THE AMERICAN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

In each of the countries of Europe where the Electric Telegraph is established, viz.: Britain, France, Germany, and Russ a, the people seem anxious to claim for one or more of their own countrymen some merit in connection with the invention. The English speak of Wheatstone and Bain; the French of Le Sage; the Germans of Steinheil and Siemen; and the Russians of Schilling or Jacobi. Most of these inventors have their agents or representatives in different countries, ready on every suitable occasion to speak or write in behalf of their principal.

The inventor of the American Electric Telegraph has, we believe, no agent in Europe; and no person there who has any special interest in promoting the introduction of his system. The adoption of it by the Prussian government for great distances, as decidedly the best which it could obtain, after advertising extensively in Europe, is, therefore, the more remarkable; and especially, as the only knowledge which the Prussians possess of the American system seems to have been derived from one imperfectly acquainted with its powers; for we can account in no other way for the fact that Siemen's needle apparatus is adopted for short distances; Morse's instruments being clearly superior to Siemen's, or to any other needle apparatus, for short as Well as for long distances; since they are much more rapid in their motion, and have, besides, the advantage of making a permanent record on paper, instead of merely indicating to the eye by an evanescent sign. No one using the telegraph in America, would think of employing a needle apparatus in any of its operations.

In addition to the evidence of the high estimation of the American Telegraph by Europeans, furnished by this adoption of it in Prussia, we learn also from an elaborate work on Telegraphs by Dr. H. Schellen, recently published in Dusseldorf, that it is now introduced into other countries on that continent. Dr. S. says: "Of late the Morse Telegraphs are much used in Europe, viz: in England; between Hamburg and Cuxhaven; between Bremen and Bremer-haven; in Prussia, Austria, Bavaria and Hanover." Dr. S. might have added also that it is used in Turkey. Among the advantages of the American Telegraph, Dr. S. says, is its "quickness in making and marking the signs upon paper. * * * It records under the hand of a skilful operator 100 to 120 letters, in the same time in which the best needle telegraphs are able to indicate 20."

While the superiority of the American Electric Telegraph to all others is thus acknowledged by Europeans, they do not seem to be aware that the date of the American invention is also prior in point of time to that of any of their own electric telegraphs. They very naturally regard the date of the patent as the date of the invention, because in every country in Europe the patent is given to the person who first promulgates the invention in that country; and it is not safe, therefore, in Europe, for an inventor to permit others to know any thing of his invention until he has patented it. But in America, where the law permits no one to take out a patent but the inventor, he is perfectly safe in communicating the knowledge of what he has done, and even in publicly exhibiting his invention, before he takes out his patent, provided he secures himself by a caveat, and does not offer it for sale, or permit it to go into common use.

The inventor of the American Electric Telegraph, it is well known, exhibited his instruments in operation in the N. Y. University, in the presence of hundreds of our citizens in September, 1837, and privately to his friends at various times as far back as November 1835, although his first patent was not secured until 1838. No one claims for the inventions of either Wheatstone or Steinheil a date prior to 1837; and when European writers on the telegraph come to understand our laws, and the error into which they have fallen, by confounding the date of the American invention with the patent, they will no doubt do our country the justice to admit its claims to priority as well as to superiority.—N. Y. Observer.

Iron Pavement.—Iron is daily coming into more general use for almost every purpose. A letter from Paris, of a late date says:

"A new pavement, to upset the Macadam and other inventions of the kind, has been proposed by Mr. Tobard, who intends paving, in this way, the streets and boulevards of Paris. This gentlemen has proved, by figures, that melting iron is only worth 11 francs in Paris, 7 francs in Belgium, and 4½ francs by 100 kilogrammes in England, whilst the stone costs 25 francs in London, 15 francs in Paris, and 8 and 10 francs in Belgium. This new mode of pavement will be grooved, in order not to become slippery, and it is said that the electricity occasioned by the rolling of the carriages will prevent rust. Here is a new field open to industry."