Charles Wheatstone Biography (1802-1875)

Nationality
English
Gender
Male
Occupation
physicist

Charles Wheatstone was a physicist whose fertile, questioning mind produced numerous
discoveries and inventions in the fields of optics, acoustics, electricity, and telegraphy.

Wheatstone was born in Gloucester, England, to a family of musical instrumentmakers and

dealers. He had no formal education in science. He was apprenticed to an uncle in 1816 as a
musical instrument maker, and invented the concertina in 1829. His musical background led
Wheatstone to experimental studies ofacoustics, which in turn led to his appointment as
professor of experimentalphysics at King's College, London, in 1834. Wheatstone held this
position for the rest of his life, although he seldom lectured, concentrating instead onresearch in
electricity and optics.

Wheatstone's contributions to acoustics included the kaleidophone, a device that produced a

visual demonstration of sound vibration. He also made important discoveries about plate
vibrations and vibrations in columns of air. In thefield of optics, Wheatstone invented the
stereoscope, which demonstrated howtwo pictures could be visually combined to create the
illusion of depth andthree dimensions. He anticipated the development of spectroscopy with his
1835 paper showing that the spectra of spark discharges differed according to the metal used for
the electrode. Wheatstone also invented a polar clock, whichused the angle of polarization of
light to determine the time of day.

In the 1830s Wheatstone turned to the study of electricity. He used a rotating mirror in 1834 to
make the first measurement of the velocity of an electrical current through a wire. (The same
apparatus, by Wheatstone's suggestion, was later used to measure the speed of light.) These
experiments, combined with his early interest in acoustics, led Wheatstone to speculate on the
possibilities of sending messages along the wire using the electric current. At thispoint,
Wheatstone was approached by William F. Cooke (1806-1879), an Englishman who had joined
the East India army at the age of 20 in 1826 but who had been forced to resign his commission
because of ill health. In 1835 Cooke hadobserved a demonstration of an electric telegraph, and,
his imagination fired, returned to England in 1836 to devote himself to telegraph design. He
turned to Wheatstone for advice, and the two formed a partnership. They patented their five-
needle telegraph in 1837, constructed a demonstration line the following month, and installed the
first working commercial electric telegraph for the Great Western Railway in 1838.

Although Cooke and Wheatstone persistently quarreled about claims of who actually invented
their telegraph, they remained partners. Cooke concentrated onbusiness affairs, while
Wheatstone continued development work on the telegraph for many years. In 1840 he brought
out the first of his many types of letter-showing dial telegraphs; in 1841 came the type-printing
telegraph; then heintroduced an automatic transmitting and receiving system. Wheatstone also
studied submarine telegraphy, experimenting with an actual line in 1844 in Swansea Bay.

Wheatstone made important contributions in the field of electicity as well. He improved early
versions of the dynamo. He recognized the great theoreticaland practical importance of Ohm's
law, and spread knowledge of it in England,where it was little known at that time. He invented
the rheostat (an adjustable resistor), and popularized a method of accurately measuring electrical
resistance that had been invented by Samuel Christie (1784-1865) but became known as the
Wheatstone bridge.

Wheatstone was also an accomplished cryptographer, and invented a machine called the Playfair
cipher to create indeciperable secret messages. Wheatstone received numerous honors for his
scientific accomplishments. He married in 1847 and had five children. Wheatstone was knighted
in 1868 and died on a visitto Paris in 1875.

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