THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
(To not Zones or Tau "Brt.crAroa."] Sra,—Mr. Carter makes a very good ease in your last issue against the claim of Morse to be the first inventor of the electric telegraph. Itonalds certainly was before him. But Ronalds'e telegraph was worked by static electricity, and therefore could only have a very limited range in distance. But in 1839 Dr. Davy, a London medical man, invented a thoroughly practical telegraph, worked by voltaic battery, and it was exhibited in London. His family, however, hung on his neck and implored him to hold fast to his profession and not ruin himself over his telegraph. He succumbed, and went to Australia, where he worked professionally for many years. Professor Silvanue Thompson succeeded a good many years ago in discovering Dr. Davy's apparatus in a cellar in Brixton, and so demonstrated Davy's claim to being the first inventor of a practical electric telegraph. So clearly was this demonstrated that a great banquet, at which one thousand people were present, was held in his honour in
Australia. The apparatus is in the museum of the Ineaution of Electrical Engineers.—I am, Sir, &a., J. H. A. MACDONALD, M.I.E.E.
Constitutional Club, Northumberland Avenue, W.C.
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