SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE'S
NEWLY DISCOVERED
ORIGINAL NOTEBOOK/ JOURNAL
FOR THE WORLD'S FIRST COMMERCIAL TELEGRAPH
Discovered by Historian Richard Warren Lipack
Information courtesy of Professor Thomas Perera Ph. D.
Curator: The W1TP.COM Telegraph Museum at
web page: http://w1tp.com/Cooke
Copyright (c) 2011 Richard Warren Lipack. All Rights Reserved.
This is one of the most significant scientific documents ever discovered.
ABSTRACT
It contains a wealth of historical information and drawings related to the invention and development of the digital telegraph and numerous other technological innovations by Cooke.
WEBSITE INDEX
JOURNAL CONTENTS - (OVERVIEW)DETAILED HISTORY AND PROVENANCE
EVOLVING DESCRIPTION
HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
Journal Discoverer and Contact Information
JOURNAL CONTENTS - (OVERVIEW)
Numerous Drawings with Descriptions of Parts & Equipments
for Construction of the Telegraph Apparatus for the:
1.) GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD line - 1839
2.) LONDON & BLACKWALL RAILWAY lines - 1840
3.) The FIRST "ABC" Telegraph equipments in the
World
4.) A dated 1840 drawing of the FIRST ELECTRIC TYPEWRITER KEYBOARDS
(the true origin of today's keyboards). Further down the page they were replaced
instead with the "ABC DIAL" TELEGRAPH because it had less moving
parts.
5.) The FIRST TELEGRAPH KEYS circa 1838-1839
6.) ELECTRIC COILS used for TELEGRAPHS dating between 1837 & 1840
7.) The FIRST CLOCK DRIVEN TELEGRAPH systems
8.) The FIRST TELEGRAPH ALARUMS
9.) TELEGRAPH BATTERIES - circa 1839 - 1840
*** In addition to the TELEGRAPH-related INVENTIONS, DRAWINGS of the following are also included:
10.) QUACK MEDICAL COIL for the AMERICAN MARKET
11.) The FIRST AUTOMOBILE (for TWO PEOPLE) with a STEERING WHEEL
12.) A wooden CAMERA w/LENS dated OCTOBER 1840
(just months after the invention
of the DAGUERREOTYPE in FRANCE)
*** Plus many many more fascinating drawings and text
too lengthy to describe here detailing a cornucopia of electrical technologies
marking man's entrance into the modern world as we know it by one of the most
prolific inventor's of the 19th Century - as he developed them for the
World.
These are the builder's drawings themselves executed by the inventor himself;
SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE..
Today, examples of remnants of COOKE'S great enterprise of telegraphy can be
found in museums the world over. However, only a very few patent drawings and
letters to Cooke's mother sparsely containing small rudimentary sketches of his early telegraphy concepts, are all that exist in visually graphic form on paper.
The JOURNAL was used to guide COOKE'S English machinist KERBY in the construction of much of the first telegraph apparatus for the COOKE & WHEATSTONE partnership.
This newly discovered journal by SIR WILLIAM. F. COOKE is the "HOLY GRAIL" for the beginnings of ELECTRICAL and ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS and the GENESIS OF THE INTERNET !
For more information email: Professor Thomas Perera: admin1 {at} w1tp.com THANK YOU.
*** The following is a more detailed but still preliminary description of the journal ***
DETAILED HISTORY AND PROVENANCE
This historic MANUSCRIPT NOTEBOOK / JOURNAL had been brought to the United States
late in 1840 by Sir William Fothergill Cooke's machinist FREDERICK KERBY.
It is a large fancily bound leather & gilt JOURNAL known as CODEX LIPACK
(...named after Richard Warren Lipack, the historian & author who
discovered it).
There is a great deal of drama in the progression of all of the circumstances
surrounding this Journal, from the day it was created in the 1770's, through to
the 1830's and then the 1840's and then into the late 1870's until the original
custodian Frederick Kerby's death in 1894 - and
finally to its path to being discovered looking like a worthless family scrapbook by author and historian Richard Warren Lipack nearly one hundred years later. The manuscript
was purchased by Lipack in the 1990's from an
antiques dealer who could supply no additional information about it.
The Journal consists of approximately 95 LEAVES - or 191 pages in total - plus covers. There are also two (2) marblized end sheets attached to the inside of the gilt stamped leather covers, with writing on the front end sheet and the back end sheet having late 1800's news clips concerning local news from where Frederick Kerby and his wife Charlott Kerby lived in Long Island, New York after they came back to America from Canada with the COOKE journal.
According to Richard Warren Lipack, out of the total of 191 journal pages, or leaves, there are approximately 96 pages by SIR WILLIAM F. COOKE which are in his handwriting and which pertain solely to the Telegraph. There are around 20-30 more pages executed by COOKE that are not telegraph related, but related to early overland traction engine and automobile designs, the invention of photography depicting cameras, an astronomy lecture from 1836 (the earliest entry in Cooke's hand), chemistry experiments, a quack medical coil and a few other subjects - represented mainly with drawings.
Originally the COOKE journal came with the Kerby's when they left England for America in late 1842.
Kerby may have left England to escape the long winded Cooke - Wheatstone
disagreements over the telegraph recognition rights in which COOKE even cited Kerby prominently during the proceedings. All of this
is found published in the "Arbitration papers" and among recent
publications on COOKE available in reprint form from the
Alternatively, Kerby may have left England to come to America to work with Samuel F. B. Morse as other documents suggest.
By 1844, the Kerby's
had left America for Canada where they welcomed the birth of their first daughter, and
their second daughter several years later. Then, around the time just after the
Civil War in America, the Kerby's - with their
daughters - returned to the United States to live in the area of Ronkonkoma,
Long Island, New York. This has been established through reference to
Canadian and American census records and later obituaries for both Frederick Kerby and his wife Charlot.
The Journal left Further details found in
this Charlot Kerby obituary
regarding the life of Frederick Kerby himself
surfaced recently in 2011 after lengthy internet searches by historian Richard
Warren Lipack of the names "Kirby &
Griswold" that were found in the Cooke journal. "Kirby &
Griswold" was the mercantile firm that Frederick Kerby
was stated to have been a partner in - and it was this unassuming little comment
in the Charlott Kerby
obituary that was found pasted into the Journal that would set off a string of
links that were to help authenticate the provenance of the Cooke journal. Historian Richard Warren Lipack then conducted an internet search with the words
"Kirby & Griswold," which most startlingly revealed a New York
Times obituary dated October 17, 1894 for "F. A. Kirby." In the
obituary it was stated that Kirby was "...a
electrician, at one time associated with Prof. Morse" and had "died
suddenly of heart failure in his home in Interestingly,
"Kirby" had changed his name from the correct spelling of "Kerby," AND - no mention what-so-ever was made in the
obituary of his important and lengthy work while he was under the employment of
Cooke and Wheatstone. Only his 'one time association with Samuel Morse,'
inventor of the American telegraph system was reported.
"Kirby's"/ Kerby's association with both
Cooke & Wheatstone and then his later association with Professor Morse in
America adds a new twist of intrigue to the fascinating discovery of Cooke's
'lost' but now 'found' Journal. Did Frederick Kerby
change his name to cover-up his new found alliance with Prof. Morse from Cooke,
the latter who was embroiled in his many-year- long bitter lawsuit with
Professor Wheatstone? This new information
surrounding the Cooke - Kerby & Wheatstone saga
will be of considerable interest to historians and will undoubtedly lead to a
more complete understanding of the lives and work of these
men. Importantly, this JOURNAL was used primarily to
formulate the 1840 TELEGRAPH PATENT awarded COOKE & WHEATSTONE for the
apparatus and systems used on the July 1840 launched the LONDON & BLACKWALL
RAILWAY installation and "ABC" telegraph.
The LONDON & BLACKWALL installation and the "ABC" telegraph
systems comprised the very first use of a perfected digital
commercial electric telegraph communication systems anywhere in he
World! Some designs for previous and experimental apparatus by Cooke are
also included. And both inventors have signed this extraordinary
JOURNAL!
******************************************************* EVOLVING DESCRIPTION OF THE SIR WILLIAM FOTHERGILL COOKE TELEGRAPH BUILDER'S NOTEBOOK / JOURNAL Mr. Lipack
has explained that the actual pages of the Journal mainly include drawings;
some very very detailed,
some with medium details - and some just being sketches with or with-out
significant details. Many are very elaborate and many are with brief but
significant content such as electrical circuit paths between equipment (on a
line) and details within equipment - such as electro-magnet coil
configurations, etc. - some labeled and some unlabeled. And of course, there
are some very mundane drawings of details of control handles and brackets to
hold same. Some drawings are of mere screw shapes and thread configurations,
etc. And then some are just quick notes about certain aspects of telegraph
construction and calculation. Most pages are executed in ink, while some are in
pencil as well, and some drawings are in both mediums of ink and pencil. And
there are some pages of writing and notes - but mostly everything consists of
drawings along with some sketches - with many having two or three drawings to a
page.
The pages include detailed drawings of telegraph
mechanism escapements - some with electrical coils shown; assorted
"ABC" telegraph receiver assemblies; various details of signal lever
handles for the telegraph assemblies; almost a dozen multiple drawings,
including coils and circuits pertaining to the "Blackwall
Railway" 5-needle Telegraph; notations and discussions of a problem with
the "Blackwall Railway" installation dated
July 1st and 2nd of the year 1840 with notes and with WM F. COOKE'S
signatures shown twice on this page as well.
The sample of Cooke's handwriting shown above and to the left dates from May 30, 1838 and is part of a letter Cooke wrote to Mrs. Sophia Brunel Hawes, sister to Isambard Kingdom Brunel - the man on whose Great Western Railway Cooke had installed the world's first permanent telegraph system. The example of handwriting to the right that dates from January 2, 1877 is from a letter Cooke executed near the end of Cooke's life, written to the electrical engineer and telegraph historian Latimer Clark.
Comparing the word "with" in each of the handwriting samples, one can see conclusively that all three examples shown essentially match in many aspects including their flow and delineation. Hence, one can clearly assert authenticity, establishing that Codex Lipack is in fact Cooke's journal and that the writing within the journal was penned by none other than William Fothergill Cooke himself.
JOURNAL ENTRIES (CONTINUED):
Several other pages are probably related directly to the Blackwall Railway installation, but they are undated and they are not annotated with any "Blackwall Railway" word references on said pages, but certain circuit or coil arrangements may match.
It is most fascinating to note that the "Blackwall Railway" sprang forth out of the catalyst created by Cooke and Wheatstone for the "Five-Dial" needle telegraph lever control system to run the London and Blackwall Railway's July 6th launch. This same Blackwall Railway was also a key pivotal point in the development of the "ABC" telegraph technology.
The following year, 1841, would become witness to an "ABC" type print wheel being perfected by Cooke and Wheatstone. This preceded the later stock ticker print mechanisn of three decades later! But it had the "ABC" communications form which had its start at the time of the July 1840 London and Blackwall Railway installation. This period was essentially when two separate systems were set in to motion and operated at the same time - and all for two separate applications! One was for signalling "Stop" and "Ready" to the train run along the cable activated rail line, while the "ABC" system was for sending message communications of spelled-out words from one point to another.
Then there are some pages of telegraph calculations and also what appears to be
a page for Kerby's wage calculations,
...but could alternatively be for material costs. Several entries for
material costs have been found through-out the Journal. One page with a side
view of the gearing used in a telegraph sender is dated "September
1839." Also the word
"Alarums" (as in alarms or bells) is found on several pages. These pages that show drawings and
discussions of Cooke’s invention of the telegraph “alarum” are also important
components of the Cooke Journal and notebook since these “alarums” came to be
widely used in railroad applications.
And it was a major subject of Cooke's argument against Wheatstone his partner - when the 'question' arose during Cooke and Wheatstone's infamous "Arbitration" argument over proprietary interests in the telegraph patented between them.
Beyond these 96 or so
pages on the telegraph, Richard Warren Lipack
explains that there are maybe ten pages of notes with Kerby
family member names mixed-in with other data; about five or six pages of
automobiles and steam driven vehicle drawings circa 1840; three or four pages
showing circa 1840 cameras / lens configurations (one that is a camera made of
wood dated Oct 26, 1840); one page of a simple flint lock gun part; one page
showing a battery driven medical quack battery coil with a price shown in
Canadian or American dollars as opposed to English pounds - circa mid-late
1840's; and the one aforementioned early partially executed page dated Nov. 30,
1836 of a college astronomy lecture COOKE took in, in Cooke's hand. Two other pages in the Journal found later, of
actually the same identical Astronomy lecture having the same identical
"Nov. 30, 1836" date as entered before, constitute a
totally completed and executed lecture produced by Cooke with descriptions and
a full treatment of super detailed drawings . The important handwriting exemplars recently obtained by
Mr. Lipack revealed that all of these entries of "November 30, 1836" are
completely in the hand of SIR WILLIAM F. COOKE, but they are in a much
smaller and finer handwriting than all of the other examples of COOKE'S
handwriting found in the Journal.
Perhaps this is because COOKE was exercising more care and pride in making his first entry into his newly acquired Journal now that he was back in London? It might have been months after Cooke arrived back in the Spring of 1836, before Cooke even found the blank old "Naamlyst" Journal in his travels. Perhaps he found it in a second-hand book shop, or maybe even in Amsterdam proper, from where it originally came. There is no way of telling, but the Journal began life in 1775 - the year before the colony of America would become an independent country from under British Rule.
This Astronomy lecture is
most significant, as it shows magnificently detailed drawings by SIR WILLIAM
COOKE which include that of astronomical representations and also that of an planetary orrery. This
Astronomy lecture entry is the VERY FIRST DATED ENTRY by COOKE found in the
Journal, and appears to be COOKE'S earliest entry as well - according to
historian Richard Warren Lipack.
Since he was born in 1806,
this 'Astronomy' lecture entry of late 1836 was made by the young SIR WILLIAM
COOKE when he was thirty years old and attending earlier in the winter of that year, the college lectures on anatomy at
the But it was also in Following this profound
first 'astronomical' entry, one starts to see the wholly intrepid development
of the first commercial digital electro-magnetic telegraph system ever
developed. This Journal sounds the birth of modern electronic communications
and the genesis of the Internet. And this long lost notebook journal is a magnum opus draft folio marking it's creation by the most prolific inventor and co-patentee of the new modern electronic era. An era that stood before this great epoch of human development and international culturalexpansion.
Then there are about three
to four pages in COOKE'S hand on personal experiments conducted on chemistry
for developing batteries to run the telegraph equipments; two pages by COOKE discussing his
investigation into perpetual motion (for telegraph ALARUM escapements?) and
then there are two or three pages showing details of a mechanical
pantograph needed to make mathematically accurate reductions for making
parts. Price calculations for parts needed to make telegraph power
batteries to run the telegraph system are also included on one or two pages. The use of the KERBY
family name throughout the Journal and the initials "F.K." are used
often and Mr. Lipack believes now that it appears to
have been a manner employed to SAFEGUARD the true purpose of the Journal from
unsuspecting eyes. During the progression of time that COOKE spent
drawing parts and assemblies he needed Kerby to make,
COOKE would have needed to LEAVE the Journal at Kerby's
workshop for the work to actually be executed. Many pages by COOKE give Kerby's
address at "12 Spann's Building" (Presumably this is near King's College - as
Kerby's father, Francis Kerby was associated with the keeping and/or making scientific models there). Also in his own writing,
COOKE makes reference to the words "Philosophical Instrument Maker."
WM. F. COOKE's
autograph signature is found on the other side of this page leaf - and it seems
that an English pound wage price paid is notated here, as well. A
few pages show galvanometer designs and circuits. Another page shows an address
for a "W. Kerby" at
"
Many noted scholars have highlighted the near-total absence of technical information and documentation dealing with the evolution and earliest beginnings of digital electrical communications. John Liffen is the curator of communications at London's Science Museum and perhaps the most noted authority on early telegraph communications. In his 2010 article entitled "The Introduction of the Electric Telegraph in Britain, a Reappraisal of the work of Cooke and Wheatstone" and in his lectures, Mr. Liffen repeatedly noted the absence of detailed information on technical aspects of Cooke and Wheatstone's inventions and installations. In his 1965 book on Cooke and Wheatstone, Gregory Hubbard made many similar statements.
Mr. Liffen also stated in his 2010 paper published in the Journal of the Newcomen Society in Great Britain that "...the history of its [the telegraph] introduction and development has not been well told. Successive historians have tended to copy what previous books have said, rather than carry out new research." Mr. Liffen made similar statements in his 2007 formal lecture before the Newcomen Society.
This lack of detailed information is not due to the fact that the information was not recorded but rather that it was lost in the time since these inventions and discoveries were made. No amount of research can produce documents that have been lost or destroyed.
The discovery of Sir William Fothergill Cooke's lost journal was due to an exceptionally astute inspection by Richard Warren Lipack. Many people had seen the journal and passed it by as a worthless scrapbook and it's purchase and the subsequent removal of the overlay of newsprint has provided historians and scholars with an unprecedented opportunity to fill in major missing parts of the jigsaw puzzle of early research.
After 100 years the secrets buried in the journal are starting to be analyzed and they are providing some important and very unexpected insights such as the fact that Kerby, Cooke's machinist was listed as having become associated with Samuel Morse immediately after he left England for America and the appearance of the first digital 'finger keys' in the Cooke journal slightly before the 'finger key' appeared in the notes of Alfred Vail, Morse's associate.
In addition to the contributions to knowledge of the history of telegraphy, Cooke's journal will ultimately provide additional areas of information.
With the information gleaned from measurements shown and described in the Journal - some surviving physical telegraphic instruments residing in museums primarily in Europe today, can now be matched with actual written and drawn descriptions found in the journal to reveal some hitherto unknown links between them.
Thomas B. Perera Ph. D. is Professor Emeritus at Montclair State University and former Visiting Professor at Columbia University.
For additional information email Professor Thomas Perera:
===================================================
EVOLVING DESCRIPTION
********************************************************
Here is a rather detailed but still preliminary general synopsis regarding the 1836-1842 Sir William Fothergill Cooke Telegraph Journal. Many hundreds of additional details need to be examined.
Richard Warren Lipack discovered that several pages
that are signed in ink by Cooke himself include a variety of addresses also
inscribed in his own hand. Mr. Lipack noted
that in the early years of the telegraph's development, Cooke moved around
often and his addresses match some of those seen in the now published letters
he wrote to his mother in the late 1830's, Cooke gives his various addresses
with the dates he wrote from those actual addresses to his mother. This
corroboration between the dated addresses found on the letters to his mother,
with the various addresses found in the Cooke journal with his personal
signatures, substantiate or zero-in more closely as to the date or time period
of the page that they are written on, as found in the Cooke Journal. Thus Richard
Warren Lipack has developed
an effective way to date many of the undated drawings found in the Cooke
journal and to determine when certain aspects of his telegraph patents were
actually first formulated!
The exact number of all of the drawings has not been assessed, but there appear
to be between 100 and 150 different separate executions in all, and more if we
include all of the technologies treated within the Journal.
The Journal Entries (Evolving Descriptions)
This topmost name entered on this above mentioned page is COOKE'S actual
signature and asserts "ORDERS" to Kerby addressing problems with the "Blackwall Railway" line - and repairs that COOKE
apparently asked to have made - and below, next to Kerby's
initials "F.K" written by COOKE is COOKE'S signature again near a
notation for the referenced July 2, 1840 repair.
Richard Warren Lipack has provided the following photograph of this actual
Cooke journal page, shown here by Professor Perera in his virtual
telegraph museum and website page for the first time anywhere!
A page from Cooke's journal in his handwriting
and an Exemplar letter by Cooke for handwriting comparison.
Shown above are handwriting samples executed by William Fothergill Cooke across a span of 39 years. The center example dates from November 30, 1836 and represents the earliest dated entry in Cooke's journal, i.e. Codex Lipack.
Another entry which has an address for COOKE and his signature displays drawings with respect to electrical configurations that
Kerby was expected to follow and build.
There is yet another page with Cooke's name and address - which will be
described in more detail later in this summary.
Also on the "Blackwall Railway" page of
July 1st & 2nd, 1840 is a wonderful drawing of the lever mechanism
and circuit contact parts assembly as it works in relationship to this lever
handle. Another page dated "July 1840" signed by COOKE shows an
'ABC' dial and a needle assembly annotated as for the "Blackwall
Railway" installation. And there are other
"Blackwall Railway" -related installation
drawings and one which has a signature of a person who may have been a "Blackwall Railway" official - signing off on a large
body of text by COOKE and on the other side - showing another drawing for a
"Blackwall Railway" designated assembly.
All in all - according to historian Richard Warren Lipack
- about a
dozen pages pertain to the "Blackwall
Railway" installation of 1840.
Many more pages are dated. And many
pages are not dated - but are self evident to be in the 1839-1840 period due to
their sequence in the journal. The earliest dated entry is November 30, 1836.
It is unrelated to telegraphy - as those from this period are about an
Astronomy class that COOKE attended likely in London, and possibly one
conducted by Prof. William Ritchie, who has even signed the journal page which
has three or four Cooke signatures and the signature of "Prof. Wheatstone
- Kings College." It might also have been entered while Cooke was visiting
There is also an extraordinary COOKE-executed chart with mathematical equations
plotting the vibration created by pendulum swings entitled; "Length of
Pendulum to Vibrate Seconds at every Fifth degree of Latitude."
These are for large clock pendulums, but may have been recorded observations of
same made by COOKE to apply perhaps on a smaller scale to telegraphic
escapements? This examination appears to be from the time of COOKE'S work
on the telegraph.
Please further note that the discussion on 'pendulum swing created vibrations'
by COOKE is interesting in that in 1835, Wheatstone had envisioned the use of
"mechanical vibration" as is stated in "Charles
Wheatstone: Encyclopedia - Charles Wheatstone" as follows:
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Charles_Wheatstone/id/1957647
"Wheatstone abandoned his idea of transmitting intelligence by the
mechanical vibration of rods, and took up the electric telegraph. In 1835 he
lectured on the system of Baron Schilling, and declared that the means were
already known by which an electric telegraph could be made of great service to
the world."
And also drawn from "Charles Wheatstone: Encyclopedia - Charles
Wheatstone" where it is stated:
"In 1840 Wheatstone had patented an alphabetical telegraph, or,
'Wheatstone A-B-C instrument,' which moved with a step-by-step motion, and
showed the letters of the message upon a dial. The same principle was utilized
in his type-printing telegraph, patented in 1841. This was the first apparatus
which printed a telegram in type. It was worked by two circuits, and as the
type revolved, a hammer actuated by the current, pressed the required letter on
the paper. In 1840 Wheatstone also brought out his magneto-electrical machine
for generating continuous currents, and his chronoscope, for measuring minute
intervals of time, which was used in determining the speed of a bullet or the
passage of a star. In this apparatus an electric current actuated an
electro-magnet, which noted the instant of an occurrence by means of a pencil
on a moving paper. It is said to have been capable of distinguishing 1/7300
part of a second (137 microsecond), and the time a body took to fall from a
height of one inch (25 mm)."
The development of the "'Wheatstone A-B-C instrument,' which moved by a
step-by-step motion, and showed the letters of the message upon a dial,"
is the primary defacto essence of the Journal in
discussion herein.
The Journal is the 'Holy Grail' to the true essence of this study and primary
notion - predating the "1840 Wheatstone" patent for his
"alphabetical telegraph."
Further, the on-line article states:
"On November 26, 1840, he exhibited his electro-magnetic clock in the
library of the Royal Society, and propounded a plan for distributing the
correct time from a standard clock to a number of local timepieces. The
circuits of these were to be electrified by a key or contact-maker actuated by
the arbour of the standard, and their hands corrected
by electro-magnetism. The following January Alexander Bain took out a patent
for an electro-magnetic clock, and he subsequently charged Wheatstone with
appropriating his ideas. It appears that Bain worked as a mechanist to
Wheatstone from August to December, 1840, and he asserted that he had
communicated the idea of an electric clock to Wheatstone during that period;
but Wheatstone maintained that he had experimented in that direction during
May. Bain further accused Wheatstone of stealing his idea of the electro-magnetic
printing telegraph; but Wheatstone showed that the instrument was only a
modification of his own electro-magnetic telegraph.
The COOKE entries and drawings in this Journal, with dates for some of the
telegraphic clock escapements should settle this question once and for all and
allow Mr. Bain to rest in peace, quietly. Kerby,
with several years experience under his belt working for Cooke & Wheatstone
- clearly seems to have made this apparatus prior to Mr. Bain - and this
Journal executed by WM. F. COOKE should bring closure to this
notion. Mr. Bain's name is nowhere to be found in this Journal, -
and certainly Kerby, was the main machinist for the
Cooke & Wheatstone concern - which Wm. F. Cooke recollected to Latimer
Clark shortly before COOKE died. This recollection is now in the
There is also mention on two different pages of the Journal of
the well known Prof. Ritchie - the U.K. King's College Professor of Natural
Philosophy.
Of the nearly dozen or so "Blackwall
Railway" installation-related pages, there are a few with just text - and
there are five pages of drawings showing the infamous "5-Dial"
telegraph system for the "Blackwall
Railway." The drawings show five "5-Dial" telegraph
cabinet assemblies. This reveals apparently that the "five needles"
used in total between the "5-Dial" cabinet configurations premiered on the London Blackwall Railroad installation, must have represented that 5 telegraph stations were in place on the line.
The journal also contains brief mention of the "Great Western
Railway" installation (owned by ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL), the
"British Queen" installation. The "Minories"
installation that is well documented in the modern
What is interesting to note, is that in 1840, the sewing machine was not really
in use - and people had their clothes made by a seamstress or by their wife or
daughter at home. In
Thus, this Journal, historian Richard Warren Lipack
points out, was created in a time of great technical insufficiency as it was,
before the introduction of the sewing machine. It marks a time in man's
great epoch that was still in the throes of its basic development into the
modern technological world that we have today - and this Journal embodies this
great time of invention more cohesively than any other extant document. The
genesis of the Internet and telegraphic communication and the electric
typewriter; the two passenger personal automobile with steering wheel and the camera in its the first year of
existence - all live in this remarkable manuscript Journal - written when
people were essentially still hand stitching clothing!
Besides the Sir Charles Wheatstone King's College signature in the frontis, there are the several other pages with WM. F.
COOKE signatures and some with his varying addresses. As stated before,
COOKE moved several times during his work on the telegraph - borrowing
monies from his mother and father often to keep him afloat. Over half a
dozen "COOKE" names (which constitute his signature), have been found
in the Journal, but there may be a few others, as three or four more were just
recently 'found hiding' by Mr. Lipack on the one frontis page
with Professor Ritchie's and Wheatstone's signatures! There is a lot of material, some
going off in different directions executed at different times on the same
page.
Then there are a few pages of details of screws and other small parts and some
very fine drawings of details pertinent to the "ABC" dials and such
prior to the patent application for same. There is a great deal of historic
material and very wonderful drawings in great detail. Some are actually quite
amazing.
A drawing of a dial and calculations for 'four dials for the "Blackwall Railway" also appear on one page.
Another page shows a standardized machining characteristic chart by COOKE for
cutting brass gears, pinions, etc. and for making other telegraph mechanism
assemblies.
On the one page about the 'four dials' COOKE writes above the simple dial drawing: "Size of the four [or two] dials
for the speaking Instruments of the Blackwall Railway
- Inches 21.1/2 x inches 21.1/2" and cost computations are entered -
totaling a sum figure arriving at "L 114.0.8."
Some pages are mixtures of scribbles and seemingly undecipherable
notations mixed with the Kerby familial data
(brother's address - some for cousins perhaps?) and /or also business contacts
of COOKE'S, it seems.
Although James Watt had invented a rudimentary copy machine employing a 'roller
press' of sorts in the late 1700's, it was still not practical for Cooke to
employ here to produce and 'drop off' and give Kerby
'copies' of his designs to work from - as his Journal was a bound work and not
at the time separate sheets of 'copy paper' that he would have worked on!
Thus, looking back to the "F.K" and "Kerby"
name, now known to be in Cooke's hand and found on many of the Journal's pages:
Lipack reasons that if COOKE'S name was emblazoned
all over the Journal page's, and some unsuspecting eye came across the open
Journal on Kerby's workbench, the true nature of the
Journal would have been revealed and the secrecy of its innovations put into
jeopardy. By 1838 - AFTER the first telegraph patent was issued on June 12,
1837, COOKE'S name had great notoriety! So, placing Kerby's
name on most all of the Journal pages was for Cooke, really more a written directive directed 'to' the machinist "Frederick Kerby," or more simply, "F.K." In this manner the abundance of Kerby's name and that of family members, safeguarded COOKE'S notoriety. And in addition, it also SAFEGUARDED the Journal's true essence from unsuspecting eyes that could have happened upon it by accident!
All in all, excluding the approx. 7 leaves (14 pages recalled by Mr. Lipack), from the 1700's Amsterdam society
"NAAMLYST," there are approximately 150 pages with drawings and notes
on them - ALL by COOKE. Some names of those entered in to the Journal may be
college professors. And there are a few men of mark or notable lesser
grade scientists, with addresses, etc. - included in these pages - like the name: "Prof. Ritchie" Other
names may or may not pertain to the early telegraph. More research is
needed here. There might be 10-15 pages in the 191 page Journal
that are blank, maybe less. Some may have a few words on them or a number or
two. And as has been noted, there are about 96 pages of the 150 pages that
pertain to the telegraph. A few more pages show detailed drawings of
electro-magnet coil assemblies and circuits. with the words "magnets" written by COOKE several times.
HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
This document is clearly of great historical importance not only for the material it contains but also for the insights it will provide to researchers who wish to obtain a better understanding of the inventive process as it pertains to the development of the telegraph and all forms of electrical communications that have evolved from these beginnings.
SUMMARY:
Many historians have commented on the lack of detailed and technical information about the early development of the telegraph by Cooke and Wheatstone. This discovery of Cooke's extraordinary and previously unknown journal provides many of these missing details.
The preceding material shows the extraordinary amount of information in this journal that is now ready and waiting to be digitized, and made available to historians in the years to come.
Journal Discoverer and Contact Information
Richard Warren Lipack
is an internationally known expert on early telegraphy, scientific instruments, autographs and ephemera. He has been collecting and researching early telegraph, scientific and technological instruments for over 40 years.
His interest in autographs and ephemera began back in the late 1970's when he handled the majority of the basement collection at Glenmont, the New Jersey home and estate of American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. This collection primarily included the former Thomas A. Edison Co's corporate documents.
Mr. Lipack has consulted on and supplied antiques and artifacts to many private collections and museums the world over, with Harvard University Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among the institutions. He is the author of a book on 20th century American and English culture and the development of the modern music genres between same. In the 1970's he worked closely with the estate of Brian Epstein, who was the manager of the music group the Beatles.
He received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1968 and has taught and conducted research in the fields of neuroscience, brain coding, and computerized instruction.
He has been collecting and researching telegraph and scientific instruments for over 58 years.
He has written:
The only Telegraph Collectors Guidebook ever published: http://TomPerera.com/tcg3.htm
An extensive Telegraph Collectors Reference Library CD-ROM: http://TomPerera.com/tcrcd.htm.
And he has presented numerous telegraph lectures and demonstrations throughout the world.
He maintains an extensive on-line virtual telegraph museum at: http://TomPerera.com
...and a virtual Enigma cipher machine museum at:
http://TomPerera.com/enigma
...and two virtual Scientific Instrument Museums at Columbia and Montclair State Universities.
He is a member of many scientific organizations including the Society for the History of Technology and the Newcomen Society.
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