Cooke and Wheatstone Two Needle Telegraph, 1830s

The Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph was an early electrical telegraph system invented by English inventors William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. The receiver consisted of a number of needles which could be moved by electromagnetic coils to point to letters on a board. This feature was liked by early users who were unwilling to learn codes, and employers who did not want to invest in staff training. The two-needle telegraph required three wires, one for each needle and a common return. The coding was somewhat different from the five-needle telegraph and needed to be learned, rather than read from a display. The needles could move to the left or right either one, two, or three times in quick succession, or a single time in both directions in quick succession. Either needle, or both together, could be moved. This gave a total of 24 codes, one of which was taken up by the stop code. Three letters were omitted: J, Q and Z, which were substituted with G, K and S. This image has been colorized

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

Cooke Figuier Fothergill Grandes Inventions Needle Signals Tele-communication Telegraphy Wheatstone

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