think that she did very well to bring Edgeworth in as she has done. And
Edgeworth, though I had not thought of him before, is very fit to be one
of our inventors, not so much for his individual accomplishments, which
were little more than curious,--telegraph and all,--as for being a good
representative of his age. Those of you who know a little of the century
between 1750 and 1850 know that it was an age to which many of the
secrets of physical science were being opened for the first time.
Everybody was going back to Nature to see what he could learn from her.
This movement swept all over France and England. Every gentleman
dabbled in the sciences, and made his experiments and inventions.
Voltaire in France had a great laboratory made for him in which he
passed some years in chemical experiments. It was the age, too, of great
inventions,--of the application of physical forces to the life of man.
The invention of the steam-engine by Watt, and the applications of it to
the locomotive and the steamboat, came along toward the end of this
period, and marked the work of the greatest men. But every one could not
invent a steam-engine. So, by the hundreds of country gentlemen who
studied science, chemistry, and astronomy, and the rest, there were
constructed hundreds of orreries, globes, carriages, model-telegraphs,
and such things; and it is of these men that Edgeworth is the best, or
at least the most available, representative, on account of his very
interesting memoirs.
"Such books as 'Harry and Lucy' and 'Frank' are the mirror of this
movement. But to this is joined something more, which John Morley speaks
of in saying, 'An age touched by the spirit of hope turns naturally to
the education of the young.' Then people knew that their own times were
about as worthless as times could well be; but as they learned more,
they began to hope that things were improving, and that the children
might see better times than those in which the fathers lived. And as
physical science was to them an all-important factor in this approaching
millennium, they took pains to teach these things to the young. Any of
you who have read 'Frank' or 'Sandford and Merton' will see what I mean.
It was the hope that the children might be able to take the work where
the fathers left it, and carry it on. And the children did. But I do not
believe that any one of these eighteenth-century theorists had the first
or vaguest idea of the point to which his children and grandchildren
would carry his work.
"So much for Mr. Edgeworth from my point of view," concluded the
Colonel. "You will hear what he thought of himself from Bedford."
EDGEWORTH'S TELEGRAPH.
[DESCRIBED BY HIMSELF.]
Bets of a rash or ingenious sort were in fashion in those days, and one
proposal of what was difficult and uncommon led to another. A famous
match was at that time pending at Newmarket between two horses that were
in every respect as nearly equal as possible. Lord March, one evening at
Ranelagh, expressed his regret to Sir Francis Delaval that he was not
able to attend Newmarket at the next meeting. "I am obliged," said he,
"to stay in London. I shall, however, be at the Turf Coffee House. I
shall station fleet horses on the road to bring me the earliest
intelligence of the event of the race, and shall manage my bets
accordingly."
I asked at what time in the evening he expected to know who was winner.
He said about nine in the evening. I asserted that I should be able to
name the winning horse at four o'clock in the afternoon. Lord March
heard my assertion with so much incredulity as to urge me to defend
myself; and at length I offered to lay five hundred pounds, that I would
in London name the winning horse at Newmarket at five o'clock in the
evening of the day when the great match in question was to be run. Sir
Francis, having looked at me for encouragement, offered to lay five
hundred pounds on my side; Lord Eglintoun did the same; Shaftoe and
somebody else took up their bets; and the next day we were to meet at
the Turf Coffee House, to put our bets in writing. After we went home, I
explained to Sir Francis Delaval the means that I proposed to use. I had
early been acquainted with Wilkins's "Secret and Swift Messenger;" I had
also read in Hooke's Works of a scheme of this sort, and I had
determined to employ a telegraph nearly resembling that which I have
since published. The machinery I knew could be prepared in a few days.
Sir Francis immediately perceived the feasibility of my scheme, and
indeed its certainty of success. It was summer-time; and by employing a
sufficient number of persons, we could place our machines so near as to
be almost out of the power of the weather. When we all met at the Turf
Coffee House, I offered to double my bet; so did Sir Francis. The
gentlemen on the opposite side were willing to accept my offer; but
before I would conclude my wager, I thought it fair to state to Lord
March that I did not depend upon the fleetness or strength of horses to
carry the desired intelligence, but upon other means, which I had, of
being informed in London which horse had actually won at Newmarket,
between the time when the race should be concluded and five o 'clock in
the evening. My opponents thanked me for my candor and declined the bet.
My friends blamed me extremely for giving up such an advantageous
speculation. None of them, except Sir Francis, knew the means which I
had intended to employ; and he kept them a profound secret, with a view
to use them afterwards for his own purposes. With that energy which
characterized everything in which he engaged, he immediately erected,
under my directions, an apparatus between his house and part of
Piccadilly,--an apparatus which was never suspected to be telegraphic.
I also set up a night telegraph between a house which Sir F. Delaval
occupied at Hampstead, and one to which I had access in Great Russell
Street, Bloomsbury. This nocturnal telegraph answered well, but was too
expensive for common use.
Upon my return home to Hare Hatch, I tried many experiments on different
modes of telegraphic communication. My object was to combine secrecy
with expedition. For this purpose I intended to employ windmills, which
might be erected for common economical uses, and which might at the same
time afford easy means of communication from place to place upon
extraordinary occasions. There is a windmill at Nettlebed, which can be
distinctly seen with a good glass from Assy Hill, between Maidenhead and
Henly, the highest ground in England south of the Trent. With the
assistance of Mr. Perrot, of Hare Hatch, I ascertained the
practicability of my scheme between these places, which are nearly
sixteen miles asunder.
I have had occasion to show my claim to the revival of this invention in
modern times, and in particular to prove that I had practised
telegraphic communication in the year 1767, long before it was ever
attempted in France. To establish these truths, I obtained from Mr.
Perrot, a Berkshire gentleman, who resided in the neighborhood of Hare
Hatch, and who was witness to my experiments, his testimony to the facts
which I have just related. I have his letter; and before its contents
were published in the Memoirs of the Irish Academy for the year 1796, I
showed it to Lord Charlemont, President of the Royal Irish Academy.
MR. EDGEWORTH'S TELEGRAPH IN IRELAND.
[DESCRIBED BY HIS DAUGHTER.]
In August, 1794, my father made a trial of his telegraph between
Pakenham Hall and Edgeworth Town, a distance of twelve miles. He found
it to succeed beyond his expectations; and in November following he made
another trial of it at Collon, at Mr. Foster's, in the county of Louth.
The telegraphs were on two hills, at fifteen miles' distance from each
other. A communication of intelligence was made, and an answer received,
in the space of five minutes. Mr. Foster--my father's friend, and the
friend of everything useful to Ireland--was well convinced of the
advantage and security this country would derive from a system of quick
and certain communication; and, being satisfied of the sufficiency of
this telegraph, advised that a memorial on the subject should be drawn
up for Government. Accordingly, under his auspices, a memorial was
presented, in 1795, to Lord Camden, then Lord Lieutenant. His Excellency
glanced his eye over the paper, and said that he did not think such an
establishment necessary, but desired to reserve the matter for further
consideration. My father waited in Dublin for some time. The suspense
and doubt in which courtiers are obliged to live is very different from
that state of philosophical doubt which the wise recommend, and to which
they are willing to submit. My father's patience was soon exhausted. The
county in which he resided was then in a disturbed state; and he was
eager to return to his family, who required his protection. Besides, to
state things exactly as they were, his was not the sort of temper
suited to attendance upon the great.
The disturbances in the County of Longford were quieted for a time by
the military; but again, in the autumn of the ensuing year (September,
1796), rumors of an invasion prevailed, and spread with redoubled force
through Ireland, disturbing commerce, and alarming all ranks of
well-disposed subjects. My father wrote to Lord Carhampton, then
Commander-in-Chief, and to Mr. Pelham (now Lord Chichester), who was
then Secretary in Ireland, offering his services. The Secretary
requested Mr. Edgeworth would furnish him with a memorial. Aware of the
natural antipathy that public men feel at the sight of long memorials,
this was made short enough to give it a chance of being read.
(Presented, Oct. 6, 1796.)
Mr. Edgeworth will undertake to convey intelligence from Dublin to Cork,
and back to Dublin, by means of fourteen or fifteen different stations,
at the rate of one hundred pounds per annum for each station, as long as
Government shall think proper; and from Dublin to any other place, at
the same rate, in proportion to the distance: provided that when
Government chooses to discontinue the business, they shall pay one
year's contract over and above the current expense, as some compensation
for the prime cost of the apparatus, and the trouble of the first
establishment.
In a letter of a single page, accompanying this memorial, it was stated,
that to establish a telegraphic corps of men sufficient to convey
intelligence to every part of the kingdom where it should be necessary,
stations tenable against a mob and against musketry might be effected
for the sum of _six or seven thousand pounds_. It was further observed,
that of course there must be a considerable difference between a partial
and a general plan of telegraphic communication; that Mr. Edgeworth was
perfectly willing to pursue either, or to adopt without reserve any
better plan that Government should approve. Thanks were returned, and
approbation expressed.
Nothing now appeared in suspense except the _mode_ of the establishment,
whether it should be civil or military. Meantime Mr. Pelham spoke of the
Duke of York's wish to have a reconnoitring telegraph, and observed that
Mr. Edgeworth's would be exactly what his Royal Highness wanted. Mr.
Edgeworth in a few days constructed a portable telegraph, and offered it
to Mr. Pelham. He accepted it, and at his request my brother Lovell
carried it to England, and presented it to the Duke from Mr. Pelham.
During the interval of my brother's absence in England, my father had no
doubt that arrangements were making for a telegraphic establishment
in Ireland. But the next time he went to the castle, he saw
signs of a change in the Secretary's countenance, who seemed much
hurried,--promised he would write,--wrote, and conveyed, in diplomatic
form, a final refusal. Mr. Pelham indeed endeavored to make it as civil
as he could, concluding his letter with these words:--
The utility of a telegraph may hereafter be considered greater; but I
trust that at all events those talents which have been directed to this
pursuit will be turned to some other object, and that the public will
have the benefit of that extraordinary activity and zeal which I have
witnessed on this occasion in some other institution which I am sure
that the ingenuity of the author will not require much time to suggest.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, &c,
T. PELHAM.
DUBLIN CASTLE, Nov. 17, 1796.
Of his offer to establish a communication from the coast of Cork to
Dublin, at _his own expense_, no notice was taken. "He had, as was known
to Government, expended £500 of his own money; as much more would have
erected a temporary establishment for a year to Cork. Thus the utility
of this invention might have been tried, and the most prudent government
upon earth could not have accused itself of extravagance in being
partner with a private gentleman in an experiment which had, with
inferior apparatus, and at four times the expense, been tried in France
and England, and approved." The most favorable supposition by which we
can account for the conduct of the Irish Government in this business is
that a superior influence in England forbade them to proceed. "It must,"
said my father, "be mortifying to a viceroy who comes over to Ireland
with enlarged views and benevolent intentions, to discover, when he
attempts to act for himself, that he is peremptorily checked; that a
circle is chalked round him, beyond which he cannot move."
No personal feelings of pique or disgust prevented my father from
renewing his efforts to be of service to his country. Two months after
the rejection of his telegraph, on Friday the 30th of December, 1796,
the French were on the Irish coasts. Of this he received intelligence
late at night. Immediately he sent a servant express to the Secretary,
with a letter offering to erect telegraphs, which he had in Dublin, on
any line that Government should direct, and proposing to bring his own
men with him; or to join the army with his portable telegraphs, to
reconnoitre. His servant was sent back with a note from the Secretary,
containing compliments and the promise of a speedy answer; no further
answer ever reached him. Upon this emergency he could, with the
assistance of his friends, have established an immediate communication
between Dublin and the coast, which should not have cost the country one
shilling. My father showed no mortification at the neglect with which he
was treated, but acknowledged that he felt much "concern in losing an
opportunity of saving an enormous expense to the public, and of
alleviating the anxiety and distress of thousands." A telegraph was most
earnestly wished for at this time by the best-informed people in
Ireland, as well as by those whose perceptions had suddenly quickened at
the view of immediate danger. Great distress, bankruptcies, and ruin to
many families, were the consequences of this attempted invasion. The
troops were harassed with contrary orders and forced marches, for want
of intelligence, and from that indecision which must always be the
consequence of insufficient information. Many days were spent in terror
and in fruitless wishes for the English fleet. One fact may mark the
hurry and confusion of the time; the cannon and the ball sent to Bantry
Bay were of different calibre. At last Ireland was providentially saved
by the change of wind, which prevented the enemy from effecting a
landing on her coast.
That the public will feel little interest in the danger of an invasion
of Ireland which might have happened in the last century; that it can be
of little consequence to the public to hear how or why, twenty years
ago, this or that man's telegraph was not established,--I am aware; and
I am sensible that few will care how cheaply it might have been
obtained, or will be greatly interested in hearing of generous offers
which were not accepted, and patriotic exertions which were not
permitted to be of any national utility. I know that as a biographer I
am expected to put private feelings out of the question; and this duty,
as far as human nature will permit, I hope I have performed.
The facts are stated from my own knowledge, and from a more detailed
account in his own "Letter to Lord Charlemont on the Telegraph,"--a
political pamphlet, uncommon at least for its temperate and good-humored
tone.
Though all his exertions to establish a telegraph in Ireland were at
this time unsuccessful, yet he persevered in the belief that in future
modes of telegraphic communication would be generally adopted; and
instead of his hopes being depressed, they were raised and expanded by
new consideration of the subject in a scientific light. In the sixth
volume of the "Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy," he published an
"Essay on the Art of Conveying Swift and Secret Intelligence," in which
he gives a comprehensive view of the uses to which the system may be
applied, and a description, with plates, of his own machinery. Accounts
of his apparatus and specimens of his vocabulary have been copied into
various popular publications, therefore it is sufficient here to refer
to them. The peculiar advantages of his machinery consist, in the first
place, in being as free from friction as possible, consequently in its
being easily moved, and not easily destroyed by use; in the next place,
on its being simple, consequently easy to make and to repair. The
superior advantage of his vocabulary arises from its being
undecipherable. This depends on his employing the numerical figures
instead of the alphabet. With a power of almost infinite change, and
consequently with defiance of detection, he applies the combination of
numerical figures to the words of a common dictionary, or to any length
of phrase in any given vocabulary. He was the first who made this
application of figures to telegraphic communication.
Much has been urged by various modern claimants for the honor of the
invention of the telegraph. In England the claims of Dr. Hooke and of
the Marquis of Worcester to the original idea are incontestable. But the
invention long lay dormant, till wakened into active service by the
French. Long before the French telegraph appeared, my father had tried
his first telegraphic experiments. As he mentions in his own narrative,
he tried the use of windmill sails in 1767 in Berkshire; and also a
nocturnal telegraph with lamps and illuminated letters, between London
and Hampstead. He refers for the confirmation of the facts to a letter
of Mr. Perrot's, a Berkshire gentleman who was with him at the time. The
original of this letter is now in my possession. It was shown in 1795 to
the President of the Royal Irish Academy. The following is a copy of
it:--
DEAR SIR,--I perfectly recollect having several conversations with you
in 1767 on the subject of a speedy and secret conveyance of
intelligence. I recollect your going up the hills to see how far and how
distinctly the arms (and the position of them) of Nettlebed Windmill
sails were to be discovered with ease.
As to the experiments from Highgate to London by means of lamps, I was
not present at the time, but I remember your mentioning the circumstance
to me in the same year. All these particulars were brought very strongly
to my memory when the French, some years ago, conveyed intelligence by
signals; and I then thought and declared that the merit of the invention
undoubtedly belonged to you. I am very glad that I have it in my power
to send you this confirmation, because I imagine there is no other
person now living who can bear witness to your observations in
Berkshire.
I remain, dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend,
JAMES L. PERROT.
BATH, Dec. 9, 1795.
Claims of priority of invention are always listened to with doubt, or,
at best, with impatience. To those who bring the invention to
perfection, who actually adapt it to use, mankind are justly most
grateful, and to these, rather than to the original inventors, grant the
honors of a triumph. Sensible of this, the matter is urged no farther,
but left to the justice of posterity.
I am happy to state, however, one plain fact, which stands independent
of all controversy, that my father's was the _first_, and I believe the
only, telegraph which ever spoke across the Channel from Ireland to
Scotland. He was, as he says in his essay on this subject, "ambitious of
being the first person who should connect the islands more closely by
facilitating their mutual intercourse;" and on the 24th of August, 1794,
my brothers had the satisfaction of sending by my father's telegraph
four messages across the Channel, and of receiving immediate answers,
before a vast concourse of spectators.
_Edgeworth to Dr. Darwin._
EDGEWORTHTOWN, Dec. 11, 1794.
I have been employed for two months in experiments upon a telegraph of
my own invention. I tried it partially twenty-six years ago. It differs
from the French in distinctness and expedition, as the intelligence is
not conveyed alphabetically....
I intended to detail my telegraphs (in the plural), but I find that I
have not room at present. If you think it worth while, you shall have
the whole scheme before you, which I know you will improve for me.
Suffice it, that by day, at eighteen or twenty miles' distance, I show,
by four pointers, isosceles triangles, twenty feet high, on four
imaginary circles, eight imaginary points, which correspond with the
figures
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
So that seven thousand different combinations are formed, of four
figures each, which refer to a dictionary of words that are referred
to,--of lists of the navy, army, militia, lords, commons, geographical
and technical terms, &c, besides an alphabet. So that everything one
wishes may be transmitted with expedition.
By night, white lights are used.
_Dr. Darwin to Mr. Edgeworth._
DERBY, March 15, 1795.
DEAR SIR,--I beg your pardon for not immediately answering your last
favor, which was owing to the great influence the evil demon has at
present in all affairs on this earth. That is, I lost your letter, and
have in vain looked over some scores of papers, and cannot find it.
Secondly, having lost your letter, I daily hoped to find it
again--without success.
The telegraph you described I dare say would answer the purpose. It
would be like a giant wielding his long arms and talking with his
fingers; and those long arms might be covered with lamps in the night.
You would place four or six such gigantic figures in a line, so that
they should spell a whole word at once; and other such figures in sight
of each other, all round the coast of Ireland; and thus fortify
yourselves, instead of Friar Bacon's wall of brass round England, with
the brazen head, which spoke, "Time is! Time was! Time is past!"
MR. EDGEWORTH'S MACHINE.
Having slightly mentioned the contrivances made use of by the ancients
for conveying intelligence swiftly, and having pointed out some of the
various important uses to which this art may be applied, I shall
endeavor to give a clear view of my attempts on this subject.
Models of the French telegraph have been so often exhibited, and the
machine itself is so well known, that it is not necessary to describe it
minutely in this place. It is sufficient to say that it consists of a
tall pole, with three movable arms, which may be seen at a considerable
distance through telescopes; these arms may be set in as many different
positions as are requisite to express all the different letters of the
alphabet. By a successive combination of letters shown in this manner,
words and sentences are formed and intelligence communicated. No doubt
can be made of the utility of this machine, as it has been applied to
the most important purposes. It is obviously liable to mistakes, from
the number of changes requisite for each word, and from the velocity
with which it must be moved to convey intelligence with any tolerable
expedition.
The name, however, which is well chosen, has become so familiar, that I
shall, with a slight alteration, adopt it for the apparatus which I am
going to describe. _Telegraph_ is a proper name for a machine which
describes at a distance. _Telelograph_, or contractedly _Tellograph_, is
a proper name for a machine that describes _words_ at a distance.