Sir Charles Wheatstone, FRS, 1802-1875 (review)

The original edition of this work, which appeared on the anniversary of Wheatstone's death, somehow escaped the T&C review process. And while there is little new in the present publication (primarily some additions related to the concertina), it is a pleasure to take the opportunity to give Brian Bowers's efforts the attention they deserve. Bowers was until recently curator of electrical engineering at the Science Museum in London, where he had responsibility for the electric power and lighting collections. His interest in Wheatstone, stimulated initially by objects in his care, led him to the topic of his dissertation, and subsequently of this volume.

The book is offered as a biography, and indeed it includes basic biographical information: Wheatstone's limited educational opportunities, which he supplemented by extensive reading; his skill at devising intriguing demonstrations, which was offset by an acute shyness that made him avoid public speaking whenever possible; his four-decade tenure as professor (but one who seldom lectured) at King's College; and his election as a fellow of the Royal Society. There are also some family details. But the literary style and the structure of the presentation are more in the nature of a chronicle—a recitation of Wheatstone's accomplishments and of the researches undertaken by Bowers in their pursuit. Such an approach is justified in large part by the meagerness of the biographical sources, which Bowers discovered only after persistent investigations. There are family business records and correspondence with a few scientific contemporaries, including Faraday, Hershel, and Cooke. There is apparently nothing of a strictly personal nature. But there are almost a hundred published papers and sixteen patents. And there are artifacts.

This last category of sources is what makes the book special. Bowers brings a curator's touch to his investigation, looking at the devices as evidence to be explored and not just icons to be admired. Of particular interest are measurements Bowers made of waveforms for some early Wheatstone magneto-generators, using nineteenth-century apparatus. Bowers interprets a special arrangement of contacts on the original Wheatstone self-excited dynamo as an indication that Wheatstone performed a similar experiment. The measurement would have been valuable in assuring that the output from the armature would be conveyed to the field coils at the optimum moment. (The generator itself, unfortunately, is no longer in condition to be tested.)

Bowers's major contribution lies in an account of the achievements of an underappreciated English scientist-engineer. Wheatstone's involvement in his family's musical instrument business led him to significant experiments in acoustics and to the invention of the concertina; he invented the stereoscope and applied it to photography as soon as that technology was available; he brought Ohm's Law to the attention of the British scientific community and applied it to telegraphy; with W. F. Cooke he designed and put into operation the world's first practical electric telegraph; he later employed punched tape to make possible high-speed telegraph transmission; building on the work of others he devised a sensitive resistance-measuring instrument forever known as the Wheatstone bridge; he contributed to submarine telegraphy; and he measured the speed of electricity. Coincidental with (and independent of) Werner Siemens, in 1866 he designed a self-excited dynamo.

This last invention was the critical link between electromagnetic discoveries associated with Oersted, Faraday, Ampere, and Henry earlier in the century, and the practical application of electric power by Edison, Ferranti, Tesla, and others before its close. It is therefore of enormous importance to the history of technology. And it is a fitting tribute to a man who repeatedly served as a bridge between the scientific and technical worlds.

The book suffers from a writing style that could have been improved and a few typographical errors that should have been corrected by conscientious editing. But this does not detract from its...