54
Having twice consulted Dr. Faraday, Cooke, by the advice of Dr. Roget, visited, on the 27th February, 1887, Professor Charles Wheatstone at his residence, in Conduit-street, and was soon after taken by him to his rooms in Song's College.
The result of Cooke's acquaintance with Wheatstone was, that, in May, 1887, they resolved to unite their efforts in endeavouring to introduce the use of telegraphs on a large scale in England.
Professor Wheatstone was at that time not yet sure whether the electro-magnet would work sufficiently well at considerable distances, and Mr. Cooke, who had left on the continent the instrument made at Heidelberg, constructed another like it with four deflecting needles. The opinion was, that the principle on which "Möncke's" instrument worked would be the best to adopt for practical use. Neither Professor Wheatstone, nor Mr. Cooke, knew that in so doing they were adopting Baron Schilling's plan.
That the instrument which Mr. Cooke had seen and copied at Heidelberg, was Baron Schilling's, is easy to prove. In Mr. Cooke's pamphlet, printed in 1856, and entitled: "The Electric Telegraph: Was it invented by Professor Wheatstone?" he gives on the first plate, in the first figure (Drawing I, Part A), a representation of the
