A
RONALDS, Sir FRANCIS (1788-1873), inventor of the electric telegraph and meteorologist,son of Francis Ronalds, a London merchant, and of his wife, Jane, daughter ofWilliam Field, was born in London on 21 Feb. 1788. Ronalds was educated at aprivate school at Cheshunt by the Rev. E. Cogan. At an early age he displayed ataste for experiment, and he acquired great skill later in practical mechanicsand draughtsmanship. Under the influence of Jean Andre de Luc (1727-1817),whose acquaintance he made in 1814, he began to devote himself to practicalelectricity. In 1814 and 1815 he published several papers on electricity inTilloch’s Philosophical Magazine’, one of which records an ingenious use of De Luc’s ’electric column’ as a motive power for a clock.
B
Ronalds’ name is chiefly remembered as the inventor of an electric telegraph. Since1753, when the first proposal for an electric telegraph worked by staticalelectricity was made by a writer signing C. M. (said to be Charles Morrison) inthe ‘Scots Magazine’, successive advances had beenmade abroad by Volta, Le Sage, Lomond, Cavallo, Salva, and others; but much wasneeded to perfect the invention.
C
In 1816 Francis Ronalds, then living at Upper Mall, Hammersmith, built in his backgarden two frames to accommodate eight miles of wire for his new invention ofan electrostatic telegraph. It used clockwork-driven rotating dials, engravedwith letters of the alphabet and numbers, synchronised with each other, at bothends of the circuit. For the past three or four years, encouraged by theoctogenarian Swiss meteorologist, Jean Andre De Luc, Ronalds had beenenthusiastically experimenting with electrostatic clockwork devices. Whensomeone desired to send a message he earthed the wire at his end at the momentwhen the dial indicated the desired letter. At the receiving end the pith ballswould fall together when earthed and the recipient noted the letter showing onhis dial at that moment. The system was slow and depended on the two dialsstaying in step, but Ronalds successfully transmitted and received letters over150 metres of wire; later he succeeded in sending messages through eight milesof iron wire suspended above his garden in London.
D
After sending messages along his wires on the frame, he developed another version inwhich the wires were enclosed in glass tubes buried in the ground. At each endof the line a clockwork mechanism turned synchronously revolving discs withletters on them. A frictional-electricity machine kept the wire continuouslycharged, while at each end two pith balls hung from the wire on silk threads,and since they were similarly charged from the wire they stayed apart. Ronalds’ instrument was of real practical use, and the brilliant idea of usingsynchronously rotating discs, now employed in the Hughes printing apparatus,was entirely his own. The only defect in his invention was the comparativeslowness with which a succession of symbols could be transmitted.
E
With communications between London and Portsmouth in mind, he believed his telegraphwould work over distances of 800km. In the same year, Ronalds wrote to offerhis invention to the Admiralty. In fact, in 1806, Ralph Wedgwood submitted atelegraph based on frictional electricity to the Admiralty, but was told thatthe semaphore was sufficient for the country. In a pamphlet he suggested theestablishment of a telegraph system with public offices in different centres.Francis Ronalds, in 1816, brought a similar telegraph of his invention to thenotice of the Admiralty, and was politely informed that ‘telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary’. John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, replied that “Telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary; and no other than theone now in use will be adopted.”(The one in use was a semaphoresystem). Only a year after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Admiralty saw noneed for improved communications, even though the semaphore was usable only indaylight and good weather.
F
After this disappointment, Ronalds set off for the continent. He travelled throughoutEurope and the Eastern Mediterranean, taking notes, sketching and collectingscientific books between 1816 and 1823. He had begun collecting his largelibrary of works on electricity and kindred subjects. The last activity formedthe beginnings of the Ronalds Library, left in trust to the IEE (now the IET)after his death. In a small pamphlet published in 1823, Ronalds described Hisinvention and listed some of its possible uses, “Why should not government Governat Portsmouth almost as promptly as in Downing Street? Why Should our defaultersescape by default of our foggy climate? Let us have Electrical Conversazioneoffices communicating with each other all over the kingdom if we can.” In 1825 he invented and patented a perspective tracing instrument,intended to facilitate drawing from nature, which he improved about 1828, anddescribed in a work called ‘Mechanical Perspective’. These instruments seem to be the only ones for which he took out patents.
G
However, Ronalds never patented his invention in electric telegraph. Ronalds seems to havemade few or no practical contributions to science. In the meanwhile, one persondid benefit from this work-Charles Wheatstone who saw the telegraph as a boy.When Charles Wheatstone was quite a child, his father had seen the Ronaldstelegraph at work. Later, The invention of an electric telegraph had beenmarvelously developed by Wheatstone, who had seen many of the Hammersmithexperiments, in conjunction with Mr. William Fothergill Cooke, and these twomen together devised and patented in 1837 the first electric telegraph usedpublicly and commercially in England. When, in1855, a controversy arose betweenWheatstone and Cooke with regard to their respective shares in the invention,Wheatstone at once acknowledged his direct debt to Ronalds, and Cooke, thoughless fully, acknowledged the priority of Ronalds’ work; Until 1855 Ronalds’ share in the invention had been forgotten by the public.
H
Early in 1843 Ronalds was made honorary director and superintendent of theMeteorological Observatory, which was then established at Kew by the BritishAssociation for the Advancement of Science. He began work on a system forregistering meteorological data using photography and this time was awarded agrant to continue his work. A similar system was developed independently byCharles Brooke, aided like Ronalds by grants from the Royal Society, hadinvented independently about this time. But the British Association confirmedRonalds’ priority. This was the beginning ofautomatic, accurate recording of meteorological data and remained in use forsome years after Ronalds’ death.
I
Ronalds lived long enough to see his prophecies come to fruition and to receive belatedofficial recognition: in 1870, three years before he died, he was knighted byQueen Elizabeth I, for his“early And remarkable labours intelegraphic investigations.”
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发表于 2025-9-11 09:39:07
