Charles Wheatstone was one of the leading electrical engineers of the mid-nineteenth century. This fascinating biography celebrates the bicentenary of his birth, and draws on information about the family business as well as letters, including correspondence with Cooke and Faraday.
Inspec keywords: history
Other keywords: linear motor; electric motors; electric telegraph; electrical engineering; Sir Charles Wheatstone; electrical measurements
Subjects: General electrical engineering topics; Biographical, historical, and personal notes
- Book DOI: 10.1049/PBHT029E
- Chapter DOI: 10.1049/PBHT029E
- ISBN : 9780852961032
- e-ISBN: 9781849194150
- Page count: 260
- Format: PDF
-
Front Matter
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
1 An extraordinary fellow
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
1
–4
(4)
This chapter gives an overview to the life of Sir Charles Wheatstone and his contributions to the field of telegraphy. It introduces his short-lived partnership with W.F. Cooke in developing the first telegraph system.
2 Early life
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
5
–12
(8)
This chapter discusses the life and times of Sir Charles Wheatstone, from his baptism in 1802 through to 1823, together with a short history of the family business.
- + Show Description
-
-
Part 1: Sound and light
3 Researches in sound
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
15
–32
(18)
In this chapter, the acoustical parameters of musical instruments are studied: the vibration parameters of the Kaleidophone, tuning forks, the Gender (an Asian musical instrument), and other instruments are discussed. Another instrument, which depends on the resonance of an air chamber, is the Jew's harp or guimbarde; its acoustic properties and sound production are also discussed.
4 Musical instrument manufacturer
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
33
–44
(12)
It was characteristic of Wheatstone that he was always alert both to the scientific lessons which might be learnt from everyday things and to the practical applications of scientific discoveries. For that reason, the division of subject matter between the previous chapter on Wheatstone's researches in sound and this chapter on Wheatstone as a musical instrument maker is somewhat arbitrary. He studied the transmission of sound because he was interested in the working of the instruments he made, and in particular the process by which sound created by the vibration of the strings of a piano or violin is transmitted to the sound board. His work on the transmission of sound, and also that on the development of an artificial voice, may be regarded either as pure research or as a potentially viable commercial venture which was superseded by electrical communication.
5 The stereoscope
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
45
–54
(10)
This chapter details a historical account of Sir Charles Wheatstone's work on binocular vision and his eventual development of the stereoscope.
- + Show Description
-
-
Part 2: Electricty
6 The velocity of electricity
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
57
–68
(12)
This chapter describes the speed of electricity and discusses some experiments performed by Sir Charles Wheatstone to test the speed of light. Wheatstone considered that the velocity of electricity would be an important factor in developing an electric telegraph. He knew that sound was carried best in those materials in which it travelled fastest, and he assumed the same would be true for an electric signal in a wire. In the experiments described in this chapter, he tried to measure two different things, and he seems to have confused the two in his own mind. First, he attempted to measure the speed with which an electric spark passed through the air, but it proved to be so fast that he was unable to make any estimate of the speed. His second experiment, which was more successful, was to measure the speed with which an electric signal travelled in a wire. He arranged a circuit with three spark gaps which were connected through several miles of wire but located side by side, and then measured the time which elapsed between the occurrence of a spark at each spark gap when a current was sent round the circuit. For this measurement, he used a high-speed, rotating mirror which he had already used in acoustic research.
7 Professor Wheatstone
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
69
–78
(10)
King's College London was one of a number of educational establishments founded in the first half of the 19th Century to meet the increasing demand for a wider education than that offered by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Those universities imposed strict religious tests on their students and provided only a conventional education with no science.' As industry developed, there was an ever increasing need for skilled working men with an understanding of the rudiments of science and technology. The Royal Institution had been founded in 1799 for 'diffusing and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements and for teaching by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments the application of science to the common purposes of life.' The London Mechanics Institution, which developed into Birkbeck College, was established in 1823 by Dr. George Birkbeck (one of the people to whom Oersted had shown Wheatstone's early work). Many similar Mechanics Institutes were formed around the country, and their success emphasized the need for some provision for middle-class higher education and led to several proposals for new places of learning which could offer an education comparable with that given by the old universities, but covering a wider range of subjects.
8 Researches in electricity
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
79
–100
(22)
When an electrical engineer today speaks of generating electricity, his mind conjures up a picture of rotating machinery with coils and magnets. The idea that most electricity comes from such generators is so ingrained that it is difficult to appreciate that, before the appearance of the self-excited dynamo in 1867, it was by no means certain that magneto-electric induction was destined to provide most of the world's electric current.
9 Electrical measurements
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
101
–114
(14)
This chapter presents the electrical measurements which Wheatstone had been working on the problems of electrical measurement. Wheatstone was also principally concerned with the measurements of electromagnetic force having discussed in this chapter. The name of Wheatstone is always associated with the bridge circuit for measurements, notwithstanding the fact that he called it 'the Differential Resistance Measurer' and explicitly gave the credit to S.H. Christie. He gave an account of it in 1843 when he was invited to give the annual Bakerian Lecture to the Royal Society; his title was 'An account of several new instruments and processes for determining the constants of a voltaic circuit'. The term 'bridge' was not used in the published paper.
- + Show Description
-
-
Part 3: The telegraph
10 Early telegraphy
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
117
–138
(22)
The story of the electric telegraph as a practical proposition begins with the arrangements patented by W.F. Cooke and Wheatstone in 1837, but many inventors had tried, without great success, to make a telegraph before then. The earliest account of a workable electric telegraph was given in a letter signed only 'C.M.' in the Scots Magazine of 1753. This telegraph required 26 insulated wires running between the sender and the receiver. One wire corresponded to each letter of the alphabet. The operator sending a message had an electrostatic machine which he could connect to any one of the wires to indicate a letter. At the receiver the wires either ended with a spark gap or were arranged to attract small pieces of paper when charged. This telegraph had two fundamental disadvantages: it required a separate wire for each signal and because it depended on static electricity it needed a quality of insulation which could not be maintained over any great distance.
11 The practical electric telegraph
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
139
–156
(18)
The demonstrations at Euston in 1837 did not lead to an electric telegraph installation and the five-needle system used between Paddington and West Drayton which opened in July 1839 was not adopted anywhere else, but the partners obtained considerable experience in the practical problems of installing and maintaining a telegraph system. In 1838, W.F. Cooke obtained a patent in his own name with the same title as their joint patent of the previous year. In January 1840, Cooke and Wheatstone obtained another joint patent. This was concerned with their first ABC telegraphs, so called because the receiving instruments indicated actual letters of the alphabet instead of giving coded signals by deflecting one or more needles. The ABC telegraphs were partly Wheatstone's invention and partly Cooke's.
12 Submarine telegraphy
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
157
–166
(10)
Wheatstone was interested in the possibility of a submarine telegraph from a very early stage in his work on electric telegraphy. Most of the papers in the group from which the above quotation was taken appear to have been written about the time of Wheatstone's appointment to the College in 1834. His friend Faraday deduced the basic laws of electrochemistry during 1833 and Wheatstone would undoubtedly have taken an interest in his research; this note could well have been written soon afterwards. Faraday was interested in the relationship between the quantity of electricity which passed and the quantity of electrochemical effect.
13 The developing telegraph
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
167
–184
(18)
The instruments that W.F. Cooke installed between Paddington and West Drayton were those designed by Wheatstone, and they indicated letters of the alphabet directly. All the other telegraphs set up by Cooke used single or double-needle instruments which gave coded signals. These instruments were simpler to construct and maintain but required specially trained operators. Wheatstone was always interested in direct reading telegraphs and, in 1858 and 1860, he was to obtain patents for much improved ABC telegraphs which were successfully exploited by his Universal Private Telegraph Company. At the same time, he developed automatic telegraph apparatus using punched paper tape to convey messages several times faster than was possible with manual operation. In his final agreements with Cooke, Wheatstone retained two distinct concessions. One was the right to establish a cross-channel telegraph, which he did not succeed in doing. The other was the right to use the patented instruments between places not more than half a mile apart. The patents referred to in that agreement had all expired by the time Wheatstone established the Universal Private Telegraph Company so the half-mile limit never applied, but the fact that he went to the trouble of keeping the rights shows that he realized there might be a market for short-distance private telegraphs. Cooke was chiefly interested in long-distance communication.
- + Show Description
-
-
Part 4: Sir Charles
14 Wheatstone at home
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
187
–194
(8)
This chapter reviews the marriage and family life, and also the private life of Sir Charles Wheatstone. Until the beginning of 1847, Wheatstone was a bachelor academic interested in advancing scientific knowledge (and his own scientific reputation) and devoting all the time he could to that end. Together with his brother, he had run the family business at 20 Conduit Street for many years, and they both lived on the prem ises. He held an important position at the still new King's College. He also had other business interests, mainly developed from his scientific work. He was a competent businessman, but the business activities were a matter of necessity rather than choice. His favourite pursuit was always scientific research, sometimes arising from the business and sometimes from his various other interests.
15 Later scientific work
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
195
–214
(20)
In the 1850s, Wheatstone was again working on the generation of electricity and he developed a new kind of magneto-electric machine the induction generator. In an induction generator both the permanent magnets and the coils are static, but a piece of iron moves in such a way that the 'reluctance' of the magnetic circuit varies and therefore the magnetic field through the coils varies and an electromotive force is induced in them. Such machines are sometimes called 'reluctance machines'. Because the only moving part is a piece of iron and there are no sliding contacts, these machines are reliable and robust.
16 The public figure
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
215
–222
(8)
This chapter discusses the life and times of Sir Charles Wheatstone as a public figure. Wheatstone received many honours; he was honoured by governments, universities and learned societies in England, Scotland and Ireland, European countries, the USA and Brazil. He was knighted by Queen Victoria on 30 January 1868. Some people felt he should have received a knighthood sooner.
- + Show Description
-
-
Appendix: Sources
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
223
–230
(8)
This Appendix contains a list of Wheatstone's scientific papers.
Back Matter
- + Show Description
-
Hide details
-
p.
231
(1)
- + Show Description
-
