620 
Analyses of Books J 
[October, 
Honour to whom Honour is Due. Edward Davy and the Elec- 
tric Telegraphy 1836 to 1839. ByJ.J. Fahie. Reprinted 
from the “ Electrician,” Vol. XL, 1883. London : James 
Gray. 
Short Memoir of Edward Davy , M.R.C.S. By Henry Davy, 
M.D. Reprinted from the “ Electrician,” No. 11, Vol. XI., 
1883. 
These two pamphlets may be most conveniently noticed to- 
gether. It appears that even in this enlightened age not merely 
the emoluments, but even the honour of an invention, are not 
equally distributed. We have been familiar with the telegraph 
for nearly forty years, and we have heard no little discussion as 
to the comparative merit of its originators and improvers ; but 
till quite lately none of us heard of one who may fairly rank as 
an independent co-inventor, even if he did not actually anticipate 
Cooke and Wheatstone. In the documents before us it is ex- 
pressly stated that Davy had a clearer grasp of the requirements 
and capabilities of an eleCtric telegraph than probably Cooke and 
Wheatstone themselves ! In 1837 he predicted the use of sub- 
marine cables, hinted at the telephone, or a system of “ eleCtro- 
loquism ” as he called it, and prophesied that the “ Government 
would adopt the telegraph as a part of their postal system. In 
1836 he had a clear knowledge of the faCt that the effect of the 
current on the needles could be increased by multiplying the 
convolutions of the coil. Into a knowledge of this faCt we read 
that “ Cooke and Wheatstone and Morse blundered painfully.” 
In Davy’s MSS. which have recently come may be traced the 
principle of the axial magnet used in Royal Houses’ telegraph, 
the germ of the Morse system and of the Brown and Allan 
relay. 
We may now ask who was this Edward Davy ? Though a 
West-country man, he does not appear to have been connected 
With Sir Humphry Davy. His father, Thomas Davy, of Ottery 
St. Mary, was a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, and had an exten- 
sive medical practice. Edward Davy was educated as a surgeon, 
but a so-called medical practice which his father bought for him 
in the Strand turned out to be merely the business of a pharma- 
cist. He published a small book entitled “ Experimental Guide 
to Chemistry, improved several articles of apparatus, and issued 
a trade-catalogue of chemical appliances and chemicals. About 
1835 he began to experiment on the eleCtric telegraph, and with 
astonishing success ; but, like many men of genius, he had no 
business capacity. He exhibited his machine in Exeter Hall 
before it was patented, and his exhibition, as is here stated, was 
visited by Cooke, Wheatstone, &c. What made his invention a 
failure, as far as he himself was concerned, was his emigration 
