separated. At each extremity of this pipe are twenty-four wires that
deviate from one another horizontally, and that are arranged like the
keys of a clavichord; and, above this row of wire ends, are distinctly
traced the twenty-four letters of the alphabet, while beneath there is a
table covered with twenty-four small pieces of gold-leaf or other easily
attractable and quite visible bodies."

Lesage had thought of offering his secret to Frederick the Great; but
he did not do so, however, and his telegraph remained in the state of a
curious cabinet experiment. He had, nevertheless, opened the way, and,
dating from that epoch, we meet with a certain number of attempts at
electrostatic telegraphy. [1]

[Footnote 1: Advantage has been taken of a letter from Alexander Volta
to Prof. Barletti (dated 1777), indicating the possibility of firing his
electric pistol from a great distance, to attribute to him a part in the
invention of the telegraph. We have not shared in this opinion, which
appears to us erroneous, since Volta, while indicating the possibility
above stated, does not speak of applying such a fact to telegraphy.]

The first in date is that of Lemond, which is spoken of by Arthur Young
(October 16, 1787), in his _Voyage Agronomique en France_:

"In the evening," says he, "we are going to Mr. Lemond's, a very
ingenious mechanician, and one who has a genius for invention.... He has
made a remarkable discovery in electricity. You write two or three words
upon paper; he takes them with him into a room and revolves a machine
within a sheath at the top of which there is an electrometer--a pretty
little ball of feather pith. A brass wire is joined to a similar
cylinder, and electrified in a distant apartment, and his wife on