dviser
of the French telegraph administration, but resigned the post in 1873.
The following year he was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences,
Paris. In 1879, he became editor of a new electrical journal established
at Paris under the title of 'La Lumiere Electrique,' and held the
position until his death, which happened at Paris after a few days'
illness on February 16, 1884. His devoted wife was recovering from a
long illness which had caused her affectionate husband much anxiety, and
probably affected his health. She did not long survive him, but died on
February 4, 1887, at Mentone in her fifty-fifth year. Count du Moncel
was an indefatigable worker, who, instead of abandoning himself to
idleness and pleasure like many of his order, believed it his duty to be
active and useful in his own day, as his ancestors had been in the past.
VIII. ELISHA GRAY.
THIS distinguished American electrician was born at Barnesville in
Belmont county, Ohio, on August 2, 1835. His family were Quakers, and
in early life he was apprenticed to a carpenter, but showed a taste
for chemistry, and at the age of twenty-one he went to Oberlin College,
where he studied for five years. At the age of thirty he turned his
attention to electricity, and invented a relay which adapted itself to
the varying insulation of the telegraph line. He was then led to devise
several forms of automatic repeaters, but they are not much employed. In
1870-2, he brought out a needle annunciator for hotels, and another for
elevators, which had a large sale. His 'Private Telegraph Line Printer'
was also a success. From 1873-5 he was engaged in perfecting his
'Electro-harmonic telegraph.' His speaking telegraph was likewise the
outcome of these researches. The 'Telautograph,' or telegraph which
writes the messages as a fac-simile of the sender's penmanship by an
ingenious application of intermittent currents, is the latest of his
more important works. Mr. Gray is a member of the firm of Messrs.
Gray and Barton, and electrician to the Western Electric Manufacturing
Company of Chicago. His home is at Highland Park near that city.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heroes of the Telegraph, by J. Munro
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