A Brief Look at Electrical Scientists: Sir Charles Tilston Bright
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Thursday, July 10, 2014
In the scientific world, when working on an
experiment, it may take years or even decades before a breakthrough is
discovered. While that may discourage some people, it does not discourage
everyone. In the next series of posts, we’ll be looking at an engineer, a chemist
and an inventor who didn’t stop working, which allowed for their investigations
to have conclusions.
Sir Charles Tilston Bright
Sir Charles Tilston Bright had many
accomplishments before he died in 1888. Being a part of a family that was held in
high distinction by the government in the 1800s was beneficial for Bright; as a
child, he attended the Merchant Taylors School. Bright exceled in some subjects
and didn’t do so well in others. After this formal education Bright and his
brothers were set to attend Oxford University, but could not because of their
father having lost some money. That’s when Bright and his brother Edward began
working for the Electric Telegraph Company, a decision that would impact the
lives of countless people across the globe.
Bright first worked on the telegraph instruments
in a railway-signaling box when he began at the Electric Telegraph Company. Electricity
was intriguing to Bright, so almost immediately after starting in the trade,
Bright and his brother began to tinker with and improve on some aspects of
telegraphs.
In 1851, Bright moved onto the British Telegraph
Company and Edward began to work at Magnetic Telegraph Company (do you think
the two chatted by telegraph?). While the two were many miles apart, they were
still working on improvements for telegraphs. During his time at the British
Telegraph Company, Bright had a superintendent position overseeing the
configuration of telegraphs on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway along with
helping outfit numerous telegraph offices for the company.
These jobs weren’t enough for Bright, and in
1852, he resigned from British Telegraph Company to join his brother at
Magnetic Telegraph Company. Here, Bright and Edward laid telegraph lines in London,
Manchester and Liverpool and they laid the deep water cables of six-wire
between Port Patrick in Scotland and Donaghadee in Ireland. In that same year,
the Bright brothers took out a patent covering 24 different inventions relating
to telegraphs. The inventions included a porcelain insulator for fixing aerial
telegraph wires mounted on posts; a brass tape device for the protection of
insulated conductors for submarine cables; and a translator for re-transmitting
electric currents of either kind in both directions on a single wire.
With these impressive ideas under his belt, it’s
no wonder Bright opted to help organize the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1856
— the company that would soon lay the first transatlantic cable. Joining forces
with Cyrus West Field and John Watkins Brett, allowed Bright the opportunity to
link England and America via submarine cable. The men began their journey in
August of 1857 and had three unsuccessful attempts.
Going back to the drawing board,
the men tried changing the materials of the cable, as well as its depth within
the ocean. Again, the men tried in June of 1858, but yet were not successful. Having
revised the schematics yet again, Bright, Field, Brett and a team of men tried
one more time. In August of 1858 the seemingly impossible was completed: the
team of men had officially laid the first transatlantic cable from Trinity Bay,
Newfoundland to Valentia, Ireland. Charles Bright was just 26 years old.
As an engineer, Charles Tilston Bright
encountered many ups and downs throughout his career. While his biggest
accomplishment, the laying of the transatlantic cable, took many tries before
it succeeded, Bright never gave up. It may have taken a year or so for small
amounts of progress, but the persistence Bright had allowed for a (successful!)
conclusion to his trials with telegraphs and cables in the form of the
transatlantic cable.
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