1864--n.o.bel's Explosive Gelatine. Rubber Dental Plates. Cabin John (Washington Aqueduct) Bridge finished (longest masonry span in the world).

1865--Louis Pasteur's work in Bacteriology begun. Martin's Process of making Steel.

1866--Wilde's Dynamo Electric Machine. Burleigh's Compressed Air Rock Drill. Whitehead Torpedo.

1867--Siemens' Dynamo Electric Machine. Dynamite Invented. Tilghman's Sulphite Process for making Wood Pulp.

1868--Brickill's Water Heater for Steam Fire Engines. Moncrieff's Disappearing Gun Carriage. Oleomargarine invented by Mege. Sholes Typewriter.

1869--Suez Ca.n.a.l Opened. Pacific Railway Completed. First Westinghouse Air-Brakes.

1870--The Gramme Dynamo Electric Machine. Windhausen Refrigerating Machines. Beleaguered Paris communicates with outer world through Micro-Photographs. Hailer's Rebounding Gun Lock. Dittmar's Gunpowder.

1871--Hoe's Web Perfecting Press set up in Office New York Tribune. The Locke Grain Binder. Bridge Work in Dentistry. Mount Cenis Tunnel opened for traffic. Phosphorus Bronze. Ingersoll Compressed Air Rock Drill.

1872--Stearns perfects Duplex Telegraph. Westinghouse Improved automatic Air Brake. Lyall Positive Motion Loom.

1873--Janney Automatic Car Coupler. Oleomargarine patented in United States by Mege.

1874--Edison's Quadruplex Telegraph. Gorham's Twine Binder for Harvesters. Barbed Wire Machines. St. Louis Bridge finished.

1875--Lowe's patent for Water Gas (illuminating gas made from water).

Roller Mills and Middlings Purifier for making flour. Gallium discovered by Boisbaudran. Pictet Ice Machine. Gamgee's Skating Rinks. First Cash Carrier for Stores.

1876--Alexander Graham Bell's Speaking Telephone. Hydraulic Dredges.

Cigarette Machinery. Photographing by Electric Light by Vander Weyde.

Edison's Electric Pen. Steam Feed for Saw Mill Carriages. Introduction of Cable Cars by Hallidie.

1877--Phonograph invented by Edison. Otto Gas Engine. Jablochkoff Electric Candle. Sawyer-Man Electric Lamp. Berliner's Telephone Transmitter of variable resistance (pat. Nov. 17, '91). Edison's Carbon Microphone (pat. May 3, '92). Discovery of Satellites of Mars by Professor Asaph Hall, and its so-called Ca.n.a.ls by Schiaparelli.

Liquefaction of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Air by Pictet and Cailletet.

1878--Development of Remington Typewriter. Edison invents Carbon Filament for Incandescent Electric Lamp. Gelatino-Bromide Emulsions in Photography. Ytterbium discovered by Marignac. Birkenhead Yielding Spinning Spindle Bearing. Gessner Cloth Press.

1879--Dr. Siemens' Electric Railway at Berlin. Mississippi Jetties completed by Capt. Eads. Samarium discovered by Boisbaudran, Scandium by Nilson, and Thulium by Cleve. The Lee Magazine Rifle.

1880--Faure's Storage Battery. Eberth and Koch discover Bacillus of Typhoid Fever, and Sternberg the Bacillus of Pneumonia. Edison's Magnetic Ore Concentrator. Greener's Hammerless Gun. Rabbeth Spinning Spindle patented.

1881--Telegraphing by Induction by Wm. W. Smith. Blake Telephone Transmitter. Reece b.u.t.ton Hole Machine. Rack-a-rock (explosive) patented.

1882--Bacillus of Tuberculosis identified by Koch, and Bacillus of Hydrophobia by Pasteur. St. Gothard Tunnel opened for traffic.

1883--Brooklyn Suspension Bridge Completed.

1884--Antipyrene. Mergenthaler's first Linotype Printing Machine invented. Bacillus of Cholera identified by Koch, Bacillus of Diphtheria by Loeffler, and Bacillus of Lockjaw by Nicolaier.

1885--Cowles' Process of Manufacturing Aluminum. First Electric Railway in America installed between Baltimore and Hampden. Neodymium and Praseodymium discovered by Welsbach. Welsbach Gas Burner invented.

Blowing up of Flood Rock, New York Harbor. "Bellite" produced by Lamm, and "Melinite" by Turpin.

1886--Graphophone invented. Electric Welding by Elihu Thomson. Gadolinum discovered by Marignac, and Germanium by Winkler.

1887--McArthur and Forrest's Cyanide Process of Obtaining Gold. Tesla's System of Polyphase Currents.

1888--Electrocution of Criminals adopted in New York State. Harvey's Process of Annealing Armor Plate. De Laval's Rotary Steam Turbine.

"Kodak" Snap-Shot Camera. Lick Telescope. De Chardonnet's Process of Making Artificial Silk.

1889--Nickel Steel. Hall's Process of Making Aluminum. Dudley Dynamite Gun. "Cordite" (Smokeless Powder) produced by Abel and Dewar.

1890--Mergenthaler's Improved Linotype Machine. Photography in Colors.

The Great Forth Bridge finished. Krag-Jorgensen Magazine Rifle.

1891--Parsons' Rotary Steam Turbine. The Northrup Loom.

1892--The explosive "Indurite" invented by Professor Munroe.

1893--Acheson's process for making Carborundum. The Yerkes Telescope.

Edison's Kinetoscope. Production of Calcium Carbide in Electric Furnace by Willson.

1894--Discovery of element Argon by Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsey.

Thorite produced by Bawden.

1895--X-Rays discovered and applied by Roentgen. Acetylene Gas from Calcium Carbide by Willson. Krupp Armor Plate. Linde's Liquid air apparatus.

1896--Marconi's System of Wireless Telegraphy. Buffington-Crozier Disappearing Gun.

1897--Schlick's System of Balancing Marine Engines. Discovery of Krypton by Ramsey and Travers.

1898--Horry and Bradley's process of making Calcium Carbide. Discovery of Neon and Metargon by Ramsey and Travers; Coronium by Nasini; Xenon by Ramsey; Monium by Crookes, and Etherion by Brush. Mercerizing Cloth under tension to render it Silky.

1899--Marconi Telegraphs without wire across the English Channel.

Oceanic launched, the largest steamer ever built.

1900--The Grande Lunette Telescope of Paris Exposition.

CHAPTER III.

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

THE VOLTAIC PILE--DANIELL'S BATTERY--USE OF CONDUCTING WIRE BY WEBER--STEINHEIL EMPLOYS EARTH AS RETURN CIRCUIT--PROF. HENRY'S ELECTRO MAGNET, AND FIRST TELEGRAPHIC EXPERIMENT--PROF. MORSE'S TELEGRAPHIC CODE AND REGISTER--FIRST LINE BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE--BAIN'S CHEMICAL TELEGRAPH--GINTL'S DUPLEX TELEGRAPH--EDISON'S QUADRUPLEX--HOUSE'S PRINTING TELEGRAPH--FAC SIMILE TELEGRAPHS--CHANNING AND FARMER FIRE ALARM--TELEGRAPHING BY INDUCTION--WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY BY MARCONI--STATISTICS.

In the effort to lengthen out the limited span of life into a greater record of results, time becomes an object of economy. To save time is to live long, and this in a pre-eminent degree is accomplished by the telegraph. Of all the inventions which man has called into existence to aid him in the fulfillment of his destiny, none so closely resembles man himself in his dual quality of body and soul as the telegraph. It too has a body and soul. We see the wire and the electro-magnet, but not the vital principle which animates it. Without its subtile, pulsating, intangible spirit, it is but dead matter. But vitalized with its immortal soul it a.s.sumes the quality of animated existence, and through its agency thought is extended beyond the limitations of time and s.p.a.ce, and flashes through air and sea around the world. Its moving principle flows more silently than a summer's zephyr, and yet it rises at times to an angry and deadly crash in the lightning stroke. At once powerful and elusive, it remained for Professor Morse to capture this wild steed, and, taming it, place it in the permanent service of man. On May 24, 1844, there went over the wires between Washington and Baltimore the first message--"What hath G.o.d wrought?" This was both prayer and praise, and no more lofty recognition of the divine power and beneficence could have been made. It was indeed the work of G.o.d made manifest in the hands of His children.

Popular estimation has always credited Prof. Morse with the invention of the telegraph, but to ascribe to him all the praise would do great injustice to many other worthy workers in this field, some of whom are regarded by the best judges to be ent.i.tled to equal praise.

The practical telegraph as originally used is resolvable into four essential elements, viz., the battery, the conducting wire, the electro-magnet, and the receiving and transmitting instruments.