CHAPTER THIRTY.
THE WRIGHT FAMILY REUNITED, AND SAM BECOMES HIGHLY ELECTRICAL.
That much-abused and oft-neglected meal called tea had always been ascene of great festivity and good-fellowship in the Wright family.Circumstances, uncontrollable of course, had from the beginningnecessitated a dinner at one o'clock, so that they assembled round thefamily board at six each evening, in a hungry and happy frame of bodyand mind, (which late diners would envy if they understood it), with theprospect of an evening--not bed--before them.
In the earlier years of the family, the meal had been, so to speak, ariotous one, for both Robin and Madge had uncontrollable spirits, withtendencies to drop spoons on the floor, and overturn jugs of milk on thetable. Later on, the meal became a jolly one, and, still later, achatty one--especially after uncle Rik and cousin Sam began to befrequent guests.
But never in all the experience of the family had the favourite mealbeen so jolly, so prolific of spoony and porcelain accidents, so chatty,and so generally riotous, as it was on a certain evening in June of theyear 1870, shortly after the return home of Robin and his companions.
Besides the original Wright family, consisting of father, mother, Robin,and Madge, there were assembled uncle Rik, Sam Shipton, Mrs Langley,Letta, and--no--not Jim Slagg. The circle was unavoidably incomplete,for Jim had a mother, and Jim had said with indignant emphasis, "didthey suppose all the teas an' dinners an' suppers, to say nothin' o'breakfasts, an' mess-mates an' chums an' friends, crammed and jammedinto one enormous mass temptation, would indooce him to delay his returnto that old lady for the smallest fraction of an hour?" No, Jim Slaggwas not at the table, but the household cat was under it, and thedemoralising attentions that creature received on that occasion went farto undo the careful training of previous years.
The occasion of the gathering was not simple. It was compound. First,it was in commemoration of Robin's birthday; second, it was to celebratethe appointment of Sam Shipton to an influential position on theelectrical staff of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company,and Sam's engagement to Marjory Mayland; third, to celebrate theappointment of Robin Wright to a sufficiently lucrative and hopeful postunder Sam; and, lastly, to enjoy the passing hour.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said uncle Rik, getting on his feet with somedifficulty, when the tea, toast, muffins, eggs, and other fare hadblunted the appetites, "I rise to propose the toast of the evening, andmark you, I don't mean to use any butter with this toast," (_Hear_, fromSam), "unless I'm egged on," (_Oh_!), "to do it--so I charge you tocharge your cups with tea, since we're not allowed grog in thistee-total ship--though I'm free to confess that I go in with you there,for I've long since given, up the use o' that pernicious though pleasantbeverage, takin' it always neat, now, in the form of cold water, variedoccasionally with hot tea and coffee. My toast, ladies and gentlemen,is Rob--" (Rik put his hand to his throat to ease off his necktie), "isRobin Wright, whom I've known, off an' on, as a babby, boy, an' man,almost ever since that night--now twenty years ago, more or less--whenhe was launched upon the sea in thunder, lightning, and in rain. I'veknown him, I say--ever since--off an' on--and I'm bound to say that--"
The captain paused. He had meant to be funny, but the occasion provedtoo much for him.
"Bless you, Robin, my lad," he gasped, suddenly stretching his largehand across the table and grasping that of his nephew, which was quicklyextended. After shaking it with intense vigour he sat promptly down andblew his nose.
The thunders of applause which burst from Sam and Mr Wright were joinedin even by the ladies, who, in the excess of their sympathy, made use ofknife-handles and spoons with such manly vigour that several pieces ofcrockery went "by the board," as the captain himself remarked, and thehousehold cat became positively electrified and negatively mad,--inasmuch as it was repelled by the horrors around, and denied itself theremaining pleasure of the tea-table by flying wildly from the room.
Of course, Robin attempted a reply, but was equally unsuccessful inexpressing his real sentiments, or the true state of his feelings, butuncle Rik came to the rescue by turning sharply on Sam and demanding--
"Do you really mean to tell me, sir, that, after all your experience,you still believe in telegraphs and steamboats?"
Sam promptly asserted that he really did mean that.
"Of course," returned the captain, "you can't help believing in theirexistence--for facts are facts--but are you so soft, so unphilosophical,so idiotical as to believe in their continuance? That's the point,lad--their continuance. Are you not aware that, in course o' time, rustthey must--"
"An' then they'll bu'st," interpolated Robin.
"Hee! hee! ha!" giggled Letta, who, during all this time, had beengazing with sparkling eyes and parted lips, from one speaker to another,utterly forgetful of, and therefore thoroughly enjoying, her ownexistence.
"Yes, then they'll bu'st," repeated Rik, with an approving nod at Robin;"you're right, my boy, and the sooner they do it the better, for I'mquite sick of their flashings and crashings."
"I rather suspect, Sam," said Mr Wright, "that the gentlemen with whomyou dined the other day would not agree with uncle Rik."
"Whom do you refer to, George?" asked Mrs Wright.
"Has he not yet told you of the grand `inaugural fete,' as they call it,that was given at the house of Mr Fender, chairman of the TelegraphConstruction and Maintenance Company, to celebrate the opening of directsubmarine telegraphic communication with India?"
"Not a word," replied Mrs Wright, looking at Sam.
"You never mentioned it to _me_," said Madge, with a reproachful glancein the same direction.
"Because, Madge, we have been so busy in talking about something else,"said Sam, "that I really forgot all about it."
"Do tell us about it now," said Mrs Langley, who, like her daughter,had been listening in silence up to this point.
"A deal o' rubbish was spoken, I daresay," observed the captain,commencing to another muffin, and demanding more tea.
"A deal of something was spoken, at all events," said Sam, "and what ismore to the point, an amazing deal was done. Come, before speakingabout it, let me propose a toast--Success to Batteries and Boilers!"
"Amen to that!" said Robin, with enthusiasm.
"If they deserve it," said the captain, with caution.
The toast having been drunk with all the honours, Sam began by sayingthat the fete was a great occasion, and included brilliant company.
"There were present, of course," he said, "nearly all the greatelectrical and engineering lights of the day, also the Prince of Walesand the Duke of Cambridge, with a lot of aristocrats, whom it is notnecessary to mention in the presence of a democratic sea-dog like uncleRik."
"Don't yaw about to defame me, but keep to your course, Sam."
"Well, you have no idea what an amount of interest and enthusiasm theaffair created. You all know, of course, that the Indian cable, whichRobin and I had a hand in laying, is now connected with the lines thatpass between Suez, Alexandria, Malta, Gibraltar, Lisbon, and England;and the company assembled at Mr Pender's house witnessed the sending ofthe first messages direct from London to Bombay; and how long, do youthink, it took to send the first message, and receive a reply?--onlyfive minutes!"
"You don't mean it, Sam!" exclaimed Rik, getting excited, in spite ofhis professed unbelief.
"Indeed I do," replied Sam, warming with his subject. "I tell you thesober truth, however difficult it may be for you to believe it. You maysee it in the papers of the 24th or 25th, I suppose. Here is mynote-book, in which I jotted down the most interesting points.
"The proceedings of the evening were opened by the managing director inLondon sending a telegram to the manager at Bombay.
"`_How are you all_?' was the brief first telegram by Sir JamesAnderson. `_All well_,' was the briefer first reply from Bombay. Thequestion fled from London at 9:18 exactly--I had my watch in my hand atthe time--and the answer came back at 9:23--just f
ive minutes. I cantell you it was hard to believe that the whole thing was not a practicaljoke. In fact, the message and reply were almost instantaneous, thefive minutes being chiefly occupied in manipulating the instruments ateither end. The second message between the same parties occupied thesame time. After that Sir Bartle Frere sent a telegram to Sir SeymourFitzgerald, the Governor of Bombay, as follows:--`_Sir Bartle Frerewishes health and prosperity to all old friends in Bombay_.' This wasreceived by the Company's superintendent at Bombay, and theacknowledgment of its receipt sent back in four minutes and fiftyseconds! But the reply from the Governor, `_Your old friend returnsyour good wishes_,' did not come to us for thirty-six minutes, becausethe message had to be sent to the Governor's house, and it found hisExcellency in bed.
"Next, a message was sent by Lady Mayo in London to Lord Mayo at Simla,which, with the acknowledgment of it, occupied 15 minutes intransmission. Of course time was lost in some cases, because thepersons telegraphed to were not on the spot at the moment. The Princeof Wales telegraphed to the Viceroy of India, `_I congratulate yourExcellency on England and India being now connected by a submarinecable. I feel assured this grand achievement will prove of immensebenefit to the welfare of the Empire. Its success is thus matter_ _ofimperial interest_,' which telegram passed out, and the acknowledgmentof its receipt in India was returned to London, all within elevenminutes, but, as in the former case, the Viceroy was in bed, so that hisreply was not received till forty-five minutes had elapsed. Had theViceroy been at the Indian end of the wire, he and the Prince could haveconversed at an average rate of five minutes a sentence.
"Many other messages were sent to and fro," continued Sam, turning overthe leaves of his note-book, "not only from London to India, but to eachof the intermediate stations on the cable line, so that we had directintercourse that night with the King of Portugal, the Governors ofGibraltar, Malta, and Aden, and the Khedive of Egypt. But that was notall. We put the old and the new world into communication, so that the`press of India sent salaam to the press of America.' Sir JamesAnderson also telegraphed to Cyrus W. Field, Esquire, the father ofsubmarine telegraphy in my estimation," (_Hear, hear_, from Robin), "andhe sent a reply, which began, `_Your message of this evening received byme before five o'clock this afternoon_.' Mark that, Captain Rik, themessage received _before_ it was sent, so to speak!"
"Ay, ay, lad--I know--difference of longitude,--fire away."
"Well, I have fired away most of my ammunition now," returned Sam, "andif you don't haul down your colours, it must be because you have nailedthem to the mast and are blind to reason. I may add, however, that theViceroy of India sent a telegram to the President of the United States,to which he got a reply in seven hours and forty minutes, but theslowness of this message was accounted for by the fact of accidental andpartly unavoidable delay in transmission both in Washington and London.At 1:30 a.m. of the 24th the traffic of the line became pressing, andall complimentary messages ceased with one from Bombay, which said, `Sunjust risen; delightfully cool; raining.'"
"Doesn't it seem as if the Baron Monkhausen's tales were possible afterall?" remarked Mrs Wright, looking as if her mind had got slightlyconfused.
"The Baron's tales are mere child's-play, mother," said Robin, "to thegrand facts of electricity."
"That's so, Robin," said Sam, still turning over the leaves of hisnote-book, "and we had some magnificent experiments or illustrations atthe fete, which go far to prove the truth of your remark--experimentswhich were so beautiful that they would have made the eyes of Lettasparkle even more gorgeously than they are doing at present, if she hadseen them."
Letta blushed, returned to self-consciousness for a moment, looked down,laughed, looked up as Sam proceeded, and soon again forgot herself in afixed and earnest gaze.
"The two telegraph instruments communicating with India and America,which stood on two tables, side by side, in Mr Pender's house, weresupplied by two batteries in the basement of the building. Eighty cellsof Daniel's battery were used upon the Penzance circuit for India, and100 cells on the Brest circuit for America. The ordinary water-pipes ofthe house served to connect the batteries with the earth, so as toenable them to pump their electricity from that inexhaustiblereservoir."
"I was not aware that electricity had to be pumped up through pipes likewater," interrupted Mrs Wright, on whose mild countenance acomplication of puzzled expressions was gradually gathering.
"It is not so pumped up," said Sam. "The pipes were used, not becausethey were pipes, but because they were metal, and therefore goodconductors."
"But you haven't told us about the beautiful experiments yet," murmuredLetta, a little impatiently.
"I'm coming to them, little one," said Sam. "One battery exhibited thepower as well as the beauty of that mysterious force which we callelectricity. It was the large Grove battery. A current passed from itto copper wires, in a certain manner, produced a dazzling green light,and the copper melted like wax. With silver a still brighter and purergreen flame was the result. With platinum an intense white light wasgiven off, and the molten metal fell in globules of exceedingbrilliancy. With iron lovely coruscations were exhibited, the boilingvapour flying and burning in all directions; and a platinum wire threefeet long was in an instant melted into thousands of minute globules.All this showed the power of electricity to produce intense heat whenresistance is opposed to its passage."
"It is remarkably human-like in that respect," said Captain Rik, in anunder-tone.
"Then its power to produce magnetism," continued Sam, "was shown by LordLindsay's huge electro-magnet. This magnet, you must know, is nothingbut a bit of ordinary metal until it is electrified, when it becomes amost powerful magnet. But the instant the current is cut off from it,it ceases to be a magnet. If you understood much about electricity,"said Sam, looking round on his rapt audience, "I might tell you that itis upon this power of making a piece of iron a magnet or not atpleasure, that depend the Morse and Digne telegraph instruments; but asyou don't understand, I won't perplex you further. Well, when a pieceof sheet copper was passed between the poles of Lord Lindsay's giantmagnet, it was as difficult to move as if it had been sticking incheese--though it was in reality touching nothing!--influenced only byattraction." ("That beats your power over Sam, Madge," whispered Robin."No it doesn't," whispered Madge in reply.) "Then, one most beautifulexperiment I could not hope to get you to understand, but its resultwas, that a ten-gallon glass jar, coated inside and out with perforatedsquares of tinfoil, was filled with tens of thousands of brilliantsparks, which produced so much noise as completely to drown the voicesof those who described the experiment. A knowledge of these and otherdeep things, and of the laws that govern them, has enabled Sir WilliamThomson and Mr Cromwell F. Varley to expedite the transmission ofmessages through very long submarine cables in an enormous degree. Thenthe aurora borealis was illustrated by a large long exhausted tube--"
"I say, Sam," interrupted Rik, "don't you think there's just apossibility of our becoming a large long-exhausted company if you don'tbring this interesting lecture to a close?"
"Shame! shame! uncle Rik," cried Robin.
As the rest of the company sided with him, the captain had to give way,and Sam went on.
"I won't try your patience much longer; in fact I have nearly come to anend. In this long exhausted tube, ten feet in length and three inchesin diameter, a brilliant and beautiful crimson stream was produced, bymeans of an induction coil. In short, the occasion and, the proceedingsaltogether, made it the most interesting evening I have ever spent in mylife, e-except--"
Sam paused abruptly, and looked at Madge. Madge blushed and looked downunder the table,--presumably for the cat,--and the rest of the companyburst into an uproarious fit of laughter, in which condition we willleave them and convey the reader to a very different though not lessinteresting scene.