And why thus lonely lingers she, when all 1. FROM the earliest times, men have known how to communicate with those living at a distance, especially in times of urgency, by means of the fire-signal. When, however, from hill to hill over a whole landscape, the beacon-flames arose, these signals could communicate no very definite information. It could only be learned that some great event had occurred. Vastly more useful, therefore, were the telegraphs, which, by varying the positions of their arms, represented letters, syllables, and whole words, and so rendered a regular conversation possible between individuals separated by a hostile army, or other insurmountable obstructions. The language which these telegraphs exchanged with one another, from one tower or steeple to another, before the eyes of the enemy, or thousands of the curious, depended upon an agreement between those who had to converse by these means; to them alone was it intelligible. Others, who lacked the key, could only guess at the meaning of the quickly-changing positions of the machine. 2. Of a quite different character are the telegraphs of which we now propose to speak. By their means the apparently impossible has been made easy. Two persons, living fifty, or, indeed, hundreds of miles apart, may now communicate their thoughts in words, not, as in the case of the ordinary telegraph, in the space of an hour, or a half-hour, but instantly, as if they were seated at the same table. And could a connection by copper wire be established between Washington and Pekin', and the loss of power which the electric fluid would sustain in such a space be avoided, then might a person in the capital of China receive intelligence from the United States in a fraction of a second; and even the man in the moon, if our electric fluid could be carried thither, would hear from the earth in the space of a second, for the transmission of thought by this method is swifter than light. The electric fluid travels in this way about two hundred and eighty-eight thousand miles in a second; a ray of light, only one hundred and ninety-two thousand miles. 3. But, in addition to this all-surpassing speed, such a mode of communication has quite other advantages over the ordinary telegraph. That which is to be communicated to a distant point is not seen by thousands of eyes, but only at the destined place does it make itself known. The course which the word thus expressed takes, in the invisible form of an electric discharge, is hidden under the earth, or, enclosed in the metal of the wire, passing high over the roofs of cities. But when it reaches its goal it announces itself, not only to the eye by the common telegraphic sign, but also to the ear. He with whom another communicates in the still, midnight hour, sits, perhaps, sunk in thought at his desk, or has fallen asleep, the sound of a little bell arouses him; he listens; the sounds now of a lower, then of a higher toned bell are repeated; the number of bell-strokes, and the difference of the sounds, have meaning. 4. First, a deep sound, then, quickly succeeding, a higher, and then again a low note, represent an A; a low note, succeeded by two high notes, and again a low note, signifies B; a low note followed by no high note, and a high note followed by no low note, signify, the first E, the last J; three low notes, following one upon the other, stand for D. Thus, by the number and variety of sounds, every letter of the alphabet is expressed. Between the letters occurs a short pause; between the words the interval is longer. Thus, rapidly as an intelligent child may make out words by spelling, does it become possible by practice to understand the language of bells. 5. But suppose that the person to whom the distant intelligence comes is not awakened by the first stroke of the bell, and has lost the first part, or the whole, even, of what is thus communicated. Still, the loss is not irrep'arable. He finds, upon approaching the table at which his magical telegraph is arranged, that everything which he had failed to hear is set down there in visible characters. He finds a letter written, not, indeed, in ordinary characters, but in points, the peculiar position of which (corresponding to the different notes of the bell), and their combination, represent alphabetical signs, marked, like the sounds, with regularly occurring intervals between the letters and the words; or, by another plan, he may find a message legibly printed out in bold letters on a narrow strip of paper. 6. In such phenomena as the motion of the electric fluid and of light, which the mind of man has taken into his service and learned to use at will, we have a type of the difference between the action of the mind and the body. Electricity and Light, although possessing power to penetrate space to an extent almost immeasurable, are indeed both material agents, and yet distance and time are almost annihilated by them; the connection they establish, although by the material means of a metallic conductor, is miraculously direct and intimate. But what must that uniting attraction of souls be, which requires no corporeal medium, but darts instantaneously through an all-uniting spiritual element from one disembodied spirit to another! Even now the director of an electric telegraph, although confined by the burthen of a body to a certain spot, is able at pleasure to converse with a distant friend, and be present with him in thought and will. What will not be possible when this confinement to the conditions of our planet shall fall away! SCHUBERT 1. HARK! the warning needles click, Here the instant message read, Brought with more than lightning speed. Sing who will of Orphean lyre, 2. Let the sky be dark or clear, Sing who will of Orpheän lyre, 3. Think the thought, and speak the word, Boston speaks at twelve o'clock, Natchez reads ere noon the shock Seems it not a feat sublime? Intellect has conquered Time! Sing who will of Orpheän lyre, 4. Marvel- triumph of our day, Flash sincerity of speech, Noblest aims to all who teach ; Flash till Power shall learn the Right, Sing who will of Orpheän lyre, CLXXVI. - PHOTOGʻRAPHY, OR LIGHT-DRAWING. EI 1. THE sunlight acts with a decomposing power, especially on the combinations of gold and silver with different substances; these metals may be separated, by means of light, in a metallic form, or in a condition of imperfect oxydation. Iodine is a substance obtained from the ashes of several sea-plants. It is mixed, besides, in minute quantities, with the water of various springs. This substance, insoluble in water, soluble in spirits of wine, of an almost metallic brightness, changing by heat into a violetblue colored gas, enters, like Chlo'rine and Bro'mine (its fellow inhabitants of the sea and of sea-plants), into combinations with silver, from which this metal is immediately separated by the influence of light. Upon the facility with which iodide of silver is decomposed rests the discovery made in the year 1839, by Niepci and Daguerre." 2. A copper plate is covered (plated) with silver, and carefully polished, in order to obtain as pure and smooth a surface as possible. It is then placed in the dark in a vessel, at the bottom of which is put iodine, which, by being heated from below, is converted into vapor, and in this form combines with the silver on the surface of the plate, which then becomes of a light-yellow color. As soon as this combination is completed, the metal plate, with its fine covering of iodide of silver, is immediately taken out and placed in a cam'era obscu'ra, in which the image of the object, illuminated by the sun, is formed by a lens in diminished proportions upon the metal plate, as upon any other surface placed in the focus. In a few moments the light, passing from the illuminated body into the camera obscura, and upon the iodide of silver, acts upon this composition; the silver is separated from the iodine. 3. But, still, when the plate is drawn quickly out (before the weaker light of the surrounding air has exerted its decomposing influence), not a trace of a picture is discernible on its surface; but it becomes visible when the plate is taken from the camera obscura, and placed for some moments in a dark box, filled with the vapor rising from mercury heated to one hundred and fortynine or one hundred and fifty-eight degrees, which, in this form, unites with the silver which is disengaged from the iodine by the effect of the light. There now remains nothing to be done but to get rid of the thin film, consisting of iodide of silver undecomposed, in order to prevent the further action of light upon the plate. 4. This is done by dipping the plate in a solution of hyposulphite of soda in water, or in a boiling hot solution of common salt, the iodine thus quitting the silver and uniting with the soda. The plate is then washed in perfectly pure, distilled water. The quicksilver amal'gam formed in the places where the silver has separated from the iodine is unaffected by the weak hypo-sulphite of soda solution, or the boiling salt water. This amalgam stands now, raised upon the bright silver plate, forming the lights of the picture; and the silver, cleansed wholly from the iodine, reflects light so perfectly as to appear dark, thus forming the shades, and the picture is done. 5. This method, first employed and thus described by the inventor of Photography, may be varied in different ways, by using, instead of iodine in a solid form, a solution of the same, diluted with water, in spirits of wine; to get rid of the iodide of silver covering, a cold solution of common salt suffices, if the plate, which is dipped into the solution, be touched by a small rod of zinc, and the chemical action be accelerated by galvan'ic influence. The sensibility of the silver solution to the influence of light may be still further increased by the use of a combination of iodine and chlorine, instead of pure iodine; or by adding a portion of bromine to the solution; or by holding the plate, when the formation of the iodide of silver film is completed, for some moments over a weak solution of chlorine, by which its yellowish color becomes red. By means of these improvements has it become possible to seize the swiftly-flitting spectacle of the visible world, and fix it as a picture. 6. It is indeed marvellous what can be done by the invention of the Daguerreotype, this simple combination of a camera obscura and a metal plate covered with a tincture of iodide of silver. The traveller, whose way lies through a country never represented by human hand, while he rests in the shade of a rock or tree, has only to let the image of the landscape, illuminated by the sun, fall upon his Daguerreotype plate in a camera obscura, or he may direct his apparatus to a master-piece of ancient architecture, and he has a copy of the landscape or the edifice, with the fidelity of which, to the minutest particular, the art of man |