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Sir William Fothergill Cooke and The Electric Telegraph Company
I understand that it is on record that some of the first experiments with the telegraph system were carried out in Treeton by Sir Fothergill Cooke by whom messages were passed from one room to another.
Sir William Fothergill Cooke , developer of electric telegraphy, was born on 4th May 1806 at Ealing, Middlesex, one of two sons and two daughters of William Cooke (1776/7 - 1857), surgeon, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, née Fothergill. He attended Durham School in 1822-3, then Edinburgh University, before entering the Indian army, becoming an ensign. After five years in India he resigned his commission on grounds of ill health, and took up his father's profession, studying anatomy at Paris and then at Heidelberg, under Professor Munke.
- The Electric Telegraph Company was formed by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Joseph Lewis Ricardo in 1846, after Cooke had launched the first commercial telegraph system between Paddington and West Drayton. That line had been installed in 1838 but, up to 1842, had carried only railway messages.
- The company went on to lay telegraph networks in many parts of the country and laid submarine cables to Holland, offering links to much of Europe. This international expansion was done through a specially formed associate company - the International Telegraph Company - with which the ETC merged in 1855 to become the Electric and International Telegraph Company.
- In 1870 the company and all its assets were transferred to the government, as a result of nationalisation under the Telegraph Act, January 28, 1868. The international operations were not taken up by the Post Office but were leased on to the Submarine Telegraph Company.
Electric telegraphy came to Cooke's notice while he was at Heidelberg, several people having demonstrated its feasibility. Professor Munke's lectures included a demonstration of telegraphic apparatus on the principle introduced by Baron Schilling in 1825. Cooke realized the commercial possibilities, and conceived the idea of using the invention in connection with the various railway systems then developing. He abandoned his studies and devoted himself entirely to telegraphy. In 1836 he returned to England and conducted experiments with his friend and solicitor, Burton Lane. Cooke found that, although his apparatus worked across a room, it would not work through 1 mile of wire. He sought help from Michael Faraday and Peter Roget; neither could assist, but Roget, who knew of the work of Charles Wheatstone, referred Cooke to him.
Cooke and Wheatstone first met on 27 February 1837, by which time Cooke was already negotiating with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company for the use of his telegraphs. After a few meetings, a partnership was agreed upon between them, and entered into in May 1837. Wheatstone and Cooke's first patent, was signed by William IV on 10 June 1837. Cooke proceeded to test the utility of the invention, the London and Blackwall, the London and Birmingham, and the Great Western Railway companies allowing the use of their lines for the experiment.
Cooke and Wheatstone's telegraph employed five iron needles which when not in use rested in a vertical position. Each needle could be moved either to the left or the right by electromagnets.
To transmit a letter of the alphabet two switches were pressed which caused two needles to move and point to the appropriate letter. There were shortcomings but despite this, the advantage of their equipment was that it could be used by unskilled operators.
With five needles and five line wires the expense was great, and in that form the electric telegraph was abandoned. In 1838 an improvement was made whereby the number of needles was reduced to two, and although a patent was taken out; the telegraph was still too costly for general purposes. In 1845, Cooke and Wheatstone succeeded in producing the single needle apparatus, which they patented, and from that time the electric telegraph became a practical instrument, and was soon adopted on all the railway lines of the country. A longtime quarrel had persisted between Cooke and Wheatstone, each claiming the credit for the invention. Cooke didn't claim to have invented the telegraph, and Wheatstone agreed that he could not have succeeded commercially without Cooke's perseverance and practical skills. An arrangement was arrived at in 1843, by which the telegraph patents were assigned to Cooke, with the reservation of a mileage royalty to Wheatstone. Subsequently, Wheatstone sold all his rights in Great Britain, Ireland, and Belgium to Cooke for £30,000. In 1846 the Electric Telegraph Company was formed in conjunction with Cooke, the company paying Cooke £120,000 for the earlier patents.
The Albert gold medal of the Society of Arts was awarded on equal terms to Cooke and Wheatstone in 1867; and two years later Cooke was knighted.
Cooke subsequently lost all the money he had made from the telegraph in unsuccessful mining ventures in north Wales. A civil-list pension of £100 p.a. was granted to him in 1871.
He died at Castle Street, Farnham, Surrey, the home of his son-in-law, on 25 June 1879. He was survived by his wife.
Lady Anna Cooke
On 5 June 1838 Cooke married Anna Louisa, daughter of Joseph Wheatley , a solicitor, at Treeton; they had one daughter.
In the 1891 census Lady Anna Cooke then aged 85, was living at 67 Front Street, Treeton. She had a companion, Gertrude Wake, a servant Elizabeth Duckenfield and a housemaid, Rose Burton. Lady Anna died on 21st May, 1891 in her 87th year.