Page:Hamel Telegraph history England 1859.pdf/21

 Vienna and at St. Petersburg. Soemmerring promised to get one ready.

On the 22nd May, the Minister Count Montgelas and his lady visited Soemmerring, to see experiments with his telegraph.

On the 5th of June, Baron Schilling proposed to Soemmerring to try the action of the telegraph whilst the two conducting cords were each interrupted by water contained in a wooden tub. The signals appeared just as well as if no water had been interposed, but they ceased as soon as the water in the two tubs was connected by a wire, the current then returning by this shorter way.

On the following two days, the 6th and the 7th June, Soemmerring made, together with Baron Schilling, first across a canal on the river Isar, and then along the river itself, experiments similar to those made by Galvani's nephew, Giovanni Aldini, in 1803, near Calais, in the sea, and, near Charenton, on the river Marne, not far from its junction with the Seine.