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Updated: May 15, 2025
A suggestion contained in Sir Charles Wheatstone's paper, that "a very remarkable increase of all the effects, accompanied by a diminution in the resistance of the machine, is observed when a cross wire is placed so as to divert a great portion of the current from the electro-magnet," had led the lecturer to an investigation read before the Royal Society on the 4th of March, 1880, in which it was shown that by augmenting the resistance upon the electro-magnets 100 fold, valuable effects could be realized, as illustrated graphically by means of a diagram.
His wife was the daughter of a Taunton tradesman, and of handsome appearance. She died in 1866, leaving a family of five young children to his care. His domestic life was quiet and uneventful. One of Wheatstone's most ingenious devices was the 'Polar clock, exhibited at the meeting of the British Association in 1848.
Wheatstone's device of the revolving mirror was afterwards employed by Foucault and Fizeau to measure the velocity of light. In 1835, at the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Wheatstone showed that when metals were volatilised in the electric spark, their light, examined through a prism, revealed certain rays which were characteristic of them.
The device is of little service in a country where watches are reliable; but it formed part of the equipment of the North Polar expedition commanded by Captain Nares. Wheatstone's remarkable ingenuity was displayed in the invention of cyphers which have never been unravelled, and interpreting cypher manuscripts in the British Museum which had defied the experts.
He had already exhibited a crude set when he came to Wheatstone, realizing his own lack of scientific knowledge. The two men finally entered into partnership, Wheatstone contributing the scientific and Cooke the business ability to the new enterprise. The partnership was arranged late in 1837, and a patent taken out on Wheatstone's five-needle telegraph.
His chief scientific interest was optics, and he invented the kaleidoscope, and improved Wheatstone's stereoscope by introducing the divided lenses. In 1815 he was elected a member of the Royal Society, and, later, was awarded the Rumford gold and silver medals for his discoveries in the polarisation of light. In 1831 he was knighted.
They were opposed by Wheatstone and his associates, and could not secure even a hearing from the patent authorities. Morse strenuously insisted that his telegraph was radically different from Wheatstone's, laying especial emphasis on the fact that his recording instrument printed the message in permanent form, while Wheatstone's did not.
"Well, thar's Kunnel Wheatstone's Jawjy rijimint that's mine; then thar's Kunnel Tarrant's South Carliny rijimint, and then thar's Kunnel Bird's Tennessee rijimint, and I don't mind how many others. They've bin comin' and goin' all day, and I hain't paid no attention to 'em. I only know that thar's enough to give yo'uns a wallopin' if yo'uns only come on."
Fizeau led the way, and he was succeeded, after a few months, by Léon Foucault, who, in 1862, had so far perfected Wheatstone's method of revolving mirrors, as to be able to announce with authority that light travelled slower, and that the sun was in consequence nearer than had been supposed. Thus a third line of separate research was found to converge to the same point with the two others.
When the tram arrived at Paddington he was shadowed by detectives, and to his utter astonishment was quietly arrested in a tavern near Cannon Street. In Cooke and Wheatstone's early telegraph the wire travelled the whole round of the circuit, but it was soon found that a "return" wire in the circuit was unnecessary, since the earth itself could take the place of it.
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