Abstract
VIII.
MORE daring inventors, as we have seen, entered the field—Nott and Gamble, with a letter-showing telegraph; Edward and Henry Highton, who produced an array of signal apparatus, in some cases evading the Cooke and Wheatstone patents by the use of nickel for the electromagnet in place of soft iron. But formidable beyond all other competitors was the talented Alexander Bain, the Edinburgh watchmaker, who has contributed largely to the improvement of the telegraph by his singularly beautiful adaptations and chemical printing arrangements. Expensive litigation speedily followed, and the directors in most cases compounded with their opponents. Alexander Bain was made a director of the Company, and at the same time received 12,000l. for his chemical printer, and most of the other opposing patents became the property of the Company by special arrangements with the inventors. By means such as these a monopoly for a time was secured, even though it was purchased at an exorbitant price. Monopoly at that time represented commercial gain, and every aspiring inventor was sooner or later run off his feet by the powerful and wealthy corporation. Such is the early history of the introduction and opening of the Electric Telegraph as a means of the transmission of inland intelligence. The telegraphic connection of Great Britain with the Continent of Europe at this time was scarcely developed, the extent of electrical communication by the continental land lines being circumscribed.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Progress of the Telegraph * . Nature 12, 149–151 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/012149a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/012149a0
This article is cited by
-
Koloniale Kroniek
De Economist (1876)