Page:Hamel Telegraph history 1859.djvu/61

59 series of experiments, with a view to find out the comparative merits of placing the conducting wires over the roofs of houses in the air, and of laying them in the earth. The latter trials were made in the botanical garden of the University, near the Rennweg. The result was like that obtained subsequently by Steinheil, at Munich, namely, that the earth conducted the current from one wire to the other laid at some distance parallel, which was then still supposed necessary for the return of the current. Steinheil had been led to make a trial of laying the wires in the earth, because at Göttingen the wires in the air had been several times injured by strong winds. Baron Schilling, Baron Jacquin and Professor Ettingshausen, at Vienna, concluded that the suspending of the wires in the air was the better method.