"Galvanism is the branch of electric science to which an experiment by Galvani gave birth. His wife, who was making soup from frogs, put them in proximity to a charged electrical machine. On touching them with a scalpel their legs became greatly convulsed. He came to the erroneous conclusion that animal electricity existed in the nerves and muscles of frogs, etc. His contemporary Volta inferred that the metals took the active part in producing the contraction, and the electricity was due to their contact. In 1800 he first described and constructed what has since been called the Voltaic pile."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)

Galvanic Battery

"Galvanism is the branch of electric science to which an experiment by Galvani gave birth. His wife,…

"If we take for example, a slip of zinc, and another of copper, and place the in a cup of diluted sulphuric acid, their upper ends in tontact, and above the water, and their lower ends separated, then there will be constituted a galvanic circle, of the simplest form, consisting of three elements, zinc, acid, copper." -Comstock 1850

Galvanic Battery

"If we take for example, a slip of zinc, and another of copper, and place the in a cup of diluted sulphuric…

"A type of battery used to produce electricity.." -Comstock 1850

Galvanic Battery

"A type of battery used to produce electricity.." -Comstock 1850

"A copper wire coiled, by winding it around a piece of wood. The turns of the wire should be close together for actual experiment, they being parted in the figure to show the place of the iron to be magnetized. The best method is, to place the coiled wire, which is called the electrical helix, in a glass tube, the two ends of the wire, of course, projecting. Then placing the body to be magnetized within the folds, send the galvanic influence through the whole by placing the poles of the battery in the cups." —Comstock, 1850

Electrical Helix

"A copper wire coiled, by winding it around a piece of wood. The turns of the wire should be close together…

"Morse magnetic telegraph will be understood by reference to the accompanying diagram, which represents the construction and arrangement of this form of telegraph. F and E are pieces of soft iron surrounded by coils of wire, which are connected at a and b with wires proceeding from a galvanic battery. When a current is transmitted from a battery located one, two, or three hundred miles, as the case may be, it passes along the wires and into the coils surrounding the pieces of soft iron F and E, thereby converting them into magnets. Above these pieces of soft iron is a metallic bar or lever, A, supported on its center, and haing at one end the arm D, and at the other a small steel point, o. A ribbon of paper, p h, rolled on the cylinder B, is drawn slowly and steadily off by a train of clock-work, K, moved by the action of the weight P on the cord C. This clock-work gives motion to two metal rollers, G and H, between which the ribbon of paper passes, and which, turnin in opposite directions, draw the paper from the cylinder B. The roller H has a groove arond its circumference (not represented in the engraving) above which the paper passes. The steel point, r, or the lever, A, is also directly opposite this groove. The spring r prevents the point from resting upon the paper when the telegraph is not in operation." —Wells, 1857

Magnetic Telegraph

"Morse magnetic telegraph will be understood by reference to the accompanying diagram, which represents…

"The instant this is done and the galvanic circle completed, the needle will deviate from its north and south position, turning towards the east or west, according to the direction in which the galvanic circle flows." -Comstock 1850

Uniting Wire above the Needle

"The instant this is done and the galvanic circle completed, the needle will deviate from its north…