302.  The Earth an Important Part of a Telegraphic System.  We learned in Section 299 that electricity could flow through many different substances, one of which was the earth.  In all ordinary telegraph lines, advantage is taken of this fact to utilize the earth as a conductor and to dispense with one wire.  Originally two wires were used, as in Figure 217; then it was found that a railroad track could be substituted for one wire, and later that the earth itself served equally well for a return wire.  The present arrangement is shown in Figure 220, where there is but one wire, the circuit being completed by the earth.  No fact in electricity seems more marvelous than that the thousands of messages flashing along the wires overhead are likewise traveling through the ground beneath.  If it were not for this use of the earth as an unfailing conductor, the network of overhead wires in our city streets would be even more complex than it now is.

303.  Advances in Telegraphy.  The mechanical improvements in telegraphy have been so rapid that at present a single operator can easily send or receive forty words a minute.  He can telegraph more quickly than the average person can write; and with a combination of the latest improvements the speed can be enormously increased.  Recently, 1500 words were flashed from New York to Boston over a single wire in one second.

In actual practice messages are not ordinarily sent long distances over a direct line, but are automatically transferred to new lines at definite points.  For example, a message from New York to Chicago does not travel along an uninterrupted path, but is automatically transferred at some point, such as Lancaster, to a second line which carries it on to Pittsburgh, where it is again transferred to a third line which takes it farther on to its destination.

CHAPTER XXXIII

MAGNETS AND CURRENTS

304.  In the twelfth century, there was introduced into Europe from China a simple instrument which changed journeying on the sea from uncertain wandering to a definite, safe voyage.  This instrument was the compass (Fig. 221), and because of the property of the compass needle (a magnet) to point unerringly north and south, sailors were able to determine directions on the sea and to steer for the desired point.

[Illustration:  FIG. 221.—­The compass.]

Since an electric current is practically equivalent to a magnet (Section 296), it becomes necessary to know the most important facts relative to magnets, facts simple in themselves but of far-reaching value and consequences in electricity.  Without a knowledge of the magnetic characteristics of currents, the construction of the motor would have been impossible, and trolley cars, electric fans, motor boats, and other equally well-known electrical contrivances would be unknown.