Today, telegraphy comes to India. The University of
Houston's College of Engineering presents this
series about the machines that make our
civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity
created them.
In 1856 the British
completed a 4000-mile Indian telegraph system. It
connected Calcutta, Agra, Bombay, Peshawar, and
Madras. The telegraph was the brainchild of a
visionary inventor named William O'Shaughnessy, and
it secured England's grip on India.
O'Shaughnessy had gone to India in 1833 as a
24-year-old assistant surgeon with the East India
Company. There he began experimenting with
electricity. He invented an electric motor and a
silver chloride battery. Then, in 1839, he set up a
13½-mile-long demonstration telegraph system
near Calcutta.
That was only two years after Samuel F.B. Morse
built his famous demonstration system in the United
States. But O'Shaughnessy was unaware of Morse's
work. His telegraph used a different code and, at
first, he transmitted the message by imposing a
series of tiny electric shocks on the operator's
finger. He also came up with another unique
invention. He used a 2½-mile stretch of the
Hooghly River, in place of wire, to complete the
circuit.
O'Shaughnessy published a pamphlet about the
system, but he failed to ignite any interest in
telegraphy. Finally, in 1847, Lord Dalhousie took
over as Governor General of India. Dalhousie showed
real vision in developing public works. He
initiated roads, canals, steamship service to
England, the Indian railway, and a postal system.
Of course it was Dalhousie who saw the potential of
O'Shaunessy's telegraph. He authorized
O'Shaughnessy to build a 27-mile line near
Calcutta. That was running so successfully by 1851
that Dalhousie authorized him to build a full
trans-India telegraph. O'Shaughnessy finished it
three years later.
It was an amazing triumph over technical and
bureaucratic problems. By then O'Shaughnessy knew
about the new English and American telegraph
systems, but that was more hindrance than help. It
simply meant he had to invent his own equipment to
avoid patent disputes. He also had to work with
local materials, environments, and methods of
construction. He had to invent his own signal
transmitter and create his own means for stringing
lines.
While the system was still under construction, it
helped the British in the Crimean War. Three years
later, the full system so networked British rule
that it was decisive in putting down the Sepoy
Uprising. One captured rebel, being led to the
gallows, pointed to a telegraph line and bravely
cried, "There is the accursed string that strangles
us."
So question nineteenth-century British colonialism
if you will. There is much to question. But you can
only admire O'Shaughnessy. He showed what one
person can do by trusting the creative ability
that's there to claim. He stands as a reminder that
one person can make a difference.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
work.
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