Part 3

They took out their first patent for the electric telegraph laid on the Blackwall Railway in 1837.

Wheatstone received the Royal Medal in 1840, the Copley Medal in 1843, was one of the Jurors at the Paris Exhibition (1855), when he received the decoration of the Legion of Honor, and was knighted in 1868.

He was corresponding member of the principal academies of science in Europe.

It was by his skill in turning knowledge to practical account that Wheatstone gave the electric telegraph the character which it now possesses. Though his inventions in other branches of science are as numerous as they are various, yet it is in connection with the electric telegraph that the name of Wheatstone will live.

He was the inventor of the telegraph, indeed. No one else can lay claim to that title.

Stephen Gray, in 1827, suspended a wire, seven hundred feet long, on silk threads, and on applying an excited glass tube to one end, electrification was observed at the other, but he did not send messages. Advances were made from that time by many men of science, who saw more or less clearly the great possibilities before them.

Omitting the pioneer claims of Sommering, Lomond and others of the last century, the names connected with the early development of the practical telegraph are Froment in France, Gauss, Weber and Steinheil, in Germany, Sir Francis Ronalds and Edward Davy, in England, Morse and Vail, in America. But to Wheatstone and his co-adjutor Sir William Fothergill Cooke is due the merit of having been the first to render it available for the public transmission of messages.

In 1834, shortly after being appointed Professor of Experimental Physics at King’s College, London, Wheatstone began experimenting on rate of transmission electricity along wires. For this purpose about half a mile of copper wire was insulated by suspension in the vaults under the college, and three interruptions of this circuit was made by three parts of brass knobs with a small interval between them, one of these interruptions was in the middle point of the conductor and the other two near the ends.

A leyden jar was discharged through the wire and the interval of time between the occurrence of the sparks at the ends and occurrence of the spark at the middle was measured by noting the displacement of the image of the middle spark in a mirror revolving at a known speed. It was calculated from results of this experiment that the velocity of an electric disturbance along a wire was about two hundred and fifty thousand miles per second, a result differing from the true speed of one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second; not very widely, considering the difficulties of observation in an experiment of this kind. From this research he passed on to the transmission of messages by electricity, and in conjunction with Cooke he elaborated the five needle telegraph, the first that came into general use.

Wheatstone’s fertility of scientific resource led the partners on to many new developments.

The letter showing dial telegraph in 1841 and the magneto-electro dial telegraph, a subsequent extension of the same to type embossing, and lastly the automatic transmitting and receiving instruments by which messages are sent with such great rapidity.

He was the first to appreciate the importance of reducing to a minimum the amount of work to be done by the current at the receiving station by diminishing as far as practicable the mass and therefore the inertia of the moving parts.

This was beautifully exemplified in that marvel of ingenuity, the magneto-electro letter showing telegraph, which was particularly applicable for private telegraph uses.

From 1837 Wheatstone appears to have devoted a good deal of time to submarine telegraphy, and in 1844 experiments were made in Swansea bay with the assistance of Mr. J. D. Llewellyn.

Wheatstone also had a share in the perfecting of the magneto-electric machines which have culminated in the modern dynamo.

In 1837 he devised a method of combining several armatures on one shaft so as to generate currents which were continuous instead of intermittent, and in 1867 he described to the Royal Society a method of making such machines self-exciting as to their magnetism by the use of a shunt circuit.

The use of a main circuit for the purpose had been described by Werner Siemens one month earlier, but the machine described by Wheatstone had been constructed for him by Mr. Stroh in the preceding summer.

Wheatstone was also the inventor of electro-magnetic clocks for indicating time at any number of different places united on a circuit.

It was he who called attention to Christy’s combination of wires, now commonly known as Wheatstone’s bridge--in which an electric balancing of the currents is obtained and worked out in its applications to electrical measurements.

He was one of the first in Great Britain to appreciate the importance of ohms simple law of the relation between electro-motive force resistance of conductors and resulting current--the law which is to-day the foundation of all electrical engineering.

Wheatstone contributed to numerous scientific journals and publications.

All his published papers were collected in 1879 by the Physical Society of London.

_The Telegraph in America_

Mr. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph system which bears his name, first conceived the idea on board the packet ship “Sully” on which he was a passenger. He sailed from Havre for New York on the first day of October, 1832. He was accompanied by a number of others, the whole company being unusually intelligent and agreeable. There was a long voyage before them, and each amiably undertook to relieve the tedium of the journey by the many pleasant devices indulged in by companionable travellers.

At an early period of the voyage, the conversation around the evening table turned upon the subject of electricity and magnetism which was then a popular topic of discussion and general interest.

One of the passengers (a Doctor Jackson) introduced the subject by reference to lectures to which he had recently attended while in Paris, in which interesting illustrations of the more recent discoveries in electro-magnetism had been given.

He also referred to the experiments of Ampère with the electro magnet; the subject excited very general interest into which Morse entered with great spirit. Hitherto he had felt no other concern in electrical matters than that of a lively and attentive curiosity.

Dr. Jackson had in his trunk an electro-magnet, which he described, and during the conversation alluded to the length of the wire in the coils. This led one of the company to enquire “if the velocity of the current was retarded by the length of the wire?”

Dr. Jackson replied that electricity passed instantaneously over any known length of wire. This aroused the interest of Morse who was struck with the idea that electricity might be made the medium of conveying intelligence.

The conversation went on but he left them. As he paced the deck the idea rapidly took form in his mind that, either by electro-chemical or electro-magnetic effects of a current, marks might be made at distances so great and in such variety as to render possible the easy communication of and record of an intelligible language.

This was, so far as he knew at the time, a new thought. Gradually the conception took shape and system until at last it had assumed such a form that next morning, at the breakfast table, he communicated the plan by which he believed a recording telegraph could be serviceable.

Later on as the voyage was nearing its end, Mr. Morse, addressing the Captain, said “Well, Captain, should you hear of the telegraph one of these days as the wonder of the world, remember the discovery was made on board the good ship “Sully.”

He would now have devoted himself entirely to the elaboration of this new thought, but he had to betake himself to his work as an artist. He was poor and for three or four years following his return he had to travel much of the time to meet engagements in connection with his profession. Meanwhile, he devoted every spare moment to the perfecting of his apparatus.

In a letter to a friend Mr. Morse wrote: “Up to the autumn of 1837, my telegraphic apparatus existed in so crude a form that I felt reluctant to have it seen. My means were very limited--so limited as to preclude the possibility of constructing an apparatus of such mechanical finish as to warrant my success in venturing upon its public exhibition. I had no wish to expose to ridicule the representative of so many hours of laborious thought. Prior to the summer of 1837, at which time Mr. Alfred Vail’s attention became attracted to my telegraph, I depended upon my pencil for my subsistence. Indeed, so straightened were my circumstances, that in order to save time to carry out my invention, and to economize my scanty means, I had for months lodged and eaten in my studio, procuring my food in small quantities from some grocery, and preparing it myself to conceal from my friends the stinted manner in which I lived. I was in the habit of bringing my food to my room in the evenings, and this was my mode of life for many years.”

Under these distressing circumstances, Mr. Morse labored in perfecting his apparatus in which he finally succeeded. His caveat was filed in the patent office in Washington on October 6, 1837, but a patent was not obtained until 1840.

On the 8th of February, 1838, in response to an invitation from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, Prof. Morse exhibited the new telegraph before the Committee of Science and Arts of that institution, who reported their gratification and expressed their desire that government would give the means of testing it on an extensive scale.

Mr. Morse, shortly after this, exhibited his apparatus before the President and his cabinet, and which gave great satisfaction, in reference to which he wrote his friend and partner Mr. Alfred Vail, as follows: “Everything looks encouraging, but I need not say to you that in this world a continued course of prosperity is not a rational expectation. We shall doubtless find troubles and difficulties in store for us, and it is part of true wisdom to be prepared for whatever may await us. If our hearts are right, we shall not be taken by surprise. I see nothing now but an unclouded prospect, for which let us pay to Him who shows it to us, the homage of grateful and obedient hearts, with most earnest prayers for grace to use prosperity aright.”

Morse now determined to ask Congress for aid to make a thorough test of his apparatus on an actual line to show its capacity and practicability; in this he was encouraged by his friends. On December 6, 1842, he wrote an exhaustive letter to the Hon. C. G. Ferris, an influential member of the House Committee on Commerce, in which he gave a minute history of the invention, stated fully the basis of his claims as the inventor, and asked that through his committee an appeal might be made to Congress for the means to erect an experimental line to prove its value. In response to this the Hon. John P. Kennedy, February 23, 1843, offered a resolution “That the Bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, in a series of experiments to test the expediency of the telegraph projected by Professor Morse should be passed.”

Mr. Morse sat in the gallery during the discussion which followed, a quiet but intensively anxious observer. For a time the project was made the subject of ridicule.

Irritated perhaps because the committee passed him in the control of the experiment, the Postmaster proposed to give half the sum appropriated by the bill to mesmeric experiments.

Another proposed that millerism have a share. The bill seemed doomed to failure by their ridicule. The debate became sharp and vigorous when, at length, the vote was taken with the result that the Bill passed by a majority of eight.

The bill, however, had yet to pass the Senate, and its temper respecting it was unknown. It had much unfinished business. Day after day passed, but the bill had not been reached. Finally the last hours of the session arrived.

Morse watched them as they passed with an anxious solicitude. It was getting late, ten o’clock had already struck, two hours only remained before the final adjournment. Just then the Hon. Fernando Wood, one of the Senators, came to Mr. Morse and advised him to go home. “The Senate is not in sympathy with your project. I advise you to give it up. Return home and think no more of it.” Morse, feeling it useless to remain longer, with a heavy heart went to his hotel, paid his bill, procured a ticket for New York and retired to his room for the night. He there knelt down, opened his heart to God and committed his affairs to Him. He had done all that he could and could do more.

He counted his money and found after paying his bill and ticket he had thirty-seven and a half cents left.

In the morning, refreshed by rest yet grave and thoughtful, he came down to breakfast. While seated at the table a visitor was announced. The early visitant proved to be a young lady friend, Miss Ellsworth, the daughter of the Commissioner of Patents, who taking him warmly by the hand, exclaimed with a voice of unconcealed joy, “Professor, I have come on purpose to congratulate you.” “Congratulate me! For what, my dear friend, can you offer me congratulations?” “Why,” she said gaily (as she enjoyed the Professor’s wondering surprise, and who was at the time not in the fittest mood for pleasantry), “on the passage of your bill. The Senate, last night, voted you your money, $30,000.”

She then informed him that her father remained in the Senate until the close of the session, and that in the very closing moments the telegraph bill was passed without division or debate. On reaching home, Ellsworth had communicated the news to his family, all of whom were much attached to the Professor, and his daughter begged the favor of being allowed to go to the hotel to communicate the good news.

It was the desire of a good warm-hearted woman. So she had hastened on her pleasant errand, and now, having told her story, she asked, “Am I really the first to communicate this to you?”

The tidings were so unexpected that for some moments he could make no reply. At length he said, “Yes, Annie, you are the first to inform me. I was until now utterly unconscious of the fact, and now I am going to make you a promise. When the line is completed, the first despatch sent upon it from Washington to Baltimore shall be yours.” “Well,” she replied, “I will hold you to your promise.”

All details having been arranged between the Government and Mr. Morse, the construction of the line was proceeded with. He was allowed a salary of $2,500 per annum during the test. Mr. Alfred Vail took charge of the machinery while Mr. Ezra Cornell was made Superintendent of construction.

It was most unfortunate for Mr. Morse that his mind from the very first seemed prepossessed in favor of underground lines which had been adopted in England. They gave to him the general impression of safety and permanence, and he selected the plan without experiment.

He had ordered to be made in New York forty miles of a five wire cable enclosed in lead, and Mr. Cornell invented a plow to make the trench for its reception.

This cable was laid from Baltimore to the Relay House, seven miles away, but on testing it the escape was found so great that the necessity of abandoning it became evident. More than half the appropriation had been expended. After much anxious thought, it was decided to place the wires on poles, and the line was finished in this way with two copper wires of size number 14, covered with cotton saturated with gum shellac.

The first insulation of the government line shows how crude and rudimentary was the conception held at that period. It was simply two plates of glass, between which the wire, after wrapping well with cloth saturated with gum shellac, was placed and over which a wooden cover to protect from rain and press the glass upon the wire and keep it in place was nailed.

These were afterwards removed and the Bureau Knob pattern substituted.

In about one year after the appropriation had been made, the line was completed.

The first telegraph office in Washington was in a small room on the east front of the Capitol, and afterwards in a room over the city post-office. The relays were of number 16 cotton covered copper wire saturated in gum shellac, each weighing about 510 pounds, and so coarsely constructed that Mr. Vail kept the ones in use in a back room where the operator had to run when it needed adjustment.

The battery consisted of 100 cells of Grove, which was renewed three times a week. The circuits were left open when the line was not in use, and the instruments were so connected that each operator started and stopped the instrument at the distant station by the dropping of a break upon the fly wheel when the manipulations of the keys were suspended.

The magnets were soon after greatly improved, reduced in size, and increased in power.

True to the promise he had made to his friend, Miss Ellsworth, Prof. Morse now sent for her and to which she at once responded.

She was invited to indicate a message for transmission. It was promptly done in language now historic and in consonance with the inventor’s own often expressed thoughts respecting the origin of his invention, indeed, he may have suggested the words “What hath God wrought.” This message was passed over the wires, and the strip of paper on which it was imprinted was given to Governor Seymour of Connecticut, as a souvenir in honor of the young woman who was a native of his State, and of the inventor who received therein his collegiate training.

An incident now brought the usefulness of the telegraph into public recognition.

The National Convention to nominate a President was in session at Baltimore. James K. Polk had been nominated President, and Silas Wright, then in the Senate, and in Washington at the time, as Vice-President. This was communicated over the wires. In a few minutes the convention was astonished to receive a message from Mr. Wright respectfully declining the nomination. The presiding officer read the despatch, but the convention could not or would not believe its authenticity, and adjourned to await the report of a committee sent to Washington to confer with that gentleman. The committee confirmed the telegraphic message. This fact soon became known when the fame of the telegraph at once took wing.

It is related that about this time that a prominent functionary asked an assistant “how large a bundle could be sent over the wires, and if the United States mails could not be sent in the same way!”

Some wag did straddle a pair of dirty boots over the wires and very seriously told an astonished citizen that they got dirty by coming so rapidly from Baltimore!

On the opening of the government line, Mr. O. E. Wood, at that time connected with the engineering department of the State of New York, was induced by his brother-in-law, Ezra Cornell, to give up his profession and join Mr. Morse at Washington. He then became Mr. Morse’s first pupil.

In November, 1844, he received over the wires from Baltimore the result of the Presidential elections in Northern and Eastern States, and with Mr. Vail spent the winter of 1844-45 in exhibiting the working of the telegraph to members of Congress, diplomatic representatives and to visitors attracted thither from all parts of the globe. He also transmitted to the Baltimore press a report of the proceedings of Congress for publication.

On April 1, 1845, the line, which had been worked as a curiosity, was thrown open for public business.

The operators appointed were Mr. Vail at Washington and Mr. Henry J. Rogers at Baltimore.

During the first four days the receipts amounted to one cent. This was obtained from an office seeker who said he had nothing less than a twenty dollar bill and one cent, and with the modesty of his class, wanted to witness the operations of the telegraph free, this was refused because against orders. He was told he could have a cent’s worth of telegraphy, to which he agreed, and he was gratified in the following manner:

Washington asked Baltimore “4” which meant in the list of signals “what time is it?” Baltimore replied “1,” which meant “one o’clock.” This was one character each way which would amount to half a cent. The man paid his one cent, magnanimously declined the change, and went his way satisfied.

This was the total revenue of four days.

On the 5th, twelve and a half cents; the sixth was the Sabbath; on the seventh the receipts ran up to sixty cents; on the eighth, to a dollar and thirty-two cents, and on the ninth, to a dollar and four cents. Not a very dazzling prospect certainly, yet watchful eyes saw its future value.

It is recorded that about this time a certain good dame, whose ideas of discipline were somewhat stern and fundamental, after surveying a pole recently planted near her door, placing her hands on her haunches, and looking critically at the pole, exclaimed, “Now I s’pose no one can spank their brats without bein’ known to the hull cree-a-tion!”

The telegraph was fairly under weigh. Prof. Morse offered to sell his rights to the Government for one hundred thousand dollars, but the Postmaster General was not satisfied. The operations of the telegraph between Washington and Baltimore had not shown him that, under any rate of postage that could be devised, its revenue could be made equal to its expenditure. The offer was therefore declined. This refusal was fortunate both for the inventor and the country.

The next move was to enlist private capital, and this was soon accomplished.

The first telegraph company in the United States, the “Magnetic Telegraph Company,” was formed, but this was not attained without difficulty.

Early in 1845 Mr. Kendall, formerly Postmaster General in President Jackson’s administration, was induced, after much deliberation and consultation, to take a leading part in organizing the Company.

It was thought expedient to make the first attempt to construct a line between New York and Philadelphia, and to limit the capital to the probable cost of that section, the traffic between these large cities being extensive, and likely to prove remunerative.

To aid in securing capital. Mr. Ezra Cornell and Mr. O. S. Wood went to New York to exhibit the telegraphic apparatus upon a short experimental line strung on the tops of buildings.

Offices were opened, one at 112 Broadway, and the other in a building near where the Metropolitan Hotel now stands. Permission to allow the connecting wires to be erected on the tops of houses was obtained with much trouble, and only after paying Prof. Silliman, Jr., a fee of fifty dollars for an expert opinion respecting its safety before the property owners would consent to the wires being erected.

The price of admission to witness the operation of the telegraph was twenty-five cents. This seemed a novel way to secure capital in a great city like New York.

With this embargo, notwithstanding the wonderful character of the invention, there was not visitors enough to pay expenses; everything indicated poverty. The exhibitors were so poor that one of them was glad to use a couple of common chairs for his nightly rest.

It was certainly a strange experience for the future princely founder of Cornell University, making his breakfast out of the proceeds of a shilling picked up, as it were, from the sidewalks of Broadway, and which, he said, were the best meals he had ever enjoyed.