Excerpt from Annual of Scientific Discovery, or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1862: Exhibiting the Most Important Discoveries and Improvements in Mechanics, Useful Arts, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology, Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Meteorology, Geography, Antiquities, Etc Telegraphy. -a brief allusion must be made to that marvellous discovery which has given to the present generation the power to turn the spark of heaven to the uses of speech; - to transmit along the slender wire, for a thousand miles, a current of electricity that renders intelligible words and thoughts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.