, will effectually secure any part of the fire from mixing with the atmosphere. I am, etc., CM."

EARLY EXPERIMENTS

Following this proposal, various telegraphs were invented, most of them too complicated or too visionary to be of any possible practical importance. Galvanic electricity had not as yet been discovered and the static electricity then available was most erratic and uncertain in its action. Nevertheless by the end of the century, the time of the discovery of galvanism, such progress had been made by numerous inventors that an electric telegraph, fulfilling at least one of the essential conditions, that of being capable of transmitting definite messages, had been devised. Of the various ones that of the Spaniard, Don Francisco Salva, who announced his invention to the Academy of Science of Barcelona in December 1795, was perhaps the most important and interesting.

Salva pointed out that if double wires were laid from the city of Barcelona to Mataro, and a man at Mataro should hold the ends, he could be given a shock from a Leyden jar from the Barcelona end, and messages previously determined communicated to him. But such simple signaling would not suffice, as any telegraph to be practical must be able to send communications of every kind, and this, Salva thought, could be done with no great difficulty.

With eighteen letters every word in the language may be expressed. Thus by having eighteen or twenty wires, and a corresponding number of Leyden jars, with a man holding each jar and representing a letter of the alphabet, it would be possible to communicate definite messages to a distant city. This, of course, could be simplified, and Salva suggested that by reducing the number of men to six or even less, each man interpreting three or more signals as certain letters, definite messages could be sent.

But as even this number of wires, no matter how high they might be mounted above the ground, would be likely to be injured, Salva suggested insulating them and putting them into a single cable. He even went further than this and suggested the submarine use of the cable — probably the first suggestion of this kind recorded. In this suggestion the double wire was to be dispensed with, the water being used for the return circuit.

Shortly after the time of Salva's telegraph a Frenchman by the name of Alexandre seems to have perfected a practical telegraph which worked on the principle of an indicator that pointed to the letters marked on a dial when such letters were indicated by a similar pointer on a corresponding dial, the two being connected by wires. Alexandre, realizing the importance and possibilities of his invention, kept the method by which these mysterious indicators were made to transmit messages a closely guarded secret, although he was constantly exhibiting the practical workings of his device.

Many of the leading philosophers who witnessed these exhibitions were convinced of the practicality of this telegraph, and it is possible that had Alexandre been willing to impart his secret to certain savants who were appointed by Napoleon to examine into the merits of the inventor's claims, his telegraph would have been put to practical use. Alexandre obstinately refused to reveal his secret, however, except to the First Consul in person and alone; but his request for such an interview, in which he promised that in ten minutes he could reveal the entire secret because of its simplicity, was never granted. Napoleon was unmistakably interested, so much so in fact that he requested the great scientist, Delambre, to investigate Alexandre's telegraph and report on the matter to him. Delambre did so, and his report, although made with scientific caution, was on the whole favorable. But inasmuch as he was obliged to judge of the merit of the telegraph by casual observation of its workings, without even being allowed to know whether it was electricity or some other force that actuated the indicators of the dial, he, in his official report to the First Consul, so carefully guarded every statement that Napoleon paid no more attention to the invention.

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It was a most unfortunate thing, particularly for Alexandre himself, that he was so secretive in regard to his invention. Had he made known this to Delambre, a man in whom he might have placed implicit trust, his desired interview with Napoleon would undoubtedly have been granted, and, in view of the enthusiasm and generosity of the French Emperor toward successful inventors, it is possible that Alexandre would have lived as a famous and opulent scientist, instead of an obscure, impoverished, and unhappy "crank."

GALVANISM GIVES A NEW STIMULUS TO INVENTORS

Alexandre's invention was undoubtedly made to operate by the agency of static or frictional electricity, inasmuch as galvanic electricity had only just been discovered at that time. But shortly after this the invention of the "voltaic column" gave a fresh stimulus to inventors who were attempting to perfect the telegraph. One of the first applications of this invention of Volta's was by the same Spaniard, Salva, referred to a moment ago, about 1804; but a more successful attempt was made by the Bavarian Sommerring, who utilized with this invention the discovery of Nicholson and Carlisle that a galvanic current would decompose chemicals in solution.

It had been found by these two scientists that if two points of metal were immersed in water and connected with a galvanic cell, the water would be decomposed into its elements, oxygen and hydrogen, by the action of electricity, this decomposition being indicated by

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small bubbles which were given off at the two points of metal in the fluid. Streams of these bubbles appeared at these points as soon as the current was turned on, ceasing as soon as it was turned off. In other words, the closing and opening of the circuit could be detected almost instantly by observing the bubbles given off by the metal points. This discovery of the action of a galvanic current was at once utilized by Sommerring to produce a semi-practical telegraph.

Sommerring's first invention was made with a glass jar containing acidulated water into which protruded five metal points. Each of these points was connected with a voltaic battery by wires so arranged that when any two of them were touched with a metal handle made for the purpose, a circuit was completed and bubbles of gas were given off from the two corresponding metal points in the water. By including a certain number of wires or points, or by working a definite number in combination, messages could be sent by this chemical telegraph.

Sommerring, continuing his experiment, finally arranged a sort of code whereby telegraphic signals could be sent and interpreted by a process considerably simplified over the original form. His simplest telegraph, however, was one in which each of the letters of the alphabet was represented by a metal point in the glass jar containing the fluid. At the base of each point the letter was marked so that it could be read instantly by the receiver. In this way a simple stream of bubbles given off by a metal point indicated that a certain letter was to be used in making up the words of the message. Such an arrangement necessitated the use of at least twenty-five wires, one practically for each letter and one extra for the return current, and was, of course, impracticable.

One of the most ingenious things about this chemical telegraph was an arrangement whereby the attention of the receiving operator could be attracted at any time. The sending operator could ring a bell of the receiving machine by simply pressing a button which closed one of the circuits for a few seconds. It was so arranged that the bubbles of gas produced at the metal point of this particular circuit accumulated under an inverted cup attached to a lever and immersed in the fluid of the receiving apparatus. The accumulation of gas naturally caused the cup to rise toward the surface, and lifting at the same time the lever, it released a small leaden ball which fell upon the alarm bell and attracted the operator's attention.

The objection to this form of telegraph, or at least the most vital objection, lay in the fact that such a great number of wires were required in its operation. These wires were arranged by Sommerring in the form of a cable, but this of course was very expensive and difficult to repair when injured. An improvement over Sommerring' s device was what is known as Schweigger's telegraph, constructed on the same principle, but with the number of wires reduced to two. In using this telegraph a signal code was of course necessary, but this requisite was also carefully worked out by Schweigger. In actual practice, however, neither of these telegraphs was of sufficient value to make them of any commercial importance, although in the mere matter of signaling messages they were practical telegraphs.

ELECTRO-MAGNETISM GIVES NEW CLUES

In 1815, the revolutionary discovery of Oersted that a magnetic needle could be deflected by the passage of a current of electricity through a wire extended longitudinally over the needle, marked an epoch in the development of electrical telegraphy. From that moment the practical telegraph became possible, although it was two decades later before the actual working telegraph came into commercial use. In this connection it should be remembered that the telegraph as referred to here is the one in ordinary commercial use. Means of communicating and signaling at certain distances and for special purposes were employed in laboratories and in a small way by various investigators fully half a century before the perfection of the commercial telegraph. And while these early devices are interesting as recording experimental phases of the development of the modern telegraph, they must not be confused with the practical instruments finally perfected by Morse any more than the "wireless telegraph" of Cyrus the Great should be confused with the wireless telegraph of Marconi or other recent inventors.

Probably the first telegraph apparatus utilizing the discovery of Oersted was made by Baron Schilling, a Russian. While acting as an attache to the Russian embassy at Munich, in 18 10, Schilling had been much interested in one of Sommerring's discoveries exhibited in that city. He at once began making experiments in telegraphy, and, becoming familiar with Oersted's discovery a few years later, invented a telegraph and formulated a code whereby messages could be read from a needle moving right and left as the current passed through a coil surrounding it. This telegraph, which was first made in 1825, aroused great popular interest, and Schilling received the support of some of the leading men of Russia, including Czar Nicholas himself.

One of Schilling's models of his telegraph is still in existence in Russia, this particular one having, in place of a single needle, five needles worked by five wires. It was this or a similar instrument, which the inventor, encouraged and assisted by the great men of Russia, had brought to a stage of almost practical perfection when the experiments were cut short by his death. A vital defect in his system of telegraphy was the fact that the action of the current upon the needle at any very great distance was weak and uncertain.