296 HENRY AND THE TELEGRAPH. 



deflect magnetic needles, and thereby to give signals. It was in a word a 

 hint at the application of electricity to telegraphic purposes ; but nothing 

 more, for it provided no means of applying that power to practical uses. 

 [!]... Within three weeks after the day on which I saw the ex- 

 periment, I had made (partly at Heidelberg and partly at Frankfort) 

 my first electric telegraph of the galvanometer form." * This apparatus 

 comprised three indicating needles in connection with three circuits of 

 six wires ; each terminus of the line being provided with both trans- 

 mitting keys, and indicating galvanometers. Mr. Cooke also applied 

 a call-alarm, differing from Schilling's in having an ordinary clock- 

 alarm, (similar to that used by Weber several years previously,) 

 checked by an armature detent which was released on the excitement 

 of an electro-magnet by the current. Not being skilled in electrical 

 science however, nor aware of Henry's researches, he soon found 

 the difficulty of operating with a " quantity" battery his galvanometer 

 coils through a long circuit ; and in February, 1837, he was introduced 

 to Professor Wheatstone by Dr. P. M. Eoget. t On comparing their 

 respective projects of a needle telegraph, the two concluded to combine 

 their exertions in a i)artnership ; and in a little more than three mouths 

 they secured a joint patent on their perfected system.| An experimental 

 line between Euston Square and Camden Town Stations (a distance of 

 a mile and a quarter), was worked with partial success July 25, 1837 ; 

 and early in 1838, the patentees established a telegraph line between 

 Paddington and West Dayton ; the distance between these two points 

 being about thirteen miles. Neither of these "co-inventors" appears 

 at this time to have been aware of the early needle telegrai>h of Baron 

 Schilling, whose arrangement had been so closely imitated by Mr. 

 Cooke, and whose later simplification and improvement he had failed 

 to reach. 



As illustrative of the mistaken and inaccurate manner in which im- 

 portant accounts are often transmitted by even intelligent and honest 

 men, — without due investigation and information, a quotation may here 

 be made from the "Award" of arbitration between the subsequent conflict- 

 ing claims of Cooke and of Wheatstone, rendered 27th April, 1841, by the 

 referees. Marc Isambord Brunei, the eminent engineer, and John Fred- 

 erick Daniell, the eminent chemist, meteorologist, and electrician. They 

 state: "In March, 183G, Mr. Cooke, while engaged in scientific pursuits 

 [!], witnessed for the first time one of those well-known experiments on 

 electricity [!] considered as a possible means of communicating intelli- 

 gence [!], which have been tried and exhibited from time to time [!] 

 during many years by various i^hilosophers ! "§ And thus, in strange 



* T/ie Electric Telegraph, etc. l>y William Fotliergill Cooke, 2 parts, 8vo. London, 

 1856, 1857; part ii, "'Arbitration Papers," sects. 14, 18, pp. 14, 15. 



• t For an account of the circumstances attending and following this conference, seo 

 "Supplement," Note F. 



t Messrs. Cooke & Wheatstone's English patent is dated Juno 13, 1837, No. 7390 ; and 

 their American ][)atent, June 10, 1840, No. 1622. 



^ Ihe Electric Telegraph, etc. by William Fothergill Cooke, 2 parts, 8vo., London, 

 1856, 1857 ; part i, p. 14 : and part ii, p. 211 ; also j). 2(55. 



