Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/124

 have a bit of iron in America, with an electric battery in Ireland, or vice versa—."

"W'ot 's wicey wersa, Mr. Wright ?"

"Oh, it means the terms being changed—turned the other way, you know—back to the front, as it were—in short, I mean the battery being in America and the bit of iron in Ireland."

"Well, well, who 'd a thought there was so much in wicey wersa; but go on, Mr. Wright."

"Now, you must suppose," continued Robin, "that a needle, like the mariner's compass needle, hangs beside my bit of iron, close to it, and that a wire, or conductor of electricity, connects the iron with my electric battery in Ireland. Well, that makes a magnet of it, and the suspended needle, being attracted, sticks to it. Then I disconnect the wire from my battery by touching a handle, the bit of iron ceases to be a magnet, and the needle wags free. Again I connect the battery, and the needle flies to the remagnetised bit of iron. Thus, as fast as I choose, I can make the needle wag, and by a simple arrangement we can make it wag right or left, so many beats right or left, or alternately, representing letters. By varying the beats we vary the letters, and thus spell out our messages. Now, do you understand it?"

"Well, I aint quite sure that I does," replied Vulcan; "I 've got a hazy notion that by touchin'