Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
236
David
Edwin
Hughes
was
born
in
London
in
1831.
His
parents
came
from
Bala,
at
the
foot
of
Snowdon,
in
North
Wales,
and
in
1838,
when
David
was
seven
years
old,
his
father,
taking
with
him
his
family,
emigrated
to
the
United
States,
and
became
a
planter
in
Virginia.
The
elder
Mr.
Hughes
and
his
children
seem
to
have
inherited
the
Welsh
musical
gift,
for
they
were
all
accomplished
musicians.
While
a
mere
child,
David
could
improvise
tunes
in
a
remarkable
manner,
and
when
he
grew
up
this
talent
attracted
the
notice
of
Herr
Hast,
an
eminent
German
pianist
in
America,
who
procured
for
him
the
professorship
of
music
in
the
College
of
Bardstown,
Kentucky.
Mr.
Hughes
entered
upon
his
academical
career
at
Bardstown
in
1850,
when
he
was
nineteen
years
of
age.
Although
very
fond
of
music
and
endowered
by
Nature
with
exceptional
powers
for
its
cultivation,
Professor
Hughes
had,
in
addition,
an
inborn
liking
and
fitness
for
physical
science
and
mechanical
invention.
This
duality
of
taste
and
genius
may
seem
at
first
sight
strange;
but
experience
shows
that
there
are
many
men
of
science
and
inventors
who
are
also
votaries
of
music
and
art.
The
source
of
this
apparent
anomaly
is
to
be
found
in
the
imagination,
which
is
the
fountain-head
of
all
kinds
of
creation.
Professor
Hughes
now
taught
music
by
day
for
his
livelihood,
and
studied
science
at
night
for
his
recreation,
thus
reversing
the
usual
order
of
things.
The
college
authorities,
knowing
his
proficiency
in
the
subject,
also
offered
him
the
Chair
of
Natural
Philosophy,
which
became
vacant;
and
he
united
the
two
seemingly
incongruous
professorships
of
music
and
physics
in
himself.
He
had
long
cherished
the
idea
of
inventing
a
new
telegraph,
and
especially
one
which
should
print
the
message
in
Roman
characters
as
it
is
received.
So
it
happened
that
one
evening
while
he
was
under
the
excitement
of
a
musical
improvisation,
a
solution
of
the
problem
flashed
into
his
ken.
His
music
and
his
science
had
met
at
this
nodal
point.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
