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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
277
VI.
LATIMER
CLARK.
MR.
Clark
was
born
at
Great
Marlow
in
1822,
and
probably
acquired
his
scientific
bent
while
engaged
at
a
manufacturing
chemist's
business
in
Dublin.
On
the
outbreak
of
the
railway
mania
in
1845
he
took
to
surveying,
and
through
his
brother,
Mr.
Edwin
Clark,
became
assistant
engineer
to
the
late
Robert
Stephenson
on
the
Britannia
Bridge.
While
thus
employed,
he
made
the
acquaintance
of
Mr.
Ricardo,
founder
of
the
Electric
Telegraph
Company,
and
joined
that
Company
as
an
engineer
in
1850.
He
rose
to
be
chief
engineer
in
1854,
and
held
the
post
till
1861,
when
he
entered
into
a
partnership
with
Mr.
Charles
T.
Bright.
Prior
to
this,
he
had
made
several
original
researches;
in
1853,
he
found
that
the
retardation
of
current
on
insulated
wires
was
independent
of
the
strength
of
current,
and
his
experiments
formed
the
subject
of
a
Friday
evening
lecture
by
Faraday
at
the
Royal
Institution--a
sufficient
mark
of
their
importance.
In
1854
he
introduced
the
pneumatic
dispatch
into
London,
and,
in
1856,
he
patented
his
well-known
double-cup
insulator.
In
1858,
he
and
Mr.
Bright
produced
the
material
known
as
'Clark's
Compound,'
which
is
so
valuable
for
protecting
submarine
cables
from
rusting
in
the
sea-water.
In
1859,
Mr.
Clark
was
appointed
engineer
to
the
Atlantic
Telegraph
Company
which
tried
to
lay
an
Anglo-American
cable
in
1865.
in
partnership
with
Sir
C.
T.
Bright,
who
had
taken
part
in
the
first
Atlantic
cable
expedition,
Mr.
Clark
laid
a
cable
for
the
Indian
Government
in
the
Red
Sea,
in
order
to
establish
a
telegraph
to
India.
In
1886,
the
partnership
ceased;
but,
in
1869,
Mr
Clark
went
out
to
the
Persian
Gulf
to
lay
a
second
cable
there.
Here
he
was
nearly
lost
in
the
shipwreck
of
the
Carnatic
on
the
Island
of
Shadwan
in
the
Red
Sea.
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