Masters of Space - Morse, Thompson, Bell, Marconi, Carty

Masters of Space - Morse,
Thompson, Bell, Marconi, Carty

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Masters of Space, by Walter Kellogg
Towers This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Title: Masters of Space Morse, Thompson, Bell, Marconi, Carty
Author: Walter Kellogg Towers
Release Date: May 18, 2004 [EBook #12375]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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OF SPACE ***

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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,