By: Alex E.
Charles Wheatstone was born February 6th 1802 near Gloucester, England. Wheatstone was a scientist who made numerous discoveries and invented many devices throughout his career (Stereoscopy.com, March 4th, 2012). His most famous invention was the Wheatstone bridge, which is used to measure electrical resistance (Wikipedia.org, March 4th, 2012). Inventor William Cooke came to Wheatstone in 1837 for help with his work on the electric telegraph. The two then created a partnership and although their partnership was strained, both needed each other to accomplish their goals. Together, they eventually created the five-needle telegraph, which was their first successful long distance electric telegraph. The five-needle telegraph, as the name suggests, consisted of five needles that would point either left, right or remain straight. The needles would point to different letters, allowing for the transmission of messages (Standage, pg.33-34). In 1868, Wheatstone was knighted for his work and contribution to the electric telegraph. In 1875, he died but his name lives on due to his contributions to the telegraph (Stereoscopy.com, March 4th, 2012).
By: Meng yuan Guo
According to Wikipedia, Charles Wheatstone was an English scientist. He was born on February 6, 1802 and died on October 19, 1875 (Wikipedia: Wheatstone). He was a great inventor of the Victorian era. He is noted for inventing: the English concertina; the stereoscope; and the Playfair cipher. The most famous invention of Wheatstone is the development of the Wheatstone Bridge; which is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance. He is most known for his role as the co-inventor of the British electric telegraph. Before Wheatstone became an inventor, he worked at his uncle’s musical instrument store. He was interested in music because his father was a music seller. Wheatstone began to write songs and sold them, and he used the money to buy books about electricity. The book opened his mind and he began to do his own electrical experiments. On November 19, 1837, Cooke and Wheatstone began a partnership and invented an electric telegraph.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wheatstone
By Lei Tang
Charles Wheatstone (6 February 1802 – 19 October 1875), was the co-inventor of the electric telegraph. He is an aggressive learner without any formal scientific education. He was introduced to William Fothergill Cooke, another inventor of the electric telegraph, by Peter Roget. Wheatstone and Cooke maintained a precarious relationship working together. Wheatstone’s prickly character made him more difficult to work with. For example, he required that his name go first on the documentation as a compromise to form the partnership with Cooke. Wheatstone also claimed all the scientific credit for himself while referring Cooke as a business partner. Although the two scientists did not get alone well, they devised and patented an improved five-needle telegraph. This technology could only present 20 letters in the alphabet, but it is much faster to deliver a message because it did not require a codebook.
Source: http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/Wheatstone.htm
by Christina
Wikipedia says that Sir Charles Wheatstone was born on the 6th of February 1802 in Gloucester, England and died on the 19th of October in 1875 in Paris, France at the age of 73. His father was a music teacher and at 14 Charles went to take an apprenticeship with his uncle to learn how to make and sell musical instruments. Charles did not enjoy this manual labour type of work and showed a great preference to academia. With his father’s blessing and after studying in several institutions in London he became scientist. He was responsible for many of the great scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era including: the English concertina, the stereoscope (a device for showing three-dimensional images), the Playfair cipher (an encryptiontechnique), and many more.( Wheatstone, however, is best known for the role he played in the development of the Wheatstone bridge. The Wheatstone bridge was originally invented by Samuel Hunter Christie and was used to measure an unknown electrical resistance. This invention played a monumental part in the making of the electric telegraph. By reluctantly teaming up with William Fothergill Cooke officially on the 19th of November in 1837, and a few others, he was able to achieve public attention a success for the electric telegraph. Wheatstone and Cooke had a notoriously bad relationship. They argued over everything from money to who should credit for then invention.
References:
Beauchamp, K. (2001). History of the Telegraph. (pp. 34-40). london, united kingdom: institution of electric enginners .
Bowers, B. (2001). miscellaneous science. In Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS: 1802-1875. (2nd ed.). (pp. 207-208). london, united kingdom: the institution of electrical enginners.
Wikipedia (2012, March 10). Charles Wheatstone. Wikipedia . Retrieved March 12, 2012,
by Amanda
Charles Wheatstone was born on February 6th, 1802 in Gloucester, England. During the time that Mr. Wheatstone was in school, his parents kept sending him to different schools in the area. Finally, Wheatstone started making superb academic growth while attending a school in Kennington, not far from his home town. When he was fourteen, Wheatstone started working for his uncle, a musician. During that time, Charles starting writing music and translating French poetry. Continuing his education, he discovered his love for books. At the age of fifteen, Charles had given his uncle two songs he wrote in hopes that they would show potential. Without knowledge that the songs were actually his nephew’s, Charles’ uncle published one of his compositions.
As he grew older, his love for music weakened as his knowledge for velocity and electricity grew enormously. In 1835, William Cooke arranged a meeting with Wheatstone and was relieved when he learnt that Charles had a four mile long wire that was ready for experimentation. During the interview, Cooke learnt that Mr. Wheatstone had been conducting telegraphic experimentations of his own.
Later on in this partnership, William Cooke discovered that he needed Mr. Wheatstone’s knowledge and offered him a sixth share in the profits of their future invention. Wheatstone would only accept Mr. Cooke’s offer, to become partners, if Mr. Cooke agreed that Mr. Wheatstone’s name would appear first on the documentation. This dynamic duo then divided and patented an improved five needle telegraph. “However, the limited number of combinations with the five-needle design meant that only twenty letters were included in the telegraphic alphabet; Thus “C,””J,””Q,””U,””X,” and “Z” were omitted” (Standage 35-211.) In 1841, Cooke and Wheatstone came across their differences on who invented the telegram. They then submitted a question to Marc Isambard Brunel, a famous engineer, on behalf of the Daniell Battery invented. Mr. Brunel declared that Cooke was in fact the “inventor” and gave all credit to William Cooke.
Charles Wheatstone was known for his knowledge of electricity with his accomplishments on the Wheatstone bridge, his early contributions to spectroscopy and telegraphy and his invention of the Play fair cipher. Although Charles didn’t arguably invent he electronic telegraph, he is a big part of the overall outcome of the electronic telegraph.
Tom Standage's The Victorian Internet 