HENRY AND THE TELEGRAPH. 337 



contestants presented to the Scaid arbitrators the carefully prepared statements of their 

 respective "cases."* 



Mr. Cooke, in his "Statement of Facts to the Arbitrators," gave the following ac- 

 conut of his telegraphic failure iu Februai'j', 1837, which was precisely that encoun- 

 tered and announced by Barlow, some dozen years before : "I employed myself iu 

 trying experiments upon the electro-magnet, with a view to discover at what distance 

 an electric ciu-rent would excite the temporary magnetism required for moving the 

 detent of the mechanism. For this purpose I adjusted above a mile of wire in the 

 chambers of Mr. Lane, in Lincoln's Inn ; but the magnets and hattery heinfj ill proportioned, 

 my experiments were unsatisfactory. "t The cause of failure stated, evidently repre- 

 sents his acquired knowledge in 1840, not that in 1837. It was the singular fatality 

 of electro-magnetism confronting every early experimenter from Barlow downward, 

 that whether the number of cells in the battery were increased, or whether the length 

 of wire coiled around the magnet were extended, the effect upon the magnet iu either 

 case rapidly diminished after a certain short distance of circuit. Who then would 

 think for a moment of compounding these enfeebling aiTangements? 



In the desperate emergency which seemed to impose an impassable barrier to his sig- 

 nal device, Mr. Cooke consulted successively three among the most eminent of British 

 electriciaus: Professor Faraday, Dr. Roget, and Professor Wheatstone. The following is 

 the continuation of his own account, from the " case" already quoted : " In this scien- 

 tific difficulty I sought the assistance of Dr. Faraday, who advised me to increase the 

 number of the plates of the battery proportiouably to the length of the wires ; an. 

 expedient Avhich in some degree overcame the defect of the magnet.t I also con- 

 sulted Dr. Roget upon the same scientific point. . . . Dr. Roget informed me that 

 Professor Wheatstone had a quantity of wire at King's College, which might assist 

 me iu trying experiments upon the electro-magnet, and he advised me on that ac- 

 count to submit my difficulty to him." To the same effect, in his later pamphlet pub- 

 lished in March, 18oG, (more than fifteen years after ward,) he said: "This result was 

 to be accomplished by means of an electro-magnet ; and it was my inability to make 

 the electro-magnet act at long distances which first led me to Mr. Wheatstone." ^ 



At this point it is iiropor to turn to Professor Wheatstone's statement of the inter- 

 view, in his own " case," as presented to the arbitrators at the same time, in Decem- 

 ber, 1840 : 



" I believe but am not quite sure that it was on the first of March, 1837, that Mr. 

 Cooke introduced himself to me. He told me that he had aijplied to Dr. Faraday and 

 Dr. Roget for some information relative to a subject on which he was engaged, and 

 that they had referred him to me as having the means of answering his inquiries. . . . 

 Relying on my former exj)ericnce, I at once told Mr. Cooke that it wouklnot and could 

 not act as a telegraph, because sufficient attractive power could not be imparted to an 

 electro-magnet interposed in a long circuit ; and to convince him of the truth of this 

 assertion, I invited him to King's College to see the repetition of the exiieriments ou 

 which my conclusion was founded. He came, and after seeing a variety of voltaic 



* These documents, with the "award" rendered April 27, 1841, published immedi- 

 ately afterward, were some years later repuldishcd by Mr. Cooke (together with sub- 

 sequent controversial pamphlets between tlie parties) in two octavo volumes, under 

 the common title, "The Electric Telegraph : was it invented by Professor Wheatstone ? " 

 One volume, published in 1856, comprising the "Arbitration Papers" in full, is inju- 

 diciously designated '• Part II." Th(i other volume, published in 1857, embi-acing 

 matter of a much later date, is improjierly designated "Part I." This part coniprises 

 a reprint of "Mr. Cooke's First Pamphlet," published in December, 1854; of "Mr. 

 Wheatstone's AnsAver," published in January, 1856; and of "Mr. Cooke's Reply," 

 l)ublished in March, 185(5. • 



t The Electric Telegraph, etc. by W. F. Cooke, part ii, sec. 4G, p. 24. 



t Faraday iu his brilliant series f)f researches commencing in September, 1831, em- 

 ployed almost exclusively Henry's "quantity" magnet of numerous short coils; and 

 hence naturally paid little attention to the feebler energies of Henry's "intensity" 

 magnet. 



^ Work above quoted, part i, jip. 198, 199. 



S. Mis. 59 L'2 



