“Franklin constructed rods so as to bring the lightning into his house, for the purpose of ascertaining if it was of the positive or negative kind. He succeeded in the experiment for the first time in April, 1753, when it appeared that the electricity was negative. On the 6th of June he met with a cloud electrified positively. The discoveries of Franklin roused the attention of all Europe, and many distinguished electricians repeated them with success. Professor Richman, of St. Petersburg, while making some experiments upon the electrical state of the atmosphere, was killed by the electric fluid, August, 1753. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, electricity was assiduously cultivated by a great number of eminent individuals, who extended the boundaries of the science by numerous experiments, and by the invention of ingenious and useful instruments. Experiments were made upon air, water and ice; and in relation to the surfaces of electric bodies; in relation to the two electrical states; upon the deflagration of the metals; decomposition of solids and liquids,” &c. &c.
It is stated in Young’s Travels in France, (1787, 4th ed. vol. 1, p. 79,) that a Mr. Lomond had invented a mode by which, from his own room, he held communication with a person in a neighbouring chamber, by means of electricity. He employed the common electrical machine placed at one station, and at the other an electrometer constructed with pith balls. These instruments were connected by means of two wires stretched from one apartment to the other; so that, at each discharge of the Leyden phial, the pith balls would recede from each other, until they came in contact with the return wire. His system of telegraphic correspondence is not related. We must suppose from the character of his invention, having but one movement, that of the divergence of the balls, and using an apparatus extremely delicate, that his means of communication could not have been otherwise than limited, and required a great amount of time.
The only mode in which it appears possible for him to have transmitted intelligence, seems to be this: a single divergence of the pith balls, succeeded by an interval of two or three seconds, may have represented A. Two divergencies in quick succession, with an interval following, may have represented B; three divergencies, in like manner, indicated the letter C; and so on for the remainder of the alphabet. Instead of these movements of the pith balls representing letters, they may have indicated the numerals 1, 2, 3, &c. so that with a vocabulary of words, numbered, conducted his correspondence. This appears to be the first electrical telegraph of which we have any account; but does not appear to have been used upon extended lines.