Page:Hamel Telegraph history England 1859.pdf/74

70 aid of Dr. Gale, had (in 1837) invented. It was a thing quite useless for practical purposes. Alfred Tail, with his brother, very soon after, made for Morse, as I have already mentioned, a better one, and, in the course of a good many years, that practically very useful instrument was brought about, which at present goes by the name of Morse's.

The first telegraph line in England was constructed by Mr. Cooke, from London (Paddington) along the Great Western Railroad to West Drayton, in 1838-39. In 1840, he established the telegraph along the Blackwall railway and, in 1841, a short line from the Queen-street station at Glasgow, through the tunnel to the engine-house at Cowlairs, on the railway to Edinburgh. In 1842–3, the line from West Drayton was continued to Slough. In 1843, two short lines in Ireland and in England were made, but 1844, one of considerable length, all the way from London to Portsmouth, was done for Government. Some tunnels were also furnished with telegraphs.

On the 3rd of June, 1844, His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas—being on his way to Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor—saw, at the Paddington station, the working of the telegraph on the line between London and Slough (which was shown to the Emperor by Mr. Cooke. Ed.)