Joseph Hamel

“ INTO ENGLAND. The “Historical Account of the Introduction of the Galvanic and Electro-Magnetic Telegraph,” lately published in England, by Dr. Hamel, of St. Petersburgh, is a work of permanent historical value.
It has been written with the declared object of claiming for his countryman, Baron Schilling, and for his country, Russia, the honour of the first realization of the idea of an electric telegraph. Dr. Hamel might have made a like, and much stronger claim in behalf of Dr. Soemmering, of Munich; for he proves him to have invented and made in 1809 the first galvanic telegraph on record ”

“ Professor Muncke’s experiment was at that time the only one upon the subject that I had seen or heard of. It showed that electric currents being conveyed by wires to a distance could be there caused to deflect magnetic needles and thereby to give signals. It was, in a word, a hint at the application of electricity to telegraphic purposes, but nothing more—for it provided no means of applying that power to practical uses. His apparatus consisted of two instruments for giving signals by a single needle, placed in different rooms, with a battery belonging to each ”

“ Since the formation of the partnership, the undertaking has rapidly progressed, under the constant and equally successful exertions of the parties in their distinct departments, until it has attained the character of a simple and practical system, worked out scientifically on the sure basis of actual experience. ”

“ The effect of this arrangement was, that if a current was transmitted from either battery, when the opposite ends of the wires were in connexion with the distant telegraphic apparatus, either the cross would be there exhibited by the motion of the needle one way, or the line by its motion the other way, according to the direction of the current. The apparatus was worked by moving the ends of the wires backwards and forwards between the battery and the coils.”
Dr. Hamel’s third point is, that Muncke’s copy of Schilling’s telegraph was imported by Cooke into England, and there adopted. ”

“ The following short statement of the facts has, therefore, at their request, been drawn up by us the undersigned Sir M. Isambard Brunel, Engineer of the Thames Tunnel, and Professor Daniell, of King’s College, as a document which either party may at pleasure make publicly known. ”

“ Cooke and Wheatstone’s apparatus “was, in the essential part, founded on the same principle as Baron Schilling’s, namely, the deflection of needles hy multipliers.”—Hamel, p. 56. ↑ The effect produced by the practical Electric Telegraph on an intelligent mind, long accustomed to the Electro-telegraphic Experiments of a lecture-room, is depicted with great naivete by the late Professor Daniell of King’s College, in a letter, written, after seeing for the first time, Cooke and Wheatstone’s Electric Telegraph in operation between Euston Square and Camden Town ”

“ The two signal apparatuses being thus thrown into the course of the metallic circuit, every signal was given at both ends concurrently; and the cross piece was made to restore the circuit for a reply on the first communication being completed. ”