ure as unwise and inexpedient. Their opposition defeated the war measure as an act of the League. All the sachems of the League, of whom there were fifty, and in whom originally was vested the entire civil power, were required to be of "one mind” to give efficacy to their legislation. Unanimity was a fundimental law. The idea of majorities and minorities was unknown to the Iroquois.

The number of sachems was so unchangeable that upon the admission of the Tuscaroras as the sixth nation of the League, the council of sachems was unwilling to increase the number and the Tuscaroras never had a sachem who was admitted to all the privileges of a sachem of the Confederacy. The celebrated Joseph Brant was but a chief-the office of sachem being surrounded by impassable barriers against those who were without the immediate family of the sachem and tribe in which the title was hereditary.

At the close of the American Revolution, although the Oneidas had remained neutral, they fared little, if any, better than the other five nations.

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH A MOVING

TRAIN.

BY GEORGE BLACK, ESQ., OF THE G. N. W. TELEGRAPH Co.

This subject has attracted considerable attention lately, arising from the announcement that Edison, the wizard of Menlo Park, had solved this somewhat wonderful problem. This is not a new achievement, though accomplished by new methods. I purpose to briefly review the different methods in order, and in doing so will have to refer to the writer's own efforts in this direction.

Keeping up communication with a moving train is accomplished in two ways,—first, by the train running in contact with an electric conductor; and, secondly, by inductive influence from conductors near the train.

The first method is the oldest. The earliest record that I have refers to a couple of patents issued in England nearly thirty years ago. The next was the joint production of Mr. Givin, of this city, and myself, in 1874. We experimented and improved our original idea, filed a caveat in Canada, and applied for an American patent in 1876. Naturally thinking we were the pioneers in this department, we claimed the complete device as broadly as possible, but were confronted with the English patents referred to. A visit to Washington, in November, 1876, enabled me to examine copies of these patents and so modify our claims as not to conflict. Fortunately the patents had expired, so that we could use what we could not claim. The examiner, however, was absent from duty, and his assistant did not wish to act in his absence, so that the changes could not then be made, and time elapsing, the patent was declared abandoned through no fault of ours.

The device was exhibited to W. K. Muir, Esq., then General Manager of the Canada Southern Railway Co., at St. Thomas, who was greatly interested in the arrangement, and offered facilities for an actual test on that road. The principal idea was to suspend a

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fied to use a telephone instead of a telegraph instrument, and thus enable trainmen and railway officials to speak while in motion. The signal would go off in the usual manner, and then verbal arrangements could be made. This identical arrangement was patented about two years ago by a couple of men connected with the Michigan Central Railway. Our arrangements were as fully adopted as if they had been supplied with our drawings and specifications. This is not surprising, as several parties connected with the C. S. railway were fully aware of the mechanical details, and the telephone added got over all the electrical difficulties; but it is not remarkable for several inventors to bring out the same device simultaneously, or reinvent what has already been brought out. A certain want is felt; several parties endeavor to supply the want, and at last two produce the same contrivance,

For perfect protection of trains from collision, I cannot imagine a better arrangement. A block section of rail of one or two miles, according to the traffic, absolutely secured for a train. Should a second train trespass upon this section, from any cause whatever, both trains would receive a danger signal. A train started in error could be arrested and brought back. We also used a device whereby a person at a station could feel if the section was clear without signalling the train.

THE INDUCTION METHODS.

We now turn to the second method of signalling, namely by "induction." It is difficult to describe induction briefly, but it may be understood by the attraction a magnet has for iron or steel in proximity to it. The magnet induces magnetism in the iron or steel, and if they are free to move they will be attracted towards each other. A wire with an electric current flowing through it, induces an electric current in another wire in its vicinity.

You are all familiar with the foreign sounds heard in telephones. These are chiefly caused by induction. A telegraph operator listening at a telephone, can easily read dispatches transmitted over neighboring wires. Taking advantage of these principles, Lucius S. Phelps, of New York, perfected his system and made it public early in 1885. He fitted up twelve miles of the New York and New Haven railroad, between Harlem River and New Rochelle Junction, and its operation was pronounced to be all that Phelps claimed for

it, telegrams passing to and from the moving train as rapidly as between fixed stations. The system may be briefly described as follows:-A copper wire is enclosed in a grooved board or trench between the rails; this wire forms the conductor, and is attached to the instruments at the depots. A coil of wires enclosed in a tube passes up over a car and down underneath, immediately over the wire between the rails and about seven inches from it. This coil is attached to the instruments and battery in the car, in a similar manner to that at the station. The act of transmitting actuates a vibrator or "buzzer," which induces a rapid humming sound in the receiving instrument, at the stations, a telephone, and in the train, a specially devised telegraph receiver. This receiver though delicate. enough to receive the hum of the vibrator through an air space, is not influenced by the motion of the train. This instrument works a telegraph sounder in the usual manner. Phelps has also adopted an overhead wire instead of that between the rails, and has secured it as a telephone signal for speaking instead of telegraphing.

EDISON'S SYSTEM.

We now come to Edison's system, called by some the "air telegraph." It, like that just described, depends upon the influence one conductor has upon another.

Mr. Wm. Wiley Smith, of Tennessee, observing the influence a telegraph wire had upon a telephone wire, secured a patent which forms the basis of this system. Mr. E. T. Gilliland and Mr. Edison afterwards took hold of it and brought the system to its present state of perfection. The instruments consist of an induction coil, with a vibrator or buzzer actuated by four or five cells of battery, a Morse transmitting key, and a pair of receiving telephones, made light and fitted upon the operator's ears, so as to exclude all external sounds and enable him to hear to the best advantage. One leading wire is attached to the the metalic roof of the car, and several car roofs are connected together, presenting a large metallic surface to the inductive influence of the telegraph wires. The other wire connects with the rails through the wheels and axles of the car. The station instruments are similar to those in the car, but are attached to three telegraph wires by means of condensers, and also with the earth or rail to complete the circuit. The space between the wires and the train is jumped over by the signals in some manner, so that

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