Heroes of the Telegraph | Page 8

was soon complete.
In September, 1821, Wheatstone brought himself into public notice by
exhibiting the 'Enchanted Lyre,' or 'Aconcryptophone,' at a music-shop
at Pall Mall and in the Adelaide Gallery. It consisted of a mimic lyre
hung from the ceiling by a cord, and emitting the strains of several
instruments--the piano, harp, and dulcimer. In reality it was a mere
sounding box, and the cord was a steel rod that conveyed the vibrations
of the music from the several instruments which were played out of
sight and ear-shot. At this period Wheatstone made numerous
experiments on sound and its transmission. Some of his results are
preserved in Thomson's ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY for 1823. He
recognised that sound is propagated by waves or oscillations of the
atmosphere, as light by undulations of the luminiferous ether. Water,
and solid bodies, such as glass, or metal, or sonorous wood, convey the
modulations with high velocity, and he conceived the plan of
transmitting sound-signals, music, or speech to long distances by this
means. He estimated that sound would travel 200 miles a second
through solid rods, and proposed to telegraph from London to
Edinburgh in this way. He even called his arrangement a 'telephone.'
[Robert Hooke, in his MICROGRAPHIA, published in 1667, writes: 'I
can assure the reader that I have, by the help of a distended wire,
propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in an instant, or
with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light.' Nor was it essential
the wire should be straight; it might be bent into angles. This property
is the basis of the mechanical or lover's telephone, said to have been
known to the Chinese many centuries ago. Hooke also considered the
possibility of finding a way to quicken our powers of hearing.] A writer
in the REPOSITORY OF ARTS for September 1, 1821, in referring to
the 'Enchanted Lyre,' beholds the prospect of an opera being performed
at the King's Theatre, and enjoyed at the Hanover Square Rooms, or
even at the Horns Tavern, Kennington. The vibrations are to travel
through underground conductors, like to gas in pipes. 'And if music be

capable of being thus conducted,' he observes,'perhaps the words of
speech may be susceptible of the same means of propagation. The
eloquence of counsel, the debates of Parliament, instead of being read
the next day only,--But we shall lose ourselves in the pursuit of this
curious subject.'
Besides transmitting sounds to a distance, Wheatstone devised a simple
instrument for augmenting feeble sounds, to which he gave the name of
'Microphone.' It consisted of two slender rods, which conveyed the
mechanical vibrations to both ears, and is quite different from the
electrical microphone of Professor Hughes.
In 1823, his uncle, the musical instrument maker, died, and Wheatstone,
with his elder brother, William, took over the business. Charles had no
great liking for the commercial part, but his ingenuity found a vent in
making improvements on the existing instruments, and in devising
philosophical toys. At the end of six years he retired from the
undertaking.
In 1827, Wheatstone introduced his 'kaleidoscope,' a device for
rendering the vibrations of a sounding body apparent to the eye. It
consists of a metal rod, carrying at its end a silvered bead, which
reflects a 'spot' of light. As the rod vibrates the spot is seen to describe
complicated figures in the air, like a spark whirled about in the
darkness. His photometer was probably suggested by this appliance. It
enables two lights to be compared by the relative brightness of their
reflections in a silvered bead, which describes a narrow ellipse, so as to
draw the spots into parallel lines.
In 1828, Wheatstone improved the German wind instrument, called the
MUND HARMONICA, till it became the popular concertina, patented
on June 19, 1829 The portable harmonium is another of his inventions,
which gained a prize medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He also
improved the speaking machine of De Kempelen, and endorsed the
opinion of Sir David Brewster, that before the end of this century a
singing and talking apparatus would be among the conquests of
science.
In 1834, Wheatstone, who had won a name for himself, was appointed
to the Chair of Experimental Physics in King's College, London, But
his first course of lectures on Sound were a complete failure, owing to
an invincible repugnance to public speaking, and a distrust of his

powers in that direction. In the rostrum he was tongue-tied and
incapable, sometimes turning his back on the audience and mumbling
to the diagrams on the wall. In the laboratory he felt himself at home,
and ever after confined his duties mostly to demonstration.
He achieved renown by a great experiment--the measurement of the
velocity of electricity in a wire. His method was beautiful