Masters of Space by Walter Kellogg Towers

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[Illustration: SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE

Inventor of the Telegraph]

MASTERS OF SPACE

MORSE
_and the Telegraph_
THOMPSON
_and the Cable_
BELL
_and the Telephone_
MARCONI
_and the Wireless Telegraph_
CARTY
_and the Wireless Telephone_

BY WALTER KELLOGG TOWERS

ILLUSTRATED

1917

TO

MY CO-LABORER AND COMPANION

BERENICE LAURA TOWERS

WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT AND ASSISTANCE

WERE CONSTANT IN THE GATHERING

AND PREPARATION OF MATERIAL

FOR THIS VOLUME.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

PREFACE

I. COMMUNICATION AMONG THE ANCIENTS

II. SIGNALS PAST AND PRESENT

III. FORERUNNERS OF THE TELEGRAPH

IV. INVENTIONS OF SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE

V. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MORSE

VI. "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?"

VII. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM

VIII. TELEGRAPHING BENEATH THE SEA

IX. THE PIONEER ATLANTIC CABLE

X. A SUCCESSFUL CABLE ATTAINED

XI. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, THE YOUTH

XII. THE BIRTH OF THE TELEPHONE

XIII. THE TELEPHONE AT THE CENTENNIAL

XIV. IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION

XV. TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES

XVI. AN ITALIAN BOY'S WORK

XVII. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ESTABLISHED

XVIII. THE WIRELESS SERVES THE WORLD

XIX. SPEAKING ACROSS THE CONTINENT

XX. TELEPHONING THROUGH SPACE

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE

MORSE'S FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT

CYRUS W. FIELD

WILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN)

THE "GREAT EASTERN" LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE, 1866

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

THOMAS A. WATSON

PROFESSOR BELL'S VIBRATING REED

PROFESSOR BELL'S FIRST TELEPHONE

THE FIRST TELEPHONE SWITCHBOARD USED IN NEW HAVEN, CONN., FOR EIGHT
SUBSCRIBERS

EARLY NEW YORK EXCHANGE

PROFESSOR BELL IN SALEM, MASS., AND MR. WATSON IN BOSTON,
DEMONSTRATING THE TELEPHONE BEFORE AUDIENCES IN 1877

DOCTOR BELL AT THE TELEPHONE OPENING THE NEW YORK-CHICAGO LINE,
OCTOBER 18, 1892

GUGLIELMO MARCONI

A REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN OUTSIDE OF THE CLIFDEN STATION WHILE
MESSAGES WERE BEING SENT ACROSS TO CAPE RACE

MARCONI STATION AT CLIFDEN, IRELAND

PREFACE

This is the story of talking at a distance, of sending messages
through space. It is the story of great men--Morse, Thomson, Bell,
Marconi, and others--and how, with the aid of men like Field, Vail,
Catty, Pupin, the scientist, and others in both the technical and
commercial fields, they succeeded in flashing both messages and speech
around the world, with wires and without wires. It is the story of
how the thought of the world has been linked together by those modern
wonders of science and of industry--the telegraph, the submarine
cable, the telephone, the wireless telegraph, and, most recently, the
wireless telephone.

The story opens with the primitive methods of message-sending by fire
or smoke or other signals. The life and experiments of Morse are then
pictured and the dramatic story of the invention and development of
the telegraph is set forth. The submarine cable followed with the
struggles of Field, the business executive, and Thomson, the inventor
and scientific expert, which finally culminated in success when the
_Great Eastern_ landed a practical cable on the American coast. The
early life of Alexander Graham Bell was full of color, and I have told
the story of his patient investigations of human speech and hearing,
which, finally culminated in a practical telephone. There follows the
fascinating story of Marconi and the wireless telegraph. Last comes
the story of the wireless telephone, that newest wonder which has come
among us so recently that we can scarcely realize that it is here. An
inner view of the marvelous development of the telephone is added in
an appendix.

The part played by the great business leaders who have developed and
extended the new inventions, placing them at the service of all,
has not been forgotten. Not only have means of communication been
discovered, but they have been improved and put to the widest
practical use with remarkable efficiency and celerity. The stories of
these developments, in both the personal and executive sides, embody
the true romance of the modern business world.

The great scientists and engineers who have wrought these wonders
which have had so profound an influence upon the life of the
world lived, and are living, lives filled with patient effort,
discouragement, accomplishment, and real romance. They are interesting
men who have done interesting things. Better still, they have done
important, useful things. This book relates their life stories in a
connected form, for they have all worked for a similar end. The story
of these men, who, starting in early youth in the pursuit of a great
idea, have achieved fame and success and have benefited civilization,
cannot but be inspiring. They did not stumble upon their discoveries
by any lucky accident. They knew what they sought, and they labored
toward the goal with unflagging zeal. Had they been easily discouraged
we might still be dependent upon the semaphore and the pony express
for the transmission of news. But they persevered until success was
attained, and in the account of their struggle to success every one
may find encouragement in facing his own tasks.

One can scarce overestimate the value of modern methods of
communication to the world. So much of our development has been more
or less directly dependent upon it that it is difficult to fancy our
situation without the telegraph and telephone. The diligence with
which the ancients sought speedy methods for the sending of messages
demonstrates the human need for them. The solution of this great
problem, though long delayed, came swiftly, once it was begun.

Even the simple facts regarding "Masters of Space" and their lives of
struggle and accomplishment in sending messages between distant points
form an inspiring story of great achievement.

W.K.T.

#MASTERS OF SPACE#

I

COMMUNICATION AMONG THE ANCIENTS

Signaling the Fall of Troy--Marine Signaling among the
Argonauts--Couriers of the Greeks, Romans, and
Aztecs--Sound-signaling--Stentorophonic Tube--The Shouting
Sentinels--The Clepsydra--Signal Columns--Indian Fire and Smoke
Signals.

It was very early in the history of the world that man began to feel
the urgent need of communicating with man at a distance. When village
came into friendly contact with village, when nations began to
form and expand, the necessity of sending intelligence rapidly and
effectively was clearly realized. And yet many centuries passed
without the discovery of an effective system. Those discoveries were
to be reserved for the thinkers of our age.

We can understand the difficulties that beset King Agamemnon as he
stood at the head of his armies before the walls of Troy. Many were
the messages he would want to send to his native kingdom in Greece
during the progress of the siege. Those at home would be eager for
news of the great enterprise. Many contingencies might arise which
would make the need for aid urgent. Certainly Queen Clytemnestra
eagerly awaited word of the fall of the city. Yet the slow progress of
couriers must be depended upon.

One device the king hit upon which was such as any boy might devise
to meet the simplest need. "If I can go skating tonight," says Johnny
Jones to his chum, "I'll put a light in my window." Such is the simple
device which has been used to bear the simplest message for ages. So
King Agamemnon ordered beacon fires laid on the tops of Mount Ida,
Mount Athos, Mount Cithaeron, and on intervening eminences. Beside them
he placed watchers who were always to have their faces toward Troy.
When Troy fell a near-by fire was kindled, and beacon after beacon
sprang into flame on the route toward Greece. Thus was the message
of the fall of Troy quickly borne to the waiting queen by this
preconceived arrangement. Yet neither King Agamemnon nor his sagest
counselors could devise an effective system for expediting their
messages.

Prearranged signals were used to convey news in even earlier times.
Fire, smoke, and flags were used by the Egyptians and the Assyrians
previous to the Trojan War. The towers along the Chinese Wall were
more than watch-towers; they were signal-towers. A flag or a light
exhibited from tower to tower would quickly convey a certain message
agreed upon in advance. Human thought required a system which could
convey more than one idea, and yet skill in conveying news grew
slowly.

Perhaps the earliest example of marine signaling of which we know
is recorded of the Argonautic Expedition. Theseus devised the use of
colored sails to convey messages from ship to ship of the fleet, and
caused the death of his father by his failure to handle the signals
properly. Theseus sailed into conflict with the enemy with black sails
set, a signal of battle and of death. With the battle over and himself
the victor, he forgot to lower the black flag and set the red flag of
victory. His father, the aged AEgeus, seeing the black flag, believed
it reported his son's death, and, flinging himself into the sea, was
drowned.

In time it occurred to the great monarchs as their domains extended
to establish relays of couriers to bear the messages which must be
carried. Such systems were established by the Greeks, the Romans, and
the Aztecs. Each courier would run the length of his own route and
would then shout or pass the message to the next runner, who would
speed it away in turn. Such was the method employed by our own
pony-express riders.

An ancient Persian king thought of having the messages shouted from
sentinel to sentinel, instead of being carried more slowly by relays
of couriers. So he established sentinels at regular intervals within
hearing of one another, and messages were shouted from one to the
other. Just fancy the number of sentinels required to establish a line
between distant cities, and the opportunities for misunderstanding and
mistake! The ancient Gauls also employed this method of communication.
Caesar records that the news of the massacre of the Romans at Orleans
was sent to Auvergne, a distance of nearly one hundred and fifty
miles, by the same evening.

Though signaling by flashes of light occurred to the ancients, we have
no knowledge that they devised a way of using the light-flashes for
any but the simplest prearranged messages. The mirrors of the Pharaohs
were probably used to flash light for signal purposes. We know that
the Persians applied them to signaling in time of war. It is reported
that flashes from the shields were used to convey news at the battle
of Marathon. These seem to be the forerunners of the heliograph. But
the heliograph using the dot-and-dash system of the Morse code can
be used to transmit any message whatever. The ancients had evolved
systems by which any word could be spelled, but they did not seem to
be able to apply them practically to their primitive heliographs.

An application of sound-signaling was worked out for Alexander
the Great, which was considered one of the scientific wonders of
antiquity. This was called a stentorophonic tube, and seems to have
been a sort of gigantic megaphone or speaking-trumpet. It is recorded
that it sent the voice for a dozen miles. A drawing of this strange
instrument is preserved in the Vatican.

Another queer signaling device, built and operated upon a novel
principle, was an even greater wonder among the early peoples. This
was known as a clepsydra. Fancy a tall glass tube with an opening at
the bottom in which a sort of faucet was fixed. At varying heights
sentences were inscribed about the tube. The tube, being filled with
water, with, a float at the top, all was ready for signaling any
of the messages inscribed on the tube to a station within sight and
similarly equipped. The other station could be located as far away
as a light could be seen. The station desiring to send a message to
another exhibited its light. When the receiving station showed its
light in answer, the tap was opened at the bottom of the tube in each
station. When the float dropped until it was opposite the sentence
which it was desired to transmit, the sending station withdrew its
light and closed the tap. This was a signal for the receiving station
to stop the flow of water from its tube. As the tubes were just alike,
and the water had flowed out during the same period at equal speed,
the float at the receiving station then rested opposite the message to
be conveyed.

Many crude systems of using lights for signaling were employed. Lines
of watch-towers were arranged which served as signal-stations. The
ruins of the old Roman and Gallic towers may still be found In France.
Hannibal erected them in Africa and Spain. Colored tunics and spears
were also used for military signals in the daytime. For instance,
a red tunic displayed meant prepare for battle; while a red spear
conveyed the order to sack and devastate.

An ancient system of camp signals from columns is especially
interesting as showing a development away from the prearranged signals
of limited application. For these camp signals the alphabet was
divided into five or six parts, and a like number of columns erected
at each signal-station. Each column represented one group of letters.
Suppose that we should agree to get along without the Q and the Z
and reduce our own alphabet to twenty-four letters for use in such
a system. With six columns we would then have four letters for each
column. The first column would be used to signal A, B, C, and D. One
light or flag shown from column one would represent A, two flags
or lights B, and so on. Thus any word could be spelled out and any
message sent. Without doubt the system was slow and cumbersome, but it
was a step in the right direction.

The American Indians developed methods of transmitting news which
compare very favorably with the means employed by the ancients.
Smoke-rings and puffs for the daytime, and fire-arrows at night, were
used by them for the sending of messages. Smoke signals are obtained
by building a fire of moist materials. The Indian obtains his
smoke-puffs by placing a blanket or robe over the fire, withdrawing
it for an instant, and then replacing it quickly. In this way puffs of
smoke may be sent aloft as frequently as desired.

A column of smoke-puffs was used as a warning signal, its meaning
being: Look out, the enemy is near. One smoke-puff was a signal for
attention; two puffs indicated that the sender would camp at that
place. Three puffs showed that the sender was in danger, as the enemy
was near.

Fire-arrows shot across the sky at night had a similar meaning. The
head of the arrow was dipped in some highly inflammable substance and
then set on fire at the instant before it was discharged from the bow.
One fire-arrow shot into the sky meant that the enemy were near; two
signaled danger, and three great danger. When the Indian shot many
fire-arrows up in rapid succession he was signaling to his friends
that his enemies were too many for him. Two arrows discharged into the
air at the same time indicated that the party sending them was
about to attack. Three indicated an immediate attack. A fire-arrow
discharged diagonally across the sky indicated the direction in which
the sender would travel. Such were the methods which the Indians used,
working out different meanings for the signals in the various tribes.

Very slight progress was made in message-sending in medieval times,
and it was the middle of the seventeenth century before even signal
systems were attained which were in any sense an improvement. For many
centuries the people of the world existed, devising nothing better
than the primitive methods outlined above.

II

SIGNALS PAST AND PRESENT

Marine and Military Signals--Code Flags--Wig-wag--Semaphore
Telegraphs--Heliographs--Ardois Signals--Submarine Signals.

In naval affairs some kind of an effective signal system is
imperative. Even in the ordinary evolutions of a fleet the commander
needs some better way of communicating with the ship captains than
despatching a messenger in a small boat. The necessity of quick and
sure signals in time of battle is obvious. Yet for many centuries
naval signals were of the crudest.

The first distinct advance over the primitive methods by which the
commander of one Roman galley communicated with another came with the
introduction of cannon as a naval arm. The use of signal-guns was soon
thought of, and war-ships used their guns for signal purposes as early
as the sixteenth century. Not long after came the square-rigged
ship, and it soon occurred to some one that signals could be made by
dropping a sail from the yard-arm a certain number of times.

Up to the middle of the seventeenth century the possibilities of
the naval signal systems were limited indeed. Only a few prearranged
orders and messages could be conveyed. Unlimited communication at a
distance was still impossible, and there were no means of sending a
message to meet an unforeseen emergency. So cumbersome were the signal
systems in use that even though they would convey the intelligence
desired, the speaking-trumpet or a courier was employed wherever
possible.

To the officers of the British navy of the seventeenth century
belongs the credit for the first serious attempt to create a system of
communication which would convey any and all messages. It is not clear
whether Admiral Sir William Penn or James II. established the code.
It was while he was Duke of York and the commander of Britain's
navy, that the James who was later to be king took this part in the
advancement of means of communication. Messages were sent by varying
the position of a single signal flag.

In 1780 Admiral Kempenfeldt thought of adding other signal flags
instead of depending upon the varied positions of a single signal.
From his plan the flag signals now in use by the navies of the world
were developed. The basis of his system was the combining of distinct
flags in pairs.

The work of Admiral Philip Colomb marked another long step forward
in signaling between ships. While a young officer he developed a
night-signal system of flashing lights, still in use to some extent,
and which bears his name. Colomb's most important contribution to the
art of signaling was his realization of the utility of the code which
Morse had developed in connection with the telegraph.

Code flags, which are largely used between ships, have not been
entirely displaced by the wireless. The usual naval code set consists
of a set of alphabet flags and pennants, ten numeral flags, and
additional special flags. This of course provides for spelling out any
conceivable message by simply hoisting letter after letter. So slow
a method is seldom used, however. Various combinations of letters and
figures are used to indicate set terms or sentences set forth in the
code-book. Thus the flags representing A and E, hoisted together, may
be found on reference to the code-book to mean, "Weigh anchor." Each
navy has its own secret code, which is carefully guarded lest it be
discovered by a possible enemy. Naval code-books are bound with metal
covers so that they may be thrown overboard in case a ship is forced
to surrender.

The international code is used by ships of all nations. It is the
universal language of the sea, and by it sailors of different tongues
may communicate through this common medium. Any message may be
conveyed by a very few of the flags in combination.

The wig-wag system, a favorite and familiar method of communication
with every Boy Scout troop, is in use by both army and navy. The
various letters of the alphabet are indicated by the positions in
which the signaler holds his arms. Keeping the arms always forty-five
degrees apart, it is possible to read the signals at a considerable
distance. Navy signalers have become very efficient with this form of
communication, attaining a speed of over fifteen words a minute.

A semaphore is frequently substituted for the wig-wag flags both on
land and on sea. Navy semaphores on big war-ships consist of arms ten
or twelve feet long mounted at the masthead. The semaphore as a means
of communication was extensively used on land commercially as well as
by the army. A regular semaphore telegraph system, working in relays
over considerable distances was in operation in France a century ago.
Other semaphore telegraphs were developed in England.

The introduction of the Morse code and its adaptation to signaling by
sight and sound did much to simplify these means of communication. The
development of signaling after the adoption of the Morse code, though
it occurred subsequent to the introduction of the telegraph, may
properly be spoken of here, since the systems dependent upon sight and
sound grow from origins more primitive than those which depend upon
electricity. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century armies had
made slight progress in perfecting means of communication. The British
army had no regular signal service until after the recommendations
of Colomb proved their worth in naval affairs. The German army, whose
systems of communication have now reached such perfection, did not
establish an army signal service until 1902.

The simplicity of the dot and dash of the Morse code makes it
readily available for almost any form of signaling under all possible
conditions. Two persons within sight of each other, who understand
the code, may establish communication by waving the most conspicuous
object at hand, using a short swing for a dot and a long swing for a
dash. Two different shapes may also be exhibited, one representing a
dot and the other a dash. The dot-and-dash system is also admirably
adapted for night signaling. A search-light beam may be swung across
the sky through short and long arcs, a light may be exhibited and
hidden for short and long periods, and so on. Where the search-light
may be played upon a cloud it may be seen for very considerable
distances, messages having been sent forty miles by this means.
Fog-horns, whistles, etc., may be similarly employed during fogs or
amid thick smoke. A short blast represents a dot, and a long one a
dash.

The heliograph, which established communication by means of short and
long light-flashes, is another important means of signaling to which
the Morse code has been applied. This instrument catches the rays of
the sun upon a mirror, and thence casts them to a distant receiving
station. A small key which throws the mirror out of alignment serves
to obscure the flashes for a space at the will of the sender, and so
produces short or long flashes.

The British army has made wide use of the heliograph in India and
Africa. During the British-Boer War It formed the sole means of
communication between besieged garrisons and the relief forces.
Where no mountain ranges intervene and a bright sun is available,
heliographic messages may be read at a distance of one hundred and
fifty miles.

While the British navy used flashing lights for night signals, the
United States and most other navies adopted a system of fixed colored
lights. The system in use in the United States Navy is known as the
Ardois system. In this system the messages are sent by four lights,
usually electric, which are suspended from a mast or yard-arm. The
lights are manipulated by a keyboard situated at a convenient point on
the deck. A red lamp is flashed to indicate a dot in the Morse code,
while a white lamp indicates a dash. The Ardois system is also used by
the Army. The perfection of wireless telegraphy has caused the Ardois
and other signal systems depending upon sight or sound to be discarded
in all but exceptional cases. The wig-wag and similar systems will
probably never be entirely displaced by even such superior systems
as wireless telegraphy. The advantage of the wig-wag lies in the
fact that no apparatus is necessary and communication may thus be
established for short distances almost instantly. Its disadvantages
are lack of speed, impenetrability to dust, smoke, and fog, and the
short ranges over which it may be operated.

There is another form of sound-signaling which, though it has been
developed in recent years, may properly be mentioned in connection
with earlier signal systems of similar nature. This is the submarine
signal. We have noted that much attention was paid to communication by
sound-waves through the medium of the air from the earliest times. It
was not until the closing years of the past century, however, that
the superior possibilities of water as a conveyer of sound were
recognized.

Arthur J. Mundy, of Boston, happened to be on an American steamer on
the Mississippi River in the vicinity of New Orleans. It was rumored
that a Spanish torpedo-boat had evaded the United States war vessels
and made its way up the great river. The general alarm and the
impossibility of detecting the approach of another vessel set
Mundy thinking. It seemed to him that there should be some way
of communicating through the water and of listening for sounds
underwater. He recalled his boyhood experiments in the old
swimming-hole. He remembered how distinctly the sound of stones
cracked together carried to one whose ears were beneath the surface.
Thus the idea of underwater signaling was born.

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