Sir Francis Ronalds and the Electric Telegraph

Abstract

Two hundred years ago, Francis Ronalds brought vision, theoretical understanding and practical ingenuity to the first large-scale demonstration of the electric telegraph, but the technology was rejected by Government in 1816 as being ‘wholly unnecessary’. He halted his work in electrical science and engineering at that time. The telegraph was commercialised by others 20 years later (using several elements of his system) and he followed progress closely. His renown gradually grew as the network spread around the globe and, at the end of his long life, he formally joined the new telegraph engineering profession and made a further offering to it in the form of the Ronalds Library. He was regarded by his colleagues as the first electrical engineer and this view can also be argued today. Ronalds’ story is an example of the consequences of unthinking criticism in delaying deployment of new ideas and technologies.

Keywords:

• static electricity
• electrical engineering
• induction
• geomagnetically induced current
• insulation
• alphanumeric dial

Acknowledgements

The author thanks archive staff at UCL, Cambridge University, RSA, the Science Museum, and especially the IET for their kind assistance in this research. She also acknowledges the various digital libraries by which nineteenth-century books, journals and newspapers are now readily available.

Notes

1. B. F. Ronalds, Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph (London: Imperial College Press, 2016).

2. F. Ronalds, 'On Electricity', Philosophical Magazine, XLIV (1814), 442–45.

3. F. Ronalds, ‘On Electro-Galvanic Agency Employed as a Moving Power; With a Description of a Galvanic Clock', Philosophical Magazine, XLV (1815), 261–64.

4. F. Ronalds, Descriptions of an Electrical Telegraph and of Some Other Electrical Apparatus (1823), 83 pp.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. F. Ronalds (Padua) to S. Carter, letter 21/2/1860, UCL Library Services, Special Collections, GB 0103 MS ADD 206.

8. Ronalds, Descriptions.

9. Ibid.

10. J. Gray, Electrical Influence Machines (London: Whittaker, 1890).

11. F. Ronalds (Padua); G. J. Singer, Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry (1814); ‘Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles’,. Philosophical Magazine, XXXVII (1811), 79–80.

12. A. J. Frost, ed., Catalogue of Books and Papers Relating to Electricity, Magnetism, the Electric Telegraph, &c. including The Ronalds Library, compiled by Sir Francis Ronalds, F.R.S. (1880); reprinted (Cambridge: CUP, 2013).

13. Singer (1814).

14. F. Ronalds (Padua); Singer (1814).

15. W. D. Hackmann, ‘Eighteenth Century Electrostatic Measuring Devices’, Annali dell’Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, III(2) (1978), 3-58

16. R. M. Black, The History of Electric Wires and Cables (London: Peter Peregrinus, 1983).

17. 'Electricity', Encyclopaedia Britannica VIII, 7^th edn (1842), 565–663; also 8^th edn (1855), 523–627.

18. J. Barrow (Admiralty) to F. Ronalds (Hammersmith) letter 5/8/1816, IET Archives 1.9.2.

19. R. W. Burns, Communications: An International History of the Formative Years (London: IEE, 2004).

20. ‘The Electric Telegraph,’ London Quarterly Review, XCIV (July 1854), 62–85.

21. Ronalds, Descriptions.

22. G. J. Singer, ‘Correction of some Errors in Mr. Singer’s Paper on the Mechanical Applications of the Electric Column,’ Philosophical Magazine, XLVI (1815), 11–12.

23. Ronalds, Descriptions.

24. Ibid.

25. Repertory of Patent Inventions, New Series XI (1839).

26. A. J. Frost, ‘Biographical Memoir of Sir Francis Ronalds, F.R.S.,’ in Catalogue of Books and Papers Relating to Electricity, Magnetism, the Electric Telegraph, &c including The Ronalds Library, ed. by A. J. Frost (London: Spon, 1880); reprinted (1880), 21 pp.

27. Memorandum from F. Ronalds’ Diary. MSS 14/12/1855, IET Archives 1.9.2.

28. Black.

29. The Times, 23 July 1844, 7a.

30. Burns.

31. ‘The Electric Telegraph’ (1854).

32. L. Clark, ‘Inaugural Address,’ Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, IV (1875), J.J. Fahie, A History of Electric Telegraphy, to the Year 1837, (1884), 127–45.

33. Memorandum from F. Ronalds’s Diary. MSS 30/4/1853, IET Archives 1.9.1.

34. M. Faraday, ‘On Electric Induction – Associated cases of Current and Static Effects,’ Philosophical Magazine, VII, 4th series (1854), 197–208.

35. L. Clark (Westminster) to F. Ronalds (Bellagio) letter 24/6/1861, IET Archives 1.9.2

36. C. Wheatstone, A Reply to Mr. Cooke's Pamphlet, The Electric Telegraph; was it invented by Professor Wheatstone? (1855).

37. K. Silverman, Lightning Man: The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003).

38. J. Rennie, ‘Address of Sir John Rennie, President to the Annual General Meeting,’ Minutes of the Proceedings, ICE 5 (1846), 19–122.

39. Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851. Reports by the Juries (1852).

40. Wheatstone.

41. Reader, 8 December 1866, also IET Archives 1.9.2.

42. W. Walker, Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807–8 (London: Walker & Son, 1862).

43. H. Cole, Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, I (London, HMSO, 1868).

44. F. Ronalds, ‘Preservation of Life & Property from Fire,’ (c1840), IET Archives 1.5.15.

45. B. F. Ronalds (2016); F. Ronalds (Chiswick) to G. Airy, letter 8/10/1846, Cambridge Archive RGO 676.

46. L. Jones (Paddington) to F. Ronalds letter 12/8/1848, IET Archives 1.3.211.

47. F. Ronalds, ‘Report Concerning the Observatory of the British Association at Kew, 1848–9,’ Report of the British Association for 1849, (1850), 80–87.

48. W. Thomson, ‘Inaugural Address,’ Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, III (1874), 1–17.

49. E. Sabine, ‘On Periodical Laws Discoverable in the Mean Effects of the Larger Magnetic Disturbances – No. II,’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 142 (1852), 103–24.

50. Ronalds (Padua).

51. Memorandum from F. Ronalds’s Diary. MSS 14/8/1857, IET Archives 1.9.1.

52. Ronalds (Padua).

53. J. Sime, ‘A Pioneer in Electricity,’ Lightning: A Popular Review of Electricity, (September 1892), 1–12; reprinted as: Sir Francis Ronalds, F.R.S. and his Work in Connection with Electric Telegraphy in 1816 (1893), 14 pp.

54. Saturday Review, 17 November 1866, also IET Archives 1.9.2.

55. Examiner, 11 January 1868, 13b.

56. W. A. Shaw, The Knights of England (London: Sherrat & Hughes, 1906).

57. Ibid.

58. The Times, 7 April 1870, 7f.

59. F. Ronalds, ‘Correspondence,’ Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, I (1872), 243–44.

60. ‘Society of Telegraph Engineers,’ Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review, II (1874), 32–36.

61. Frost, ‘Biographical Memoir’.

62. Clark, ‘Inaugural Address’.

63. ‘Remarks on Underground Telegraphs,’ Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians, XVI (1887), 421–37.

64. Science and Art Department, Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum (London: HMSO, 1876).

65. The Times, 6 February 1930, 19c.

66. The Spectator, 20 March 1915, 16–17.

67. R. Appleyard, The History of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1871–1931) (London: IEE, 1939).

68. F. Ronalds, Description of An Electrical Telegraph, 2^nd edn (London: Williams & Norgate, 1871), 25 pp.

69. ‘The First Ordinary General Meeting,’ Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, I (1872), 19–39.