Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
1
281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
29
Wheatstone's
next
great
invention
was
the
automatic
transmitter,
in
which
the
signals
of
the
message
are
first
punched
out
on
a
strip
of
paper,
which
is
then
passed
through
the
sending-key,
and
controls
the
signal
currents.
By
substituting
a
mechanism
for
the
hand
in
sending
the
message,
he
was
able
to
telegraph
about
100
words
a
minute,
or
five
times
the
ordinary
rate.
In
the
Postal
Telegraph
service
this
apparatus
is
employed
for
sending
Press
telegrams,
and
it
has
recently
been
so
much
improved,
that
messages
are
now
sent
from
London
to
Bristol
at
a
speed
of
600
words
a
minute,
and
even
of
400
words
a
minute
between
London
and
Aberdeen.
On
the
night
of
April
8,
1886,
when
Mr.
Gladstone
introduced
his
Bill
for
Home
Rule
in
Ireland,
no
fewer
than
1,500,000
words
were
despatched
from
the
central
station
at
St.
Martin's-le-Grand
by
100
Wheatstone
transmitters.
Were
Mr.
Gladstone
himself
to
speak
for
a
whole
week,
night
and
day,
and
with
his
usual
facility,
he
could
hardly
surpass
this
achievement.
The
plan
of
sending
messages
by
a
running
strip
of
paper
which
actuates
the
key
was
originally
patented
by
Bain
in
1846;
but
Wheatstone,
aided
by
Mr.
Augustus
Stroh,
an
accomplished
mechanician,
and
an
able
experimenter,
was
the
first
to
bring
the
idea
into
successful
operation.
In
1859
Wheatstone
was
appointed
by
the
Board
of
Trade
to
report
on
the
subject
of
the
Atlantic
cables,
and
in
1864
he
was
one
of
the
experts
who
advised
the
Atlantic
Telegraph
Company
on
the
construction
of
the
successful
lines
of
1865
and
1866.
On
February
4,
1867,
he
published
the
principle
of
reaction
in
the
dynamo-electric
machine
by
a
paper
to
the
Royal
Society;
but
Mr.
C.
W.
Siemens
had
communicated
the
identical
discovery
ten
days
earlier,
and
both
papers
were
read
on
the
same
day.
It
afterwards
appeared
that
Herr
Werner
Siemens,
Mr.
Samuel
Alfred
Varley,
and
Professor
Wheatstone
had
independently
arrived
at
the
principle
within
a
few
months
of
each
other.
Varley
patented
it
on
December
24,
1866;
Siemens
called
attention
to
it
on
January
17,
1867;
and
Wheatstone
exhibited
it
in
action
at
the
Royal
Society
on
the
above
date.
But
it
will
be
seen
from
our
life
of
William
Siemens
that
Soren
Hjorth,
a
Danish
inventor,
had
forestalled
them.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
