There are some who dispute Professor Wheatstone’s claim, by urging that, inasmuch as all the main features of the telegraph existed before he took out his patent, there was nothing left to invent. It is true that much had been done, but it is equally certain that there was much to do. When Wheatstone first directed his attention to electricity as a means of communicating thoughts to a distance, the telegraph was a useless and inoperative machine. He and his partner established as a working, paying fact, what had hitherto been little better than a philosophic toy. To those who now disparage the Professor’s labours we think it sufficient to reply by the admirable saying of the French savant, M. Biot, “Nothing is so easy as the discovery of yesterday; nothing so difficult as the discovery of to-day.”
Let us return, however, to the history of the telegraph in England, from which we have digressed. After the successful working of the mile-and-a-quarter line, the Directors of the London and Birmingham Railway proposed to lay it down to the latter town if the Birmingham and Liverpool Directors would continue it on their line; but they objected, and the telegraph received notice to quit the ground it already occupied. Of course, its sudden disappearance would have branded it as a failure in most men’s minds, and, in all probability, the telegraph would have been put back many years, had not Mr. Brunel, to his honour, in 1839, determined to adopt it on the Great Western line. It was accordingly carried at first as far as West Drayton, thirteen miles, and afterwards to Slough, a distance of eighteen miles. The wires were not at this early date suspended upon posts, but insulated and encased in an iron tube, which was placed beneath the ground.
The telegraph hitherto had been strictly confined to railway business, and in furtherance of this object Brunel proposed to continue it to Bristol as soon as the line was opened. Here, again, the folly and blindness of railway proprietors threw obstacles in the way, which led, however, to an unlooked-for application of its powers to public purposes. At a general meeting of the proprietors of the Great Western Railway in Bristol, a Mr. Hayward, of Manchester, got up and denounced the invention as a “new-fangled scheme,” and managed to pass a resolution repudiating the agreement entered into with the patentees. Thus within a few years we find the telegraph rejected by two of the most powerful railway companies, the persons above all others who ought to have welcomed it with acclamation.
To keep the wires on the ground, Mr. Cooke proposed to maintain it at his own expense, and was permitted by the directors to do so on condition of sending their railway signals free of charge, and of extending the line to Slough. In return, he was allowed to transmit the messages of the public. Here commences the first popular use of the telegraph in England, or in any other country. The tariff was one shilling per message. The effect of this low charge was to develop a class of business which seems beneath the notice of the powerful company now in possession of most of the telegraphic lines in the kingdom. The transactions of the retail dealers are considered too petty, perhaps, for their attention; but there can be no doubt that the comfort of the public would be vastly increased, and also the revenues of the company, if they would only condescend to take a lesson by the commercial experience of this shilling tariff, the working of which we will illustrate by transcribing from the telegraph book at Paddington a few specimens of the messages sent:—
“Commercial News. 1844, Nov. 1, Slough, 4.10 P.M.—‘Send a messenger to Mr. Harris, poulterer, Duke-street, Manchester-square, and order him to send twelve more chickens to Mr. Finch, High-street, Windsor, by the 5.0 P.M. down train, without fail.’ Answer: Paddington, 5.5 P.M.—‘The chickens are sent by the 5.0 P.M. train.’
“Slough, 7.35 P.M.—‘A Mr. Thomas B., a first-class passenger, 6.30 P.M. train, left a blue cloak with a velvet collar in first-class booking-office. Send it by mail train if found.’
“Paddington 7.45 P.M.—‘There are two such cloaks in the booking-office: has Mr. B.’s any mark on any part of it?’ Slough, 7.47 P.M.—‘Mr. B.’s has the mark × under the collar, inside.’
“Paddington, 7.55 P.M.—‘Cloak found, and will be sent on as requested.’
“Slough, Nov. 11, 1844, 4.3 P.M.—‘Send a messenger to Mr. Harris, Duke-street, Manchester-square, and request him to send 6 lbs. of white bait and 4 lbs. of sausages, by the 5.40 train, to Mr. Finch, of Windsor they must be sent by 5.30 down train, or not at all.’
“Paddington, 5.27 P.M.—‘Messenger returned with articles which will be sent by 5.30 train, as requested.’”