Struck by what he witnessed, he abandoned his medical studies, and
resolved to apply all his energies to the introduction of the telegraph.
Within three weeks he had made, partly at Heidelberg, and partly at
Frankfort, his first galvanometer, or needle telegraph. It consisted of
three magnetic needles surrounded by multiplying coils, and actuated by
three separate circuits of six wires. The movements of the needles
under the action of the currents produced twenty-six different signals
corresponding to the letters of the alphabet.
'Whilst completing the model of my original plan,' he wrote to his
mother on April 5, 'others on entirely fresh systems suggested
themselves, and I have at length succeeded in combining the UTILE of
each, but the mechanism requires a more delicate hand than mine to
execute, or rather instruments which I do not possess. These I can
readily have made for me in London, and by the aid of a lathe I shall he
able to adapt the several parts, which I shall have made by different
mechanicians for secrecy's sake. Should I succeed, it may be the means
of putting some hundreds of pounds in my pocket. As it is a subject on
which I was profoundly ignorant, until my attention was casually
attracted to it the other day, I do not know what others may have done
in the same way; this can best be learned in London.
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