Sir William Fothergill Cooke collaborated with Sir charles Wheatstone to introduce the first working electric telegraph in England. Wheat-stone developed the scientific workings of the five-wire telegraphic system, while Cooke promoted its introduction to the business community and the general populace. Samuel Morse introduced his single-wire system in the United States that same year, and he is generally accorded credit for telegraphy, less for his primacy than for the fact that his Morse Code became the standard language of telegraphy.
Strictly speaking, Cooke and Wheatstone deserve credit for introducing telegraphy, as they beat Morse to the punch.
William Fothergill Cooke was born in 1806 at Ealing in London, England. He was the son of a surgeon and followed in his father’s footsteps to study medicine. He commenced his higher education at the University of Durham, then continued at the University of Edinburgh before enlisting in the Madras Army in 1826. After serving for five years, he recommenced his studies at the University of Paris in 1831.
By 1836, Cooke was an officer in the Indian army. On furlough, he attended a telegraphic demonstration by Professor Monke at the University of Heidelberg on March 6, 1836, and he immediately determined to forestall his medical studies to devote himself to developing the electric telegraph for practical use—specifically in alarm systems and railway signaling. By January 1837, Cooke exhibited his three-needle telegraph in London. He realized that the limitations of his scientific knowledge would prevent him from further developing the telegraph, so he consulted Michael Faraday and Dr. Peter Mark Roget (of thesaurus fame), who recommended that he meet with Charles Wheatstone.
On February 27, 1837, Cooke visited Wheatstone’s Conduit Street home to discuss telegraphy with the eminent scientist, who immediately recognized the pitfalls of Cooke’s telegraph. Cooke suggested a partnership, with Wheatstone contributing the scientific expertise and Cooke promoting the project for practical application, an arrangement the scientist reluctantly agreed to in May, solidifying this agreement by filing jointly for a patent of their five-needle telegraph on June 10. They signed a deed of partnership on November 19, 1837.
The five-needle telegraph functioned on an established principle, with the completion of a battery-line current controlled by a make-and-break switch; the flow of current activated an iron needle, which rested vertically when no current flowed but moved left or right when prompted by the electromagnetic charge. By deflecting any two of the five needles to one of the 20 letters arranged in a diamond formation, an unskilled operator could send a message letter-by-letter (improvising the six missing letters of the alphabet.)
On July 25, 1837, Cooke and Wheatstone demonstrated their telegraphic system to the directors of the London and Birmingham Railway. They had buried their five wires, covered in cotton, in iron pipes beside a one-and-a-half mile stretch of tracks between Euston, where Wheatstone sent the signal, to Camden Town, where Cooke received it. Although Wheatstone and Cooke were elated, the directors were indifferent, failing to recognize the potential of such an innovation. That same year, Samuel Finley Breese Morse introduced his own telegraphic system in the United States.
Within a year, the insulation had deteriorated around the five wires, victim of water damage. Cooke and Wheatstone solved this problem by insulating the wires in glass and raising the line on iron posts; the partners paid for this improvement out of their own pockets, recouping their investment by charging a shilling for public viewing of the system after it was in place. The directors of the Great Western Railway recognized the potential of Cooke and Wheat-stone’s telegraphic system, arranging a trial between Paddington and West Drayton. The success of this trial led to the implementation of a telegraphic line on the Great Western Railway in 1839.
The partnership between Cooke and Wheat-stone was volatile and came to a head in 1841, when they disagreed over claims of credit for their invention. The renowned engineer marc isam-bard brunel intervened as a mediator, determining equal credit to each for the telegraph, attributing the scientific innovation to Wheat-stone and the public introduction of the technology to Cooke. Thereafter, Cooke promoted the installation of telegraphic lines, paying Wheat-stone a royalty on the miles of line laid. For his part, Wheatstone continued to improve the technology, developing a two-wire, one-needle system used to announce the news of the birth of Queen Victoria’s second son in 1844 on the first public telegraph line opened between London and Gosport. On September 2, 1845, Cooke bought out Wheatstone’s interest in the joint patent for 120,000 pounds, and on his own he formed the Electric Telegraph Company.
The fate of telegraphy was sealed on New Year’s Day of 1845, when it proved instrumental in the capture of John Tawell as he fled his mistress’s murder from the Slough railway station in Salt Hill, boarding a train for London. Beside the tracks ran a telegraphic line that carried an instant message describing the suspect, who was apprehended by police upon his arrival in London. This news captured the public interest in telegraphy, indelibly establishing its importance.
The Royal Society granted Cooke its Albert medal in 1867. The next year, Wheatstone was knighted, with Cooke receiving such honors a year after that, perhaps signifying the popular attribution of primary credit to the scientist for developing the technology, with secondary credit attributed to the entrepreneur who introduced the system to the populace. Cooke died a decade after his knighting, on June 25, 1879, at Farnham, in Surrey, England.
