James Bowman Lindsay Collection
Lecture on the electric telegraph. [provisional title]
My object in the present lecture is not to give a
general description of Electricity but to confine myself almost exclusively to the
electric Telegraph, and as electricity and magnetism are so dependant on each
other that if we have the one we can produce the other, the history of these two
powers may be joined together. The earliest account of magnetism is to be found
in the history of that wonderful people the Chinese, and as the account of it that
history is not so far as I know to be found in any of our treatises on magnetism, I
shall give it in full.
In the 6th year of Ching Wang who began to reign BC 1115 messengers came
from the kingdom Yue Chang Shi and brought presents and did homage to this
Emperor. This kingdom was situated to the south of Kiao Chi or of Cochin
China. In return for such homage and presents the Emperor sent, among other
things, five chariots of a new invention. The course was indicated by means of a
small box made in the form of a dome and it contained a hand that always
pointed to the south. The chariot was called on this account Chi Nan, the Chariot
of the South. This machine was of great use to the messengers of Yue Chang
Shi, for after arriving at the kingdom of Fu Nan Lin on the sea coast they went
on board vessels and by means of this needle were only one year in returning to
their kingdom. Such is the description given by all the historians of China and I
see no reason to doubt of its truth. The same Emperor Ching Wang and his prime
minister Chou Kung, about a year after this erected a gnomon in order to obtain
the different altitudes of the Sun. This gnomon was 8 feet high and the shadow
of the sun at noon on the day of the summer solstice was 1 ft 5 2/3 inch, at the
noon of the winter solstice it was 13 ft 1 1/3 inch, and on the days of the equinox
this shadow was 7 ft 3 1/2 inch. These measurements have been verified by
Laplace and serve at the same time to authenticate the Chinese history and to
prove the gradual diminution of ecliptic obliquity. From this too an argument
might be drawn, were it necessary, [for?] the truth of the history of the magnetic
compass. The subsequent history of electricity and magnetism is given in
common treatises and we may pass at once to the famous discovery of Oersted.
This electrician was making a series of experiments on the connection of
Electricity and magnetism an about the end of the year 1819 found that when the
circuit was completed by the wires from the zinc and copper ends of a
galvanometer Battery, the magnetic needle placed above or below the wire was
deflected. Between this discovery & the year 1830 there were many that
cultivated this science and there was a successive series of remarkable
discoveries. The names of Faraday, Watkins, Ampere, Barlow, Marsh, Sturgeon,
De la Rive, Vanden Boss, Ritchie, Nobili & Arago hold a distinguished place
among these discoveries. It was in 1830 or 31 that I turned my particular
attention to Electricity and I then formed an idea of applying it to Mechanical
power, Illumination, & Telegraphic communication. I formed the idea of the
modern Telegraph in 1832 . Having kept no note of dates I wrote to David Peter
Esq. who was a member of the family in which I was then located, enquiring if
he could assist me in the dates, and if he could remember what I then stated
concerning the Telegraph - to which enquiry I received the following letter
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I may mention that Mr Peter strong interest in my experiments and often assisted
me. A patent for the first Telegraph was taken out by Wheatstone and Cooke in
1837 so that I must have formed the idea of it 4 or 5 years before this, but having
resolved to get a constant electric light first the Telegraph was postponed. I
obtained a constant electric light in 1835 and devoted a year or two to bring it to
perfection. My first public Lecture on it was in this Hall on Jan 15 1836. After
this I made many experiments and sent intelligence through water this submarine
Telegraph was I think about 2 years in advance of any other. For the last 6 or 8
years I have scarcely made any experiments in Electricity till a few weeks ago. I
then proceeded to examine if it was possible to send it through water without a
wire - an idea that I had formed about 10 or 15 years ago. On this subject I have
made many experiments and from these I have the most perfect conviction that
no submarine wires are necessary. Many experiments require still to made
before this mode of communication is perfected, but no doubt whatever exists as
to the transmission. I shall localize the case in order to render it more intelligible.
Suppose a wire connected with the copper end of the battery to be led down to
the shore and connected with a sheet of metal laid in the river. Suppose a wire
from the zink end taken to Brought Ferry and soldered to a metallic plate placed
also in the river. Suppose similar plates laid in the river on the Fife side at
Newport & South Ferry, and these are joined by a wire having in its course one
or more Telegraphs. Suppose now that a charge of Electricity is sent through the
wire on the Dundee side, this current may make its circuit from Broughty Ferry
to Dundee or by a leap of two miles across the river to the other wire at South
ferry and another leap of 2 miles from Newport to Dundee. In such a case I have
found that part of the electricity does not go across & part of it does, but the part
that does go across is sufficient to work one or 10,000 Telegraphs. I at first
supposed that the two plates on the same side must be distant more than the sum
of the two breadths of the river, or that that the longitudinal leap must exceed the
[across?] leaps but experiments have shown that this is not necessary; a greater
quantity of Electricity however goes across by increasing the distance of the
north side or south side plates from each other
On a larger scale the wire from the copper end of the Telegraph in London may
be conveyed to west most part of Pembrokeshire in Wales and there terminate in
submerged sheet of zink. Opposite this at Wexford in Ireland, distant about 40
miles let there be a sheet of copper whose connecting wire passes through
Ireland and concludes in a sheet of zink at Belfast. Across at Portpatrick, distant
about 20 miles is another sheet of copper whose wire passes along the west coast
of Scotland. The sum of the leaps across the Irish Sea is about 60 or 70 miles
while the longitudinal leap is nearly 200 and hence the greater portion of the
Electricity will go across. The wire carried to the north of Scotland may be
brought south along the E Coast. There may be a leap across the Tay at Broughty
Ferry or Dundee over to a wire which is led to the Forth and the Humber returns
by its wire to the zink in London.
On a still larger scale suppose a wire is led from the copper end of a Telegraph in
London terminating in in a sheet of zink placed in the sea at Dover, and another
wire from the zink end conducted to Lizard Point in Cornwall joined to a sheet
of copper thrown into the sea. On the French coast a sheet of copper is placed in
the sea at Calais & another of zink at Brest and these sheets also connected by a
wire with Telegraphs. Here the sum of the cross leaps is 120 miles while the
coast leap or longitudinal leap is 320 miles. The greater portion of Electricity
will go across & the Telegraph in London might work thousands
aid of the marine or oceanic battery. At advantage might be taken of the
submerged wires already in existence across to Dover, or the intelligence
without a submarine wire might be conveyed across in the manner already
proposed. I would recommend that these submerged wires should be if possible
retained. A less powerful battery is in this way necessary as a great deal of
Electricity is often lost by the submersion of the plates. I would also recommend
, not as indefensibly necessary but as in many respects advantageous, that a pair
of submerged wires should pass across Bearings Straits. These insulated wires
should pass from East Cape in Siberia to the island being a distance of only 30
miles; from to 5 miles; hence to Fairway rock 10 miles; and across to America
20 miles. These submerged wires could be taken up if necessary as the greatest
depth does not exceed 32 fathoms.
When a current of Electricity is sent through an uninterrupted wire that
proceeds from the copper and returns to the kink, this current can be made to
move in either direction with equal impetus. The same effect would take place
were the submerged sheets all of copper instead of kink and copper alternately.
The alternate arrangement of these marine or oceanic sheets greatly assist and
promote the current when it moves in one direction but they equally impede and
retard it when it moves in the other. Were the sheets all of copper they would
neither promote nor retard the current in either direction, but simply conduct
what part of it they got. As, however, a quantity is lost by each submerged plate,
it might ultimately become so feeble as to be unable to move the needle
(This transcript of James Bowman Lindsay's notebook is incomplete and
unedited. It is provided in advance of the J. B. Lindsay centenary in the interests
of research and private study. The transcript was produced by Leslie A.
Mackenzie, and is the copyright of Dundee City Council, 1998).
Dictionary Anglo-Scottish. MS.
92 pp. sm. 4to.
Tongan dictionary. MS.
56 pp. 8vo.
Dictionary, English - Madgascar (sic). MS.
4 pp. 4to. (of which only 2 pp. contain text).
The chrono-astrolabe: containing a full set of astronomic tables, with rules and examples for the calculation of eclipses and other celestial phenomena; ...
...comprising also plane and spherical trigonometry, and the most copious list of ancient eclipses ever published; connected with these, the dates of ancient events are exactly determined, and the authenticity of Hebrew, Greek, Roman and Chinese writings is demonstrated. 152 pp. xxxvi. 22 cm. There is a photograph of the author pasted on to the inside of the front cover, and several press cuttings (in memoriam, funeral notices etc.concerning Lindsay) pasted on to the end papers and the verso of the half title, in addition to several loose press cuttings. The volume is dedicated to Lord Lindsay, and the title page bears the MS. dedication "To Mr. Alex. Hutton with the author's best respects".
A survey of the Principia of Newton. MS.
20 pp. 4to.
[Scots?] vocabulary. MS.
30 pp. sm. 4to.
Mathematical jottings. MS.
1 p. 4to.
Mathematical jottings. MS.
32pp. 4to.
Plan of a fortress. MS fragment.
1 p. 4to.
Notebook of experiments on wireless telegraphy, together with a portrait (photograph). MS
With newscuttings.
Dictionary of 50 languages.
Conserved Tom Valentine, 1992.
Lecture on electricity. MS.
12 pp. post 8vo. We shall now attempt to pull aside the curtain of futurity and get a glance of the coming feats and destinies of Electricity Intelligence from Australia instead of 3 months will arrive in as many minutes and we may hold personal conversation with our friends at the N Zealand antipodes. The ship in the middle of the Ocean may be assailed by the united force of the winds and the waves. The billows may appear to rise to heaven and the cavities descend to the bottom of the sea. The tortured vessel may reel to & fro like a drunkard and every moment ready to become a prey to the angry waters. The passengers and crew are confounded. One after another the masts and sails give way and the helm is shivered into fragments. Left to the mercy of the winds. The illfated bark is dashed in pieces on the rock or is stranded in the sand. Occurrences such as these are by no means rare and even steamers are not proof against the stormy elements.Electricity alone defies them and smiles at their fury. Sent from the copper it circumnavigates the world, and ere we have made one inspiration, is back to its zink. The net work of wire is destined to be spread above or interred beneath the surface of the earth. A spark and a signal shall be sent from the battery of H Despotism and Barbarism cannot stand in its presence; superstition and ignorance shall flee before it. With a voice that shall reach the antipodes it shall proclaim the wrongs and the groans of the Madiai and register the stripes inflicted on the illtreated slave. That archfiend of God and man that sits enthroned in the city of the 7 hills shall tremble at its approach, and its revelations will enfeeble the knees of the Austrian Tyrant. China, strewed with Telegraphy shall be no longer insulated, and the darkness of Brahmanism fade before the light. The imposture of the prophet of Arabia will become known to his followers, and their affections will be turned from the son of Ishmael to the son of Isaac. The senseless tales of Buddha will be found a caricatured account and a parody of the Sage & Prophet that lived and died and lived again in Judea, and the Chinese sages be forced to exclaim - A greater than Confucius is here. The electric postman will leap from island to island in the southern ocean and extricate their minds from their erratic labyrinths. It will inflict a mortal wound on the anthropophogism of Papua, and the gales of Japan will be found unable to resist its ingress. In the twinkling of an eye it will waft its story from the [Yenisei?] to Caffreland and form Pekin to Washington. The far spread groups of Siberia will hold frequent converse, and they will be warmed by a wire across the Himmaleh. The scattered sons of Adam will thus be reunited in a single family, and they will read with horror the black catalogue of their [red?] hostilities. Their swords shall then be turned into ploughshares & their spears into pruninghooks, and the other implements of war exhibited in the museum as a specimen of byegone barbarism. No more shall violence be heard in the land; wasting and destruction shall be kept aloof from the united family. The suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child place his hand on the [baselisk's?] den. This happy era is drawing on apace, and the Telegraph must be regarded as a boon from Heaven to prepare for its arrival. The Continental storms may yet wax louder and louder, and we may have to wade to the land of promise through reddened streams But happiness is the more highly appreciated when contrasted with misery, & the light of day with nocturnal darkness. The telescope has penetrated space & revealed to us phenomena, magnitudes and motions of bodies distant many millions of miles. The examination of the [rocks?] has detected organisms that lived and died, before our Epoch, myriads of years. The microscope has descried countless crowds of vitalized existences unknown to our forefathers. The mind is enraptured with such sublime views, and spontaneous praise and wonder ascends from the unbiassed heart to the Maker of them all. Magnificent, however , as such views are, those displayed by Electricity are scarcely their inferior, perhaps the opposite. No telescope has told us if the other bodies of our system be tenanted by rational animations and even if it were so, no signalling might be contrived that could be rendered intelligible. No human mind can lay a wire from [Tellus?] to Neptune or make the amber [courser?] leap from Mercury to Uranus. 30 years ago, however, Electricity was found to be the cause of magnetism, and it may be proved in less than 30 years that gravitation is occasioned by it. The existence and stability of our solar system, and of all other systems, will then be seen to depend on it, and the sublime phenomena & motions obey its laws. Were all this the case, our ideas of it would be exalted to the uppermost but it would still be a creation unintelligent & insensible to our laudation, deaf to our entreaties and unable to deliver us; and our exclusive homage must ever be directed to the Author of gravitation, the Creator of Electricity. (This transcript of James Bowman Lindsay's notebook is incomplete and unedited. It has been provided in advance of the J. B. Lindsay centenary, in the interests of research and private study. The transcript was produced by Leslie A. Mackenzie, and is the copyright of Dundee City Council, 1998).
Tables of Jupiter's Satelites (sic) (1st Satelite). Epoch A.D. 1800 January 0d 0h 0m New Style.
8 pp. sm. 4to. Contains the following texts also: 1) The Hermit of Warkworth (poem). 2) New moons in 1847. 3) Example 1st by Burckhardt's Tables of the Moon Required the Moon's Longitude Latitude [?] August 14th 1847. 4) Example Required to calculate an eclipse of the Moon in April A.D. 1121. 5) Example an eclipse of Moon in A.D. 904... 6) Example Required to calculate an eclipse of the Moon in A.D. 1117...
Mathematical jottings. MS.
1 p. 4to.
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