It is not, however, too much to say, that amidst this formidable list of patentees in our own country, without referring to claimants in Europe and America, there are but a very few names—perhaps only one name—that posterity will care to remember in connection with the practical working of the electric telegraph. Although the principal facts necessary to the construction of an electric telegraph had been known, as we have seen, ever since 1521, yet it was not until the gene ral establishment of railways that telegraphic wires could be safely carried to any great distance. Moreover, the importance of the inven tion was by no means understood. The government was satisfied with the working of the semaphore ; railway directors looked upon the elec tric telegraph as a newfangled invention, and the public was not yet alive to its innumerable advantages. One fact, however, must be insisted on, namely, that to this country belongs the honour of this great invention ; that in the year 1837 a needle telegraph had been invented, so complete, and at the same time so simple in its operation, that it could be worked by any one who knew how to read ; that in June of that year the patent for this telegraph had been sealed, and, a month later, the wires were laid down between the Euston Square and Camden Town Stations of the North-Western Railway, a distance of a mile and a quarter, and that on the 25th of July messages were actu ally sent between these two stations, Professor Wheatstone being in the Euston Square Station, and Mr. Cooke in that at Camden Town, the witnesses being the engineers. Messrs. Fox and Stephenson. Now, it is quite true that M. Amgo claimed, before the French Academy of Sciences, for M. Steinheil the precedence in this matter, inasmuch as lie had his telegraph in operation on the 19th of July, 1837 ; but it must be remembered that Wheatstone's patent was taken out in the June of that year, and was based on numerous previous successful experiments ; whereas Steinheil published no description of his instru ment until August, 1833, and it is admitted that in the interval he had altered and amended his instrument, and soon afterwards aban doned it for a modification of one by Morse. The claim of the last named gentleman we have already disposed of. In September, 1837, he exhibited an imperfect instrument, although he afterwards suc ceeded in producing one of first-rate excellence, which is still largely used in the United States of North America.
But to return to Cooke and Wheatstone's telegraph : it received notice to quit the London and Birmingham line, but Mr. Brunel gave the patentees permission in 1339 to lay it down on the Great Western Railway. This was first done as far as West Drayton (13 miles), and it was afterwards extended to Slough (18 miles), the wires in both these preliminary trials being inclosed in iron tubes laid on the ground. On proposing to extend this line to Bristol, much opposition was offered by the directors, and the telegraph again had notice to quit. But on the proposal of Mr. Cooke to retain the line of wires at his own expense, he was permitted to do so, on condition of transmitting the railway signals free of charge, and of extending the line to Slough. In return for this favour, he was allowed to transmit messages for the public, which was accordingly done, one shilling being charged for a message; but the public did not avail themselves much of the new instrument, and its value was scarcely appreciated until the 3rd of January, 1845, when it was used to convey a message to the London police, directing them to arrest Tawell on a charge of murder, the message flashing past the criminal while he was travelling express to escape the consequences of his crime. By the end of 1545 upwards of 500 miles of telegraph were in operation in this country. In 1846 the Electric Telegraph Company commenced their operations with a con siderable capital, a large portion of which was expended in the purchase of Wheatstone and Cooke's patents, and the system which they had introduced became rapidly extended. In due time other telegraph companies were competing with the original company, the system spread over Europe, and soon no railway was deemed complete without its telegraphic wires. In the United States of America the telegraphic system is far more complete and extensive than in the Old World ; but the telegraph wires are for the most part independent of the rail ways, and hence, it is said, arises the larger number of railway acci dents in that country. But the telegraphic system could not be regarded as complete while nations separated from each other by seas and oceans remained unconnected by the electric wire. So long back as 1840, Mr. Wheatstone stated to a parliamentary committee his conviction of the practicability of uniting Dover to Calais by means of a telegraphic wire, and two years later he had made arrangements for a line across Portsmouth Harbour, although circumstances over which he had no control prevented its being carried out. About this time
the introduction of gate perelia offered itself as an excellent insu lating material for the wire, and its first application was made in 1847, by Lieut. Siemens, of the Prussian artillery, for a line across the Rhine at Cologne. The first submarine wire was laid down in August, 1350, by the "Submarine Telegraph Company," between Dover and Cape Grisnez, near Calais. It was a copper wire inclosed in gutta percha. About 27 miles of it were conveyed on board the Goliath steam-tug, and wouad round a large iron drum to facilitate the paying out. The end of the wire attached to the land was conveyed to the South-Eastern Railway Terminus, and the vessel started from Dover, paying out the wire, and attaching pieces of lead to it at intervals to assist it in sinking. Electric communication was kept up hourly. At length the vessel came to an anchor off Cape Grisnez, and the end of the wire was sent ashore in a boat. Several messages were passed between the two shores during the day ; but on attempting to resume the correspond ence next morning, no answer could be obtained. It was ascertained that the wire had snapped asunder ; but the experiment proved the possibility of connecting England with the Continent by means of a submarine electric cable. In the following year a stronger cable was laid successfully, and has continued to work down to the present time, notwithstanding occasional injuries from the anchors of ships and boats. In 1551 and 1553 lines were laid between England and Ireland and England and Belgium. In 1853 a line was laid from Orfordness to Schevening in Holland ; in fact four separate cables were laid, each containing one conducting wire, so that the injury to one line might not interfere with the working of the others. In the same year a line was laid across the Solent, from Hurst Castle to Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight. The first line of considerable length, however, was that laid in 1855 between Balaklava and Varna, during the Crimean war. This line was 310 miles in length, and consisted of a copper wire hovered with gutta percha, except at the shore ends, which were protected by iron wire. This line was laid by Messrs. Newall, and it remained in good order for some months, until the end of the war, when it was broken. This tem porary success of the Black Sea Telegraph led to the formation of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. The attempt made by this company to lay a line to America in 1557 failed from the breaking of the cable after about 335 miles had been payed out. Another attempt in 1858 was apparently successful, and messages were exchanged during three weeks between Valencia, in Ireland, and Newfoundland ; but the signals became variable and feeble, and at length ceased altogether. And thus was lost 3000 miles of cable, and 375,000/. sterling, for the value of the cable can scarcely exceed the expense of lifting it, and therefore its recovery will not probably be attempted. It is now proposed to alter the route for this line, and to carry a cable by way of Greenland to America. In 1854 the Mediterranean Telegraph Company laid down wires between Spezzia and Corsica, and between Bonifacio and Sardinia, and from thence in 1855 to Algeria. This last cable .seems to have failed. In 1857 the British government agreed to assist the company in the con struction of a line from Cagliari to Malta, and thence to Corfu. This line has been unfortunate. Another line from Portland to the Channel Islands has met with several accidents, and the experience with it, as well as with the Red Sea and India telegraph cable, show the wisdom of the Report made by the Board of Trade, that our knowledge in 1859 was not such as to justify the submerging of another deep sea cable, without further experiments being made ; and they recommended the appointment of a committee to investigate the subject. A committee was accordingly appointed, and from the connection with it of such men as Professor Wheatstone, Mr. E. L. Clarke, and Mr. Varley, we should hope for a great increase of our knowledge on the subject. While we are writing, a case is under investigation which shows the necessity for this inquiry. A cable manufactured for the government for the purpose of connecting Falmouth with Gibraltar, had its desti nation changed in the spring of 1860 to a projected line from Rangoon to Singapore. In order to preserve the cable, it was placed in water tanks, but when transferred on board the ship which was to convey it to India, it was coiled dry, and the moisture imbibed by the hemp, being gradually squeezed out, caused the iron covering to rust; and as this process of rusting generates heat enough to soften the gutta percha, the safety of the cable became endangered, so that it had to be again taken out of the ship and deposited in tanks.