Mr. Charles Wheatstone, F.R.S., and Professor of Experimental Philosophy
in King's College at the time of that interview, had made considerable
advances in the scientific part of the enterprise. At the commencement
of his career as a maker and seller of musical instruments in London, he
was led to investigate the science of sound; and from his researches in
that direction, he was led--much as Herschel was led--to devote himself
to optics, and to study the philosophy of light. He was the first to
point out the peculiarity of binocular vision, and to describe the
stereoscope, which has since become so popular an instrument. Gradually,
however, his thoughts and researches came to be steadfastly directed to
the application of electricity to the communication of signals. In
determining the rate at which the electric current travels through a
wire he had laid down, he made an important stride towards the end in
view. He proved by a series of most ingenious experiments, that one
spark of electricity leaps on before another, and that its progress is a
question of time. He found that electricity travels through a _copper_
wire as fast as, if not faster, than light, that is, at the rate of
200,000 miles in a second; but through an _iron_ wire, electricity moves
at the rate of only 15,400 miles in a second. In 1836 Mr. Wheatstone had
begun experiments in the vaults of King's College, with four miles of
wire, properly insulated, and was working out the details of a
telegraph, the scientific principles of which he had already laid down.
He had discovered an original method of converting a few wires into a
considerable number of circuits, so that the greatest number of signals
could be transmitted by a limited number of wires, by the deflection of
magnetic needles. Mr. Wheatstone, however, was somewhat backward in the
mechanical parts of the scheme, and the meeting between him and Cooke
was therefore of the greatest benefit to both, and an admirable
illustration of the old proverb, that two heads are better than one. Had
they never been brought together,--had they kept on working out their
own ideas apart--each would, no doubt, have been able to produce an
electric telegraph; but a great deal of time would have been lost, and
their respective efforts less complete and valuable than the one they
effected in conjunction. Cooke wanted sound, scientific knowledge;
Wheatstone wanted mechanical ingenuity; and their union supplied mutual
deficiencies. A partnership was immediately formed between them. Before
their combined genius all difficulties vanished; and in the June of the
same year they were able to take out a patent for a telegraph with five
wires and five needles. Their respective shares in its invention are
clearly marked out by Sir J. Brunel and Professor Daniell, who, as
arbiters between the two upon that delicate question, gave the
following award in 1841:--
"Whilst Mr. Cooke is entitled to stand alone as the gentleman to whom
this country is indebted for having practically introduced and carried
out the electric telegraph as a useful undertaking, promising to be a
work of national importance; and Professor Wheatstone is acknowledged as
the scientific man whose profound and successful researches had already
prepared the public to receive it as a project capable of practical
application,--it is to the united labours of two gentlemen so well
qualified for mutual assistance, that we must attribute the rapid
progress which this important invention has made during the five years
since they have been associated."
Shortly after the taking out of a patent, wires were laid down between
Euston Square Terminus and Camden Town Station, on the North-Western
Railway; and the new telegraph was subjected to trial. Late in the
evening of the 25th July 1837, in a dingy little room in one of the
Euston Square offices, Professor Wheatstone sat alone, with a hand on
each handle of the signal instrument, and an anxious eye upon the dial,
with its needles as yet in motionless repose. In another little room at
the Camden Town Station, Mr. Cooke was seated in a similar position
before the instrument at the other end of the wires, along with Mr., now
Sir Charles Fox, Robert Stephenson, and some other gentlemen. It was a
trying, agitating moment for the two inventors,--how Wheatstone's pulse
must have throbbed, and his heart beat, as he jerked the handle, broke
the electric current, and sent the needles quivering on the dial; in
what suspense he must have spent the next few minutes, holding his
breath as though to hear his fellow's voice, and almost afraid to look
at the dial lest no answer should be made; with what a thrill of joy
must each have seen the needles wag knowingly and spell out their
precious message,--the "All's well; thank God," that flashed from heart
to heart, along the line of senseless wire. "Never," said Wheatstone,
"did I feel such a tumultuous sensation before, as when all alone in the
still room I heard the needles click; and as I spelled the words, I felt
all the magnitude of the invention now proved to be practicable beyond
cavil or dispute."
A few days before this trial of the telegraph in London, Steinheil, of
Munich, is said to have had one of his own invention at work there; and
it is a difficult question to decide whether he or Cooke and Wheatstone
were the first inventors. It is, however, a question of no consequence,
as each worked independently. Since the first English electric telegraph
was patented, there have been a thousand and one other contrivances of a
similar kind taken out; but it may be doubted whether, for practical
purposes, the original apparatus, with the improvements which its own
inventors have made on it, is not still the best of them all.
From being used merely to carry railway messages, the telegraph was
brought into the service of the general public; the advantages of such
almost instantaneous communication were readily appreciated; and eight
years after Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone took out their patent, lines of
telegraph to the extent of 500 miles were in operation in England upon
the original plan. In 1855 telegraphic correspondence had become so
general, that the Electric Telegraph Company was started to supply the
demand. In that establishment the Needle Telegraph of Wheatstone and
Cooke is the one generally used, with the Chemical Recording Telegraph
of Bain for special occasions. By means of the latter, blue lines of
various lengths, according to an alphabet, are drawn upon a ribbon of
paper, and as many as 20,000 words can be sent in an hour, though the
ordinary rate is 100 per minute. In the purchase of patent rights alone,
the Company have spent L170,000, and they are every year adding to the
length of their wires. In June 1850 they had 6730 miles of wires, and
despatched 29,245 messages a year. In December 1853 they had 24,340
miles of wires, and despatched 212,440 messages a-year. Their lines now
extend over a much larger mileage, and convey a greatly increased number
of messages. The Magnetic Telegraph Company have also a large extent of
wires, and do a considerable business.