2 H ALDAN E Gee — Hemy ]\l/dc 



The use of Wilde's ABC system was so encouraging that it 

 was decided to extend the sale of the apparatus by the forma- 

 tion of a limited liability company. A prospectus was issued 

 with the object of forming the Globe Telegraph Company, 

 Limited, with a capital of i,' 100,000. The chief object of the 

 company was to establish " a system of private telegraphic com- 

 munication between Public Offices, Police, Fire and Railway 

 S'tati'ons, Banks, Docks, Mines, Manufactories, Merchants' 

 Offices, etc." Only about two hundred shareholders were ob- 

 tained, and ^5 per share was called up. To carry out the 

 intentions of the company it was necessary, in accordance with 

 the Telegraph Act of 1863, to have an Act of Parhament. 

 This was obtained in 1864, but the legal expenses were so heavy 

 that the bulk of the called-up capital was required to settle them. 

 About forty firms, including Messrs. Piatt Brothers of Oldham, 

 Messrs. Strutt of Belper, Messrs. George Crossland & Son of 

 Huddersfield, Messrs. William Jessop & Sons of Sheffield, and 

 Messrs. Rylands of Manchester, used Wilde's instruments and 

 found them easy to work and of considerable utility. The Tele- 

 graph Act of 1868 enabled the Government to acquire, work 

 and maintain electric telegraphs, and the Act as amended in 

 the following year practically gave the Government a monopoly 

 in telegraphic business. Against this Wilde petitioned, and in 

 his evidence before a Select Committee, he claimed that his 

 patent rights would be greatly depreciated, if not entirely de- 

 stroyed, by the Act. He further urged that his new system of 

 laying and working subterranean wires would have no chance of 

 adoption. Much to his disappointment, the Committee decided 

 against his claims, and the Globe Telegraph Company ceased' 



its business. 



Electric Generators. 



An important consequence of Wilde's work in telegraphy was 

 his patent of 1863, which related to an improved machine for 

 producing electric currents. To understand the position of the 

 inventor, it will be necessary to review very briefly the previous 

 history of the subject. In 1831 Faraday rotated a copper 

 plate between the poles of a permanent magnet and so 

 produced induced electric currents. The effect was increased 

 by replacing the permanent magnet by an electro-magnet. 

 Faraday may therefore be regarded as the real first inventor of 

 a machine for obtaining electric currents by the rotation of 

 a copper armature in a magnetic field produced either by a 

 permanent magnet or an electro-magnet. The immediately 

 succeeding inventors, Pixii (1832), Sexton (1833), and Clarke 

 (1834) used armatures with bobbins wound with wire and 

 permanent magnets. All such macliines are called magneto- 

 electric, or simply magnetos. The first great step in their im- 

 provement did not come until 1856, when Siemens introduced 

 the shuttle-wound armature. 



