8 4 
THE TELEGRAPH. 
of instruments which the latter possessed at Bonn. Cooke 
gives all the credit of the invention to Gauss, whom he calls 
Gauss. 
The following was written by Cooke on this subject in 
1841:—“Having returned from India on sick leave, I was 
studying anatomy and making models of my dissections at 
Heidelberg, when, in March, 1836, I happened to witness one 
of those experimental applications of electricity to telegraphy 
which are so common, and which have been repeated for half 
a century without any practical result. Perceiving that the 
means employed in these experiments was capable of an 
application more useful than the illustration of scientific 
lectures, I immediately abandoned my anatomical studies, and 
devoted my whole attention to the construction of a practical 
telegraph.” 
One would hardly suppose after reading this, that Cooke 
had witnessed experiments performed with a copy of the 
electro-magnetic telegraph constructed by Schilling in Russia, 
and brought by him to Bonn six months before the period 
referred to by Cooke. The working of that apparatus is 
moreover mentioned by Cooke as “ one of those common 
experiments that have been so often repeated for the last half- 
century,” that is, anterior even to the discoveries of the 
galvanic battery, and of electro-magnetism ! 
When, in consequence of the unpleasant dissensions between 
Wheatstone and Cooke, Sir Isambard Brunei and Professor 
Daniel were, in 1840, appointed arbitrators between those 
gentlemen, they did not enquire into the origin of Cooke’s 
telegraph, but in 1841 they delivered their award to the effect 
that “ in March 1836 Mr. Cooke had for the first time wit¬ 
nessed at Heidelberg, where he was engaged in scientific 
pursuits, one of those well-known electrical experiments (so far 
as regards the means of telegraphic communication) which lor 
several years have been tried repeatedly from time to time by 
various physicists.” 
Cooke also writes : “In the month of March, 1836, I was 
engaged in the study of anatomy at Heidelberg, when an 
accidental circumstance gave quite a new direction to my 
thoughts. Having seen an experiment in electric telegraphy 
performed by Professor Moncke of Heidelberg, who had, I 
