Charles Wheatstone

Cooke and Wheatstone secured a patent in May 1837 for giving signals and sounding alarms in distant places by means of electric currents transmitted through electric circuits.

An experimental telegraph line was successfully demonstrated between Euston and Camden Town in July 1837.

The formal deed of partnership between Cooke and Wheatstone was dated November 1837, establishing their business relationship.

Edward Davy invented the practical metallic make-and-break relay in 1837, which became the relay of choice for telegraph systems.

Cooke and Wheatstone co-developed a needle telegraph system in 1837, using needles on a board to point to letters.

Samuel Morse filed a caveat for a telegraph patent in Washington, D.C., on September 28, 1837, claiming his recording electric telegraph invention.

Cooke and Wheatstone installed the first commercial telegraph in 1838 on the Great Western Railway, running from Paddington to West Drayton.

The underground cables soon failed from deteriorating insulation, prompting an interim two-needle system using three remaining wires, which required skilled operators for the first time in telegraph history.

William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo founded the Electric Telegraph Company in 1846, creating the world's first public telegraph company.

The Electric Telegraph Company was incorporated by the Electric Telegraph Company's Act 1846, granting it legal status.

The company paid £120,000 for Cooke and Wheatstone's earlier patents, with Wheatstone retaining a mileage royalty.

In 1846, the company won a concession from Belgium for telegraph lines covering the whole country, an expansion development beyond the founding itself.