Stories from Science
The Frenchmen Who Tried to Send the Mail by Snail
The true story of an inventor, a strongman, a radical — and twenty-four psychic molluscs
Paris, October, 1850
The machine looked like a gallows, two metres tall and made from chunks of timber. It dominated the tiny apartment in the 8th Arrondissement. At its heart lay a wooden box containing a simple device that would revolutionise communications across the world. According to its inventor, Jacques Toussaint Benoît, it could send messages in an instant, and despite the massive structure surrounding this prototype, the commercial version could be accommodated in every shop, office and home. One day, it might even be worn like jewellery.
Benoît called his device the pasilalinic sympathetic compass. This was its first demonstration. Witnessing the test were his patron Hippolyte-Antoine Triat and the socialist and teacher Jules Allix.
The design was based on the Voltaic pile, a battery that generated electricity from a sandwich of zinc and copper slices filled with salt-soaked cloth. This new machine used zinc cups and copper strips, and instead of salt water, the cloth was drenched in copper sulphate solution. The compass resembled the Voltaic pile in principle, but…
