extracts from the papers of sir charles wheatstone...between wheatstone, cromwell fleetwood varley...

Extracts from the papers of Sir Charles Wheatstone

WHEATSTONE 1: Working papers, experimental notes and correspondence relating to the development of the electric telegraph, [1836-1960]

K/PP107/1/2/1-165

[1843-1872]

Experimental notes compiled by Charles Wheatstone in particular detailing early practical experiments in telegraph relay over long distances, including an experiment conducted at Ascot racetrack, Berkshire, 1844; transcriptions of telegraph messages sent by the Police, 1844; correspondence concerning payment for the supply of electric telegraph instrumentation, 1844; correspondence between Wheatstone, Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), telegraph engineer, and Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, on the measurement of electrical potential, 1865; description of the difference of opinion between Wheatstone and Latimer Clark on the velocity of electrical transmission, with note on a patent application lodged by Clark, 1866; papers concerning differential induction, specific induction and the electrometer, 1860-1870; observations on electrical conductivity of deposits of copper in Cornish mines; working notes on electromagnets and batteries in relation to electric telegraphs, including diagrams and sketches, with test results; notes entitled ‘another method of measuring resistance’; heads of reflections on Ohm’s Law and its application to the electric telegraph.

The Papers of Charles WheatstoneK/PP107/1/2 - Papers relating to practical experiments in telegraph relay

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King’s College London Archives

K/PP107/1/2/1 Manuscript copy of a letter from James Irving in Pisa regarding undelivered telegraphic instruments includes references to William Fothergill Cooke (1806-1879), inventor, Alexander Bain (1810-1877), clockmaker and inventor, and Professor Carlo Matteucci (1811-1868), Italian physicist, 1846 Jul 19, page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/1 Manuscript copy of a letter from James Irving in Pisa regarding undelivered telegraphic instruments includes references to William Fothergill Cooke (1806-1879), inventor, Alexander Bain (1810-1877), clockmaker and inventor, and Professor Carlo Matteucci (1811-1868), Italian physicist, 1846 Jul 19, page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/1 Manuscript copy of a letter from James Irving in Pisa regarding undelivered telegraphic instruments, includes references to William Fothergill Cooke (1806-1879), inventor, Alexander Bain (1810-1877), clockmaker and inventor, and Professor Carlo Matteucci (1811-1868), Italian physicist, 1846 Jul 19, page 3.


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K/PP107/1/2/1 Manuscript copy of a letter from James Irving in Pisa regarding undelivered telegraphic instruments, includes references to William Fothergill Cooke (1806-1879), inventor, Alexander Bain (1810-1877), clockmaker and inventor, and Professor Carlo Matteucci (1811-1868), Italian physicist, 1846 Jul 19, page 4.


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K/PP107/1/2/2 Letter from Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), telegraph engineer, The Electric and International Telegraph Co to Wheatstone as Member of the Committee of Standards of Electrical Resistance asking his opinion on the use of an ‘Ohmad’ for a million British Association Units, 1865 Nov 30, page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/3 Note relating to the differing opinions of Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, and Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse (1816-1890), surgeon and electrician, on the velocity of electricity, [1865], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/3Note relating to the differing opinions of Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, and Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse (1816-1890), surgeon and electrician, on the velocity of electricity, [1865], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/4 Manuscript copy of letter from Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), telegraph engineer, to Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, regarding nomenclature of electrical units, 1865 Nov 30, page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/4Manuscript copy of letter from Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), telegraph engineer, to Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, regarding nomenclature of electrical units, 1865 Nov 30, page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/4 Manuscript copy of letter from Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), telegraph engineer, to Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, regarding nomenclature of electrical units, 1865 Nov 30, page 3.


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K/PP107/1/2/4Manuscript copy of letter from Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), telegraph engineer, to Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, regarding nomenclature of electrical units, 30 Nov 1865, page 4.


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K/PP107/1/2/12Letter from John Matthius Augustus Stroh (1828-1914) , telegraph engineer and inventor, regarding testing and numbering cables laid from Beal’s Wharf, Southwark to Nicholson’s Wharf, near Billingsgate Market, 1861 Sep 27.


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K/PP107/1/2/13Notes and diagrams describing ‘Experiments to be made with Telegraphic lines’, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/17 Notes describing experimental methods of measuring electro-motive force and resistance, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/17Notes describing experimental methods of measuring electro-motive force and resistance, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/18 Notes describing a series of experiments looking at the effect of various levels of underwater pressure on telegraph cables, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/19 Notes on a series of experiments undertaken at the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company in Silvertown, [1848-1870].


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K/PP107/1/2/20Notes on a series of experiments carried out at the London Docks, Wapping, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/21Notes on a series of proposed experiments at Lothbury or Charing Cross to test a line through Bristol, Gloucester and Birmingham to London and a further series of experiments testing submarine lines, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/22Notes on a series of proposed experiments at S W Silver & Co, rubber works [India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company] in Silvertown, [1848-1870].


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K/PP107/1/2/23List of proposed experiments using a printing telegraph and a Digne telegraph, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/27Notes on the ‘System of the Connecting Room’ describing the central telegraph station, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/28List of proposed experiments with submarine cables at the East India Docks, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/33Notes on measuring of the capacity of a conductor, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/33 Notes on measuring of the capacity of a conductor, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/35Notes describing ‘Specific Induction’, [1860].


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K/PP107/1/2/43 Diagram by John Matthias Augustus Stroh (1828-1914), telegraph engineer and inventor, showing two lines charged with the same electricity, [1853-1870].


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K/PP107/1/2/44Diagram by John Matthias Augustus Stroh (1828-1914), telegraph engineer and inventor, showing lines charged with the opposite electricity, [1853-1870].


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K/PP107/1/2/46 Notes describing various experiments using different samples of cables, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/46 Notes describing various experiments using different samples of cables, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/62 Notes describing the observations of Percival Norton Johnson (1792-1866), metallurgist and founder of Johnson Matthey, precious metals company, on veins of metal in mining districts of Cornwall, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/62Notes describing the observations of Percival Norton Johnson (1792-1866), metallurgist and founder of Johnson Matthey, precious metals company, on veins of metal in mining districts of Cornwall, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/63List and diagrams of proposed experiments using a large electromagnet, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/64 Notes describing a ‘New form of Rheostat’, a double cylinder rheostat, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/65 Diagram of an ‘apparatus to give a series of currents of the same kind (in either making or breaking) alternately in opposite directions’, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/69 Notes describing experiments by Giovanni Caselli (1815-1891), Italian physicist and inventor of the pantelegraph, [1862-1863].


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K/PP107/1/2/74 List of items for discussion with John Newman ([1786]-1859), scientific instrument maker, on reverse of a note regarding payment to Auguste Arthur de la Rive (1801-1873). Swiss physicist, for an electromagnetic bell, 1843 Jul 5, page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/74List of items for discussion with John Newman ([1786]-1859), scientific instrument maker, on reverse of a note regarding payment to Auguste Arthur de la Rive (1801-1873). Swiss physicist, for an electromagnetic bell, [1843], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/75Notes relating to a thermoelectric battery, 1871 Nov 8.


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K/PP107/1/2/76 Notes with diagrams on ‘New Electro-magnetic Rotations’, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/76Notes with diagrams on ‘New Electro-magnetic Rotations’, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/83Copy of note from Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-1898), electrical engineer, to Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), telegraph engineer, regarding nomenclature for units of electricity, 1865 Nov 23.


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K/PP107/1/2/84Printed illustration of a telegraph switch, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/87Transcript of poem purported to be written by Herbert Mayo (1796-1852), physiologist, anatomist and professor at King’s College London, which appears, courtesy of Charles Wheatstone, in the 1872 biography Michael Faraday by John Hall Gladstone (1827-1902), [1866-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/88Diagram by John Matthias Augustus Stroh (1828-1914), telegraph engineer and inventor, showing transatlantic telegraph from Valentia to America, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/92Diagram of a ‘simple and cheap’ rheotrope, an instrument for reversing the direction of electric current, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/96Notes describing possible causes of inconductibility, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/96Notes describing possible causes of inconductibility, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/97Notes on ‘Another Hypothesis on Non-conductibility’ with reference to an experiment on the voltaic arc conducted by Erik Edlund (1819-1888), Swedish physicist, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/97Notes on ‘Another Hypothesis on Non-conductibility’ with reference to an experiment on the voltaic arc conducted by Erik Edlund (1819-1888), Swedish physicist, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/105Diagram possibly by John Matthias Augustus Stroh (1828-1914), telegraph engineer and inventor, with notes by Wheatstone showing an experiment to ‘ascertain whether a short bridge connection diverting the princi-pal part of the current from the main branch, will diminish the derivation from the main line’, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/107Note on recreating experiments conducted by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove (1803-1879), physicist, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/109List of possible names for Wheatstone’s automatic telegraph including the ‘Tachytelegraph’, ‘teletachygraph and ‘Jacquard Telegraph’, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/113Notes and diagram describing the cylindrical cell of John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845), chemist and professor at King’s College London, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/114Notes on electromotive force, induction and resistance, written on Board of Trade paper, [1843-1872], page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/114Notes on electromotive force, induction and resistance, written on Board of Trade paper, [1843-1872], page 2.


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K/PP107/1/2/116Diagram showing the end of a double cylinder rheostat with central dial to count the number of turns of wire on each cylinder, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/119Note with diagram on information received from Col Robinson, Director of the Indian Telegraph, regarding ‘Coil Protectors’, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/134Transcript of telegraph transmissions between Paddington and Slough on the occasion of the three day Ascot Heath Races, 1844 Jun 4-6, page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/135Transcript of telegraph transmissions by the police between Paddington and Slough in order to monitor the movements of suspected criminals, 1844 Nov, page 1.


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K/PP107/1/2/144Diagrams and notes relating to batteries in long distance telegraph lines between London and Lowestoft, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/147Diagrams and notes of methods of arranging batteries, printers and transmitters in long distance telegraph lines, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/148Notes on fixing wires and insulation particularly the use of porcelain blocks, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/154Notes describing methods of creating telegraphic thermometers, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/155Notes describing a proposed perforating telegraph, [1843-1872].


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K/PP107/1/2/165Letter from Wheatstone to Lord Sackville Arthur Cecil (1848-1898) inviting him to a lecture at the Royal Institution by (Henry Charles) Fleeming Jenkin (1833-1885), electrical engineer, on ‘Submersion and recovery of submarine cables’, 1869 May 18.

extracts from the papers of sir charles wheatstone...between wheatstone, cromwell fleetwood varley...

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