Lives of the electricians

by William T. Jeans

It was calculated that about 15,000 of these instruments were in use in Great Britain in 1885.

Meanwhile another improvement of a permanent nature had taken place. The use of the earth instead of a special wire as the return circuit was first adopted in England on the Blackwall Railway telegraph in 1841, and on the Manchester and Leeds line in 1843. The history of this improvement is curious. In 1838 Professor Steinheil used the earth to complete the circuit of an electric telegraph which he established at Munich, and he has generally been regarded as the first electrician who purposely did so. But William Watson discovered the same thing in 1747. He erected a wire fully two miles long over Shooter’s Hill, supporting it upon rods of wood. When electricity was communicated to the wire at one end, the shock at the other end appeared to be instantaneous, and the electricity was then communicated to the earth by means of a rod of iron. It is also on record that in 1756 Kennersley, of Boston, suggested to the celebrated Franklin that “as water is a conductor as well as metals, it is to be considered whether a river or a lake, or sea may not be made part of the circuit through which the electric fire passes instead of a circuit all of wire.”

This expedient, though now considered essential to the successful working of a telegraph, was not practically adopted till nearly a century afterwards, when it was found that as soon as the electricity had done its work the best thing to do with it was to convey it into the earth, for just as the flow of rivers is accelerated by their waters falling into the sea, so electric conduction is greatly improved by establishing a good connection between the end of a telegraph wire and the earth. Thus it was found in 1841 that by leading the electricity to the earth, after it had done its work at the telegraphic apparatus, the wire which had been previously used to bring it back, or to complete the circuit, could be dispensed with, that by the earth thus absorbing the electricity its transmission along the wire was greatly facilitated, and that it could be transmitted to a greater distance and through a smaller wire.

CHAPTER III.

“In conducting the petty affairs of life, common sense is certainly a more useful quality than genius itself. Genius, indeed, or that fine enthusiasm which carries the mind into its highest sphere, is clogged and impeded in its ascent by the ordinary occupations of the world, and seldom regains its natural liberty and pristine vigour except in solitude. Minds anxious to reach the regions of philosophy and science have indeed no other means of rescuing themselves from the burden and thraldom of worldly affairs.”—Zimmerman.

The invention of electrical apparatus had reached a stage of progress in 1841 sufficiently advanced to make the telegraph a practical success. What was next wanted was the general adoption of the telegraph by the public, and this was the task which exercised the business energy of Mr. Cooke. It was fortunate that the dispute between Professor Wheatstone and Mr. Cooke as to the origin of the telegraph did not interfere with their efforts to promote its extension. Like most new inventions, it had to fight its way at first. In 1841 Mr. Cooke wrote a small book on Telegraphic Railways; or the Single Way, in which he contended that the whole system of double way, time tables, and signals of railways was a vain attempt to attain indirectly and very imperfectly, at any cost, that safety from collision which would be perfectly and cheaply conferred by the electric telegraph. It was well known, he said, that on the Blackwall Railway “the carriages on each line are moved by what is called ‘a tail rope,’ to which they are attached and which is almost incessantly being drawn along the line to be wound up on a drum at one terminus or the other, by the alternate action of the stationary engines. It is consequently necessary that before the engineman applies the power of his engine to the rope for the purpose of giving motion to a train, he should receive a specific intimation from every other station that its carriage is attached to the rope ready to start; otherwise an independent and uncontrolled motive power acting from the terminus would frequently cause dreadful collisions among carriages placed at stations so nearly adjacent as those of Shadwell, Stepney, Limehouse, the West India Docks, and Poplar.” But such a matter of fact illustration was not enough for Mr. Cooke to give; so after dilating on the good the telegraph was likely to do as the handmaid of the railway, he concluded by saying that “as the basis of an essentially new system of railway communication, at once safe, economical, and efficient, the electric telegraph may diffuse its blessings of rapid intercourse to districts which could never otherwise enjoy them. It may increase the revenues of the greatest lines by adding to them fresh sources of lateral traffic; it may permanently raise the price of shares by opening important lines now destitute of the means of completion; and reduce indefinitely the expense of travelling on lines yet to be made. Above all it may accomplish the otherwise scarcely attainable union by railway between England and Scotland, and perhaps realise the patriotic aspirations of those who see in an extended system of railways employing her population and developing her resources, a restoration of tranquillity to Ireland.” No wonder that Professor Wheatstone appreciated Mr. Cooke’s “zeal and perseverance,” not to speak of his imagination. But all these were insufficient. Throughout the year 1842 a prominent advertisement in the Railway Times invited the attention of railway companies, engineers, and other parties requiring a certain and instantaneous mode of communicating intelligence between distant points, to Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone’s electric telegraph, an invention which, “besides its superiority for general telegraphic purposes, in point of expedition, secrecy, night action, and preliminary warning, is peculiarly adapted to the use of railways,” and “is also well adapted for mines, coal pits, docks, &c.”

At the same time the general public were being invited to witness its performances as the latest and greatest sensation in London. One announcement issued in 1842 stated that “under the special patronage of Her Majesty and H. R. H. Prince Albert, the public are respectfully informed that this interesting and extraordinary apparatus, by which upwards of fifty signals can be transmitted 280,000 miles in one minute, may be seen in operation daily (Sundays excepted) from 9 A.M. till 8 P.M. at the telegraph office, Paddington, and telegraph cottage, Slough. Admission 1s.”

Those who were among the first to respond to this tempting invitation must have marvelled at the littleness of the apparatus capable of doing such wonderful work. It was inclosed in a mahogany case a little larger than a hat-box, which stood upon a table; it was worked by pressing small brass keys, similar to those on a keyed bugle, and spectators were informed that these keys acting, by means of electric power, upon various hands placed upon a dial plate at the other end of the line made them point not only to each letter of the alphabet as each key was struck or pressed, but when desired to numerals and to points of punctuation, such as a comma, colon, &c. When any mistake was made in transmitting a message, and a certain key was struck in consequence, it made the hand point to an X, which indicated that an “erasure” was intended.

Ere long its utility was shown to be greater than its novelty. As it continued in good working order, events occurred which demonstrated its value. For instance, it transmitted the following messages which effected results that excited public interest at the time:—

Eton Montem, August 28th, 1844.—The Commissioners of Police have issued orders that several officers of the detective force shall be stationed at Paddington to watch the movements of suspicious persons going by the down-train, and give notice by the electric telegraph to the Slough station of the number of such suspected persons and dress, their names if known, also the carriages in which they are.