1818.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 



It is extraordinary that we should ha\e liad to wait so long for 

 the introduction of a system of electric telej^raphs, seeing that a 

 century ago it was known that the electric fluid could be sent 

 through a coil of wire two miles long, as was done in the experi- 

 ments at Hanipstead, while a coil had also been carried across the 

 Thames. Papin, too, in the beginning of the last century, had 

 sought a means of communicating power and motion to a distance. 

 Had, however, such a means of c(mimunication as that by the elec- 

 tric telegraph been adopted, it would have languished in the then 

 state of the roads, and the then state of society, for it would not 

 have answered commercially, and its failure might have been most 

 prejudicial. It has been reserved for our day to apply this inven- 

 tion, and to give one to the many characteristics which make it 

 an era of progress. Beside the locomotive, the steamship, and the 

 daguerreotype, the electric telegi-aph may take its place ; and the 

 day is perhaps not very distant, when our furthest islands will by 

 the telegraph be brought under our immediate rule. 



Having been among the first in the field, and having by the 

 Slough line proved the practicability of the system, we have allowed 

 the Americans to get in advance ot us, for they had in 18i6 sixteen 

 hundred miles in practical commercial working, w bile we can hardly 

 be said, even at present, to have any great extent of telegraph in 

 use, although we have a great length laid down. Next year will 

 redeem us from this charge, for we shall have two thousand five 

 huiulred miles, but it will not exculpate the government for having 

 60 long neglected this admirable invention. It is some comfort 

 that we are ahead of France and all the European kingdoms. In 

 the want of machinery for exteiuling electric telegraphs we have to 

 regret the neglect of the government in withholding the introduc- 

 tion of railways in India, where the telegrajdi would be invaluable 

 in governing territories so vast, and where the number of English 

 functionaries is unhappily limited. 



We have now arrived at an era in the telegraph, for at the date 

 of this jniblication, the metropolis has been brought into imme- 

 diate communication with Liverpool, Manchester, and many of 

 the great centres of trade and manufactures. The Electric 

 Telegraph Company ha\e brought their ojierations to that stage 

 that they can convey intelligence to sixty great towns, and this 

 seems an appropriate time for laying some account of their pro- 

 ceedings before the public, the more so as the full efl'ect of this ad- 

 mirable invention does not seem to be so well appreciated as it 

 might be in comparison with its vast capabilities, and the influence 

 which it will exercise upon every class of the community, both 

 morally and physically. 



The operations may be considered as having begun with Mr. 

 Cooke and Professor Wheatstone, who, after labouring singly for 

 some time, in 1837 took out their first patent. It is understood 

 that Professor Wheatstone applied himself more to the purer philo- 

 sophical experiments, and that Mr. Cooke has taken charge of the 

 practical detail, and at last brought the invention to its present 

 bearing. We say nothing of other parties who have laboured on 

 this subject, for our business is now with the Electric Telegraph 

 Company. Soon after Messrs. Cooke and AVheatstone took out 

 their patent, they laid down a line nineteen miles long on the Great 

 Western railway, between London and Slough, the working of 

 which was most successful, although of course it did not satisfy 

 those who thought the system might fail if extended to Liverpool or 

 York. It took many years to urge the system forward, and it was 

 not till 18+6 that a company was incorporated, called the Electric 

 Telegraph Company, for carrying it out on a large scale. Con- 

 tracts had however been made, and works carried on, so that before 

 the act of incorporation the company was already in activity, and 

 had by the end of 184-6 laid down 1000 miles of telegraph. At the 

 same date Professor Morse, in America, had laid down 1600 miles. 

 The system has been chiefly carried out in connection with rail- 

 ways, because the value of the telegraph to the railway companies 

 has induced the latter to adopt it, and to make advantageous ar- 

 rangements for laying it down. The years 1846 and 1847 have 

 therefore been chiefly employed in laying down the wires, and their 

 working on a large scale has been retarded until now by the non- 

 completrion of the wire between London and Rugby, on the North 

 W^estern railway. On the 13tb November this link was completed, 

 and the London prices were at once conveyed to Manches- 

 ter. The new metropolitan station has likewise been partially 

 opened, and by the new year the whole plan will be in full opera- 

 tion. During the present year the metropolitan station has been 

 in the Strand, and the working has been chiefly for government 

 purposes along the South Western line to Gosport, although 



latterly much general business has been transacted. The organi- 

 zation of a new system has called for the exercise of much labour 

 and ingenuity in tlie engineering and the signals departments, the 

 principal officers of which are Mr. Hatcher, recently of King's Col- 

 lege, and Mr. A\'hishaw, author of tlie " Railways of Great Britain,' 

 and the inventor of the hydraulic telegraph. In the standard work 

 on the " Railways of Great Britain," Mr. ^Vhishaw proposed uni- 

 formity of railway time, and a mode of communication between 

 guard and driver, which with many other practical suggestions are 

 now carried out. At a given time every morning a signal will 

 he made from the central station, and the needle will be brought 

 to the vertical indicating Greenwich mean time, by which all the 

 telegraph clocks will be set. As this arrangement, most im- 

 portant to travellers, w ill now be carried out over the country, we 

 may observe that local clocks and watches can be made with a 

 double minute-hand, so as to show local time and mean time. Al- 

 though much controversy has been raised about mean time, and 

 many eminent men have opposed it, it has received the sanction 

 of the astronomer-royal, h ho has proposed the adoption of it for the 

 great clock at the palace of Westminster, which is to be set by 

 electric telegraph from GreenM ich. The system of codes adopted 

 by the Electric Telegraph Company, has been, we believe, entirely 

 constructed and arranged by the same gentleman. On account of 

 the extent of the operations of the comjiany a great many mechanics 

 have been employed in making the various apparatus and in laying 

 do« n the wires, and many works of great nicety in their execution 

 have been carried out. 



The ccmipany is not restricted to Messrs. Cooke and Wheat- 

 stone's patents, but has power to avail itself of all inventions in 

 which electric power is used. They have therefore purchased many 

 patents and inventions, among the chief of which maybe mentioned 

 Bain's electrical clock, an invention, the full value of which is far 

 from being known. At the offices in the Strand is a model-room, 

 w hich contains a large collection of telegraphs of various construc- 

 tion, and of clocks. This model-room does great ci-edit to the com- 

 pany, and is a museum of great value to the practical man. It 

 will be recollected that at Sir John Rennie's conversaziones in the 

 spring, among the many novelties which the learned president 

 bi'ought before his guests, was a collection of telegraph apparatus. 

 This was contributed by the Electric Telegraph Company, and 

 formed not the least interesting contribution to the temporary mu- 

 seum in W^hiteball Place. 



In the model-room in the Strand, the collection in v\hich will, 

 we presume, be removed to the city, there is ex-ery thing neces- 

 sary to illustrate the subject, though of course it does not contain 

 every telegraphic invention. Several apparatus shoiv the improve- 

 ments which have been gradually made in the needle instrument, 

 so as to make it capable of working. Two ingenious telegraphs 

 communicate by sound. One of these, the invention of Professor 

 Wheatstone, strikes two bells of dissimilar sound, the combination 

 of the two producing the letters, as in the double needle telegraph. 

 Another, the discovery of a workman, gives a humming noise from 

 a wire. The efl'ect is singular, and was a chance discovery. At 

 present it is of no moment, but the preservation of a model by the 

 company serves to encourage the spirit of discovery, while what is 

 now merely trivial may become the germ of a valuable ajiplication. 

 It is deserving of note that already the officers and ivorkmen em- 

 ployed on telegraphs li;i,ve been the means of making many useful 

 suggestions, and we ma)' anticipate the best results from an energetic 

 body of employees, if the company are liberal. Notwithstanding 

 all that has been said about railway impro\ements, it is well known 

 to practical men that \ery great improvements have been efl^ected 

 by railway officers, and that a large amount of talent is constantly 

 and energetically directed to the perfection of the system. The 

 names of George and Robert Stephenson, Brunei, Braithwaite, 

 Booth, Gooch, Gray, Edmonson, are only a few as a s])ecimen of 

 those who have contributed to the practical improvement of rail- 

 ways. In a few years the Electric Telegraph officers will, we 

 hope, have given equal proofs of zeal and ingenuity. 



The printing telegraphs in the model-room are illustrated by 

 several apparatus of various forms, some for printing by letters, 

 and others by signs. The company make use at their stations of 

 the needle telegraph, but as the working of this is doubtful, and 

 other telegraphs move quicker, it is quite open to them to change 

 their instruments, as they have the wires laid down, and the wires 

 are used under whatever system. AVhile adverting to printing 

 telegraphs, which print their message in black, we may observe 

 that it is perfectly competent to make a telegraph which shall use 

 diflerent colours, and indeed a mode of shading was long ago sug- 

 gested by Mr. Hyde Clarke. 



The business of the company in electric clocks will no doubt be 



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