Page:Hamel Telegraph history 1859.djvu/24



In Russia Baron Schilling continued his endeavours to obtain the means necessary for being able to blow up powder-mines without approaching them for the purpose, and even across rivers of considerable breadth, by the galvanic current. Not only had he already a subaqueous conductor, but he invented an ingenious, though simple, way of igniting the powder by means of pieces of charcoal, shaped in such a manner that they did not fail to produce the effect. In the autumn of 1812 he actually exploded powder-mines across the river Neva, near St Petersburg.

In 1813 Baron Schilling joined the army as “Staabsrittmeister” in a regiment of huzzars (the Saoumsky regiment) and in 1814 he was active in the engagements near Bar-sur-Aube on the 27th February, near Arcis-sur-Aube on the 20th and 21st, near Fere-Champenoise on the 25th, and in that close to Paris on the 30th March. On the following day he entered Paris with the Russian and allied troops, headed by the Emperor Alexander I.

Baron Schilling has told me that during his stay at Paris he, with his subaqueous conductor, several times, to the astonishment of the lookers-on, ignited gunpowder across the river Seine.