Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:21:30.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

British and American Contributions to Electrical Communications*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

E. A. Marland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Some of the early superstitious beliefs concerning communication by means of magnets are mentioned.

Some of the suggested ‘static telegraphs’ are described, together with the reasons for their failure. An account is given of the rise of the use of the electric current in the telegraph by continental workers early in the nineteenth century, and the manner in which this method became known in England. The work of Cooke and Wheatstone is briefly outlined, and the assistance given to the English workers by Joseph Henry.

The development of the American telegraph in the hands of Morse is reviewed, and the similarity of the difficulties experienced by Morse and by Cooke. The origin of the relay is examined.

The commercial success of the telegraph was largely due to the several needs it fulfilled, and the uses of the telegraph are enumerated.

Submarine telegraphs and especially the Atlantic telegraph are described together with the mechanical and electrical difficulties associated with long distance telegraphy through cables. In this connection the work of William Thomson is very briefly reviewed.

The growth of the telephone out of the telegraph at the hands of Bell in America is described, and is shown to be achieved as a result of the synthesis of Bell's knowledge of physiology and of electricity. The paper concludes with a statement of the commercial success of Bell's telephone.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , June 1962 , pp. 31 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Fahie, J. J., A History of Electric Telegraphy to 1837, London, 1884.Google Scholar

2 Browne, Thomas, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, London, 1646, pp. 76–77.Google Scholar

3 Glanville, Joseph, Scepsis Scientifica, London, 1665, p. 150.Google Scholar

4 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1731, xxxvii, 81.Google Scholar

5 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., abridged by Hutton, Shaw and Pearson, viii (1735–1743), 356.Google Scholar

6 Volta, A., Journ. Soc. Telegraph Eng., London, 1872, i, 243Google Scholar. This is a letter written by Sir Francis Ronalds, which is the only original reference I have been able to find which is connected with Volta's letter.

7 Scots Mag., 1753, xv, 73.Google Scholar

8 Ronalds, F., Description of an Electric Telegraph, London, 1823.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 5.

10 This letter and other relevant correspondence are in the Ronalds' Collection, a library of books on electrical subjects, catalogued by Ronalds and preserved in the library of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

11 Jowitt, A. S. Llewellynn, Life of Josiah Wedgwood, London, 1865, pp. 178–181.Google Scholar

12 Saavedra, , Tratado de Telegraphia, 2nd ed., Barcelona, 1880, vol. i, p. 119.Google Scholar

13 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1800, xc, 403.Google Scholar

14 Oersted, H. C., Thomson's Ann. Philos., 1820, xvi, 273–276.Google Scholar

15 Hamel, T., ‘Historical Account of the Introduction of the Galvanic and Electromagnetic Telegraph into England’. Journ. Soc. Arts, 1859, vii, 595–599 and 605–610Google Scholar. Originally published in Münch. Denkschr. d. Königl. Akad. d. Wissensch., 1809–1810 (Math. Phil. Kl.), 401.Google Scholar

16 Cooke, W. F., The Electric Telegraph, was it invented by Prof. Wheatstone?, London, 1856, Part ii, p. 20.Google Scholar

17 Webb, F. H. (ed.), Extracts from the Private Letters of the Late Sir William Fothergill Cooke, London, 1895, pp. 18–20.Google Scholar

18 Roget, P. M., Treatise on Electromagnetism, London, 1832.Google Scholar

19 Patent No. 7390.

20 Morse v. O'Reilly, Boston, September 1849. An account is given in the 12th Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 03 1857, Washington, 1858, p. 111.Google Scholar

21 Clark, Latimer, Journ. Soc. Telegraph Eng., London, 1879, viii, 382.Google Scholar

22 Webb, F. H., op. cit. (17), p. 40.Google Scholar

23 Tegg, W., Posts and Telegraphs, London, 1878, pp. 182–6.Google Scholar

24 Sellars, H. G., A Short History of the Telegraph, 1934 (Post Office Green Paper No. 5).Google Scholar

25 Patent No. 9022 of 1841.

26 Mechanics' Mag., London, 1837, xxvii, 318.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., 1838, xxviii, 295–6.

28 Prime, S. I., Life of Samuel Morse, New York, 1875, pp. 251–2.Google Scholar

29 Amer. Journ. Sci., 1838, xxxiii, 185–7.Google Scholar

30 Memorial of S. F. B. Morse, published by Act of Congress, Washington, 1875, pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

31 Circuit Court of U.S. for E. District of Pa., April Session, 1850, ‘Complainant's Evidence’, Ninth Answer, pp. 107–69.Google Scholar

32 Proc. Roy. Soc., 1848, v, 787.Google Scholar

33 O'Shaughnessy, W. B., ‘Memoranda Relative to Experiments on the Communication of Telegraphic Signals by Induced Electricity’. Journ. Asiatic Soc., Bengal, 1839, viii, no. 93, p. 714.Google Scholar

34 Window, F. R., Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., 1837, xvi, 188.Google Scholar

35 Prime, S. I., Life of Samuel Morse, New York, 1875, pp. 614et seq.Google Scholar

36 Bright, C. T., Submarine Telegraphs, London, 1898, p. 8.Google Scholar

37 Anon., The Atlantic Telegraph, London, 1857 (published by order of the Director of the Atlantic Telegraph Co., Ltd.), pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

38 Maury, M. F., The Physical Geography of the Sea, London, 1855, p. 210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Thomson, W., Rankine, W. J. M., and Thomson, J., Patent No. 2547, ‘Electric Telegraphs’.Google Scholar

40 Report of the Joint Committee Appointed to the Lords of Committee of the Privy Council for Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph, to enquire into the construction of Submarine Telegraph Cables, London, 1861.Google Scholar

41 Thomson, W., ‘On the Theory of the Electric Telegraph’, Phil. Mag., 1855, 4s, ii, 146.Google Scholar

42 , E. B. and Bright, C. B., Life of Sir Charles Tilston Bright, London, 1908, p. 399.Google Scholar

43 Watson, T. A., Exploring Life, New York, 1926, p. 62.Google Scholar

44 Bell, A. G., Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., 1876, xii, i.Google Scholar

45 Thomson, W., Nature, London, 1876, xiv, 427Google Scholar. (Thomson described Bell's apparatus n his Presidential Address at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association in 1876.)