There are no
intermediate batteries; consequently, if the Fall River operator put
his end of the wire in connection with the earth, and the South
Braintree operator do the same, the line is without battery, and of
course without an electrical current. Such was the state of the line on
the 2d of September last, when for more than an hour they held
communication over the wire with the aid of the celestial batteries
alone.
This seems almost too wonderful for belief, and yet the proof is
incontestable. However, the fact being established that the currents
from the aurora borealis do have a direct effect upon the
telegraph-wires, and that the currents are of both kinds, positive and
negative,--as I have shown in my remarks upon the aurora of 1852, which
sometimes left a dark line upon the prepared paper, and at other times
bleached it,--it is a natural consequence that the wires should work
better without batteries than with them, whenever a current from the
aurora has sufficient intensity to neutralize the current from the
batteries.
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