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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
262
III.
SIR
WILLIAM
FOTHERGILL
COOKE.
WILLIAM
Fothergill
Cooke
was
born
near
Ealing
on
May
4,
1806,
and
was
a
son
of
Dr.
William
Cooke,
a
doctor
of
medicine,
and
professor
of
anatomy
at
the
University
of
Durham.
The
boy
was
educated
at
a
school
in
Durham,
and
at
the
University
of
Edinburgh.
In
1826
he
joined
the
East
India
Army,
and
held
several
staff
appointments.
While
in
the
Madras
Native
Infantry,
he
returned
home
on
furlough,
owing
to
ill-health,
and
afterwards
relinquished
this
connection.
In
1833-4
he
studied
anatomy
and
physiology
in
Paris,
acquiring
great
skill
at
modelling
dissections
in
coloured
wax.
In
the
summer
of
1835,
while
touring
in
Switzerland
with
his
parents,
he
visited
Heidelberg,
and
was
induced
by
Professor
Tiedeman,
director
of
the
Anatomical
Institute,
to
return
there
and
continue
his
wax
modelling.
He
lodged
at
97,
Stockstrasse,
in
the
house
of
a
brewer,
and
modelled
in
a
room
nearly
opposite.
Some
of
his
models
have
been
preserved
in
the
Anatomical
Museum
at
Heidelberg.
In
March
1836,
hearing
accidentally
from
Mr.
J.
W.
R.
Hoppner,
a
son
of
Lord
Byron's
friend,
that
the
Professor
of
Natural
Philosophy
in
the
University,
Geheime
Hofrath
Moncke
had
a
model
of
Baron
Schilling's
telegraph,
Cooke
went
to
see
it
on
March
6,
in
the
Professor's
lecture
room,
an
upper
storey
of
an
old
convent
of
Dominicans,
where
he
also
lived.
Struck
by
what
he
witnessed,
he
abandoned
his
medical
studies,
and
resolved
to
apply
all
his
energies
to
the
introduction
of
the
telegraph.
Within
three
weeks
he
had
made,
partly
at
Heidelberg,
and
partly
at
Frankfort,
his
first
galvanometer,
or
needle
telegraph.
It
consisted
of
three
magnetic
needles
surrounded
by
multiplying
coils,
and
actuated
by
three
separate
circuits
of
six
wires.
The
movements
of
the
needles
under
the
action
of
the
currents
produced
twenty-six
different
signals
corresponding
to
the
letters
of
the
alphabet.
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