CHAPTER XVII.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
The engineering and philosophical details of this important instrument have grown to such formidable dimensions, that any attempt (short of devoting the whole of these pages to the subject) to give a full account of the history and application of the instrument, the failures and successes of novel inventions, and the continued onward progress of this mode of communication, must be regarded as simply impossible, and therefore a very brief account of the principle only will be attempted in these pages.
For the complete history of the discovery and introduction of the principle of the Electric Telegraph the reader is referred to the Society of Arts Journal (Nos. 348-9, vol. viii.), where it is stated that it is half a century, dating from August, 1859, since the first galvanic telegraph was made. "It was the Russian Baron Schilling's electro-magnetic telegraph which, without its being known to be his, was brought to London, and caused the establishment of the first practically useful telegraph lines, not only in Great Britain, but in the world." Dr. Hamel says: "The small sprout nursed on the Neva, which had been exhibited on the Rhine, and thence brought to the Thames, grew up here to a mighty tree, the fruit-laden branches of which, along with those from trees grown up since, extend more and more over the lands and seas of the Eastern hemisphere, whilst kindred trees planted in the Western hemisphere have covered that part of the world with their branches, some of which will, ere long, be interwoven with those in our hemisphere."
The first telegraph line in England was constructed by Mr. Cooke from Paddington along the Great Western Railroad to West Drayton in 1838-39; and it must be remembered that it was in February, 1837, that Mr. Cooke first consulted Professor Charles Wheatstone, having previously visited Dr. Faraday and Dr. Roget, and on the 19th November, 1837, a partnership contract was concluded between Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone.
To the distinguished philosopher, Professor Wheatstone, the merit of the ingenious construction of the vertical-needle telegraph is due; whilst Mr. Cooke's name will always be associated with the practical establishment of the first telegraph lines in England. The first line in the United States, from Washington to Baltimore, was completed in 1844, being arranged and worked by Professor Morse.
In British India, in April and May, 1839, the first long line of telegraph, twenty-one miles in length, and embracing 7000 feet of river surface, was constructed by Dr. (now Sir William) O'Shaughnessy.
The construction of the electric telegraph may be considered under three heads: